currently reading...

our may book group book is sharp objects by gillian flynn. you may remember we already read her other novel, gone girl. if these books are anything alike i'll have read this one in less than two nights time! has anyone read her other book, dark places? i think i might be mildly obsessed with this author...

where your money goes...

have you ever been told, 'ewww, don't put that money in your mouth, you don't know where it's been!"??? well, now you can find out...

have you heard about the 'where's george?' tracking that been going on in the US? or how about the 'where's willy?' in canada? yeah, me neither, not until a friend told me about it last week...now i'm kind of obsessed with finding a dollar bill that has this stamp so i can see where it's been. pretty freaking cool huh?

sprouting head of garlic...

much like my blogging lately, i've been forgetting to get things done, especially around the house. i'd like to blame it on wedding planning, but since i'm practically done with all the major stuff, i really have no excuse...i've just been uninspired and lazy.

after about 2 months of having not gone grocery shopping (i've literally been eating who-knows-how-old cans of anything/everything i have left over in my pantry), i decided i should probably join the human race and get some food in my refrigerator. i looked through what i have/don't have and made a list...and realized i had to add garlic to my list because mine looked like this...

then i remembered pinning this 'how to plant garlic' post on pinterest and thought now might be the time to actually use it. being the freak show skeptic that i am, i also wanted to google it to make sure i had the real step-by-step instructions down. i have a few small left over terra-cotta pots that will fit perfectly on my indoor kitchen windowsill- figured i should start them indoor and then maybe transplant them outdoors? now let's see if my indoor gardening is as pathetic and neglected as the rest of my recent self...

going to the chapel...

...and i'm gonna get married...ok, that song is a little annoying, but it was totally playing in my head all freaking day when we went down to visit the (coolest) pastor who is going to be marrying us...

i cannot wait to walk out of these adorable red new england chapel doors in july a married gal! are you dying of adorableness overload right now?

the hardest part of being human= forgiveness...

"forgiveness does not mean that we do not realize the heinousness of the crime. but, in our hearts, when we are unable to forgive, we make ourselves a victim of our own hatred' - cardinal sean o'malley

those were the words from cardinal sean o'malley's mass today in boston; a city still mourning the loss of four of our own, celebrating the heroics of 'boston's finest', and waiting for answers of why? 

as someone who has struggled finding forgiveness within myself, i can't imagine how the families of those who lost loved ones, or those who were seriously injured, even begin on the journey towards forgiveness. but i will tell you this, without forgiveness you are only harming yourself further. the hatred that remains inside of you will pain you and eat away at you for much longer and greater than anyone who inflicted the wrong doing onto you.

boston...

                         

i am a new yorker, thru and thru. always have been, always will be. but boston is my second home. i moved here over a decade ago and haven't left since. i found my friends here, my career, my life, the man i am going to marry...all right here, within 2 blocks of where the bombs went off yesterday. this is my home now.

i'll never forget where i was, or what the day felt like on september 11, 2001...just as i will never forget where i was or what the day felt like on april 15, 2013...in my future sister-in-laws kitchen with my future family.

i wasn't there. i didn't have to hear or see or feel the horror that my fellow americans did yesterday, including many of my sweet girlfriends who were at the finish line to cheer on our friend kate- she was less than 1/2 mile from the finish line. 

i'll say this once- people who kill other people are not heros, they are not brave, they are not martyrs. they are cowards. people who kill 8 year old children, rip limbs from their 1st grade sisters body, send shrapnel into their mothers head, all while they wait proudly for their father to complete a marathon are NOT to be glorified. no god, whichever one to pray to, will open the doors to his kingdom for such people. the real heros are those who didn't run away, but the ones that ran towards.

i am sorry that this happened. i am sorry that we live in a world where we need to be on constant guard for things like this. i'm sorry that such a beautiful day, a day bostonians look forward to all year long, was ruined. but president obama said it right when he said:

"Today is a holiday in Massachusetts, Patriot's Day. It's a day that celebrates the free and fiercely independent spirit that this great American city of Boston has reflected from the earliest days of our nation. It's a day that draws the world to Boston's streets in a spirit of friendly competition. Boston is a tough and resilient town, so are its people."

quotable...

saved the day...

i woke up in a bad mood. i am cold (like seriously, where the F is spring already?), i have cramps (i literally downed a million advil and have a dorky heating pad strapped to my back), i have a migraine (story of my life), i have a crap load of annoying emails to respond to (it's hard to refrain from telling people to F-off on a daily basis), and i have a lot of other things on my mind. coming to work is pretty much the last thing i felt like doing this morning.

and then my co-worker comes in, sets this on my desk without a word, and walks away...

...i have the BEST co-workers in the world. i have never needed a D&D iced coffee more in life, he made my day infinitely better. thank you jesus (that's his name, I'm not thanking the Lord).

currently reading...

i don't normally have 2 books going at once, but this first book sometimes makes me so anxious that i have to put it down and read another for a night or two.

vow: a memoir of marriage by wendy plump is basically a look at the role infidelity in a marriage happens and the effects on the relationship because of it. probably not the best book to read right before you get married, but i'm fascinated...

                                   

the other book i'm going to start this weekend. touch & go by lisa gardner is the book group book for the month of april and takes place in boston's back bay neighborhood...aka: my old stomping grounds...

quotable..

busy bee...

sorry for the radio silence, once again. busy planning a dang wedding over here. i have to thank my lucky stars that i do project management for a living, otherwise i'd be a stressed mess planning this sucker. luckily everything has aligned and we're having great luck with getting the vendors we want. my mom has been super instrumental in the planning too, major props to her.

almost all the major things are in place, so now we're on to the little DIY things. here's a sneak peak of some fabrics we'll be incorporating. doesn't hurt to have a master seamstress for a mother when it comes to this sort of thing either....