recovery in suburbia

after almost a week of being ill, i retreated to bethesda, maryland, where a weekend of suburbia awaited me. it was just what i needed to relax and get better.



i took the vamoose bus, which literally went from penn station right to bethesda, only a few blocks from where my best friend steph lives. she's getting married in august, and i am one of her bridesmaids. this past weekend, we had her bridal shower... and it wasn't as foreign feeling as i thought it would be. julie, steph's sister and maid of honor, put the party together with their mom.



julie got these wacky bikini cups that everyone had to drink out of and steph wore a "bride to be" princess tiara.





after the party, we spent a lot of time in steph and jamie's new backyard grilling every night. they had an outdoor firepit that reminded me of campfires. we even made s'mores!





i also discovered that i love zazz, giant's brand of seltzer water, and the board game, cranium. i drank like 20 cans of it this past weekend, and was addicted to playing cranium late into the night. i also enjoyed playing horseshoe, oddly enough. and yes, i got a million tiger mosquito bug bites.... ah, the suburbs.



oh i even went to the mall! that's where i went to buy a bathing suit -- the first one i've bought in 8 years.... in fact, the last time i bought one, it was with steph too! i guess you could say she's a beach person, and i'm not. however, she informed me that i've been buying the wrong size bathing suit, and that's why i never looked good in them. she picked out a wicked dkny suit for me that is way sexy. i'm not used to showing so much cleavage, so this will be a dramatic change for me.

mike and i are getting ready to go to spain and amsterdam next month. we're going to valencia to cover benicassim again this year, and we piggybacked a trip to amsterdam -- why the hell not! i cannot wait!! the only sucky part is that i have to miss the last siren festival ever! it feels sort of wrong to miss it since i've pretty much been to every one, but i couldn't say no to spain. c'est la vie.