Thursday, May 21, 2009

My favorite email

I have to say, I am a very blessed girl. Really, my life is filled with a myriad of people that sometimes I just can't believe I have the pleasure of knowing. But of all these characters, it must be admitted that there is one above all others whose emails fill me with endless delight, and they are the ones belonging to my dear friend and former 'boss' Ben. Here is why:

Today, I received a note from Ben updating me on all the happy-haps in his life. There are too many quotable quotes to mention, but the part that really set this piece of correspondence apart was the postscript, which read:

PS: You have a thing going with David Beckham on the side and you didn't tell me about it!? Karen, I thought we had a deal about boy stories. I saw the attached photo while I was flipping through GQ...looks like you two are pretty serious! And I thought nerdy boys were your type. Is he even Catholic?

And attached was the picture below:


What's so special about a picture of David Beckham shirtless, you ask? Fair question. Allow me to get a little closer here.


Yes. That is a picture of my face tattooed on David Beckham's torso. I rest my case.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Baby brain

The past week or so, my world has been revolving around tiny blue things. Alycia's baby is due at the end of June and her little boy, John Paul Aeneas (is that a Hillsdale name or what?) will be my godson. I just cannot wait to meet him! To tide myself over until he gets here, I've been busy spending my life savings on clothes, toys, etc- I told Alycia that I hoped she didn't plan on buying anything for him because I've inadvertently outfitted him for his first year of life. Seriously, every time I go shopping for something ELSE, I end up walking away with more baby stuff- and I don't even know that it happens. I'm driving home and I realize "Wait, that is not a black cardigan in that bag; it is seven tiny onesies in a variety of masculine colors! I've been tricked!" It's like when you pull into your driveway and the last thing you remember is getting off the expressway, with no recollection of how you got there.

Anyway, Alycia's shower was this weekend and I had so much fun planning for it. Our friend Heather was so gracious as to host the little soiree at her place, since my apartment is roughly the size of a chest freezer and can seat exactly four people comfortably. We did everything up in blues and browns and tried to make things as classy as Alycia is. We passed the afternoon chatting with a bunch of wonderful women, playing a few little games and opening presents- I was at a party later, and one of the guys asked Sarah and me "what do you do at a baby shower, anyway?" and Sarah answered "pretty much you eat a lot of food and sit around oohing and ahing at all the cute baby things the mom gets." Pretty accurate. All in all, everyone had a great time and Alycia walked away with a carful of baby gear, so I put this one in the 'win' column.

We had a delicious menu: peanut butter and chocolate chunk brownies, sugar cookies, apple cake, beer bread, spinach and artichoke dip, sausage balls, a fruit basket and a vegetable platter, along with pink lemonade and coffee.

Here's the fruit bassinet that Heather made- she did a great job, and even trimmed it with blue and brown.


I made this bouquet of 'roses' out of baby socks. It came out way better than I expected, though it was still sad compared to the pictures I copied. It was one of the more annoying crafts I've attempted lately but it worth it.


The beautiful hydrangeas that Heather found and the favors I made that I FORGOT to give to the guests! We were cleaning up after everyone left and I realized they were all still sitting there on the table. I suppose if that's the worst thing that happened, I can deal.


The little blue and brown foot cookies- so yummy, though, as Sarah pointed out, it feels a little weird to be eating feet. But not weird enough to stop any of us, apparently.


Clothesline of onesies and bibs.


The burp cloth I made for John Paul. I embroidered his name and then ironed the ribbon on using adhesive. I loved making this and it looked really cute in the end.


The mommy-to-be and me underneath the banner I made (doesn't she look sickeningly good for being almost eight months pregnant? We were out at a bar last week and a total stranger came up to Alycia and said "I just have to tell you, you are the cutest pregnant woman I have ever seen!" It's disgusting).


I feel so blessed to be a part of John Paul's life, and that I get to be here for all the excitement. But for now, I am taking a serious break from crafting and looking forward to some good things- namely, Winnie's arrival tonight, and Cody's wedding this weekend. Pillow talk in a sketchy motel, here I come!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Jillian Michaels, This is War

The weather here has been totally bizarre lately. It’s been raining like crazy the past couple weeks, but it’s always intermittent- we never just have a rainy day. And it’s not like it’ll be gray and drizzly with periodic showers- no, Mother Nature has a serious case of bipolarity these days. Literally eight times a day, the sky will flip-flop between gorgeous blue skies and sunshine, to torrential downpours. It adds a certain challenge to getting dressed in the morning.

Anyway, when it’s not sheeting rain, it’s unbearably muggy (lots of rain + hot pavement = sauna), thus making running outside even less appealing than usual- which, hey, who knew that was possible. So, in an effort to stay indoors as much as possible, last week I ordered Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred on a whim. This whim had more to do with the free 2-day shipping that comes with my Amazon Prime trial and less to do with a motivation to ‘get shredded’, but regardless, the DVD found its way into my mailbox, and frankly, I was a little excited when it arrived yesterday. It’s a twenty-minute workout- how hard could it be?

Um, it was the longest twenty minutes of my life. I’m pretty sure Jillian’s abilities extend beyond the realm of fitness and into the manipulation of the time-space continuum, because I felt like I was doing push-ups for hours. I KNOW HOW LONG 30-SECONDS IS, JILLIAN. It’s the time it takes to microwave one banana nut muffin. It’s how long I brush my teeth in the morning. It is NOT HOW LONG 200 PUSH-UPS LAST.

I mean, I wouldn’t describe my body as sculpted or anything, but I don’t think I’m a terribly unfit person, either. I run (mostly against my will) faithfully several times a week and I do some sort of crunches/push-ups/Pilate's pretty regularly. But honestly… I think I might have been dead for a little while last night.

Let’s just ignore (the irony, perhaps?) that I was using beer bottles instead of dumbbells. I’m too cheap to buy weights when I have a perfectly good case of Blue Moon’s summer brew sitting on my counter, okay? Let’s also, for my sake, ignore the fact that I was doing the easiest moves on the easiest level of the DVD. You know how on most workout tapes, the easiest levels are for people who literally have never raised their arms above their head before, and you, with a boost of self-confidence, because at least you’re not THAT guy, can skip to level three without breaking a sweat? Yeah, that’s not how Jillian rolls.

In any case, I’m feeling surprisingly undead this morning so maybe those jogs around the block were doing more than I thought. But now that I know the supposed "20 minutes" of shred is really a period of time long enough to comprise its own ERA, I'm not exactly looking forward to seeing Jillian, or any of her perky, six-packed compadres again.