awkward and awesome thursday: the molly photo shoot edition

Last Saturday, I had a BLAST taking engagement pictures for Molly's sister, Chelsea, and her fiance, Ryan. We did the shoot at Great Falls, which has beautiful trails and (obviously) waterfalls.  Before they arrived, though, Molly agreed to be my warm-up model to help me figure out lighting and everything, and I kinda promised her I wouldn't share these, but I think they're too lovely/awesome to stay on my hard drive. Sorry, Molls.  The people love you.

These two are a little awkward...

...but these are awesome!

Oh, you Anthro model, you.

sunday in the country

Every year, the Baltimore country station (I know, Maryland... country?  It's offensive.) hosts a big Sunday in the Country concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion out in Columbia, and they bring in several big country acts to perform basically from 11:30 in the morning to 11:00 at night!  Don't let me glamorize it for you.  It's a bumpkinfest.  But, I grew up with some of those people, and though I am not theirs, they are mine.

My friend, Jen, and her boyfriend, Justin, went with Molly and me, and we had a blast!  We saw Hunter Hayes, Steel Magnolia (minus one magnolia who is in rehab... oopsie), and... AND... The Band Perry.  Molly and I screamed our heads off for them!  Josh Turner was the closer for the night, but we actually didn't stay that late since we live nearly an hour from the venue and it was a school night.

It was a beautiful day, and I even got some sun on my face!  Ahhhh, the last tan of the year.  So long, sweet glow.

Molly thought they would kick her out for being too hipster.  Legitimate concern.  We both probably had on three times more clothing than the average girl there.

Jen and Justin!

Big crowd, even at noon on a Sunday!

My soulmate.

Hunter Hayes!

This is how low-class things got, even in the early afternoon.  Beer stored in a shoe.  Remember those classy wire wine stakes I saw at Wolf Trap?  Unheard of here.

Saw a lot of these... ahhh, culture.

Steel Magnolia!

Molly had the camera for the next few...

Speaking of Molly, she really wanted to be this dude's little lady.

Finally, The Band Perry!!!  We turned into total groupies the second they came on stage.

  

And for your last little bit of culture, I give you The Rebel Apparel Collection.  Making its way to outdoor concerts and state fairs near you.

At least those aren't Mom Jeans.

for all you OCDers...

I present to you your new favorite game.

I found this website about a week ago through a happy accident, and above all, it just gives me a warm fuzzy that there are other people out there who care about letter spacing like I do.  I know what you're thinking.  "You've got to be kidding me.  Letter spacing?!?  That's what keeps you up at night?!?"  Maybe.  I'm that girl who doesn't hang a single picture without a trusty tape measure and plenty of tick marks.  In fact, if you took the photos off my wall at home, all the gridding might make you feel like you were in the Matrix.

Anyway, this game, the Kerning Game, tests you on how well you can space independent letters within a word, as if they were part of a newspaper or magazine headline.

Doesn't that just give you the heebee jeebees?  Shudder.  But once you fix it, the game scores you out of 100 to let you know how close to the proper spacing you actually got.  And if you're like me, anything under 95 is going to bug you.

That blue space next to the "i" is the space it actually should be occupying.  Did I mess this one up on purpose just to show you that?  I'll never tell.  

So, click here and see how you do!  And let me know!

top golf!

On Friday night, a bunch of us went to Extra Virgin for Restaurant Week in Shirlington, and it was interesting to say the least!  They have amazing Italian food, and at Restaurant Week prices, it was a steal, but our waiter had the hardest time pulling himself together!  First, he spilled beer all over the chair next to me, so my pants smelled extra hoppy all night, and then while he was grating cheese, half of the cheese block broke off and landed in our balsamic vinegar!  Haha!  We felt so, so bad for him, and we pretty much tipped him the same amount we would have anyway.  Plus, he let us see the full dessert menu instead of just the shortened Restaurant Week version.  So, we called it even.

Then, we went to Top Golf in Alexandria!  I had never heard of this place, but basically it's a bar and a driving range all in one.  And they have them all over the country, not just here!  So, you buy your $5 membership card and then a certain number of games, and you get twenty golf balls per game.

The little machine reads your card and then spits out the number of balls you bought.  (These are phone pictures, so excuse the terrible, eye-gouging quality.)

Here's Claire taking her swings...

The computer screen next to your driving bay keeps track of whose balls are whose and where they land near those flags, so you get points based on how close you get to the flags.  You have to run your golf ball through a little recognizer machine before you hit it so it knows who's hitting it, and that way you don't have to hit all twenty balls at once... you can take turns!

Molls waiting her turn.  Or maybe she was done.  Either way, she was a rock star.

Erika taking her swings!  She dominated all of us... it was pretty embarrassing.

All of mine went pretty far but didn't really go near the flags, so I scored three whole points.  But, it was fun to be at a driving range again!

awkward and awesome friday

My last awkward and awesome post was kind of a big hit with my friends, and since it's been a couple weeks, I thought I'd try it again!  Here we go.



Awkward


1.  Smoke on the tracks at Union Station this morning.  Which meant I had to get off the train (which always makes you look like you don't know where the heck you're going) at Chinatown and walk about twenty minutes to the office.  It's rainy and humid today, so the diameter of my hair is about two inches wider on each side.

2.  The smelly shoes I had all day yesterday.  It's actually been rainy all week, and I should have known that when I wore ballet flats by a company called Sox, they would indeed soak up ever puddle on the sidewalk.  Like socks.  So, my feet were slip-sliding around in them all the way to the office, and then I couldn't even take them off because the rain made them smell worse than a damp dog.

3.  Not knowing any of the Major League Soccer logos at trivia on Tuesday.  Seriously, this was the only one I knew.  Leanna, I needed you.

4.  Standing up on the bus home while trying to read a magazine.  So, you're holding on to the overhead pole with one hand and holding the magazine with the other, and you know if you let go of the pole for one second to turn the page, that's when the bus driver will nail the world's largest pothole, sending you sprawling into the lap of the unsuspecting Army general who works at the Pentagon and also lives in your neighborhood.  (Didn't actually happen, but that's the awkward part, because I ended up doing this weird voodoo trick with my magazine where I turned the page by essentially holding it upside down.  It was all kinds of special needs.)




Awesome


1.  My raise kicks in today!

2.  Maybe not knowing all the MLS logos, but definitely knowing most of the #1 hip-hop albums from the '90s.  And that "Dancing Queen" was ABBA's only #1 hit in the United States.

3.  I'm finally going to clean my room this weekend.  I'm gonna do it, and it's gonna freaking SPARKLE.

4.  Having three photo sessions on the docket!  Can't wait to share those with you guys!


Have an awesome weekend!

more from rachael & peter's wedding

Remember waaaayyyy back in January when I posted about Rachael and Peter's wedding in Massachusetts?  Well, Rach posted a few more pictures from it on facebook yesterday, and I thought they were too funny not to share!

The happy couple...

That large poinsettia is peeking over the top of my head...

Maybe the first time we had danced together on our feet and not in the car.

...aaaaand the kicker.  Paul Smith.  Envy of all.

If he doesn't make that his profile picture on facebook, I'll just die.

I'm certified!

No, not certifiably insane.  Though some days, you could make a strong argument.

I'm a certified SAT instructor with the Princeton Review!

They hired me last week, but they would only let me teach on the condition that I successfully passed the training weekend, and I found out yesterday that I did!  I'm not leaving my current job, I'm just doing this part-time for fun.

Apparently, the only thing I have to work on is making sure I let the kids do the work and that I don't just show them how to do it on the board.  A control freak?!?  Who, me?!?

So, unfortunately, this doesn't mean I can tutor your kids on the side.  In fact, I'm legally obligated to point your chill'uns to the Princeton Review if they want to learn from me, so there's that.  But I'll probably be teaching all over DC, so I'm preparing myself for alllll types of kiddos.

Mmmmm, I can smell the dry erase markers now...