Haili's Wedding

There was actually a day in between the bachelorette party and the wedding but not much interesting happened that day except laying in the sun and a rehearsal dinner that involved absolutely no rehearsing at all.

Oh! I had lunch with the lovely MBGeekOut guys. I love them so much! We had lunch at Margaritaville and this happened.

So attractive. Also fuck yeah pickles and chicken fingers. Don't judge me.

So, Saturday. Whitney and I had stayed at my place the night before so we got up around 8am to shower and get a little ready. There was a bridesmaid brunch planned for 10am and then we needed to go help set up the park and the reception hall.  Except Haili, Celia and Rina got to brunch late because they had been up all morning setting up the reception hall!  After brunch we went to the park, did the minute amount of setting up that needed done and went and sat in the hotel room for ~4 hours. We started another movie but I wasn't paying attention, did our hair and makeup and still had HOLY SHIT SO MUCH TIME.  Eventually Whitney and I got hungry and went to the Beach House Bar & Grill across the street, where I got more chicken fingers (I was in a chicken fingery mood).

FINALLY it was time to go to the house where we were to get ready. Except all of us bridesmaids had already done our hair, makeup and put our dresses on. All that was needed was to get Haili in her dress and get the whole shindig over with.

Around this point is when Kat, other bridesmaid, and I started getting really anxious and nervous. We took a lot of pictures at this point too! Haili looked so damn beautiful. I could hardly stop looking at her. I was also just so amazed that my friends are getting married and moving on to the next chapter in their lives. The majority of the pics I took at this point were of her.

 Kat and Whitney doing last minute touchups.

 Haili! SO beautiful.

The three bridesmaids, Kat, Me, Whitney 

D'aw. 

Love the shoes.

Finally, it was time to go stand out there. There wasn't any sort of procession or walking down the aisle. Haili just wanted us to "just go" and stand where we were supposed to. So we did. It was easy and none of us fell or tripped on our dresses! So glad I wore wedges instead of heels though since the other two were sinking into the dirt hahahaha.

The ceremony was very short, very cute. I almost cried (and then later I did shed a tear or two during their first dance). Afterwards we did some professional pics (none of the ones with the bridesmaids in them have surfaced yet though).

The happy couple!

Then we went off to the reception, where we ate and drank (a lot) and danced (a shit ton) and I did my speech (totally wung it) and it wasn't terrible! I even got people to laugh! Hooray!

We danced so much. There was so much dancing. Where are the pictures of me dancing?! I barely took any pictures because I hardly stopped dancing all night! Tip for the future though: beer + lots of dancing do not mix well. I drank one glass of wine, three beers and then two bottles of water after I got all bubbly inside. 

And didn't eat any cake. :(

Haili had disposable cameras on every table so here's some of the pics we were captured in!

Celia (who was a groomsman), Kat, Whitney, Me 

Celia, Kat, Me 

This is us dancing during "Baby Got Back" which we requested after GOOGLING ON OUR PHONES top 90s hits because we were all too tipsy to think of any ourselves. How pathetic are we hahaha.

Eventually all the shiz was over, and we helped clean up the place before Whitney, Jeff (her fiancé) and I went off to Broadway at the Beach to get our booze on (more). Whitney and I changed into more appropriate attire in Jeff's truck and started our night at Fat Tuesday (after I said hello to my two favorite bouncers, Dave and Kevin and got some new plastic rings from the Broadway Louie's arcade counter). Fat Tuesday's drinks weren't strong enough for us so we decided to head elsewhere.

We all realized that we had never been to Crocodile Rocks before, but that we had all heard excellent things about the place (not to mention there's always a huge line outside even though it has a cover charge). Since none of us are locals to MB anymore we couldn't get in free that way, but luckily my bouncer friend, Kevin, got us in! Love him! We even managed to snag a table near the stage! Long story short, I drank a lot of beers and everyone was singing at the top of their lungs to every song, myself included. It was so fun.

And then I got called up on stage.

And the pianist serenaded me with Journey's "Open Arms" and it was so cute and I was so drunk and so embarrassed and flattered at the same time.

I hit on him afterwards.

We stayed till they closed and finally went back to my dad's place since Whit and Jeff were crashing there too. We ended up staying up just eating boiled peanuts and talking until near 3:30am.

That Saturday was probably one of the best days of my life.

The Bachelorette Party

I flew home a week or so ago on Thursday the 8th to be there for one of my best friends' wedding and bachelorette party. It was something I really couldn't miss, being the maid of honor and all.

I got into town early (I lied to Haili about what time because there were a few things I needed to take care of before committing the rest of my time to her) and immediately ran into a few crises that had me speeding from one end of the town to the other leaving me little to no time to accomplish anything that I had originally set that time aside for. Of course all this put me in a slightly bad mood, and then to have Haili blow up on me about something regarding the bachelorette party (we didn't make a penis cake but she thought we did and was extremely unhappy about it) almost set me over.

But I was there for her, and I love her and I can only imagine the stress she'd gone through with all the coordinating and planning and dealing with family. So I sucked it up and tried to make sure we all had a fun time. Once everyone (Haili, me, Whitney, Kat, Rina and Celia) got to the hotel it was time to start the party.

First order of business was ~girly stuff~ aka going to get our nails done. I already had my toes all cute and zebra striped up, so I decided to get fake nails since it was something I'd never had done before and I wanted to feel ~girly~. They took a while to get used to (holy shit taking out my contacts the first night was not fun) but I actually really like them and think this is something I might treat myself to on occasion.

Then we wandered around the mall, got some frozen yogurt, drove up to my mom's house to get the bucket of margaritas she'd made for us (best mom ever?) then picked up pizzas to take back to the hotel. Then we ate pizza and drank some of the booze Whitney brought that had everclear in it and watched uhhh The Ugly Truth? I think we watched a second movie but I can't remember, but eventually we wanted to venture out into the night!

So we ventured into the hallway. (Haili, Kat, Me, Whitney)

Haili, Whitney, Me, Kat and Celia infront of the SkyWheel, which we did not ride.

So we walked down the Boardwalk, realized we should've brought money and went back to the hotel room to refuel (get more booze) and get money. Then we headed down the Boulevard, which made us all wish we had "We're Locals, no we don't want your stupid airbrush tattoos or booty shorts" signs.

Then at some point I ran through the field where the Pavilion formerly stood, and magically didn't trip on anything and faceplant.

Somewhere along our walk we decided we should go to Mt. Atlanticus and go mini golfing.

Just a few drunk girls playing some putt-putt and making jokes about our balls.

We actually made it through all 18 holes, and I got 3 holes in one (obviously I wasn't drinking enough), but Kat got 4 or 5 holes in one and she won the game. I was in third place though! Yeah! The majority of our time here was us getting distracted and taking pictures and Whitney instructing us not to eat the oleanders because they cause digitalis.

 Right before we started playing, when we still had booze left in our cups.

 She just really likes dodos guys.

 I WILL get on this bird.

SUCCESS!

But, Haili, haven't you already found your prince charming?

Uhh, okay, wow.

"Let's take a picture with the REAL South Carolina native!" Also don't eat the oleanders guys. (venus fly traps are found natively only in North and South Carolina in the United States and Whitney knows this because she is awesome and nerdy)

I wish I could tell you what I was thinking when I made that pose but I honestly have no idea.

Best pic!

After a very successful game of putt putt we headed back down the boulevard, where we realized an arcade with a DDR machine was open, and Haili and I decided to see if we still have the skillz.

DDR reminds me how out of shape I really am and how much I miss stomping on arrows. Yes, I use the bar. Yes, I failed that song. I never did get crossovers. /nerd

After failing at DDR because 1. I suck, 2. I lost a flipflop at one point, and 3. Holy shit what is air how do I breathe, we ended up at a bar to do some shots! Haili isn't much of a drinker so to have her do shots was AWESOME. They even made her do her shot with no hands. I would put those pics up but they're not flattering and I'm not sure she'd appreciate it.

Before Shots!

 After shots!

And after all that fun we headed back to the hotel. Rina and Celia went back to their room for some sleep while the other four of us went back to ours. We started watching Monster in Law and finishing off the chips and salsa (and booze) before finally crashing around 2am.

Post SC trip feelings

Ever since I've been back in Chicago from home I've felt a bit bummed out. There's more than one reason why, but let's just chalk it all up to me being homesick.

I had some of the absolute best nights of my life while I was home, which yes I will write about later when I'm back in the mood for it. Getting to dance and sing and party with two of my closest friends, Haili and Whitney, just made the whole trip worth all the money and frustration. And only getting to see my other best friend, Amanda, for less than 20 minutes made me so sad, and I wish I had just had one more day there; one more day to spend with Amanda and Jared and my old Arcade crew, even though most of them now are away at college.

I've never really considered Chicago home, I've rarely even called it home except maybe a handful of times that I can think of. I've never really felt a longing to be back in Chicago once I've been away for a while. Yes it's a beautiful city with tons of beautiful people and things to do and opportunity, but I've never really felt like I completely mesh with the place (not to mention I hate the weather, it's still technically summer and in the high 40s!). But every time I'm back in SC I feel that, I feel sad when I leave. It's not the weather, or the beach or my car that make me feel that way. It's my family and my friends, and my friends back there basically feel like family to me. It's that I can go almost anywhere and run into someone I know.

I feel like I belong there.

The only things holding me to Chicago are my job, my lease and my two wonderful roommates who are also my two closest friends here. I love them both and I don't want to leave them, but I know I won't be living here forever anyway. Plus once they're both in night classes for grad school I'll barely be seeing them.

I don't necessarily want to live in Myrtle Beach...I just want to be closer to home, where if the urge hits me I can hop in my car and drive there for a weekend to visit without it being a major inconvenience in terms of time and money.

And on that note, I have until April to make a decision; if I want to leave or stay or make the completely out of left field decision to move to California still. And I'm sure we all know how much I hate decisions.

This picture pretty much sums up my weekend