unsupervised.

I'm unsupervised this evening, which means that there's no one here to make me check my crazy at the door.

It's about time to de-clutter my pack rat husband's stash of lordy-knows-what in the closets and from the goodness of my blessed heart give the vast majority of it to Goodwill. Because I'm absolutely full of good will... And stuff we don't need and I don't want to move come 4 months or whatever when we decide to up and leave our current living establishment and move cross country to an environment full of sun and warmth and deemed fit for human life.

I'm seriously starting to doubt my relationship with Wisconsin. It's emotionally draining. Wisconsin is so terribly horrible to me all winter long, then summer rolls around and I forget why we were fighting in the first place. The weather is glorious, brats and burgers are frying on the grill, bonfires are crackling, stars are twinkling, there is a festival practically every freakin' weekend, the outdoor theater is open, and my energy level goes through the roof. In the summer, Wisconsin gives me wonderful things like a social life, patio drinking, and a tan. I totally blank on how the majority of the year is a frigid betch.

But I digress. Time for me to continue my good will rampage through this place.

Or maybe not yet.

Catch up since last month:

mini-moon up north

• I flew out to Virginia Beach for the weekend to meet up with Ben at the end of his work trip. We got seafood and walked on the beach and had a room with a balcony overlooking the water and I thought it was overall fantastic. Then we went to a crowded sports bar and yelled at the tv as we watched the Badgers end their NCAA run in the last seconds of the game. Because that's how we do.
• My grandparents sold DeCabin up in Winter, WI. We spent the weekend up there helping load up the truck and empty out the place where we spent time every summer since 1999, where Ben and I took our "mini-moon", and the go-to place for a last minute trip away from it all. We got a few items that are now in our apartment, and that still smell like the pine-needle-fresh-air-cut-grass-pine-wood-whatever-else-there-was that was DeCabin. That certain smell which, depending on how much wine I've had that particular evening, makes me tear up and/or cry a few glistening tears. Soooo many memories!! 
• I'm finishing up a gigantic king-sized patchwork-esque type quilt for our bed. My determination to finish it comes and goes. 
• I'm helping Jess shoot video at a wedding this weekend. wheeeeeeee
• May 2nd was the 5 year anniversary of Ben flinging me off of a teeter totter. All because I was trying to be a responsible 22 year old and NOT go to a street party in Madison that particular night in question. Going to the park and playing "farmer brown let me down" on the teeter totter seemed like a good alternative at the time. At least it did before I was sitting in the Urgent Care cry-laughing as Vicodin powered its way through my bloodstream. The damage = dislocated shoulder, collar bone split in two, and mild concussion because I can't play nice with the other kids.  The moral of the story: Never turn down a street party.

xoxo, b

spring to life

I'm so impatient for spring/summer/fall/anything but winter. It warmed up and almost hit 40 today.......... whomp whomp whooooomp....... Is it too late for seasonal depression? I'm still stuck on the "anger" and "bargaining" stages of winter grief, but as soon as "acceptance" rolls around I want to know that there's a group in a church basement that I can talk to every Thursday. 

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Ben and I had a dinner date at Bar Lou tonight. Totally splurged on dollar burgers. And now my dashing husband is in the bedroom watching some animated movie with Paris and Nicole, because "there is nothing on Netflix." I think he just felt like watching cartoons. Happens to me all the time. Embrace it Benjamin. 

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Wedding in Nashville in just over a week! 

I have to finish altering the top of my dress, because they don't make a Wonderbra able to fix a dress size too big meets a chest size too small. I've looked into it. And as my mom told the sales people at three different store... "Before we fix the dress, let's try and fix her dimensions! [maniacal laugh]" 

 I'm going to go ahead an thank my mom AGAIN for getting all stingy and not passing down those certain genes that would result in a chest area of anything more than a 14 year old boy. 

Thanks mom.

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My grandparents are selling DeCabin in Winter, WI. They accepted an offer and close the end of May. We've been going up there since 1999. It's where Ben and I had our mini honeymoon right after getting hitched. There are literally 2.951 million stories about that place. 

Hmm, I might need that church basement support group sooner than I thought...

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Liars and wine tomorrow night. It's Wednesday tradition with the girls. 

And you don't mess with a tradition that involves wine.

xoxo, b

16 candles + 10

I accomplished another full year of living, which brings my grand total to 26. Lucky for me, I have not had any spontaneous arthritis, need for a hip replacement, or found any grey hair. However, I'm 26 now, and I fully realize I will need to monitor for those types of things from here on out.

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To celebrate such a joyous and monumental occasion-- aka the 5th Anniversary Party of My 21st Birthday-- Ben and I decided to head  north to DeCabin in Winter, WI. We left Thursday, and after a pit stop in LM, showed up at the Leinenkugel's Brewery by 3:30 on the dot. We got our tour on (with a crowd of 4 other people), wrote postcards, and sipped 5 different beer samples. Life was good.

Then the TomTom got us lost. Then we got ourselves found. Then we continued to DeCabin.

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part of the goofy zoo puzzle

The next day, my parentals showed up with their pup, Eko. We didn't do much of anything on Friday... other than go for a Friday Fish Fry at the Wannigan, watch movies (What About Bob!), play games (which I managed to win every single one...), put together a crazy puzzle (that ended up missing a piece in the center), walk around the edges of the lake (because I figured I would fall through or a muskie would fly thru and eat me), and drink wine.

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Saturday, we went for breakfast "downtown" at The Hotel. It was the first time since we got up there that either Ben or I had an Internet connection (but still no cell service). No cell/Internet is fantastic!! After breakfast, we took a little trip up to Hayward, WI. On the way, we stopped at the LCO Casino and played 5 cent Wizard of Oz slot machines. I won five bucks on a spin, which apparently flipped a competative switch in my mom, because she immediately went ahead and won 8 bucks on her 5 cent spin. Typical.

mom with Hook Stone wine to open in the summer!

After winning big at the casino, we did some wine sampling at Hook Stone Winery. We bought a bottle to bring back to LM and open sometime in the summer so that my birthday will continue to last throughout the year. Then we stopped by The Angry Minnow Brew Pub and shared a paddle of their craft beer.



beer samples at The Angry Minnow



After the Hayward trip, it seemed like a good idea to make a gigantic bonfire.... even though it was negative something degrees outside. So Ben and my dad created a 5-alarm fire with gasoline and pallets, and then Ben and Eko shot off some fireworks. I think the macho fire was to prove that they COULD make a fire... since they weren't able to do a dam[n] thing about the fireplace inside....

2 men, 1 fireplace, 1 goal

the birthday tiara and matching earrings

Since my 'rents were leaving in the morning, my mom made a steak birthday dinner Saturday night. It was dee-lish. I was even allowed to wear the AMAZING plastic earrings that went with my birthday tiara to dinner... even though it wasn't my bday yet. Because a birthday tiara is exactly what every [twenty-]six year old needs.

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Anywho, Sunday was my official birthday. I woke up with the sun shinning and birds/butterflies fluttering around and Ben singing a gorgeous melody in a deep and soulful voice while on one knee..........then I woke up from that dream to Eko's wet nose and sloppy tongue on my face. A few cinnamon rolls and a shower later, and it was time for me to wait impatiently by the duck phone for my grandma to call and sing me happy birthday. Because it's what she does every year, solely because she is awesome. 

mom signing the bottle

I wore my tiara and earrings that day, we popped a little pink bubbly, and I turned 26 like a champ.





one of the bottles Ben & I
got in NY on our anv roadtrip!

 

In other birthday related news, Ben bought a strange pie and some candles when we first got to Winter. We ate half the pie right away. The second half we saved for my actually bday. Since there weren't enough candles, a couple of scented pillar candles completed the distraught-looking mess of a bday cake display. It took awhile for Ben to light all the candles, and then I forced him to sing to me. After I blew out all the candles my first attempt, we lit them all again so Ben could prove that he was able to blow them all out in one breath, too.

definition of a beautiful disaster

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By the time Ben and I left, neither of us had any idea what was going on in the world or exactly how many days we had spent at DeCabin. It was lovely.

We stopped in LM on our way back to MKE for some birthday margaritas in Mexico (aka the Mexican restaraunt in town) with Jessica. Brianna and Weiner happened to be in the area at the same time, and stopped by to join us. It was a mini fiesta! Brianna told the waiter that it was my birthday. He asked me if I wanted a tequila shot or a shooter. Well HELL! Tequila shots and I end up making bad life decisions together, but I've always gotten along with a shooter. So I asked for a shooter. He brought me a fried cinnamon stick in a glass of whip cream... a "churro."

birthday "shooter"

Life Lesson from a Quarter Life Crisis: You know you're geting old when you turn down a shot and ask for dessert. And the whip cream on that fried cinnamon stick? The fact that you didn't hear the waiter correctly in the first place.

Here's to 26.


xoxo, b

winter [wi] in september

Road Trip:

After Ben got home from work on Friday night (around 7:30ish), we packed up the tiny Speck of a rental car (which he had managed to get for 40 bucks or something outlandish like that) and went about driving north to Winter, WI.

Of course, I was feeling spaz-tastic about going on a trip, playing my new burned CD filled with country music and Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend," and being able to spend some adventure time with the mister.

It was while I was in the middle of a good headbanging, belting out the lyrics-- or just my own words-- to "Boyfriend" that I saw Ben scratching his nose with my peripheral vision. I then saw him start to reach towards my face. NATURALLY, I figured he was coming at me with a booger, so I whipped my head into the "holy shit" handle in the tiny Speck of a car and gave myself and insta-bruise, insta-bump in the middle of my forehead. All this approximately 28 minutes into our trip.

I started up some bipolar combination of laughing/crying because my self-inflicted injury hurt so bad.... and then I was emotionally puzzled because I really was not sure if I was laughing or crying.We stopped and Ben bought me a Starbucks, because Starbucks is like a mental band aid when you are suffering from a surefire concussion.

Moving on........

We made it to the cabin by roughly 2am... after seeing racoons, deer, a cat, a red fox, a family of skunks gathered in the middle of the road, and a creature crossing the road which Ben insists was a baby llama.

++++++++++++++++++++

On Saturday, we went "downtown" for breakfast. Then we all got into the Speck and drove to Hayward. First things first, we went to a candy store. Every time I walk into that place I smile.... so gorgeous, so filled with sugar!

We bought some chocolate fudge, cashew turtles, and caramel filled chocolate balls. Then my mom & I did some shopping in the little stores in the area while my dad & Ben wandered around behind us complaining that their boxes of fudge were melting.

After complaining cut our shopping excursion short, we hit up a little wine tasting at Hook Stone Winery.

wine tasting with the goofy 'rents

On the way back to Winter, we stopped at a casino and bought a bunch of cheap fireworks to light off that evening while sitting around a bonfire and sipping.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++

bear!!

 
Sunday morning was pretty laid back. While "downtown," Ben and I saw some guys pull up with a black bear they had just shot. That thing was scary huge, which is exactly why I insist that we start campfires in the middle of the day and go inside by dusk. Those creepy bears are lurking in the bushes waiting to eat me.

We left the cabin around noon. Driving back was so pretty with all the leaves changing, the windows down, and the country music up. I really had to tone down my in-car dancing since the Speck was so tiny and filled with hazardous possibilities.

About 2 hours into the trip, we stopped at a little place along the way with some really cool metal artwork. This guy gets random stuff from salvage yards, old farms, etc and makes bird baths, flowers, caterpillars, turtles, and abstract oddities. 

Ned and some flowers

My mom and dad bought a sweet little bird bath. Ben and I got a grouping of flowers and a turtle who I immediately named Ned. According to inside sources, that was the shortest amount of time for me to name an inanimate object.





+++++++++++++++++++++++++

And now it's Tuesday. Paris is laying on the table next to the computer smacking random keys as I try to type. She's Grade A Brat this morning.

xoxo, b (&Paris)