twenty.five.

Meet my friend Kate. Today is her birthday.
Happy Birthday Katelyn.

She's laid back and super cool.

Kate and I went to the University of Florida together. We met my freshman year of college and were instant friends. I love Kate.

Kate and I were partners in crime throughout college. We have some great memories together. I miss her so much. She moved to Charlotte after college which was great. I lived in Atlanta, so we were only a few hours apart. That meant when we hadn't something cool going on in ATL, she could come to town and play with us and vice versa. Now, Kate has moved to PHILLY. Philly is so far away from me. I am trying everything in my power to get her to head back south, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Kate is one of the most grounded and down to earth people I know. I know she is always there for me when I need her and I know when we are together we always have a great time. No matter whether we are sitting on the couch in our PJ's discussing the prior evenings chain-of-events or we're skiing together in Colorado. She's easy going, flexible and laid back. That's what I love. Now here's a little trip down memory lane:

She's lovable

She lets me wear a Bulls eye on my head when it's not Cinco de Mayo...

She makes me take shots on my 21st birthday

She dresses up in hats with me for fun.

She sends her love to everyone

It's a guaranteed good time when you're hanging out with her.
She's athletic and we have a great time skiing together!

We celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans together. She's spontaneous.
She plays Edward-40-Hands with me and my cousin Alex.

Where the Magic happens...

Tuesday night I went to the Magic playoff game against Cleveland. It was far better than I even expected. And I was extremely excited to go to this game. Here's the thing though: I feel a little guilty.

I have lived in Orlando now since the end of February. I have said 20x that I really really want to go to a Magic game. I never went. All season. This means that I am one of those fans that don't go to a single game until everyone realizes that the Magic kicks a$$ and then everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and acts like they have been cheering all along. The truth is that I have been cheering, but I have really never been into NBA basketball. Never. I never watched it on TV. I never had an NBA team that I cheered for. I really just didn't care about it at all. Then, I started watching the playoff games with the Magic and the Celtics. I was instantly hooked. I started learning all the players on the team, I was learning the rules and then I started screaming back at the TV when ridiculous calls were made. I acted like I had been doing this for years...

When the opportunity came along for us to be able to go to the Magic/Cleveland game. I was jumping for joy. Number one, because I would get to see the Magic play and two, that I would get to see Lebron James play. Never in a million years did I think I would go to this game and sit in the 2nd row! You get a whole NEW perspective on the game after sitting that close. The court looks half the size, the players look twice as big and the net really doesn't look all the high!

We got to the game about an hour and a half early and got to hang out at this bar/restaurant area that is just outside the Magic locker room. When we arrived, this is what we saw:

Reserved

Matt and his niece, Kayla

Reserved table just for us. I was feeling pretty VIP at that point. We hung out in there, watched the players come in and out from warming up, and had some dinner. We were able to come in and out of this little area before the game, at half time, and after the game. Game time was approaching, so we headed out to take our seats. Here is a few shots from the game:

Look who is sitting right next to us, Plies. Sings Busted Baby.

Lebron looks like he is trying to say hello to me. I gave him a little wink ;) We had some interesting entertainment during the commercial breaks. Take a look at this group of cheer leaders. They started out with the MJ "Thriller" dance and by the end they were dancing to "Peanut Butter Jelly Time." Ridiculous...

They came from the over 65+ community

They were amazing. We headed inside for half-time and I became this pre-teen child at Disney World for the first time. I get so star-struck. I always have. I LOVE seeing celebrities. So, here I am with all the ghetto rappers I could get my hands on.

T-Pain

Okay, it is very sad to have to admit this....T-pain or not T-pain?

SHAQ had the nerv to turn down a picture with me. I'll whip him.
Chris Brown being real sweet.Kickin' it with Lil' Bow Wow

It was AMAZING. One of the best sporting events I have ever been to. Please take note of the vodka/soda/cran in my hand for every picture. They were constantly replacing my drinks. It was heaven. We ended the night with a victory, an interview with Craig Sager and my evening was COMPLETE.

okay, maybe not an interview...just a picture

Please tell me if that is T-Pain. He was certainly humble. I was too embarrassed to ask him if it was him. If it wasn't, that guy certainly got a good laugh of us asking for a picture with him.

Memorial Day Luau

Memorial weekend is one of my favorite weekends. This year I spent the weekend at home in Orlando and had to work, but I did get to enjoy some of the holiday festivities. Matt's family is in town for the week taking on Disney World and they came to hang out with us on Sunday night. Matt has one sister who is married and lives in Montgomery, AL with three absolutely adorable young girls. They are 3, 5 and 13, so you can imagine how much joy they are getting out of being at Disney World for an entire week.

It was Ali, the 5 year old, birthday on Monday and we decided to have everyone over on Sunday night to Matt's house to grill out and have a little Luau to celebrate. I went last week to Party City to get a few decoration for around the house. They had an AMAZING selection of Luau themed decor-I could have spent hours and mucho dinero on all the goodies, but I opted for just a few things.

I left for work on Sunday and put Matt in charge. He had the goodies I had bought at Party City and I told him to make sure he has the patio looking really nice. I was a little nervous all day at work that he wouldn't get it all done, but he assured me it was taken care of. I get home and all the family is there and he has the blinds to the patio closed so that no one can see the "decorative surprise" yet. I sneak a peak out there and this is what I see:

Can you believe you this? So, I bought the coconut sippy cups, the paper plates, some lei's and the little grass skirt table cover. HE went out and picked the fresh Hibiscus from his yard, stuck flowers in the tiki torch center piece, brought palm trees from inside his house and stuck floating candles in the pool!!! I was FLOORED.



He would absolutely kill me for having this on the internet right now, but I was soo impressed. And don't think for a second that he wasn't patting himself on the back because he was.

So, as it has been doing for the last 7 days straight here in Orlando, it was pouring down rain. The floating candles were sunk, but we were still able to enjoy the theme under the covered patio. There was one other treat I bought at Party City for each of the 3 girls to enjoy. They turned out so cute.











Holly didn't like her's much. It was scratchy.















After the rain subsided a bit, we finally enjoyed some steak and shrimp on the patio, sang Happy Birthday to Alli and then came inside for the girls to show us a little ballet routine.

Yummy :)

Here is a little clip of their sweet moves in the hula outfits:

I would say that the Memorial Day Luau was a big success. The girls had a blast and thanked Uncle Matt and gave him a big kiss goodnight.


What did you do for the holiday weekend?

Stay tuned for next post. Headed to game 4 of the Magic/Cleveland game tonight with courtside seats. Look for me on TV. Can't wait. Go MAGIC!

Blog Buddies

I never thought I would be a blogger...For most people who have a personal blog, this is probably how it started out. But truly, I never understood blogging and thought it was silly until I found myself reading them on a regular basis. It all started with a girl I knew in high school. I saw on facebook that she had started a blog- she had it for over a year, but I just found it about 2 months ago. It's hilarious: Confessions of a Young Married Couple.

So that was just the beginning. I realized I had several friends that were bloggers and slowly started to enjoy their posts and then I found myself reading these blogs of people I don't even know! Apparently, there is this whole world out there of "blog buddies." This is what I will call them at least. They have found each others blogs one way or another and then they have become friends because of course at this point, they practically know everything about one another through the blogs. It's crazy.

Now, I am trying to recruit my friends to start blogging. After college, life becomes so busy. We all move in separate directions, start careers, make new friends, etc. and an online diary seems to be the perfect way to stay connected.

If only my special power was teleporting, I could be everywhere in the snap of my fingers and witness it all first hand. There are many great things to witness with my friends... But until then, I will resort to communicating through the world wide web and force them all to stay in touch with me.