11 August 2009

Finnegan's Wake of Excuses

Yeah, yeah, yeah...took a "quick" 25 day break here. I missed you guys, if you're still around (wink). Me, quiet?! I know. But it happens each August, what can I do?

Without further ado, here are my excuses for not writing. Oh, and it's going to be long.

1. I've been attending green design events and tours in Philly after work and on weekends. I've been seeing such amazing things, and may (fingers crossed) be able to do some rooftop gardening. We shall see. The place that I originally wanted to help out with does not really need my type of expertise right now, but I'm still meeting some great people and enjoying myself. I'll just keep trying, persevering and keep learning.

Montrose Green: House Tour

2. I blocked my huge Pi Shawl and got to wear it to a wedding in Indianpolis! The groom is the little brother of one of my best friends. I adore her family, and it was so good to see them.
We laughed and talked and had a wonderful time. To my delight, my favorite type of cake was served at the reception. It's Carvel ice cream cake with the wonderful chocolate crunchies, I know you were wondering.

Pi Shawl

There was an instance my friend's aunt and I raced to the dance floor and started an enthusiastic rendition of the Chicken Dance, only to realize that it was a traditional Polka song. We stared at each other sadly, half attempted to try the Polka dance, and walked away to our table full of folks laughing. It was one of the best moments!

Summer in Central Park

3. I found myself visiting KJ in Brooklyn when she told me one Friday morning that due to some fluke, she had a free weekend from her busy restaurant schedule! This rarely happens, so I hopped in my truck to hang out. What a relaxing weekend of having nothing to do but walk around, talk and eat with one of my favorite people.

We watched the roller skaters in Central Park balancing water bottles on their heads and pirouette in hot pink spandex (jealously from the sides), saw turtles, witnessed the good deed of a fighting couple help a stranded canoer whose paddle had fallen into the lake, and ate like kings at the Shake Shack where KJ's friend is the manager. I mean do you see these ice cream sundaes that were brought out for us? It pays off being a hanger on to the foodies.

Coincidentally, we were sharing our table with a man visiting his daughter in NYC so that he could cross things off of his Bucket List. The new Yankee Stadium was on the agenda that day. Isn't that cool? In addition to being awesome, he works for our health insurance provider. His daughter works for Fitness magazine. So they were there on hand in case we had a heart attack due to ice cream overload. What are the odds? Although they were the lucky ones, since we shared our table and desserts with them!

Shake Shack Sundaes!  Yum.

4. I went to a super sweet baby shower for my friend Alice. I had an excuse to buy teeny clothes with little footie pajamas in the shape of dinosaur paws or featuring an adorable monkey that was incognito as a bandit. A bandit of bananas I guess. What else do monkeys steal? I won a blue ribbon for pinning the "baby" on the "bump" which I proudly attached to my new dress. We also enjoyed delicious cupcakes from Flying Monkey bakery. Mmm!

Baby Shower

5. I took my cousin Cara to Key West for a few days. This means I can cross something off of my own Bucket List if you will. It makes up for the cruise that I promised I'd take her on when she was 16 and I was 24. In my 24 year old mind, that by the time she was 21 and I 30, I'd have enough money saved to take her on a little special trip. Ha! It's been the family joke for six years, but it was really fun to hang out and have this time together. Cue some cheesy music and a video montage of our trip...

I didn't have my camera, but the entire drive from the tip of Florida to Key West is breathtaking. It's a one way highway which has you travelling over miles of various bridges, including the famous Seven Mile Bridge, or small pieces of land that have water on either side. They had a heat index of about 105 degrees. It was brutal. So we alternated between the pools and the ocean, rode on scooters, attended a drag show, drank icy beverages, went on a sunset reggae snorkeling outing with people so hilarious that I wrote down things that they said so I wouldn't forget, and conducted our own Key Lime Pie tour complete with a 50 point scale. Our final winner was the Blond Giraffe's delectable pie featuring a cookie crust, tart filling and a lovely meringue. We even saw an endangered Key Deer on our drive home, and made sure to alert other drivers so they would not hit the cute little guy.

6. After the hullabaloo of the Key West trip, I headed home to Plantation, Florida for a week with my parents and to get down on some serious wedding planning. Thanks again Mom for letting me borrow your car. I know you don't think it's a big deal, but I really appreciated it!

Pink Dress

7. On August 1st I got to wear a pretty party dress (not this one, but something similarly cute) because I was asked to be my nephew's Godmother! What an honor! I love that little guy so incredibly much. And although I'm slightly biased, he is the brightest, cutest, funniest, most mischevious, charming and flirty little bilingual boy that I know. No. Seriously.

Are you really still reading?! I adore you guys.

8. I haven't really talked about my wedding yet, but that's because I didn't want to do anything until I went down to Florida, picked a place and set a date. We knew we wanted it to be June or July of next year, to make it easier for many of our family members (and the groom) who are either in school or teach and work for schools. Also, this would allow enough time for my mom's sisters to possibly come all the way from the Philippines! So, we found a place that we are all really excited and happy about. And set a date (07.17.10). This was the second place that we visited, and all because of a chance conversation with one of my mom's incredible friends. Who is owed a thank you note immediately!

A1A

9. On Thursday of last week, my Mom, Aunt Marty and best friend, Brooke went dress shopping. At the second store, I wasn't going to try anything on, but Brooke insisted I try on a fun mini-dress made of crinoline that I was eyeing. While I was changing, she brought out a fun 1980s style dress that didn't make the cut, and then just one more. "Just try it on!" exclaimed Little Miss Bossy. She laced up this dress (I thought I hated a bit of lacing) which took about 10 minutes. After she was done, we knew! And the four of us were just discussing (over a huge lunch and more dessert!) how maybe we weren't the type of people to get that gut feeling over the dress, since we also weren't in the mood to cry... But then I came out and we all got excited. There was a bit of crinoline to kick around, but not huge, and I felt like myself! It was on sale, in my budget, and may be crossed off the list. Oh, and it's so pretty! Hee hee!

10. I am 99.87% sure that I've found the soldier in the Gulf War who was my pen pal for two years thanks to Facebook. We were asked to write to a soldiers in Mrs. Gelman's sixth grade class. Well, mine was a writer, the nicest guy, and wordier than yours truly (if that's possible). He wrote and typed these amazing letters that my mom and I would read. He'd send postcards from all over Europe, and actually made a big impact on what I would end up reading for fun in high school. Mainly long novels based in Russia and a love of anything Camelot related. Anyway, he was a really nice person who had an impact, and it will be nice to see where his life ended up, and which of those girls he ended up with. Ha!

Journal

So there you have it, my Finnegan's Wake length post of excuses. I'll leave you with a small photo of my journal which shows the edge of the Earth, and me falling off of it. It is also documenting a strange man that we saw advertising a new Laundromat, in the most outrageous three-dimensional get up, that we thought he was a Pro-Life person wearing a shirt showing the insides of a pregnant belly. But no, it's a washing machine. Bless his heart. It makes you love your job, doesn't it?

Glad to be back, Mariss

P.S. I have not resorted to writing emoticons on my blog, I just don't want to. However, please insert winks, smiley faces and big squealing noises in the appropriate places.

P.P.S. This post is dedicated to my friend Nicole. You happy now?! Ha ha ha.

16 comments:

Jamie Welsh Watson said...

Wow. Best post ever! For reals. Your photos are gorgeous and loved hearing what a happy summer you've been having.

Nic said...

I am SUPER happy!!! a) I love love your pi shawl, it's a-mazing! Was there a post with close up pics of the beaded edge? Love.
b) I spy hand made wrapping paper for that baby shower gift!!
c) I'm so excited for your wedding plans! Can't believe you have a dress already! Where does it live, with your mom or did you bring it back with you? I so wish I could see pictures of it (it's not online anywhere is it?! send email if it is!) And where is the wedding site (what town, venue type, etc)? SO EXCITING!! 7-17 is an awesome date!

Anonymous said...

i'm glad you've been having a good summer

Jessica Nichols said...

I've missed you! I'm so glad you're back and yes, dude -- totally still reading!!! This post rocks the casbah. Congrats on picking a date, a place and a dress! Way to knock it out! Your trip to the Keys with your cousin is awesome. I wish I had thought of something like that for one of my cool cousins when I was 24, or even 34. Maybe when I'm 44?

Oh and I love the Central Park pic.

Mariss is back! :)

kat @ Taylor Made designs said...

enjoy enjoy enjoy!
Your blog will always be here and so will your fans :) Plus, this is what summer is all about. relax and enjoy.

Happy to hear you have been having a great summer and having fun planning your big day. It will be here before you know it :)

Shona~ LALA dex press said...

All right! That makes up for the long silece. Hope the rooftop garden works out. That shawl kicks pi-ass! Wedding dress found-yay! I've always wated to drive across that 7 mile bridge in Key West, although driving over the Atchafalaya River outside N.O. scared the crap out of me (fear of heights + crocks/ gators), so on second thought...yes, The Chicken Dance is a Polka too.

Andrea said...

Wow!!! You've been busy. Glad to hear you had a great time this past month. I can't wait to hear more about your wedding dress. The pi-shawl is beautiful, but then again you know how I feel about it since I've already seen it in person.=)

sulu-design said...

Wow - this post is almost as long as my mom's comment on my blog the other day. You two are peas in a pod!
I was getting a little manic reading this post, I'll admit. It's full of such goodness. Anyone who has a Carvel cake for their wedding would be a friend of mine. And I'm psyched to hear that you've got a dress and date and location for your own wedding. Way to be productive in Florida. Oh, one last thing: that wrapping paper (illustrated by you, yes?) is flipping awesome.

Robin said...

Yay!!!!! So glad you found a dress and a location! As for the green building stuff, the folks in my environmental leadership program a really big into that. I should get you in touch w/ them at some point.

Heather said...

I say those are all great excuses to ignore your blog for a while. Thanks for the awesome post. I love seeing what you are up to, and thanks for the wishes this weekend! We had a blast on Saturday night and I was thinking of you! I'll call you later tonight. Love you!

Anonymous said...

Wow Marissa! You are so wonderful you inspire me. You are a great friend, look great in your par-tay dress and have now I want to start doing some planning. Lemme know if I can help ;-)

Magda

jacqueline said...

Welcome back!! Missed you while your on a long break but im so happy that you had such fun! Thanks for such a wonderful post and you look gorgeous in your party dress. :) Im also excited about your wedding plans! Looking forward to see your dress! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!

ambika said...

Glad to see you back! 1) that shawl is gorgeous 2) you're gorgeous! Your hair in that pic is making me die of envy. 3) Congrats on being a godmom & crossing an item off your bucket list and 4) can't wait to see if you get to do that green roof top garden!

Vanessa said...

Finally catching up myself. Congrats on your wedding- that is so exciting!!

Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.

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