a tale of two birthdays-part one

it is a gorgeous warm and sunny day here in decatur.
i mean really, its hard not to be in a good mood on a day like today.
i got up and watched a little women's soccer (brazil vs. germany- germay won) and then made some breakfast.
i just put some laundry in and i am about to get to reading. but before i do, let me tell you a little bit about my birthday (which was last monday the 24th) and then i will tell you about my friend emma's 30th bday (which took place on friday, september 28th). LIBRAS RULE!

ok, so last saturday, sarah and kim joined jes and me at sabroso for some tapas. jes and i got some patatas bravas (delish) and some chicken soft tacos (also good). lastly, we got guacamole (not so good). but along with our dinner we had some sangria, which was pretty good. after dinner we all headed to the standard to meet up with kristina, emma, nikki, and christina. wow that's a lot of c/kristinas.

anywho here is emma with kristina with a k:



not only did they bring their cute selves, they also brought the red velvet cake that jes bought from southern sweets. it was divine.

sarah and kim told their hilarious story about how my gfriend jodie (foster) is cuckoo for cocoa puffs and how she stalked their friend's friend from louisiana. emma and kristina could not believe it.



here is a picture of everyone that came. it was really fun to just kick back and relax and have a few drinks while sitting outside in the cool night time air. we laughed and told stories, made fun of the drunk girls doing shots by us (and also celebrating a birthday) and then we all went home and went to bed. well, at least jes and i did.



the next morning we got up and went and had brunch with dawn and gator and their boys at thumbs up. it wasn't too crowded by the time we got there, so we were able to sit down pretty immediately. jes and i got our usual: soysage and cheese on a biscuit and it was delish. we also got to chat a bunch with the grown ups b/c bailey and cade were just chilling. here is a picture of me and cade:



and here is one of dawn and bailey:



along with eating a delish breakfast, jes also got to practice her ninja skills. at one point bailey fell off his booster seat and jes totally caught him. were were all like "DUDE." it was pretty cool. i think we spent the rest of sunday studying and then going out to eat with jes's folks to wahoo, it was divine.

on monday, my actual bday, i worked, then taught, then jes and i had salads and then went to watch "weeds" at sarah and kims. that fucking show makes me BONKERS but i love it and i especially love watching it with sarah and kim. it's hilarious.

ok my laundry needs to be moved. more on birthdays later.

mi familia

can you stand it?
nicole, alyson, rowan and finn
the cutest cuties ever
love them

triple cutie sammie

introducing rolita and finn james:

baby update #1

yall
today is a great day
and here is why:

ALYSON AND NICOLE HAD THEIR BABY TODAY!!!!!!!

His name is Finnian James and he is perfect in everyway
Nicole is healthy and happy and a total champ- she checked in at 8am and he was born by noon
Alyson is over the moon over her new babyboy
and Rolita is bonkers over her new baby brother

raise a glass
light a candle
scream out loud
another sweet baby boy has been added to my family

ooh i can't wait to nibble on him

my fin de semana

so before i post about my thrilling weekend, let me first post a few pictures of my cute friends from chicago.

here is a picture of alyson with nicole's belly that she got painted at michigan women's music festival:



how cute is that? apparently, ro ro got her belly painted the same.

here is one of the whole fam at michigan. how cute are they?



and here are a few of the next mia hamm, i like to call her rolita:





ok so a few highlights from our weekend:

1. we went out to our car on friday morning EARLY b/c we were going to get our licenses renewed before work and found out that our car (along with four other cars in the lot) had been broken into. they didn't really steal anything too valuable and we are not sure what they damaged (we bring the car in tomorrow). it was mostly just frustrating. we had a little pity party for two until we found out that our neighbor at the other end of our building got her car STOLEN. then we counted our blessings.

2. friday night we went a drag show at the southern comfort conference. it was outside the perimeter (OTP). it started pretty late so we didn't stay all that late. on the way home we stopped at waffle house and got us some hashbrowns and decaf coffee. it was delish.

3. saturday was my friend mary's birthday. she lives in san francisco, and on saturday morning, she and her friend tara swam from alcatraz to the coast of san francisco. here is a picture of them:



i think the craziest thing about her swim [apart from the fact that she actually swam from alcatraz (shark infested waters)] is that when you get out of the water, you have this seaweed beard. i mean who knew swimming in the bay would give you that? seaweed beard or not, i am hella proud of her for doing it. it takes discipline, spunk, courage, and some serioius strength.

4. today we got up, i FINALLY cleaned the bathroom (i am ashamed at how dirty it was. gross). then we drove back OTP and picked up sile and drove her to the greyhound station. then we headed to the coffee shop and did some work and i wrote a few letters. i did some more work, we chatted on a conference call with suppa club and now we are watching the emmys. they are incredibly boring.

so that is about it. the daily show with jon stewart just won an emmy. that's fun.
tuesday is my friend maria's bday. happy bday maria.

lazy sunday in crooklyn

kim and bams kickin it live one time in park slope

adorable awake:



and adorable asleep:



p.s. this is my 101st post!
p.p.s. da bears are winning against the san diego chargers right now. go bears!

sangria report numero uno

we have had a pretty quiet weekend.

yesterday we did some work then we had to head to the airport to get our tickets to idke fixed. this took several hours and after we got back i had to take a nap.

when i got up from my nap we went and got some lunch (i got a willy's burrito, jes got some enchiladas from mexico city gourmet). then we went to this new coffee shop in decatur called dancing goats. it's huge and so lovely, but they didn't have the air conditioning on, so it was a little bit warm. i like to call it "drunken goat" b/c that is this really good goat cheese that is soaked in red wine. kim introduced me to it when we were at the beach. good stuff.

after studying at the coffee shop, we came back here and studied some more. GO TEAM!
then jes played a little mario on her wii, and i talked to alyson and nicole on the phone.

because we had been inside most of the day (except for that enthralling trip to the airport-ugh), we decided to go out for a drink. i have been craving some sangria, so jes did a quick little search and we decided to try the sangria at raging burrito, a cute little joint in downtown decatur. we got a pitcher, which was kind of pricey (i think $19), but we knew we wanted more than one glass. now mind you, we were thinking the glasses would be small like for a mixed drink. in fact, they were pint glasses, so i mos def had my tipsy on by the end of it.

overall, it was pretty good. it was heavier on the red wine, but i think it had some brandy in it too. not too fizzy or sweet, which i appreciated. it didn't have any fresh fruit in it, but it was served with a lime wedge. this countered the lovely maroonish-pink color. on a scale of one to ten, i think i would give it a seven. i was pretty knocked out when we got home, so i went straight to bed. jes, of course, played a little more mario.

emily woke me up at 5am, and once my brain got started, i couldn't shut it off. so i came downstairs and got a bunch of work done. i just tried to get back to sleep for a few hours, and was unsuccessful. now i am watching tyler florence make some hella delish crab cakes. i think i like crab cakes, but i am not sure. i think i will ask sarah and kim to make them with me. i feel like they know how to make shit like that.

ok i think i am going to eat something and then go do a quick grocery shopping trip before everyone gets out and/or while folks are at church. we are babysitting for dawn and gator this afternoon while they get brunch because its their ANNIVERSARY! happy anniversary to them! get yer love on.

there is something new about you...

did you get your hair cut?
are those different glasses?

try and figure out what is different about this blog.
oh, and it turned two a few days ago
stay tuned for the terrible twos yall

what's going on

good morning all. i know i owe you several posts, but life has been hectic, so i couldn't get to it until now.

three topics i would like to discuss:

1. my friends and family and their babies and things
2. school starting
3. the love for my friend mel who is in the hospital

so lets get started...

i have been gathering all these photos for the "next time i blog" so here they are.

first up is a picture from my sister's latest sonogram. in it you will see my future niece or nephew. she's due in february and i am very excited!



the little muffin is making my sister queasy and super tired sometimes, but other than that s/he is just doing hir thing growing and growing and growing.

another sweet muffin in my life is my friends tony and laura's son diego. tony and i went to graduate school together and he and his wife moved to memphis after he graduated where he started a teaching job and she started a counseling. here is a picture of their sweet little buddy:



and though i am no longer actually in the brooklyn bat cave, i can still report on my brooklyn suppa club friends. glennda and kim went up to "camp" (glennda's folks cabin in upstate new york) last weekend and here are some pics of them and their baby, bams:





how cute is that puppy? pretty cute yall.

and then lastly, and certainly not leastly, is ali and her new hybrid car. she moved back to columbus, ohio, bought a house AND bought this sweet ride. i am so jelly. thank god a black one was available:



2. school has started and this has meant more work all over for me. first of all, with school started back at my job, that has meant working orientation welcoming new students and their families and job fairs to hire more folks for the bookstore (part of my job) and then also hiring them all online, which is not hard, but there are many steps that you can screw up. this also means that our eight student workers are back in town and i am trying to coordinate their schedules for work. its pretty chaotic in the building i work in too b/c its where the dining hall and all the student activities are, but i am adjusting.

i have also started teaching my women's studies class at a local all women's college. we have only had one class where i just introduced the class and we got to know each other. i have 19 students and they all seem really excited about the class. i am thrilled to really get into it and start hearing their ideas and reading their work. i think its going to be a lot of work, but i am looking forward to it.

3. lastly, i have been inspired by folks here in the atl. see, this friend of ours, mel, got in a very bad motorcycle accident over a week ago and landed up in the icu. things looked really bad early on and they are still pretty much touch and go, but the overwhelming love and positive energy from folks in the community has really kept him going. that, and his unbelievable strength. like many folks in this country, mel doesn't have health insurance, so folks have been throwing fundraisers for him. on wednesday, log jam, this monthly party at this bar mary's in east atlanta, raised money for him. the theme was "beach/pool party." here are some photos from that.

here is a picture of the beautiful poster from the party. mel does drag and his drag name is pee wee hymen (how hilarious is that?):



and here is a pic of jes, katie and nikki (clearly katie dressed up for the party):



and here is one of jes and super blue eyed emma:



and then last night we went to eyedrum for the athens boys choir/katastrophe/team gina show. my crush on gina genius is still in effect. both gina's are hilarious and really talented. they are falling in love with the atl, so that is great, b/c i think it means they will come back and play here more often. this again was partly a fundraiser for mel. there was lots of love going around and everyone had their "i heart melvin" patches on. it was extra nice to see some of the folks who have been at the hospital day in and day out, OUTSIDE of the hospital just having a little fun.

yeah so that is that. i am thrilled to have today AND tomorrow off (thanks labor day). we have more house stuff to do today and some studying as well. i think we might go get breakfast now. happy sunday yall.