The long road home...

So yesterday Eamon played a trick on me. Well, kind of. While we both work in Cheyenne, our very different schedules don't allow us to carpool as often as we'd like. So last night when he asked me if I wanted to drive home with him (and leave my car at work), I didn't think much of it. When he picked me up however, he got out of the car. He told me I was driving home.

Why is this a trick? Because Eamon's truck is a stick shift. Which is something I've never done before. Well, once - but it was in a parking lot and didn't last long.


It was 5 p.m., so of course everyone was coming out of work and laughing at me. And of course I was freaking out because I was so nervous. We must have stalled out at least ten times doing laps around the parking lot.

But guess what. I drove ALL the way home to Fort Collins! I deserve a cookie or something. I didn't stall out at all!

Of course, later on we met Jody and Whitney at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Air Force NIT game, and I stalled out twice on the way there when I was trying to turn. Oh well, I'll get the hang of it. I better anyway - the reason I'm trying to learn is that I will be (most likely) driving his truck back to Massachusetts when we move in August. And I will have to drive it around until Eamon drives my car back from California (where he will be for training). The truck will have to last me until at least September.

Buffalo Wild Wings = fun. Air Force vs. Clemson = not fun.

We were abysmal from the foul line. The refs were killing us. If the Red Sox didn't have opening day soon, I might boycott SportsCenter again.

Adam is on his way to California from Ohio and is stopping in for a few days. It should be a fun (drunken) few days. Going down to Denver tonight for fun times at the Irish pub.

Adam, Niki and Eamon at a wedding in July of 2006.

a weekend away

this past weekend i flew home to massachusetts to help my sister with wedding dress shopping. at least that was the plan when she originally asked me to do it. one airplane ticket, a day-off from work and a few weeks later she had already purchased her dress, veil, earrings, necklace, bracelet, purse and shoes. oh well.

so then the idea of me going home was to help my grandmother find a dress. except a week later, she had ordered that too.

so what did my weekend home accomplish? well besides being with family and getting to see bodies of water (sooo out of my element in landlocked colorado), we shopped for bridesmaid dresses.

i preface this by saying my sister and i have completely different tastes in clothing. but this is her wedding and i told her i would wear whatever she wanted. i tried to be very zen about the whole thing. it didn't last.

friday involved us traveling around rhode island and southern massachusetts looking at bridal salons. while i am supposedly the indecisive one in the family, my sister is the one who will have an opinion, but not voice it so as not to get you mad at her. this did not make for quick shopping. she claimed she wanted a non-traditional BM dress that we would wear again. which sounds great and considerate and everything - but if you don't really mean it, don't say it.

it is always a problem shopping for dresses that everyone will like. jenn has three BM (well two, with me as the MOH.) it's me, a friend from college and a childhood friend. but we had several problems:

1. i live in colorado, and won't be able to get back again until june.


2. she got engaged in february and the wedding is in august (BM dresses take three or four months to arrive)


3. i am 5'11''. the other BM are 5'2''.
   
4. one of the BM is almost nine months pregnant and refused to be measured.
   

we found nothing on friday that my sister and i would agree on. the one we all (including grandmother) liked, my sister decided was 'too sexy.' in her words, she didn't want to look back at her wedding pictures and think 'my BM are sexy.' except she kept trying to make my grandmother say the dress was inappropriate so she wouldn't have to. (my grandmother loved the dress.)

oh well. it's her wedding, which is what i told her. i would wear whetever she wanted. so on saturday her fiance and the non-preggers BM came with us to a bridal shop the next town over. we tried everything. though time was running out, we had a better idea of what she actually wanted, so it took much less time than the day before. we had three choices that we all liked, but ended up with this:

the color is sapphire, which should look really pretty on all of us. the dress is by jordan, style 1809 (the picture is off their website). it comes with a strap (that can be used as a halter, but it didn't really add anything to the dress) and a stole. it's floor length a-line dress and the top is very fitted and slimming (so i can definitely finish my filet mignon at the wedding and not feel gross).

sunday night we went for a tasting at primavera in millis, mass. she will be having the ceremony and the reception there. six of us went so that we could choose a vegetable, potato and beef/chicken choice. i think they are going to go with the filet mignon for a beef option and chicken marsala as a chicken choice. they both tased great and the portions were excellent. everyone will definitely get enough food.

on the weekend home i was also able to fit in some shopping. picked up some dunkin donuts coffee (as there is none around here), which should last us until we move. was able to hit up nordstrom's and get a really cute skirt, dress and necklace. also, though i couldn't get to fenway (my favorite place ever), i was able to get to olympia to get eamon and i some Opening Day gifts.

what's in a name?

when coming up with a name and title for my blog, i tried to pick something that was a little different, but still had meaning to me. 'eastcoastoarwhore' and 'all's fair in love and oars' is a tribute to my four years as a division I varsity rower on the university of connecticut women's crew team. it was one of the best (an sometimes the worst) times in my life.

i hope to keep this fairly current, with no specific theme, so as not to limit the things i think i should blog about.

n.d.