And we're back!

We made it back from SD in one piece, albeit with nasty head colds. Go figure - the one time I forget to take my airborne and now I sound like Kiki the sex phone operator.

SD was pretty cool, I have to admit. I am still completely in shock to leave the East Coast but c'est la vie, no? I was also quite disappointed that the Fashion Valley J.Crew was under extensive renovation. J.Crew is like my security blanket, I need to know that there's one within driving distance. My boarding school prophesy even said that I'd died of a premature heart attack due to the discontinutation of J.Crew catalogues.

A few pics from the week:


This is actually a pretty cool little dive bar down near the waterfront. Right when we passed a uniformed navy dude walked out. :)


Pretty pink and green at Seaworld.


Sunset up near Carlsbad.


La Jolla shores. Pretty much what you expect Cali to look like.


Not the most flattering picture of the two of us. We set it up on the roof of the car at sunset. Kinda ghosty, really.

That's all for now. More on apartments to come!

So sad in San Diego

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days, the Mister and I are on our (company paid!) househunting trip in San Diego. I've never been to California before so it has been a *complete* culture shock. So far:

Day 1 - We landed around noon on Friday. After two broken cars at the rental place, we were upgraded to a full size. I now wish we had kept the intermediate - our impala is like driving a battle cruiser! We spent the rest of the day driving around La Jolla and going to the beach. Word on Californians and their cars: we saw three (3!) Rolls Royces parked ON THE STREET in La Jolla. Makes you wonder what they kept in their garages! Being that it's 73 degrees out, Mister and I can't believe it's February. We stopped at La Jolla Cove and walked around, absolutely in disbelief that we're in Cali.

Day 2 - More cruising around, trying to find neighborhoods we like. We drive up to North County coastal, and while we like it (and enjoy the free surf competition), the Del Mar/Carlsbad areas are just too sleepy for us. We also decide that La Jolla is too family-friendly. We wouldn't be able to afford any of the multi-million dollar homes on the coast, anyway. We head to the Gaslamp Quarter at night. It's definitely fun since the Rugby 7s is over the weekend in San Diego. (Word to the wise: Rugby 7s is a really fast version of rugby with only 7 players on the field. The best in the world play during this tournament.) We eat dinner at an obscenely cute Mexican place. I am thoroughly regretting giving up meat for Lent because everything looks sooo good.

Day 3 - We decide we like the laid back vibe of Pacific Beach. We stumble upon (no exaggeration), THE MOST PERFECT APARTMENT IN THE WORLD. It's huge, has tons of closet space, is ONE BLOCK from the surfers beach, and overlooks the water through huge floor to ceiling windows in the living room and bedroom. I mean, I literally gasped when I saw the view, it was so spectacular. Now why Elliott, does this make you sad? It's a great beach front apartment and while expensive, is doable. Why didn't you snatch it up? Well, we checked online at a few apartment rating places and they confirmed a weird vibe for us. Turns out the management company is hellacious. They do random "spot checks" in your apartment every other week to see if you're breaking any of the rules. The lease is 25 pages long and they are extremely anal about every clause. As the soup nazi said: No guests for you!

I am so heart broken but we have to pass on the perfect apartment. It isn't living if you can't have friends over and make no noise. (No, we're not noisy people but we do throw awesome parties, if I do say so. And if we play Guitar Hero a bit too loud, so what? That's what bitchin' stereo systems are for, bro!)

Day 4 - I met with my new boss and team. They seem lovely but I don't post about work so I'll stop right there. The hubby and I spent the rest of the day going out to Hillcrest which was described to us as the Dupont of San Diego. We found an apartment in a great location (right next to TJs and Ralphs, down the street from tons of boutiques, restaurants, and Whole Foods). We liked it but we weren't in love. We figure we could definitely live there for a year if we didn't find anything downtown that we like.

Day 5 - If I get dressed and out the door, I'll be in good shape. :)

So there you have it, dear readers. Half way through our househunting trip. We've loved, lost, and almost found places to live. Cross your fingers that we find a place in Gaslamp that 1) fits the budget 2) has two parking spots.

Coachella/When DH's appendix exploded

OMG. I just realized that we will be able to go to Coachella this year!! Bands that I particularly want to see:

• FRIDAY, APRIL 25: Jack Johnson, The Verve, The Raconteurs, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, The Swell Season, The National, Stars, Diplo, Vampire Weekend, Architecture in Helsinki, Black Lips, and Rogue Wave.

• SATURDAY, APRIL 26: Portishead, Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Animal Collective, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, VHS or Beta, and St. Vincent.
  

• SUNDAY, APRIL 27: My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Gogol Bordello, The Streets, Metric, Murs, and Sia.

Yeah, Friday is definitely the strongest day. I'm a HUGE Swell Season fan, ditto the National. DH is a big Jack White fan so the Raconteurs will be awesome. Death Cab, of course, rocks my face off. DH doesn't dig them all that much because we saw them with Franz Ferdinand the night before his appendix burst. Let us reflect on that scary moment.

DH and I had been dating for only a couple of weeks when DH called and said simply, "Help." I knew then that something was tremendously wrong. I drove like a bat out of hell from Alexandria up to Bethesda. When I got up to his apartment he was shaking and crying and in oh so much pain. Since I didn't know Bethesda I had to call up a friend who lived in Maryland and asked for the nearest hospital. Luckily, there was one about ten minutes up the road from DH. I knew we were in horrible trouble when DH looked over at me and simply said "Please, please hurry."

Well, I pulled up to the ER and DH was rushed into the back while I was up front trying to get him admitted. Let me tell ya, when you've only been dating a guy for a couple of weeks, the hospital admissions process is like the dating test from hell.

"Please answer the following: Name, Age, DOB, SS#, Address, Employer, Parents Names, Health Insurance..."

Anywho, I got through all of the paperwork and they finally let me go back to see DH. He was incredibly looped because they were pushing morphine through his IV. As we waited for the x-ray to come back, he asked me to call his parents. Yeah, that was fun.

"Uhm, hi. I'm sorry to wake you at 3 in the morning but I'm dating your son DH? Has he mentioned me? Ok, good. Yeah, well, he's in the hospital BUT HE'LL BE OK! He's going in for emergency surgery but HE'LL BE OK. Yeah...yeah...no, HE'LL BE OK! No, he doesn't want you to fly over...HE'LL BE OK!"

So that's how I first met my future in-laws; on the phone, in the middle of the night. I apparently won major bonus points because I called them back post-surgery to tell them that he was fine and what the prognosis entailed. (As if I wasn't going to call them back. C'mon, people, that's what you do!)

DH's surgery took a couple of hours instead of a routine 45 minutes since he's a medical oddity. DH's appendix was covered in scarring because he is one of the few people diagnosed with REOCCURRING appendicitis! I didn't even know such a thing existed. Apparently all the times he had horrible stomach pain (that he would wait out, no less!) was a case of appendicitis. How he managed to have appendicitis several times a year for a couple of years is beyond me. I once asked him "If you're in so much pain that you can't move and it's making you vomit, shouldn't that be a sign that you need to go to a hospital?" He just shrugged. Men, I tell ya...

Anywho, I stayed with DH for a couple of days in the hospital while he recovered. My bosses were really fantastic and let me take sick leave even though DH wasn't technically family. He still needed another week or two to recuperate once we got him back to his apartment. He was so brave and amazing. I still can't imagine all the pain he went through.

People ask me when I knew that DH was the one for me. I think it was one afternoon in the hospital when DH said "You know you don't have to stay. Really, I'll be fine." I looked him in the eye and said "You're an idiot. I'm not going anywhere." That's when I knew that I had committed myself to this wonderful, brilliant man.

I can't wait for DH to get back tonight.

It's Raining Dresses...

...at Monsoon!

When I lived in Ireland there was a glorious little (chain) store called Monsoon. Oh how all the pretty party dresses would call my name. However, my student budget just did *not* extend to 150 pound dresses.

Anywho, while the exchange rate makes these still a little out of my price range for date dresses, I think they'd be lovely for special occasions like anniversaries or weddings. Unfortunately they do not ship to the US so I'm thinking about sending an order through and having it delivered to my ILs. Lovely MIL is quite the clothes horse so I'm pretty sure she'd help me out. :)

This has such a fun 50s vibe to it with that sweetheart neckline but the color is quite sophisticated.


My darling husband, please take me to Spain for a holiday so I can wear this out to dinner.


I would like to replicate this entire outfit for a Friday dinner date with DH. Now if only my thighs were as slim as the model's.


Cable knit charcoal shrug? Add a white tank and light gray J.Crew khakis and this has "Elliott" written all over it.

11 Hours 33 Minutes....

Until Hubby comes home. YAYAYAYAYAY!!!

Touche, Sir. Touche.

I'm an easy going sort of gal. I like everyone. I leave pennies at the counter for other people. I over tip. I'll let you merge even when you're a butthead who speed up the outside lane. However, today I am L.I.V.I.D. I have spent the last six nights (Wifey-on-her-own week) and the majority of the weekend AND my RDO finishing this book.

Now, I was prepared to have to intellectually struggle. Umberto Eco is known for very dense reading. He is rumoured to have written the first 100 pages of "In the Name of the Rose" in order to weed out the people who would read and understand his work. But I figured I'd give it a go in order to expand my horizons, blah blah blah.

Sweet Jesus. I haven't had to pull out a dictionary in order to read a book in a loooong time. What's more, I had to draw upon my *elementary* school Latin, *high school* French, and *college* Italian to make it through!

So there I am, congratulating myself for having made it to the end, 600 mind-numbing pages later. And you know what? THE ENDING SUCKED. So Mr. Eco, I salute you. You drew me in and spat me out. Now where did I put my copy of Bridget Jones?

/Rant

Wifey-On-Her-Own Week...

...continues. If DH doesn't get home soon, I will be officially shopped out.

The loot:

*Kasper collar-less black leather jacket...I've been on the hunt for one ever since I saw Susannah wearing one on the BBC version of What Not to Wear

*Nine West fitted caplet...Very structured, super cute, and warm to boot. Great for the office.

*Vineyard Vines skirt...It was $3.75. I was definitely going home with it!

*Banana Republic coral lace camisole...I buy these every year, in most colors. They look great under all my v-necks.

*Banana Republic navy suede driving mocs...Comfy, cute, in my size, and 40% off.

*J.Crew navy pique polo...You always need a new polo, right?

*Ralph Lauren button fly denim skirt...I have been searching for an a-line denim skirt for a while. The fact that it was button fly made it all the better. Seriously, where have all the button fly jeans gone? I loooooved my last pair to bits. Literally, they fell apart in the wash.

*Kate Spade gold leather wallet...I have one of the J.Crew flip wallets but needed a bigger one when I need to carry more cards a/o cash when overseas.

So, all in all, not a bad lot for $200!