brief fupdates and evidence we still exist

bachelorette selfie with my sister, only semi relevant, but you need a picture right?  there will be more eventually.

let's be honest here folks, things are currently rather surreal.

my name is going to be different in less than 18 days and between trying to finagle a new job and tie off all the pre-nuptial loose ends it just doesn't feel like i have much to blog.  things are simply too vague or surprise-inducing to announce to the internet right now, so i've obviously found solace about my bloggers-block in the form of a 1028 page novel and 6 seasons of jersey shore.  rest assured there will be much more to be said, some hopefully sooner than later, but should you be knee deep in concern for my absence from this blog, you can expect to see more around maybe halloween-time, when hopefully things reach some semblance of normal.

in the meantime, here are some fleeting thoughts about our new home and current conditions:

1.  cost of living differences between houston and ann arbor are blowing my mind.  gas is so cheap (not really a shocker), groceries are basically free compared to michigan, also there are forms of gainful employment here that render people more upbeat than the metro-detroit attitude of "you have a job, you thus have no right to complain about anything ever.  genocide?  deal with it.  you have a job.  be thankful."

2.  on the topic of the upbeat people of houston the friendly-factor is probably the biggest culture shock here.  people are just so darn nice.  i feel like an ice queen for not striking up a conversation with the cockroach i found in my dishwasher.  midwesterners have a much more "you do you" (thnx jwoww) attitude about what constitutes politeness.  probably because it's so cold you can't really be expected to leave your house to talk to anyone 8 months out of the year.

3.  also yes i found a cockroach in my dishwasher.  just a small one.  he was not the first.  there also aren't 8 months out of the year here where everything freezes and dies.  thus bugs.  they happen.  i'm learning to deal with this.

4.  on the topic of cold: it is not.  unless you're indoors because, wisely, everything is air conditioned to the max.  i am essentially in heaven.  i hate the cold.  cold ranks somewhere below human trafficking and somewhere above the big bang theory in terms of things i do not appreciate.  if you read this blog often, i would guess about 80% of its contents refer to my hatred of the cold.  i'm so pleased and warm and tan in houston.

5.  on that note, the locals here tend to think it's way too hot and they can't believe i think the weather here is a plus.  this, to me, is like whining about your broken laptop to a starving child.  you do not understand the suicide-inducing misery of months below 0 degrees fahrenheit.  seriously.  i don't like cold.

also there are little lizards all over the place in our apartment complex and i love them.  hopefully i will get to posting the rest of the pictures from our bachelor/bachelorette weekend very soon (thank you to my 10/10 maid of honor sister for taking pictures and also crafting hard).

there: we still exist. ta for now.

sarah's bachelorette weekend part 2

part 1 here

after beaching on coronado we headed to amarin thai, an amazing restaurant in hillcrest, where i learned what massaman is and immediately became obsessed with it.  take with a grain of salt as i'm not exactly a thai connoisseur, but this easily knocks all the thai food i've ever eaten out of the water.  i want to go to there.  now.  

dear sarah, please send curry. love, becky.

after chowing our butts off (or on, depending on how you look at it) the bachelorette party got into full swing.  sadly sarah's eyes were shut in the only group photo i took, but you can let this aid your imagination when it comes to the unsharable tales of the snork juice filled evening.

the next morning, after additionally necessary grease provisions of the gatorade and in and out burger variety, the non-locals (read: those of us who didn't get all the extra, free "bride-to-be" shots) went to cabrillo national monument for beautiful views, useful fresh air, and essential benches.

as you can see the feeding did not stop with merely the greatest thai food ever and the second in and our burger trip within 48 hours.  nay, we continued to gorge ourselves on some #californiabounty (which is apparently a real hashtag people use to describe fresh produce... full disclosure i am judging) as well as the most ridiculous (look at that grease) pizza from luigi's.  we watched frozen at dave and sarah's kickin' apartment and rolled around with the cats.

i'm pretty sure if i ever go back to san diego i'll officially be too heavy to fly home.  this would not upset me.

cheers and yum to a great weekend of memories!!

sarah's bachelorette weekend part 1

a couple of weeks ago i flew out to san diego to celebrate my sister, sarah's bachelorette party.  emily drove down from mountain view and me, renee, sarah h, and ashika flew to cali to hang in the pacific beach rental house sarah had booked for the weekend.  we had ridiculous quantities of fun at beaches, bars, and sarah and dave's stunning apartment in north park (where of course we all watched frozen while trying to get less hungover).

after the most nauseating turbulence i have ever experienced, and a temporary horror-inducing lie about having to land the plane in fort collins instead of denver where i had a connecting flight, i finally landed in san diego late friday night.  we loaded too many people into dave and sarah's hyundai (it was pretty hilarious) and after larding out animal style at in and out burger on friday night (sooo good), we woke up saturday and headed to coronado island for beaching and lunch.

 we ate lunch on coronado at this cafe called tartine, (isn't it cute??) a place where sarah had taken me and my parents last time i was in san diego.  it was even better than i remembered it being for lunch, though when sarah and emily ordered a lemon meringue tart for dessert, the meringue had some strange stabilizer in it, giving it more a texture to marshmallow fluff versus meringue... kinda plastic, not the #1 best, though the lemon curd was delicious.  my brie and ham baguette and cappucino were both excellent as well. 

we went to the del coronado hotel where we laid on the beach and i got a tan line, if a little pink on the nose.  i did not know this prior, but all of the beaches in california are public by law.  after getting pretty toasty in the 90 degree heat (now i know why there's fire there- you barely notice how hot it is because the air is so dry) we stopped up at the del bar for water and cocktails (a $16 del mule...ouch, but totally worth it).  it's been a long time since i've hung out on a beach with a bunch of friends, way too good of times!

after hanging on the sand (sadly i couldn't play in the water because apparently shaving my legs and putting them in sea water several hours later made them red and itchy... ew) we headed back to the beach house to clean up and get ready for the most delicious thai food i've ever had.

get ready for thai food, more food, cliff views, and drunk girls coming up in part 2.