My day….

This is how I spent my entire day….

Tough day, let me tell you ;)

I hope you all had an amazing day! :)  I’ll finish blogging about the recital soon, I promise!

Home Away from Home

Dancing was always so much more than just a hobby for me.  It was a passion.  I loved everything about it:  the attire, the art, the technique, the practices, the performances….everything!  Because of this, I adored being at the dance studio.  Although I had to be there many hours a week for classes, I would often find myself hanging out there even when I didn’t have to.  Honestly, I probably spent more time there than in my own home.  It was literally my “home away from home”.

When I graduated, I knew I would miss dance, but I never thought about actually missing the studio itself.  After all…it’s just a building right?  I soon realized that it was so much more than a building to me…it was home and I missed it dearly.

Although I have stopped in for several visits since I left, I haven’t gotten to spend any real time there…that is until this week.

I know how crazy it is at the studio around recital time so I promised that I would come help out while I was home.  As soon as I walked in on Monday evening, it took me back to 7 years ago….I was home.

The glistening competition trophies in the entryway that we had worked so hard for, the soothing lavender walls covered in the same images I had admired as a child, the sound of music and “5,6,7,8” wafting through the doors of the classrooms, and little ballerinas spinning around in the lobby….it was like I had never left.

Even though I had only planned on going for a couple of days, I ended up spending every afternoon there.  Every day I would arrive at 2:30, pull into the same parking spot that I always parked in from the time I was 16, walk right in, get to work, and stay until they closed up at 8:00.  I spent hours answering phone calls, dealing with parents, sorting and handing out pictures, programs, and t-shirts, and even critiquing some dances.  I was exhausted every night, but honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Because, well, I was home.  Is it sad that I already miss that place terribly?

It’s SHOWTIME!

It’s 7:00 and as we speak, the recital is beginning (no, I’m not posting from backstage…I am actually writing this way before the chaos begins)

My costume (yes singular…thank goodness!  We’ve come a long way from the days of 40 costumes per show!!) is hanging up, ready to be thrown on at the last minute.

My stage make-up (that I had to go buy because I left mine back in Tuscaloosa…yikes!) is on and packed in my cute little make-up case ready to be used for touch-ups after I run up and down 2 flights of stairs herding crying and yelling children downstairs and onto the stage saying things like

“Girls, we cannot talk on the stairs because your mommies and daddies can hear you out in the audience”

“You can see your Mommy as soon as the dance is over I promise”

“We don’t have time for you to check in the mirror ‘just one more time’…you look gorgeous I promise”

“Sweetheart, why are you only wearing one shoe?  Find your other shoe QUICKLY!!”

And of course, my dance steps are learned, perfected and I’ve got my dancer face on ready to perform.

I am nervous, anxious, and most importantly ECSTATIC about this.

Because in the midst of the chaos, glitter, hairspray, and lights…I am in my element. 

And no matter what happens, the show must go on..and it will.  Even though we will have moments where we are not sure that we will make it through this show …we will, and everything will be perfect (to the audience’s eyes at least ;)).

IT’S SHOWTIME!!!

And so it begins….

the weekend of chaos and excitement!  It’s recital time!!  The dress rehearsal (as well as our alumni reception) is tonight and then we have shows Saturday and Sunday!

I’ve been at the studio the entire week helping out, and I volunteered (in a moment of weakness…it is what that place does to me!) to work backstage so pray that I get everyone dressed and where they are supposed to be on time and of course that I am put together and don’t fall on my face during our routine….ahhh!

Anyway, have a a fabulous weekend!! :)

P.S.  Did I mention that this will be the first time that Alex sees me dance?  He’s getting on a plane in a few hours from California (he was there for business) to come see me perform tomorrow…yeah no pressure! ;)

Happy Birthday Mom!

While I was at home, Mom celebrated her 48th birthday (although she looks no where near 48!!!).  I had to work at the dance studio all day, but I met them at Longhorn’s afterwards to celebrate!

I hope you had a fabulous birthday Mom!!

   

Mini Vacation

Since I have the month off (of school at least), I’m going to take advantage of this coveted “free time” and go home for a few weeks.  It will be nice to spend some time with the family without having my head buried in a book…or in my case, my laptop :)

Plus, that dance recital that I mentioned a while back….it is next week!!  So next weekend, say a little prayer that I don’t make a complete fool of myself ;) 

Since I will be stuck with dial-up, I’m not sure how much blogging I will be doing.  However, rest assured, I will be back in June with lots of stories and pictures from my mini-vacay at home!

So, for now, ta-ta dahlings!  I will see you in June! :)

Lots of love,

Maegan

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I most certainly did not spend the majority of last week and this weekend, working on and stressing over a 30 page, photobook project that I volunteered to do for some special people in my life.  I would also NEVER turn down help because I know that this project was more than I could handle.  Nope, not me….I never add unnecessary stress to my life!

I also did not literally squeal with delight and call everybody I knew when I received an e-mail from my professor letting me know that they had a Graduate Assistant/Instructor position open for me at Alabama in the fall.  Nope, I would never do that because it is not set in stone yet and I have gotten my hopes up for nothing before.

I also did not do a happy dance and take a picture of my final grades from this semester to send to my parents and Alex…

and IF I did, I most certainly would not post said picture on Facebook and Twitter.   I am not that much of a dork….nope, not me!

I also would never let my laundry get so far behind that I have to use every door frame in the house just to hang the clothes up to dry.  Nope, I never fall behind in my housework!

What have you not done today?

Arkansas in April, Part V (The Finale)

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

 

As I’ve mentioned before, Alex LOVES to cook so we decided that for my last night…we were going to go to one of their upscale grocery stores and get some really good ingredients and cook something…and that’s what we did!

We went to Fresh Market in Little Rock and it was amazing!  I’m no cook,  but this place certainly makes me wish I was…

and Alex said we could choose one of their desserts instead of trying to make something….

and that was only half of their dessert counter!  I had no idea where to even start!  (Side note:  I actually got in trouble for taking this picture…apparently they don’t allow photography in their store…who knew?) 

After we roamed around the store for a good 30 minutes or so and picked out all of the ingredients and did some taste testing (including making/trying our own olive salad from their olive bar!).  We headed back to Conway to grab a movie and start cooking.

Unfortunately by the time we got home, we weren’t really that hungry yet so Alex decided it was the perfect time to try out the beer he had been brewing for a few weeks.  I didn’t necessarily understand the excitement, but since he was so excited I decided to be supportive and photograph this monumental event.

 Yep, he’s a dork, but I love him anyway ;)

Finally, it was time to make dinner (well, for Alex to make dinner…I was working on my final paper)!

 

Our ingredients:  stuffed chicken breasts, spinach linguine, tomato sauce, our homemade olive salad (black and green olives, mozzarella, and sun-dried tomatoes) and cheddar rolls.

The finished product

Ready for dinner and a movie :)

    Our desserts:  fruit tart and a molten chocolate cake.  Surprisingly, I preferred the fruit tart…it had like a cheesecake/whipped cream type filling – Amazing!

I loved being able to relax and savor the last bit of time with Alex.  We even stayed up later than normal just because we didn’t want the night to end :(  The next morning, I packed up my things…

and choked back tears as Alex put my things in my car and we said our goodbyes.  I needed to get gas so Alex told me to follow him to the interstate and I could get gas there…he stopped with me (although he was late for work…purposefully because he wanted to spend more time with me :’(), paid for my gas and even pumped it for me.  I managed to hold back the tears while he kissed me, told me goodbye, and then followed me onto the interstate.  I was fine until I looked back and noticed him exiting off…then I lost it.

The trip home was fine…I felt like I was on autopilot most of the time because I was trying not to think about how long it would be before I saw him again.   I made it home in one piece, took the rental car back and went to class.  I never thought I’d say this, but from the moment I got home, I wished I was in Arkansas.  I’m hoping it is just because Alex is there, because otherwise, I’d be a little worried ;)

Thanks for reliving my journey with me!! I know it was long, but since I use this blog to help me remember things…I wanted to share all the little details so I wouldn’t forget! :)  Hopefully I will have another trip to share again soon! :)

Arkansas in April, Part IV

Part I

Part II

Part III

My final day in Arkansas was a little bittersweet.  Although I was excited to get the spend the whole day with him, I couldn’t help but think about how I would be going back to our “new normal” the following day.  Every time I started getting sappy, Alex would say something sweet and remind me to enjoy our time together while we had it :)

On our way to dinner on Friday night, we drove over this bridge overlooking downtown Little Rock/River Market area and I made him promise to bring me back before I left.  On Sunday, since it wasn’t raining, that is exactly what we did!

I’m a sucker for downtown areas…I love the idea of being able to stroll down the street and pop in and out of shops (probably why I love NY so much!) This coupled with a beautiful park and my honey…I was in heaven!

 

As soon as I saw the park, I was in love! 

Apparently, Peabody Park was designed by kids…and it is absolutely adorable!  They even have a “history walk” that you go through and you can learn about Arkansas from the signs…precious

 

How pretty is that?  See that bridge in the background of the second picture (which happens to be one of my favorite pictures from the trip)…we noticed people were walking up to it so we decided to do the same :)

It was a bit windy…okay, extremely windy…

but it the views were gorgeous.  Especially this one of the park…

How pretty is this??  I was in love!!  If it hadn’t been so windy, I could have probably stayed up there all day. 

We were both starving so I suggested we have a picnic in the park (because honestly, I didn’t want to leave this place!).  The cute little market on the strip was closed so we thought we’d just drive and find a grocery store close by and grab stuff to make sandwiches…sounds simple enough no?  I chose the grocery store category and we were on our way…I was totally choosing by the name of the place, which was obviously not the smartest idea.  The first place apparently didn’t exist, and the second place, called Barne’s Grocery and Deli, was more like a rundown gas station that was overgrown with weeds…I so wish I had gotten a picture, but I was too busy laughing, but trust me…it was a scary sight.  So, we gave up and headed back to the loveliness of the River Market and ended up grabbing food from one of the shops called Four Square.

  

Us waiting on our food and enjoying our Mexican cokes in the glass bottles...yummy!  (Note:  I am not a coke drinker period, but it is something about them in glass bottles…)

Then we took our food and a beach towel and found a pretty spot in the grass.

Our lunch:  mushroom and feta wrap, veggie panini, caesar salad and of course our Mexican Cokes :)

It was absolutely perfect that is until the clouds started rolling in so we took that as our cue to leave…our day wasn’t over yet though!

Stay tuned for the next part of our adventure…

Arkansas in April, Part III

Part I

Part II

So, when I left off, we were on our way back to Alex’s to get ready for our date night.  We had discussed this while I was packing so I knew exactly what I was going to wear.  As soon as we got back, I threw on my “perfect outfit” and was just freshening up my make-up when I heard it…

“Babe, what should I wear?”

Sigh…honestly, I have enough trouble picking out my own clothes and honestly I didn’t care what he wore as long as he didn’t look awful (which thankfully I’ve trained him well over the course of our 5 year relationship and that doesn’t happen anymore ;))  So, I told him to wear whatever he wanted…

“No, tell me what YOU want me to wear”. 

Now, there are occasions (i.e. weddings, fancy dinners, special events) that I do like us to at least coordinate, just for picture purposes of course…but I don’t make him match me ALL the time.  In fact, there have been several instances where I opened the door for a date and we were wearing the same top and Alex either made me change or he did. Anyway, I suggested he put on a black polo (because I was wearing black).  He put that on with khakis, but of course he was too dressed up and he didn’t want to wear jeans.  I suggested he put on his khaki shorts and we call it a day.  His response:

“Well, I don’t have black summer shoes that I can wear with shorts!”

Folks, I have created a monster.  As much as I wanted to shake him or bang my head against the wall…I knew it was my fault for threatening him never to wear black and brown together (although I’m obviously going to have to work on the “exception” rule)  Nevertheless, he refused to wear it so we were back to square one.

We went back and forth for like 30 minutes…I ended up taking every piece of clothing out of my bag so we could find something to match and we actually argued over this.  Bless him, he was trying so hard to make me happy by matching me…but, at that moment, I really didn’t care.  I felt horrible though because obviously he’s afraid of not matching me…yikes!  I told you…I’ve created a monster.

He finally settled on a purple button-up that he has been wanting to wear (because purple is my favorite color and I have been pushing for him to get something in purple for years) and I ended up in the same outfit I had been wearing the entire day.  Oh well…we survived the clothing catastrophe and we were finally on our way…

  At least we matched for the few self-portraits we took on the way out the door ;)  I do love him for trying his best to make everything “perfect” :)

Our first stop was a little place called Sushi Cafe in Little Rock.  It is a little hole-in-the-wall place, but the food is amazing.  Since we had that ridiculous pizza for lunch, we decided to go light for dinner and ordered two sushi rolls:  the rainbow roll and the blue dragon.  They were delicious!

The place was packed, so we ended up having to sit at the sushi bar.  It was fine though because this little guy beside me cracked me up…

Plus, it’s always fun to watch the masters at work :)

After dinner, we had some time to kill before our movie, so we checked out some of the stores in the same shopping center as the movie theatre.  They had one of my favorite stores, Charming Charlies, so we didn’t get much further than that.  Alex suggested we grab some dessert at a restaurant in the shopping center (pretty sure it was his way of getting me out of the store) and this girl NEVER turns down a good dessert.

So, we headed into Ya-Ya’s and told them we just wanted to look at a dessert menu.  Then the waiter starts walking toward us with a whole tray of goodies that I’m of course thinking it is someone’s order…nope it is the dessert tray.  I would say that every restaurant should have one of those, but it would not be good for me because I wanted to get one of everything.  However, only 2 of the dishes had chocolate and when he was describing the second option…I immediately said “we’ll take that”

I mean warm chocolate ganache wrapped in phyllo dough topped with ice cream and a homemade brownie…yeah no question there!  Alex was actually surprised I didn’t choose the cheesecake (I don’t think he heard the chocolate ganache part), but when it came out and we took the first bite…he agreed it was the best choice ;)  It was amazing!

After dessert, it was finally time for us to head to the movie theatre to see “Date Night”  The movie was very funny and definitely a great “date night” movie! :)  I mean, how can you go wrong with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey? ;)

Afterwards, we headed back to Alex’s apartment because after eating so much rich food all day, I wanted to do nothing but sleep…bleh!  It was worth it though! :)

Stay tuned for my final day in Arkansas :(….

Arkansas in April, Part II

Part I

So, Saturday was not near as eventful as the previous day, but it was definitely fun! :)

We slept late which was great!  We were discussing what we wanted for lunch and it hit me that I completely forgot my bag of shower stuff back in Tuscaloosa.  Sweet Alex offered me the stuff that was in his shower, but I didn’t think Axe shower gel and men’s 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner was going to cut it.  It was pouring down rain, but he offered to take me to Target to get all of the stuff I needed. 

See, he’s even faking a smile for me ;)

On the way, we grabbed some coffee from one of the 4 Starbucks they have (we had to hit up the drive through one because we don’t have one of those here ;)) and then went to Target.  No sooner did we walk in the door before the bottom fell out.  I am quite picky about my shower stuff….shampoo in particular, as most of mine comes from the salon or Walgreen’s if they actually have it.  I decided I was just going to shop on the travel aisle because if I had to choose from everything else, we would be there all day.  I bet I spent a good 15 minutes or so trying to decide on what to get and sweet Alex was such a trooper and nodded and smiled as I shoved shower gels and shampoos in his face for him to smell.  I’m sure he misses things like that ;)

The goods :)

As soon as we made it to the register, it stopped raining so I didn’t feel as bad :)  We then headed home so we could get ready and grab some lunch.  While we were trying to decide where to eat, Alex gave me a mini tour of his new hometown.

We ended up eating at one of Alex’s favorite pizza places, Gusano’s.

I had never had Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, so I was definitely anxious to try it out!  We were so hungry, we decided to order an appetizer while we were waiting on our pizza…

It’s pizza dip…like all of the toppings of a pizza melted in a skillet and served with Frito’s….it was so good!!  Alex and I determined to figure out a recipe for it.

Just as we were finishing up the pizza dip, our pizza arrived.  Since we were sharing one, I let Alex order and he did so well!

This picture doesn’t do it justice…this thing was huge!! (You can kind of get an idea if you look at Alex’s plate behind it)  I could only eat a piece of it, but it was so yummy!!!

After lunch, Alex took me to Little Rock to show me around.  We hit up several of the upscale shopping centers there and did some looking around (I didn’t buy anything, but I definitely did lots of drooling over bags in the Coach store ;))  Then, we headed back to get ready for our date night (only after we stopped at gas station for icee’s…I had a sore throat so a coke icee was the perfect cure ;))

To be continued…

Arkansas in April, Part I

Note:  I know I’m a little late in these recaps, but it is hard to write about how much fun we had when I know it won’t happen again for a while. :(  Anyway on to my Arkansas Adventure…

When we were planning for this trip, we were a little hesitant about me taking my car.  My baby is quite old (she’ll be 10 in August next year!), and I’m sure she would be fine, but because the trip is 6 1/2 hours on back roads, I’m by myself, and there are a few places that I don’t have cell phone signal, we all decided my best bet was to get a rental car at least for this first trip.  Anyway, Alex was a sweetie and offered to get me one :)

So, I reserved the car from 10 am on Friday until 2 pm on Monday.  Because I was so anxious to pick up the car so I could pack it up and get on the road, my brother dropped me off at Enterprise around 9:30ish.  Good thing, because it was 10:30 before I got out of there!  Next time, I will not bother filling out the extra information on the website to “speed up the process” because they didn’t use any of that information.  After they took every bit of information (including calling my insurance company back home and then having to get permission from BOTH of my parents because I’m on their account), I finally got my blue ride for the weekend, a Kia Spectra.  Not going to lie, I was hoping for the Pontiac G6 they had as their example car on their website, but no such luck :(

My weekend ride parked next to my baby (and baby bro’s truck)…so sad to leave her for the weekend!

Anyway, I finally got on the road around 12:15 after a stops at Best Buy (for an auxiliary cord to play my iPod), the gas station, and McDonald’s (I had forgotten to eat anything – yikes!).  I had my trusty GPS going and it started me out the way Alex had told me.  Then, I realized that it didn’t have me turn where he had told me.  So, I panicked…and called him at work.  He and his coworkers saw that although I was going a different way, it should get me there so I calmed down and enjoyed the ride. 

All was going well until I get about 3 hours into my journey.  I look down and my GPS’s battery level was flashing at me.  No problem…I grabbed the car charger for it, plugged it in the cigarette lighter and kept driving.  A little while later, I looked at the GPS and the screen was off…I tried to turn it back on and nothing.  I then realized that it wasn’t charging.  I thought maybe it was just that particular charger so I tried my cell phone charger…no luck there either.  I looked at my MapQuest directions that I had printed out, but because my GPS sent me another way, they were no luck.  Thankfully, I have a Navigator on my phone so I just plugged in Alex’s address and went on my way.  About an hour or so later, I get a phone call from a friend and I notice that there is only 2 bars left on my battery indicator (thanks to having to run the GPS)  Since the cigarette lighter wasn’t working, I knew I couldn’t charge it with the car charger.  I was praying that the battery would make it, but I was afraid it wouldn’t so I was planning my next move.  About that time, I remembered that I had an emergency, battery-operated charger in my purse so I was a bit relieved.

I get another hour into my journey…by this point, my iPod has died, my GPS has died, and my phone is on its last bar and the batteries in the emergency charger had died on me as well.  I was just getting ready to find a gas station to buy some more batteries when the bottom falls out.  I’m talking I can’t see the car in front of me.  I hate driving in the rain and being in an unfamiliar car in and unfamiliar area just made it a million times worse.  White-knuckling the steering wheel, driving about 40 in a 60 mile an hour zone, following the yellow line and of course crying and praying, I finally made it through it.  There were a few times I seriously considered pulling off and telling Alex to come get me, but since that would be a while I decided to tough it out and keep going.

Anyway, after the monsoon, I was on a mission to find a gas station so that I could at least have a working phone.  After 3 attempts, I finally found one that actually had batteries and then hopped back on the road.  After a fairly uneventful last hour of the trip, I finally made it to the entrance to Alex’s apartment.  I have not seen him in about a month, so I barely recognized him waiting at the gate for me.  I excitedly waved at him as I was waiting to turn in, but I forgot I wasn’t in my car so I’m sure he was wondering who the crazy chick in the blue Kia was ;)

I got a couple of huge hugs before he helped me unload the car and take everything up to his apartment.  Then I got a few more hugs and kisses, and then it was time to get ready to go out to eat with some of his coworkers.  I was so excited to get all dressed up and of course spend some quality time with Alex!

   Some pre-dinner self-portraits with my hunny…he even wore baby blue to match my dress

After we finished taking pictures, we headed to dinner (early I might add ;)) at this place…

Cajun’s Wharf in Little Rock….amazing food, atmosphere, everything!  We had some wonderful food and even better company!  It was so great to meet some of Alex’s coworkers :)

Us at dinner

The whole crew

After dinner, we headed upstairs to the bar/deck and enjoyed the nice breeze overlooking the Arkansas river…it was amazing!  Then, Alex took me on a short and sweet tour and then we headed back to his apartment to relax because we were both BEYOND exhausted!

To be continued…..

Not Me Monday!

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

What have I NOT been doing today?

I most certainly did not spend the whole day scrapbooking.

Nope, I would never do that…especially when my house needs to be cleaned, laundry done, and bags unpacked…I know my priorities!

I also did NOT take some of this…

Because I know that this allergy alert is true

and it causes all but one of those symptoms (hives – check, facial swelling – can’t see out of my right eye…check, and wheezing - *cough cough* check).  I know better than to take this because it affected me back in January when I took it for the first time.  Nope, no matter how much pain I’m in, those symptoms AREN’T worth it!

I also DID NOT cry at least 3 times while going through these…

that my old dance friends submitted for a project I’m working on for my old dance studio’s 20th Anniversary.  I’m not sappy and sentimental like that….nope, not me!

So, what have you NOT done today?