1001 American Nights

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Mexico...Gettysburg...David'sWedding...Amber'sWedding...
CountryDinnerParty...WorkisCrazy...VisitedGeorgetown
OMansionTea...TWOWEEKSLEFT!

Saturday was the first day I got to sleep in in over a month. Even though Mexico technically counted as a vacation, there was no real sleeping in or zoning out because we were all together and we wanted to do so much fun stuff.

Every weekend for the past god-knows-how-long I've either flown or driven a minimum of four hours to be with everyone awesome, doing every awesome thing you can imagine. The only problem is that now I'm a more than a little flat broke and tired because I still had to go to work during all of that.

The next two weeks, in spite of being my last two weeks of work, when most people shut off their brains and stop caring, are going to be the busiest, most ridiculous weeks of work I've had in a long while. I'm in the middle of so many projects. Other than that it makes sense for my "real" life, I have no idea why I thought it was a good idea to quit right now. (Oh yeah, and I still need money, which is about to get messy.)

Instead of easing into grad school, I'm being shot from a cannon.

At 6:00 a.m. the day after I leave my job (Farewell!) I'm flying to Colorado for basically the rest of the month. Meanwhile Scarlett, aka Elsa, my Pie Elf, is being deported--ahem, is voluntarily departing the country--back to Cyprus. Which is more than a little depressing. When I get back Jana and I are just going to have to get massively drunk and hold some sort of ceremony.

The thought of being kicked out of America is literally so horrible to me that it makes me physically nauseous. I like to travel, ok, fine. But I can't imagine not being allowed in America. Sometimes I freak out a little because I love this country so much, and I'm more than a little upset that we're kicking Elsa out because of one little checkbox on one stinkin' tiny little form. Amazing.


Anyway, before I babble on and on, here are the greatest hits from this month. Enjoy.














Gettysburg! Charge!
This was the flag-bearer on our battleground walking tour. We were the North and at the end, we marched through a field against the South. When we met up in the middle all we did was yell at them and turn around and go back. Elsa and Alsn say, simultaneously, "Aw, I was ready to headbutt someone," and "I was ready to knucklepunch someone." Which is how I know my friends would be good in a fight, because I was satisfied with yelling and running away.


Oh yeah, there were also battles. And dudes laying on the battlegrounds watching the battles. Which is what I aspire to be.







The night before David's wedding, at about 1:00 a.m. Jason tricked me into walking a mile to Jack in the Box, which was closed inside, so we had to go through the drive through. The people in the car behind us clearly hated us (and I hated Jason for lying about Onion Rings) but the window lady liked that Jason tipped her.


Silly David, she needs her arms, don't pull them off!









The night AFTER David's wedding we all went bowling. I have lots of pictures of this, including one of Kristin scoring an 18, falling on the floor, and being Sad Panda, but I think this one is "Art."



I took 185 pictures at Amber and Jonny's wedding so not overloading you is a chore. Let me know if you're not and Facebook and you want to see the rest. Really, I think this one says it all.


And the piéce de résistance, after spending 3 out of four weekends with Jared, I feel like I earned this. This was my prize and the frosting on my cake:

Chicken dinner. This is before we put out the salad and after we ate all the jalapeno poppers. Recipes to follow... eventually. BTW, me, Elsa, and Jana made all this from scratch in my apartment WITHOUT AIRCONDITIONING. Tim kept us hydrated with beer and lots of water. Dan helped us eat and... wrote an essay for the Foreign Service?

Sunday, after finally getting to sleep in, Elsa too us to the O Mansion (O, Mansion!), where we had High Tea and explored the 100 rooms and tried on lots of ridiculous hats. The place has more bathrooms and books and autographed guitars and weird 80's paintings... IDK, and everything, absolutely everything is for sale.

Here is Jana looking smashing in a $100 hat.

And here are Elsa and Annie, Through the Looking Glass. Please don't take this lady away from me, Uncle Sam.