Glamping

Glamorous Camping.

We stayed in a cottage. Tasted wine and bourbon. Relaxed under one hour massages. And gazed at the stars from the warmth of a hot tub.

The only campy part was an hour of hiking, two hours of kayaking and the wooded lake surroundings. 

Thanks to Living Social deals!

Let me feel fresh

First things first, I am removing myself from the addictive, vortex of the online world of "inspiration."

This means I will no longer be reading my favorite blogs. I won't be checking Twitter. I won't be reblogging on Tumblr. I won't be pinning on Pinterest. And I don't really care a whole lot about Facebook so that's whatev. The point is, I spend so much time "finding inspiration" on these platforms that I never go out and do the things I like doing, I don't find my own inspiration, and I am certainly not living a life that creates content. It bothers me and I need to change. I will still post my own blogs because I know a couple people like reading em. But I HAVE TO live a life, and I can't do that online, that's a fantasy. 

Several weeks ago Joe & I visited Keeneland to watch the September Thoroughbred yearling sale. Soooooo cool. Remember I posted about Keeneland sales last year? Well this year, the most expensive horse we saw went for $1,000,000. Joe was flabbergasted. "How could anyone pay so much? It'd take me 20 years, with no other spending to pay that much for a horse. Also, I'm calling these people's style Blue Grass Chic."

Haha.

Super pretty filly by Undbridled's Song, out of Silvery Swan.

I promised Joe I would never ask for/want a horse this expensive. Just ain't my thing.

So then a couple weeks later I went to visit him in Troy. 

We went to a super lame flea market thing. I think we caught it towards the end when they were wrapping up.

There were chickies, puppies, piggies and duckies, and Joe wouldn't let me get any of them. I was mad. Not really. Kinda.

I really like these kind of ducks. Don't know what kind they are, but I think they're gorgeous. These will be the ducks I have.

We did other things, like working on finishing the chair I picked up to redo for Joe. I swear, we'll get it done and it will blow your mind. This weekend we finished sanding and staining the arms. We still have one coat of polyurethane to do tho.

My favorite thing we did was swinging and sliding. Duh.

For some reason we wouldn't slide down the slide. We just stuck to it. It was great. Then we raced back to the car and I won by a lot. Ha. Not.

Joe and I also played tennis together for the first time. I literally have not played since about 8th grade. And, amazingly, I was not horrible. I got Joe's expectations really, really low so that he could be pleasantly surprised. I have more control over my backhand than Joe does, but that's just because I bat left handed. I really like tennis, unfortunately it's torture on my shins. Well, just about everything that has to do with traversing land is torture on my shins. I would like metal ones. Yes, please take out my tibia and replace it with a metal one. Then put me in a coma until I am healed and strong because of physical therapy performed during my coma. K, thanks. Seriously though, will I ever not have a problem with them again? I just want to run and play without feeling like a loser for going slow or complaining about pain and stopping too soon. Patience is not one of my virtues.

In other news. My roommate and I adopted a cat. Mostly I adopted a cat. I think I am ill. His name is Titus and he is truly the sweetest cat I have ever encountered. He wants nothing more than to sleep in your lap. Seriously.

Also, cats really do hate water. 

This is before we took him in. He has chartreuse eyes and is very tiny. He had no waist when we started feeding him. We took him to the vet and they discovered he is neutered, not microchipped, about 1 year old, and free of kitty AIDS. They gave him flea/tick/ear mite meds, some vaccinations and tested his blood. So once my roommate and I were both around and the bug meds killed everything, we brought him in and gave him a bath. He was PISSED. But after a minute he settled down and just whined. He forgives quickly, and as I write now, he is sleeping on my knees, warm and clean.

I really need to redeem myself by getting a bad-ass dog. Errr, fluffy cute puppy. Joe, Christmas gift? I'd settle for a ridgeback... 

Besides the above, there ain't much going on, just workin my little butt off, physically and metaphorically.

I am already getting quite sad about the weather. It has really cooled off a lot the past few days and it is making me think of winter. I dread winter. I loathe winter. I despise winter. I'm disgusted by winter. I'm enraged by winter. I'm depressed by winter. I truly hate it and I don't want to deal with it this year.

That's all.

Letting Loose

Okay, so I didn't actually totally let loose a couple weekends ago. I did have fun though.

Here's what went down on Labor Day weekend.

(Disclaimer: I took absolutely terribly pictures the whole weekend. Please excuse me and do not judge my photography skills based on these photos. I was just too preoccupied with fun to care about the settings.)

Joe came to Louisville on Friday. 

On Saturday Joe, Mario and I drove down to Nashville (hereby referred to as "Nashvegas") to visit Amanda, my first friend at UofL who now teaches as a Teach For America member.

Bringing our stuff into Amanda's apartment.

We got there around noon and then went exploring. Joe and Mario could not stop giggling. We went to a folk festival and a coffee shop and the Nashvegas Parthenon.

The Parthenon. All kinds of awkward here.

Joe's pretend gift to Amanda for her birthday.

high fives & giggling.

high fives & giggling.

uncontrollable giggling.

Capitol building.

Awkward photo of us at the misting station.

true love.

sneak attack photo.

"so, uh, how does one get into folk?"

When we got back, Patrick and Kayla joined us from Memphis. Patrick's 21st bday was the 4th and we convinced him to come to Nashvegas where we could all celebrate and have fun.

I don't know.

Joe and Mario went swimming because there was a pool and it was hot out.

Then we cleaned up and went to dinner at O'Charley's where Joe and Mario told stories and giggled a lot.

After dinner we hit up the liquor store and Walgreens. Amanda got a bottle of wine. I got a bottle of Triple Sec and V-8 Fusion. Joe got a bottle of bourbon, a couple beers, and some lemon Crystal Light so he could jerry-rig some sidecars... Mario picked up some rum and Pepsi. Pat and Kayla went to Target for a swimsuit because Joe and Mario were really intent on swimming a lot.

When we got home we made some drinks and thennn started building a fort. Yes, a fort.

We inflated Joe's air mattress and brought Amanda's mattress into the living room. We moved the couch away from the wall and secured sheets above our mattresses.

Then... Amanda knocked a wine glass off the counter and it shattered. We started picking up glass and I told everyone not to move their feet at all. Joe disregarded my warning and kept moving his feet to pick up more glass. I kept yelling at him. Then he stepped on a piece of glass and it got stuck in his foot.

I forced him to hop to the bathroom where I began inspecting his foot and determined the glass was lodged in it. Amanda got me a flashlight and a tweezers and I then performed minor surgery on Joe's foot. I got kinda pissed because Joe wouldn't stop talking and saying there was not glass in his foot... Until I pulled the piece of glass out and showed everyone. Then we sanitized it with nail polish remover (it has alcohol in it...). I slapped a bandaid on him and we proceeded with out evening.

When midnight rolled around we toasted to Patrick's birthday and to "living in the moment." 

After that we went to Broadway where all the bars are. We went to Coyote Ugly first. It was kind of lame, and smoky. And the bouncer didn't believe that I was using my own ID until I rattled off my entire NW coordinates address in How-Do-You-Pronounce-That, Wisconsin. 

Broadway.

We went to BBKings around 1:40, unfortunately they closed at 2 and their band was wrapping up. It was still neat though.

Fancy shots!

When we got back to Amanda's, Joe and Mario jumped in the pool and the rest of us got the fort set up for sleeping (even though Pat & Kayla didn't sleep in the fort with us, lame!).

Joe & Mario in the tent. Love.

Joe's head. 

We all slept hard that night. Apparently Mario woke up at one point to find himself spread across Joe, Amanda & I. No one had any clue. It was the best night's sleep I've gotten in a long time. The next day we said goodbye to Pat & Kayla, ate some breakfast and then went swimming for a while. It rained while we were swimming but it didn't stop us from having competitions. The most memorable of which was that Mario beat Joe in number of claps you can clap between jumping and landing in the pool.

We were all very mature.

Then we left. But Joe got to stay till Monday! Which was super awesome! I don't know what we did on Monday, but I'm sure it was fun. 

Next up: Moving to my new house, Woodford & Keeneland.

Also, I got called out by the Broadway Rapper for having a perfect body. Ha. He said something like, "hey girl in the striped shirt, work it, girl in the white skirt, your body's perfect." He just raps continuously about the people on the street.