2011 > 1994

My firm's "prom" was last night at City Hall in San Francisco and was easily the fanciest party I'd ever been to.

I took Ho Ho Lo as my date and we met up with Janelle and her boyfriend for pre-prom drinks, where we had multiple bottles of "I wouldn't spend $70 for a bottle of champagne, but I'll spend $35 each on half bottles of champagne" champagne.

We partied like 30-somethings until our feet hurt and we decided to take ourselves home for late night onion rings and tuna melts and left the 20-somethings to get rip roaring drunk on the company dime.

And then we woke up in the 5AM hour (because we're both early risers no matter how hard we might try to sleep in), showered, dressed and drove home, discussing 80's movies and their requisite sax solos and then going "Dude, my feet still hurt but I am SO GLAD that I'm not hungover!" "Dude, ME TOO!"

But damn, we looked good:







And for contrast, let me remind you of how awesome I looked at the last prom I went to:



My 2011 prom date has a much nicer rack.

Probably the only pretty part of Fremont

Ever spent an hour and forty minutes walking up a hill without any flats spots to catch your breath? It's a bitch, let me tell you, but when you get to the top, the view is pretty great:



And if you look to the west you can see the lower end of the San Francisco Bay:



Lauren and I hiked the Mission Peak trail yesterday morning and the entire hike up and down only took a bit over three hours. The internet tells me it's about a five and a half mile trek, but I know it took me about 20,000 steps' worth of effort:



(That, Internet, is my Fitbit. I love it and a bunch of my friends and family members have them too and now THEY'RE spreading the Fitbit love toooooo. I love that it's a pedometer you can wear in your bra and that figures out how many calories you've burned and that magically syncs with your computer. Get one!)

Lauren had warned me that this hike was NO JOKE and SHE WAS CORRECT. The uphill was murder on my lungs and totally sapped me of energy, but I forgot that the downhill hiking was just as bad, but in different ways. My thighs will thank me eventually, but I'm currently nursing some day-after ACHES AND PAINS.

Glamourpuss wouldn't pose for a photo with me, but here I am, in all my sweaty glory:

Viva Las Vegas

Hey Internet, wanna see a whole bunch of pictures from Vegas?

So Lauren and I had important plans that involved airport bloody marys but DAGNABBIT, our flight was so early that the airport bar wasn't even open yet. GOOD THING WE WERE FLYING FIRST CLASS and were able to enjoy a pre-fight cocktail (even if the flight attendant totally judged us for our early morning drinking):



We were disappointed to hear the pilot say that they wouldn't be offering in-flight drink service because of turbulence (that never happened) but that's okay because we had an hour to kill after our flight got in and before Carrie's flight arrived so we made up for lost time at the airport bar.

Not surprisingly, we were the only INBOUND passengers rocking the airport bar at 8AM. We were the only women in there and ALSO not surprisingly, we made BFFs with the bartender and all of our fellow morning drinkers. Of the dozen or so people at the bar, ten of us were drinking bloody marys, which IS sort of a surprise but in my informal research, I've found bloody marys to be contagious. You sit at a bar and order a bloody mary and then the next person sits down and sees how delicious your bloody mary is and needs one too and then the next person and the next person and the next person.

I'm also pleased to report that the airport bar represented the first of many rounds of drinks to be purchased for us that weekend. (Note: Cheering with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!" is a great way to have drinks sent your way...I recommend it even if it's not anyone's birthday.)

Eventually it was time to go find Carrie and our limo driver at baggage claim and then BADA BOOM, we were in our first limo of the day:





Here's an exciting fact: When you arrive in a limo they don't drop you off in front to stand in the regular person registration line. Oh no, Internet. They drop you off at some other door where a lounge and continental breakfast await. And then when you're traveling with Lauren, whose brother set this whole thing up via his high rollerness, you get a room on the 50-something'th floor, with exciting elevators that show up IMMEDIATELY because your private elevators only serve the 50-58th floors.

I've been to Vegas a bunch of times but I've never had a view that even came close to this one:







And then the ladies went down to (surprise!) the bar while I hopped in a cab and went to meet my friends David and Tonya, who happened to be in town for a conference:



We went to a place called Hash House a Go Go, which has exciting things like Snickers pancakes and Bud-in-a-bag on the menu. I had one of these items:



AND THEN David, Tonya and posse gave me a ride back to my ho-tel, where I met Carrie and Lauren in YET ANOTHER bar. They were drinking champagne so when the bartender asked me what I'd like, I said I'd have whatever they were drinking and put $20 down on the bar. He came back over and was like "Uh, it'll be $24" and I was stunned because my ladies like them some champagne, but they're more the $12 a glass type than the $24 a glass type. I pulled more money out and was like WHAT HAVE YOU TWO BEEN UP TO???????

As it turns out, I got there right when the asshole bartender's shift started (and not just because he charged me for my drink) and they had no idea they were getting glass after glass of free $24 champagne from the nice bartender.

PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH. But don't worry ladies. I will pay my $24 and not blow the cover on your free champagne drinking asses.

But then, because the new bartender really was a dick, we walked over to *another* bar over by the Baccarat lounge. This one was small and hidden and we probably never would have found it if we weren't headed over toward our VIP elevators but it turned out to be our go-to spot for the rest of the weekend because the bartenders, waitresses and fellow patrons were all such a good time.



Carrie and Lauren thought the bathroom was THE MOST AWESOME GOLDEN BATHROOM EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD:





And ooh! We posed with Elvis at some point that day too:



Eventually Diana, the fourth member of our posse, arrived and we got all dolled up because OH HAY, Lauren's brother hooked us with with passes to a VIP after party for Britney Spears and DJ Pauly D, who happened to have been filming an MTV special in Vegas. Another limo came to get us -- this one wasn't the tasteful gray limo that picked us up from the airport though...this one was an Expeditionzine, was BLASTING music (with accompanying music videos) and neon lights.

Klassy.

And then we arrived at The Palms, the site of the Britney Bonanza, and met our host (seriously, it was someone's job to be our host?) but found out that it was a hurry up and wait situation so we sat at, SURPRISE, the bar for a while:



But then we met a bachelor party and got distracted away from the Britney Spears thing.

[Nothing to see here. Move along.]

And then we spent the entire next day laying around our hotel room, watching Real Housewives and Sex and the City marathons and ordering room service.

And then we got all dolled up again:



Hey Lauren...nice...eyes!

And had a pre-dinner cocktail (and I had two double espressos and a 5-Hour-Energy in the hope of counteracting the three hours of sleep I'd had in the previous 24 hours...I'm incapable of sleeping past 7 AM, even if I was out until the weeeeee hours the night before) in our favorite Baccarat lounge and met another birthday celebrant:



And then we had a long dinner (and another double espresso), which was an energy-killer for me so even though we went to the hotel nightclub, I was too tired to rally, despite the AWESOME people watching. We were staying at Aria, which is new and modern and fresh and GORGEOUS but the nightclub was fillllllllllled with 21-year-olds rocking their finest Forever 21 fashion and the worst shoes I'd ever seen.

If they weren't wearing acrylic heels that night, they were wearing flip flops and had band-aids on their toes and heels, indicating they wore their acrylic heels the night before. I understand me some foot pain but REALLY? Flip flops, band-aids and nightclub wear?

I ended up calling it a night around midnight and damn near fell asleep in the elevator on the ride up to the 50-something'th floor. Six shots of espresso and 5-Hour-Energy BE DAMNED!

In summary, we had SUCH A GOOD TIME, Vegas VIP-style is THE WAY TO GO, a million thank yous to Lauren's brother Casey for the hook up (and the room service tab that magically DECREASED each time we looked at it) and HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!!!

Happy 2011

I just realized that exactly ten years plus one day ago, I was celebrating NYE with two of the same ladies I celebrated with last night:



The other two were supposed to come but one hurt her back and the other one opted out at the last minute. I have NYE'd with varying combinations of these same ladies nearly every year since. We are older now, but still fabulous (even though none of the group shots are particularly good):



But there are some crazy awesome solo shots:





And this one that Lauren posted to FB but then it "accidentally" got deleted when she woke up this morning (MMMM HMMMMMM)...good thing I screen capped it before my phone refreshed:



An official 2010 wrap-up / high hopes for 2011 post will be coming. Eventually.

She's an excellent date for kicking around and following your nose.

I don't really know how to sum up my Saturday and adequately share what a whacked out day it was but Lauren and I decided to go to the movies and discovered a crazy lady sitting in front of us, talking to and stroking the heads of non-existent people. On her way out (which we saw clearly because for whatever reason the lights never went down in the theater and none of the five people in the audience bothered to complain so we all just watched the movie with the lights on) the lady kept patting (slapping?) her boobs (to make sure they were still there?) and then we also ran into her in the bathroom where she was having an animated and unintelligible conversation with someone and it all just really tickled Lauren's funny bone, which in turn tickled MY funny bone.

We walked through the lobby feeling kind of stunned by the movie and the level of crazy in the theater and I commented that it had been a weird, weird day and RIGHT THAT MOMENT, a little person WHIZZZZZZZED by us on his scooter, a big smile on his face and his long hair blowing in the breeze created by his speed, and for a split second I thought maybe I was sleeping and that this was a dream.

For the rest of the afternoon, the whole world continued to just sort of roll past us in a is-this-real-or-is-this-pretend sort of way.

In reality, it was just a Saturday spent ditching our hike and then having coffee then going to the movies then having lunch then poking around downtown Mountain View and there was nothing overtly WACKY about any of it, but it was a day full of double-takes.

We've decided that we need to spend all day in our stretchy pants and sneakers more often.

Things

1. No BPPOTD today because I'm repeating a recent outfit. SHAMEFUL, I KNOW!

2. I started boot camp again this week which means I'm back to the grimacing-when-I-sit-down-to-pee lifestyle. It doesn't really get better, either. If I'm making the the most of my boot camp sessions then I'll be in a constant state of aches and pains.

3. For added bad-assery, Lauren and I are going on a six hour hike through the wilderness on Saturday. When I called to reserve our spots the woman told me to bring lunch and oh, by the way, there are no restroom facilities. I can't remember if I told Lauren that but she reads this blog from time to time so if not, HEY LO! GET READY TO SQUAT IN THE BUSHES!

4. I'm officially dropping out of the Junior League. It sounded good when I signed up (it was a rough summer, yo) but now I'm less desperate for distractions and I'm looking at my calendar and wondering why in the HECK I'd want to go to events that require A) mingling or B) seeing sad things. I thought it could also be a good way to grow my Stella & Dot biz-nass but even that has become less of a motivator.

5. Speaking of Stella & Dot, I finally decided that instead of trying to make my money back, I'd just plan to take a loss and then be really casual about it all. If I make a couple hundred bucks a month, GREAT! If not, oh well. I'm also going to stop buying jewelry samples unless they're things *I* would wear. I have a ton of stuff that I'd never wear and I only bought them so I'd have more diversity in my samples, but I don't care about that anymore.

6. I'm not clear whether or not I'll be employed come November. It's all very up in the air. I may also get cut from this project earlier, which would be a bummer in terms of collecting delicious dollars for my bank account, but on the other hand, if I get a new project for November (the beginning of the company's Q2, so 11/1 is a realistic possibility) then I might not mind having a week or so off. It would be UNPAID, but it would be nice.

I'm making a list of things I'd like to do with a week off:

* Go to the spa during the week (so it's less crowded and crawling with first-timers in their bathing suits)

* Work on my book (which is something I need to do regardless of whether I have time off work)

* Use my acupuncture Groupon

* Maybe go on a road trip (but I'm hesitant to do this alone because the last few times I've traveled alone I've sworn I'd never travel alone again)

So I don't know what to hope for: Get cut a week or so early? Or not to get cut?

The getting cut would only work if I knew for sure I'd have a gig for Q2.

Either way, it'll all be okay.

It's been a busy 24 hours!

0. I'm too lazy to re-number but I want to keep this in chronological order so I'm jumping back up to tell you that on Saturday night I went to a Dancing on the Avenue (a street fair in Willow Glen that has also been dubbed "Drinkin' on Lincoln") pre-party at Lauren and Marilyn's GORGEOUS new house. They haven't moved in yet but GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, it's lovely. My favorite part is that instead of ripping out the palm tree, the previous owners just built the deck around it!



The whole Dancing on the Avenue thing was kind of a bust, but Lauren and I did enjoy playing a new game: How Many Non-Douchebags Can We Spot?

Rules: Men over 50 or men with obvious wives and children don't count.

Our total count ended up at ZERO.

At one point I found an iPhone on the ground and couldn't locate its owner in my immediate vicinity (the wallpaper had a gaggle of blonde chicks so I asked each blonde chick around me if one of them was her) so I put it in my pocket and figured I'd wait for someone to call.

Fast forward a couple hours and I realized the blonde chick had missed a call so I called the number back and got the blonde chick's boyfriend who passed the phone to her and OMG I SAVED HER LIFE.

They came to find me and I was thrilled that she was so thrilled, we hugged and I wished for good karma (though I think wishing for good karma might kill the good karma, but so be it).

And then there was something involving tequila and a bar that used to be a pizza parlor that we were butthurt to have been invited to by one of Lauren's flames, only to be ditched 30 minutes later.

1. I went to the Junior League open house last night and ended up joining. I was pretty sure I was going to but I wanted to show up and get a feel for it before giving them my money.

They had an ice breaker that required everyone to share her name and what TV show she'd like to be on and why (lame?). I went first and I said that my name was Elizabeth and I'd like to be on The Amazing Race because I want to see stuff that I can't see on old lady tours.

I was surprised that in a room of 50 people, I was the ONLY one who wanted to be on TAR. The BIG BIG BIG winner of the evening??

The Real Housewives of NY or NJ!

Really, you guys?

I mean, I LOVE THOSE SHOWS but would I want to actually get caught up in that bullshit???

N-O.

And yet, I joined the JL anyway.

2. I went to my very first Bikram yoga class this morning and BOY HOWDY, did it take it out of me! I was doing just fine until the dizziness and nausea they warned me about kicked in and then WOW...I had to FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS on not tossing my cookies.

I was kind of in a daze on my drive home but all of a sudden I was OVERCOME with the desire for McDonald's breakfast and NOTHING WAS GOING TO STOP ME. That sausage egg mcmuffin, hash browns and GIANT diet coke were TASTY.

3. I had time for a quick shower and then a phone interview and then I had to RUSH RUSH RUSH over to my sweet nephew's SWIMMING LESSON! It's only 30 minutes of Baby and Laverne swimming around in the pool with other moms and babies but...if you haven't already noticed...I kinda love that baby and I think everything he does is amazing. BESIDES, as I told my brother, I want to support his Olympic aspirations.



4. And oh, btw, the other thing I have to report is that I found a new job! And I start on Tuesday! And I'm really excited about it!

The turnaround was freakishly quick because I called one of the contacts I made during my last period of unemployment and BADA BING, she happened to have a perfect opportunity for me just sitting right there on her desk and they wanted to move fast so two phone interviews later, my ass is employed again!

It's with the same company but since there are like 60,000 employees it's not like I'll have to even SEE the people involved in last week's fiasco.

But sure, Company, I'd love to make more money to work in what sounds like might be a great organization!

Tomorrow's Agenda:

A. Sign the contract for the new job.

B. Yoga again

C. Some sort of free wine/music event at one of the local wineries

Tonight's Agenda:

GO TO BED EARLY.

It's only 6PM otherwise I'd go to bed now. That yoga kicked my butt.

BPOTD

1. My side-butt muscles are KILLING ME today and it's all Lauren's fault.

AND I CAN'T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!!!

For reals!

2. Horrifying admission: I finally ended up finding a bathing suit I could live with at Target, which is awesome because it was only $40 instead of $140 but I got it home and looked at the tag and realized that OH MY GOSH IT'S A MATERNITY BATHING SUIT!

And here I thought all that fabric around the belly area was supposed to be rouching.

Oh well. I'm keeping it. My mom and Leslie were the only ones who knew that it was a maternity suit but I had to go and tell the whole internet...

3. I've already had two detailed and enthusiastic in-person compliments on today's ensemble:





That's the Sofia necklace and I LOVE IT.

Things

1. Last week, Internet?

It was a WEEK.

I'm glad it's over, I'm glad I have things to be glad about, I'm glad to have NEW! SECRET! EXCITING! things to look forward to too.

Not *my* secret exciting things to blab about, but secret exciting things nonetheless.

2. But speaking of last week, it started out with Christa listening to me cry about my own drama and it ended with me listening to Christa cry about her drama. I thought my crap was pretty big, but she totally kicked my ass in the shitty things to cry about department. The good news is that both of our dramas have settled down and I don't mean to be all "Bad things that I don't really want to talk about were going on last week" but my point here is that it is SO SO SO SO wonderful to have a posse who will drop everything and circle the wagons when necessary.

We've only really had to circle one time before but the state-wide swiftness of the "OMG I'LL PUT ON A BRA AND BE RIGHT THERE" was impressive.

We spent the tail end of last week on red alert but I'm very glad to report that by Saturday night I was mooning Christa and Jeff in the BART parking lot and 90 minutes later I was getting hugs from and discussing dinosaurs with Allison and Iggy's tiny daughters.

3. About Saturday night: I feel like Lauren and I should adopt the whole "three hour tour" part of the Gilligan's Island theme as our own theme song. It was not the first simple, straightforward afternoon we've spent together that turned out to be neither simple nor straightforward, but did end up being 10 times more entertaining than originally intended.

The lesson here is twofold:

A. Never think "I'm gonna hold it until we get to Christa's house" because you might have been given the wrong key and end up being unsuccessful in all attempts to break in.

B. Roll with the punches and it'll all be okay.

4. In other news:

a. I did confirm that Saturday's 5k time was THREE MINUTES faster than the last 5k I ran back in November. I cooled it with the running after that November race because I was starting to not enjoy myself so I went back to the drawing board and started the Couch to 5k training program. My goal was to gradually ramp back up to running the distances I had already achieved, hopefully increasing my speed as I went.

So the three minute thing makes me think it worked! I'm THRILLED THRILLED THRILLED that I'm running about a 13:30 average mile, but even better than that, when I passed the one mile mark I was only at 12:30, which is a full two minutes faster than the 14:30 mile I ran the very first time I ever ran a whole mile without stopping.

That first time I thought I was going to DIE but that 12:30 wasn't even a push.

YAY!

Inspirational artwork at the elementary school where the race started and ended:



b. My wonderful, perfect nephew's uncle on his mother's side is one of those musical genius types and can play an instrument just by picking it up and trying. He's a beautiful piano player too and it appears that Baby has the same genes:



The clapping is new. My heavy breathing and annoying voice are not new.

El Paso de Robles

As previously reported, I invited myself to join Lauren on her trip down to visit Carrie in Paso Robles. Here's what I have to say about all that:

1. We got pulled over on the way there. I was SO CONFUSED when I saw the CHP alongside me drop behind and turn his lights on. I had just taken a sip of my iced tea and my brain cells were not connecting correctly because I wasn't speeding and I thought FOR SURE it was suddenly illegal to drink iced tea while driving or something.

So we pulled over, I rolled down my passenger side window and got out my license and tried to be as prepared as possible because I know they like that.

My registration was expired, it seems.

Oh.

Wait.

What?

Did I pay it?

Did my mom pay it?

Was it stolen?

How is this possible?

These were all questions I asked out loud. Lauren was like "Dude, you're asking ME?"

Except I guess if I think about it, I remember remembering that it would be due soon but that was in THE FALL. I do not remember ever getting a bill (which isn't surprising because the car is registered to my mom and she's very likely to just pay it and move on) or a sticker.

The CHP guy was kinda weird and nervous about the whole transaction and had to have me tell him my address 75 times before misspelling it anyway.

So he walked away and I called my mom and was like "OMG! Car registration! From like FIVE MONTHS AGO! Does that sound familiar at all?" She wasn't sure, but seriously you guys, it expired in NOVEMBER.

He came back and was all smiles -- it's paid! No ticket for me! He thought maybe my mom just lost the sticker or forgot to give it to me. (This annoyed me by the way -- "people" lose things like that but not MY mom! We are responsible people, man!)

But anyway -- WHEW! No ticket! No getting the car impounded somewhere outside of Chualar!

2. We went to a honkey tonk and drank 25 cent beers and people watched. We discussed how nobody talked to us AT ALL and Carrie shared that when she goes to her local Walmart the person before her gets greeted and the person behind her gets greeted...never her.

Haters.

3. We moved on to a much more entertaining bar a couple storefronts away. This time people did talk to us, including:

* A lady who thought I was SO FANCY that she insisted on talking to me with an English accent.

* A 25-year-old who was AMAZED that Carrie was SO OLD but looked SO GOOD.

* A cowboy who let us touch his cheek beard (I don't know what that look is called -- but it's like an overgrown mustache or something that looks like beardy puffs of hair on the cheeks).

* A bartender with an LED ticker sign belt buckle. The bar was called the Elkhorn so his belt buckle scrolled with "Are you Elkhorny?" which we thought was super classy, but my favorite was when he showed us the other options and one was misspelled: "Sponcered by Trojan."

* A cholo who wanted to pose with me and the plastic gun from the video game:



4. Highlights from the next day's wine tasting adventure:

* One winery offered an assortment of reading glasses in case you needed to read the fine print or something:



This same winery had a handsome gentleman working there and there may have been flirting until we found out he was the wine maker's son-in-law and his mother-in-law was right there in the room with us, at which point, we decided "flirting" was really just "being friendly." I'd also like to say though, for the record, telling someone that his shirt matches his eyes is not flirting. It's just being observant.

* Carrie was uncharacteristically affectionate:



We met up with Katie, one of the wine room ladies who is also like Miss Rodeo Arizona 2007 or something and for reals, is one of the most adorable people I've ever met.

Katie had a SADDLE in her back seat:



and she enthusiastically offered to take us horseback riding RIGHT THEN AND THERE and I'm disappointed in us for getting distracted because I could have checked something off my life list, but Lauren did get to try on Katie's hat:



* We got excited about Easter:



* We went to a saloon:



* A gentleman named Slim bought Carrie a red rose and twirled her around the dance floor all night long:



* A gentleman named Jimmy bought Katie a white rose and twirled HER around the dance floor all night long but I don't have any flattering pictures of that.

5. Other exciting notes:

* We ate chocolate with pop rocks in it.

* Lauren spilled pita chips ALL OVER the back of the wine wagon.

* Tomato basil hummus has like half the calories of regular hummus.

* Tracey: Lauren and I shared the same room you and Gabe had when you visited The Ranch. We woke up to the melodious song of that same "chicken" that I hear you guys enjoyed.

* I've since heard that BOTH the dancing and rose buying gentlemen have taken their rose recipients out on hot dates. This is unprecedented.

* Lauren and I managed to make it home on Sunday without getting pulled over!

* $18 of my mother's money later, I have a current registration sticker on my car.

The End.

I am lippy.

1. The picture I posted yesterday? Not the BPOTD but the cross-eyed one? I just realized that it is proof of something I was telling my friend Alyssa a few weeks ago: I have excessive top lip. I'd rather have too much than not enough but seriously, that thing is out there flapping around in the wind and I feel bad for people who have to look at me when I talk.

2. I'd advise that if you don't want me inviting myself to join you on your wine tasting weekend, you shouldn't tell me about it until after the fact.

Case in Point: I have invited myself to join Ho Ho Lo on her trip to visit Carrie this weekend.

So now after work I need to rush home to pack, pick up Lauren and then hightail it down to Casa de Carrie in the greater Paso Robles area. I hear that we'll be visiting a HONKEY TONK tonight and that it will be filled with all the central coast WT you'd think it might be.

What to pack, what to pack? Glittery golden heels? MAYBE! We'll see.

3. The downside to this wine tasting / honkey tonk adventure is that my brother and SIL are out of town this weekend and my parents are in charge of my sweet, wonderful nephew. I had some REALLY EARLY MORNING quality time with him today (I.AM.SO.TIRED) but Ma and Pa are going to have to hold down the fort without me. My John-Deere-pajama-wearing-SIL will also be around to help so I don't feel *that* bad I'm missing the 72 hours of continuous infant care.

4. It's been at least a week since I've gushed appropriately so allow me to say:

I LOVE THAT BABY SO MUCH!

He is just so unbelievably CUTE. And who knew giving and taking away a sock over and over and over again could be SO FUNNY?

And whenever I wonder WTF I'm doing living in San Jose again, I remember that when I walk into a room that baby smiles and reaches for me and it's 100% worth it.

Oops! Happy March 18th!

I got alllllllllllllll distracted yesterday and forgot to post the pictures from my St Patrick's Day festivities. I spent the 17th itself celebrating by being vomited all over (poor, sick baby!) but we celebrated early at the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day parade.

Kinda.

We didn't *actually* make it to the parade, but as Christa pointed out, that's just the part where stand around and wish for it to hurry up and be over...so we skipped it.

I'm getting ahead of myself though.

2/3 of the posse met up at Casa de ME. Mike didn't come, but he did pose for some pictures:





We met the east bay contingent at our hotel and, after $30 worth of Miller Lite out of the mini bar (read: three cans), we went up to the hotel lounge on the 35th floor (very appropriately named Grand View Lounge) and enjoyed the sunny view and some champagne.



From there we moved on to the traditional (for us, anyway) St Patrick's Day bar and enjoyed the outdoor drinking environment:







If you're my Facebook friend, you know Ho Ho Lo met a gentleman who showed us pictures of his tan. His other offenses:

1. Following us everywhere we went.
2. Being kind of a dumbass when my $8 sandwich ACCIDENTALLY got rung up with *his* $8 sandwich.
3. Texting Lauren the next morning at an ungodly hour.

She liked him though:



I was like "He never looked me right in the eye...always kinda looked at my temple! I'm not sure if he is incapable of eye contact or just wonky-eyed."

She was like "He's half Japanese."

O-M-G.

I lolled.

When we looked at my pictures the next day there were multiple inside-the-bathroom shots. These are two I'll share:





YOU'RE WELCOME, LAUREN!

Other Notes of Interest:

1. We encountered the same "Brides of March" bar crawl last year:



They bogarted our ability to enjoy the Gold Dust so we had to go elsewhere.

2. The Tuscan Sangria at Cantina KICKS ASS.

2a. Sangria, Elizabeth? And champagne at the first bar? What happened to sticking to lite beer all day to ensure longevity?

Dude, I know. But you know how sometimes you just DO NOT have a taste for beer? Well that was me on Saturday. YUCK-A-DOO.

I ended up taking myself back to the hotel post-kamakaze shots and was asleep by 10, but I did wake up for:

3. The hotel management banging on our door and speaking VERY STERNLY with the other ladies in my party for being so loud.

Multiple times.

And then the next morning I SWEAR we were being smirked at.

Alls I know is that when they had to leave the room so they could SING freely, they went to the fitness center and somebody has pictures of late night treadmilling and sexy posing on the exercise balls.

I missed all that though.

I had a night full of dreams JONESING for a fountain Diet Dr Pepper so after checking out, we went to SF's like ONE drive through Jack in the Box and HOOKED IT UP.

"Three large Diet Dr Peppers and one small Diet Coke, please."

They hit the spot though, I tell you.

So that's about it for St. Patrick's Day. It was fun, I lasted hours and hours longer than I did last year, we did not get kicked out of the hotel, and Diet Dr Pepper was JUST what the doctor ordered.