25 Days of Birthmas Day 13: Remembering Dad

By now you've guessed that I love the holidays and my birthday, but there are always a few times when my Christmas spirit completely tanks and I find myself in tears listening to The Christmas Shoes driving home from work. It's at these times when I'm listening to these sad sappy songs that I start thinking about Christmas 2006, and how it was the last Christmas I would have with my Dad.

My parents tried to tell me I didn't need to come home since weather was always iffy and they didn't want me getting stuck and not able to get back to school. But my Dad was finally out of the hospital and I was determined to go home. I can't even tell you what I got that year, I didn't care. All that I cared about was that my Dad was home, and that meant things were on the up and up. I slept with one eye open the entire time I was home waiting for something bad to happen but it never did. Feeling hopeful and confident that all would be well, I headed back to school to start my very last semester of college and begin preparing for Miss Johnson and Jackson County.

Unfortunately I never got to compete in Miss Jackson County. February 8th my Mom called early in the morning to tell me that Daddy had passed away. I remember the shock, but I didn't cry. At first I was angry that I wasn't there. I should have taken a leave of absence from school for a while to be back home. I knew though that Dad would have been angry at me for neglecting school and making a fuss over him. I was then so happy that I had gone home for Christmas and got to spend one more Birthday with my Dad. He made sure that I had everything I could ever need growing up and always supported me no matter how ridiculous my plans. 

So while sometimes the holidays can get me down with a sad song or two, I just remember all the happy holidays we had together and how he didn't judge me and just laughed when  came stumbling home after Christmas at the bars on my 21st Birthday :)

Cheers,

Marisa

Gettin' Down On Friday

Man am I glad it's Friday. A co-worker summed this week up quite nicely when talking about her MIA bagels:

"You know it's a week where you don't have your life together when you lose a bag of bagels." I think everyone can relate to that. 

I'm super pumped to head to Ames this weekend to have dinner with my old co-worker from my high school days who also happened to be my college roommate. Should be most excellent times. 

Some of you happened to notice that fame whore in the back of my vlog yesterday. He demanded I introduce him to the world properly. So, without further ado meet Bobo the cat.

How you doin?

This is a 100% accurate description of how Bobo sees himself.

I also have another sweet little kitten who Bobo tries to keep under the bed so he gets all the attention. Then he gets shot in the face with a water bottle. Meet Elvis.

She's a little shy.

But, she guards my mail and thats why I love her. Oh yeah, Elvis is a girl. I didn't know that when I named her. SHE'S A CAT. Like she even cares.

And to prove my point about Bobo being a fame whore this is the look he had after I took pictures of Elvis.

Yeah, stink eye to the max. Told you, fame whore. 

Well I hope this has brightened up your Friday. Bobo is off getting his Jagerbombs on with some fuckin' skanks sporting his new fucking haircut.  I'm just joshing ya. More than likely he will eat some food and sleep all day. Don't worry my cats are not alcoholics, no need to call animal control. 

Weekend Cheers!

Marisa

Sweet Home Chicago

Wow. You guys are seriously amazing. Thank you so much for your kind comments/tweets. You have no idea how much I appreciate them. In true life fashion, things got worse before they got better. I had to have my brakes replaced when I got home. Lets just say I got off the interstate in Illinois and came to a grinding halt. Oh well. It's done, I'm over it. I wasn't going to let that put a damper on my weekend, because I was there to party and spend a stress free weekend with the love of my life and old college friends. And that my friends is exactly what I did. First up though, I had to take Drew to a Chicago land staple: Portillo's

Apparently this boy loves him some hot beef and sausage....take that for what you will.

I however, being the vegetarian I am, enjoyed this delicious concoction of grilled zucchini, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes on sundried tomato focaccia bread. Yummm...

Then it was onto the wedding! I cannot tell you how much fun it was seeing the boys again. I had such an amazing time and it was so great to have everyone together. I'll let the photos do the talking ;)

(and last but not least, the groom looking dapper.)

How was everyone's Halloween weekend? I'm getting back to it, and I cannot wait to catch up with all of your blogs and see everyone's costumes!

Cheers!

Marisa

Hit it hard every yard for ISU!!!!

Oh hey. Remember me? The girl who's been traveling non stop for the last couple of weeks, yeah thats me. 'Bout time for a GD update. So here it is. I survived camping. AND I actually had fun! Tettegouche State Park was absolutely beautiful and the weather could not have been more perfect nor could my company be any better :)

(Camping essentials...I still don't know what half of it is)

We pitched a tent, made a fire and I called upon my gathering skills and collected twigs for the fire while Drew was in charge of the food. Also I think it goes without saying that we gorged ourselves on S'mores. I forgot how awesome they are.

(Campsite view of Lake Superior)

In the morning we got to watch the sunrise over the lake while eating oatmeal and drinking our coffee. Then something happened that made my entire camping trip. While eating breakfast I looked down over the bluff to see not one but FOUR river otters playing about in the lake. For an animal lover like myself it was the best morning ever.

So moral of the story being if you can get yourself to Tettegouche in the fall because it's absolutely amazing even if you're not the biggest camper.....yet.

So what the heck is with the post title. My Iowa friends know...some may be cheering along...some may be crying in their beers still. This past weekend was the BIGGEST weekend in football in Iowa. The Iowa vs Iowa State game. Iowa is considered the powerhouse football team in the state. Big Ten blah blah blah. However the game was held in Ames this year and of course we were up there at 6:30am cracking open a cold one and cheering on our alma mater. It was an INTENSE game with not one but THREE overtimes with the Cyclones coming out victorious. Seriously I never enjoyed seeing so many faces in so much misery as I did at the bar when Iowa State scored the winning touchdown. The Iowa fans were being particularly rude and well typical Iowa douchebags so it made it all the more amazing. I also may have gotten angry and threw an empty beer can into the crowd at one point. Whatever they were jerks. Anyways, from what I can recall it was a great day and all I need to remember is that the Cyclones won and Iowa City can suck it.

How about everyone else? Any other football victories this weekend? Anyone else throw some beer cans at douchebags?

Cyclone 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