Adventuresam

Reflection of the blossoms from my window.

Spring is my favorite, even though at the tailend of mine came a heartbreak, but also so many other beaaaautiful things that really blossomed into a sense of renewal. For example, I took Victoria Pinksburgh out of storage, and we started getting reacquainted.

Victoria Pinksburgh II striking a pose.

I rode around the city and admired all the flowers. 

Such a cutie.

Pittsburgh night sky with trees that we love.

As fun as Victoria Pinksburgh is to look at, she’s even more fun to ride — it’s like having the windows down in a car all. the time.  Which is made even better during the spring because allllll the flowers are in bloom! And I caught whiffs of blossoms every time I went for a ride.

Pinksburgh and I went for dozens of long rides around the city together and enjoyed a new route through the park which I use to clear my head.  I took Katie Diamond, Bella, and wee Emily there to enjoy the serenity as well.

Spontaneous best friend weekend.

One weekend, Helen and I played tennis, drove around the city running errands (got new cushions for our front porch), had coffee (COFFEECOFFEECOFFEE), and saw Standard Bank (it’s just like any other bank.  Picture a bank, it’s just like that.)

New perspectives: View of Pittsburgh from Pinksburgh.

I was invited as a plus one to a really fun lightning strikes party where I made friends with the hosts, Addi and Jojo. You know those people who stay to the very very end of a party? As in, they are literally the last ones to leave? Yeah, that was us but only because we were having so much fun! And Addi and Jojo didn’t mind.  How do I know?  Because we bonded (although there is no photo evidence of this bonding session.  But Bel, we bonded, I swear.) 

Not pictured: my new friends, the hosts.

The party was amazing, and I’d like to make shoutouts to the really memorable cookie plate, the mac and cheese, and the green olive cheese balls, which I didn’t have (but were really well-labeled).  Also to Matt, who is really great at playing the piano and who also tolerated — I mean…enjoyed — Helen gleefully ruining all of his songs.

The Matt & Helen spring tour.

Another very memorable party was Emily’s birthday at her house, where we celebrated the Cavs, grilled burgers, played games, laughed, drank, and talked about baseball.  I mean basketball.

“Birthday Emily” drawn by wee Emily.

The Cavs crew! Not pictured: Laura and wee Emily.

Here’s the SparkNotes version of some other May standouts:

80’s Day.

• When Helen and I turned the air conditioning on in our apartment for the first time this season and it didn’t catch on fire.
• Molly T. gave birth!!! 
• A royal wedding
• Surf & turf dinner, cooked by Sprouty, which was literally the best meal of my life.  THE BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE.  The best sea bass I’ve ever tasted in all my years of living, which I will remember until the end of time and then on into eternity.

I mean…come on. The Sea Bass was so good that I didn’t even eat the Filet Mignon — the FILET MIGNON.

• Getting to know Sprouty when he invited me over and cooked me dinner. (See above).  He had actual sprouts growing and gets judged by his valet.
• Getting back into yoga
• The surf & turf dinner
• “Everyone be nice to Emily’s cupcake.  especially you, beans” – Bel
• My parents went to Holland, celebrated King’s Day — a holiday that none of us had ever heard about, biked around during tulip season, and visited Iceland.

Orange for King’s day! Also, pretending that balloon is my face.

My parents, Hulda, and her boyfriend ❤

• A comedy show with 3 teenage girls and Jason Clark as the hilarious host
• Talks with Julia about a business
• When Brittny and I got paid by Sebastian to hangout
• Playing tennis with Krupa and having a coal train go by sooooo slowly that we couldnt hear each other for an hour and a half.  It left just as we finished and I took her for her first ever scooter ride where a gopher ran at us full speed.
• Those never ending 23 and me questions
• The Smallest Show
  

  Hanging out with friends.

   

• A steak dinner for a belated Mother’s Day which was followed by ice cream…and then more ice cream. My dad and I went to two separate ice cream shops to do an unofficial taste test that no one asked us to do but was conclusive.

There was nothing left on my plate.

• When Zack finally came in at the end of my Wednesday shift.
• The Surf & Turf dinner…
• The sea bass from the surf & turf dinner.
• Remembering my friend Brendan on May 23 (RIP <3)

Another great night was the “Thank you” dinner with Kristin, Helen, and Emily where we drank great cocktails and had delicious food.  So… “thank you” for what again?  Months (and months) ago, we drove Helen and Kristin to the airport, and they promised they would plan a dinner to say thank you. So finally, after an epic group thread and consulting the farmers almanac, we found a day when our schedules lined up.  Emily picked me and Bel up, and drove us to the Thank You dinner… which was kind of ironic since the whole dinner began because we drove them to the airport. In the words of Emily: “I figured you might need a reminder of why we’re having this dinner in the first place.”

Thank you for the thank you dinner!

Thank you for taking a picture of the thank you dinner.

May was a fabulous month, even through the heartbreak. And my friends really showed up.  Plus, I have to mention it again, the joy of having an experience of a lifetime — eating that sea bass from the surf & turf dinner.  

Spring is spectacular, all those flowers, all the scooter rides…
I love it more and more every year,
‘mi

When anyone says “Cinco de Mayo,” the first thing I think of is Colorado, naturally.  (working on my sarcasm).  Anyway,  I wanted to visit Patrick in Colorodo before he moves (!) and dates that lined up for us happened to fall on the weekend Cinco De Mayo.   Thus, Boulder for Cinco de Mayo.

I spy with my little eye…Patrick’s true love.

Thursday night when I landed Patrick picked me up and we stayed up chatting.  SO fun.  Bestie catch up!  And then the very next day I got to shadow Patrick’s 6th grade class.  Before school, we stopped at MINE coffee shop (all MINE MINE MINE).  Though at 8am I already had the energy of a 12 year old and was bouncing off of the walls… so I ordered my first ever “decaf cappuccino.”  It was delicious

Reppin’ Jamaica.

Patrick’s class was the science class I wished I had had in 6th grade. He literally grabbed his guitar, stood on his desk, and taught parody rap songs to the kids, which were tailored to the school/lessons of the day. The kids are also allowed to stand on the desks during this time. I considered enrolling, I have so much I could learn…is that legal or…?

Another perk was that it was flower day…which, was a day where we learned about flowers. Beyond the standing on desks and rapping to acoustic melodies by Dr. Marti, we got to go outside and collect, and then dissect, actual, real-life flowers.

Choosing favorites.

Being a kid is great but being a grown-up his even better.  And at the end of the day, we were ready for some grown-up time. We went to Tim’s house, another teacher from school, to hangout on the lawn without an agenda.

…In fact, our agenda was to make an agenda. But first, a jam sesh.  And after I laughed along as they planned their “detention party” for Patrick’s going away fiesta. The rule was that you had to come in an outfit that was breaking the dress code and the party slips were written up on real detention slips.  Genius. 

Pre-yahtzee:  Introducing the band, The Nawtzees!

———-

Before Patrick was to move in a month or two, I asked him if there was any part of his house that he didn’t have any memory in and if we could make one.  He said that he didn’t have a memory on the landing  stairs next to his room. We decided to come up with some activity for that memory-less corner of his home.  That afternoon we went on a hike in Gregory Canyon — one of Patrick’s favorite trails and it was easy to see why.  As we hiked we brainstormed ideas.  It was spring time and we were inspired to gather up flowers (it was the day after flower day, after all) and scatter them all across that landing spot at the top of his stairs.  

Afterwards, we held led a laughter yoga session, complete with a lie down to really crush those wild flowers into the ground and make cleaning up harder, and also to fill the space with some really great energy.  Voila! A broom and mop were needed and a memory was born.

Floor-al designs.

It was time to head to the Cinco de Mayo party that Alex was throwing!!  She and I didn’t get to talk as much as I’d have liked (wish we had! She hosted a lovely party <3) but there were so many great guests in attendance and party games to play including HQ trivia as a group. Unbelievably enough the savage question was:

“Which one of these disputed territories is NOT claimed by Georgia?

1. Transnistria
2. Abkhazia
3. South Ossetia”

If you’re a reader of my blogs, then you know that Patrick and I were freaking out. He was on the mystery trip and we were together in Transnistria!!! How CRAZY is it that one of the questions was about an obscure place that we went together this same year?!!!!  Insanity. 

Party people.

So maybe after like a margarita or two, Mckayla, someone I had literally just met invited me to her Halloween party. Excited, social Sammi was, like, really happy–I mean really happy about being invited. I was so excited that I literally asked her for her address right then and there. For a party. Five months from now. In a different state. But you know, we just connected…at least I thought we did.  She may not feel the same way.  I was over eager.   Which I know, doesn’t sound like me.  Someone, thankfully interrupted my aggressive friend making to ask Mckalya if she liked art and her answer was: I’m open-minded.   What a great response! From now on whenever someone asks me if I like music, I’m just going to say “well, I’m open-minded.”  Also, I’ll see her at that party in October.

Money, Glamour, Fame.

Another cool thing about this party (besides making new friends, laughing hysterically, eating good food, and mild debauchery) was seeing Patrick partially combine friend groups — success!

Cinco de Mayo, the only Mayonnaise themed holiday.

A meme that deserves a mention: During the party, I got a text from Bel who was at a seperate party back in Pittsburgh that (apparently) had some really amazing, fresh baked cookies. She was gushing about the cookies, how many she ate, on and on, and then…A SECOND BATCH CAME OUT!!  She sent me a text that said:

“Here’s actual footage of me when the second batch came out.” – Bel

I laughed for like 5 minutes straight and started crying. How lucky am I to have a best friend who can make me laugh until I cry through text from a different state?

On Sunday morning Patrick took me to the airport and we left with plans to see each other again soon.  Maybe this year we’ll go to another obscure territory that’s unrecognized as a country so we can win another HQ trivia question.

Hasta pronto,
‘mi

PS.  Congratulations to our friend Liz D. on her upcoming wedding, bless up yourself!