Today is my birthday, and I’m thankful for so much. I’m thankful to everyone who helped me celebrate over the weekend (bonus points if you brought a funny card or wine - even the wine in the bag in the crisper).

I’m thankful for my friends who endure finger cramps and glue gun burns to make my weird, slightly too ambitious wedding ideas become reality. And I’m thankful for the friends who offered their services for round two.

I’m thankful for Scott, the person who knows me better and makes me laugh harder than anyone else. And I’m thankful for my brother, who is my best friend. And I’m even more thankful that they were in cahoots for this awesome birthday present.

I’m thankful for my new job, for my new coworkers who ate cake with me all day, for my family who celebrated with me in a rather unusual place tonight, and for all the kind birthday wishes.

On a slightly less sentimental note, I am now the age the ladies of Sex and the City were supposed to be when the show first began. My hip broke just thinking about it.

I took a look at my blog just now and noticed a few things missing. Like posts. The good news is that I started a new job last Monday. The bad news is that I added 45 minutes to my commute each way. Add to that last week’s dress-shopping debacle (couldn’t find one to wear to a friend’s wedding if you must know), and I really haven’t been home much this last week or so. 

Ollie is thrilled.

But the time I have spent at home has been filled with things like picking the last of the summer veggies from the garden (okay, full disclosure, this was all Scott, but I need material, okay?)….

Crafting my butt off for the wedding (and booking caterers and photographers!)….

And being eyeball-deep in a research paper, which I don’t have a picture of but if I did it would look kind of like me ripping my hair out.

I really like my new job so far. I hope that makes up for the fact that I haven’t given you guys anything to do at your own jobs, since God forbid you actually do WORK. Just kidding. I really am kidding. I know this blog’s readership is now limited to my mother, my mother’s bedridden friend recovering from surgery, my friend Megan who started her own blog once (really….ONCE), and my former supervisor (hi!) who somehow found it, but if anyone ever happens to check back, I’M STILL HERE. 

To address a couple of frequently asked questions:

1. I have not found a wedding dress yet. Nor have I looked anywhere but online. The theme of this wedding is Procrastination. 

2. I have no idea what I’m being for Halloween. For the 7th year in a row, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to persuade/motivate friends to join forces as the Ninja Turtles.

3. I still haven’t bought an easy-pass (EZ Pass?). Soon enough, I figure my contributions will cover the repaving of Charles Street, which has yet to occur/is desperately needed.

4. That embarassing photo of me on Facebook is not photoshopped. Yes, someone actually allowed me to walk around looking like that.

5. Why of course I have a recent photo of Ollie! Here you go.

Now seriously, what are we going to do with all of those peppers?

My apologies if this post is weird. I just downed a shot of Nyquil in hopes of achieving a decent night’s sleep. After a hectic weekend spent inhaling bonfire smoke, traipsing around Baltimore, and tossing my little cousin around yesterday, my body is officially telling me to chill the BEEP out. I never ever get sick, and I’ve been sick twice in the past two months. Also a coworker coughed on me today and it’s been downhill ever since. 

I’ve got a busy week ahead of me. In addition to the usual two-classes-at-once-and-all-the-papers-associated thing, a major change is on the horizon and I’m excited, nervous, and nauseous all at once. Oh God, now you all think I’m pregnant. I’m not. The window in which I can discreetly pop out a baby before the wedding has officially passed. Sorry, too much? Note to self: don’t blog on Nyquil. 

Speaking of that wedding, we had a tasting with a caterer today and now I am nestled all snug in my bed as visions of sugar plums dollar signs jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon dance in my head.

I have no pictures for this post because the Nyquil just kicked in and I’m officially unable to get up to retrieve my camera to upload and edit any photos. Sorry. I’m just going to suck on another Zycam and get some shut-eye. 

Oh hi. Remember me? That’s right, I’ve commandeered Mom’s MacBook for the day - doesn’t this picture make me look like a brooding hipster? 

I’m filling in because my mom has had a lot going on this week. All good things though, don’t worry. I’m really just here because I’d like to introduce you all to someone. A new member of our family, on my mom’s brother’s side.

Meet my cousin Earl.

Earl is an 11 month old blue tick coonhound. Hmph. PUREBREADS. Naturally he has stolen away all of my attention, especially from my grandmother and Uncle Michael. I guess now I know how Max feels.

So welcome to the family Earl. If you need any pointers on the art of cage-escape, shoe-chewing, bathroom trashcan raiding, or food begging, I’m your man. 

Today is a really awesome day.

Now I’m going to go have me an awesome weekend. I hope you do the same.

This weekend was fun, but I am most definitely taking a break. While spending time with friends never disappoints, sometimes it’s just as fulfilling to take a weekend off, laying around the house in pajamas, waking up early to go out to breakfast and the farmers market, and feeling fresh come Monday. I seem to have come down with a bad cold, so some quality time on the couch is more in order than ever.

But before that happened, at least I got to see this.

Someone really jazzed up the beginning of that video, sorry. Anyway I got really excited when he opened with this song, randomly, because it kind of reminded me of my grandmother. We were very close, and when I was just a wee lass I bought her this piggy bank sort of thing that sorted her change for her. It was shaped like a piano, and there was this little pretend-sheet music page sitting on the front of it that said Pennies from Heaven.

I will spare everyone else the rest of the details. If you’re reading my blog in the first place, you’re already too aware of my love for this dude. Seeing as I’m ALMOST a kept woman, I decided stampeding the tour bus or throwing my bra would be in poor taste, so we just went on home.

I did, after all, have a baby girl’s christening to attend the next morning.

All in all, it was another great weekend…followed by two days home from work feeling like typhoid mary (I think Rachel Zoe is amazing for that expression). I’ve got some fun art projects planned for this weekend. One involves a lot of wooden skewers. Stay tuned!

Full disclosure you guys, I am a total airhead blonde sometimes.

Since I’m enjoying a Work From Home Friday for the first time in a while I thought, I’ve got this cool new home office, and this cool new computer with a built-in camera, and let’s face it, I don’t feel like getting up to get my phone…

I’ll do my Friday note on the computer camera!! I did not take into consideration that it would come out looking like this:

Doh. Sadly, I still didn’t feel like getting up to get my phone, and the thought of writing that note backwards gave me a headache. So, here you go. Happy Friday, backwards.

What is everyone doing this weekend? I’m gonna go see Jason Mraz tomorrow! I’m so excited you guys, I looooove him, he is my favorite. Pammy, since you can’t come with me, I may be calling you to bail me out of jail when I get arrested for storming the tour bus. 

Enjoy your weekends, everyone. OxOx.

Is there such a thing? If so, I have it. Coupled with the writer’s block that has been crippling the content of this blog, it’s got me feeling pretty worthless. So I’m thinking…maybe I should just get it out. 

Without being too specific, because if there is anything I’ve learned from Dooce.com, it’s that one should not be too specific about one’s livelihood on one’s blog, I’m feeling a little burned out. Uninspired. Unsure of my next steps. It’s all-consuming and sort of scary. I know I will figure it out, but in the meantime that nagging “do something” feeling haunts the back of my mind, and it’s distracting. It’s just that I don’t know what I want to do. So instead of reading and running and cooking and doing things around the house, you know, all the things I normally blog about, I’ve just been sitting around biting my nails and thinking. And that is not a good time. So unless you guys want to read about my latest hangnail, it’s radio silence or random babble without segue. Le sigh. 

After two epic painting fails, I was near tears and thisclose to throwing my palette and brushes across the room when I remembered *NEW CARPET THAT WE’RE STILL PAYING FOR* and I relaxed and ate a piece of fudge. Chocolate peanut butter fudge. Then I got my Jackson Pollock on.

Sorry for the lousy photo. The paint is still wet, as I imagine it will be for another couple of days, since it’s like an inch thick. I learned the term for that today, by the way, it is “impasto.” If they ever use that as a Jeopardy clue, you’re welcome. This is really nowhere near as crazy as a Jackson Pollock, but I squirted paint on a canvas and just let it do what it wanted so that’s close enough for me. On the other hand, I think my paints must be going bad because they never used to be that watery. So there’s that. It reminds me of melted ice cream.

Has anyone else read the Dexter books? I’m unimpressed. I wonder if I would have liked them more if I had read them before watching every episode of the show (twice).

I have an excuse to get dressed up for work tomorrow! This NEVER happens. A lot of times when I stop into my parents’ house for some reason or other on my way home, my dad will be like, did you wear that to work? And he’ll point to the hole in the knee of my jeans, and my flip flops, and general lack of professional swagger, and I’m like…yeah, I did. “It’s the culture.” BUT! Tomorrow, I will be fancy. I am 99.9% excited about this. The missing percentage point is because I will be wearing heels and I still have blisters from the last time I wore heels.

I feel compelled to state that so far I am not impressed with this Fantasy Football. Nevermind the fact that I keep losing. People keep rejecting my trades. That is not very neighborly! 

My friends who live in the city complain about roaches, and I know that must be the pits. Crickets are no big deal by comparison, they say. And I know cricket chirping is supposedly reminiscent of summer nights camping in a tent or eating s’mores or whatever, but I did not invite them into my basement. No one was like, oh come in from the cold little crickets, but here they are anyway, confusing Max and making so much noise I can’t even think about my future or what my next random blog paragraph will be.

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend about this one blog we like to read. We were expressing our bitterness toward the author over the fact that she hardly ever posts these days. But it’s because she’s writing a book.

Then I was like, OMG I never post anymore either. And I’m NOT writing a book. I wonder if people are bitter toward ME?? A while back, when I was talking about how September was going to be awesome, and I listed out all the reasons it would be so awesome, I didn’t take into consideration that I would be incredibly busy and exhausted. Jam-packed weekends, school two nights each week, planning the wedding, and doing a whole bunch of other boring things leave plenty of blog fodder and not enough time to actually write it down. Or photograph it.

So to those of you who use this as a brief distraction from work…I’m sorry. I’m sorry if you’ve had to do work. I totally feel your pain. I hate when my favorite bloggers fail to blog. Not that I think I’m your favorite. Oh no, this is getting awkward. Let’s change the subject.

I know Fall doesn’t officially start until Friday, but it already vomited all over my house.

That’s the shelf from my last post. As you can see, I covered it with even more junk.

The candy jar is full, which is probably not a good thing since I’ve been slacking on the running lately.

Ollie likes fall.

I like fall fruit, but this is just ridiculous. Here is an enormous apple, pictured beside a human fist. A full-grown human. How will I eat this thing?

I’ve been painting a lot lately. Painting pictures, that is. I was thinking about maybe trying to sell them. What do you guys think? I know there are about 37 of you reading this on a given day. Don’t be shy. Tell me, do you know anyone who buys art? Do YOU buy art? 

I call this Sunset Reflected In Water. How creative am I?! Maybe the name needs a little work. Maybe you’ll see this in an Etsy shop. Or in your local Atwaters, that would be fun. Oooh, or the Louvre. OR, maybe I should learn from past experiences and stop trying to involve myself in so many things at one time.

For $75, it can be yours, just sayin’. It’s 12x12. Okay, I’m done.

I promise I will try to write more blog posts. The end.

This weekend was so much fun. I wish I had pictures of the wedding to share, but, true to form, I ditched the camera in favor of the dance floor. But the bride looked beautiful - even more beautiful than usual. Seeing one of your closest friends at her happiest is one of life’s best feelings, I think.

I’d put it up there with walking outside this morning and feeling an autumn crispness in the air. It made me feel a little less crazy for having already started pulling out the pumpkins and all things pumpkin-spiced.

Once again, Tumblr is trying my patience and not allowing me to center my pictures. To those of you with OCD like my own, I apologize.

Also on the agenda this weekend was a small birthday get-together for a friend at a nearby Mexican restaurant. No fiesta is complete without “Pedro” being berated by the wait staff, having his face smeared with whipped cream, and a table full of friends wearing giant sombreros. 

I also finished a series of paintings commissioned by a friend. I can’t wait to show you guys the finished product in its entirety, but as she hasn’t even seen them in person yet, you’ll have to settle for a little peek.

This is just the bottom corner of one of the canvases and, funny enough, was actually a happy accident. Scott and I were home watching the Ravens game and I was carefully outlining with a black paintbrush when a resounding “YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” pierced through the quiet and made me jump out of my skin. I was almost mad at him, until I realized that I actually kind of liked it. So there’s that.

And here’s a cute picture of Ollie, because we really need another one of those.

Hope you all had as much fun this weekend as we did.