Adult Life

I got my first taste of ‘adult life’ when I was a teenager working on Capital Hill for parts of the summer. I would catch the metro into town, read on my commute (or more often just people watch with my sunglasses on, a not-so-sneaky trick I leaved from my mom), work at my tasks all day long, maybe have a lunch appointment etc. I pretty much thought I was the coolest thing around. I fantasized that one day, my life would be like this all the time. Only, I’d spend my weekends doing grown up things. Seeing plays and going to museums. Enjoying nice weather in public parks, perhaps playing Frisbee or catch with some happy hour friends, while we ate out of our picnic basket. Having those same friends over to my super cool downtown loft for dinner parties. You know. Adult things. I couldn’t wait to be done with boring old school, so that I could dole out my time as I saw fit, as opposed to how it was dictated to me by an ever evolving cast of characters: parents, teachers, professors. Oh, the naiveté of youth.

Turns out, “adult things” aren’t quite as fun as I thought they would be. Total adult let down number 1: I don’t work downtown There is something about belonging amongst those big buildings, walking with a purpose headed off to an important meeting, lunch, the bathroom, whatever. It makes you feel like a real grown up. Only I don’t get to do that. Instead I get to head off to a nondescript building in the ‘border burbs’ (not in the city, but not even in the real suburbs yet) that is flanked on one side by a Wal-Mart, and the other by a Babies r’ Us. Oh and those ‘tasks’ I once romanticized? Not as much fun when it’s a day-in, day-out reality as opposed to a 2 month hiatus from school.

It’s true my weekends are more fun now than they used to be. Of course, you don’t exactly get 100% of your time to yourself, now do you? No mom to do the laundry, replace your empty shampoo bottles, figure out what's for dinner. You know. Adult things. Turns out these things go hand in hand with those great picnic dinners in the park. At least I manage to fit in more than my fair share of happy hours, even if they are at bars as opposed to parks (turns out summer is too damn hot to do stupid things like stand in the sun and play an impromptu game of catch). This past weekend though I did do something that felt uniquely adult, or would have seemed so to my 15 year old self. On Saturday, Rice 2029 and I headed up to Porter Texas to go blueberry picking, pretty much on a whim. (Kid Me used to think the coolest part about being an adult would be making random plans and not having to get them ok’d by someone else.) We dressed smartly, researched what was in store for us, heck, we even had a wagon! I felt very adult as I asked the man in charge for pointers, and headed out into the blueberry orchard for our own little piece of blue gold. It was much harder work than I anticipated (me underestimate? Shocker.) but a good time was still had by all. I felt super duper adult when asked what I did this weekend, and replied nonchalantly ‘oh, went blueberry picking’ as if I always spend my time doing such industrious things. Some things never change though. When we got home, I took a nap.

Me with our bounty

Our official taste tester

Mamma Vaughan getting after those hard to reach ones.

National's Park: Check (Alt. Title: Everyone Loves The MDP*)

After attending a game at Fenway Park last year, the HSH and I agreed we would make it a life-long quest to see a game at every MLB park. Of course, what with the economics of baseball these days, this is an ever changing list. As long as owners hold cities hostage for new stadiums, the hubby and I will have vacations to take. With this in mind, we try to piggyback these ballparks onto as many other vacations as possible. We are nothing if not efficient here at the Halfstreet.
So while we were in the greater DC metropolitan area (much greater) over Memorial Day weekend, we drove up to catch a game at the newly minted Nationals Park. As an extra special bonus, WBC joined us. (See? Efficient.) Remarkably, this year's leg of the tour will take us to both a first season in a park (Nationals) and a last (Yankees).
Enjoy!

They do a Presidents race at each game. These big headed dead Presidents race around the park. It's things like this that make each game so cool, regardless of who is playing. Here you see the OG. (original George).

The Halfstreet at the ballpark.

Great seats procured by the HSH.

Old Friends.

New Friends.

*MDP=Mid Day Post

Just Plain Lazy

Sorry I've been MIA lately. It's not that I've been busy, just lazy. (hey, at least I'm honest!) But now NK is back from her honeymoon, and it made me realize just how I've terrible I've been. After all, a girl deserves to see pictures from her own darn wedding. Can I get an Amen?!

So without further delay, here are some of the many pictures from the beautiful Carter wedding in Lex-vegas. Accompanied by some commentary. If you desire to see the entire album, and your name is not both Kwon and Carter (wow, that's got to narrow it down) leave a message in the comments and I will email them out to you. The bride gets them automatically, natch. What can I say? Membership has it's privileges.

Picture this group in seer sucker, and you pretty much have Friday night, from what I understand.
HSH with our favorite cardiologist. Or cardiologist in training. Seriously, do you know how long they make these guys go to school?

The Bride and Groom. Not sure why THC has the flowers, but he owns that look.

Me and the bride.

Apparently on every other night of the year, this is a dining hall. If I hadn't known, I wouldn't have known. Beautimous.

Look at the perfect swooooosh on that dress!

NK singing with the band, while her happy hubby looks on. I'm guessing there will be a lot of this in his future.

The traditional tea ceremony portion of the evening. This was a highlight for me. Their families took turns throwing dates and figs at them, and the number they caught relates to how many children they have. If this is true, you guys better get started lickety-split.

On a serious note, the wedding was beautiful and the HSH and I had a really fabulous time celebrating with the couple and their family and friends. We were honored to be there guys!

Hot Stuff!

The amazing people (and by "people" I mean the brother sister duo of Tiffany and Nate) at Nathaniel Edmunds Photography have put together a fabulous collection of photos in what has to be record time. For the faint of heart, there is their blog which highlights some favorites (see here). For the truly motivated, you can see the whole shebang here. If you were there, and dancing to Pour Some Sugar on Me, or Apple Bottom Jeans I suggest you check out numbers 871-888.

5 Random Things: The Wedding Edition

I was “tagged” by the Barron of Blog to tell 5 random things about myself. So in the spirit of wedding recap, I figured I’d go with a wedding theme.

1. I will spend my entire life with a last name that ends in “z”. And yet, I can never remember what the proper plural form is.
2. It took the combined efforts, over the course of 4 days, of my mom, dad, Shannon’s mom, my sister in law, and me to make and package the 300 chocolate turtles that served as the wedding favor. It took roughly 3 hours for them all to disappear.
3. The HSH and I took two dancing lessons in preparation for our first dance. Then preceded to not practice at all, chuck out everything we’d learned, and “waddle” our way around the dance floor (as the HSH wanted to do from the beginning). Rumor is I led the whole time.
4. When I got to the end of the aisle, the HSH whispered to me that I was shaking, and that it was cute that I was so nervous. It wasn’t until after the ceremony I had the chance to tell him that it wasn’t nerves that caused me to quiver. Rather it was because my bouquet weighed roughly the equivalent of a Toyota Prius, and unlike NK I hadn’t prepared with the requisite arm exercises.
5. I did some nerve damage to my feet that night in those stupid “if you buy 3 inch heels we won’t have to hem the dress” shoes. I didn’t regain feeling in the 3 smallest toes on my right foot until yesterday.

In turn, I tag the Bride-to-Be over at This Party Sucks, Mama Vaughan at Rice Owl 2029, JRK of Houston Ruckus, and the Norfolk Martinez’(s?). You’re collectively “It”.

As an extra bonus: Here is little LCB doing her best impersonation of her Texas friends.

Postcards From Belize

nee APM

I'm baaaaaaackkkkkk! And more importantly, now that I’ve gotten that pesky wedding out of the way, I can focus on the finer things in life. Like blogging. And the perfect Pina Colada (psssst-I found it!). And experiencing the intense relief that comes with throwing away wedding magazines. Never again will I be a mere spectator at a nuptial event.
Now that I know everything that goes into it, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will go out of my way to notice things like programs, favors and placecards. Because I know that it takes a lot of work to make things seem easy! I have no idea if people had as much fun as I did. After all, people never tell the bride ‘this party sucks’. (do they?) But I know I had fun. And the HSF, errrrr HSH, had fun. And I have all these little snapshots in my head of my favorite parts. And well, even though most of it is a COMPLETE blur, I enjoyed every second of it. Oh about that blur part: strangest thing. It’s like being on that border between kinda drunk, and black out drunk, where you need some help piecing together the details of the night. Only you’re not drunk. Although with the stupid smile on your face, people might confuse you for that (ok maybe we were a little drunk at the end). And it’s also apparently impossible to be everywhere at once. So there are parts you wish you could remember, but you can’t because, well, you weren’t there. But its enough that other people were there, and enjoyed it. And now we’re a little family. And I love it.

And I still can’t get this stupid smile off my face.