Ode to the Beach

Ah, the beach. I've been thinking a lot about the beach lately. For one thing, days and days on end of dreary weather really makes one long for a sunny, sandy vacation. Also, although Eric and I are unbelievably excited about our upcoming Europe trip (Eric emailed me to say so this morning, and I could hardly sleep last night thinking about it), we're a little bummed that we'll have to skip a week at the beach this year. I've told you before that we're big beach bums, so although we know we're going to have an incredible time overseas, a little part of me is sad we won't get that week of seaside relaxation.

So, I decided that if I am not going on a beach vacation this year, maybe I should relive old ones. I pulled out all my old beach vacation pictures (since Eric and I met) and got to reminiscing. Then I decided I would share these pictures with you, because who doesn't like to look at old pictures? I know I do. So, lets take a trip down Beach Memory Lane!

Side note: Sorry for the poor quality of most of these pictures. All of them up until the honeymoon ones were taken with a disposable camera, then scanned - not exactly the best strategy for high-quality photos.

Beach Vacation #1: Cayman Islands, July 1999

Eric and I took our first vacation about 10 months after we started dating. He was 16 years old, and I think I had just turned 17. Eric's dad and stepmom own a timeshare at Morritt's Tortuga Club in the Cayman Islands, and in July of 1999, they decided to take the three W. kids down to the resort with them. The best part? They were nice enough to let little ol' me tag along, too! It was my first trip out of the country, first time being that far away from my parents, and first trip with a boooooy. Oooh, la la.

We had a blast, and after this trip, I was hooked. We made friends with other kids at the resort - visitors and locals alike. We partay-ed on the Dock every night. I tasted my first Cayman Lemonade. I swam with the stingrays for the first time. I rode a wave-runner for the first time. We even stayed up all night with our new friends on our last night so that we could watch the sun rise. So, so fun.

Eric and me in the hammock. Yes, my hair really is that short.

Holding a stingray for the first time!

And although it was my first time traveling with my boyfriend, I probably spent more time with Eric's sister Kelley than with Eric himself! Kelley and I had a great time.

Kelley and me before riding the wave-runner. (My hair is going for the "beachy look" here, I think.)

Beach Vacation #2: Cayman Islands, March 2003

Well, after the first trip to the Caymans I had a little Cayman hiatus. You know, I had other things to do - high school graduation, college, etc. Eric did get to go without me one time between 1999 and 2003, but the next time I was able to join the W. family in the Caymans again was Spring Break of my junior year in college, when I was 20 years old. This time, we were sans Kelley, but Eric's brother Ronnie brought along his friend Tom.

Tom, Ronnie, Suellen, Ron Sr., Me and Eric. I am loving Ronnie's bleached blonde 'do here.

As always, we had a wonderful time. There were a few particularly memorable points from this trip.

The first was the wahoo. Oh, the wahoo. Have you ever eaten wahoo? Do it immediately. Eric's dad and stepmom went on a deep sea fishing excursion with Captain Herman and caught this enormous wahoo. Then Captain Herman brought it back to our room at the resort and cooked it for us. The only ingredient I can remember going into it was ketchup. And I think there was rice. Sounds awful, yes? Oh, but it was to die for. Best fish I have ever eaten to this day. And there was so much of it! It fed all of us plus the other few people who had been on the fishing trip, and we had leftovers for days. Amazing.

The second memorable thing was the sunset sail we took. It was very peaceful and relaxing, and came with rum punch, which is never a bad thing.

Eric and me on the sunset sail

The third memorable thing was Tom's sunburn. Oh, poor Tom. I have never seen a redder person.

Unfortunately, I cannot find my full set of pictures from this trip, which contains pictures of both the wahoo and poor, red Tom. The only pictures I have are the few that made their way into my college scrapbook.

In the new infinity pool. I apologize if this is inappropriate, but how hot does Eric look in this picture?!

Beach Vacation #3: Grand Bahama Island, 2004

We took a break from the Cayman Islands (and the W. family) for Spring Break of my senior year of college and went to the Bahamas with our friends (and later roommates) Coral and Alexis. We cruised there out of Ft. Lauderdale and stayed for 4 or 5 days, if memory serves me.

Coral, Eric, me and Alexis.
I got very, very sunburned on our first day there, so spent the rest of the trip in the shade or in a t-shirt.

We stayed at the Xanadu Resort in Freeport. Needless to say, our hotel was...um...an experience. Disappointing and weird. We had a giant living area room, half of which had no furniture. In the whole place, I think we had one working lamp. Why? I don't know. And the customer service was awful.

Other than that, we had a pretty good time. We beached, we sand-sculpted, we shopped and ate and drank Kalik beer. We even did totally smart and responsible things like buying drinks out of the back of some guy's car. You know, the kind of things that only sound like a good idea in college.

Rum in your trunk? Sounds great!

Fun with signs

Beach Vacation #5: Cayman Islands, June 2004

Although we had fun in the Bahamas in March, we had the need for more beach in 2004, so we returned to the Caymans once again with the W. family. This time, in addition to the parents, it was Eric, me, and my sister Heather. Yay, Heather got to come! I particularly enjoyed this trip because Heather and Eric are my two most favorite people ever, so to have them with me in my most favorite place ever was just too good to be true.

Heather and me on the Dock

We did a lot of fun things this time, too. For one thing, it was nice just to have a beach buddy who wanted to do nothing but tan with me. Eric is nice at the beach, sure, but he also likes to do things like play golf and volleyball and that sort of thing. I'm much more of a "sit and fall asleep in the sun" type of beach-goer. As is my sister. So, it was nice to have someone to just lounge around and drink tropical beverages with on the beach or in the pool.

Heather and me on the beach

And if we're not on the beach, we're drinking in the pool!

We also entered - and WON - a sand sculpture contest! We sculpted Sir Turtle, the unofficial national logo of the Cayman Islands. We won a bottle of rum! Hooray!

Eric, Heather and me with our winning sand sculpture

Sir Turtle, and a closer view of our sculpture. Not bad, eh?

This was also the trip when Eric and I played - and WON! - the Newlywed Game. We were still two years away from even being engaged, and we beat three sets of real newlyweds and another couple that had already been married 7 years! We won rum cakes and another bottle of rum in this one.

Eric and me after the Newlywed Game, with our winnings

I've already shared quite a few pictures of this trip, but why not a couple more for good measure? Just because I like 'em.

Heather in George Town with the statue for a famous local rum

Back in the hammock. Check out my tan - this is probably the only time in the history of our relationship that I have been darker than Eric!

I love this pic of Heather and Eric wading through the cold water in the infinity pool!

Also, not pictured: me nearly getting my face eaten by an iguana at Rum Point. Fun times.


Beach Vacation #6: Cayman Islands, August 2007 - HONEYMOON!

Oh, this was a good one! But how can your honeymoon NOT be a good one? Oh, well, actually I can answer that one, because it almost wasn't. We were supposed to head down to the Caymans the day after wedding, but Hurricane Dean had other plans. He hit the Caymans the very day we were supposed to arrive. Thankfully, we were able to postpone our plans by a week, and Dean didn't hit the Caymans directly (as he was predicted to do), so by the time we got there, all the power, etc. was back on. The infinity pool was closed because there was sand all in it, and there was some damage to the Dock, but other than that, it was all good. Oh wait, not totally. The airline also left our luggage in Tampa on the way down, and didn't get it to us until almost two days later. But other than that, it was all good!

The highlight of this trip (other than the fact that we were MARRIED, yay!) was the sunset sail we took for dinner one night. One of the resort hosts' boyfriend owned a boat and he would take people from Kaibo Yacht Club to the other side of the island for dinner at The Fisherman's Reef. The sunset was gorgeous, the food was divine (and paid for by some very generous people on our boat), and we were able to see a spectacular moonrise over the water as we ate. Then we sailed back under the stars. Helloooo, romance.

With our complimentary "Happy Honeymoon" dessert at The Fisherman's Reef

Other than that, most of the week was spent enjoying the beach and each other. We didn't turn the TV on once, and we slept on the sleeper sofa in the living area of our room, so that we could open our sliding doors and hear the sound of the surf as we slept. Glorious.

Also, I wore a big floppy hat.

Married feet

Mudslide Madness at the pool bar

Fun in the hammock yet again

Beach Vacation #7, the last one to date: Cayman Islands, August 2008

We decided to return to the Caymans again for our first anniversary. This time things went a little smoother, although our flight there was cancelled because of some mechanical problem and rescheduled for the next day. So, not as bad as the previous year, but still annoying!

I won't belabor this one because you can read a very, very in-depth recounting of our trip here. But, a couple highlights from this one were the bike ride to Vivine's Kitchen for an authentic home-cooked Cayman lunch (and the best lemonade EVER)...

Riding my bike to lunch

Eric at Vivine's Kitchen

...the return to Stingray City...

Ready to snorkel!

Smooching a stingray

...the sunsets...

Paradise

...and just being together, celebrating our first year of wedding bliss.

Anniversary kiss

More mudslide madness

Oh, and the refrigerated aloe. There was some more redness happening on this trip, so that refrigerated aloe vera was a major highlight.

So, you can see that Eric and I have had a lot of fun times at the beach together. We will definitely miss it this year. But, we are so, so excited about our Europe trip, and who knows? Maybe after traveling abroad we will be hit with the bug to see the world, and will shelve the beach thing for a while. Anything is possible!

Two Out Of Three

Well, in Thursday's "Looking Forward" post, I outlined three major plans we had for this weekend: "Top Gun" on the Intrepid, the U.S. Open (for the boys), and the Rays v. Mets game. We were able to do two of the three, so that ain't bad.

Before I get to the weekend recap, I just want to share this article that was in the NY Post today, to prove that I'm not just overreacting and being crazy about the weather these days:

BIG APPLE IS KEEPING ITS COOL THIS MONTH
By JOE MOLLICA, June 22, 2009

We're on track to bring in the second-coldest June on record.

So far, the average temperature for the month is 65.1 degrees.

If that keeps up, it will make this June the coolest since June 1903, which had an average temperature of 64.2 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

We've also gotten plenty of rain this month -- 7.90 inches. That's 5.37 inches above the average of 2.53 inches. Last year, we got 3.39 inches in all of June.

Yesterday, the first official day of summer, was mostly cloudy and rainy, with just a few hours of sun. Don't expect the sun again until Wednesday, when temperatures are expected to warm up to 80 degrees.

The gloom is keeping the crowds away from Coney Island.

Mike Finley, 54, who has worked there for four decades, says his business is down 50 percent.

"How's business? What business? It's been terrible. The worst I've seen in 44 years," Finley said. "I've never seen the rain bother people like this."

You see? I'm not crazy! This is near-record lousy weather! I feel so vindicated.

Anyway, let's talk fun stuff, shall we? Because despite some rain, we really had a fun little weekend. As I mentioned on Thursday, our good friend Jeff came up from D.C. for the weekend. His bus got stuck in traffic, of course, so he ended up getting into town a little later than we expected. However, the timing ended up working out perfectly.

Eric got home from work around 6:30p.m., and we left around 7:00 to pick up dinner and head to the Intrepid. We got there right at 7:30, which is when they opened it up for people to come on in and set up shop. We got a great spot to the right of the screen, then did some wandering around to check out the planes on the deck. The timing was also perfect to catch the sunset over New Jersey (and the sun was even out, do you believe it?!).

Doesn't Eric look handsome? And check it out - what is that crazy light to the left? Why, it's the sun! How weird!

Me in our spot, with the screen behind me

Planes on the deck

Sunset

Jeff met us there not long after we got settled in. We chowed down on our Daisy May's BBQ, which tasted particularly good for some reason. Then we spent a little more time enjoying the scenery before the movie began. We really had a great view of the NYC skyline, all lit up at dusk - my favorite time of day!

Jeff and me

The boys and the mason jars of sweet tea

Eric and me with NYC at our backs

Lighting at dusk

The movie was very cool. Of course we've seen "Top Gun" a bunch of times, but it was so awesome to be watching it on the deck of an aircraft carrier, surrounded by all these fighter planes and such. Plus, before the movie started, they showed a short film about the history of the Intrepid. It was really neat, and the whole experience was lots of fun.

The screen

Crowds ready for the movie

We definitely want to do this again! They're showing two more movies this summer: "Jaws" in July (but we'll be in Europe then), and "Apollo 13" in August. It was just really cool, and thank heavens the weather cooperated!

On Saturday, the boys got to participate in Plan #2: the U.S. Open! This was the reason Jeff came to visit this weekend. Unfortunately, the weather was not as cooperative on Saturday as it was for the movie on Friday night, but the boys would not be deterred. They got up at 4:30 a.m. and left the house at 5:00. Yes, 5:00! I got up to see them off and take a picture to preserve the moment. Unfortunately, I could not go back to sleep. Boo.

Two very tired boys and their U.S. Open tickets. You can't see it, but the clock on the cable box says "5:03." Yes, as in A.M.

I guess the rain was not too unbearable for them, although things were very muddy. They came home with their feet just covered in mud! They had a great time though. They got to see all the golf greats, including Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, and of course, Tiger Woods. They said Tiger is very serious. Some of the other golfers would smile or joke around with their caddy, but Tiger had his game face on the whole time. Unfortunately, cameras and/or cell phones were not allowed in to the course, so even though the boys got to see so many cool people, they could not take any pictures! The only pic they got was this one of them, courtesy of the Lexus tent:

Don't be fooled. It was not actually sunny like this.

The boys got back home around 3:30p.m. We hung out and watched more of the golf for a while, then went out for pizza at Casabianca (our favorite place) and a movie. We saw "The Hangover" in Times Square, and it was very funny! We had a good time. And on our way back, we saw a movie being filmed, which I later learned was "Date Night" starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Unfortunately we didn't catch sight of the stars, so we can't add them to our Celebrity Sighting List. (Have you noticed that we have a list of our celeb sightings on the right hand side of this blog? Check it out!)

On Sunday we had hoped to go see the Rays play the Mets, but the weather wasn't looking so hot so we decided to skip it. (As it turns out, the weather held out just fine until the 7th inning, and then they had an hour rain delay. At that point the Rays were up a few runs, so we probably could have left then had we been there, and we would've been fine. Oh, well). Instead, Jeff treated us to brunch, which was very nice. I particularly enjoyed the (few too many) mimosas. Mmm, brunch.

From there, we sent Jeff on his way back home, and Eric and I did some shopping for books to take on the plane to EUROPE IN TWO WEEKS! Then it was sushi for dinner, and catching up on our DVRed TV shows, as the rain kept pouring down off and on all night.

So, it really was a pretty nice weekend. Hope you all enjoyed your weekends as well, especially you dads out there!

Happy Father's Day!

Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.
~Author Unknown

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and grandfathers out there! To my dad, I wish I could be there to celebrate you today, but I'll be thinking of you! Love you!

Looking Forward

Lately, I have been feeling like I am at my wit's end. Seriously. It has been raining nearly every day for the last three weeks. Sure, we had a few hours of reprieve this weekend, which we spent at the Barbecue Festival. The weekend before that was pretty nice too, and we definitely took advantage of that. But every other day - basically every day that I have not posted about - it has been raining, and/or dreary, and/or cold. We're talking 60 degrees and rain. Day in, day out. What kind of weather is this for mid-June?

The daily view out our windows. The camera doesn't even pick up the pouring rain, but trust me, it's there.
The camera DOES pick up the grayness. Isn't it gross?

Looking down at the street

This is not okay. This is depressing. I just can't handle it anymore! I'm seriously losing my mind. I'm sick of the gray sky. I'm sick of the fog. I'm sick of the dampness. I'm sick of the sound of water splashing as cars drive on the street. I'm sick of umbrellas. I'm sick of having my windows closed because it's either raining in, or I'm freezing. I'm SICK OF IT ALL.

This weather has made the last few weeks pretty rough for me. I already told you about my recent stress last week, but when you add this gloominess to it, plus Eric being busy at work and working long hours, I'm so stir crazy, lonely and bored. I can't even get out to take Achilles for a walk. Even Achilles is particularly lethargic on dreary days like this.

He's a broken man.

The only thing that is keeping me sane and feeling somewhat upbeat is thinking about our upcoming Europe trip! Three weeks from right now, we'll be enjoying our second day in Budapest, and preparing to leave the next day for Györ for my cousin Jacob's wedding. Some of our plans have been slightly adjusted, and others are coming together a little more, so I'm getting really excited.

One thing I'm pretty excited about is a dinner cruise on the Danube with my mom, Heather, and my Uncle Peter (and Eric, of course!). My mom has been checking into this for us, with much-appreciated help from Jacob, and it's looking like it will become a reality. The cruise we're looking at includes a wine-tasting along with dinner! Wine, a Hungarian meal and a beautiful evening view of Budapest? Sounds like a great evening! Jacob may also join us, which would be great.

Another thing that added to my excitement was a Hungary "brochure" my cousin Jacob and his bride-to-be put together for us tourists. It was so cute! It explained some Hungarian history, plus listed things to do and see in both Györ and Budapest. I particularly liked this excerpt from it, explaining a little bit about Hungarian wedding tradition:

Doesn't that sound fun? I can't wait for the wedding! My other favorite part of this little brochure was the Hungarian phrases Jacob and Zita included for us to learn. Sure, there were the usual "please" (kérem), "thank you" (köszönöm), and "where's the bathroom" (merre találom a mosdót?), but there were also a few more with a little more personality, or that we might find particularly useful:

• Egy korsó sort szeretnék. "I would like one large beer." (Mmm, beer. And a large one at that.)
  
• Szeretnék egy üveg finom Magyar vörosbort. "I would like one bottle of fine Hungarian wine." (I get the feeling this one was geared towards my mom, me, Heather, Molly and my Aunt Debbie. We've been known to enjoy some red wine. Though I don't know that one bottle will really cut it.)
  
• Rossz néven vennéd, ha azt mondanám, hogy szép tested van? "If I said you had a good body, would you hold it against me?" (Courtesy Monty Python) (Always good to have a cheesy pickup line to use once you've effectively mastered - thanks to lots of practice - the "large beer" and "fine wine" translations.)

Aren't they fun? Jacob and Zita have also told us they want to take us around Budapest when we first get in on Wednesday, then to one of their favorite restaurants at night. I'm so excited. And they are such good hosts!

So, I'm psyched about Hungary. I'm also psyched about Scotland, of course. We did make a minor change to our plans for Scotland. Eric decided to skip golfing at Kingsbarns Golf Links on our second day in St. Andrews. This will not only save us some money, but this way he can fully focus on playing the Old Course on Monday without worrying about being sore for Tuesday's round at Kingsbarns. Also, if for some reason he can't get on the Old Course on Monday, he can try again on Tuesday. Assuming he does play the Old Course Monday, we'll use our free Tuesday morning to enjoy a leisurely breakfast at our B&B (my dad tells me Scottish breakfasts are amazing), then we will go to the British Golf Museum and play at the Himalayas Putting Green, which according to the St. Andrews golf website is a "fabled course that changes daily." I don't know what that means exactly, but we'll find out!

British Golf Museum
(photo from here)

The Himalayas Putting Green
(photo from here)

So, even though he will be cutting a round of golf, Eric will still have plenty of golf-related fun during our time in Scotland!

Thank goodness for this trip, because seriously, looking forward to it is really keeping me sane in the midst of the nasty, nasty weather. I'm also looking forward to this weekend - we have lots of fun stuff planned. Of course, it is all dependent on the weather, so we'll see what happens. Our old friend/roommate/groomsman Jeff is coming up from Washington, D.C. for the weekend. Weather permitting, we'll be picking up some barbecue from Daisy May's tomorrow night and going to a free showing of "Top Gun" on the deck of the Intrepid, which could be so fun! Saturday, Jeff, Eric and Jose are going to the U.S. Open, which they are very excited about. Then Sunday, Eric and I might head out to Shea Stadium to see the Rays play the Mets. Please, please, PLEASE stop raining by tomorrow evening so we can do all this! PLEASE!!!!

Everybody do an anti-rain dance for our weekend plans, and my own sanity!

BBQ in the Big Apple

Or more specifically, the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party!

Welcome, 'cue lovers! (Eric is rubbing his stomach in a "yummy" fashion, in case that doesn't come across.)

We've been looking forward to this one for some time. We are definitely barbecue lovers. Every time we go back to Florida, we make sure to stop for a meal at Sonny's. Mmm, pulled pork. Mmm, corn nuggets. Mmm, baked beans. And for Eric, mmm, sweet tea. When we moved to DC we found a suitable (though lesser) substitute at Red, Hot & Blue, and now in New York we've been enjoying Daisy May's, where Eric can get his sweet tea in a mason jar. But this Big Apple BBQ festival promised to be something amazing - two days, some of the best BBQ vendors from around the country and live music - basically an all-around good time.

The Block Party was held at Madison Square Park, which is the park right by the courthouse where Eric was sworn in to the bar. We headed down there right after church, and got started sampling the barbecue right away! It was really crowded, and the lines for the best 'cue were really long.

Crowds of 'cue lovers fill the streets! (That guy chowing down in the front seems to ESPECIALLY enjoy his BBQ, no?)

People sitting and enjoying the yummy food

Our first stop was Big Bob Gibson BBQ from Decatur, Alabama for some pulled pork shoulder and coleslaw. We waited in that line for about 25 minutes. At least while we were waiting, we were able to pass the pit and see them chopping up and saucing the meat. And oh, the smells that filled the air!

Choppiong up the meat with a very small knife

Sauce and season time! (We ended up buying some of their seasoning for our own home cooking!)

Our wait in line was definitely worth it for this finished product:

Please, try not to drool.

Our plan of attack was just to get one plate of food from each place we went to, then share it. That way we could sample more places. As it turned out, we only made it to two booths because the lines were so long. Next (and last) on our list was Ubon's "Champion's Choice" BBQ from Yazoo City, Mississippi. That line wasn't quite as long, but I would say we still waited a good 20 minutes.

Separating the meat at Ubon's

Time to chow down

Our plan after Ubon's was to get right in line for Salt Lick BBQ from Driftwood, Texas for some sausage and beef brisket. This place was highly recommended by a friend of Eric's. We did get in line, but it was probably the longest line we saw. We waited for a half hour and hardly made a dent in the distance we would have to cover to get our food. Plus, they were coming around telling us that by the time we got up there, they would almost definitely be out of brisket. We could still have the sausage, but Eric and I decided to just call it quits. So, we only sampled two places, and Big Bob Gibson's was the favorite.

But, the fun didn't end there! One thing you all should know about me by now is my love of As Seen On TV stuff. I've spoken about it several times. In particular, I've described my love for OxyClean, and even more so for its spokesperson, Billy Mays. So... you can imagine how excited I was when THIS happened:

BILLY MAYS HERE!

Billy Mays was at the Block Party! Hooray! He happily posed for this picture, and I told him I'm a huge fan. He also gave me an autographed head shot. How exciting! I also got to hear him say his indistinguishable "Hi, Billy Mays here!" when he recorded some girl's voicemail message for her! So from now on, when people get this girl's voicemail, they will hear "Hi, Billy Mays here! [Girl's Name] can't answer her phone right now..." and so on. How cool is that?! I'm sure my family is silently thanking the heavens that I did not have him record MY voicemail. I can't say I didn't consider it, though.

On a side note, does anyone else notice that my thumb looks deformed in that picture? My thumb is curvy, and I think I have it at a weird angle. But, noticing that led me to also look at Billy Mays' thumb, which is also curvy. Ha! Have you ever made note of the curviness of your thumbs? Some people have straight thumbs, and some have curvy. My family was a mixture, so we often debated which thumb type is superior (you can probably guess where I stand). My dad is curvy, my mom is stick-straight, and my sister has one of each. What kind of thumbs do you have?

After our Billy Mays encounter we did a little more roaming around, enjoying the sights, smells and live music. Very nice afternoon!

Cooking ribs at the Blue Smoke (from far-off and exotic New York, NY) booth

Live music! This guy is Bill Sims Jr., who was singin' the blues for us.

Then, as we waited for the subway to take us back uptown, we had some fun with the tile mosaic hats on the station walls:



When we got home, Eric had to spend the rest of the evening working. He was able to work from home, which was nice. He's been so busy at work lately. He had some really late nights last week, and went in to the office on Saturday, also. (Doesn't it just figure that right when they cut his salary, he starts have to much work to do that he's working long hours? That doesn't seem like the way it should be!)

In other weekend happenings, on Saturday night (after Eric left work), we went to a wine tasting at the new wine and liquor store that opened up across the street, which was fun. I mean, free wine is always fun, no? And I'm very excited about our new wine shop! Until now, to have a good wine selection, we would have to travel several blocks, and that's just way too far for a wine emergency. But, it was either that or stick with the $6 bottles at the grocery store below our building. It's nice to have more options now! Plus, now we have a grocery store, Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins, and a liquor store on our block. My friends, I believe I have found the perfect block on which to live.

After our wine we picked up a pizza from our favorite local pizza place, then caught up on some DVR-ed TV and played Rock Band for the first time in MONTHS. Can you believe that? And I am proud to announce that I got my first 100% on a song while playing the guitar! I rock.

Hope you all had a very fun weekend as well!

Real Life

Last week, I realized that this blog, although entitled "My Life As A Lawyer's Wife," doesn't always fully reflect my real life. I realized that most of what I discuss consists of activities - fun things we do, sights we see, places we go. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is very much a part of our life. We love doing all that stuff, and I love sharing it with you (and hopefully you enjoy hearing about it!). But by mostly sharing about activities, I keep this blog very light-hearted most of the time. Sure, I've opened up a few times about what's really going on in between the fun outings, like when I was having mixed feelings about leaving D.C., or when I found out I was not accepted to graduate school. But I would say those posts are the exception to the rule.

I've been moderately stressed lately, but I've been hesitant to post about it. I have been thinking about why that is. I think it's largely because I would hate to give off the impression that I'm not happy. I know that I am very blessed. I have a husband who loves me so much (and I, him), a dog who makes me laugh on a daily basis, an awesome apartment in an amazing city, etc. I've got it pretty good. Really, I have nothing to complain about. I am very happy with my life, and very thankful for what I have.

But in real life, people get stressed out from time to time. People worry about the future (and the present). THAT is real life. And those are the realities of my life these days.

Basically, that was my long-winded way of saying I want to try to "keep it real" here. I want to share the bad with the good...and thanks in advance for listening.

A lot of my recent stress has been financial. As you may have noticed, the economy is not in the greatest shape right now. Eric has been coming home with story after story about law firms cutting back, rescinding offers for new associates, cutting salaries and making layoffs. Up until last week, his firm has really avoided any of that. They had made cuts where they could to avoid direct impact on their employees. But, last week they couldn't avoid it anymore. They laid off 55 support staffers firm-wide, including about five in Eric's office. They also cut all attorney salaries by 10%. So, it finally hit us.

Again, I was hesitant to post about this because I don't want to seem selfish or ungrateful. I'm so sorry for the staffers who were laid off. Sadly, I know they are among many these days. At the same time, I'm so thankful that the layoffs haven't reached the attorneys. I'm thankful Eric still has his job (which he is very good at, by the way), and that even with his reduced salary, we can pay our bills. Unfortunately, the pay cut comes at a bad time - those law school bills are finally catching up with us. All of Eric's law school loans officially go into repayment this month. And let's just say law school does not come cheap. So needless to say, our financial situation has suddenly changed pretty drastically.

Naturally, the pressure is really on for me to find a job now. This is another thing I haven't really updated you about lately - what's up with me? Well, I haven't updated because I don't really know. Honestly, I took the grad school rejection much harder than I expected. I didn't want to believe it really was not going to happen. Now I do believe it, but I still have had a hard time getting myself in gear to pursue the next step. I kept putting off getting the job search fully underway for various reasons - visitors coming, travel plans to tend to, etc. Just other things to do. But there's really no time for excuses anymore.

Now I'm just overwhelmed. I'm going to try to find something in jury consulting, hopefully similar to what I was doing in D.C. I've got my resume all ready to send out to local firms. I'm not super optimistic about this option, because I haven't seen many openings posted in this field, and jury consulting firms have been dealing with extensive layoffs as well. But, we'll see. You never know, and I'm going to give it my best shot.

If that doesn't work out, I really don't know what to do next. What else do I want to do with myself? Do I just go back to being a receptionist for the time being? Is there something else I would be good at? Something else I could love to do? Or does that not even matter in these economic times?

You see? These are the questions that keep me up at night. THIS is my life as a lawyer's wife lately.

Last week, I came across a Bible verse that has really brought me some peace. I have a Daily Bible Verse widget on my Mac dashboard, and this one popped up, as if on cue:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
- Jeremiah 29:11

I read this and was filled with such comfort. To me, it is just reassurance that no matter how confused, stressed, or worried I am feeling, God has plans for my future. He knows what they are, and He will lead me down the right path. Let go and let God, as they say.

Although, I certainly wouldn't mind being filled in on His plans soon.