Camping Anxiety??? Oh No Wait...Just The Regular Kind

Last night I was all Monday is going to rock and I"m going to get my ass to the gym at 5 (I did) to start my half marathon training and then at night I won't have to work out and I can relax and blog. After my workout I was feeling pretty good, got ready for the day and headed to work. Somewhere on that drive everything went to shit. I don't know what my deal is today but I haven't been able to shake this sense of impending doom. It's crushing me like a ton of bricks and for the life of me I can't quite figure out why. I am so rigoddamndiculously happy right now and Des Moines is not filled with raging flood waters, and I'm not going weeks without food like the children in Somalia, and I'm most certainly not getting blown up by suicide bombers so WHAT in the world do I have to be all anxious about?

Okay so I mayyyy have a slight clue. I may be soooo happy that it is causing this anxiety. I know first world white girl problems. I hate myself for even saying it because really you're so happy that it gives you anxiety? I would probably tell myself to piss off if I ran into me right now. However I feel like Charlotte in the good SATC movie, where she has everything she's ever wanted and is afraid something bad is going to happen to her. That's how I feel. Unfortunately for me I didn't shit my pants this year, so I guess I'm not done. 

Perhaps it's because things are starting to feel real. Like it's official, people know. Hey everyone I have an amazing boyfriend who is the bomb and gives up his 2012 Ikea catalog for me. So perhaps now that everyone knows, now that I can say "this is my boyfriend...." I'm so afraid of losing it. Does that make sense? Or am I being a ridiculous whiny little bitch who needs to man up? 

I'm sure it will pass but until it does, lets just blame it on the camping shall we?

Cheers

Marisa

30 Before 30: Camping....Like For Real Camping

So I have a lot of fun stuff coming up the next couple of weekends. Most importantly seeing a lot of Drew. The super fun thing I've got to look forward to is camping in Tettegouche State Park over Labor Day. Camping (for reals camping) is on my 30 Before 30 because....well.....in my 26.5 years of existence, I have never ever been camping. And here is why. 

This is my idea of camping:

(Shelley Long in Troop Beverly Hills)

I know I know I know you all saw me being a bad ass mountaineering woman in Colorado but here's the deal: That was about 5.5 hours in the wilderness. Not all day all night. Sleeping on the ground with possible bugs crawling on you and quite possibly the worst thing ever: PEEING IN THE WOODS!

No, I have never peed in the woods. Shocked? I know most people are. I would rather rupture my bladder than pee in the woods. I am not an outdoorsy girl what can I say. But, I"m determined to do this and to do it well. I may be a pageant doing, makeup/fashion obsessed, bug fearing ,river hating, dirt loathing, break into a cold sweat when on a lake, girl who hates sweating but I WILL successfully camp just as well as any Amazon who pees in the woods and eats bark. I WILL survive with out my concealer and bronzer and my straightening iron, and I WILL NOT call for room service...unless you can actually do that. Then I totally am. 

So this post was not a cheer me on post. This was a heap a lot of praise on Drew and send him good luck vibes and well wishes. He has undertaken a big task and is well aware of my camping/outdoors shortcomings. Luckily he is an Eagle Scout and I'm pretty sure Camping with Whiny High Maintenance Girl is like a patch they have to earn. No? Well then just keep him in your thoughts and prayers. 

Camping Cheers!

Marisa

The Beginning

So perhaps some of you are wondering how in the world I ended up with someone from Minneapolis. Where did we meet, how did it all come about? Well I'm here to answer that.

If you remember from this post I mentioned that Drew was a one of my very best friends from college. I didn't elaborate much more than that. I wish I could tell you the exact circumstances that we met under, but I"m pretty sure it involved being drunk and I"ll be honest I can't remember much from when I was 19 because of that. Anyway, Drew was in the fraternity next to my sorority and are actually considered our "brother" fraternity as our founder was the sister of a Fiji and a lot of our stuff is based off of them. Bit of Greek trivia for you. Drew, myself and our friend Spencer were pretty much inseparable, like the three amigos. All through college though I was literally just like a "sister" and they were my "brothers". We FAC'd together, studied together, went to Perkins at 2am together and took study breaks to DQ together. My senior year when I was competing in the Miss America system Drew was my personal notary public as all my contestant paperwork had to be notarized. 

So what changed you asked? We lost touch for about the last year and half, and then one day I get a facebook message from Drew saying he'll be in the Des Moines area for a Fiji event and if I'd like to grab dinner and catch up. I was so excited, some of my best moments in college involved Drew so I couldn't wait to catch up. The day came and he came by my place to pick me up and I remember walking out and seeing him and being like......whoa whoa whoa. Who is this? This was not the Drew I remembered, this super tall businessy looking guy. Where was the Beatles loving frat boy that would get following down drunk with me? 

After that day of catching up we did a better job of staying in touch and turns out he would be coming back down the weekend of the Dam to Dam. He also turned out to be my hero that weekend as I left all my possessions in cab and he successfully negotiated their safe retrieval. He was on his way to Kansas City for a conference that weekend and on his way back that following Tuesday stopped in Des Moines to have a drink with me. I'll never forget, when he dropped me off he met my roommate, and when he left this is the conversation that occurred: 

Roommate: Who was that?

Me: My friend Drew from college.

Roommate: He's really cute.

Me: I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha. We'll call that the turning point. I was suffering from my stupid stress fracture then and was pretty much immobile the month of June so I didn't get to do any traveling then. Once July hit and I was fracture free, I was looking for any excuse to head to Minneapolis and thank my lucky bands, The Get Up Kids were playing the second weekend in July. And well, as they say the rest is history.  

So there you have it. How the former single girl who spent the last year and a half looking for love ended up finding it 4 hours north in the Twin Cities.  :)

Cheers!

Marisa

Back As Fast As Lightning!!!!

Whoa! It's amazing what can happen once the creative juices start to flow. So I was all worried that I wouldn't have this done by this weekend and here it is Thursday and I'm writing a new post! May still need to do a few tweaks here and there but right now I"m pretty content with it. 

Alright, so I was all worried about what I'd write about now that I'm not  single anymore, but then I realized that I would be doing a whole bunch of fun things in a new city and traveling quite a bit and lets face it something interesting allllways happens when you travel. So I've decided to dedicate my blog to the travels, trials and tribulations that accompany a long distance relationship. Obviously this will just be another chapter of my blog as I don't want this relationship to be permanently long distance, but for now I have every confidence that I won't run out of material while it is. So welcome back to those that have been here a while. I hope you enjoy the new and (somewhat) improved site! And to those stopping by for the first time, welcome! Not sure what this post is all about just peruse through the last month or two of posts. Should bring you up to speed.

Cheers!

Marisa

I Didn't Fall Off The Face Of The Earth!!!!!!!!!!!!

BDE With The BBE

I am all about the acronyms lately. Haha. So It's Monday and that means recapping the Best Day Ever with the Best Boy Ever!!!!!!!  I don't really have any pictures as I forgot my camera at home which I think was for the best so then I wasn't constantly interrupting the day trying to get the right shot. Just got to enjoy all my time with Drew and boy did we do a ton of stuff! I'll recap it in list form.

8:00am: Breakfast. French Toast made by me. I concede that I am not as awesome at breakfast as Drew. I may not be as awesome at cooking as Drew. Ah well. 

10:15am: Head down to the East Village/Capitol. Perused the grounds while waiting for the shops to open up.

11:00am: Hit various shops in the East Village. Drew got some cool spices at All Spice and I got some more Caldrea dish soap at my all time favorite Eden . Drew being the best boy ever was a good sport and smelled a bunch of candles and voted for our favorite Votivo scent. And by our I mean we totally voted for two different candles. Whatever.

Noonish: Lunch at Noodle Zoo!!!!! It was so amazing. Seriously I have yet to take someone there that didn't think it was super amazing delicious. After an amazing lunch, Drew 100% proved himself worthy of the title of best boy ever.

1:00pm:

Harry Potter at the IMAX!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG it was so amazing! Beyond words! I want to see it 500 MORE TIMES!!!!!! 

After the movie we also spent time at the Science Center where Liam Neeson taught us about black holes, we built a rocket, race cars, and Drew helped a dad and his son build the Gateway Arch. 

Think the day is done? Oh no far from it!

4:30pm: Italian American Heritage Festival. We listened to some guy play some traditional Italian folk music with instruments made out of goat skin (ew), drank some delish sangria and learned about the different states in Italy.

6:00pm: Dinner at Cuatro with some happy hour margaritas. Good and much needed after the long day we'd already had. Once we were refueled it was off to the horse races!

7:00pm: Prairie Meadows race track and casino. Mostly did people watching. But occasionally watched the horses. It was such a perfect night out, I could've just sat there all night. But! After watching some craps and Drew deciding he didn't want to become a poor hobo, we met the bestie and her bf downtown for drinks

9:00pm: Royal Mile. We started here sitting on the patio, drinking some beers and enjoying the nice weather finally in Des Moines. ( It didn't last however. It's hot as hell right now.) The bestie however, enjoyed an entire butt.

After Royal Mile we went to another bar, more drinks were had and then we called it a night. It was midnight and we'd been out and about since 10am. Whew! Talk about a long day, but the BEST day!!!!!

Are you still with me? You're all such good friends :) So there you have it. The Best Day Ever. I have not had so much fun in a long time. Not since I was in Minnesota last :) I can't wait to do it again and very very very soon. How was everyone else's weekend? Hopefully just as amazing!

Cheers!

Marisa