I have a BF!!!

Wow, it's been a while! What I've been up to:
-had a blast in St. Lucia for D's wedding. Destination wedding is definitely in the cards for me...one day!
-I'm still dating the German, K and am going to the lake district in Italy (think Clooney's house on Como) in a couple weeks to meet the parents. The mom does not speak a word of English. Lots of smiling and nodding will be going on!
-I'm at home right now for my friend V's wedding - always a bridesmaid, never a bride! K sent me 36 assorted roses yesterday...so sweet!
-Things are different with K. I'm not anxious or freaking out with him. He is incredibly honest and reliable and I just feel secure with him. He gives the best bear hugs and doesn't let go and is a great cuddler! His English sometimes gets mixed up and makes for some great laughs but he also gets my sense of humor and can grasp it. He wants to take me away...and I believe he actually will!
-While everything is going well in my personal life - bf, great friends and family - my work life is not so much. I've been unhappy in my job since I moved back from NY and started at this company. It really is a great company but the job is just not for me and starting to get really political. Like sometimes I'm in a sick twisted novel...so petty. So I will be on the hunt and hope to be able to get back into retail/luxury brand again. It all depends on my flipping visa though...

So I'm happy (with exception to the job) and looking forward to this summer. Isle of Wight music festival complete with tents and wellies, Cinque Terra with my close girlfriends and hopefully Bali in the Fall. Lots going on and I promise to be better about blogging!

St. Lucia, Baby!

I'm in sunny and hot St.Lucia for one of my best friend's weddings. I've been here for a couple days to start on my tan and relax and unwind but I can't wait to catch up with my old friends and see my best friend C and her hubby. It's an all inclusive resort with all you can eat and drink. I'm hoping I can still fit into my bridesmaids dress on Saturday!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Goings Ons

Sorry I've been m.i.a. I've had a lot going on with work and personal stuff....here's the run down:

1) My grandfather may have lung cancer and kidney cancer. He is undergoing several biopsy’s to figure out what is wrong with him. He’s only 80 and we’re very close so this is hitting me especially hard.

2) I have to have a c-section sometime in the near future to take out fibroid tumors in my uterus and one that is pressing on my bladder. I went to the gyno because I was having irregular and brutal/painful periods and they did an ultrasound and MRI and came to this conclusion. My mom is going to have to come over for 2 weeks to help me as I will not be able to walk/work for 4 weeks. Not looking forward to it but if it will let me have a baby in the future then so be it. I had my appendix taken out laproscopically and that hurt like a biotch with 3 tiny incisions in my stomach muscles…I can only imagine what a 6 inch gash is going to feel like.

3) Of course I’ve finally mastered the art of dating; ie dating multiple people and just having fun (in a non sexual way). I’m in the narrowing down phase but it really has taken the pressure and usual psycho analyzing out of the equation and I’m actually able to enjoy dating again.
The contenders are:
Saf (South African) – The very same from February that I peed in the bush with. I randomly met up with him and some of his friends a couple of weeks ago. Needless to say Saf was three sheets to the wind and professed that we needed to date. The only consolation is that he may or may not loose his job soon and if he does then he’s off to Bali to surf for 6 months. We went out a couple of times before he left for Germany for 2 weeks to cycle the Danube river. He’s very outdoorsy and very funny and I can't wait for him to come back.
Richy (British) – nickname because he owns 3 companies and wined and dined me when we went out. I met him in March at a bar and gave him my card but didn’t go out with him until the beginning of May. We had a great time but I have this feeling he’s a player…35 still single and cash to burn. He keeps telling me he wants to see me but is yet to make plans to actually do it. He does call so that's good...but maybe not enough. He's too busy hanging out at Richard Branson's house it seems. All games and I’m not having it really.
Bartender (Aussie)– my flatmate and I had a cinco de mayo party a couple weeks ago and we went to our local pub beforehand for dinner/stomach lining. The cute Australian bartender and I had been making eyes at each other for about a month so I got up the courage to ask him how to make a margarita. He didn’t know how but I somehow invited him to our party and clichély gave him my number on a cocktail napkin. He had to go out with friends that night but he texted me and sometime in the future I’m sure I’ll try his concoction of a margarita.

4.) Is it bad that I'm stressing out that my dating life will go to pot when I have my surgery? My friends say that will be the true test of character for the person I'm dating and how they handle the situation. Blah.

5.) I’m going to Boston on Thursday to visit my friend Christina and her husband and meet their little 1 ½ year old daughter, Paige. They have another one on the way and I’m excited to hang out in Beantown. Hello lobster rolls and clam chowder! I was supposed to stay until Sunday but have changed my ticket to fly down to New Orleans on Saturday - Monday to spend time with my parents and grandparents. The grandparents don’t know that I have to have the surgery but I wanted to see my grandfather while I was in the states in case (heaven forbid) something were to happen while I’m laid up in bed and can’t fly home. I’m surprising them so hopefully they like they’re treat!

6.) Other than that, I’ve been hanging out with friends, working a lot and going to concerts like a fiend.

I missed you guys!

Horoscope

You're getting sick of the scenery around you -- it's time to make travel plans.

Nailed it. Luckily, I am going to be able to change the scenery and be distracted for a while. I leave tomorrow for Houston to be a bridesmaid in my good friend's wedding on Saturday. I'm only there for the weekend so I will be thrown into running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get everything done - bridal luncheons, rehearsal dinners, manicures/pedicures, shopping! I'm in a funk and I think being around family and friends (that actually think I'm great) will help.

It's like a dark cloud is following me around and I need to remove myself from the situation(s) and recharge my batteries. I hope to come back and start acting like myself again because even I'm getting sick of me.

Wanna be a balla...

I can't begin to tell you how exhausted I am from a great time in Juan Les Pins, France last weekend. Could have something to do with going to bed at 4am both nights then having my flight delayed 3 hours and getting in at 2am on Monday morning...more on that soon. Remember the great "we should grab a drink cause we're neighbors" doh moment to Mr. Bean when he called to apologize last week that he couldn't go to my party. I hadn't seen him since then until I bumped into him on the stairs yesterday. Luckily I was looking t-a-n and told him I had just gotten back from France and he told me of his Norway travels. He then asked where I lived exactly and I asked him and while we aren't exactly neighbors we are close enough and share the same tube stop. He queried about my local pubs and said we should grab that drink. Since it has been mainly me...okay ALL me making the moves (to no avail I might add) I told him to email me to sort something out. And okay I might have said "you have my email" and made the typing action with my hands (dork, yes I know this). Woulda, coulda, shoulda said, "cool, shoot me an email and we'll sort something out". Same thing, right? Or no?

So we'll see. I ran into him again today but didn't really get a chance to talk to him since I was with other peeps.

Also on a side note: Crush #2 may have called me a "Naughty Girl" when he asked about my weekend in France and I told him it was fun with lots of antics...drunken antics. Yeah, I didn't know what to do with that comment...

The Spaz who kept learning something (everyday)

I'm such a bad blogger friend. Golightly tagged me a while back and I have slight ADD and totally forgot about it....anywho better late than never.

So....Make up your own 6 word memoir title.
1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words. (Totally cheated with the parenthesis)
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who tagged you. (I'm being lazy but she's under "Good Stuff" on the right - check her out!)
4. Tag 5 more blogs - you're all it! :)

I just finished The Alchemist via audio books on my ipod last night. I had read the book several years ago but I downloaded it and over the last week I've been listening to it before I go to bed as an adult bedtime story. It has so many life lessons and the main one is to just go with the journey. Something I always need reminding of everyday.

So I'm going with life and it happens to be taking me to the beaches of the south of France tomorrow with my buddies Blake, Harris and Prissy in what is guaranteed to be a work-on-my-tan-work-then-my-alcohol-tolerance-and-repeat sort of weekend!

Nosey

I'm back and right in the thick of getting back in the groove of work (boo!) but I promise to write soon about my travels (complete with pics and antics).

Honestly, I'm still recovering from Sunday when I managed to open my bedroom door INTO my nose...you know the one I just got operated on...before heading to the Goo Goo Dolls, Ben Harper and Counting Crows concerts at the O2 Festival - which were all awesome by the way. I did, however, look like Marsha Brady for a second and thought that I had effed everything up but it's slowly getting back to normal (or as normal as it was before the clumsiness)!

Also, seems that the Shadow still has NOT gotten the hint that I'm not interested in him, no matter how many times I do not reply back to his gazillion emails. He messaged me through Facebook (I would normally just delete him but we work together and it would be AWKWARD)while I was gone to say he hoped I had a good holiday and a happy 4th. Just creepy to know he was thinking about me so early in the morning and remembering my American holiday. So I didn't respond and decided it was time to add "Nate" as a friend for the Shadow to see and hopefully back off - he still comes by my desk for awkward conversations. Monday I found out that Crush #2 is now on his project and sitting right by him. I just hope the Shadow doesn't tell him I have a boyfriend and ruin my chances (whatever they may or may not be)!

My fake boyfriend's hot, no? :)

*Thanks to Mandy for editing out the Polo Ralph Lauren logo in the background...yeah he's also a model.

Bella

I'm off to Italia...super excited about sun, fun and loads of wine! I'll be back in a little over a week to tell you all about it.

Remind me to tell you of THE HOTTEST guy I've ever seen at Wimbledon last night. I wanted to jump on him right there and then. My friends and I were drooling. For serious.

Arrivederci!

Gone

Well, no update on the Nate situation. It seems he's done a runner and I won't be hearing from him again. Because who really doesn't wish you a safe trip and surgery, even as a friend? (Update: I got a text this morning while getting ready for the airport: Have a good trip. I think I'm just going to text back: Thanks. And leave it at that). Next. Oh but Nate, thanks for all of the 10th grade dry humping...I really enjoyed it. And no, that doesn't happen to everyone and it IS a problem.

I'm over it.

Anyway, I leave tomorrow morning for H-Town and after I arrive I'll have t-minus 12 hours before I go under the knife. Yikes! Super nervous about it but in the long run it will be okay. Plus I'll be able to breathe and (hopefully) not snore when I'm sleeping next to my Prince Charming someday. I know he's out there but the universe just wants me to busy myself with a bunch of frogs at the moment. At least it makes for some decent stories.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to busying myself with family and friends for the next couple of weeks - I plan to milk being "the patient" for all it's worth!

Meet the Friends

So things with Nate are good and I didn't scare him away with the crazy. I heard from him this week and we have plans to meet up with several groups of his friends in Hyde Park today to enjoy the 80 degree temperatures and hopefully work on our tans! I'm feeling the pressure to be ON but I think it will be lots of fun so I'll let you know the outcome. We might go to one of my friend's house warming party so the shoe will be on the other foot...I'm excited to see him which is always a good sign!

In other news, I won't be homeless! Since I'm moving here permanently, I'm essentially being cut off from expenses and my $3,200 (everything is made out of gold here) a month flat. I'm moving in with HM (aka Lamey Lamerson) but I think it will work out fine. After searching for several weeks and seeing nothing but shit holes, we found a perfect flat one tube stop away from where I currently live (choice location) and I'm super excited about it! We don't move in until June 15th but we're both going out of the country next week and wanted this sorted before we left.

So now all I have to stress about is work, my 10 hour flight home (of course cured by Xanax) and my deviated septum surgery on Thursday. Since I can't fly for 2 weeks after due to pressure, my company is letting me work from home which is awesome. I'm secretly glad I don't have to trek to the Houston office looking like I just got a nose job!

What's the craic?

Dublin was awesome! I loved Ireland and hope to go back soon to be able to do actual sightseeing. This trip was mainly St. Paddy's/my friend's birthday celebrations complete with getting green smeared all over my face from a certain Dutch boy that had a shamrock painted on his cheek. We danced the night away while I kept dodging his kissing advances. Don't worry, no kisses were shelled out but I think I'm still scrubbing the paint off! :) I highly recommend Cafe de Seine and The Porterhouse - both play excellent music!

I'm off to Houston tomorrow for the weekend (well until Tuesday). Thought I'd take advantage of having tomorrow and Monday off here. Should be a good and hopefully relaxing this time.

Have a great holiday weekend!

I leave you with some pics from the parade...

Top of the mornin'!

I'm off to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day shenanigans. Super exited and hopefully some of that Irish luck will rub off on me! :)

With copious amounts of Guiness, it’s guaranteed crazy antics are sure to ensue!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

Crazy Busy

I know I haven't posted lately and it's only because I've been crazy busy. When I got back from having an awesome time in Florence with lots of drunken singing on stage and at karaoke, I had to jump head first into work. Everyone bailed on my project and so it's basically just me running the show. But here's what I've been up to:


-celebrated my 29th birthday and had a blast!
-went to my company Christmas party and had a blast!
-had a friend Christmas party with my American friends in London at Sketch and had a blast!
-only have 4 days of work left before I head to Houston to spend Christmas and time with friends and family, visit Mandy in San Fran for New Year's and you guessed it, plan to have a blast!

I hope you guys are well and I'm looking forward to the new year and my new clean slate!

Dare di Ringraziamenti

After a hellacious mini-week, mostly trying to avoid my new boss's belly button protruding through his ever so tight button-down shirt (my eyes, MY EYES!) while holding my breath to steer clear of the cat urine smell emerging from his direction, I'm off to Florence!

Now before you get all on me for going back, I'm traveling this time with 4 of my friends and we're all staying in the same room, well suite. I don't even know if I'll see Gianluca while I'm there. He actually helped to get our hotel sorted and said that we could meet for drinks on Thursday but who knows. (He also has a girlfriend now but we're friends and I have no feelings towards him- my how things have changed in a year!)

I'm planning on having a blast with Blake and Harris, who are flipping hilarious if I haven't mentioned that before, as well as Blake's roommate Prissy and her friend from NYC - they're already in Italy and meeting us for 2 nights. Should be good times and plenty of antics. And of course, plenty of wine!

Arrivederci!

Strike!

I promise to have an update on Greece soon, but I've been distracted by this little strike on the London Underground system .

It took me 1 and 1/2 hours to get home on Monday night, since I was oblivious to the strike and then on Tuesday morning, 2 and 1/2 hours to take a normal 35-40 minute commute. I had to take a bus, A BUS and then an actual train to work. I don't do buses in London, mainly because I have an extreme fear that I will end up in, oh I don't know, Scotland! I only ever take them if I'm with someone else and they navigate. My lone adventure included having the bus doors slam in my face while people were pushing to cram in like a pack of sardines and then some man's very heavy briefcase dropped on my foot. Awesome!

The tube is finally getting back to normal, but there are talks that the same chaos might happen next week. I'm making sure I have steel toed boots on since London becomes a war zone! It ain't pretty.

It's all Greek to me

Tomorrow morning (at the butt crack), I will be on my way to the beautiful Greek Isles with Blake and crew! Since it's pretty much freezing balls here, the 95 degree temperature will be a very welcomed change.

I'm envisioning fun, sun and a hangover that just won't quit.

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