Parties, Weddings and Holidays!

For some reason, school is sucking even more than usual lately. It's crunch time and patients keep canceling! Thankfully--my network of friends here in Dental School and my loved ones back home are getting me through this. I've been working on so many non-school related craft projects and it's helping to reduce stress and focus on the things in life that really matter.

Two weeks ago, our friend and basically only blog fan, Tom, made the ladies at PLSB a crazy proposal. He wanted to PAY us to throw him a birthday party. This was obviously nonsense, and he didn't know that we already had his birthday party planning in the works. You can read his re-cap of the party here. Tom didn't want any part in the planning because he thought it was too stressful, so we had to do a lot of guess work. Our inspiration, oddly enough, was his tattoos! (see that first picture). From there we made an invitation and made decorations crafted with pictures of his actual tattoos. We told people to dress dark and edgy as we were planning a biker gourmet/west coast choppers/nouveau americana/amy weinhouse theme. Really, I just wanted an excuse to wear my new lipstick, but the guests had fun with it and I think Tom was thrilled.

The invitation.


Some of the decorations. I've seen so many of these pendant banner things on blogs, so I decided to try my hand.
That's Tom, Will, Erin and Tyler digging in. They are eating steak kabobs, risotto, Persian dish (don't know the name, sorry), salad, Indian dish, etc.

This picture makes no sense here, but I just want the world out there to realize how amazing of a chef Yasi is. This was salmon nicoise. Prepared for Brigid and myself on a RANDOM WEEK NIGHT. Again, my friends are seriously getting me through this. Even on the most basic level of nourishment. I wish I had a picture of the Thai dish Yasi made the week before last that completely resolved my sour post-waiting-at-the-car-dealership-for-three hours mood.

Back to Tom's party. Yasi, Brigid and Erin preparing the food.


Catching up on some big news. Brigid just tasted something bad I guess.

Standing proudly in front of her handiwork. That's a lemon trifle and our watermelon/balsalmic/feta/candied nuts salad in the background.



The above two photos don't make a lot of sense here either, but I stole them from Tom from our St. Patrick's day feast. I just like how he took a picture of me taking a picture of B & Y. As he always says, "in ten years....this picture will be priceless!!"

Also getting me through these rough few weeks--comfort food. These ended up tasting not-so-hot, but after a long hard day, pancakes with extra granola and banana (intend to) hit the spot.


Friday afternoon I scheduled a cleaning so I could get out of clinic early and make it to my friend Patti's wedding rehearsal. I've known Patti and her family since I was six weeks old, so needless to say, her wedding this weekend was a wonderful event! This may not mean anything to anybody, but I made it from the dental school in San Antonio to the Kemah boardwalk in three hours and forty five minutes! I never thought I'd make it to the rehearsal, but I arrived just in time to change from scrubs to a dress in the back of my car and run down the hill to the boat (yes the wedding was on a boat!) The windows on the boat were tinted in such a way that I didn't realize that the whole wedding party was watching me run (so not graciously) on a down slope to the dock in heels.

The wedding was intimate and so much fun. I was really nervous about my speech and MOH duties, but everything worked out. My sister Leah, on the far left in the picture was asked to do a reading, and my other sister, Alyssa, on the right side of the bride, sang a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria. I was proud of them both.

Saturday night at 4 am, after catching up with my old friend Kendall at Baytown's newest, hottest (only) bar, we booked tickets to the Duke vs Baylor game. We ate at Goode Company BBQ before the game then grabbed some drinks at the Armadillo Palace. You can't tell but that's Chrissy, Leah, and Ben sitting on saddles.




View of Htown from Reliant.
Chrissy & Leah claimed they didn't plan these matching outfits.


Of all 40 thousand fans, our seats were right next to our classmate, Alex!

I was actually cheering against both teams. I was rooting for my ice cream!

Last night was our Passover seder! I got invited to my Aunt Dolly's in Austin. We had a great time and the food was so delicious. Tonight a classmate and I are hosting a second night seder at my house. I've got to race to Central Market right NOW and get some of the food.