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 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 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 13, 2011
Regal Hollywood Cinemas on Main
07:57 p.m.
Deadlines are quickly approaching, we are all going slightly nutty at work, my physician apparently left the practice, and I have 475 things on my to-do list before I can even THINK about getting on a plane to Cleveland. That all being said… tonight’s Girls Night was a glorious way to keep my mind OFF of everything in my life for 2 1/2 hours.
I bought my ticket and even got my own Regal Card which got me a $2 small popcorn, but as we all know on Girls Night it is go big or go home so I went for the $3 medium, and went to see “New Years Eve” with Rachel Livingston and Loren Mayo.
I quickly snapped this slightly overexposed photo of my popcorn and the movie screen during the previews because this was the part of my day I was able to just sit in my comfy jeans, a sweatshirt and enjoy a wonderfully touching chick-flick with two of my favorite people.
I don’t get to the movies a lot, even though there are plenty I would LOVE to see. It’s usually just so damn expensive and honestly I don’t usually want to spend the money or the time that could be put towards other things. However, sometimes going to the movies is the answer to whatever is going on outside of the blackened theater. Sometimes the movie needs to be a chick flick and not something that makes you think too hard. Today I needed that medium popcorn and that chick flick. That is the lesson I am taking away from today.
December 05, 2011
Shamrock
10:38 p.m.
Sometimes you just need to go out and have a drink on a Monday night. One reason I decided to go out last night was because I was under the impression that one of our pals was going to be moving to West Palm Beach and I wanted to say goodbye (see the guy in the red shirt?). However, this was just one of his elaborate lies that he thought would be amusing.
Shamrock is always fun and reminds me a lot of some of the smaller bars in Athens like Tony’s. While I did not play darts, though I would have, I watched my pals and chit chatted and caught up with a few people I had not seen in awhile. It was a nice way to wind down from the day as well.
The funniest thing was that they had O’Hara beer on tap and while I am not a beer girl I had one and found it not to be all that bad! I mean, how could it be, right?
December 02, 2011
Sarasota Observer office conference room
03:50 p.m.
Happy 16th birthday, Loren Mayo! :-)
This morning I got up early to pick up a pink and yellow cookie cake and get to the office to get a card signed by the crew for Miss Mayo’s birthday. She has never had her birthday celebrated at the office so it was quite a big deal. She had balloons, cards, gifts and lunch with the gang. Quite a day, huh?
It got better of course when during her meeting with Jess a bunch of us came in singing with the cookie cake and “trick” candles. I helped to blow out some of the candles since she didn’t want to infect any of us with her recent illness, but the candles just continued to burn and did not “sparkle” like they promised. Nancy was NOT amused by this. Haha.
Nonetheless, I was glad it was such a successful birthday celebration for one of my best pals who made sure my first birthday away from home was special this past March. Here’s to another year of fun and to whatever else we all end up doing this weekend to celebrate. :-)
November 23, 2011
The Bozica Abode
08:32 p.m.
After a 3 1/2 hr drive across the state, I made it to the Bozica’s for my second annual Thanksgiving celebration and was greeted by Michael and Mallorie and then Grammy and Papa Bentley. Oh, and of course, Orea. I finally saw Linda after she got off work.
After plenty of trips to Walmart to get Mallorie’s blow tire fixed, we headed over to Grammy and Papa’s new home down the street from the Bozica’s house. How convient, right? Haha. It was delicious and a lot of fun.
When we got back to the house, Mal changed into her PJs. Flannel, leopard PJs. I was stunned! Stunned! I was told not to make fun and that they were comfortable. Once she got a hold of Orea I got out my camera and started snapping. I enjoyed this one because Mal is being ridiculous and Orea has had just about enough of Mal’s antics.
I am so lucky to have Mal and her family in my life and I hope we have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow.
