Sugar, How You Get so Fly

It's Suzy Sunday with Catherine!! She came up to visit for a few hours after going to visit her mom for her birthday! It so lovely to see her ^__^ I can wait until we can meet up again!  We were able to go to Fresh to Order and get a Cupcake from Sweet by Good Golly Miss Holly. And then she met Peter and got to see why I love him. 

Today was another day off for me and I am really starting to get spoiled with them. I decided to look awesome today and do my makeup using my new Urban Decay XX Vice Limited Palette with some assistance from the Vice 2 and Kat Von D's Trooper eyeliner. I'm in love. 

Because I'm Happy

Day was a good day! I ended up not having to go to work, I was able to hang out with Peter and his parents, I did my case notes, and Catherine got her yoga certification and… 

SHE GOT ENGAGED!! 

She called and told me and I freaked out! I'm so happy for her and Alex, I can't contain myself! I wish them the best of happiness and all the love and I cannot wait to see what happens next in their adventure.

Congratulations guys!! 

Post for Catherine

**NOTE: Somehow I wrote over or saved over this post with my Christmas Eve post so the date of this post is actually 12/26/14 but I have changed the date to accurately reflect when it was originally posted. Since I am having to rewrite it three days later I don't exactly know what all happened. ALSO: Wall of Text.

I didn't have to work so I ended up hanging out with Catherine at some point because it could end up being the last time we get to have best friend time before I move to Orlando. This thought is so scary. Grad school is right around the corner! AHH!!

We ended up going to shopping in order to try and find something for me to wear to Christmas eve dinner but we didn't find anything unfortunately. EVEN IN THE 80% OFF DILLARD'S WHERE WE SPENT FIVE BILLION YEARS!! We also made mini pumpkin pies for me to take to work.

Then she gave me my Christmas presents and they couldn't be more perfect! She bought me Pyrex casserole dishes (EEEPPPPPP!!!), measuring cups and spoons, and a scrub brush because she knows I hate sponges. They are perfect, she's perfect.

You know, when I joined my sorority it was to kill time. I was just out of IB where free time did not exist and I had so much time on my hand that I had to find something constructive to do. THUS, I joined DNZ. I didn't really know what to expect from such an unknown organization and I certainly did not expect to find the girls that I have! Of course I have quite a few favorites but I won't list them all because that would make this post a lot longer than it is going to be already. Alexis, Lauren, and Deviyani are absolute darlings and I am so incredibly grateful that my sorority brought them into my life. My big is the best big on the face of the planet and I love her so much and now I get to live near her and her sister who is also amazing! Kayla is probably one of the best friends I have ever had in my life when you look at things on paper. We balance each other out and we don't put up with nonsense from each other and I am so incredibly thankful to have her help in a few weeks!

Then you get to Catherine. In the beginning, I wasn't quite sure what to think of Catherine. She seemed queit and like she had a "type" for her friends but I was obviously wrong. I don't quite know when we started to hang out and I don't know how we became such fast friends but we did and I am so overwhelmed about thinking about much I am going to miss her in a few weeks. When she graduated and we did senior fly ups for her class, I was choking back tears talking about her in my send of speech. What was I going to do without her?? And then I managed to get through my semesters, graduate, and come home. We've seen each other and had girl time and giggles and nonsense at least once a week since. She's like family! It is so easy to be friends with someone who has nothing but honesty and light and every other personality trait with a positive connotation!!

There are people that you meet in your life who change it and Catherine is definitely one of those people for me. I've learned so many things just from being friends with her. I can't wait to continue to learn things from her and see what life has to bring this amazing human being :)


 

Vegetable Pot Pie

Yesterday was full of good things which I had hopes would continue through today. Knows kind of correct. My day did not start early with laundry and packing duties like I had planned. Instead, my phone ended up under my bed so instead of waking me up it just made me mad that I couldn't find it. So when I found it,  I hit snooze. Rather I thought I did because I slept for two hours before being locked in my room by my broken door knob for another two hours. It is safe to say I was not able to get any more laundry done.

The rest of the day was spent doing odd ball things like sitting with my nephew at his dentist appointment and trying to explain to him how to play with an Xbox controller as well as planning an impromptu sleepover with Catherine and helping her making vegan vegetable pot pie with homemade biscuits! Bread dough has an awful texture just so everyone knows. 

Twelve Catherine Hours

Days off are just meant to be spent with Catherine it seems. I already had scheduled a hair cut in the early morning which Catherine took me too. Then we grabbed TacoSon and went back to her apartment where new friend Jake (from State Farm) was waiting to make brownies and generally be awesome with us. For the next ten hours we criticized the Barefoot Contessa lady, went out to get ingredients for brownies from scratch, made the brownies, watched movies, ate the brownies (I KNOW I SAID NO SUGAR BUT THEY WEREN'T OUT OF THE BOX AND THEY WERE SO GOOD)  watched more movies, talked about presents, had pizza, and played cards.


12 hours with Catherine goes so much faster than 12 hours with anyone else. I'm going to miss her so much when I move... Which means more Disney trips >:]

Suzy Tuesday Reprise

It looks like I am again off on Tuesdays so Catherine and I were able to bring back our day from summer and make it so that we got too lend sometime together today! We were able to use my groupon for a Tampa staple called EATS American Grille! I think its really yummy and Catherine seems to be a big fan of their fish tacos which means you should also go if you live in the area. Then we headed home after searching for a Christmas music station and attempting to make it to the bank before it closed. Once home (and being the avid OUAT fans that we are), we decided to watch last Sunday's episode and it made me mad. Luckily, I had homemade popcorn ala Catherine to help!

Now, I know I swore off sweets for December but today my sister brought home pumpkin pie and because I only have it maybe twice a year I decided that 1 piece would not hurt me. I have not had any candy or chocolate or cookies or doughnuts or the like which is really what I am trying to wean myself off of for the spring. I'm not worried about my resolve falling and me going and buying a whole pie. 

I ALSO FOUND A POLE STUDIO IN ORLANDO!! And it is near campus! I am so excited! 

CELEBRATE THE MAGIC

We started our Disney adventure by waking up at 6:20 this morning ... And I will post all about tomorrow because I'm so incredibly tired!

So like I said, we started our adventure really really REALLY early in the morning in or to get to the parks to use extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom between 8-9. This however did not work due to leaving late, having the guard tell me that my castmember ID didn't get me free pairing (I had a back up plan though!) and there being traffic for my Big on her way to the park. I did get a massive donut out of it though! IT WAS THE SIZE OF MY HEAD!

Now, this is where the first hijink of the day occurred. I had already linked my paper tickets to my account and the lady at the AK GS counter said that if she converted them to plastic that it would be fine. So we did. We were wrong. My ticket then didn't scan at all that day. They eventually just gave up and flagged me through. So I essentially got free admission all day. But we finally got in to animal kingdom right at 9am and we booked it to Everest. Only to learn that it was closed. A castmember named Steve told us to stay updated on the MDE app so we decided to head to Dinosaur in order to give Everest some time to recoup. 

We got to Dinosaur and my Big handed me a really pretty Tinker Bell bracelet as a birthday present. I am still so shocked by this! Thank you so much again! Ten we got on the Dinosaur ride and barely escaped with our lives. It was awesome. Everest did not open so we said goodbye to Animal Kingdom and headed to Epcot!

I don't tend to spend a ton of time at Epcot but I knew it would be Catherine's favorite! We had reservations for lunch in France so we spent the time before that watching the "SAVE THE PLANET FEATURE THE LION KING" show, going on Living with the Land, and pin buying/trading. I ended up getting the pins and lanyard pictured below because the FSU was the last one and everything was on sale. We did have an interesting adventure on Test Track because of this really nice man who gave us his fast pass! We made a pretty kick ass car and it was tons of fun! Definitely doing it again!

Then we headed around the world and almost stopped to meet Mulan in China. Eventually we found ourselves in Japan and Catherine and my Big were in heaven! I'm not big in to cultural experiences but it was still fun to watch them go all wide eyed over everything! I feel like there will be many more adventures in Epcot!

We finished our journey with lunch in France! The actual lunch part was pretty good but the dessert was the best. I would seriously go back to Epcot just for the chocolate mousse. Ohmygoodlord.

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Disney Vacation Planning

THAT IS LITERALLY ALL CATHERINE AND I DID FOR TWO HOURS TODAY! I will see my Biggles and the castle in approximately 9 hours! So excited!! 

Extended Birthday Activities

So Catherine and I are not quite done celebrating my birthday and we are going to start celebrating her birthday when we finish celebrating mine! We are headed to Disney World on Wednesday to do all kinds of fun things which we will plan shortly before arriving! 

After work I took the time and researched how much it would be for a stay on property. Shortly after I booked the hotel (IT WAS 27 DOLLARS A PERSON ARE yOU KIDDING ME) for Wednesday and then I continued to research all the discounts!! Other than that but of planning, I also planned t other trips to Orlando. One of them will be with Ilana because I've never gone with her. The other is more focused around the grad school living arrangements and working arrangements. Another castmember and I started talking about the perks and pro/conning everything. He thinks I should transfer to the parks which I understand but that would mean another 8 miles of driving. Tomorrow I am going to (hopefully) talk to Brett about some living options and then I continue to make choices from there. I want to have everything settled by December first.

ALSO! I had to miss out on a great deal from Ulta today because the stupid website refused to save my cart and to recognize my account information even though the link I was using for the deal was from an email they sent to the email address they were telling me was not on file. 

For My Birthday...

YAY IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! This time last year Brett, Catherine, my little Alexis, and I were roaming our way through Disney world with Biggles! Catherine and I partied all night so today was spent pretty lackadaisically on my part. I was collected from Catherine's house by my brother in law and then we went to lunch at Outback. Normally I would have chosen Miguel's but the night before I went (READ: I drove!!) to Taco Bus so the constant hunger for TexMex was at bay. We came home and we had birthday cake and then I took a three hour nap.

That nap was not planned but it was glorious! Afterwards I am plans with Catherine and Co. and Amanda to go see The Maze Runner because Dylan O'Brien. Amanda has read the books and says that they are good. The movie was okay. Definitely not a Hunger Games level dystopia but it was alright. I mean there are a group of characters that are banking on a bunch of teenage looking humans not to investigate and ask questions in order for their plan to work. All it would have taken was one of them to go investigate and they would have known it was all a lie! Logic people! 

Anyway, after the movies I went back to Catherine's to play board games and then my birthday was over. I hope that 22 will see me do new things and meet new people. I hope that 23 for Catherine sees amazing things because she is amazing and gives so much to everyone! 

Four of Four

And it was so busy I don't even know where to start! My last day off consists of getting up at 830 for driving lessons. Then we drove on real roads for like an hour which I did fairly well on. I scared my sister by doing a turn at like 35 miles an hour but its the little things right? Then I came home and re arranged my room in order to find my other pair of glasses. They we successfully found and now my room is back to its previous positioning. 

Catherine came and got me around 230 ish and then we headed off to do adventurous things! But first we had to run some errands so that my old apparent complex will leave me alone. And so that my outfit for my interview is all mended! As luck would have it, these two errands ended up being right next to each other which gave us more time for fun things! Like TacoSon, research on the new Just Dance, deciding we wanted to make mini pumpkin pies, making said pumpkin pies, and then actual dancing!

Pretty good last day! Now to have three awesome days at work, an awesome interviewing experience and then to see what life has in store!

Good to Bad

This pattern of good day bad day good day bad day kinda needs to stop. Today consisted of sleep and cold medicine because I am sick. I dislike being sick. We've discussed this.

However, the day was not completely awful as Catherine brought me soup and snacks.

The Real Beginning

I know that I have talked quite bit about things starting to pick up at work but I was wrong until today. Today was busy and a little stressful but overall it felt okay. I stumbled a few times and I didn't know the answers to a few questions but that is okay. Now if I could only feel as okay about not being 1000% knowledgeable about or able to do certain things. It will all get there, one bajillion hour shift at a time xD 

While I was at worked I was notified that all of my UCF application materials have been received which is a huge relief! The email prompted me to make an account so I can watch the status of my application and I am hoping that this is a sign from the universe that an interview is in my future.

The day finished with a much needed visit with Catherine! 

We both took a break from our busy lives to chat and then we went and saw The Giver. I thought it was good but it was different from the book so if you read the book you may be a little confused/disappointed. It definitely got the same messages across though! 

Hobbits Three Times

I am so bummed that I didn't take any pictures today! Oh well.

Anyway, today started early and dramatically. I was up at 6:50 to start getting ready for Friend Thursday with Catherine and Brandi which was tons of fun. Unfortunately, the morning plans were a little bumpy. You see, my brother in law was taking me out to Catherine's house on his way to work when his alternator decided to die so we had to change our plans and head to the autoshop instead. After acquiring a rental car and cleaning out his car, we were back on track and I managed to get to Catherine's around 9:40.

Once friend Thursday had begun it went pretty quickly. I did my makeup and then we went to the salon for Catherine to get her eyebrows done. We went home for a bit before grabbing Taco Son. We went inside the little place this time and it was super quaint and of course really yummy. I offered to bring Brandi some but unfortunately she didn't want Mexican food. We met up with her around 1 at the Brandon mall and we started to search for boots. This did not go very well but I did find a Frozen coloring book to use at work and I bought some Godiva biscuits. Today's title comes from adventures at Books A Million which is where I acquired the coloring book! We were looking at some behind the scenes books and found a Lord of the Rings one and we started saying "Hobbits!" over and over again and the team member on duty over heard us and joined in!

Eventually we went back to Catherine's where we had cookies, watched Amazing Spiderman 2, took Penny for a walk and found turtles, played a quick round of Just Dance 2014, and then Catherine made us dinner!


It was a good day and I'm glad that we got to hang out with Brandi before she goes back to Tally!

Finally JUST Dancing

This Suzy Tuesday Catherine and I got back to the roots of the day and spent most of it just hanging out. No gimmicks or shopping or cupcakes because let's face it they're expensive and fattening. She and Alex took me to the Drive Thru Panera Bread so I could grab food and then we went back to the apartment for noms, Just Dance, video games, bad kids movies, and UNO. AND Cloud Atlas because it will change your life.

We also made plans for Thursday to acquire Brandi and have a day out and about!

Out of Titles

For Suzy Tuesday. But it was fun none the less :) Today we started a little late because I had to babysit but that is okay! We finally did get going and we made our first stop of they day at Cupcake Cache where I proceeded to buy three cupcakes that I should not have bought. Then we made it to Buca Di Beppo where we all split this spicy rigatoni dish that had peas in it and was super yummy! After wards we each had a cupcake from our boxes. I tried the Johnny Appleseed which was really yummy but a tad cold in the middle. It really does taste like Apple Pie!

We then went to Home Depot with Alex before heading back to their apartment to start looking even further into birthday plans. Unfortunately, the one we were thinking of may not work because we can't find reservations for three. But! We may have found an alternative plan :) Afterwards we watched "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" which was a very insightful movie and I understand why it is one of Catherine's favorites.

Tuesday on Wednesday

Suzy Tuesday on Wednesday isn't quite as fun as Suzy Tuesday on Tuesdays but it is pretty close! Catherine and I planned for today so that we could have more than three hours to hang out which would have been the case yesterday.  We started today's adventure with habachi and sushi from this interesting little place off Hillsborough. I've never quite experienced those flavors in steak habachi before but it wasn't bad.  Catherine got two rolls of sushi which was part of their lunch special. From what I can tell, they were good for the special price but they weren't worth a returning trip. Taco Son remains the winner for the "Places suggested to Catherine that are actually good"mars.

We concluded our food outing with cupcakes from Cupcake Cache and today's treats were chocolaty,  vanilla-y, marscopne-y, and  chai tea-y! Again, Catherine and I were definitely happy with our choices and can't to go back. I am personally excited to try Linus' Tempation which is this pumpkin cupcake thing that they could make for me if I called a day in advance but I would rather just find it on my own. I also want to try another one called Babar's Treat which consists of a peanut butter cookie and vanilla cake and something else and sugar and rainbows. 

After we indulged our cupcake fantasies, we continued to plan birthday trips/November explorations to  far of kingdoms and universes (of the Magic and Studios kind I should say). Things still aren't set in stone but we have some more time. 

"The Child Hamster"

So, after trying on my new work costume, I was lucky enough to spend today with the beautiful Catherine and her boyfriend Alex as well as their furbabies. They collected me from the mall and then we went to a dog park here in Tampa so that their dog Penny could run around. Afterwards we dropped Penny off at home where Catherine also gave me some graduation presents!

One of them was this nifty little organizational calendar that I am sure is going to come in handy if I get accepted in to grad school so that is helpful. The other is pictures below and is one of a quite a few things that she has hand painted for me :) 

We then went to Macaroni Grill which was delicious (consumed so much food; sooooo manyyyy carrrbbbsss) and where we may or may not have been charged due to a technical difficulty they were experiencing. While we were there, I put my purse on the floor and asked Catherine to make sure I didn't leave it. Alex then suggested that I "put it in the child hamster behind you" referring to the highchair. It was perfect. 

Linner was followed by movies and video games at Catherine and Alex's apartment. Girl bonding is essential to life so I'm glad to have gotten to spend the day with her (and her furbabies) catching up!!

Today was also the day that Hunter Hayes' new album was available for download. Life is good.