Every Tattoo Has a Story - Part II

So I did it... After 2 years of talking about it, I actually did it and let me tell you, I forgot how freaking bad getting tattooed hurts! Call me a wuss if you must, but sitting still while someone continuously jams a needle into your back is draining!
I'd like to thank the talented Mitch Anderson of Mutiny Ink for being the one to continuously jam that needle.

Before Picture

Step One: Sketching for placement

Step Two: Drilling The Outline. The most painful part in my opinion.

Step Three: Coloring. I guess the technical term is "shading", but whatev.

Finally, after 2 hours and 15 minutes of resisting the urge to either scream or punch Mitch in the junk, we have the final product (notice Mitch in the background smiling? I swear it is not because I was showing him my boobs! He is probably just happy about the whole not getting punched in the junk part)!

I can't tell you how happy I am with the results! I'm in a shit load of pain right now, but I can't stop staring at it. ED told me he thinks it looks very sexy and to be honest, it makes me feel sexy too.
Right now the challenge is finding clothes to wear. Because of the size and location it makes wearing a bra all but impossible, but going without one is not exactly an option so I'm going to have to suck it up and find a way to make it work.

Pain is beauty, right?

Blogfully yours,

Summer

PS - While the parents were a little... um... shocked? at Fathers Day dinner, they did not react too bad. My mothers only question, "did you have to get it so big?".

I Would Walk 500 Miles and I Would Walk 500 More

Metropolitan… Manhattan… both start with an “M”, both sound fancy and both are in downtown Salt Lake City. One is a seedy underground club, one is an upscale restaurant. My beautiful friend Susan invited me to lunch last week…guess which “M” location I ended up at.

“Hey Sarah, I was supposed to meet Susan for lunch today and I think I am at the wrong place. I’m at the Manhattan and it looks a little…um…scary… I don’t think they even serve lunch here either… Anyway, I don’t have Susan’s number, could you text it to me?”

“I’m pretty sure you are supposed to beat Metropolitan… not Manhattan sweetie.”

“Fuck.”

I get the address from Sarah, look around at the lunch time crowds walking the downtown streets and decide, what the hell? I’m healthy and parking is a pain, I’ll just walk it.

15 minutes later I show up at the correct “M” restaurant looking wind blown and limping from walking in heels that are a half size too small.

Susan and I had a good laugh about my stupidity and she promptly ordered me a glass of wine, then shortly after, another. Thank God Susan has such an amazing sense of humor and thank God she had her car so she could drive me back to mine because there is NO way I was going to walk all the way back.

Attention to detail kiddos… trust me and my blistered feet, it is highly important.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Sure, I'd love to see your farm!

I have great news! This weekend I am going to hang out on a farm somewhere in the middle of no-where Utah! Yay me!

The other day ED asked me, over a plate of cheese fries from The Training Table, what my plans for the weekend are and what my homework load was looking like. I told him that I didn't really have any plans and that homework outlook seemed low, then added suspiciously, "why do you ask?". Then my darling ED told me that he was going to go to his parents house for the weekend, along with his brother, to do some work on the family farm. Then he oh so casually asked me if I would like to join him... at his parents house... for the weekend! I am happy to report that I did not jump across the table and kiss him, nor did I start hyperventalating from a full blown panic attack. I kept it cool and collected and simply said, "Sure, that sounds like fun."

Later I got a call from my best friend Karin The Russian (that's right she started her own blog) to tell her about my conversation. We went over all of the important details, like what the deeper meaning could be, how I felt about things and what the traveling arrangements would be.

We got off the phone, less than 2 minutes later Karina called me back up.

Karina: "I totally forgot to ask you the most important question! What are you going to wear? I think you should wear the new shirt you got from bebe yesterday! You look so sexy in that!"

Me: laughing "Well, I am going to be on a farm, so I don't think a silk blouse from bebe is the best choice. Plus, I don't want to appear all uppity fancy-shmancy high maitenence. I was thinking I would just wear jeans and casual tops and my cowboy boots."

Karina: "So let me get this strait... you won't wear a bebe shirt, but you are going to wear your DESIGNER cowboy boots? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Me: "Boots are boots! They won't know the difference. I just can't wear them out in the mud...come to think of it, that might give me away."

Karina: "Whatever. OK, here is your To Do list items while you are there. Are you ready? Number one: Wear overalls! Number two: Have sex in a barn!"

Me: "Oh. My. God! You are too funny!"

Karina: "I expect a full report on these two items. Just make sure that you do not have straw stuck in your hair when you go back in the house. But if you do, just hurry and put in your mouth and they will think you are one of them!"

Good old Karina. Always looking out for what is important!

All joking aside, what do you wear to meet the parents? I'm slightly out of practice here folks. In fact, the last parents I met, were my x-husbands. Wow... "but I am So not going to do what everyone thinks I am going to do, which is totally FREAK out!" Sorry, had a Jerry McGuire flashback for a minute there.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Spring Breaking It!

I successfully survived the first weekend of my very first Spring Break as a college student! Since I am going back to school later in life, I never fully understood just how awesome Spring Break actually is.
My original plan was to party every night to make up for all the boring weekend nights that I have spent staying in to write an English paper or to study for one test or another. I didn't really stick to that plan completely for 2 reasons.
1. I am no longer a wreckless 21 year old.
2.I am old(er) and partying takes it's toll on me. Recovery time seems to take a lot longer.

Friday nights original plans were to go to a Wine Gala, but it was canceled for one reason or another. Instead I went to the gym then over to my sisters house, played card games with her boyfriend and passed out watching Knocked Up. WOO HOO! Party animal!

Saturday night however, I made up for it. My beautifully crazy friend Ariane had the rare experience of having a sitter for her 2 beautiful children and demanded asked me to join her for a girls night out. Everything that Ariane does is in grand fashion so it was no surprise that she was able to get us a VIP booth at Harry O's in Park City for the Spring bebe fashion show. Since Park City is a good 20+ minute drive up a super winding canyon, she also got us rooms to stay at over night. Not too shabby, right?

I got all dressed up (in bebe of course!) and headed up with 5 other girls. Inspite the the fact that Harry O's is known to be a bit of a meat market and that ED the boyfriend wasn't thrilled about me staying over night with a bunch of single chics, I had good time. The fashion show was small but really cool to see, I got to dance my ass off all night which is awesome because I haven't gone dancing in what seems like forever and last but not least, VIP booth = Champagne!

Girls night out are rarely without drama and of course this night was no exception. But the important thing is that even though we got less than 4 hours of sleep, we made it home safe.
I'll tell you though, after a night like that I'm fairly positive that I will be celebrating the rest of my Spring Break by catching up on my DVR and snuggling with ED. There is far less recovery time that way!

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Russians say it best

One of the things that I love about my best friend Karina the Russian is that she has no filter. She always says exactly what is on her mind and uses the word vagina more than a gynecologist. She is one of my biggest supporters (a fact that she is very vocal about), she spells words how they sounds and she is constantly revealing parts of the story that I am leaving out. Her crass comments leave me in stitches on a daily basis so I thought I'd share some with you!

"A cautionary Tale"

"Everyone else is doing it"

" Kicking 8.5 miles in its mountain ass"

"I'm positively positive"

"The year for my girls"

"Environmental Dating"

"Happy 2009"

"Worlds greatest TV show: Crotch Mafia"

"Tacky Christmas Party"

Blogfully yours,

Summer

A cautionary tale

Saturday night I dragged Karina the Russian and the boyfriend (I still do not have a name picked out for him) to Port O'Call to see Royal Bliss perform. For my non-Utahan readers, Port O'Call is one of our oldest bars and it is being forced to shut down because the government wants to put a building there. Also, Royal Bliss is Utah's local band who recently released their first major record label CD. I love the band, have hung out with them on more than a few occasions and seen them in concert at least a dozen times. This particular concert was very important to me as it would be my last time ever to set foot in Port O'Call and one of my last opportunities to see Royal Bliss before they become huge rock stars.

I swear it was like pulling teeth at first to get everyone on board to go. Karina was able to get a baby sitter and even though she has a bit of a grudge against the sexy guitar player (long story), got excited to go out. I had to take the boyfriend to the gym and give him a good workout before he was able to get excited to go (get your mind out of the gutter). My sister Staci and her BF Cody were suppose to come and she actually WAS excited to go, but she got sick.

So the Russian and the sexy nerd couple headed to the show. We ended up having to pay double the amount of the tickets because they were sold out. Thank god for exercise because the boyfriend stayed happy to make me happy. We made it upstairs and were watching the show. Of course the boys of Royal Bliss did not disappoint. We ended up standing behind a slightly older man and woman who were incredibly drunk. Now, I am not going to be a prude and say there is anything wrong with having a really good time and I've had more than my share of times being the drunken fool. But when you get to be so drunk that you are spilling drinks on people, dancing into them, starting fights in the women's restroom and causing my BF to want to punch you in the face for grabbing me, it's no longer cool, it's sad.

I made Karina swear to me the next morning over breakfast at Mimi's that we would never let each other get like the ridiculous older drunk woman or her friend (or whatever he was). Seriously, it's not cute at any age, but to be 40-something and falling over drunk, I never want that to be me. Luckily I now have Karina's solemn oath that it never will be. Yet another reason why I love her.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Damn cat! Damn Boyfriend!

A while ago Karina the Russian and I decided that the one good thing about having an albino retard cat (Bodie), was that we could blame him for everything. House is a mess? Damn cat! No food in the kitchen? Damn cat!! Stub your toe? Damn cat!!! Start your period? Having a bad hair day? DAMN CAT!!! It has been an ongoing joke for a while now, especially over text messages.

"I've been running around all day. So tired. No gym. Damn cat!"

"Gonna be late! Damn cat! Be there in 20."

"OMG! Is this some kind of f'ing joke?? 3rd day I'm turning on the radio and Hoobastank is on AGAIN! F@*%ING CAT!

And my personal favorite, sent from Karina while trying to navigate the Denver airport.

"Did you know Island 3 and Island Street sounds the same to a Russian person?! Damn cat! I already made a few people laugh here!"

So Wednesday night ED came over. We both decided to put homework on hold and just have a quality stress free night together. We watched The Daily Show, The Soup and American Idol (Salt Lake City auditions) while munching on Kettle Corn. We cuddled on the couch, we laughed, we relaxed. It was perfect. To two busy college students, it was a slice of heaven. Before we were going to call it a night I said "Oh no! I didn't get a new blog post written!" He told me it was OK and that I could blame it on him and just say "No new post. Was distracted. Damn boyfriend!"

Boy is he going to regret saying that! Now that I have his permission, I have already come up with several ways to fully take advantage of it: I have nothing to wear. Damn boyfriend! My apartment is a disaster. Damn boyfriend! I'm late for work again. Damn boyfriend! I'm out of beer, wine AND vodka? DAMN BOYFRIEND!!!

Not quite the same as "Damn cat"... IT'S BETTER!!!

I'm so going to be single forever...

Blogfully yours,
Summer