A Light Filled Room: September 2011

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.

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.

I like seeing Joe. We do cool things together and he makes me feel better about everything.

This past weekend I went to visit him since it had been a while since I was up there. I surprised him on Friday by getting there 2 hours earlier than he expected. I lied when I told him Louisville traffic was bad, it was actually Cincinnati traffic that was bad. Ha. He believed me, and looked really confused and got real excited when he saw me pull up.

So then we ate food and went to Troy to wander around this open business thing and pet semi-exotic animals. Joe squealed at the baby water buffalos. After we did that we met up with one of his friends, Matt, and went to a bar to watch their friend from high school play some jazz. He goes to Berklee. He's good. I'll be honest though, I'm really not a fan of jazz.

The Hayner Cultural Center in Troy

This is a prairie dog.

These are water buffalos. Joe squealed.

Inspecting the beer menu together.

Saturday morning we went to the farmers market, picked up some fresh basil (omg!) and some garlic quark cheese, and some sausage from the meat shop.

Then we made omelets with garlic cheese, basil and sausage, on top of toast. And ate it outside. It was delish! Even for an omelet! I hate the flavor of eggs! But it was well hidden by the other flavors.

Thennn we drove to Munci to visit my cousin Sarah who just started college. SO EXCITING!

She showed us her dorm, campus, buildings. We got lunch and chit-chatted for 4 hours. Sarah and Joe were conniving against me and I didn't like it.

The entire drive to Muncie looked like this.

The best I got from them.

Joe's face is really inappropriate for the subject matter.

When we got back from Muncie, Joe and I put raspberries in some wine, and made dinner: pesto pasta, marinated and grilled chicken, and grilled corn on the cob. So yummy!!!

On Sunday, Joe and I biked 25 miles on a paved trail that goes all throughout Ohio. It was amazing. And we were surprisingly not too sore the next day. Here's our route:

On Monday, I worked from Joe's apartment while he was at work. Then we just relaxed and chilled in the evening, taking super hipster pictures on my bike.