let's get up to date...

july 3rd was amanda's 25th birthday. a group of us went to dinner in rockville and then out to barking dog in bethesda.

the next day was july 4th - z and I had some mango drink creation out on my balcony and then walked down to the mall for the fireworks. we had a great time!

Crazy Birds!

• I had a guitar lesson a few weeks ago. He wants me to practice and my aversion to practicing is the whole reason I still suck. It was a great lesson and now z is learning some guitar. He's practicing a lot more than I am...

• Eli had a pig roast. It was a LOT of fun. Music and food and dancing and friends and z and more music and more food and more dancing and going in the pool in our underwears, etc. Stayed until 1am having a great time!
  

I love Tuesdays. On Tuesdasy, z and I have "date night!" We made fajitas and drank margaritas and it was wonderful.

• I read a short story by one of z's friends. It was really interesting. I'm always intrigued by the brain of a writer.


• So, this past Thursday (which also seems to be a "date night") we walked a few blocks downtown to the Washington Kasltes Stadium. Apparently DC has a tennis team? Anyway, I was pretty high on Wimbledon so I decided to buy tickets to see some live tennis with John McEnroe. Ha! It was comical. Z and I had a lot of fun though. We are such dorks.
  


• Friday was an interesting day...to say the least. Z's car got towed from my parking lot on wednesday. we didn't have any time to go get it until Friday morning because of their stupid hours. So Friday morning, we ended up taking the day off work and we headed over to Northeast DC to the towing lot. It was SKETCHY! We got there around 9:15am (they opened at 9am). Z walked around and called the company but we couldn't reach anyone. We walked up to the gate and another guy was there waiting. He opened the gate and said "the guy is probably sleeping, I'll go check." So he goes in and sure enough, he WAS sleeping. LAME! The guy comes out wearing a shirt that said "you can't knock the hustle" but it almost look like it was in a middle eastern language. Anyway, we see z's car and it's behind three other cars, including a smashed up cadillac. The guy was like "how am I supposed to get this out of here?" Um, it's your freakin' job to give us the car once we pay you an absurd amount of money. FIGURE IT OUT! So he's calling people and tells us a guy is on the way. We wait in my car until about 12:15 and decide we can't stay there all day. We tell him "we'll call you, and you'll tell us that you can get the car out, then we'll come back." So we run some quick errands and find out we can go back and get it. We get there around 4-430 and the car is free, but a different guy is there. He looks at us like "what do you want." Well, jerkface, we're at a towing lot at 4 in the afternoon, hmmm WE WANT TO PICK UP OUR CAR! So he goes towards the office to get the papers, turns around and yells "yo, you got that cash money?" Um, excuse me? Do we have the cash? Yes. We have the $160 dollars in (SKETCHY) cash that the previous guy told us to bring. He says "It's $170." What? The guy told us $160, which makes sense ($100 tow, $20 perday). "He don't even understand English" He seemed to understand pretty well... "How you gonna tell me you know him? It's $170." No, it's $160. "Fine, give me the $160 and I'll just take it out of his paycheck." Great. So we get the car and LEAVE because we had to quickly shower, pack for CT and get to a friend's birthday party. Woof!



• We made it back to VA for an amazing dinner with R, S, z, D, and T. S got lobsters (for the boys), made a delicious spinach quiche (for the girls), potato salad, corn on the cob and PEANUT BUTTER PIE. Dmade an orzo/arugula salad with craisins and feta. I made a fresh fruit salad. Everything was so delcious. We sat around talking and listening to old school rap. It was awesome!

• We left the dinner at around 10pm and headed straight to CT for E's wedding! It was a long drive in little Sadie, but z and I were troopers! We listend to music, talked and enjoyed the ride, though we were exhausted! We made it to CT at 5am! Yikes. We checked into the Holiday Inn - Coco Key Waterpark (ugh, so gross) and passed out. We had to wake up at 8:30am, so needless to say, we were some tired kids! We made it to the church at 10:05am (10am wedding), but we were not late and were not the last ones there, phew! The ceremony was short and sweet. Everyone looked wonderful and it was SO good to see my old friends! The reception right after and we drove to the Aqua Turf Club which was gorgeous. It was also a fantastic weather day! We ate a lot and danced a lot and took advantage of the open bar. It was so much fun. We headed to E's mom's after that and stayed for a few hours. We were just so tired that we had to go back to the hotel. We were in bed my 9:30 (there were screaming children in the pool out our window, so it was a bit difficult to get to sleep initially). At around 2:30am we were woken up by another wedding group who was parading down our hallway and Lady GaGa (as z calls her) was screaming about all the single men and how she "didn't see a ring on his finger" and ...UGH so obnoxious. We had a little delirious conversation and eventually went back to bed until about 9:30! It was amazing. We took our time having breakfast outside on the grass, watching an indian wedding with a horse and a DJ van (equipped with loud music, a DJ, and a flashing light). The drive back was beautiful and z drove this time. We had a great time together <3

Hey, cute boy, turn around! :)

We had a Tuesday date last night. We went to Asian Spice in Chinatown. I got the Thai Eggplant and z got a spicy beef salad with tofu (!) soup. It was all really tasty. We got a table outside and just hung out talking for a while. It was so nice. I'm a pretty lucky girl :)

Things I'm looking forward to:

• Vibrant Vegan cooking class at whole foods TODAY!
• My passport and new clothes coming in the mail this week!
• Z's 30th birthday!
• Z's sister's wedding on August 1
• WEEK LONG VACATION with Z in September!

lately...

1. Things have been mellow at work...and by mellow, I really mean boring.


2. I got a promotion...out of nowhere.


3. I have been reading a lot of food blogs lately. They really interest me!


4. Went to New York for less than 24 hours for Kim's birthday


5. Came back from NY and headed straight to the Black Cat to see the Local Natives and Blind Pilot on Sunday - great show!


6. I had a fever of 100.3 this week and still have the remainder of a mini-cold.


7. I made homemade bbq sauce last night before I went to Zumba...


8. I put the sauce on some tofu I prepared and put it over couscous for lunch- man I love bringing my own lunch :)


9. I'm enjoying my new gym, though I guess I better enjoy it at 79 bucks a month!


10. Tonight, Z and I are going out with a few of his friends; I love them!


11. Tomorrow....Deanna and I are going to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington Shelter to look at kittens, because apparently my apartment allows them? EXCELLENT.


12. Z asked me where I wanted to go on a vacation...I couldn't think of anything (still can't). I am limited to this country since I have not yet replaced my stolen passport. Now when I say 'limited,' I obviously don't mean that...there are so many things to see. My gut is saying San Diego for some reason...the weather, the west coast, the Zoo?


13. I love Fridays. Everything seems to be better on Fridays...

Also, this picture is ridiculous:

whoooo are you? oo oo, oo oo (let's get introspective)

there's always the way you'd like to think you see yourself, the way you want people to see you, and the way you really see yourself.
these don't ever line up for anyone. you can pretend that they do, but you'd just be...pretending.

i'd like to think that I'm a caring, generous, selfless, cultured, loving, thoughtful, open-minded, smart person. maybe that's who I want to be...
i think some people see these things in me too. maybe that's what I want them to see...

some days, I do things that surprise me:
i pass judgment, i think i would have done something differently (better) than other people, i roll my eyes, i BS the crap out of people, i get annoyed or impatient, i forget to be thankful, i take things and people for granted, i talk about people behind their backs, etc. some people might call this "human," but if we justify these behaviors and don't strive to be better, what happens?

i know who we are changes as we age, as we learn, as we experience, as we meet new people, and as we realize the things we don't like about ourselves.

the confusion of being you...is that you're never really you. no one is original. this is what i conclude. we're all conglomerations of everything and everyone. maybe the various combinations of things that make us "us" are the ways we are unique. i don't know. this all makes sense in my head, but i always have problems articulating...


now for the motivation of this entry:
i did earth day stuff this weekend. watershed cleanup and free concert on the mall (los lobos, moe., and the flaming lips). i did these things because i wanted to be active in my community. here's where my dilemma lies...i went to the free concert because it's something i thought was something i would do...but really, i was tired. i could have just as easily stayed home. another dilemma, i didn't like moe. and didn't even really like the flaming lips. i stayed because...how could i tell my friends (who love the lips) that i didn't stay...even though it was free and in my own backyard. sometimes i do things because i think people think i should...so i do. but the other dilemma...is that sometimes i don't even know what i really like to do, or what kind of music i like to listen to etc. you know?

the last note i will leave on is this: today i thought to myself "geez, why does this person try so hard to be cool and have all these friends...??" and then i thought, "denise, why don't you try? why are you content on spending most of your time with your family and your boyfriend?" and then i realized "WOA, I ACTUALLY LIKE DOING THAT!!!" thank you, Jesus.

now seriously, i love my friends (alot!), and they know that. i like that i don't really have to try super hard to have these friends...we all kind of work together and it's great. but i think the reason i love them...is that we don't have to go out and do something every weekend...even when we're together, we don't have to do anything! phew...

i'm not old, i'm not cheap, i'm not lazy...i just don't feel the need to be doing something all the time...that's all

haha i don't think any of the makes sense...however, this exercise was well worth it, because somehow i feel as though i've vented and now i feel better. comical.

Friday Story Time

Story #1:

Well, this morning someone walked into my cube and saw a very elementary drawing of an aardvark.
The following conversation ensued:

man: Hm, an aardvark

me: yes, I drew that and I love them

man: interesting. I bet you didn't know that my dormitory mascot at college was Haggis the Aardvark.

me: no way, that's awesome.

man: yea, yesterday I saw a picture of an aardvark in a sweater.

me: I need that.

man: I'll find it for you.
So, he found it and sent it to me.



Story #2:

Last night when I got home from having Chipotle with my parents, I decided to make my "Hearty Greens Soup." I had the written recipe on my counter for a while and had about a pound and a half of kale hanging out in my fridge, so I knew it was time. I love chopping. I love cooking. I didn't get to taste it last night because I was super full and it was 10pm. So I packed it for lunch today. It was hearty and chunky and at first bite, the kale tasted like banana. I think it was my mind playing tricks on me again. After the 4th bite it was fine, though I did add some salt. Towards the end I crumbled up pretzels and put them in the bottom to soak up the somewhat-flavorless liquid. I crumbled pretzels into my lunch yesterday...hm weirdo. Anyway.

It's Friday, folks. A day for aardvarks in sweaters and chunky soup!

Also:
http://greenapplefestival.com/ and http://www.anacostiaws.org/ This weekend.

signed, SEALed delivered, I'm yours.

after four years of writing meaningless tidbits about my life on livejournal (http://peaceonuniverse.livejournal.com), i have decided to switch to blogger.

i would rather write meaningless tidbits about my life in a blog atmosphere that seems more accepting ...and has a much better standard font. it also has a toolbar, which means i don't have to use stupid geek codes.




today i woke up happy...thanks to you.
wow, that's gross.
true, but gross.