Here we go again

Is it just me or does it seem like I travel every.single.weekend? Yeah, I thought so. Did I mention that July is one helluva month packed full of events?

Thursday night, our little family (Henry is coming, too!) will pack up the car and make the 8 hour drive to Jeff City to see my parents. I would whine and complain about how looooong the drive is, especially after working a full day, but really---arriving at 1 in the morning is basically what I did this past Sunday. And I freaking flew then. So driving can't be much worse than my experience last weekend, right? Plus I'll have my boys with me (and I fully intend on taking a hefty nap while Nate drives, duh).

While we are 'down south' visiting my rents, we will also make the additional drive to Kansas City for wedding #2 of this summer. Can't wait of course and the SLR will tag along as well. Then we will go back to Jeff City to spend more quality family time with them until Tuesday, when we make the trek back. Are you exhausted from reading this yet? I know I am.

Here is the kicker: sure, I've been to St. Louis umpteen times this calendar year and once my Mom even made the drive to visit with me. But since my parents live two hours west of STL, I have not been to my actual hometown for a real life visit with my parents since Christmas. I'm quite certain that makes me the worst daughter of the year. Ugh. Where does the time go? We did this last year too---visited for Christmas and then not again until August. I actually remember writing this same post last year, about how awful it was that I only make it home twice a year. It's still awful and I hate it. Glad that is cleared up.

In weather news, it's supposed to be 'cold' down there all weekend and barely get into the 80s. Or in other words, they are supposed to get Milwaukee weather for a few days. I'm actually kind of bummed (don't tell Nate) because I enjoy my fill of hot, sweaty, humidity when I visit. It's like a comfort zone to me and I love being like, "Yep--back in good ol' Missouri" when it's 100 degrees outside. Sweaty upper lip=home to me. Is that weird?

So anyway, this is a bunch of rambling to say that I will not return until late next week and I will most likely be even more exhausted than I am at this moment, which is quite hard to believe. But there will be pictures, for sure. And more ramblings. Try to contain your excitement, you guys. :)

The {Real Life} Terminal

You've seen the movie The Terminal, right? When Tom Hanks lives in an airport for an obscene amount of time? Yeah, just call me Tom.

I flew to St. Louis this weekend for Lindsey's bridal shower. All was right in the world, it was super fab, blah blah blah. I arrived back at the airport at exactly 3:30 for my 4:30 flight on Sunday. Said my goodbyes outside to Hannah and Michael and breathed a breath of relief to see that my flight was still on time despite a little rain shower or two. Whew. I mean, if it's plastered over every flipping big screen in the entire airport, it must be just fine, right?

I breezed through security and found myself a comfy little spot in which to settle before they boarded our plane. Life was great.

And then.....crazy hooker flight attendant dropped a bomb on our butts.

"Ahem, attention passengers, some of you have heard the news already, but...." (you know right then and there things are headed south)...."your plane is stuck in Orlando because a lightbulb is out on a wing. It's a critical light and they do not have a replacement in stock. Therefore, your plane is not scheduled to arrive here in St. Louis until at least 8 pm. I apologize for any inconvenience."

You can guess what happened next, can't you? People lost their freaking minds. Yelling, loud sighs, passive aggressive comments....not to mention there was a three year old boy running around like a wild banchee throwing shoes at innocent bystanders and telling his parents to flat out 'SHUT UP.' It was basically Armageddon, you guys.

I tried to take a deep breath and relax a bit. There was absolutely nothing I could do to get home any faster. I now had 4.5 hours to kill without anything to occupy my time. My, what a great time to get rid of internet on my phone, eh? Fabulous move on that one, tight wad.

So I splurged on two gossip magazines and treated myself to a little Quiznos. I soaked in my surroundings and found that people watching in airports is probably the most entertaining thing you can do when stranded in an airport for ungodly amounts of time.

This one lady almost gave herself a stroke while screaming "THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE" into her cell phone with one finger in her open ear. From what I could gather this lady was talking to a different airline about a different scheduling conflict....one that doesn't occur until the end of this month. Hey lady, I got news for you, there are bigger fish to fry at the current moment. Your uptight behind ain't going anywhere for a good 4 hours because of some chaos in present day. Why not let the poor dude on the other line catch a break, so that you can focus on the current dilemma.

You see, not only was my reject flight stuck down south because of technical difficulties, but the entire Atlanta airport was on a ground freeze---no planes in and no planes out. So the other folks patiently awaiting their flight to Atlanta were also in a bit of a tizzy. Americans who are in a traveling nightmare do not behave like civilized adults, you guys. It was like a social experiement of some kind, I swear.

So all of a sudden it's 7 pm and crazy hooker attendant says, "For my Milwaukee passengers, the good news is that your plane is getting ready to take off right now. It's a 2 hour flight up here with a 30 minute turn around. So I'm hoping to get you out of here by 9:30." Okay, that is just great....another 2 plus hours of mind-numbing boringness. I took it upon myself to get ANOTHER magazine and some PB M&Ms because gosh darn it, I deserved them both.



I have never once in my 28 years completed an entire crossword puzzle, but Sunday was a first in many aspects of my life. I finished one AND I did not leave Lambert Airport until 11:15 pm. Please take the time to calculate this for a moment, my friends: got there at 3:30, flew out at 11:15. Nearly 8 miserable hours spent inside the jail cell known as Lambert.

Which means I got home at 12:30 and almost vomited from fatigue (is that too dramatic? I can't decide). It was even worse when I had to get up at 6 for work this morning. Gouge my eyes out with a spoon, please. Nate was so happy to have me home, of course, since I was the epitome of a delightful wife.

Trying to be a Pollyanna during this highly dreadful event was kind of fun. I mean, Milwaukee is absolutely gorgeous at midnight when all light up. The view from my tardy plane was enough for me to snap a really blurry pic. I kind of like it:


So yeah, that is how I morphed into Tom Hanks this weekend. Love how it is only a 6 hour drive but I spent 8 in an airport and one in the air.

Okay, now that The Terminal period of my life is over, I present to you project Bridal Shower.



Winos much?




The lovely bride:





Lots of us, but not all of us. Probably the best turn out for a bridal shower yet:


The bridesmaids.


Six more weeks until Lindsey's big day! And yes, we will be flying the same carrier in six weeks. Please Dear God, let any delays be less than 8 hours this time.

Let's hear some traveling horror stories. I'm sure you all have at least one, right?

smattering

A smattering of random tid bits....

1. Henry volunteered his services for another photography session. I wanted to play with altering my point of focus a little bit and he obliged. I love this next one a lot, even though it's a little soft and dreamy:


And who knew a closet full of color would be such a fun backdrop for the most adorable paw in the world? He obviously had a bone this morning hence the sticky fur sprouting out. What a life.


If Henry could talk, I'm sure he'd say "You know you want me. Yeah. I'm hawt" or something provocative like that. Such a ham, this one.



2. Remember how I was just in Missouri for Lindsey's bachelorette party? Well now I'm headed back down there for her bridal shower thrown by us bridesmaids. I'll be gone Thursday night through Sunday again and cannot wait to see the girls for this more formal affair:) My good friend Maggie (and fellow bridesmaid) loves all things paper as much as me. She designed Lindsey's shower invites and her wedding invites. Let's take a second to drool over them, shall we? Is this not the CUTEST shower invite ever?


And her wedding invites are to die for. As a closet blog reader but rare commenter, Lindsey saw Lauren's awesome invitations and used them as inspiration. Lindsey's colors are obviously black and this fabulous aqua color and I just love how they turned out.




The thermography she used for her printing was divine. You know how I love texture, right?


And their calligraphy was fantastic. I have no idea who they used (sorry, Lauren and Mike!) but I dig it.

Sigh. I cannot wait for her wedding. And our bridesmaids dresses are in so we'll see how much I'll need to have altered in the bust. That's always the fun part of being in weddings....taking a major blow to the old self-esteem as the seamstress goes 'wow, you have a lot of room up top.' No kidding, lady.


3. Remember how I was all pumped for my new pink blackberry? I was borderline obsessed, actually. Well, if you recall, the salesman convinced me that we'd only pay $15 more per month than we did before the upgrade. I should have mentioned that we get a little corporate discount through the hospital with Verizon, so the BB data plan was supposed to be much less than the advertised price. Also, the dude convinced us to downgrade our minutes package since we rarely talk on our phones to anyone outside of the Verizon network. Between the corporate discount and the lower minute plan, dude sold me on the idea of only paying $15 more.

Then my lovely husband decided that he needed internet on his phone, since I had it on mine. Totally understandable, but there is another $15 per month. Then we got our first bill and I had a panic attack---we did NOT get our corporate discount on the data plan nor the minute plan. So all of a sudden our bill was $75 more than it used to be. I freaked. My rational inner tight wad started to scream obscenities about how frivolous and unnecessary it was to have internet on both phones. Especially when we have two very nice computers at home. And especially when my cell phone is turned off and shoved into my purse all day long at work, since I can't exactly check personal calls or emails while running around a hospital. Sure, the BB was beyond cool but was it worth it?

Nate and I had a few very long discussions about the whole thing. It was difficult to be a rational adult when it was just so much fun to have a BB. I think if we used our phones throughout the day it would be different. If my job paid for it I'd be all about it. But in reality, I do not NEED the fancy phone. It's a luxury and I knew that from the beginning.

Then the next day, my problem-free car threw a little temper tantrum. I got it brand new back in 2001, it has almost 90,000 miles on it, and I've never had any upkeep on it besides regular oil changes, new tires, and new batteries. I love my car and the fact that we do not have car payments right now. So when my car would not start one evening I knew my time had come to put some money back into the stupid thing. My father-in-law is Mr. Fix It and he is racking his brain trying to figure out what is wrong with my baby. It sounds like it's not getting any gas but it has a full tank. Then just a few days ago it wouldn't start at ALL so now maybe there are multiple things wrong with it. Ugh. Potentially facing some major bills on the car front solidified my decision to return the BB and get a 'regular' phone instead. Being an adult sucks sometimes but in the long run, I think saving the extra money on our phone bill will be worth it.

So after spending multiple hours back in the Verizon store, feeling like a tool for returning the coolest little gadget ever, I came home with this baby:





Sure, it's not nearly as pimp as the BB but it's still pretty sweet with it's touch screen and full keyboard option. We got rid of the BB data plan, Nate forfeited his internet plan, and we did downgrade our minute plan. So all in all we are paying less now than we did before the BB stint. And now I can breathe a little easier knowing we freed up a little extra dough each month.

And so I ask you, dear readers, have you ever had to make sacrifices in the name of saving money? This was a tough one for me, as a self-professed tight wad, but I have a feeling that a lot of people are doing the same types of things in this economy. Keeping my eyes on the prize-- a big fatty savings account is easy sometimes and very difficult at others. Anyone else with me?

Works

As you saw in my previous post, we spent the actual Fourth of July at the concert. On Friday, July 3, we also made the trek downtown but this time our sole purpose was to see the city's fireworks display. Last year we made the mistake of underestimating the traffic downtown and thus we almost missed the beginning of the show as we drove all around looking for a decent parking space. It was highly stressful as we sprinted down towards the lakefront dodging people left and right, just to claim a lawn spot.

So this year we decided to do it differently. We went to dinner near our house at 6:00 at Juniper 61---one of our newest faves. I mean, just look at my 'Midnight Mojito'. Isn't it beautiful?


And our appetizer of chips and dip was out of this world. And huge. We definitely took home leftovers from this little excursion.


After dinner we headed dowtown and arrived at 7:30---nearly 2 hours before the show would begin. We brought our adorable 'all weather' picnic blanket, beer, Triscuits, and plenty of bug spray. Oh, and the camera. Of course we brought the camera.


We found a fabulous spot right near the Lake and planted ourselves down for the long haul. One of my favorite things about downtown Milwaukee is that it's so vibrant, and people are always out and about--whether we are running at the Lakefront, riding bikes, shopping, or just exploring---people DIG this downtown. And I must agree with the locals: it's pretty fabulous.

For the fireworks it seemed like all of Milwaukee poured into downtown. Some families set up huge tents and had horseshoes, basketball, volleyball, and other games set up as they barbequed all day long. You could tell some of the little kids had been playing outside for too many hours because they were just a little bit cranky, but highly entertaining. Some of the adults had obviously consumed entirely too much Miller Lite as well. It was a scene perfect for people watching, that's for sure.

To pass the time, Nate decided he would give himself a little lesson in photography. Apparently I was his unwilling subject:


But when we he went all 'rapid fire' with his shots, I demanded that he stop taking so many pictures. How dare he waste my memory card! The result is some hilarious pictures of me pleading with him to turn over the camera. Nate says this is one of my 'classic' faces. I think it's just plain scary.


I was on the hunt for a perfect Fourth of July shot and here is what I found. God bless America. And the tiny bokeh in the background. Bless that, too.


The pier was full of docked sailboats, while the Lake was full of active boats. I thought this was a neat nautical shot. And now I want a sailboat.


Another one of my symbolic American shots:


So finally at 9:30 the show began. Milwaukee does not play around with their fireworks. Economy be damned, our tax dollars went to a great cause this night as an hour long display shot off from three different locations. Plenty of 'oooooohs and ahhhhhhhs' were heard along with the high-pitched squeals of little kids. My tripod came in quite handy, of course, and here is my favorite shot of the skyline with one of the displays coming off the US Bank building. Note the people watching the other display from the Lake.


One of my favorite shots is this one, which was not with the tripod. I just like the feel of it, even though it's a little shaky:


But I must say, the tripod plus my telephoto lens and a really long exposure made for some cool abstract shots. I got a few classic fireworks shots, too, but I like these close-ups even more.




(my favorite type of fireworks, besides the boomers, are these----when the ends sprout off into tiny little explosions)









Of course I took entirely too many shots, but whatev.

You can see my whole fireworks set here:

Nothing like a showy display of fireworks to make your American Pride shine a little brighter. Did you see fireworks this year, too? Are you as obsessed as we are?