Almost makes me feel famous.
Side note: artichokes kind of look like chicken in the pasta salad I'm eating for lunch, but taste nothing like chicken. So, it's quite a shock to expect chicken and get artichoke. Very different experiences. I'm just sayin'.....
Anywho.
While I didn't consider this past weekend to be jammed packed, in retrospect, we were quite the little social butterflies. Todd has even created a google calendar for us to which we can both contribute. Planners unite!
As you may have read, we partied it up with some of my co-workers Friday night. And somehow the party ended up at the Lock-n-Keel. Okay, maybe I was the one who suggested it. Who knows. You remember the Lock-n-Keel. My old home away from home. When I was apartment hunting last summer, one of the requirements was that it was walking (or, stumbling) distance from the Lock-n-Keel. Then I had the bottom of the barrel night in October and well, the desire to hang out there suddenly disappeared.
And Friday night, I made the declaration to Todd that I did not need to go there again. Too many memories. Memories that I would rather put to bed and then forget about it. There were some fun times with the Ex there, but that's a different life ago. Time to move on.
Saturday morning, I declared that I did not need to drink jack-n-cokes again, either. My stomach was not at all happy with me. So my little bottle of Jack Daniels that I bought when I first moved into my apartment went home with Jessica and Sam.
And speaking of Jessica, I bawled like a baby when she left. It's one thing to not have her spending the night with me every week (she was great blogging material), but now I won't even see her at work. Luckily, as the fates would have it, Todd has family in Bellingham, so here's hoping there will be some road trips up there.
After my crying fit, Todd and I ate some breakfast, then headed to Costco. Where I thought Todd was finally going to get see Very Cranky Raechelle. Lemme tell ya, it took a ton of energy to not just whack people upside the head as I walked by them. I don't do people. I don't do large groups of people who are completely unaware that they are not alone on this planet. For the love of puppies people, just be aware!
So, we made it out of Costco in tact and Todd didn't have to see my head spin around while I called people very bad names. Probably for the best.
Then, that afternoon, was the big joint birthday party. It was a good time and I met lots of cool, new people who just absolutely adore Todd. I was introduced to a few people who had heard of me but that I'd never met, so I was a bit on the spot for a while.
(Todd, posing with his girls.)
Then the granddaddy of On The Spot happened.
Trish asked if I wanted to give a toast to Todd, as The Girlfriend. She was going to give the toast to Dan, her husband. I very politely said, "Um, hell no". I can get on stage and belt out "Angel from Montgomery" with a moment's notice, but ask me to actually form coherent sentences in front of a bunch of people I just met, who I feel are already paying way too much attention to me? I'll pass, thank you.
So, I made my way to the back of the room to stand by Ann and Doug, because I know them, while Trish toasted Dan and Todd and said really nice things about them. Then one by one, the guests starting saying nice things and it was all well and good until Val toasted Todd. She said she was happy for him and this great place he's in and he's a great guy and (something to the effect of) best wishes to him and his new girlfriend, Raechelle.
At which point EVERYONE in the very large room turned to look at me. Whadya gonna do?
I smiled as best I could and waved.
And Doug said, "Why, Raechelle. You color up real nice."
I thought the tops of my ears were going to burst into flames.
Once the moment of utter spotlight was over, I poured myself a big ass glass of white wine and mingled like a mad woman. That's where Ann, Natasha and I decided we MUST go shopping for shoes and make up. Because that's what women do.
So, the party wound down, we packed everything up and caravaned over to Todd's. There was dinner out, then a movie, then more socializing, and finally at 11:30pm, it was bedtime. Whew. Suffice it to say, I did not need my codeine cough syrup in order to sleep through the night. I was plum tuckered out (getting ready for West Virginia).
And Sunday morning, Todd had to bribe me with a latte to get me out of bed. Finally. At 9am.
Remember when I used to sleep in until 10 or 11am? Yeah, those days are gone. Tyler was at the bedroom door at 5:30am asking if we wanted eggs for breakfast. Sigh. You can't really get upset when a 14 year old is offering to cook you breakfast. Even if it's before dawn.
Apparently, it was even too early for Tyler, because when we left for Starbucks at 9:30am, he was asleep on the couch. And he only had on one sock. It was very cute.
The latte helped my energy level, at least enough to try on a few things at Target. I have a couple new sparkly tank tops for West Virginia now. And a cute skirt.
The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging because it was too freakin' hot to even think about doing anything else. Well, until I got on a cleaning fit. I simply washed up the wine glasses, which turned into loading the dishwasher, which turned into wiping down the counter tops, which turned into wiping down the front of the cabinets.
Which turned into Todd scrubbing the stove top. Hee hee. I infected him.
But then Jamie arrived for dinner, so I had to put the sponge down. We had a lovely celebratory dinner and then celebratory ice cream and then just hung out chatting until 8:30pm.
I kept saying, last week, that I was going to leave West Seattle around noon on Sunday. I had some shopping I wanted to do, Ruby needs a bath very badly and I wanted to start preparing for my trip. But it's funny how none of those things seem very appealing when I'm laughing my ass off with Todd. The man just cracks me up.
I finally made it home, got some administrative stuff done, and crashed for the night. It was quite warm in my apartment, so I opened all the windows and just slept with a sheet. It's baffling to have such warm weather after freezing our butts off for eight months.
So, this week will be some last minute shopping for shorts and capris (mine are a bit too big and baggy on me) and hopefully a dinner with Shaun. Then I fly out Friday morning!
I'm already giddy.
Well, would you look at that?
I accidently took a two hour lunch. Huh.
Guess I should get back work now........
