always.

i just have to remember... 10 more months of school.  9 more months til the election.  almost there.

can it at least be may yet?

birthday love.

alright, so it's been nearly a week since my birthday but i figured i'd finally share some pictures with you.  it was an awesome weekend filled with lots of love and cocktails fun.  my sister from tennessee was here last weekend and it basically rocked my socks off.

the fun continued after the weekend was over - philip surprised me with a birthday with my friends on thursday night at our new favorite place.  and he also surprised me with a gift certificate to a spa for a few treatments... i've been super stressed so that was a welcome and thoughtful gift :)  my mom got me a new lens for my camera (major upgrade!!!) and a pair of diamond earrings my dad gave her - my first diamond earrings!  i tell ya, putting those on really makes a girl feel like a woman.  it was a great weekend.

great divide brewery

sushi!

birthday brunch w/the family

momma, miss amy & my brother clarence

me and my sister anne! 

the whole fam (except AJ!)

bowling after brunch

beautiful larimer square

FITB saturday

well, yesterday was miserable. and i didn't get to do anything near a computer (including homework!), so today's blanks are being brought to you on saturday.  and today lauren's blanks are love-themed, thank goodness, because right now i am more thankful for philip than ever before.  he's the one that holds my crazy world together.  that being said...

1.  the love of my life is  philip - obvi :)

2.   falling in love is  one moment.  there's that moment where you realize, 'oh my god, i'm in love with him.' it happened to me with philip when we were riding on a bus.  we were headed to the tree lighting ceremony in old town square while we were living in prague, and i was worried we were going to miss it.  he was putting so much effort into us getting there on time, and i remember looking at him and for the first time thinking i was in love with him.

3.  marriage is  so much fun.  i honestly love being married, and some of the most fun we have had is during the last three and a half years.

4. the longest relationship i've ever had was  my current relationship of five and a half years!  we got engaged after four months, the rest we've been married.

5. the key to a good relationship is  communication.  talk, all the time.  bring even the little things that bother you up, and in the end the rest is easy.

6. i feel loved when  someone does something thoughtful for me at the right time.  like when i come home from school after work and philip made me dinner that he knew i would like.  or when people take the time to do things for me when their own lives are so busy and chaotic too.

7.  my favorite quote about love is from my favorite book extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer.  it's long - but it's about a boy and a girl who are best friends and talk between their apartment buildings on a telephone made out of a tin can and string:

the strong between them grew incredibly long, so that it had to be extended with many other strings tied together: his yo-yo string, the pull from her talking doll, the twine that had fastened his father's diary, the waxy strong that had kept he grandmother's pearls around her neck and off the floor, the thread that had separated his great-uncle's childhood quilt from a pile of rags.  contained within everything they shared with one another were the yo-yo, the doll, the diary, the necklace, and the quilt. they had more and more to tell each other, and less and less string.

the boy asked the girl to say 'i love you' into her can, giving her no further explanation.

and she didn't ask for any, or say, 'that's silly,' or 'we're too young,' or even suggest that she was saying 'i love you' because he asked her to.  instead she said, 'i love you.'  the words traveled the yo-yo. the doll, the diary, the necklace, the quilt, the clothesline, the birthday present, the harp, the tea bag, the tennis racket, the hem of the skirt he one day should have pulled from her body.  the boy covered his can with a lid, removed it from the string, and put her love for him on a shelf in his closet.  of course, he would never open the can, because then he would lose its contents.  it was enough to know it was there.

happy weekend friends :)

"

rants of a 27 year old woman

hi friends!  happy valentine's-hangover-day!  it was my birthday yesterday, and it was fabulous.  but i'm actually not going to post on my birthday today - i'll do that this weekend when i can share some pictures!  today i have something more important to do, which is use my blog to VENT.

what is wrong with people today???

despite all the love floating in the air yesterday, i saw and heard a few things that really, genuinely upset me.  i was reading the news yesterday morning - pretty normal - when i came across this.  to be totally honest, i first saw it on huff post, but in the interest of bipartisanship, the first article links to NPR.  i'd never heard of this practice of 'proxy baptism,' but i can't even explain how much it offends me.  for people who don't know what that is and don't feel like reading those links, this is the religious practice of baptizing someone who is already dead.  but most recently it has been in the news as a mormon practice of baptizing dead jews.  it's absolutely horrific.  the idea that someone of ANY religion could live their entire lives according to one religion, and then in death - when they are completely defenseless - made a mockery of.

one of the great things about religious freedom in this country is the right to choose.  if you want to be a christian, you can.  if you want to be a mormon or baptist or catholic you can do that, you can change.  and as long as you are alive, you can debate your position on religion.  you can argue over why you believe in buddha instead of jesus, or why you are an atheist, and someone else can take part in that debate.  no one can make you believe in a national religion and you are allowed to break with your family's religious trends.  as long as you aren't deceased you can explain your point of view.  but it's like talking behind someone's back - they are completely defenseless.  no matter what your religious beliefs are, i just can't imagine any circumstances in which anointing someone as a member of a religion they had vehemently opposed is a decent thing to do.

i now wear glasses.

hi folks.  here's the story of my eyes.

so a few years ago i had all kinds of vision problems, like awful blurriness, light sensitivity and watery eyes.  i had to see a few optometrists, then opthamologists, and then neurologists.  and the end result was that i have a cataract in one of my eye, which screws up my vision (just in one eye).  so i got glasses.  only i didn't always have to wear them, just when my eyes bothered me - schoolwork, computer work, etc.

but i didn't do that.  so now i'm supposed to wear them all the time.

so i figured, go big or go home... so i picked out some new glasses.  i mean, cool people wear glasses, right?

exhibit [a]:

tina fey, original and the coolest glasses-wearer.

exhibit [b]:

rashida jones, from our idiot brother. she rocks those awful glasses.

exhibit [c]:

my personal fave, zooey deschanel in new girl.

exhibit [d]:

chloe sevigny, a little weird but kind of cool.

exhibit [e]:

julia roberts, although i don't think she usually wears hers.

exhibit [f]:

meryl streep, although i probably shouldn't be comparing myself to a 60 year old woman.

so, the next time you see me, i'll be wearing glasses.  yikes.

xoxo

alaina

ps - four days til anne is here!

SNOW DAY!

it happened - snow day for alaina!  like i mentioned yesterday, we'd have to be buried in snow to get a snow day.  we are now officially buried in snow.  snowed in, actually : )

our grill, buried.

lawn chairs (not covered, i know...), totally buried.

all the way up to the fence mid-point!

side walks in the front of the house.

walking up to the front door.

the postman's footprints from yesterday.

flower pot in february = snow pot.

so in honor of being snowed in, i'll be cooking yummy food all day and having a woody allen marathon.  february is getting off the BEST. START. EVER.

fill in the blank {snowy} friday!

hello all! in case you haven't heard from, like, everywhere, there's a pretty huge snowstorm out here in denver!  i'm still working today.  unlike school closures around here, i'd have to be literally buried in snow to get a day off.  so we'll see what the weekend holds - i'm working til 6 tonight and tomorrow.  this snow is crazy!  but anyway, off to the blanks...

1.   if money wasn't an issue, the first thing i'd cross of my life list is  trans-siberian railway or orient express.  those are trips i will definitely take sometime in my life... when we have the money.  

2.   just about anything i like  is something i like that other people think is weird.  but seriously, i'd say cher. she's awesome and i love her.

3.  if my life were a movie right now, the title would be   [whoa - good question!]  probably 'i don't know how she does it,' because of all the things going on in my life right now!  or maybe 'something's gotta give.'

4.  three things i am looking forward to this month are    ummm, please refer to my earlier post for full list.

5.  my favorite song to sing in the shower is usually whatever i'm listening to now.  the last song i sang in the shower was probably 'every teardrop is a waterfall' by coldplay, because it's the happiest song ever.  but usually it's just she & him, what ever girl sings in the shower i'm sure.

6.  if i found out that the production of   chicken wine   was ending this month, i'd go out and buy as much as i could tomorrow.

7.  one thing i'll never grow tired of is  my thursdays with philip.  our favorite TV shows, no homework or other projects, and cooking together.  best ever. 

remember, if you ever want to play along check out lauren's awesome blog! 

high high #14

it's february.

here is a list of all the super awesome things happening this month:

• my sister anne coming to visit me in just 9 days (i'm going to go bananas!), which will include 
• family brunch
• comedy show
• brewery tour
• major sister time
• 3 day weekend for alaina
• the beginning of restaurant week, possibly the best week ever
• my first midterm of spring semester, meaning i can already see the light at the end of the tunnel that is this hellish semester
• valentine's day! philip & i don't actually celebrate, but we do pick a day in the month, usually well after the real deal, and have a nice dinner - always something to look forward to
• our first ever oscar party, where guests have to come dressed as their favorite oscar-winning character
• and more time for blogging since i'm less busy

oh, and... 

• my 27th birthday. bummer.

that's one hell of a month. can't wait to share it with you all! 

xoxo