i will convince myself i'm fine and then i'll hate what i've become

This is one of those times when I wish I had a compass tattoo. So that when I'm feeling super lost and confused and upset about my life, I could look down at my arm and not feel so alone. I need that compass. Why don't they make navigation systems for your life??

I actually had a break down in work yesterday. Apparently, it's very easy to tell when I'm in a bad mood. I suppose I'm usually pretty chipper. I was hiding out way in the back corner of the store folding sweaters that didn't really need to be refolded, and one of the managers whom I absolutely love, came over and asked,

MANAGER: Julie... what's wrong?

And then I pretty much burst into tears. LUCKILY, she had a project for me to do. Which was distracting AND fun. And I got to use the tall ladder. It was like those breakdown scenes in moves where you think, "that sucks." And it did. It sucked. I had also had a breakdown on the car ride into work! So, yesterday was overall a fail day.

Although, apparently, I led the whole team at work because I got 4 friends, 3 PWP's and 2 credits. That means nothing to you. And I hope in a few years it will mean nothing to me, either.

Hey!! So, this entry will be filled with lots of random stuff!! Pictures and stories.

Let's go!


Live music! At The Brickhouse in Dover! Kara had heard that this guy, Dave Gutter, was pretty good, so we decided to go. He's the lead singer of the bands Paranoid Social Club and Rustic Overtones. Although, those actually might be the same band. I'm not too sure what the deal is.

Anyways, it was a really fun night. Kara and I got there early and got food. DELISH. Like, the food was awesome. Really, really good. Who knew?! And they had totally changed the set up around. I had only been there twice before (both on dates), but it was like, totally renovated. Nice. Kara thought her friend Matt might show up, but he was a no show. Greg ended up coming! And hanging with us. Which was fun.




For the second half, Dave was really drunk and apparently also really high. It was pretty interesting. At one point he called his girlfriend and put her on speakerphone right next to the mic. Funny stuff. Also, he invited those two guys up on stage. I don't know who they were.

GREAT NIGHT.


At some other point this holiday season, I took artsy pictures of Kara in front of the Christmas tree. This is my favorite:



So pretty.

NOW:

Julie and Jenn Have An Adventure!

The Sunday before Christmas, my friend Jenn and I had a super fun day together.

We got an early start (around 11am) and went to The Barley Pub, in Dover, because they were having a craft fair! Seems like craft fairs and bars don't go hand in hand - but apparently they do! It was a great time. Lots of artsy, hipster people selling lovely handmade things. I ended up buying/custom ordering a paper lantern for Maria! I got to pick out the paper for the lantern as well as the cut outs on all four sides. It was awesome!

The woman who makes them, Carrie, is going to start selling them at Lucy's Art Emporium, also in Dover, NH. I highly recommend you getting one. They make great personalized gifts. So pretty :)

After the craft fair, we drove to Kittery, ME with the intention of going straight to the candy store, Yummies. We took a spontaneous detour when we saw the sign, "$10 palm readings!"

Unfortunately, the lady was cash only, and Jenn didn't have any cash on her. But I did! So, I got my palm read. Just one. It went pretty well. Some things kinda seemed universal, but the main parts seemed relevant. That was only the second time I've had my palm read, and it's always fun. I love it.

After that, we went over to Yummies and bought candy and delicious things. Then had lunch at Friday's - also delicious. Then we went to the movies!! We saw The Descendants. While we were there, Jenn pointed out that the last movie that we saw together was also a George Clooney movie. Funny. But great movie. It was probably the most depressing movie we could have chosen to see... but it was great.

Then we went to Starbucks to get a coffee! Ended up staying there for like, 3 hours until they kicked us out.

It was such a great day. Lots of fun. :)



PICTURE:: Ruby Tuesday on Christmas Morning!



That's the stocking I made her!! It's pink. She's the best.



NOW! Pictures of Ruby Sleeping Under Things!



She was like that when I found her.





Peeking out from under the tree skirt.


Also! I don't know if you realize this, but I'm on the visual display team at work. It's a fun team to be on. So, I get to do a lot of the visual displays that are up in the store. Or, on the mannequins. I think I'm pretty good at it.

Here are some displays that I've photographed, because I'm just so proud of them :)



Pajama bottom and sock display!! The picture I was going by did not have the bows all perfect. It just showed the strings like, hanging down. And I thought, 'yeah, that's not gonna work." So, I tied them all in perfect bows!!! Doesn't it look great with the bows tied on the socks?!?! YES IT DOES. I love this. It's super cute.


The next one is probably my claim to fame. The Flying Sweater display. I had no idea how I was going to pull this off.

It took A LONG TIME. But, it was actually a lot like jewelry making. I had to use wire, crimping beads (giant super sturdy ones), pliers and fishing line to get the whole thing to work.

It was A LOT of trial and error. And my finger tips were literally numb by the end of it.






But, it pretty much rocks. Every time I walk into the store I look over and check to make sure it hasn't fallen. I think it came out awesome.


NOW! For a segment I would like to call,

"Our Cats Are Business Ladies."





*End Segment!*

Another exciting thing! Kara and I were hosts to a New Girl party last weekend!!!! Of course, we are all familiar with the show, New Girl, starring everyone's girlfriend, Zooey Deschanel.

We just thought there needed to be a night where we just invited all the girls over and watched every episode of New Girl. And that night was last weekend.

This was the table spread:



YUM - right?! I made bruschetta and the punch (pink lemonade concentrate, ginger ale, and white cranberry juice), Kara made spinach artichoke dip and lemonade cupcakes with raspberry frosting. We also had sweet potato waffle fries! And then everyone brought delicious things including wine, champagne and chips!!!

It was a great group of hotties: Kara, Maria, Jenn D, Meg, Danielle, Jen S, Renee, Brittany, and me! We had so much fun. Lots of laughs. That show rocks. Like, so hard. It's like you can relate to some aspect of her life at some point during the show. Hilarious. Everyone should watch.

And the next day! Was SISTER DAY. :) Instead of me and Kara getting each other gifts for Christmas, we decided to have a sister day. Always a good decision.

We slept in a little bit. Had to run to Targs for some quick errands. AND THEN, the day started.

We got coffee and food at Dunkin Donuts. Then headed down to Old Navy and did some light shopping. I got this really pretty blue cardigan and a orange striped tank. The tank was only $3. YEP.

Then! We headed over to the movies to see New Year's Eve! It was great. Made you laugh, made you cry. I didn't think it was as good as Valentine's Day, but it was definitely fun. Definitely good. :)

Then! We drove home and packed because earlier in the day we had called and reserved an OCEAN FRONT ROOM in Wells, ME at Lafeyette's Oceanfront Resort. Cheap winter rates!!

We checked in, got a redbox, got some Chinese food and Woodchuck cider and crashed for the night. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

And we took pictures!

This was the view from our room when we first got there:





Yeah - right on the beach.

We had a great night. And this was the view when we woke up the next morning:




AHHHH! Birds! Wild birds! Too close for me.









:) Nice, nice day at the beach. It was such a great Sister Day. I ♡ Kara.


OTHER THAN THAT... there has actually been a lot more going on. But I think that's all I'll share with you now. Mayybe another time.

Sorry I haven't updated in forever. I'll try and be better. I'll make it a resolution. So far my resolutions for 2012 are:

- wear more yellow
- have no parking violations
- blog more!

I think those are pretty good.

2011 was a strange year. Overall, I think I liked it. I miss some parts of it. I did a lot of new things. Met new people. Kissed a lot of boys. Smiled a lot. Cried a lot. Drove to Brooklyn. Drove to Canada. My grandmother died. I got strep throat. Twice. Went to two weddings. Paid $85 worth in parking violations. Saw River City Extension twice. Had some articles published online.

Hm. I guess it sounds okay. I guess it was a good year.

And now, it's Golden Globes night!! My favorite season :)


Hope you all are having a great night! We'll talk again soon.


love,
Julie

adventures with a best friend in an afternoon fairytale

The title pretty much explains it all. That's exactly what happened. But! Lucky for you, you are reading this and you'll get awesome pictures along with awesome explanations. Great!

So, the last time we talked, I was in Rhode Island with Maria and the next day we were going to go to the Kinney Azalea Gardens! Well, we did!

But first! We had a Paranormal Activity marathon. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'Julie, didn't you just watch the Paranormal Activity movies with Greg?' And the answer is: YES. Yes, I did. But! Maria and I got to talking about them, and then we were like, 'let's watch the first one!' And then during the first one, we were like, 'let's watch the second one after!' So we did! And it was great. Although not very scary, those movies are fun to watch. It was a good marathon.

Then we slept really late the next morning.

And then! We got our act together and went to the azalea garden. Now, we realized pretty early on that we were going in late late November and nothing would probably be in bloom. And, nothing was. But, it was still an incredibly magical place. Can't believe that Maria lives right down the street from it! Awesome!

So, here are the pictures. I think you will find them enjoyable. :-)








There were lots of little gardens with month names. Such as this one, 'June Garden.' We kept looking for the November/December Garden... but apparently it doesn't exist.



We did find this artsy looking shed! It instantly reminded me of this artsy shed that Kara, Aunt Liza and I stumbled across in Canada last winter.




Then we found a tree with a face. Ya know, like you sometimes do. The first magical encounter.

Also, I should mention that all these photos were taken on my iPhone with the Instagram app. You can make the pictures look all hip. So, that's why they look so hip and olde-timey. :)






I think that's the house that belongs to the Kinney Azalea Garden people.




It felt like we were in The Secret Garden.




THERE WAS A MOON GATE!





Maria in the moon gate!




This was the view from the other side of the moon gate.




Us inside the moon gate! We felt protected.




So pretty :) The second magical thing we encountered in the garden.




If you see a sign for a hidden bridge, you immediately need to find the bridge.




It was hidden well.
















This is us either on the Andromeda Path or the Circle Path... I can't remember. That was kind of a confusing area. I feel like we accidentally ended up there like, 5 times. Time warp? Maybe.





Monsters? Check.




It didn't come out that well, but there were many tiny Godzillas in that tree.



Branches over Maria. :) I like this one.




And then! This dog came charging at us. It was scary. And then, ANOTHER dog came charging at us!




This dog had three legs.




Three-legged dog? The third magical thing we found in the garden.









Another secret bridge! This one was guarded by a Troll.



Yep, you guessed it. Fourth magical thing to find in the garden.





Another view of Troll Bridge.





Cool branches, eh?






Florals!





YET ANOTHER BRIDGE!!! It was great. We named this one, 'Jeff.' After, Jeff Bridges, of course. Jeff Bridges' Bridge. ha. Yep, we made lots of jokes about that.








Goodbye, Moon Gate! This was as we were leaving the garden. Such a beautiful journey! We were both hoping that since we were in a fairytale that we would find two Prince Charmings at the end. But, no.

Hidden bridges, secret pathways, monsters, trolls, three-legged dogs, moon gates.... it was magic in there.

If I were Taylor Swift, I would probably write a magical sounding song about that place.

I hope me and Maria go back when the gardens are actually in bloom. It'd be cool to see the place in a different season. But! I bet not many people visit during this time of year! So, that's cool, too. It's like going to York beach in the middle of winter. Or, being in the Airport Lounge at 4am, (during not finals time.)

So then! We were super hungry. Maria suggested we go to Crazy Burger. We did. It was down in Narragansett, RI, which was a short drive away. YUM!!! Their burgers certainly were crazy. Lots of vegan and vegetarian burgers, too, which was awesome. I got a turkey burger. It was delish.

The restaurant was only lit by twinkle lights!! I snapped this picture from behind me...



Pretty!!

Then sadly, I had to leave. :(

I was stopping in Providence on my way home to pick up some delicious East Side Pockets, for Kara and myself.

So! I decided that I wanted to see all my favorite sights of Providence while I was there. THEN - I decided that I should turn it into a "20-minute Tour of the City," and post everything on Facebook. SO I DID!!

But! If you weren't on the tour when it was happening, or for some reason do not have a Facebook - don't worry - I have all the pictures here. I will do another tour for you :)

LET'S GO!




First stop was Thayer St. to get the food. Love Thayer Street! It wasn't too crowded at this time of night, which was weird. But nice! Although, I still had to wait in a long line at East Side Pockets.




And I couldn't stop in Providence without seeing THE GREAT AND CURIOUS WALL! Duh!! My favorite tourist attraction in the whole city!!! This is the Wall along Hope Street. And, this is a great article that I just found on the Wall, and the Dexter Asylum, which used to be behind the wall. It's actually taken from the athletics page on the Brown University website, haha. Because now instead of the poor house being behind the wall, it's the million dollar athletic complex. I know I've talked about this many, many times. It never stops being fascinating.


After the Wall, I texted Kara asking her how to get over the the Overlook. Which is another hidden gem of Providence. Maybe it's not a hidden gem... it's always pretty crowded there. Anyways, it's a great spot!






Right on top of College Hill, you can see the whole downtown! It was very beautiful. And, the moon :) We went from moon gate, to moon at night. Full circle. Unlike the moon. HA. Wow, that was funny. Yeah, I'm laughing to myself right now. Moon jokes FTW!

ANYWAYS.

It was a GREAT day of adventure! I felt like a powerful explorer after it was over. Yeah, that was a great day. :)

It was a nice drive home. But, I was sad to be back because that meant I was not with Maria. But! I was with someone who missed me very much, and that someone was Ruby Tuesday! She was very happy to see me :) I missed her, too!!


The rest of the week was good. Saw the Twilight movie with Greg on Thursday night. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. The ending - OMG. It rocked. It was the first movie where I wasn't totally annoyed by Kristen Stewart. She looked kinda pretty! I think it was the way the movie was lit. It didn't have that bluish look to it. It looked happy! Yeah, it was a good movie. Nice time.

Then I worked a whole bunch.

Saturday night was fun because we went out celebrating Jen Sabin's birthday. All my friends who I used to work with in high school and college! We went out for drinks and lots of dancing. Great time!! My feet hurt for like four days afterwards.

Other than that - just been working. Today and tomorrow are my days off. REALLY REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.

Tonight I'm going out to the Brick House for some live music. If you're reading this and you live nearby and want to come, you should come. Find me. I'm looking forward to it. "the more the merrier!" Kara said, so seriously, you should come.

ALRIGHT! I think that's about it. I got a coffee this morning when I went out to run some errands. I was going to go to Aroma Joe's, but then my apple fritter radar went off and told me to go to Dunkin Donuts. So I did - and they had delicious looking apple fritters.



YEP. That happened. Did I eat the whole thing? You betcha. My apple fritter radar is very strong.

Ok! I guess I'm going to hang around some more before it's time to go. Tomorrow I have no plans. I'm very excited about this. It'll probably be a day where I stay in my pajamas all day. Nice. I might watch Moulin Rouge. I've been wanting to.

OK! Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?? Anything else exciting happening in your life?? You can let me know. I'd like to hear about anything and everything.

TALK TO YOU SOON!!! Be well!


☃ <--- snowman.