Blame It On The Rain...

As most of you probably already know from my overwhelming Facebook and Instagram posts, Anthony and I just returned from an impromptu Hawaiian vacation. While we were there, we decided to rent a Jeep Wrangler so we could explore the island on our own time. We got a cherry red Jeep with a soft top so we could make it an airy convertible whenever we wanted to. We took advantage of this amenity for the first day right away (once we drove back to Thrifty Car Rental to ask them to show us how to do it) and loved every minute of it. Although one side was a little bit busted and it took about ten minutes to snap it back into place, we didn't mind as it made us look like cool locals. As anyone who has been to Hawaii may know, it tends to downpour for about ten minutes at a time and then it magically clears up and is beautiful and sunny again.

After we hiked Diamond Head on the third day of our vacation, we took the top off the Jeep and decided to cruise around the South Shore, being the tourists that we were. All of a sudden, it started to sprinkle and before we could turn to each other to utter the words, "we have to put the top up" it started to downpour. Hard. Coincidentally, at that very moment, we were also stuck at a traffic light that was literally the longest light in history (I swear it's in the Guinness Book of World Records) and there was absolutely nothing we could do. The interior of the Jeep (along with Anthony and I) were soaked, the cup holders started to fill up with water and I thought the Jeep was going to fill up like a bathtub. We both just looked at each other and busted out laughing. It was very romantic and funny in a Lucy and Desi kind of way. Finally the light changed and we drove to the next clearing we saw, pulled over and attempted to put the top on. After the typical ten minute chore, we had success! It took the Jeep at least two days to fully dry out and still slightly smelled like mildew when we dropped it off...oops!

I'm Doing a Survey For My Girl Scout Troop...

I was a good kid when I was younger. Like good to the point where I think I was only grounded once because my friend made me sneak out of her house with her to see her boyfriend in middle school. Besides that, the only thing I really got into trouble for was slamming Grace's head in the door once (Amber assisted thank you very much). No one wanted their little sister in the room when we were making our Barbie dolls kiss! My typical Saturday mornings (when there was a sleepover involved) consisted of waking up early, making my mom cook pancakes shaped as Mickey Mouse (sorry Mom!), watching cartoons and then finding something constructive to do until my friend's parents came to pick her up. Usually it was Barbies or bikes and even the occasional Mario Brothers or Contra game. But one Saturday, we got very creative. In the days before cell phones and caller ID, we had the good, old fashioned phone book. My friend and I thought it would be funny to call everyone in my small town (approximately 2,500 people), tell them we were doing a survey for our Girl Scout troop and ask them if they had any cats and what their names were.

We figured that we needed to get organized for this so called survey, so we got a notebook and pencil ready and started the spreadsheet (pre Microsoft Excel mind you). We also figured that we may get hungry while vigorously calling and tracking everyone's cats in the town, so we made sure we had plenty of lemonade and fish sticks handy. Equipped with all the necessary tools, we pulled out the phone book, turned to page one and started dialing. Of course I was scared, so I made my friend go first. She started out by saying that she was calling from her Girl Scout troop and wanted to know if the person on the other end of the phone had any cats. If they did, we would write their names down in our notebook. I have no idea why would found this fun, but soon enough we had pages full of 'Mittens' Smokeys' and Princesses' at our disposal. Who knows what the heck we ever did with those notebooks and the cat roster for the town of Durham but it sure kept us out of trouble and out of my mom's hair on Saturday afternoons. 

Easy Peasy Alpaca Squeezy

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I have had many odd jobs- some may call me a 'Jack of all trades.' Frequently I forget past jobs I have taken on until something reminds me of them. Like the other day when I was driving and an alpaca crossed the street in front of me. Just kidding, I have no idea why I was reminded of this unconventional job, but I just was...

About 5 years ago, while I was living in Boston, a modeling agent who I worked with in Portland called me to see if I was available to do a little promotional work at the Newport (Rhode Island) International Boat Show. Get paid to walk around and talk to people? I'm in! My job for the day would consist of walking around modeling an alpaca fleece sweater and trying to convince people to go to the booth to buy them from the nice people who raised these large, furry creatures. I think I was supposed to arrive at the show at around 9:00 AM and stay until about 5:00 PM, which was a long day for that kind of work but the pay made it worth it. What I didn't know was that it would be freezing and raining all day and I literally had to walk around the entire time. No hiding out in the tent with Mr. and Mrs. Alpaca. Thank goodness those alpaca fleece sweaters were warm, otherwise I would have been in deep trouble!

I met the alpaca team at the booth, put my sweater on and headed out to talk to all the yuppies in their boat shoes who probably had no idea what an alpaca was. It started off lovely! I was walking up to everyone telling them about my fleece, letting them feel how soft and comfy it was and then leading them to the booth so Mr. and Mrs. Alpaca could close the deal. After only about an hour of that, I was exhausted. I snuck away to Starbucks to get a latte and continued to stroll around (I was literally creeping around as to waste time) but the time just wasn't on my side and neither was the weather. All of a sudden it dropped about 10 degrees (I wish I could have tripled up on my alpaca fleeces) and it started to pour. And on top of that, I still had about ten thousand hours left in the day! It also seemed like no one new was browsing around so I kept seeing the same people over and over again. By the end of my day, I was miserable, freezing (I think I was actually blue) and soaking wet. Alpacas quickly moved to the bottom of my favorite animal list...

Blonde Moments

Even though my hair seems to get darker and darker, I still have my embarrassing blonde moments which Anthony is never shy to point out! Yesterday was a bad day for me- two blonde moments back to back and both incidents were in front of Anthony. After the first one, I immediately turned off E!, picked up a book to give my brain cells a jolt (it was Tori Spelling's latest book so that may count against me) and asked Anthony if he was still going to marry me. Thank Goodness he said yes!

Incident 1- We are constantly making green smoothies in our beloved Nutra Bullet in which we use a ton of spinach. We have one of those salad spinner thingys to clean the spinach and I swear I am filling that thing up everyday! Usually I load in the spinach, douse the leaves with water, put on the lid and pump the handle to spin it. I wait patiently (sometimes a full minute depending how aggressive I am with my pumping) while the inside bowl stops spinning so I can open the lid and dump out the water. There have been a few times though when I took the lid off too soon sending the still spinning spinach leaves flying all over me and the kitchen. The other day I was watching Anthony use the salad spinner and like magic, he pushed the giant green button on the top to immediately stop the spinning! That's what that button is for?

Incident 2- I went to fill up my (Bob) Audi's gas tank yesterday and the gas tank lid wouldn't open. Usually you just press on the lid and it pops open but here I was at the 76 Station for 5 minutes now forcefully pushing on the lid and even hitting it a few times. I walked back to the driver's side, opened the car door and checked to make sure there wasn't a gas tank button that I needed to push (I knew there wasn't because I have had the car for almost a year, but maybe I was going crazy!) and sure enough there was no button. When I walked back around to the gas tank, it was open! I literally thought that maybe it just popped open when I walked away because it was playing a trick on me. Nonetheless, I pumped my gas and headed home, taking note to call the Audi dealership to have them fix it right away. When I got to my parking garage, I got out of the car, locked up and tried it again. It still wouldn't open. What the hell!? This car was a 2010, things couldn't be falling apart already, right? I told Anthony and although he thought that was odd, he told me to tell the Audi guys when I went for my routine maintenance appointment at the end of the month. This morning when I was walking from the elevator to my car with Anthony, I unlocked it and when I got next to it, I noticed that the gas tank was open again! Finally it clicked, and at the moment, I realized what the problem was. And so did Anthony because he walked away so he didn't laugh in my face. The gas tank won't open when the car is locked...Duh!

Engagement Photo Day!

My amazing friend Ashleigh and her very patient husband/assistant Grant came downtown yesterday for my favorite day (but certainly not any man's, Anthony included). Engagement picture day! Of course I started getting ready about two hours in advance while Anthony sat on the couch getting excited, surely. I kept checking in on him to make sure he had an outfit in mind that would go with my new blue dress and he kept shrugging me off. Ugh, men! At least he had helped me scout locations earlier that day but I was all ready with my prop bag and a handful of smiles and poses that I had practiced in the mirror all week. Who am I kidding? I practice in the mirror daily! Alas, about ten minutes before Ashleigh and Grant arrived, he jumped off the couch and asked me to help him pick out an outfit. I assisted as I could, trying not to ruin my hair/tan/nails/makeup and we finally got him spiffied up in no time.

Without ruining too many details (pictures are coming soon, I promise) we had an amazing day running about downtown through the streets (literally), in parks that were closed to the public (who says a girl in a dress can't hop a fence?) and on rooftops (why does that sound like a video game?) catching the perfect moments of our love. At least that is what I was thinking the whole time but I could tell Anthony was holding back inside all day but he put on a brave face for me! Not because he didn't like taking pictures or anything but because as I mentioned before, he has a moderate case of OCD. A little piece of me laughed every time we had to sit on the ground, or lay on the grass or sit on those dreaded park benches (and now we were wearing street clothes by definition) as I saw Anthony's face wince in horror! My favorite part? When we were in the park (surrounded by homeless people who acted as if we were shooting a scene from America's Next Top Model) posing in a lime tree and a homeless lady continued to cheer us on, giggle and repeatedly tell us that those fruits were limes, not lemons. Thanks, Tyra Banks!

One Of These Things Does Not Belong Here....

After Memorial Day weekend, when I got back from New Orleans, I unpacked all of my stuff before going to bed that night. That's just the thing I do- no matter what time of day I get back from a trip, I have to unpack everything before I go to bed. You can call it OCD but I call it unwinding. When I was unpacking the section of my luggage that had all of my jewelry in it, I noticed that my new gold crescent moon ring I had just bought was not in the pocket. Although I was bummed, I figured that I would chalk it up as a $5.00 loss.

This morning while I was getting ready for work, I thought I would wear my turquoise necklace (which was also in New Orleans with me) to spice up my all black attire. I put it around my neck, finished up my makeup, grabbed my coffee cup and headed out the door. It wasn't until about an hour ago when I went into the bathroom to refresh my lipstick that I noticed a little bonus ('a bone-y' as Grace calls it) intertwined in my necklace. Yup, it was my ring! How I didn't notice or feel that thing poking at me all morning is beyond me!

Erin and the Racially Inclined Mosquito

For the last few days, I have been waking up with numerous itchy, red mosquito bites up and down my arms, legs and even neck. Not only is it annoying to be taken advantage of every night while I am completely defenseless against this little bug, but it's even more annoying that Anthony (who sleeps next to me every single night) wakes up with flawless skin.
As I am scratching away at my body making it more and more red, I look over at Anthony and his beautiful caramel skin, which is completely untouched by this pest. Every morning for the past week I have a new red bump while Anthony wakes up fresh and unscathed. That damn mosquito's motivations are for sure racially biased. That jerk!