we went to deep ellum in dallas to take our engagement photos on halloween day. words cannot express how much i DESPISE having my picture taken, but this was actually a lot of fun!
and since we met in a bar…it was only fitting…. 
the one! August 16, 2009
a little over a week ago was the maggie sottero trunk show that i was soooo excited about. normally when i get excited about things, everything that i was excited about falls through and i’m left completely disappointed. as a matter of fact, sometimes i find myself wondering if i just have terrible luck or hell, maybe i’m a little psychic?! it’s like i KNOW that the simple act of being excited makes things all go to crap. well, this was not one of those days. the day before the trunk show i got a call from the bridal shop telling me that the dresses for the trunk show had just arrived and not only was every single dress in my size, they had the exact dress i was hoping to try on, in the exact color i was hoping to see a sample of! we arrived and i went ahead and picked out a few others to try on, you know…because i was just waiting for this seemingly perfect chain of events to all fall apart. but, they absolutely didn’t! i put on the melanie gown and instantly KNEW it was to be MY wedding dress! even my mommy, who wasn’t a fan of the dress from the photo she’d seen, knew it was THE ONE! so, i present to you….THE ONE!
the ladies at the bridal shop were nice enough to let us take photos, but i’ll only post one here…
this is the “light gold” color that i plan on ordering my gown in…isn’t it perfect for me?! all i’ll need is some hemming across the front of the gown, and the shoulder strap taken in! also, you can see my mommy to the left in that photo 
another thing that i LOVE about this dress is that there is a slit up the left thigh…it’s described on the website’s description, yet they didn’t show it in the photo…well the slit MAKES the dress! and it’s absolutely a VEGAS dress with that little touch the only thing that sucks is that i was totally planning on wearing comfy shoes, but now seeing the slit, i’m forced to pick out a pair of rockin shoes for my big day. poor me, i know.
also, some of my friends were a little surprised that bailey has seen the dress. in fact, he helped pick it out! well, to clarify…as i sat night after night on the couch next to him pouring through bridal magazines and dress designer’s websites asking his opinion on this or that, the melanie was one of the few dresses that actually took his attention away from sportscenter long enough to tell me that he really loved it. some people might think it’s bad luck if he knows what the dress looks like before the wedding…and to that i say “to each their own…” because with as much love as we have, i feel no need for luck.
everything’s just lovely August 14, 2008
this one photo can pretty much sum up the last month for me. i don’t know that i’ve ever looked so happy or felt so happy
all is good at work…i got promoted and though it means working stupid hours, it also means making stupid money. not gonna argue with that!
school starts in a few weeks. i’m taking drawing I and digital publishing. i’m a bit nervous about the drawing part, but when i was younger i was pretty handy with a pencil, so i’m hoping i fall right back into it. i’m also hoping to get a bit more practice with my indesign and illustrator skills.
here are a few more of my favorite photos and favorite moments from the past month
me and my boy
april and i
my margot dog thinks he’s HER boyfriend.
i just love these paws and hands <3
i also got a new tattoo. i’ll post a picture of it another time. though i must say that after having shingles, tattoo pain ain’t got SHIT on me!
please pay no attention to how weird my boobs look, k thanks.
getting better everyday July 11, 2008
so three weeks later, this is where i’m at. most of the blisters have healed…just waiting on that one pesky patch that’s been the root of all things evil in my life the past month. that’s pretty much the only part on my skin that hurts now, and it’s the thing that’s still keeping me from wearing a bra. oh darn. i’m hoping it’s only a matter of days before that part is nice and healed. all of the other pink patches you see are scars, but i’m sure even those will fade fast. i have my good days and my bad days with the nerve pain. sometimes it’ll feel like needles in my back, but most of the time it’s a deep, dull pain that catches me so off guard that it literally takes my breath and leaves me in tears. i’ve also somehow lost 11 pounds since the end of may. i’m not really sure how that happened since i’ve been laying around being a big baby, but i definitely won’t argue with it .
yesterday was my first day back in the sun since the onset of this whole thing. i LIVE for laying by the pool and being in the sun and water. not being able to be outside has been one of the most torturous things about having shingles. i woke up with a STABBING pain in my back, but with the help of copious amounts of beer, pirate patches, and some good friends, it got better until the end of the day when i was trying to sleep. even then, i was so worn out from the days events that it only woke me up once. after the amazing day i had with my amazing friends, there was nothing that was going to wipe the smile off my face .
day 9 July 3, 2008
still looks like shit. my tan is fading, too. awesome! ambien is my best friend.
late last night/early this morning i had a pretty eye-opening experience in my personal life. i woke up this morning feeling refreshed and like a new gal…well minus the shingles crap. hopefully i’ve eliminated a big source of stress in my life right now, and hopefully with that will come an end to my shingles sooner .
i’m going to an outdoor concert on august 1st and i know for a fact i can’t do it if this stuff is still here. sweating right now feels like i’m roasting in hell!
day 8 of anti-viral meds July 2, 2008
again…the parts that look like scabs aren’t actually scabs…it’s just blood trapped in the blisters where i’ve scratched in my sleep (i type sentences like that for the whole world to read and yet i wonder why i’m single?). i have to admit today wasn’t half as bad as the past two or three days. i can’t tell if it’s getting better, or i’m just getting used to the pain. there wasn’t near as much pain in my back as there was in my boob today. that’s always a good time! i’m just really ready to be over this so i can spend the rest of my summer by the pool
day 7 of anti-viral meds July 1, 2008
the parts that look like they’re starting to scab aren’t scabs. it just looks that way because i scratched them in my sleep causing them to bleed under the skin. i forgot how bad vicodin makes me itch. no fun! you don’t even want to know what my poor boob looks like right now 
. today i’ve been in bed most of the day just trying to rest and let my body kick this. i think my dear friend christie is going to bring by the new john mayer live dvd tonight so that should be fun .
not for the weak stomach June 30, 2008
okay so today marks day day six of anti-viral meds for my shingles. i may as well be popping flintstones vitamins because the meds don’t seem to be doing shit. my doctor told me that the anti-viral meds are usually only effective if taken within 72 hours of the onset of a shingles infection. my pain started on a sunday but the rash didn’t start until the wednesday after that so i’m pretty sure i missed that 72 hour window of opportunity. fuck. each morning i wake up with more blisters than i went to bed with, and each night i go to bed with more blisters than i started with at the beginning of the day. i called the doctor today and told her that the rash was worse and that the darvocet wasn’t helping so she called in a prescription for vicodin for me. hopefully that helps….so far, it hasn’t.
okay so now for the nastiness….
this is what i looked like on wednesday morning when i woke up…
not too bad, right?
and this is what i looked like today when i woke up, after six days of anti-viral meds…
and yes, the blisters go all the way around to my breast bone. hot stuff, huh?
i’m still trying to figure out what i did to piss off the universe so badly. if someone told me i could get rid of this by smearing my own feces on my skin, i would. if anyone has any suggestions on ways to get even the tiniest amount of relief from the pain i’m in right now, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
hello internet. long time, no see. June 29, 2008
i’m not really sure why i stopped updating this. i sit here at my computer because it’s pretty much the only thing i can do right now until my pain meds kick in. somehow i managed to end up with shingles. yeah…that awful thing your grandma had last year? i, a healthy 26 year old woman, managed to end up with it, too! i’m still trying to figure out how i pissed off the universe so badly as to end up in this much pain. today has got to be the most painful day so far…it feels like my shingels have shingles. hot stuff, huh? incase you have no clue what the hell i’m talking about, shingles come from the same virus that causes chickenpox when you’re little. once you kick chickenpox’s ass as a child, the virus stays dormant in your central nervous system. that is, until your immune system decides to wuss out and then it attacks a nerve. mine started as SEVERE back pain just to the left of my spine, about bra-strap-high last sunday. i’d been sitting in the floor putting together a scrapbook in a desperate attempt to win a fella back. i spent about two hours sitting in the floor hunched over my little creation, so i thought perhaps my back was killing me from sitting in the floor instead of at the table. i wrote it off as yet one of the many things i can no longer do past the age of 25 (thong panties, check! working all day after an all-nighter, check! sitting in the floor with bad posture instead of sitting up at the table, check!). the pain lasted all night, there was nothing i could do to relieve it. monday came around and it was hurting even more! i spent the majority of my shift monday night conning my co-workers into rubbing my back. i slept layed on a heating pad all night only to be in even more pain on tuesday. i took a mild muscle relaxer…still no relief. got a wonderful massage….STILL no relief. i came home and took a stronger muscle relaxer and hell, i’ll admit it, i even washed it down with a beer…and STILL no relief. by this point the ache in my back was accompanied by this weird tingling/prickly feeling that went in a band around the left side of my torso…from the painful spot near my spine, all the way around my left boob. i wrote it off as just feeling funny from the muscle relaxers and attempted sleep. the next morning i woke up with painful red patches all along the area where i felt tingly the night before…a few of the red patches had tiny little blisters so i went to the doctor where i was told i had shingles. i’d barely even heard of shingles before, and what i had heard didn’t excite me much. the doc had no good news…it was going to get much worse before it gets better, the blisters could stick around for weeks and the pain could stick around for months. oh, and i should stay away from my best friend, who is pregnant, until this all clears up. oh joy! she loaded me up with anti-viral and pain meds and sent me on my way.
i’ve had a lot of down time laying around feeling like i have needles in my skin. basically, i’ve been so stressed out that it affected my body’s ability to defend itself from a virus that’s been dormant in my system for 22 years. i don’t know about you, but to me that SCREAMS that i need to make some changes in my life. now if i could just figure out what those changes are…
favorite girly things February 14, 2008
let me just come right out and say it…i’m a product whore. my nails are always painted and i never leave the house without perfume. that said…these are a few of my favorite beauty products…
bare escentuals : bare minerals foundation
i’ve never been a fan of wearing lots of makeup on my actual face. eyes are one thing, but smearing crap directly on my skin has never quite appealed to me. then i was introduced to bare minerals. the company claims that it’s so natural that you can sleep in it! it’s only a powder, yet it can provide as much or as little coverage as you want. you can get the starter kit for only $60 at sephora. Sixty bucks seemed like a lot to spend on makeup to me, but the starter kit lasted me over six months! i’ve been using it for about two years now and will never put another thing on my face.
bare escentuals retro lounge eye kit
another bare escentuals product that i absolutley adore! i don’t do my eye make-up quite as eleborate as the picture on the box implies, but this is one of my favorite eyeliners ever. you can apply it wet or dry depending on how dramatic of a line you desire and it’s always easy and pretty!
clinique naturally gentle eye makeup remover
this stuff is strong enough to remove even the most water-proof mascara in the world, yet gentle enough not to hurt your eyes. i promise!
physicians formula “lash-in-a-tube”
you can find this at any drug store for like six bucks!
neutrogena fresh foaming cleanser
another product you can find at any drugstore, that i love far more than cleansers from pricier skin care lines.
cetaphil moisturizing cream
this stuff is like giving your face a drink! it absorbs quickly and doesn’t leave behind a greasy feeling. and again…it’s cheap!
gold bond ultimate softening skin therapy lotion
my mom introduced me to this miracle lotion a few months ago and i don’t think i’ve ever loved a lotion as much as i love this one. you’re probably thinking the same thing i was at first. “gold bond? really? isn’t that for jock itch or something?” same brand. different stuff! my skin is painfully dry year round, but the winter months are absolutely unbearable. i would have patches of skin so dry that it would bleed sometimes. not to sound corny, but this lotion has changed my life! it seems thick at first, but it absorbs really quickly and keeps my skin moisturized throughout the whole day. i’ve seen it in other formulas such as “healing”, which contains aloe, but i’ve loved this softening formula with shea butter so much that i don’t think i’ll ever get around to trying the others.
loreal série expert vitamino color shampoo and color masque
one of my best friends does my hair and has recently started carrying this line at her salon. it’s a bit pricey, but worth every penny! my hair feels like silk and my color has never looked so great!
clairol natural instincts semi-permanent hair color
if i’m doing something drastic, i’ll leave it to my friend who’s the pro. if i’m just looking to brighten up my boring strawberry blondish hair, i always go for this stuff. my favorite shade is spiced tea it’s semi-permanent and never leaves a noticeable line at your roots once your hair starts growing, yet it’ll cover even the blondest of highlights!
gillette fusion razor
um yeah. my boyfriend is never getting this back.
opi nail polish
my nails are always painted. ALWAYS! i love reds and dark polishes more than anything else. it doesn’t hurt that they have such clever names for their polish, either! my current faves are…
who are you wearing?
my private jet
chick flick cherry
lincoln park after dark
dior pure poison
while nothing on this list is in any sort of order, i saved this for last because i love it so much. this scent is me. it is my signature scent. i’ve strayed from it only a few times (michael kors, armani code, chanel chance), but i always end up going right back to this little iridescent bottle of goodness. once, after not seeing a friend for a while, we shared a big long hug. we pulled away and i told him that he smelled good…he smiled, took a deep breathe in through his nose and simply replied, “thank you. you smell just like you.” it may seem silly to some, but that is a moment i will never forget. i haven’t worn a different perfume since!
