I heard there would be rain but WTF?

Dear Blog,
So when Aaron and I decided to move out to Seattle everyone and their pup told us that it was going to rain and we were like duh. BUT, how come no one told us that it snowed a shit load out here?? And when I say shit load, I mean that we prolly have about 8 inches outside of my house and guess what folks? It's still coming down. I don't know when it's going to stop. It was supposed to stop today but nooooooooo, it's still snowing.

Now. I know this might surprise you, but I am not in love with snow. Why? Well. Snow inhibits me from doing the things I want to do, when I want to do them. For example, what if I want to go to the grocery store and buy some chips? Well, all of dang Seattle has already gone out and bought all of them. What the heck? And they took all of my favorite cheese dip too. Now what am I going to eat to clog my arteries?



Guess I'll just have to eat some healthy food because there was tons of that at the grocery store. Apparently when there is snow people just want to eat carbs.

I can't believe it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. A lot of things have happened.
We got a tree.



We went ice skating.



And then it started to snow and at first we were like yay! Snow. And then, it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing and people were freaking out and you know what I'm just tired of it. I just wish this snow would stop.

Anywhooooodle, Christmas is right around the corner and I'm excited! It's going to be a different kind of Christmas this year because it's just going to be me, Ron and little angel Bella. I don't know exactly what we are going to do so if you have any fun Christmas traditions you think the Shurts might enjoy, send 'em our way. 'Cause there's only so many times I can watch Christams Vacation. Cousin Eddie grosses me out.

xoxo,
Alison

Oh Facebook

Dear Blog,
I think just about everyone I know is on Facebook these days, even my mom and I just got a friend request from Aaron's dad...which I haven't accepted yet because I have a certain reputation to uphold with the Shurts family. Geez. I mean, I know I'm going to have to 'friend' him but I feel like maybe some things on a facebook profile shouldn't be shared with in-laws. I can see Tony calling Aaron and asking what does "Alison has the spirit of a hustler and the swagga of a college kid" mean in her status update? And then Aaron will be all, "Well, Alison grew up in the 'hood and learned at a very young age the value of the hip hop genre. You had to speak hip hop to survive in Columbia, SC." And then Tony will wonder what kind of woman his upstanding son married? And then, it's all downhill from there. Now, one might say don't put hip hop lyrics in your status put something more vanilla like Michael Buble lyrics. And to that I scoff because I will not change who I am because of my friends on facebook. I am more T.I than Michael Buble and that is just the way it is people.

What's up with all of this facebook nonsense? Well, BellaFrench reader, Grace, shared with me this hilarious You Tube clip yesterday and I thought you all might find it funny as well. Because it is oh so true.




xoxo,
Alison

From sunny and warm to cold and damp

Dear Blog,
What up peeps? Oh yeah, I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be talking like an adult these days.
Hello there people. As I write, I'm sitting here watching Elf with Aaron and looking around in amazement that my house is NOT decorated to the hilt, I mean I'm practically married to Clark Griswald and it has almost been a week since Thanksgiving. See, normally the day after Thanksgiving Aaron and I put on our Christmas sweaters, hop in the Jeep and then go cut down our tree somewhere in York, SC sweating all the while cause it's normally 80 around this time of year. This year for Thanksgiving we skipped the 4000 calorie meal and hopped on a plane to St. Thomas. It only took a red eye flight and 14 hours to get there, but when we got there we sure were glad we did. We were greeted by some locals who gave us shots of coconut rum, I'll take two please. I then knew it was going to be a good vacay vacation. We proceeded to head to the best bar in a parking lot in the entire universe, Duffy's Love Shack and drink 1.50 drinks for about three hours. It's such a small freaking world because our server at Duffy's Love Shack on St. Thomas is from South Carolina. Not only is he from South Carolina, but he is from Columbia and he went to Spring Valley. He was quite a bit younger than me and I didn't know who he was but I'm sure we know some of the same people because that is how Columbia is. It ain't that big folks.

Now, as much as I would love for you all to believe that Aaron and I are total jet setters and when we have a hankering to travel to St. Thomas we just go, but alas, we do not. Aaron's sister got married to her beau, Beau, of eight long years. It was quite a lovely wedding and they got hitched without a hitch. Man, I'm cracking myself up with all of these play on words tonight.

We had a great time in St. Thomas. It wasn't too hot, it was just right. I would love to regale with you tales of what we did but I can sum it up pretty quickly; eat, drink, sleep a lot, lay out on the beach, Aaron snorkeled, and I read a lot and listened to my ipod. Oh, and Aaron was in the wedding and he had to wear a linen shirt untucked with some khaki dress pants. Man, that was funny. You need to look at his pictures on his facebook profile. He is looking like straight up Miami Vice!

Only 22 days 'til Christmas!!
xoxo,
Alison

O.M.G

Dear Blog,
It started off with a simple "LOL" and then a "BRB" then grew to "OMG", and finally ending up with the oh so funny, "IDK my BFF Jill" which we all could relate to because we all abbreviate everything. I fully admit to using OMG about 25 times a day and writing it in emails and probably using it on the blog more than once or twice. My friends use it, my husband uses it, my parents use it and I believe my dog would use it if she were able to talk. Maybe she barks it out, who knows? What brings these deep thoughts to the forefront of the blog? It all stems from a deep conversation I had with two coworkers on Saturday while being the directors of first impressions in our store. And yes, the director of first impressions is a real station/duty in our store. So, anyway we were chatting about whether or not it's too feminine for guys to use "OMG" and the like and I said, I could see it being seen as feminine but so many guys use it I don't really think about it anymore. The one 'dude' we were talking to said he could forgive guys using OMG but what he couldn't get over was the overused ELLIPSIS and thought it was really feminine. You know the "...". The other female involved in the conversation and I were like, "Yeah! The dot, dot, dot gets TOTALLY overused!" But, I never really thought about the ellipsis being a feminine or masculine thing. So I decided to do a little test. Go back through my emails and take a random sample and see who overuses the ellipsis the most. Hands down it is the females. I wonder why? My coworker says it is because we can't complete a thought so we just connect all of our thoughts in hopes to get our point across and perhaps that is it. That conclusion makes me sad.

So let's take a stand for completing thoughts! And also taking our language back and not abbreviating everything! This is especially tough coming from someone who says "perf," "ferosh," and "totes."
I probably sound like a bumbling idiot...albeit a funny, bumbling idiot...and actually a cute, funny, bumbling idiot...which leads me to my next thought...the word "actually"...can we not use that in every other sentence....think about it...totes.


xoxo,
Alison

How in the heck is Thanksgiving next week?

Dear Blog,
Seriously...how is Thanksgiving next week?!? It doesn't even feel like Thanksgiving time. Seattle is all decorated for Christmas and I'm like hopefully it will feel like Christmas soon because I'm not feeling it right now. I love the Christmas season, and uh, Aaron does too. Have you ever met him? He goes a little over the top, have I ever told you about the plastic snowflakes he put in our yard last year? Well, it was real niiiiiiiiiiiiice , if you know what I mean. The snowflakes will not be returning. Aaron agreed they were a little much. Whew.

This year will be a little different because we won't be eating turkey and the trimmings for Thanksgiving, we will be in multiple airports probably eating Chili's To Go en route to St. Thomas! So, Aaron's sister (my sis in law) is getting hitched and decided to have a destination wedding and I think the original intent was for it to be small but instead I think about 50 peeps are going to be there. Destination weddings are so interesting to me. Aren't all weddings a destination for some? It just seems like "destination weddings" make it even harder and more expensive to get there. Whatever. I'm going to St. Thomas for a long weekend and I am so freaking pumped about laying my behind on the beach and drinks with umbrellas in them. I'm going to come back to Seattle with a tan and it's going to be the bomb. Aaron is obvy in the wedding and he needs to get some brown, leather, flip flops. I think he's going to get Rainbows and he hasn't gotten them yet which is really unfortunate because they are not comfortable when you first buy them. In fact, I believe they may blister. It's also unfortunate that both of Aaron's big toenails have gotten ripped off due to being a street balla on the basketball courts. Eek!

Lastly, I think Seattle-ites are wimps. I mean, all I ever hear about is the weather and blah blah blah...and y'all it rains some but not all the time. I haven't worn my rain jacket for the past week and a half. And today it was about 50 some degrees and all I heard was, "Winter has arrived." HUH? This is winter? Damn. I only wore one layer over my ujjayi tank and there were some people out in with dang earmuffs on. People is crazy. Maybe Seattle-ites aren't wimps...they're just dramatic. I can't figure out which.

So in a nutshell, I'm eating Chili's for Thanksgiving in St. Thomas and people in Seattle are funny. The end.

xoxo,
Alison

Best week ever

Dear Blog,

So...last week was my birthday, you might have heard? Well, if you didn't that's cool too. I generally don't have high expectations for my birthday because I hate being let down and usually for birthdays you can't like create your own birthday party or birthday lunch or birthday whatev because you'll look like a loser so it seems like that particular day's happiness is dependent upon other people and sorry folks, but I don't have time to depend on you for my own happiness. I'm in charge of my happiness thank you very much.

So, Wednesday began like every other day. I'm working a closing shift and Aaron says he wants to take me to work because he has a surprise for me. Well hey, that totally works because that means I don't have to ride the bus* and I get a surprise!?! Helllllllll yeah. So, we get to work and it's pretty busy so I get down and dirty with some guests trying to get them to buy some luon and all of a sudden there's Aaron with no present. Uhhh....that wasn't part of the deal Ron. You were supposed to show up with a present, now get out the way so I can sell my luon. He gets out of the way. All of a sudden my assistant manager Ryan is shuffling me to the back room trying to get me to look at his emails...huh? Why do I have to look at YOUR emails? That's weird. Welll, since I'm nosy I enjoyed looking at his emails and I got really into it. All of a sudden I hear a commotion and I turn around and there's my mom standing in our office!!! Saaaaaaaayyyyyy whaaaaaaatttttt??? I screamed so loud and then she screamed and then we both were screaming and then crying and poor Assistant Manager Ryan was right in the middle of this huge commotion. He about hit the deck because of all of this screaming and crying. Of course all of my coworkers totally enjoyed seeing the screaming and crying because you know...usually I'm cool, calm and collected. That's right.

So, Aaron and Mom totally collaborated for months on end on how they could surprise me for my birthday and it really worked. I had no idea. It was one of the best birthdays ever and only would have been better if my Doo Da had been here too! (I'm trying to convince my dad that "Doo Da" is a good granddad name, so far he's not buying it but I'm going to keep trying!)
We went on a fabulous tour de chocolate, a tour of all of the chocolateries around Seattle, went shopping, went to Bainbridge Island and ate and ate and ate and laughed and laughed. Thanks Aaron, Mom and Dad for one of the best birthdays EVER! You successfully made me feel special and loved on the big 28. Now I'm expecting all of my birthdays to be the double bomb like this one was. So there.


*Even though I got a new car, I still ride the bus because driving and parking in Seattle is a.) a bitch and b.) really expensive. Now you are asking yourself why did we get a car? Well, the only car we had was a Jeep Wrangler and I believe I've spoken to how unbelievably comfortable those Jeep Wranglers are. Note sarcasm. Plus, I'm too old to learn how to drive a stick so Aaron was driving my behind everywhere and that was severely hindering my shopping habit.
xoxo,
alison

Making History in November

Dear Blog,

I think we all knew that November would be a historical month when two of Aaron's dearest friends from the days of yore (college days), Paul and Kate, got engaged. Even though I haven't known these crazy kids from the days of yore I do consider them my friends too. I felt like I needed to clarify. Anyway you see, Paul and Kate have been dating for seven years. Paul proposed to her several times and Kate was all WHATEVER, but Paul kept the faith and finally on November 1, on Paul's seventh time proposing Kate finally said yes because she started to feel sorry for the young lad. So, let's all say a hip hop hooraaaaaaaay hoooooo to Paul and Kate and pour one out for our homies. Here is a funny pic of the couple scarfing down burgers at a random 5 Guys Burgers we found on the Lower East Side. Man, those burgers were good but we were definitely feeling them about an hour later. Yikes.

On to another positive note, I bought a new car!!! Since I now work in retail I take Sundays and Mondays off because I have to work one weekend day. While this works out quite nicely for getting errands run in no crowds, I get confused when I go back to work on Tuesday and I think it's Monday and people look at me like I'm crazy. Well, that's not unusual. Aaron gets Mondays off too so we can have a semi weekend together. So yesterday we decide to go car shopping cause that's how we do. We decide we want a car and BAM!! We find one and BAM we get some dope financing and BAM I'm driving home in a car. What kind of vehicle did we purchase? A silver BMW X3, hollaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. It drives like a dream and it's so nice to have a car again and not have to rely on Aaron to drive me places. I'm not one for having to rely on people. The end.

So, there's no way I can't NOT bring this up. (I totally am owning that double negative.) Now that Aaron and I have cable again I've been catching up on all of my favorite Bravo TV shows. I think all I need to say is the title of the following show. The Real Housewives of Atlanta. What the HELL was Bravo thinking? That show is turrble y'all. Now, I fully admit to loving the previous "Real Housewives of..." but this show is a disgrace. First of all, who smokes in their house??? That is disgusting and so 1976. Yuck. Second of all, these people don't know how to talk. Take an English class at your local community college for crying out loud. I don't care if you're rich, you need to know that the word "texts" does not have a second E in it and is not pronounced "textES" Say whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaat??? What is the lesson learned? Just say no to the Real Housewives in Atlanta and pray they don't make another season. I don't like Atlanta that much, but I feel bad for Atlantan's because this show is makin' y'all look baaaaaaaaaddddddd.




And because I never like to end on a negative note, Obama just won!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not the most patriotic person out there but I am so proud of my country for making history tonight!

xoxo,
Alison