December 31, 2011
Coventry house
11:59 p.m.
Happy New Years Eve/New Year! This is the last photo I took before the ball dropped and the clock struck midnight.
I celebrated the evening with one of my oldest pals, Chris Karas, along with Lea Colagiovanni. Chris and I have spent many a NYE together and I was so happy to be invited out celebrate with him at the two parties he was attending. Chris even kept years worth of NYE hats and leis from the days when I held parties at my old house in Broadview Heights! Amazing, huh? It was also nice to spend it with Lea as well since we have not seen one another in five years.
It is so weird to be done with this project and I am SO proud of myself for sticking with it. There were days where I thought “Oh my God. Why did I start this? Why did I tell people to keep me accountable? Can I seriously take a photo EVERYDAY?!?!” But, while there may have been some days where the idea of getting a photo seemed daunting, there were so many days I was glad that I had a photo to post and write about. I was proud of my photos and I was excited to share them with whoever wanted to look at them.
I appreciate all of you who kept me going and encouraged me and commented and “liked” my photos. When people would say to me, “Oh, I really liked your photo” or “I’m really enjoying your photo project” it meant SO much to me.
So here’s to 2012 and here’s to keeping my 2011 promise of doing a photo a day for 365 days. I am sad that the project is over, but I am also a bit relieved and can’t wait to put the photos and posts all together in some way. Happy New Year!
December 30, 2011
The Kenilworth
11:03 p.m.
Finding out your best friend is engaged is one of the oddest experiences ever, especially when you don’t know the guy. Then you get asked to be in the wedding and you meet the guy - another crazy experience. Luckily, Melissa Pavlik is a wonderful person and her fiance, Ryan, is also great and now I am so excited for the both of them!
I had lunch with Melissa at Boneyard where we used to go in high school and on breaks from college, usually late at night, for nachos. It was good to catch up face-to-face and exchange Christmas gifts and of course, celebrate her big 2-5! OLD WOMAN! :-)
After seeing my second family, the Roether clan, for dinner, I made my way out to Lakewood to meet Ryan and see their very cool high rise apartment. I took this while we were at the bar they frequent weekly. It’s a bit of a dive, but a wonderful dive, which is usually the case with most dives really. It is not only a cute picture of the two of them, but I was glad they would be included in my 365 project.
December 29, 2011
A plaza near Hard Rd.
4:24 p.m.
While I REALLY wanted to make a trip to Athens while I was home, the trip became a pipe dream that went up in smoke due to my tooth and some old lady side swiping the hell out of Tobias Roediger’s car. However, we still got together and had a couple of hours of fun.
I drove my mom’s car to Columbus and enjoyed a lovely lunch at Aladdin’s and coffee at Tobias’ personal Starbucks. I gave him his gift (which I bought about a million years ago) and he and his friends are going to hopefully have a delightful time hosting their very own indie film festival with a Fantastical theme. Tobias gave me a great card and a fabulous and always needed giftcard to Starbucks! HURRAH!
When we were heading back to his house to watch the awesome short he and his crew recently screened, I saw that there was a sign for a bar called “Spoonz”. OMG. “Oh, yeah! I’ve meant to send you and Loren Mayo a photo of that.” EEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR, went the brakes as I pulled into the plaza to take the photo of the day.
If you have NO idea why the word “spoons” or “spoonz” is important, it is probably because you have yet to watch the short film called “The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon”. It may haunt you, but we all loved it back in the day when it was in the International Athens Film Festival. Since seeing it, we have all shared the short with our friends and many of them have enjoyed the fabulous and ridiculousness of the short.
I also got to see Patrick O’Hara and meet one of his roomies while I was down in Columbus. It was really fun to be in his college house. It also made me miss 41 Mill D+E. Overall - successful day of visiting!
December 28, 2011
The Endodontist’s office
11:28 p.m.
My front left tooth has been slightly discolored for years. We blamed it on my braces. We later learned it had probably lost it’s color from getting whacked with a baseball in little league when I was 8. So what have we done about it all these years? Nothing. Today? That all changed.
Yes, trauma to a tooth can cause it to become discolored and I was told that one day I’d probably need a veneer for it. That was all. Well, apparently if you get an abscess and it starts to throb with pain then you probably need a root canal.
If you go from the dentist to the endodontist to get a root canal you get to have around seven shots of Novacaine shot into your gums (OW!). Off the endodontist goes into your tooth and what does he tell you in the middle of listening to “Way to Normal”? You’re screwed.
Basically I have NO root all abscess and it looks like “swiss cheese” inside my tooth where there should be a root. Lovely. Just freaking lovely. Congrats, Rachel… you have just won yourself thousands of dollars worth of dental work, operations and procedures to get rid of your tooth and replace it with a fake. Merry freaking Christmas and happy 2012.
I took this photo while numbing up because I knew this room would be important to my day and probably where the most major thing of my day would occur. I was right. Little did I know I was going to be leaving with a prescription and no actual fix to my problem. I cried a lot. The poor doctor kept saying, “Don’t cry. You’ll make me cry.” Sorry doc, I hate doctors and I hate needles and I hate finding out that my problems are far bigger than anything you can fix. Don’t worry —- I cried a request to have my mommy come back and hear the news too because I am 23 and need my mommy, especially when I am in pain.
December 27, 2011
Kevin’s kitchen
07:00 p.m. (approx.)
Higgins McCarthy Milligan showed off one of his new tricks with one of his many mini milk bones I gave him for Christmas. He is a very patient puppy.
Today I got to hang out with Kevin Detwiler and we had a wonderful time catching up over dinner and at his house. He also met Miss Matilda who gave him a bit of a scratch (on accident!). Kevin brought her some lovely toys for Christmas and even gave me an awesome Canon travel coffee mug! Hurrah!
We played on his Kinectx a game called Fruit Ninja and it was HIGHLY amusing. Of course, nothing beats the greeting I got from Higgins when I came through the door. I swear, I am a lucky gal to get such a greeting!
I also saw Lauren Berzins for coffee at Starbucks. We had plenty of things to chat about and many of our conversations were hilarious and left us sounding like complete fools in Starbucks. She too met Matilda and got to see Miss Ivy as well.
I am so grateful to have this time off to be with my family, see my friends and even see some snow! Maybe tomorrow Matilda will go out in it!
December 26, 2011
Cozumel
04:30 p.m. (approx.)
Patrick O’Hara and Mike Murphy have been pals for years and years now and even though they don’t get to see one another a lot, it is amazing to see them interact with one another after being apart for awhile. It is as if they have not missed a beat!
Patrick and Mike are hilarious and get into their own little world when they hang out. Even tonight at dinner they were blabbering about who knows what. Laughing, yucking it up and agreeing on all sorts of ridiculous things, these two are amusing to watch and it is nice to see that they have been able to keep their friendship up even while away at different schools.
I was happy to see the whole Murphy clan tonight, sans Mr. Mike Murphy, but including Kathleen Murphy and Bridget Breslin Murphy. Our service sucked, sadly, at Cozumel, but we had fun and I was glad to have some bonding time with the gang.
December 25, 2011
Mommio’s house
10:06 a.m.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Our little family Christmas was an overall success today. While Ivy is still stunned by Matilda and Matilda was traumatized by a Christmas bow I made for her, we all pretty much enjoyed ourselves and swapped gifts and had some delicious eggnog and croissants.
This was my gift from Patrick O’Hara. My lovely brother packaged my items up in a Kroger bag with my name spelled wrong (just to tick me off), a $25 card to Kohl’s (always good), an 18 oz. jar of Jif (?) and some basic dental floss sticks (?!?). Why the Jif and the floss? “I dunno. Just thought they would be good.” Seriously? Who gives their sister peanut butter and floss as part of their Christmas gift? Oh, my brother does. From me he received a nice pair of Joe Boxer boxers with martini drinking polar bears and some brand new comfy slippers. Ya know, regular gifts.
We all enjoyed seeing “The Descendants” and a nice Christmas dinner together around the dining room table as well today. Overall, it was a nice Christmas and had a good time bonding with one another.
December 24, 2011
The Roether Home
03:35 p.m.
Today I got to see one of my oldest and closest friends and got to meet her awesome boyfriend, even if it was for only a half an hour. Stupid phone on silent stopped me from getting a little extra time with them and then the fact that she had family things and that she leaves for Cincy in the early a.m. prevents us from hanging out again. Le sigh.
Laurel Roether has been one of my best friends for years and getting to see her while I was home was a top priority for me. She is someone I truly miss being able to see and goof around with and even though we try to talk and catch up from far away, it isn’t always easy with our crazy schedules. So even if our get together today was brief, it made me so happy and made being home feel that much more homey.
The boyfriend gets my stamp of approval, by the way. Alex is an awesome dude and was highly amusing and put up with all our gal gab and I enjoyed getting to know a little more about him.
I snapped this on my phone before they hurried off to a family affair. They just looked too cute! Thank goodness I got to see you, Miss Laurel! The next time I see you, you guys will hopefully be visiting me in Sarasota for some fun in the sun! Love you!
December 23, 2011
Panini’s party room
08:45 p.m.
I am officially old. Haha, well, at least in the high school aspect.
I attended my five year high school reunion and it was quite the experience. Being back in a room with a good portion of my high school classmates was an odd experience, very deja vu-esque.
I got to see so many people I have kept in touch with but haven’t seen and I also got to see some people I used to enjoy greatly in high school but had lost touch with over the last five years. It was fun to see what people had been up to and what people were doing with their lives.
I snapped this off while talking with some of my old pals because I wanted to get a photo of the banner (bravo, Alex Fiktus, for hanging it) because it reminded me so much of all the banners that used to be up in the halls and in the stairwells in high school.
As I left I wondered, what will this crew be up to in ten years? Guess we will all have to wait and find out!
December 22, 2011
Tampa International Airport
08:03 p.m.
I planned smartly. I got ready early, had the cat in the bag, drove to Tampa expecting mad people and traffic and what did I get? No madness to stop me from getting to my gate. The only thing stopping me from getting on the plane? Five hours of waiting in the airport due to my plane being delayed. Twice.
I like airports, especially nice ones like Tampa. But waiting in them is not a favorite. PLUS my Kindle went whack and my poor cat is probably plotting to destroy me as soon as we do get to Cleveland for having to be cooped up in her carrier all this time.
I hope that by a little after midnight I will be in my mom’s car and driving to Brecksville. So Nashville here we come (I hope) and then Cleveland! This has been one epically long day.
