August 29, 2014

let's call today factual friday

I have dry skin all around my eyes. It's gross and really just makes no sense. Sometimes it gets so dry that it relentlessly stings. Most of the time the skin around my eyes looks flakey and I often wonder what people think when they look me in the eyes while talking to me. 

Gross, Emily. Take care of yourself.
Gross, Emily. Are you a leper?

It was time to delve into the mystery of the dry skin around my eyes. I decided that part of the problem was probably most definitely my 11-yr-old-about-to-blindly-go-through-puberty skin routine. Which is as follows:
Wash face in morning.
Put on Freddie's man face lotion (that he got on sale) because it smells good.
Use makeup wipe to take off makeup at night because, hello lazy, meet wipes.
Rinse off face with water.
Use zit zapping cream.
Repeat every day. 

What is that you say? That I'm old enough to rent a car so I shouldn't be using man face lotion because it smells good? I'm no better than the teenage girls that flock to the doors of Abercrombie because OMG THE COLOGNE. Smell it. 

I did what any child stuck in an adult body would do and went to find myself a legit skin routine. One to make the masses jealous. One to soothe my burning/flakey/disgusting eye skin.

I learned a lot about myself during those 15 minutes in the drug store skin care aisle. Like that I don't know the difference between ULTRA hydration lotion and lotion for sensitive skin. I do, however, know that Freddie's $3 man face lotion is a whole lot cheaper than normal people face washes, and lotions, and creams.

But...but, but, but my biggest lesson of the day was that yes, I will be the woman in my mid-thirties with wrinkles, uneven skin tone, and dry flakey skin around my eyes. Yes, that will be moi (I figure I'm an overachiever because I already have 2 of those 3 problems down pat and I'm only in my mid-twenties). 

My premature aging will be all because I chose the ULTRA hydration lotion and eye cream over the set for sensitive skin. You live and learn, people. 

P.s.- what in the world is a serum? How is it not a cream or a lotion? I like throwing out words that all mean the same things, too!

Have a great weekend!
And remember, that dry skin around your eyes is not leprosy. 

August 27, 2014

365 days

Well, we did it. We survived the first year of marriage. Phew. I think the craziest thing of all about this is now we are in the second year. We can't say the cutesies little Oh, we just got married last summer! bit anymore. We are living in year two (Okay, now you may roll your eyes. Drama queen newlywishwed, over here). 

We decided that since we live in an awesome place (that's not being cocky, that's just being factual) that we would do a lil staycation and enjoy downtown Charleston. What's not to enjoy about staying in a hotel smack dab in the middle of downtown, walking across the street for dinner reservations, and walking down 3 more blocks for dessert and celebratory drinks? The answer is...everything about that is completely enjoyable. 

And it was completely enjoyable. 
We contemplated just moving in because I mean, exposed brick! Plus Freddie's name was already on the bed so dibs and all that.

The bathroom was ginormous and a half but I always feel weird taking pictures of bathrooms. Like, Wow! A toilet! Living the high life. So I didn't take any pictures of the bathroom, but just remember: ginormous. And a half. And yes, there was a toilet. 

It's probably a good thing that Freddie and I don't have cable because we would literally have no friends. And not because we would be in front of the TV all the time and ditch all our friends, but more so because we watch the most ridiculous eclectic shows ever when we sit down in front of cable. I think everyone would disown us. For example, we spent our anniversary staycation TV time watching Lockup, a show that gives you an inside look at prisons all over the US. You really get to know the prisoners. I mean, like whoa. This one guy was the epitome of annoying. It reminded me of some of the games my younger students play except they can get away with it because they are 1 foot tall and cute. This guy was not 1 foot tall and not cute. And I'll stop talking now.

Except I won't.
We managed to pry away from Lockup to put on some fancy clothes.
Story time: We were trying to get a self-timer picture in our room which meant we had a chair on the bed with pillows stacked on it to give it some height. Someone knocked on our door. We opened the door and the maid asked if we would like turndown service. We said no, thank you and as she turned to leave we quickly asked her to take a picture for us. Maid then saw chair/pillow/camera on top of bed set-up and probably wanted to run away from the crazy shenanigans she thought were going on. However, she took us outside and played paparazzi. The end. 

Dinner was delicious and approximately 30 steps away from the door to our hotel room. Ugh, Charleston. Stop making me love you even more. It's really unhealthy. Is everyone chanting Food pics! Food pics! yet? Okay, I'll oblige. 

After dinner we did what any normal Oh-my-gosh-I-still-can't-believe-we-live-in-Charleston couple would do and walked down to the water to watch the sunset.

The rest of the evening included watching a marionette karaoke show (yes, that is correct), dessert bars, and more Lockup (obvi).

Sunday, our real anniversary, was spent sleeping in, eating brunch, walking everywhere under the sun, living room fort building, and visiting the Angel Oak. 

Oh yeah, and eating old old cake. 
And you just officially lived through our first anniversary weekend with us. How sweet.

Year Two, don't worry. We've got this under control. Freddie, don't worry. I've got this wife thing under control (HA!). I sure do love you, your sexy dancer legs, and especially your contagious laughter. 

August 22, 2014

friday favorites

This week took an entire 5 weeks to end. Does that make sense in a not-dramatic-at-all kind of way? Holy Cud Chewing Cows, Friday, thanks for coming...finally. 

Now...let's get to the good stuff. The favorite stuff. The Friday favorite stuff. 

Favorite Recipe
Whatever Mellow Mushroom puts on/in their crust. For serious. We went there Wednesday night for their 40th birthday celebration and yum in my tum, that $2.50 (read: two fiddy) pizza was delicious. I kind of dislike myself for saying that when there's way better pizza places in Chawlston. But did I mention it was really good? And cheap? And it involved me not having to cook at all?

Favorite Timehop Picture
I always thought this app was so annoying. And then I downloaded it... and now I wake up, take out my retainer (nerd alert), and look at my timehop. 
No better way to wake up than this beauty. 7 years ago, thanks for not disowning us. 

Favorite Most Ridiculous Thing
So...I love Tone It Up and have been doing their workouts + running religiously since Februaryish/Marchish. Don't ask me what months those are. Anyways, home girl Katrina posted this picture with that caption.
Home girl Emily over here instantly turned into the crying laughing emoji because no. No one looks like that after running 5 miles. No one. They look like this:
Hashtag: selfie. Oh me gee. But really. You're welcome. 
Oh my goodness, I'm such a silly pants. That was what I looked like after 4 miles. That's why I never look glowingly beautiful after a run! Because I've never gotten up to 5 miles. Ahh, the great mystery of life has been solved. Moving on.

Favorite Thing That I Can Never Afford
This. sigh.

Favorite Future Thing
3 words: weekend anniversary celebrations.
We've got lots of small things planned. And some gifts. And some cake eating. And lots of other downtown restaurant eating. And I can't wait. 
This Friday of last year we were rehearsing for a wedding. No big deal. This Friday (read: today) we will be rehearsing our stomachs for an eating competition because of the amount of food that is going to be consumed. Or something like that.

Happy weekend!

August 20, 2014

on not writing wedding vows

This week is kind of a big deal. I mean yes, my classes started back up and I'm teaching all the children. And yes, it actually didn't rain this past weekend which meant beach, beach, beach and more beach time. 

But this week takes the cake because it is leading up to...
drumroll, please.

...our first anniversary
Any excuse is a good excuse when you want an excuse to use a wedding picture. 

Son of a summer nutcracker. How did we get here so quickly? I mean, let's take a trip through the bloggity world time hop and you'll see that I was writing about wedding vows this time last year. See?

But enough about that. Because while I could literally sit here for hours thinking of clever ways to say, "Time flies when you're having fun, amiright?!" or "Holy Shittake Mushroom, one year feels like one month!" And other stuff like that, we'll save all that wit for after our weekend anniversary celebrations.

In the meantime, just know that this picture sums up life lately.
Deep sigh-ahhhh.

Sometimes ya just need a good 'ole beach sunset picture, no filter style, to help you take a deep breath and relax. 
Now, how many champagne toasts are acceptable to celebrate a wedding anniversary? Because we're thinking of averaging about 5 toasts per day this weekend...

August 15, 2014

california adventures: the last day edition

All good things must come to an end. Like summer camps (all of mine ended today), and cartons of ice cream (good thing I have a back-up in the freezer), and beach vacations (oh wait, that doesn't ever have to end for us), and California vacation recaps. I can't stop looking through all gazillion of the California pictures and reading through the blog recaps. Chyeah, I reread my own blogs. Hair flip. If my denial that this trip is over is this bad after only a month then I don't even want to be around me come 6 months time. Or a year. Or 5 years. 

Gotta get back to Cali!--said everyone ever, I'm sure. 

Our best week ever week ended in San Francisco. The city of...? NYC is the city that never sleeps. According to Google SF is the city that knows how and waits to die. So...okay. Moving on. 

I used Mara's handy dandy 36 hours in San Francisco blog and jam packed our day with everything. Everything! No rest for the weary and no free minutes for my family. 
Spoiler alert: We didn't get it all done. Freddie and I had one day and only got to jam pack in 40% of the fun while my family had 3 whole days there and got to hit up all the funnies. 

We started the 24 hours in San Fran tour with breakfast at The Buena Vista
That meant several glasses of the famous Irish coffee for Freddie and several plates of bacon and eggs for my father. 
Oh, and a pile of whipped cream for Ann. 
^^2 things: 1) this was the hill we rolled down walked down to get to breakfast and 2) Alcatraz. Right there. In your face. No big deal. 

We parked right by Lombard St. we figured Hey! Why not?! Such a touristy amateur thing to say, but...it was so cool to be on Lombard St.! And to be curving around it and to be squealing with glee about the fact we were curving around it! And to be taking pictures! I loved every minute of it. Which is good because it took quite a few minutes to get down.

Next up was The Walt Disney Family Museum. I don't really know how to even put into words the effect this museum had on me so I won't even try (I did kinda sorta try here). Just know that if you're ever in the area you have to go. Even if you're not humungous Disney fans. Just shut up and go.
Oh...and p.s.-this is the view from the museum. So...go.
We were there during the Mary Blair exhibit and it was fascinating. A woman, who in the 40's, 50's, and 60's (so taboo!), was a prominent artist and animator for Disney. Ever ridden It's a Small World? Her work. Ever seen the huge mosaic in the Contemporary? Her. Those among many other things. 
^^she did concept art for many movies including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan.
And on to the whirlwind walk through of every thing Walt Disney accomplished in his life. Hint: it's a lot. 
When we pulled up and saw the outside of the building we assumed we could get in and get out rather quickly. Three hours and one time cruncher Emily later we were reluctantly leaving. 
 Moral of the story? Plan for a 5 hour visit to this museum. At least ;)

Next up? The San Francisco Ferry Building for lunch and a view. It was a success on both accounts.
^^That top picture would be our view during lunch. A model in a sun hat. That middle picture would be my mom's reaction to anytime my dad calls her his soulmate. Obviously.
^^Family selfies: the theme of this trip.

We did a speedy tour of the Fisherman's Wharf area and Ghiradelli square. All ya need to know about those places are it smelled like fish and the chocolate was delish. 
Oh, and one more thing you need to know: it's cooooold. And people were playing in the cold ocean. Bless their hearts. Some people are just crazy. 

But wait! The day wasn't done yet! There were still more hours and minutes to be filled with all things San Francisco. So we headed to the Golden Gate Park to get amazing pictures with the Golden Gate Bridge.
...but the fog had a different idea.
...but we didn't care and still took a trillion of our gazillion trip pictures in this one location.
See?
9=one trillion

Finally it was time to head back to the hotel and whine/wine about having to leave on a jet plane the next morning. However, we couldn't leave SF without a stop to the Painted Ladies. <<<as my father was driving us and we were guiding him via Google Maps and we were getting a little lost, he finally emphatically asked why we were going to see a painted lady. Pretty sure he had a Moulin Rouge-esque night club in his mind. Actually I'm not pretty sure about anything that goes through his mind. Regardless, these are the Painted ladies.
Just houses.
Phew.
 ^^there's a Full House fanatic right there.

What. A. Trip.   
I can't wait to reread this entirely too long of a post in another week and get all teary. Sigh. California, you treated us so well. We'll be back.