Birthdays.
Sunday was Stine's birthday. I ended up having to work Saturday night 5:30-11, but I drove over to Sara's afterwards to meet up with the yahoos (Sara, Stine and Gary) who were watching Enchanted. We crashed there (minus Gary who had to work in the morning) and then all popped awake at 8:30 am. After spending a few hours watching dog behavior shows (Sara had the remote) we all got ready, Gary showed up again, and we met up with Jesse and Danielle at the Japanese restaurant by the mall. Stine was crazy excited about the fact that this restaurant had a Birthday Gong, and that they took your picture when they brought you your free fried ice cream and put the picture on their Birthday Wall. However, neither of these things occurred. We were sitting there, and suddenly this very strange music started playing over the loudspeaker (it sounded like Korean pop elevator music, but in English) - we realized it was birthday-themed, as the waitress arrived with Stine's fried ice cream. Very odd.
After lunch, I was originally supposed to go visit Kim omdog to help her pack and clean in preparation for her impending move, but apparently they'd been having a tattoo party over there the night before that lasted until 4:30 am, so she said she'd be sleeping all day. Instead, we went to Taughannock Falls to go hiking. I'd never been before; it was beautiful, just beautiful - but I did not enjoy the mile-long incline we hiked to get back to the car at the end. I am still sore. It was definitely a lot of fun.
Afterwards, Jesse and Danielle left for his dad's birthday dinner, and the rest of us went to get ice cream. We discovered that mulberry trees make it look as though raspberries and blackberries have suddenly decided to grow on trees instead of bushes, and Stine learned that a Mexican sundae is in fact a hot fudge sundae with Spanish peanuts on top.
Full of ice cream and completely exhausted, we all traipsed back to Sara's and all fell asleep on various pieces of furniture, constituting a Group Nap. An hour and a half later we woke up hungry again and went to Cortland to visit Doug's Fish Fry - a local landmark. Stine and I had never experienced Doug's Fish Fry before, and I think we all enjoyed it, although the meal is about 4 times what I can eat in one sitting.
(Oddly enough, I was distracted by the fact that one of the fish fry employees very much resembled my mental image of Edward from Twilight, just with the wrong hair. Very, very odd.)
After the fish fry, we picked up Gary's roommate and a movie, and went back to Sara's, but I drove home at that point because I was completely exhausted. And I'm not that keen on watching The Exorcist anyway.
Monday was my mother's birthday. I had taken the day off of work because of the Saturday night debacle, but I still had an ad due... once I got that done, my dad picked me up and we ran some errands, then later on my brother picked me up on his way back from work and we went to Mom and Dad's for the birthday dinner. Aunt Lisa came up too, and the whole thing was very entertaining...
Until my mom had me listen to a song she thought would make a good first dance song for the wedding, and it caused me to burst into tears, which I'd been close to doing all day anyway.
I've been under an immense amount of stress lately - deployment-related, job-related, and wedding-related. Last night I finally cracked, cried some of it out, and then had a long, long talk with my mother about the various stress sources. I think we made some headway, and I'm in a much better mood, and with a better outlook, than I've been all week. I have some tasks to accomplish today which will definitely put me on a better path.
Anyway, the evening wasn't all bad - it ended with my parents, brother and myself playing the alphabet-names drinking game (but with no alcohol)... Bill Clinton, Carrie Underwood, Uma Thurman etc. Very entertaining.
I hope everyone else had a good weekend - I think we're done on birthdays over here for a bit, until Sara's in August! The next big event is looming though, because I'm throwing a 4th of July party at the apartment on Friday. Wheee!
After lunch, I was originally supposed to go visit Kim omdog to help her pack and clean in preparation for her impending move, but apparently they'd been having a tattoo party over there the night before that lasted until 4:30 am, so she said she'd be sleeping all day. Instead, we went to Taughannock Falls to go hiking. I'd never been before; it was beautiful, just beautiful - but I did not enjoy the mile-long incline we hiked to get back to the car at the end. I am still sore. It was definitely a lot of fun.
Afterwards, Jesse and Danielle left for his dad's birthday dinner, and the rest of us went to get ice cream. We discovered that mulberry trees make it look as though raspberries and blackberries have suddenly decided to grow on trees instead of bushes, and Stine learned that a Mexican sundae is in fact a hot fudge sundae with Spanish peanuts on top.
Full of ice cream and completely exhausted, we all traipsed back to Sara's and all fell asleep on various pieces of furniture, constituting a Group Nap. An hour and a half later we woke up hungry again and went to Cortland to visit Doug's Fish Fry - a local landmark. Stine and I had never experienced Doug's Fish Fry before, and I think we all enjoyed it, although the meal is about 4 times what I can eat in one sitting.
(Oddly enough, I was distracted by the fact that one of the fish fry employees very much resembled my mental image of Edward from Twilight, just with the wrong hair. Very, very odd.)
After the fish fry, we picked up Gary's roommate and a movie, and went back to Sara's, but I drove home at that point because I was completely exhausted. And I'm not that keen on watching The Exorcist anyway.
Monday was my mother's birthday. I had taken the day off of work because of the Saturday night debacle, but I still had an ad due... once I got that done, my dad picked me up and we ran some errands, then later on my brother picked me up on his way back from work and we went to Mom and Dad's for the birthday dinner. Aunt Lisa came up too, and the whole thing was very entertaining...
Until my mom had me listen to a song she thought would make a good first dance song for the wedding, and it caused me to burst into tears, which I'd been close to doing all day anyway.
I've been under an immense amount of stress lately - deployment-related, job-related, and wedding-related. Last night I finally cracked, cried some of it out, and then had a long, long talk with my mother about the various stress sources. I think we made some headway, and I'm in a much better mood, and with a better outlook, than I've been all week. I have some tasks to accomplish today which will definitely put me on a better path.
Anyway, the evening wasn't all bad - it ended with my parents, brother and myself playing the alphabet-names drinking game (but with no alcohol)... Bill Clinton, Carrie Underwood, Uma Thurman etc. Very entertaining.
I hope everyone else had a good weekend - I think we're done on birthdays over here for a bit, until Sara's in August! The next big event is looming though, because I'm throwing a 4th of July party at the apartment on Friday. Wheee!