come on, clarinex...

ugh. my allergies have decided to take full control of my airways and i have been in misery for the past two days. post nasal drip is NOT fun. don't let anyone tell you differently. i would really like for my clarinex to kick in and do its job. please. thank you.

so, when last we spoke, i was headed out for a shower gift. little did i know i was attending what is quite possibly the fanciest and biggest baby shower ever held. not that there's a thing wrong with that, it was just not what i was used to. my future sister-in-law kelley and my future mother-in-law jan and i loaded up and headed to the hotel bethlehem (prounounced "beth-lem" in pennsylvania, don't ask me why) for cousin shannon's baby shower sunday morning. 60 people were there, and about twice that many presents, and 5 courses as i counted them (although i'm counting the cookies and brownies dessert course as separate from the cake dessert course), complete with mimosas and wine. talk about fan-cee! it was very nice, and i believe shannon got everything she could dream of having for the baby and then some. i thought it was funny as i was sitting there watching her open presents that she kept saying, "oh, it's my lamp." and "it's my bedding." i think every woman does that at showers, but it's funny how registering for something basically indicates that it is already yours, but you'll have to wait until your shower to take posession of it.

after we left the shower, bryan and i headed south, with a brief stop at ikea for some file cabinets, a coffee table and a few other random things for the house. i love ikea. so hopefully now we'll get our highly disorganized office into some semblance of order... hopefully. :)

yesterday was the arthritis walk post-party, and i took some community service time (yes, they give us two days to volunteer!) and went and helped out a bit with that. it was great to see all of my arthritis foundation family. a few things i noted yesterday at the party:

1. it's awesome to be at an AF event and not feel guilty for eating. when you're staff, it's more important to schmooze than eat. when you're a volunteer, you are expected to consume all the free food your little heart desires.
2. it's awesome to be at an AF event and be able to win a door prize! as staff, well, of course you can't win the prizes because that's cheating--you got those donated for your volunteers! when you're a volunteer, you are more than welcome to take home your $25 dick's sporting goods gift certificate door prize! which i did last night. :)
3. it's awesome to see all the great friends i made when i worked there. they really are like family to me. here's a picture of me and erica, a little girl that has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. her family is fantastic, we have so much fun together. the best thing about the arthritis foundation is that it truly has a direct impact on peoples' lives, even if it is only to connect those of us who are directly affected by this disease and put us all together in a room so we can bitch or cry or laugh about all of the ridiculous things you go through living with a chronic illness like arthritis. it's like a homecoming every time i'm at an arthritis foundation event!

i realized today for about the 154th time that no matter how tech-savvy i consider myself to be, i am best served using a paper calendar. i missed a meeting this morning because i didn't open up my electronic calendar on my computer. this is something that happens to me about once every 1.5-2 years since the beginning of my professional life. i start to think that i can go electronic with my appointments, but then miss an appointment or two and kick myself for not just using a paper calendar since i know i remember things when i write them down. so, back to paper for me. some things are just better done the old fashioned way...