Surprise Adventure IV

Sunday:

Original plans for Sunday had included the possibility of going to church with Meg. I was looking forward to checking out the UU church as I have never been to one of those (I am a southern girl born and raised... and it might shock you to know that I was raised as a Southern Baptist). After all the playing dress up to judge clothing for Meg and watching of the awesome videos together I once again slept later into the morning than I had planned, and as we weren't really on a set schedule (except for the clothing swap) neither of us was fussed about it.

Meg's eyes and one of my current favorite eye looks... looks better on her because she has bigger lids than I do. Here's the tutorial I used (I used purples instead of blues).

I do NOT own the expensive cream shadow that she uses as a base, I just used primer and shadows for the look above.

After getting dressed (and let me say I LOVED today's makeup!!!), we loaded the car and went to the clothing swap. That was FUN! It was great meeting people, it was great browsing, but the most fun was watching those ladies swapping.

Meg as the "official" swap photographer!

Ladies swapping... early into the swap.

I think my favorite thing about the swap was watching ladies who came in a while after the swap had gotten started. When the new stuff came in, ladies who had already been there for a while rushed over to paw through the new things kind of like vultures. It was HIGHLY entertaining. I talked to several people (which although I don't think most people think of me as shy, it takes me a while to warm up and get comfortable in new situations so I can become the talkative person I am at heart). 

Meg is trying hard to pare down her impressive wardrobe (and I haven't even seen the whole thing, only bits and pieces). I however scored a lovely burnout gypsy style scarf with some impressive fringe (you know the square kind that some really cool people might also use as a table topper). And a LOVELY turquoise colored shell bracelet that looked oh so FABULOUS with the dress I had worn to the swap. I didn't see any clothes that I loved or I wouldn't have been shy about those... I did look. 

After the swap we had a lovely afternoon in Old Town which I'll tell you all about tomorrow.

Surprise Adventure Part III

Saturday morning I woke up... and it was chilly. This was so VERY awkward. It was chilly and overcast and rainy. My right foot had a blister the size of and ipod nano 5th gen. And we had planned to go to the Fringe Festival. After a short discussion on the state of my paw and the weather, it was decided that we'd just hang out and watch some videos and also that I would get to aid in judging some clothing.

THIS is something that I was looking forward to. In my previous incarnations of employment (or my non-scrub wearing jobs), I was a bit of a clothing hoarder... and I still love clothes, I just hardly ever have an opportunity to wear what I call "real clothes" so I have pitifully few of them. (In fact, I bought clothes to take on my trip partially so I'd have enough items to wear... LOL.)

We went through a LOT of clothes. And some I wouldn't even let Meg try on, I deemed them "HORRIBLE" and out they went. But loads more got tried on, some had to go through "testing" to see if they were acceptable for actual wearing out, some things didn't fit, and some were quite lovely. I could have been clothing judge for quite some time. But eventually it got later and we discussed plans for the next day. It was to be the day of the clothing swap and I was excited, it meant meeting new people and clothes (LOL) and we decided we'd go to Old Town to look around.

As an afternoon snack, Meg shared some cookies with me that I am now wishing I could find somewhere around here. But alas, they are from Canada.

Surprise Adventure Part II

Friday:

So there were a couple of things I really wanted to accomplish while I was in the DC area:

Visit with Meg
Check out the area by paying more attention (my trip in December is kind of a blur now)
Ride public transportation (I was born and raised in the south, we don't do that here)
Visit the Smithsonian (and by this I mean the Museum of American History)
Hopefully see Batman: The Dark Knight Rises before it gets spoiled for me

Lucky me, I got to do all that.

The house where Meg is staying is HUGE. I could have slept in a different room every night I was there but it would have been mean to have her do so much laundry, so I confined myself to the one room. I did consent to "help" with her makeup while I am there. I have small hooded eyelids and it is a TON of FUN for me to be able to try out looks on someone with actual lids :). I have also recently gotten a new eyeshadow pallette (the Urban Decay Vegan pallette). I needed some good neutral colors for summertime an I hadn't gotten anything new in the makeup department for WAY too long.

I'm so sorry I didn't take a closeup of these eyes... they were nice. My favorites were the eyes I did on Sunday... but I used brown with an accent of the blue for a nice pop of color. I did a very similar thing to my eyes, but because Meg's are larger the effect was so much nicer on hers.

The dresses we wore (oh, did I mention I brought Meg a dress?) had beaded necklines and I chose to go sans necklace, but I had brought one that looked fab with the dress. Meg was looking for accessories so I put my necklace on her. It looked lovely.

We drove over to a mall and then walked on over to the Metro (station?). This whole ride the Metro thing was so alien to me. But it wasn't nearly as complicated as I had thought it might be (I took a trip to Chicago in 2006, I wanted to ride the train but skipped it as I was afraid it would be way to complex to figure out...). I could get used to public transportation as easy as that!

From the Metro to the Smithsonian...

So this is me, at the museum... yes I am carrying possibly the ugliest handbag in the world but it was also very practical.

I forgot to ask for a copy of the photo of us matching in our dresses. (So can I get a copy of that Meg?) That dress is VERY comfortable and I love how the hemline goes up a bit on each side like a shirt. I am also embarrassed to report that I got a massive blister on one of my feet as we walked around this day. I was ashamed... it just means I need to pull my cute shoes out more than once a year! 

One of the things I enjoyed most while we were at this museum was the exhibit of gowns worn by first ladies, it's so fun to talk about the different fashion styles and what we liked or didn't like about each gown.... heavy sigh, I love clothes.

After we left here we headed over to the Air and Space Museum... and I had my photo taken with a famous Gemini.

Not long after this photo we had a very worthwhile wait to see Batman. All I am going to say is I LOVED the movie and I thought it a fitting end to the Christopher Nolan directed Batman Trilogy. I am also THRILLED that I got to see it in IMAX (the movie was shot mostly in IMAX). It is the first "regular" movie I have ever seen in this format.

As far as wearing matching dresses. It was fun! We got a lot of smiles, several comments and a very special grin from an older gentleman in front of a good humor truck (that part made it particularly memorable to me) as we walked out of the American History Museum. If you don't mind the comments and attention, I vote give it a try. Vacationing families and groups wear matching shirts, why not step it up with some nicer clothing. At least if we'd gotten separated and were trying to find one another it would have been super easy to describe what we had on (she's wearing this dress).

I found something

I went to Walgreens today. Hormones were rampant at work and chocolate and caffeine was needed by many. I needed some other things so I volunteered to clock out and run the quick errand over there.

I walked past an endcap and noticed some movies on clearance. One of them was a movie called TransAmerica. I plan to watch sometime today and I'll give you my review tomorrow.

I have done nothing more than look up the trailer so as to not spoil it for myself.

If you've seen it, let me know what you think.

Hugs.

Surprise Adventure...

I've been holding out on you all. Please don't be upset. The last time I planned an adventure, it was a bust. I was all set to go to Chicago in February (I think it was February... it's been so long ago LOL). I was all set to go and the weather decided at the very last hour, it was NOT to be. (I had actually driven 3 hours to an airport that was a bundle cheaper than my own airport ... and when I got to the gate, my flight was cancelled. Long story short that trip is still on hold/cancelled.)
So when I started planning another trip, I didn't want to jinx it.

I went to visit Meg for a few days.

I still can't believe how much fun I had.

I got off work a bit early on Wednesday evening and drove to stay with some friends in Birmingham. I almost had a nervous breakdown trying to finish up some last minute things on Thursday on someone else's schedule, my flight was delayed, then delayed again... and then it finally departed.

I LOVE FLYING. I haven't done it a ton, but I really like it. I relaxed enough on this flight to start a movie I brought with me. (Bridesmaids... total raunchy chick flick... I HIGHLY recommend it!) When we were still about 20 minutes from landing I noticed a flash and got to watch lightening from the plane. It was so lovely it took my breath away.

When we landed on the runway they shuttled us to the actual airport and the floodgates in the skies opened up. As I entered the airport there was announcement after announcement that flights were being cancelled.

I calmly found my way to the rental car place, and by the time I got to my rental car, the rain had calmed down. I set the address on my little iphone app and drove to Meg's (I only got lost twice, which I think is pretty good.)

She met me at the door wearing a lovely long sleeved paisley pink/sherbert/white print georgette top and a lovely flouncy skirt that was a solid pinky color that went lovely with the top. Her makeup was lovely and I was impressed she looked so fresh as I was getting there rather later than planned.  I felt tired and frumpy even though I had worn a super comfy dress made of black jersey material. I wish I had a pic of that dress to share... I have a coworker who wore the same dress when we went to see Magic Mike and I was thrilled to find one for myself. It's kind of a perfect summer lbd. I'll wear it again sometime and get a pic for you :).

This marked the first evening of girltalk keeping us up later than either of us intended... LOL but what 'cha gonna do?

Celebrating A New Girl Experience

Ok, so I know you are all about having girl experiences, and I'm wondering how many of you have considered...

Let me step back. You may or may not know there is a stripper movie out right now. It's a movie about male strippers. And you may or may not know anything about the frenzy these dancers supposedly whip the audience up to.

I have never seen strippers perform in real life... not male or female strippers. I have now been to see this movie, Magic Mike twice. Once with a girlfriend who doesn't like to be a part of a large crowd, and once with a crowd that totaled five ladies from where I work. Both times I had a similar experience.

When the male dancers were on stage and the ladies on the screen were screaming and yelling, quite a few of the ladies in the audience did the exact same thing. It has to be something about all that estrogen being in a confined area, it's unlike any actual situation I've been in before. The term mass hysteria comes to mind. And I too, screamed and made catcalls. It was like I couldn't not do it. None of those men were anything I'd actually want to go out with, but for some reason, the gyrating, the lights the music and the female frenzy was too much to resist.

And it was a lot of fun.

And there is a brief moment of Tatum Channing in a dress, no facial hair (in fact, they are missing a lot of the hair that I'm often reading that "wives would miss" if their spouse chose to shave it off for their cding).

Hope everyone who celebrates the 4th of July had a happy one.

Hugs!

(If anyone goes while femulating... PLEASE let me know how it is for you!)