Viva Las Vegas

Well ladies (I don't think any gentlemen read this blog), I'M OFF TO CHICAGO! And tomorrow morning, to VEGAS! I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful weekend... I look forward to catching up on all of your blogs when I get back monday!

(Tried to embed the Tiger Song from the Hangover, but that didn't work out so well. Did I ever mention my little brother learned how to play that on the piano? I love that kid.)

Picture Post- Bloomington Bars meet 21 Year Old Alex.

Well, last night was just as good as I had expected it to be. I have some amazing friends that made the night absolutely wonderful. AND I DIDN'T LOSE OR BREAK ANYTHING! Great success, if you ask me. I was feeling it this morning, but I'm absolutely fine now aside from being pretty tired. Think I may try to sneak in a nap before dinner at SUSHI BAR! Kelly, being the wonderful roommate she is, made me cinnamon rolls this morning and added the "hair of the dog that bit you" remedy by making a round of lemon drops. Haha. So here is a recap of pictures. I thought that would be best.

(Birthday outfit! Ended up trading the glad's in favor of flats... probably wise on my part)

(Nick's at Midnight!)

(The whole gang at The Vid... Pineapple Upside Down shots!)

(Sink the Biz at Nick's)

(Dancing on the booth at Kilroy's to TRICKY!)

(My AMF- Adios, indeed.)

Made it out alive! Hooray. Now let's hope I can say the same for Vegas.

***Disclaimer: I'm fully aware most posts resulting from this week and next (Little 500. World's Greatest College WEEK. Period.) are going to make me look like a raging alcoholic. I promise I'm a fully functioning responsible citizen most of the year... and now a legal one too! ;-)

Birthday With the Family!

From the time this posts, I will have exactly 12 hours until I am 21, and hence a member of the legal drinking world. THANK GOD. I've been waiting for this since I was 4 years old and running to grab my dad a beer when he got home and looked like he'd had a hard day at work, or when I was 12 and drinking Shirley Temples, or 15 and drinking sparkling grape juice out of champagne flutes at Thanksgiving. Bare with me, this may be a long one. Feel free to skip through the pictures.

(Forever 21 Dress, Old Navy Cardigan, Steve Madden Taylas)

So first, here are me and the beautiful mother and father of mine who brought me into this world 21 years ago:

Over the weekend I went out to dinner with my family at Bonefish Grill.... YUM! That means delicious steak and even more delicious BANG BANG SHRIMP. One of my favorites, of all time. They also brought these cute little chocolate-covered strawberries with a candle in the whipped cream, which was nice since we had cake waiting at home!!!


That cake I speak of? Strawberry cake with Cream Cheese frosting from Donut Bank in Evansville/Newburgh, IN. SO GOOD. Almost TOO sweet, you can only eat a little bit!!! My mom even picked out that cute martini design for the top.


Then it was time to teach my 17 year old brother how to be my new bartender (See here), since this was typically my job when my dad was entertaining friends. Now that I'm legal, his turn to take the reins. Also time for presents!!!

My parents gave me the Kathy Griffin book (!!!!! LOVE HER!!!) and two Lolita martini glasses: '21' and 'Celebration'. I also got two really cute bracelets (The green one in this picture below). Well, plus the new phone: a Blackberry Bold which I am now IN LOVE WITH and desperately needed (but that was free through my dad's office, and he and my brother both got phones too, so it wasn't so much a present, specifically). The main present is the trip to Vegas this coming weekend, which is probably the best present I could EVER ask for.



THIS picture is from today when my roommate Kelly was going through my closets planning outfits for me for tomorrow night/the weekend in Vegas. I haven't seen her much lately thanks to school/traveling, and I MISS HER! But I'm excited for all these outfits. ;-) You'll have to stay tuned in to see which one makes it out tomorrow night!


So, as my Marketing Research professor says, so long for now. I'll try to bring myself to recap tonight with what I can only imagine will be a very hungover post tomorrow. (My bar guide for the night, Annissa, wants to end the night at a bar called The Upstairs that serves a drink called the 'AMF'.... Adios MotherF*&*%#... I'm sure that will do me in if the rest of the night doesn't.) And you can be damn sure that next week will bring a FABULOUS Vegas update with lots of good outfits.

(And again again thanks so much to everyone who's been visiting/commenting lately! You guys always are so sweet and I love hearing your stories about things too!!!!)

Cardi-Crazy.

This outfit is from last Thursday... Tom's One Day Without Shoes to be exact. I've gone a little cardigan crazy. I think I'm just so excited that I finally have a solution to this in-between seasons weather. That and I got a few on sale at Old Navy, so that just fuels it. They're so light-weight and comfortable though, I can't help it!!! Also let my hair go a little wild... sort of just half way straightened it.

Jewelry
Bracelets/Earrings: Forever 21
Necklace: Italian glass

5 seconds for a breath!

Thanks so much to everyone who has been commenting lately- I've been busy busy busy and haven't had time to respond or read everyone's blogs the last few days, but I'll catch up soon!!

The weekend at home was fantastic. Dinner with the family for my birthday, and then it was my little brother's first prom so of course I paparazzi'ed it up for that. Also got to see a few friends I haven't seen in a while, or don't get to see nearly enough!!! So here are a few pictures to catch up from the weekend. I'll try to do a more inclusive post tomorrow, if I have time. It's another busy week at the Kelley School of Business.

Me and Penske, the Other Birthday Girl! (Both April 14th!!!)

Cosmo Training for the Newest Bartender of the House.

Dane's Prom Group.

Dane and His Date, Chelsea. (Of course he borrowed Dad's car)

The Hoover Children at Their Finest.

Best Friend, Steven.

Interior Decorating Ramblings.

Every now and then I get the interior decorating bug and get a little antsy to redo my room in one way or another. Can't really move anything around in the room I have now due to a LARGE desk as well as a painted focus wall for my bed, so I mostly stick with wall decor when I get really worked up. I still need to go buy some record-sized frames to frame some pictures from last year's Paris calendar to put in my Mini-hallway into my bedroom.

Lately, I've started to question my obsession with super soft bedding. And by this I mean that my sheets are covered with a microplush blanket, another microplush blanket covers me, and my comforter is also completely soft and fuzzy on one side (See: Above). Sometimes I even put one of the blankets over my pillows so they're soft and fluffy too. I really only question it because of a psych class I took freshman year and this whole thing we learned about baby monkeys liking soft blankets for comfort... or something. Yes, I'm comparing myself to a baby monkey. I just wonder if any other grown adults out there sleep with their beds covered in fluff!?


Part of it may also be that the weather is warming up and becoming not-so-fluffy-blanket-friendly, or also that my bed at my parents house has super smooth satin-like sheets, and a normal non-fuzzy comforter. I guess the point of all of this is that sometime in the future, I think I want a big white down comforter. I think I've already decided it would go perfectly well with existing color schemes in my room/bedding, and it would also make my room so much brighter. And when I make up my mind, it WILL happen. Eventually.

Anyways, I'm heading back to So. Indiana today for birthday weekend with the fam. 5 days til 21!!! Woop woop! Hopefully the events surrounding the next week and a half of birthday extravaganza will lead to some spicy blogging and good outfits so you don't have to listen to my opinions on interior design anymore.

Toms: One Day Without Shoes

Whether you can go barefoot for a whole day, an hour, or even just fifteen minutes, this is really a great cause to raise awareness for. Something as simple as going barefoot in a place you would otherwise be wearing shoes causes people to question it, and learn about the cause. We really take for granted the fact that we CAN walk around barefoot in this country without contracting parasites or other diseases.

The story that really got me came from my Creativity and Communications teacher, who was relaying a story of a woman who had just been given shoes for her children from Toms. She had three children, and between them they only had one pair of shoes to share. Their school required shoes, and so each child could only go to school every third day. Upon the donation, the woman began crying because it wasn't just shoes the kids were getting, but a whole life change from the ability to get an education.

I'm well aware it's unlikely that any of us can single-handedly cause a whole lot of change in this world, but it's hard to pass up something so simple. Toms is a great company with the one-for-one business model, providing a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair bought, and every little bit of awareness counts.

www.Toms.com

www.OneDayWithoutShoes.com

And the Winner Is...

NICKIE FROM WILD AS A MINK, BUT SWEET AS A SODA POP!!!

I promise this is not some sort of conspiracy. She's clearly got some sort of luck (or at least witch craft, haha) on her side that's been bringing all these giveaways her way. I had my roommate Kelly's friend Liz draw out of my little present box, so as to remain completely neutral, and VOILA! She DID account for two of the 11 entries...

I want to thank everyone who entered!!! I'm still glad to have all of you new followers aboard and I hope to do another giveaway sometime in the future!!!!


Nickie, I'll be getting a hold of you soon to get everything squared away for sending Mr. Owl off to his new home.

Can It Just Be Summer Now?

Next week and my 21st birthday would suffice, too. I swear that all the teachers at the business school just have meetings to plan out when they're going to pile all of the group projects, exams, and homeworks on us at once. Sweet of the, really. We're talking worse than finals here. I think they're secretly plotting to drive us all mad.

Speaking of going mad... my lovely little roommate brought my Easter Basket back for me from her trip home this weekend, and MY MOM GOT ME THE ORIGINAL ALICE IN WONDERLAND! I've only been trying to get Disney movies for birthdays and holidays for the last FEW YEARS now, so I'm pretty thrilled it finally happened! (Still want the Little Mermaid!!!) I had never actually seen Alice before, but I've been watching a little at a time the last few nights as I fall asleep. I do love it. I think I prefer the Johnny Depp hatter to the cartoon version, though.


I once asked my dad how on earth they raised a child without exposing her to the classic Alice in Wonderland (Seems like we owned every other Disney movie ever made)... then told him I guess I didn't really consider it a bad judgement call not exposing a five year old to a cartoon riddled with supposed drug references and what not. But let me tell you, I sure love it now!

I was so excited to see that my mom found Coconut Nests WITHOUT JELLY BEANS!!!! They're basically just chocolate covered coconut shaped like a nest, with little jelly bean "eggs" nestled in to them. While that's cute and all, I'm not a big jelly bean fan, so the revelation that these come without them almost thrilled me more than the $20 tucked into a Sudoku book. Let's be honest though, the $20 won just because I'm a 'poor college student' who gets excited just finding a dollar left somewhere in her room.

Ok. This is the end of Easter-Referencing posts. Sorry. Giveaway ends today at 5, so HIT THAT UP! I'll try to get a "Winner Post" up by tomorrow!!!

ONE MORE DAY LEFT!

ONE MORE DAY UNTIL THE GIVEAWAY CLOSES!

(HERE!)

So it's still not too late to post a link on your blog/twitter for another entry, or even just enter :-) Mr. Owl and the Cosmo need a good loving new home!