Surprise!

I'll say I hate surprises, but that's not actually true. I want a surprise. Surprise run in with an old friend. Surprise party thrown in my honor. Surprise present "just because". Surprise me!

But make it a true surprise. Make it something that I have not even the slightest of inklings about.

Don't tempt me with little details here and there.

That kind of surprise drives me crazy!

For example, let's pretend it's my birthday month (I'm really digging deep into the depths of my imagination for this scenario) and you know what a friend of mine is getting for my birthday. Don't tell me I'm going to love it. Don't tell me it's the greatest ever. Don't tell me it's perfect for me. I don't want to know.

Anything.

At all.

I don't even want to know that someone got me a present until it's literally being put in my possession.

Then you can tell me all about how you knew I would love it. 

Just leave the suspense out of it.

This might be why I hate suspenseful movies... I don't want to anticipate. I don't want to wonder what it could possibly be. I just want to know... and I want to know NOW!

Yes this might make me the slightest bit of a brat... 

I'm okay with that because it's just a tiny flaw and it's one of the more lovable ones, right?

Oh also... You can take your horrible surprise that will make me hate everything about everything and shove it. I don't even want that in my life in any way.

This has been your daily uplifting message about hope and love brought to you by Ericka...

Okay really I'm not even crabby today. Today was a good day. I just really wanted to share my aversion to surprises and I thought today was the day to do it.

The real kicker?

I absolutely, positively love love love to surprise other people! HA! Isn't that just the most ridiculous thing even. It's probably because when I'm surprising others I am "in the know". And by golly I just love being "in the know". Overload me with information. It's good. I can handle it. In fact, the more info you have on something, the more I want!

Much love

E

To be clear, this is not based on real or true events that are currently taking place in my life. Just a rant that needed to happen.

Another One Bites the Dust...

I've missed another day... Maybe two days actually... I don't think I posted Friday or Saturday...

Damn...

This weekend was quite the busy one.

Movie in the park on Friday. Surprise birthday party on Saturday. Yard work on Sunday. Phew! I'm getting tired just thinking about it... And these are just the highlights!

The movie in the park was super fun! They blocked off the giant hill in Ah-Nab-Awen Park and people brought chairs, beer, and food. Ronni and I met up with Jason, Jess, Dannette, and Lucas. Quality people if you ask me. The movie was Back to the Future which is always a good choice. It was funny because the whole night we all knew we were going to see each other on Saturday with the exception of Jason... it was his surprise party I attended, and we had more than a couple close calls when chatting about the next time we would see each other. 

But the surprise WAS a surprise so YAY!

The party was at Jessica's parent's house right on a lake. It was gorgeous! I decided I wanted to just move in... I'm sure Jess' parents wouldn't mind, right? I adore Jess' mom, she is like my sole mate and she's just the most lovely of people to know. It makes total sense how Jess turned out so amazing.

I did get to chat with Luke a bit about my "brand". I've decided I want to stand out more online... I want something that screams ERICKA with reckless abandon. Luke is going to help me with that. And in exchange I will shamelessly promote all the amazing things he does.

This is his website: True Myth Media

You should go there.

Because of reasons.

I hate to cut this short but because of this thing:

My hands are bruised so typing is painful.

Much love

E

Sunburn, Sore Muscles, and Sleepiness

I could come up with a myriad of excuses as to why there was no post last night. But alas, I will not.

Do I feel bad?

Kind of.

Do I see myself as a giant failure frog?

Maybe a little.

Will I be posting an extra blog post at some random point during the remaining days of this month in hopes of keeping the integrity of BEDA by making sure I have 31 posts by the end of the year.

Most definitely!

Well, now that you're done giving me the guilt trip. Let me tell you about my weirdly surprising and happy weekend!

Friday night I left work thinking I would just pick up some food for Ronni and I and go home, watch some tele, and go to bed early. One of those things happened... Ronni met me for dinner and then we met my parents at Menard's to pick up bricks for the retaining wall my parents purchased and assembled in my backyard for my birthday. Then after unloading the bricks Ronni and I did watch some TV and then it was off to bed... but super late!

Saturday morning came WAY to early as I met Jamie, Cassie, Brooke, Mom, and Dad for breakfast at 9:30 (well I was a little late having misplaced my car keys the night before and not being able to find them for a good 15 minutes. Breakfast was wonderful and then we parted ways from Cassie and Brooke. The rest of us went back to my house where the "back yard project" began. Ronni helped out a bit before ditching us to go out to lunch with Alan, but who could blame her? HA!

Here is the list of things I wanted to do in the backyard:

Build retaining wall

Mow

Weed

Get rid of giant dirt piles along the fence so the dog doesn't jump OVER the fence

Redo the 16'x14' patio brinks

Plant a garden behind the retaining wall

Spread weed & feed through entire back yard

Hang lattice to cover below the deck so the dog stops going under the deck

Cut up the tree branches that had fallen in a storm

Here is the list of things we DID on Saturday:

Mowed the backyard

Built a retaining wall

Planted a garden behind the retaining wall

Removed the patio bricks from their uneven resting place

Spread weed & feed through entire back yard

Cut up NOT ONLY the tree branches that had fallen in a storm but also cut down two more dead branches and cut those as well

Carried giant rocks into my backyard to put into the garden

Killed bees and knocked down their nest

Weeded like a crazy person

Got rid of the dirt by the fence on half the yard.

Things left to do:

Hang lattice

Level patio and place bricks back into place

Get rid of dirt by the fence in the other half of the yard

Overall I would say Saturday was ridiculously productive!

Before on the left/After on the right:

OH! And Sunday morning my mother came over with a butterfly bush she planted in the new garden (with the 3 lilac bushes she planted Sunday) and like 6 or 7 bags of mulch which she spread in the garden for me.

So after all that work on Saturday my thoughts went to relax and sleep, but then the opportunity to go karaoke presented itself... and having not been out to karaoke in almost 2 months I just couldn't pass it up so out I went with my good friend Keri.

Keri and I had sushi for dinner which was absolutely fantastic and then we headed on down to good ol' gay bar to get our karaoke on! 

Here's Keri singing her heart out:

Luke was hosting which is always a delight and Pookie came down which was wonderful as well. THEN! Low and behold there was a secret guest! David showed up!

Me and David:

What an absolutely wonderful and welcome surprise! David moved to Minneapolis a little over a year ago which was the saddest of days because he's my duet partner at karaoke. He's also my friend, but you know... priorities and such. Anywho, David just got news that he is moving to Chicago (well right outside of Chicago) which is just the bees knees! Super excited to have him MUCH closer than he has been. Plus running into him Saturday night was just the best thing ever :) We got to sing our "signature" song... if you could call it that, and we tried out a new one. I don't know how he felt about the new one but I absolutely loved it, my part is all harmonies and as a soprano that's a rare thing for me!

So needless to say Saturday was a loooooong but fantastic day!

Then we open on Sunday... Sunday consisted of me sleeping until noon thirty which was just lovely after an an unexpected night out. But then the pain started. You know. The pain. The pain you get the day after you spend 8 hours working in the hot sun on your yard. That pain. The pain that hits every part of your body, every muscle you know you have and every muscle you never knew existed. And that is your reality for the rest of your day. Everything else takes second chair to that. Even now as I'm typing this I can feel my legs just burning! Then you start to realize exactly where you are sunburned. Your scalp. The tops of your ears. The back of your neck right where your hairline hits. Your nose. Your cheeks. Using a blow dryer is OUT OF THE QUESTION!

So I tried my hardest not to do anything all day. Ronni and I went to see Furious 6 which was quite delightful if you like movies with very little plot and SO MUCH STREET RACING. Which I do. So I was happy.

Then it was home for a lot of sitting around. One load of laundry (I really hate laundry) and the latest episode of True Blood.

All in all.

Good weekend.

Much Love

E