Christmastime is here...

 

It's the holidays in Cleveland which means Public Square and Terminal Tower are all dressed up with lights in celebration of it all. (see above, snapped on my commute home)

My presents are all purchased, my last day of work in 2012 was yesterday and I'm planning on spending my next two weeks vacation with family and friends drinking bubbles, celebrating, throwing parties and seeing tons of movies.

Read: not blogging.

Well, maybe I'll surprise you guys, but don't hold your breath.

I hope everyone takes a break from the computers and smartphones if you can, squeeze the people you care about tight, tell them you love them and have a Merry Christmas (if that's your thing) and a Happy New Year!

xoxo

C&S holiday soiree, UD COC and the Un-Xmas Party

Per usual my weekend festivities started on a Thursday. It was an extra special Thursday though because it was the First Annual Column & Stripe Holiday Soiree at Great Lakes Brewing Company's tasting room.

Lots of work from the Cleveland Museum of Art's staff and the C&S Emerging Leaders Board (which I am a member of) went into planning this event and we couldn't have been happier with the results. We ate, we drank, we crafted and got to hang out with fellow, new and prospective Column & Stripe members. 

Some of the emerging leader board: Kevin, Lauren, Graham, Gina, me and Matt + Party shots!

Sad you couldn't attend or interested in becoming a member? Head over to the CMA website for more information on the group.

Friday night was an online shopping night for CK and I - knocking Christmas presents out like whoa with Aladdin's takeout.

Saturday was a mixed bag of giving back to the community with CK and I volunteering at the Cleveland Foodbank with fellow University of Dayton Cleveland Alumni for Christmas Off Campus (thanks c-rossi for organizing) and then attending an Un-Xmas party fulled of complete and utter debauchery and inappropriateness at Frank and Michelle's.  

Sorting food at the Cleveland Foodbank is fun! Especially when CK gets a box full of candy and we find out there's a peanut butter brand named "Nice!" - awesome.

I don't even know where to begin, but I'll try... Shots + The hottest game of 2012, BLADES + Lzone and Suzanne asking Santa Stephen for boyfriends for Christmas + Fishface and his Aunt Lisa + Suzanne and I competing in feats of strength, she won, I lost, but you guys also won because who doesn't love these pictures

For the record, these are the PG version photos, I don't know what it is with my friends this weekend and last weekend with all their holiday inappropriateness that I can't post on the plum.

They are pretty fun though, I'll keep um around.

Happy Tuesday, kids - two more days of work for me in 2012 - let the countdown to vacation begin!

Hair dye mortify

As I'm about to head to CK's hometown of St. Louis next week to celebrate the holiday season I'm reminded of the first time I headed there to meet CK's family and the story I purposely omitted from the blog recap.

I didn't write about it because I was flat out mortified, MORTIFIED, but as time passed I'm finding the humor in it all and can finally share it with you guys - so here goes.

I was nervous meeting CK's family, I wanted to make sure I presented myself well, followed through with all the manners my mother taught me and overall make a good impression. Pretty standard stuff for anyone meeting a significant others family.

Things were going well, because his family is awesome, but when it became time to get ready for a nice dinner out I did something I didn't have time to get to prior to my departure from Cleveland - dye my hair.

Now let me explain myself here, I get my hair professionally colored, highlighted and cut every 6 weeks like clockwork. I use the term "highlight" loosely though because it's really more of a low-light to keep up with the look of my dark brown hair.

Sometimes my low-lights became too light and get "stripey" (this was when I was with my old hairdresser, fyi, not my awesome Mindy who introduced me to Tressa Watercolor Color Maintenance Shampoo), so I would get Clariol Nice 'n Easy Root Touch-up Kit at the drugstore for in between color processes. Only for the highlights on the top of my head.

Wanting to again put on a good appearance for CK's family, when I noticed the "stripey" look right before heading to STL I picked up the 10 minute process hair color and decided to touch up when I got there. I've done it 100 times before, I even brought a plastic bag to wrap up the remnants all safe like in the trash when I was finished.

If only it was that easy.

Once the 10 minute process was over I bent over the tub to turn on the shower not realizing that when I bent down, the top of my head, with all the black colored hair dye,had essentially made a long blob shaped stripe down the side of the crisp white linen shower curtain. 

Permanent black colored hair dye. 

All over my boyfriend's parents crisp WHITE cloth shower curtain. 

First impression.

Because I couldn't scream the F word at the top of my lungs I started to cry, then started to laugh.

Only me.

Once I finished getting ready I headed straight to CK's stepmom, brought her to the scene of the crime, apologized profusely and pretty much wanted to crawl into a dark hole.

WHO DYES THEIR HAIR AT SOMEONE ELSE'S HOUSE?!?!? 

She must have thought I was bat shit crazy. It serves me right.

When I got back to Cleveland I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase and send them a replacement shower curtain - still mortified.

You guys, I was so embarrassed by the whole thing I didn't mention it to anyone, not even my best friends who I over-share everything with. It wasn't until this past summer after much more quality time with CK's family that his stepmom Florence told me that the whole thing actually endeared me to her, and thinking it was hilarious, told all of her friends.

Awesome. At least we both can laugh about it now over a year later - phew.

So can anyone top this? Have you done something this mortifying in front of your significant others family in the beginning of a relationship?

Please share so I don't feel like such a schmuck.

Happy Thursday, kids.

It's a white elephant party celebraish

I would love to share pictures of my weekend like I always do but I simply can't this time.

Why you may be asking yourself?

Well, because I attended Cubby and Martha's annual white elephant party celebraish and in 95% of the pictures from that evening there's either a blow-up "Justin Beaver" sex doll, a ball gag or inappropriate lingerie - among other things...

(I can't wait for the spam comments on this post to start rollin' in, hello, Justin Beaver sex doll!)

Anyways, I can promise you it was a great weekend filled with holiday cheer, Sunday Latitude 41n brunchin' plus Bazaar Bizarre Cleveland shoppin' with Seanski and Happy Dog cidar slurpin' and Browns win watchin' fun with Seanski, Lzone and Suzanne. Fun in the D-sho!

There is one photo from the white elephant party celebraish I can share, the one of Tony, aka @chewbaucco, and a t-shirt I made him of his most ridiculous selfie twitpics and Ahmed who gladly gave Tony his t-shirt for a um, holiday candle holder something or other.

Good times, good times.

Side note, you don't want to know what "Justin Beaver" was doing with that holiday candle holder's backside....

Happy Tuesday, kids!

THE BEST HOLIDAY COMMERCIAL EVER!

I sure was MIA this week on the plum, it's because I've been out every night this week gallivanting around Cleveland with my friends. From Vitamix tweet-ups, to charity beauty sales, to #KeyLegLamp Cavs games to pho-licious dinners with my girls. It's been wonderful.

But I have something more important to talk about today....
 
Attention everyone: my life is better because this Old Navy commercial is in it.

I mean, who wants to go buy inexpensive fleeces, flip flops and sweaters? I DO!

This is just so much better than my well documented aversion to the creepiest holiday commercial of all time.

Am I right? Or am I right?
 
Happy Friday, kids. 

Hello December, nice to see you.

Congratulations to @CLE_Eileen for winning four tickets to see Wednesday's Cavs game and enjoy all of the KeyBank Leg Lamp Night fun and surprises. Also, if you haven't entered KeyBank's A Christmas Story House Night Out make sure you check it out ASAP.

________________________________

This blog post isn't going to do describing my weekend any justice. I failed at picture taking, but I didn't fail at having fun.

Thursday night the weekend started off right with an impromptu dinner and drinks night out with CK at Clifton Martini & Wine Bar. I'm embarrassed to say that I've never been to this well spoken of neighborhood spot and after such a good experience I can promise you we'll be back. We had an amazing dinner of lamb for me and chicken ravioli for CK plus lots of malbec, bubbles, manhattans and martinis. Yeah, it may or may not have been a little rough at work Friday morning...

Friday, thanks to all the fun we had Thursday night, was extremely low key. Like, I fell asleep at 9:30 pm low key - you'll have that.

Saturday on the other hand brought beautiful weather in Cleveland. CK and I had breakfast at home then errands on the eastside like shopping at ETON Chagrin Boulevard picking up my Bluemercury haul and having a boozy late lunch at Paladar Latin Kitchen.

Saturday night brought a stop for me and CK at Bar Louie in the Warehouse District where we had excellent service and funny patron people watching before we headed across the street to Blue Point Grille to meet up with Muffin, Melinda and Beaver for cocktails. CK really was a good sport hanging out with all the ladies by the time we headed to Tremont he was glad to head to a house party for some testosterone. 

The girls final stop for the evening was at one of Tremont's newest restaurants Press Wine Bar located in the old Lago location across from Lolita. We ordered a couple bottles of Malbec and a cheese board but looking at the menu I can't wait to head back for a proper dinner.

Muffin, Beaver and Melinda at Blue Point + cheers at Press Wine Bar + our cheese board, yummy.

As I'm typing this Sunday night a lamb roast is in the oven and Sunday dinner for CK and I is about to begin.

Life is good.

Hope you had a nice weekend too, kids. Happy Monday.