Haley and the Return of the Blue Fairy

For most people, the glorious weekend is coming to an end, but for me there is still one day left. That's right, I don't teach until Tuesday...woohoo! I love a week's worth of work being crammed into two days. Nothing nicer than a two-day work week! Especially because I'm totally a snot-nosed, sneezing, sniffling, sleepy, red-eyed sickface. That's right, now it's full blown, all out attack of the sickies. But I have D here taking care of me which is super sweet...before I get too detailed about today, let me back up to Friday.

Friday, D and I hung out and had our tasty dinner (which I already blogged about), then moved onto making these incredibly scrumptious Banana Spring Rolls. The fat content is pretty low in these suckers, but the sugar and calorie content, not so much. However, I figured we deserved a treat since I've lost about thirteen pounds since leaving NY and coming back to MO and I feel pretty good about that so far. So, I whipped up a Banana Spring Roll for each of us as a means of enticing D into learning how to make them, as well. Here's my version:

I know! You can see my years in the service industry skills paying off, right? The hearts in the background made of chocolate syrup. They were better before I moved the plates and the spring roll went flying...but the powdered sugar was a carefully thought out plan, too! All for aesthetics, of course :)

But they were so good, I got D interested in making more...so here he is performing step one: rolling half of the banana (sliced down the middle) in the spring roll wrapper with a sprinkle of brown sugar doused in with the banana, as well.
Here he is grilling it on the stove in a pan. The recipe called for lots of butter in the frying pan, but I cut it down to just enough for crisping purposes.
Here he is taking his spring roll making VERY seriously, of course.
And here we are tasting the final product...he approved of his version, too, not just mine. Way to go, Fi!!!
Then we went out and caught the movie "Bride Wars," which was a lovely way to do something wedding, but not stressfully wedding, related. It was quite cute and quite predictable and exactly what I needed to be excited about the wedding and less stressed about life. Speaking of which, our Save the Dates came in and we are addressing, stamping and send those puppies out this week (finally!). It's all very exciting! D and I spent a lot of tonight putting them together and will, hopefully, get them out by Tuesday-ish. (Also...I have to say "Save the Dates" instead of "STDs" which is the acceptable acronym for obvious reasons. I can't bring myself to call them "STDs"...could you?)

Saturday, I spent the morning waiting for D to write his blog for the Missouri Review. We were supposed to play racquetball at one, but since he needed to get the blog done and at 1pm he wasn't finished yet, I decided to head out for a run without him. It was ridiculously cold and I didn't wear my gloves (dumb!), but ran a fantastically hilly 3.25 mile loop. When I say hilly, I mean...my car rolls down the hill backwards cus the damn hills are so freaken steep and there's a stop sign at the top of one of them (who does that, right? Really dumb!). I mean, these are hills that bike riders get off their bikes and walk up...exactly. They're bad. I was super proud of myself for running the hills with no trouble, but really wanted to run longer than 3.25 miles. I couldn't because the final hill, the one right before our house, is a total killer. I couldn't fathom running by the time I got to the top...I just wanted to fall on the grass in our lawn and wait there until a neighbor let Dustin know to come out and collect me.

However, it felt awesome to run like that. When I got back, D had just finished up his blog and we headed over to the rec where I did some arm-work and then we hung out in the hot tub for a while. We investigated the two saunas: one with steam and one without and I thought I'd pass out in the steamy one. Have you ever been in there? Seriously. It's painful. There was an old man reading a library book in there...and how he could see the pages, let alone the words, is beyond me. I could barely see my own hands and, eventually, had to get the hell out of there. The old dude sat there, though, he was there before us and was still there when we left. I have NO idea how people can just sit in there like that. It had to be at least 100+ degrees in there! The heat was literally painful! The dry sauna was so much more bearable. 

Then we took the dogs to the dog park where they, luckily, didn't get into fights or run away (ok, ok...so they were fenced in and couldn't get out if they tried, but they're sneaky little canines and could've found a way out of they really wanted to! And...ok, ok! There were no other dogs in the park when we got there. They left as we arrived. And no jokes about my fur-babes scaring them away!). And to add on to our already busy, and growing busier, day, I played Wii-Boxing for the first time. I'd seen Lance and D play it earlier in the week, but was sort of intimidated by the whole nunchuck idea and how aggressively they punched the air. But, yesterday, I caved and tried it out. Much to my surprise, I was actually pretty good at it and went through about four rounds before my entire body started weakening and fatiguing. It is one HELL of a workout, my friends. I am literally sore all over to the extent that it feels like my Wii-opponent actually socked me and not a virtual version of me. I'm in pain. Really. Still.

Last night, Beth's friend Haley was in town for a wedding. When they were finished, they grabbed a few friends and swung back to our place. Always a good time. Haley, it turns out, is a loyal Dustin and Neesha Save the World reader, although we didn't know it until last night. I was beyond flattered, to be honest. Occasionally, someone will tell us they read our blog, but it always surprises me just how loyal people are. The conversation turned to our Gossip Girl-toned blogs, and Haley said, "I don't know what UTHers are, but I love it anyway!" to which Steph replied, "Upper-Tate-Hallers!" and it flattered my to no end to see that they enjoyed what we were writing and new, even, the acronyms. Awesome! Plus, Haley is super fun and we definitely do NOT see enough of her. She was nice enough to let D keep his car in the parking lot of her apartment complex when he came to visit me last year. Such a lifesaver! And at that point, I'm not even sure I'd ever met Haley! Needless to say, we were thrilled to hear she was coming into town, even before we knew she dug our blog! But, thanks, Haley! That made my night! (Pictured: Beth, Haley, Me)

This was just the event D and I needed to test out some of our new games. You see, D got me "Gossip Girl" the board game for Christmas and we haven't had the opportunity to play it yet because it demands more than two people, so we took this opportunity to cast our game choice on others. Essentially, the Gossip Girl game is a less-risque version of "Never Have I Ever" that we used to play as a drinking game in college. "Never have I ever...hooked up with someone in this room..." if you did it, you had to throw in a "$100" dollar bill (like in college, if you did it-you had to take a sip of your drink. If you were the only person who drank, you had to tell your story). This game didn't have the consequence of having to tell your story, thank God, and we all had a good time playing, except Beth. We think she was afraid it was going to be more scandalous than it was...hopefully, she came around to it by the time it ended.

We had the extra-added bonus of having some extras over, as well. Our friends Steph and Meg came over to play games, too, as did two friends of Eli's (Beth's bf): Zeke and Bob. The thing is, Zeke and Bob were not their real names, but I was drunk enough to believe they may as well have been their names so they stuck. Meg came up with Zeke and I think I misheard poor Bob's name. We knew those weren't actually their names, but it seemed ok to call them that and they were good natured about it...so, hence, their names went from "Seth and Tom" to "Zeke and Bob."

To the left is a shot of Zeke and Eli (on the right) in our living room (see our new t.v. on the mantle? Our first couple-purchase ever! Just bought from Best Buy last week). Bob is not pictured. Somehow I couldn't find a pic of the two of them together: Bob and Zeke, that is (which begs the question-can one exist in the same frame as the other? Weird). The boys totally got into Wii baseball. Guys seem to have this thing with seeing who can hit the most "homeruns." I know. It screams innuendo, right? I wonder if they're trying to make up for something by swinging the hell out of the Wii remote and watching the numbers for just how far the baseball travels. Hmmm. (If anyone's counting...D won :)

Overall, it was a good time that only got better when the fairy costume came out. Yes. I said it. The fairy costume.

Some background on the fairy costume: Two Halloweens ago I got a fairy costume and wore it out to a bar the day I got it. Yes, this is a good time to mention it was about five days before Halloween or, maybe, a week...but who keeps track of these things? Anyhow, it was a blue fairy costume with giant sparkly wings and I totally loved it from the moment I saw it. I wore the crinoline under it and tights, heels...the whole nine. And I coaxed a buddy of mine to go out bar hopping with me while I donned the fairy costume. I know-who does that? Long story short, I met this very old man with a very sad story who asked me to please grant him a wish. He asked for happiness and it nearly broke my blue-fairy heart. You can read the full story on that one over on my myspace blog if you're interested...but the costume was awesome. When I walked through blacklights, it lit up. Not all bars were "Fairy Friendly" that night since it wasn't exactly Halloween, remember? But my love for the costume grew strong.

I wore it two more times that year. To the left is a photo of me and part of my friend Danielle at a Halloween party that year. She was Strawberry Shortcake. This was full-out fairy costume. See the possibilities of this baby and why I love it so much? Below is a photog of the fairy costume in full effect last night...note, it doesn't even need the crinoline, curly hair and blue eye shadow to work it's magic. Amazing. Not many costumes work that hard all these years later. And, trust me when I say this, this costume works it, baby.

Last night, the wings were sitting in the corner of the living room and, before I knew it, the costume came out and there we were, living it up in the glitter of my wings. Haley was totally in favor of the fairy costume and all I needed was the slightest bit of egging on and I was more than happy to slip into my blue fairy getup (as you can see). I didn't bother taking my jeans off, and threw my pink cardigan back on before tying on the wings, but I think it made a nice fashion statement...don't you? Thanks for the encouragement, Haley! (Not that I needed much, but without you, I might've sidestepped the fairy costume til everyone left!) 

I swear, I really don't get to wear this often enough. Luckily, next weekend there will be a Ladies Night, which means some other ridiculous, yet fun outfit to dress up in...so it won't be too long before my desire to costume-ize my attire will be satiated. Whew! What is it, cowgirl night, Meg? Better start seeking out a ten-gallon hat and some boots. Any other suggestions?

After Wii games, a random card game (I don't even know what they were playing, actually, or where the cards came from), Catch Phrase (which nearly always ends in a fight), Gossip Girl and the fairy costume, we called it a night. 

When everyone left, D and I popped in "Mean Girls" and I passed out on the couch. Today, I rose to a throbbing, ailing pain in my head and throat. No siree was it a hangover, but a double shot sickness coming at me full force. We were supposed to meet Beth's little group for lunch and had invited our boy Ben, who we haven't seen in WAY too long (that's for you, Ben, if you're reading!), but I was too sick to get out of bed (which was so sad for me). D brought me back an extra large Sweet Tea from McCallister's (lunch spot) and a broccoli-cheese soup (my fave). I drank lots of yummy peach tea and stuffed two sandwiches into my belly by day's end. We also managed to watch Iron Man, Mean Girls (with commentary), Juno and the first dvd of the second season of 24. Good stuff...especially since I haven't seen any of this season of 24 just yet (NO CABLE!).

Now the sneezing is back and I have to seek out something without sudafed (it kept me up most of last night) to help make me feel better.

Hope you all had a fab weekend...and look forward to more exciting, less "three day catch-up of events" blogs as soon as we get, well, all caught up with life. D has a hilarious story about some girls he over heard talking in the sauna...Gotta love being around the undergrads.

xoxo

N