A Birthday and Father's Day

It's a well-known fact among my family and friends that I L-O-VE, love birthdays!! Mine, your's, stranger's, whatever. I think everyone should celebrate the day they came into this world. Plus, a day all about you is a wonderful thing, don't you think?

Well, today is my birthday!!

I'm 24 today and I cannot wait to see what this year holds.

I have high hopes for 24, and definitely think it can live up to my expectations.

I'm having a wonderful birthday weekend.

Also, happy Father's Day to my wonderful, Dad! I used to hate having to share my day with you (on those rare occassions when our calendar's aligned), but now I can't wait for our joint evening. I love you, Daddy!

Fill in the blank...Saturday

1. The best thing about being in school was/is being introduced to new ideas and subjects. I always loved learning about the latest Psych studies when I was getting my B.S.

2. The worst thing about being in school was/is homework. I actually didn't mind homework to an extent, but I hated when I would procrastinate so badly that I'd have to lock myself up for a day to get everything done.

3. My favorite subject in school was/is English, History, Math and Psychology...I couldn't pick just one. And yes, I'm one of those crazy people who loves algebra.

4. One subject I wish I could've mastered/would like to master is German. I wish I had stuck with this while I was in college because I've lost my grasp on most of the language.

5. I could never get tired of studying History, especially the Ancient Greeks and Romans and Medieval Europe.

6. The most memorable teacher I had was Mr. Michoski. He was the greatest History teacher I've ever had and one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. He actually made me work for my education in high school.

7. If I could choose between going to school for the rest of my life or working for the rest of my life, I'd choose going to school. I would love to be a professional student who spends her days taking classes. Yep, I'm a nerd!

Baltimore Day 2

Much like Day 1 of my trip back East, Day 2 was spent in total relax mode. We slept in, ran into town for fresh coffee and iced tea and made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a new, jump-off-of-the-dock-without-flashing-anyone bathing suit for Corey.

Once we were back at the house, Matt, Corey, Matt's cousin Mike and I all suited up, slathered on the sunscreen, stocked the cooler with beer and trail mix and hopped on the boat to head to "Redneck Beach". This is a fairly popular beach area that is best accessible by boat and attracts an interesting crowd, hence the family's name: Redneck Beach.

We drank a few beers, played football, swam around a bit and had a great time. Eventually the beach started to get a little too busy for our tastes, so we piled back into the boat and took our party back to the dock. Corey and I layed out until Matt started whining about us not swimming, at which point we both jumped, whole-heartedly, off of the dock! Corey and I get a little wussy about swimming with "things" in the water, so we weren't in the water for too long; just long enough to cool down.

We went out on the boat for one final evening cruise with Matt's Aunt and Uncle and then the three of us piled into the car and started the drive back to Baltimore. It was a quick two days at the Bay, but lovely, fun and entirely worth it.

Woe is me...

I just need a very small minute for a quick pity party:

Today was my Baltimore Bestie's bridal shower back in Virginia and I'm so sad that I wasn't able to be apart of it. The pictures are lovely, my gift made it in time and Corey had an absolutely incredible day, but I'm still very sad.

Ok, that's off of my chest, thank you for listening, and now I will focus on just how big Corey's smile is in all of her pictures. I love my bestie, but sometimes I really hate distance.

Baltimore Day 1

If we're going to get technical, the first day of my Baltimore trip was actually spent in Killmarnock, Virginia, as was the 2nd day. Matt's family has a house on the Chesapeake Bay (technically, an inlet of the bay, but there are too many technicalities going on in this post) and graciously opened up their home to Matt, Corey and I for the holiday weekend.

So, Matt and Corey picked me up from the airport at 12:30 am, we went directly to a 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts (because I'm obsessed & Matt needed caffeine for the drive) and then babbled the entire 3 hour drive from Baltimore to Killmarnock. Once we got to the house, we stumbled through the dark with our luggage and proceeded to find our beds and fall asleep as quickly as possible. It'd been a long day for everyone!

Come morning, the sun was shining, the humidity was rising and the three of us were feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day. And what a lovely day it was! We started off by going with Matt's cousin, his wife and their 9 month old daughter, Keira, to the pool to soak up some sun and play with the baby. The sun felt amazing, and while Keira wasn't sold on the older boys splashing around the pool, she did give us enough smiles to keep us all entertained.

After the pool we lounged around the house and hung out on the dock, spying for crabs swimming in the water. Corey and I gossiped about this and that, and crawled around on the floor with Keira, enjoying her happy baby talk.

(side note: while we were playing, Keira's dad made a comment about being able to just sit back because Keira was "in the hands of the psychologists, so she's fine!" Made me chuckle because Corey's a legit Psychologist, but I just have a Psych B.S.).

Chesapeake Bay blue crabs were next on the agenda, and I had a little too much fun snapping photos of the feisty (live!) little buggers as they were moved from their basket to the cooking pot. Sometimes I just can't help but play tourist with my camera! I love crab, but up to this point, had only ever had it in crab-cake style. Well, Matt and his Uncle were on a mission to fix that! I enjoyed a wonderful crab-picking tutorial and devoured some of the most amazing crab I've ever tasted.

After cleaning up the remains of our crab smorgasbord, Matt's Aunt and Uncle took us for a spin around the inlet on their boat and we toasted the start of an amazing weekend with Prosecco and graham crackers...we were kind of keeping it classy.

The evening ended with lightning bugs on the back porch and fireworks over the Bay.

Fill in the Blank Friday

Lauren is back from her little blog break just in time for another edition of Fill in the Blank Friday. As always, I just love playing along with this, and think you all should, too!

1. My dream vacation would be to travel all over Europe. I want to see it all, stay in classy, fabulous places, explore to my heart's content and meet fascinating people.

2. The best trip I've ever taken was my first trip abroad to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It instilled in me a love for Europe (especially Germany), a desire to travel and introduced me to myself and my own abilities. I was only in 8th grade, but I've always felt like it's a defining part of my life.

3. The most important items to take on a road trip are cell phones, money, incredible music, snacks, a sense of adventure and your best friend(s)!

4. The next trip I'm looking forward to is visiting my bestie in Australia next year.

5. If I had to pick one CD to listen to for a long road trip it would be a mix of some sort with a little bit of everything...I really just care about being able to sing at the top of my lungs with the windows down.

6. The biggest disaster I've ever encountered while traveling was a kid losing his passport on an international school trip. Nothing really bad has happened to me (knock on wood) other than flight delays and crappy weather. Although, I did leave a bunch of my traveler's checks in a store in Switzerland once, but I was able to retrieve them quickly.

7. My favorite traveling memory is standing on one of the balconies at Heidelberg Schloss (Heidelberg, Germany) and looking down at the Neckar River and all of the old, red-tile roofs of the city. It was my first day in Germany, heck my first day in Europe, and it couldn't have been more picture perfect!

Hi everyone! I'm back from Baltimore and just wanted to say a quick hello. I had an amazing time and cannot wait to post some pics and tell you lovely ladies all about it, but first I suppose I have to get back into the swing of things here at the office...

Happy Thursday, all!