Happy Halloween

How is it already November 19th?
I'm still so excited about our Halloween costumes that I'm in denial it's nearly Thanksgiving.
And to be honest I'd much rather think about Halloween then the upcoming holidays or anything related to wedding planning.

The truth of the matter is, wedding planning is the absolute pits. Finding a venue, dealing with a budget, and trying to figure out how to keep the ceremony guest list under 150 people are the biggest headaches so far. I'd always imagined my little sister would be married before me so my parents could get the traditional wedding out of their system so by the time I got married I could just run off to the court house instead of going through all of this.

I'm sure once the venue is settled I'll feel less stressed out and maybe start to enjoy the whole wedding business, but until then I'm going to have fond memories of Halloween being an absolute success.

I mean we were characters from The Princess Bride!
Fella and I won best couples costume as Buttercup & Man in Black. Not bad for our first year doing a couple costume! And in addition to that win, all 4 of us won best group costume.

Not So 27

Why hello Blog Land.

It's been over a year since I ventured to this digital space to document my life, but I feel like now is as good a time as any to get back into it.

27 was an utterly fantastic year. It's safe to call it my Banner Year and I'm glad my blog will forever be called 'Her 27th Year' because it no doubt was the year I came into my own.

To play a little catch up:

-> Gus, the not so Maine Coon cat, was adopted into my family shortly after I lost my grandmother in June 2014.

-> Fella won a once in a lifetime trip courtesy of Marlboro to the Crazy Mountain Ranch in Montana at Country Thunder and we spent the most amazing week in Big Sky Country.

And probably the biggest news:

-> 3 months after my last blog post in July 2013 I went on a first date to the AZ State Fair with Fella and one year later on the ferris wheel that we rode on our first date he asked me to marry him.

There was plenty more that happened in my 27th year to make it such a memorable one, but those are a few of the bigger happenings. I have so much more to share about everything and lots too look forward to as I plan for becoming a Mrs. I am going to try (keyword: try) to do better about documenting it all so I have something to look back on because this stuff is way more exciting to read about then where my school girl crush sat in church -- and that's 95% of what I've got documented in the journals from my youth.

it's the final countdown

these are my last days as a 26-year-old.
26 has been a strange year.
26 has felt like one of those pointless transitional years.
kind of like senior year in high school. you're just there because you (usually) need government and english to graduate but are required to take the other credit so they can keep you in school past 10a.

on the senior year note, there's been much drama locally about the 10 year reunion at my would be alma mater (you know, had i not moved the summer before my senior year) and thankfully i'm not on facebook to see most of it, but HOLY CHEZ-ITS, next june will be 10 years since i graduated high school.

last i posted -- and why i'm not using proper capitalization i'm not sure, but go with it -- i had just finalized the house thing and was preparing to move in. it's been one month and i am still not moved in completely, but it's coming along.

things that have happened:
-painted the kitchen/laundry/sitting room/and one side of the hallway (it's a split floor plan) -- this is exciting because it means only one unsightly green wall remains in the house and that's in the living room i never see.

isn't that green paint horrible?

-had the overhead lighting/fans (3 bedrooms and the living room) hardwired in and the switches replaced -- back in 1968 when this house was built having cords down the walls was apparently in style, which i don't get.
-furnished the living room/dining room with perfection condition vintage finds and all for under $300 -- that's a sofa, two chairs, coffee table, 2 end tables, and a table and 4 chairs if you're curious, photos to come once it's put together.
-put up shade sails in the backyard/courtyard to help shade the area and beat the summer heat -- it was 120 last weekend!

there's more to come, but i'm out of town a lot in july so not sure what exactly will get done this month. my plan to finish painting the other half of the hallway and get my bedroom painted. my bedroom had drywall work done when the old conduit for the fan was removed and hardwired in so i have a white stripe of repaired drywall down the middle of the room which makes the mauve color in there stand out even more.
keeping it classy.
i've had to tell my friends that come over to use their hgtv glasses when looking at my place. thankfully they all know my style really well so if i describe something to them they can envision it. i just want to get the painting done with so i can actually hang things on the walls. all my photos/paintings/mirrors are stacked away in the guest room collecting dust, and to be honest it feels less homey without any decoration up.
but it is a work in progress.
1300 square feet of work.

about that ...

I can't recall the last time I posted a blog, but needless to say since whenever that was things have gotten busy. Busy enough to send me to WalMart at 10p on a Tuesday night because I needed a new planner with more space on the pages. Yeah, that kind of busy.

And there is only one culprit that has caused the recent influx in items on the to-do list.

That culprit is my new house.
As in mine.
With a mortgage and a home owners association and no one to fix the sink when it breaks.

Exciting? Incredibly.
Stressful? Immensely.

Keys will be in my hands this time next week and I'll be out of my current place by the end of the month. (see why I said I was busy? that's just over 2 weeks to prep the new house for move in and move out of the house i'm in now.) The Boats N Ho3s era is coming to an end after 2.5 years together. It's going to be sad to say goodbye to Roommate, but I cannot wait to have my own place without a roommate or dogs barking next door at all hours of the night or an hour commute to work.

And like any twenty-something girl of course I created a Pinterest board with ideas for my new home. Can you can sparkly ceiling in the bathroom and chalkboard paint on the outdated white fridge (since it works and there isn't any money in the budget to replace it yet)!

I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life.
A few days after my birthday last summer I had my first fortune cookie in my 26th year and it said: you will make a change for the better within the year.
With 27 about 70 days away, it appears that this might be that change.
Or maybe the change for the better was the new job I started last winter.
I'm going to go with both.
Both are better.

So blog world, get ready for Her 27th Year to have a lot of before and after photos of the DIY transformation of my first place -- it'll be like HGTV on your dashboard.

hurricane drunk before it was a thing

Any else have an alter ego that is brought out by alcohol?

Back on New Years Eve 2007, three gal pals and I celebrated No Dick's Eve. 

A night with too much liquor, pizza, no boys and Crossroads on DVD. 

It was the night I earned my nickname: The Hurricane. 

I was Hurricane Drunk before Florence and the Machine released a song about it. 

Hurricane in action

Yes friends, that is a photo of me in a party hat and mask shooting fire out of my arm. This is the only sighting of Hurricane in action. I've gotten pretty good at keeping the fire power under wraps the last 5 years. I'm not actually on fire it's just a a great angle and perfectly timed drunken snapshot. 

And while I wish the story about how I earned the nickname was as cool as my crime fighting abilities when intoxicated, it involves actual wind in nature, a bathroom, four shots of X-Rated vodka and half a bottle of champagne that could have served 10. 

So after those shots and too much champagne, I had to pee (keeping it real folks and last mention of bodily functions, swear) so I skipped down the hallway of my friend K's then apartment in to her tiny bathroom. We were out in San Berno and it was windy as all tarnation that night. The combination of the alcohol, sitting down for the first time all night -- i.e. the room was spinning and the wind whipping outside, in my mind meant I was somehow in a hurricane that was contained in the bathroom.

I threw open the bathroom door, still sitting there tights down and dress up, and yelled out in to the living room: IT'S LIKE A HURRICANE IN HERE! and then slammed the bathroom door again. 

Apparently I didn't come out for a long time, but I don't remember this. Truth is I don't remember much of what happened after that, but I do know that was the night, the moment, my drunk alter ego was given a name. Given how I spent much of 2008 abusing my liver (I look back now and wonder how I went out drinking/dancing 6 nights a week until 2am and still got up for work at 8am.) Hurricane came out to play quite a bit.

Now that I'm ya know an "adult", she doesn't come out nearly as often. Last time she came out I was wearing a pair of Captain America boxer shorts so I'm beginning to think the superhero thing might be a trigger. I actually worry what might happen if I was given Thor's hammer and tequila shots. 

2000 up in here

If blogland was able to Google view inside my house right now they'd wonder if I actually was an adult.

Side pony and Little Mermaid sweatshirt: check
Lemonade and Mac & Cheese that's a little undercooked for dinner: check
Singing along to a Taylor Swift song: check
Talking about a boy band member to a girl friend: check

The only way you'd know I was an adult is the Keurig coffee machine on the kitchen counter and access badge for my place of employment next to it.

This adult thing isn't all it is cracked up to be. Sometimes it is nice to revert to your 14-year-old self and forget your Friday night involves filing your taxes, washing the bedsheets and getting to bed at a reasonable hour since you have to go in to the office on Saturday. It's healthy to have a night full of bubblegum pop music, silly unrequited crushes and foods high in saturated fat because without nights like that, I don't know how anyone can survive this adult thing without prescription medication.

So tonight I table responsibility.
I let myself off the hook for not having it all together.
I'm going to dance around my room a la Britney Spears in Crossroads and eat more then the suggested serving size on the box of Tagalongs Girl Scout cookies.

But I do have to say, I am glad this adult thing comes with boobs and many a hair styling tools so I don't ever have to look like the 4th Hanson brother again.

Brandi & I crica early 2001. Friends despite our boy band differences.
She might resent me more for posting this photo of us at 14-years-old then my taste in boy bands.

then I became a Disney princess

Two weeks ago I got a horrible sore throat, but I was convinced it wasn't strep because I'd had that a few months earlier and this was completely different. I got my medical degree from WebMd so I am qualified to perform a self diagnosis, in case you were concerned.

A week later I still have a sore throat, but now my voice is starting to sound like a busted stereo speaker -- cracking, popping, coming and going.*

Then by Friday last week I had no voice.

Still I didn't go to the doctor.

And by Monday evening I had my voice back!

WebMD saved the day and me a copay.

That joy lasted all of 2 days.

Wednesday it felt like my throat was made of lava and I was back to sounding like a busted stereo so I finally sucked it up and went to see my doctor. (who isn't a sea witch)

I was put on 5 days of vocal rest and antibiotics to treat residual strep throat -- that's a thing, I had no idea.

Then my doctor said that if after the antibiotic cycle I'm still not better I get the ENT referral so that doctor can stick a tube down my throat and I'll get to make this announcement:

So for now I'm channeling my inner Ariel and working the no voice thing. Wonder if I'll find my prince this week.

*my coworker gave that lovely comparison and took full advantage of my lack of voice to tease me. Boys never grow up.