today has been a good day as it's been like a birthday part two! first i got a wonder bacony bday card from brandon and mandy (and can get a lot of slushies from sonic!!!!!!!!) but then my brother sent me a gift card to sephora. my brother is a cheap ass, so this surprised the hell out of me. so i'm sitting here with my orange cream slush ordering wonderful makeup things. and my 4frame camera and my black and white film came in and i cant wait for it to STOP RAINING UP IN HERE so i can go take some photos.

tomorrow is going to be a good day. or a bad day. either way, we'll see wont we?

one of the old ladies i work with said my hair color and glasses makes me look like a dirty librarian. i dont know whether to cackle or be offended. haha.

New dark hair. Closest to natural color that it's been in many moons.




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rollercoaster weekend

well then.

the bad news is i, and everyone i was around this weekend, am sick. start from the beginning i should (which makes me think, a car i saw today had a yoda license plate and was yoda-color)

so saturday we went to the insane asylum. i know this probably seems very strange to most people, but i was/am genuinely interested in the architecture and the history of this place. it is HUGE. they began building it before the civil war and purposefully put it on 666 acres of land to show people that demons were housed there. the irish builders would put gargoyles and dragons and other good-luck emblems over the doors to keep the demons in the building and not let them into the public. there are hidden tunnels (that are sinking and breaking interestingly) that go all over the town of weston that the rich people paid for so that no one would see them taking/visiting ill relatives. men could get paid fifty bucks for dropping off their wives! what kind of crazy mess is that!

but all the buildings are awesome and spooky. its hard to imagine that it was still open in the early 90s bc it's a wreck. there were whole wings for people with syphilis, a huge ballroom that the highschool held their proms in right next to the ward for the criminally insane, a whole building for ppl with TB (which actually caused more tb than helped) and just worlds of interesting things to see. i took some photos with my hipstomatic, and they turned out super creepy.

we stopped in charleston to see shainna, which was really great. the stranger finally got to meet her parents, which was really important to me. and like everyone else, they loved him. so it was a really good time hanging out. and then we headed for KY.

we got to town in time for the viewing and ran up to his grandmothers house to change. only the door was locked. so in true only-andrea-gets-in-these-situations fashion, we got dressed in the carport and brushed our teeth with bottled water. if all else, i think the strangers grandad would have had a good laugh at us. the viewing made me uncomfortable since i only knew a handful of people there, but i know it was important to the stranger that i was there. afterward we had a lovely dinner at the local pizza place and then went to his cousin's to watch the football games, where i fell asleep on the couch. and so ended my birthday. the day started out very happy and ended melancholy.

sunday was hard. partly bc of the services and partly bc it was cold and dreary. no one was dressed for the weather and now we're all sick. we planned to drive all the way home that evening, but the weather was so bad we made it as far as braxton before we gave up. i slept all the way from bcounty to here, just in time to get dressed for work. needless to say, i'm still exhausted.

in brighter news, i may have found my wedding dress. i dont want to put it on here bc heaven forbid the stranger reads my blog. its handmade antique champagne lace. i am muy excited.

This make look gross, but mammaws biscuits and creamed tomatoes is the best way to start ones bday. It has been a really nice morning so far.

Lovelove




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happy birthday to me.


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my brain hurts. i've been trying to keep my shit together the last, oh, couple months, but i feel like i'm just floating. i'm afraid i'm sinking again.

maybe there's just been too many life changes to have to think about lately.

needless to say, i'm going to take a nap now.

I've determined calypso has stolen my credit card bc I came home to this bday present from her



That's pretty fancy schmancy!

In all seriousness, the stranger has been slowly doing my bday early bc we are probably goin to have to go to KY in the next few days as his grandad is in the very last stage of lukiemia. It's caused all the big plans to be postponed, but like I told the stranger, there are other weekends and other bdays. I'm just sad his grandad is in so much pain. I really liked him. He always called me Sweet Thing and cried when I showed him the engagement ring. I'm going to miss him.

But. Gotta think the positive. There is a lot of love and that is the best thing one can have.

Lovelove.


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Look what calypso got me for my bday:



This leads me to believe she has an outside source of income she is hiding from me. And also that she knows my amazon account.

The plot thickens!!

:)

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Location:Smithtown Rd,Morgantown,United States

scratching my sunburn

so. picture it. driving home from work, deep in thought debating what exactly i would do for a Klondike bar, when i get on 79 North toward pburgh instead of 79 south toward home. one would think i would have noticed immediately my error. or maybe noticed when the scenery looked wrong. or the exits were wrong. or hell, maybe when i passed the Welcome to PA sign. but no. it took me a good 15 miles to realize something was wrong.
i am an idiot.
in other news, the football game was great! not only did we win, but i had such fun with my friends and coworkers. its just such a great group of people and it's always fun when everyone gets together. have you ever seen jello shots in giant plastic syringes? bc I have now....


my Office Season Six came in finally, so we spent friday night and most of yesterday watching it.

the dog is equally entertained and has a strong love for Kevin:
since i still had a ton of flowers left, and i didnt totally eff up the bouquet, i figured i'd try to make the corsages and the... the man flowers that for the life of me i cant think of the word. here's my attempt at those:
they are very colorful, yes? i know some people wouldnt in a million years make this stuff and would rather have fresh flowers and all. but. i'm weird and i like making things and putting a little bit of myself into something. if nothing else, it's special to me.

i'm excited for the upcoming week. friday is my bday scavenger hunt around greater morgantown, saturday we're going on the historical tour of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (super nerdy excited about this!!!!) and sunday i get to pet the penguins at the pburgh zoo and eat perogies at church brew! color me twelve kinds of little kid excited.

anywho. i hope everyone has had a good start to their week. i think it's going to be a good one. :)

lovelove!

watchin it rain

so the whole not sleeping thing is back again, which really isnt a surprise. for the past week i'm good to get four hours. last night i got nearly two. i figured it would be in my best interest to work from home today, in the event that i fell asleep and didnt want to make an ass of myself, but instead i feel like i've drank eightyfour thusand cups of coffee. tonight its sleeping pill land whether i like it or not.

so i've sat here and watched it rain with the dog and actually got a lot accomplished, which is good. the season six of the office finally came in and you better believe i'm spending tomorrow night watching it.

on sunday we're taking off adventuring to look at wedding places. there is one place i really want to look at that is just across the border in MD bc it just looks awesome. there's a couple other places around here that we want to check out. i think if we can just figure that part out then it will be easy.

things i'm trying to do. or rather, not do, include biting my nails. i've tried for however many years now to stop, and it is not easy. i know its my nervous tick, or one of them at least. maybe thats why i cant sleep, bc i'm going nuts without chewing my hands off.

THESE ARE REAL WORLD PROBLEMS, FOLKS.

positive things: tomorrow is bday cake day for sept babies at work tomorrow, which means i get to bask in attention and icing. saturday is the MD football game and work is taking us and tailgating. i dont know if i've mentioned this but i love my job. i love what i do, the people i work with, and the fact that they do things like this. in fact, the next weekend they are taking us to kennywood for fright night! yays

the electric flickered. storms a comin!

much love everyone

afraid of braxton

so i just found out another classmate died today. what is most eerie is that this fellow was also a year ahead of me in school, also had children, and also died of a motorcycle wreck. too many people i know have been hurt or died from those machines and that will always be one thing i put my foot down on. i will not get on a motorcycle.

that really was a downer on what was otherwise a good day. i went and made jewelry with the girls from work and then had dinner with them. its really something i needed to just.. have a minute and be a girl.


when i was little we had this cd of christmas songs. it was sorta like one of those "now thats what i call music" collections, but it wasnt that name. at any rate, i loved that cd to death. my favorite song was Run DMC "christmas in hollis". now. you have to watch that video to appreciate how ridiculous it was, me a tiny white girl with coke bottle glasses rapping to myself about christmas and macaroni and cheese. so wrong.

anywho. lots to think about today.

lovelove

updating my 101 goals

i hadn't looked at my 101 goals list in awhile, and i had completed some of them and had several i could go ahead and take care of now. I'd told someone special how much they meant to me, i went and saw airplanes at the airport (the B-17), i'd watched a couple more foreign films (I can't recommend Day Watch and Night Watch enough.), and I've tried to keep up with my banned books (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Lorax (baha, that one is so cheating), One Hundred Years of Solitude). So, as it was recommended to me, I wrote mammaw the letter telling her how important she was to me. being the chicken i am, i left it in her room when we were coming through town on Labor Day, and i have a feeling the letter meant more to her that day bc that's when i got engaged. but she has been a major factor in my life, and i do hope with everything i am that i am a person that makes her proud. she said she really appreciated the letter, and that made me feel really good.

i think next i'm going to work on sponsoring the soldier, and maybe finding a 5k to run/walk. I also need to adjust some of the goals since they do not apply anymore. Like the getting the christmas present for the lonely neighbor kid. He moved away before christmas, so i cant exactly get him a gift. i think instead I will donate more to some organization that helps people around the holidays.

for me, who makes all these plans and always falls through with them, i'm really proud that i have accomplished as many goals as i have. yeah some of them are silly, but the fact that i've actually completed them is big for me.

Workin for the weekend

Overall I think it has been a very nice weekend. A group of us went to the wine and jazz festival and for once u actually enjoyed it. I even found a type of wine I like. It has cinnamon and other spices in it. Very yum.

And we decided to brave the Big Kahuna, the sketchy looking bar down the road. Turns out it may be one of the nicest bars I've ever been to.

And today I didn't leave the house. Instead I was crafty. I had a bunch of flowers left over from my wreath and some other projects, so I made what I think will be my bouquet. I promise his website won't turn into a lame wedding blog. But you know me, I want to have everything in place. We are shooting for next fall, probably October. Some part of it outside so the leave are all pretty. We still have a lot of mess to figure out.

At any rate, here is what I made. Tell me if it sucks and I should scrap it.




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Fall!!

These last few days have felt and smelled like fall. This makes my tiny heart very very happy. To celebrate I went out and made a wreath for the front door.




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Location:Lockwood Dr,Morgantown,United States

All. Please send good thoughts to my friend kellie's sister Sara and her husband Ritchie. Sara is several months pregnant and Ritchie was just diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver. I don't know if you know much about cancer, but this is awful. So please send good thoughts their way. :(


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News

So wvu and uk both won yesterday. Hoorays. I thought that would be the most exciting part of the weekend. Until this morning when I was getting ready and putting on my makeup and the stranger asked me if I wanted a present. I thought it was the Office season 6 DVD and was excited. What I got was a lot better:





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Squeeeeeeee!!

this has officially been the absolute best day of September so far. (nevermind that it is the first day of sept. that is an insignificant detail.)

the commemorative air force has a B-17 from WWII that they bring around on an airport tour in the summer/fall, and it just so happened to stop at our own little morgantown air strip. they let a select few people go on rides (i didnt get to but i'd probably give up calypso to be able to) and then anyone could go tour around the plane. we got their after work and got to see it take off and land. at first they werent going to let the last group tour it bc they had to close, but i think enough people looked pitiful (myself included) and they let us out on the tarmac for a few minutes.

so here are some photos i took with my phone, both on regular setting and with the hipstomatic setting. i'll post more photos later bc we also took the Stranger's awesome camera and got some amazeballs shots.

squeeeee!!