Well my weekend is pretty much over but I am looking forward to the fact that I don't have school tomorrow. It will be nice not to have to set my alarm in the morning...what an irritating noise! Do you ever squirm just by hearing the sound of an alarm clock going off in a movie or T.V. commercial? I know I do.

So, Friday was pretty easy going for me. I slept a little later because I had stayed up until 12:30 a.m. watching Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty that my mom taped for me. I'm a little ticked that they moved Grey's Anatomy to Thursday because it's on at the same time as CSI...so now we have to tape one show and watch it later on. I'm pretty sure they move the most popular shows to the same time slot because they are competing for viewers. Anways, getting back to Friday...I had to work from 1-5 which wasn't too bad. Work was kind of slow. My boyfriend John came over in the evening and suggested we go see the movie "Employee of the Month" with Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson. I heard the movie got bad reviews, but honestly, I thought it was pretty good. Everyone complains about Jessica Simpson being a bad actress but I think she was pretty decent. The only reason the critics probably didn't like it was because there was no violence, nothing blowing up, no guns, sex, drugs, and very, very little potty humor! The movies with that stuff usually gets great reviews - go figure!

After the movie I got a sweet tooth but knew there was nothing in the house that would cure that! I suggested pie and tea from Baker's Square as an after-the-movie-treat. After a huge slice of strawberry rhubarb for me and french silk for John, it was time for me to go home and go to bed since I had to get up and work on Saturday morning. That's never fun! I somehow managed to roll out of bed and get myself there at 7:15. Thankfully the phones were really quiet and I didn't have to stop what I was doing in order to answer them and take orders. Our driver was swamped with deliveries and was pretty much all over the southland...I had to deliver 7 of the more local ones, like Orland and Tinley. I did get a $2 tip for one of them! WooHoo! Haha, I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it makes our day. Since most of the Edible Arrangements are gifts that are being sent out, most people do not expect them, so therefore they don't have a tip ready since it's a surprise to them. Unlike ordering a pizza, you know it's coming, so you usually have something ready for the pizza dude. I did get to take a special delivery though...it was for my Aunt Cindy. A friend of her's from work called in the order on Friday and I took the call. I was so happy to hear one of my family members was getting an arrangement! She just had knee surgery and was received it as a get well. She was thrilled!

After getting off of work on Saturday I had to take a run over to Jewel to get a card, some flowers, and cake mix for my Mom and Dad's anniversary which is on Monday, the 9th. Thirty years!!! I also got them a gift card to go see a movie. I tried to sneak a nap in before we left for dinner but that didn't work out too well since we spent about 2 hours trying to figure out where we were making the dinner reservations. No one could decide on what they had a taste for until my dad suggested a steak dinner. We settled on Jack Gibbon's in Oak Forest. My Dad always heard that they were one of the best steak places in town. I felt like I went back in time when I went there...it's got an authentic 50's retro feel to it...I guess not much has changed since then! Honestly though, I do have to say that I don't think I have ever seen steaks as big as the ones they serve there! It reminded me of the "old 96er" (a steak that basically looks like half of the cow) from the movie The Great Outdoors (by the way, great movie if you've never seen it).

After our evening was over we went home and I fell asleep on the couch for two hours while everyone else watched a movie. I thought after that little nap I wouldn't be able to fall asleep when I actually went to bed - but I was wrong about that...I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and slept like a rock the rest of the night. Today was spent relaxing and just spending time with the fam again. I'm very lucky that I have cool parents and actually have fun hanging out with them! They know how to have a good time. My mom and I went "browsing" this afternoon. I saw a dark cherry wood poster bed in the sales paper for a furniture store and wanted to check it out. I've wanted a poster bed for as long as I can remember. However, the whole bedroom set would set me back about $5,000. *Sigh* Maybe one day when I when the lottery...

I posted pictures from dinner on Saturday night...my parents, My sister and me, and John. There's also a pic of Johnny and me on our 5 year anniversary this past June, and also a picture of Ned, this HUGE, fat spider that lives out on our deck. :)

It's that time again...time to do another blog and let you know how my week has been. I have to say that it has been rather quiet over here and not too much has been going on. I was at the bridal expo at Georgio's banquets on Wednesday because my work had a booth there promoting arrangements for centerpieces/sweet tables. I handed out fruit salad samples in plastic champagne glasses! Our table was right in front of the runway, so we got to see an awesome show. I went to high school with one of the tuxedo models! The bridesmaid dresses this season are rather interesting shades of "espresso and redwood" as they said.....but I just called them brown, rust, and the 1970's all over again! Hehehehe...Anyway....I am looking forward to this upcoming week since my birthday and John's are this coming week, as well as Halloween and hopefully the birth of John's new baby cousin. Karen's due date was originally the 28th, and now it's the 25th, so I'm sure any day now we will be able to welcome him/her to the family. As my gift to the parents-to-be, I am going to do a mural of clouds on the ceiling of the baby's nursery. I always thought there was something a little more special to hand-crafted rather than store bought gifts, so that's why I like to use my talent as a gift to other people. I've done other nurseries for the other babies in John's family. There have been 8 babies born since we started dating, and 2 on the way!

So...I've been thinking about how we are going to celebrate our upcoming birthdays. I absolutely love this time of year, however, the weather has been disappointing me. There's nothing better than a crisp fall day where all you need is a sweater, no coat necessary. Or umbrella. I feel that I've had to use mine way too much this month. Although I do like the fact that I have an awesome Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night umbrella, I would still prefer not to have to use it! I wanted to go get some pumpkins today so we can carve them toward the end of the week, but I just felt like chillaxing today. John and I did get a chance to go to Best Buy to price out some new digital cameras, and of course the one I want is about $400, (plus I would need a new memory card). But, I think every graphic design student should have a fabulous digital camera, and frankly, the one I have now just isn't cutting it. I've honestly felt like throwing it out the window numerous times during photo ops. I worked a lot of extra hours this week because of the unfortunate Hallmark holiday of Sweetest Day, so maybe next week's paycheck will put that Canon camera in my hands.

Getting back to my plans for the week...I was thinking about going bowling with some friends on Thursday or Friday. Bowling is one of my favorite things to do, and I wish I went more often. It seems to have become a tradition to go bowling on my birthday...I guess it was something I decided I wanted to do one year to celebrate, and the same goes for the next year, and the following year, etc. My actual birthday is Friday the 27th, so maybe we will all go then if we can get a lane (darn those bowling leagues who take over the whole alley!) So maybe we will do our punkin' carving on Thursday. Saturday I have to work like usual, and then I am going to babysit in the evening. Sunday my family and John's family are going to come over to my house and we'll have dinner and cake. I'm hoping the newspaper will list all the houses that have cool Halloween decorations up, and we can go look at them on Sunday evening. John, my sister and I did that last year but didn't see that many houses because it was waaaay toooooo cold.

I posted some pictures of the beautiful flowers (orange asiatic lilies and tulips) that John gave me on Saturday. (Tulips in the fall? I would have never thought...it's a spring flower). When he walked in with them I was really surprised because we don't celebrate Sweetest Day (because it's so close to our birthdays and just another cheesy holiday). But these flowers were not for sweetest day, but to celebrate "Sweetest Day being over." I can't leave out the fact that he handed them to me as I was nearly passed out on the bed because of pure exhaustion from working 18+ hours Friday and Saturday. I couldn't help but laugh...but that could have been me just being loopy at that point! I tried taking a nap but I think being in constant "go" mode the past two days made me almost wired and restless, and I just couldn't relax. Basically my work is like a flower shop but we make the arrangements out of fresh cut fruit shaped to look like flowers and arrangements...and we dip fruit in chocolate. We had to dip hundreds and hundreds of strawberries this weekend. I don't want to see another one ever again!!! Just kidding. It just gets hard trying to help with production, and answer all the phone calls. And to any guy reading this....don't wait until the last minute to try and get an arrangement an hour before we close on a busy holiday!! That just makes our job harder! :) Since we really hustled and had extra help, I was able to get home by 3 on Saturday which was nice. After I TRIED to take my nap and did not succeed, my parents and John and I watched The Break Up (with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn). I finally ended up crashing, and slept about 12 hours...I was exhausted by the end of the night, and I slept like a baby. Our next big holiday at work will be Thanksgiving - and I'm already tired just thinking about it!

This whole working-long-holiday-hours-thing is not all that new to me. Before this job I painted murals for about 2 years, and before that I worked at a florist. I loved the smell, I loved designing, and I loved the creativity, but I hated the holiday demand. However, I miss the clean, fragrant smell of the evergreen and boxwood stems that would go into the arrangements around Christmas time. Also, just the aroma of stargazer lilies and roses that permeated the air on a daily basis was heavenly. After I had been there all day, the smell to me wore off, but whenever I saw John after work, he said I smelled like flowers. Now I guess that has changed to fruit! :) I do miss making arrangements...John knows that if he wants to get me flowers that I like them un-arranged and uncut so I can put them together myself. I have some tips to make your blooms last longer...never cut the stems with scissors (only if they are hard wood stems like the greens and fillers) it crushes the capillaries and makes it harder for the stems to absorb water. Using a knife, hold the stem in one hand and use the other to slice it at an angle. Don't put the whole packet of flower food into the water...just a little bit will do. Re-cut the stems and change the water and add new food every 2 days. One more tip: roses are one of the most popular flowers but also have the shortest life span. In order to find ones that will last the longest, squeeze the heads and make sure they aren't soft. They should be tight and bullet shaped. If they are softer in the center, they will blow out (open too fast) once they get into warm air.

Hope everyone has a good week. Buy yourself some flowers now :)

*I posted a pic of the health fair last week, and of the pretty colored trees in my backyard!