Thankful

This has been quite the week:
-My personal email was hacked,
-I sprained my ankle (I don't think I mentioned this...FYI: don't try to have Michael Jackson dance-offs with small Asian men while wearing 4 inch heels),
-and I was robbed at gunpoint Friday night.

Well... this weekend did not go according to plan.

Friday night, while in DC my girl friends and I were mugged at gunpoint by two men. I remember thinking when I saw him grab my friend Nikki, this can't be real life. It all happened so fast. He grabbed her, put a gun to her side and told her to give him her purse. Once she handed the purse over, he ran towards me. My first reaction was "No" and tried to turn away. When I turned back around, there was a gun in my face and the guy was yelling that he would shoot me. Needless to say, I handed over my bag. Once the men had all of our belongings, he pointed the gun at us and told us to walk back up the hill. We did as he told, but managed to turn around to see him jump in a car and speed away.
Luckily, Megan had her cell phone in her hand when this all took place and it was small enough for the two men not to notice. We quickly phoned 911 and the cops were there in less than 2 minutes.

I went into shock. I couldn't cry and could barely speak or stand. How could this happen? What actually did happen? Everything was gone.  All the cash I had (granted, only 2 dollars), my credit cards, my check card, my checks, sunglasses, pass to get into work, cell phone, and car keys. Everything.

Once we got back to Megan's house, I laid on her bed and just started to shake. I couldn't stop. My body completely took over. We canceled all of our cards and took care of as much as we could at 3am. Eventually we all fell asleep, but Megan and I were up at 7:30. As much as you just want to stay in bed and cry, we had too much to take care of to stay still.

You know, when I turned around and saw a gun in my face I remember just thinking to myself "Okay Marit, this is how you're going to go..and its okay." I braced myself for a shot, but luckily, it never came and luckily, all my friends and I were able to walk away from this.

 I am so thankful to be alive, but I'm also thankful to have such wonderful people surrounding me. I want to take the time to use this as a way to say thank you to them.

Nikki, Sarah, Megan- Thank you for being there in a time of need. You all have been my best friends for  almost 8 years and I am thankful to know each one of you.We all experienced something terrible, but I believe this will only make our friendship stronger. I'm so incredibly thankful to call you my friends.

A- Thank you for being the most wonderful person I have ever met. Thank you for being such a strong, loving, considerate boyfriend. Words can not even describe how much I appreciate everything you did and continue to do for me. I truly am the luckiest girl in the world to have you by my side every day.

Mom- Thank you for making me smile when I was feeling down. You told me that on Friday night, you said a prayer to keep all your kids safe. I fully believe in the power of prayer and believe that you might have been the reason why we all walked away without a scratch.

Holly- Thank you for dropping everything and coming to see me. Having you there made me feel so loved and I just want you to know how much I love and appreciate you.

Jerri Ann- Thank you for being you. Your sense of humor and loving attitude really helped cheer me up. I so look forward to these next 2 months I get to spend with you.

I also want to say thank you to all of our friends who came to our party on Sunday. Being around such wonderful people helped lift my spirits and was exactly what I needed after an experience like that.

I know it will take some time to get over an incident like this, but with time - all things heal. I have a lot to be thankful for...but mostly, I'm thankful for this week to be over.

Onwards and upwards, right?

Till next time-
M

Girls Trip!

Can I just mention how excited I am for 2:00pm today?

Why you ask? Its when I head to DC to see some of my very best friends! Two of which I haven't seen in almost 9 months!

Here are a few old pictures....

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Till next time -
M

Folks, its Porch Sittin' Season

One of Richmond's favorite past times is "Porch sitting," and I'd like to think I've mastered the art of it. When the weather starts to warm up, try taking a walk around the Fan district. You'll notice how so many people use their front porches for reading, people watching, conversations with friends, and my personal favorite - drinking wine.

A and I have always talked about getting a porch swing, but I think this would take porch sitting to the next level:

                                                                            (via)

Hello, Gorgeous! I must have you.

Till next time,
M

Memorial day Menu

The weekend is fast approaching and its got me thinking what we should serve at our Memorial Day party.

This would be my perfect menu:

                                                   Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Chicken Bites

                                                                            (via)
                                                   
                                               Grilled shrimp with Cilantro, Lime and Peanuts

                                                                  (via Martha Stewart)

                                                                    Avacado Salsa

                                                                            (via)

                                                          Strawberry Shortcake on a stick

                                                                              (via)
                                                           
                                                            Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

                                                                           (via)

I hope A is taking notes...

I'm already hungry for Sunday...Would you come to my party with this on the menu??

Till next time -
M

Rules of the road? I guess not..

Can someone please explain what the rules of the road for bicyclists are?

                                                                            (via)

Since moving to Richmond, I have noticed a complete lack of responsibility of the bikers around town. I have seen them completely ignore not only traffic signs, but also the cars that they are sharing the road with. With time, I have learned to deal with it.

Well, folks... not anymore.

This morning when I was driving to work, I was about to make a right turn when I stopped to prevent running into a pedestrian that had decided to cross the street at the worst time possible. Anyway, behind me was a young guy on a bike who had hopped the sidewalk and gotten into my lane. I guess he didn't like the fact that I had stopped and proceeded to run into the back of my car...twice. Yes, thats right...He bumped the back of my car twice to tell me to go. Umm.....I'm sorry for making you late to the coffee shop you most likely work at, but I don't feel like running over a pedestrian so early on in the morning, okay dude?

Not even 30 seconds later after making the right turn did I almost run over ANOTHER biker that had completely ignored his red traffic light when I had the green one!!

I finally got to work and breathed a sigh of relief - I'm not going to jail today! Hooray!
When I got out of my car, I took a look at my back bumper - there were two clearly defined tire marks on the bottom (ok - yes, my car is dirty). Awesome.

So, I ask - what are the rules of the road? Can bikers run red lights? Can they bump into cars to tell them to go? My intellect and gut instinct are telling me the correct answer is no...but then again, I'm not a bicyclist.

                                                                             (via)

Watch out for those bikers, guys...

Till next time -
M

Hacked.

There is nothing better than waking up and seeing you have 34 emails that have "bounced back." Awesome - my personal email was hacked. I found out that my account had sent over 150 emails to some of my closest friends - aka: my old boss, my current boss, my old co-Junior Leaguers, and many others that I had no clue existed in my address book. Some of the emails were links for  boogie nights, spanx and swimming pool sealants...Nope, not embarrassing at all.

I don't know about you guys, but I had a great weekend! Full of fun with friends and manual labor (thanks, A)!

I got the chance to go out with 2 girls I work with Friday night. A lot of wine was consumed which lead to a lot of dancing. I know at one point I was having a dance-off with a small Asian man. Nope, not embarrassing at all...

After nursing my awesome hangover on Saturday morning with some couch time, I planted some flowers that A had brought back from his trip to Lowes, and then helped him mulch the front and backyard. We went to dinner at an amazing pizza place and ended the night with a glass of wine (or two...) on the front porch.

Sunday, we met up with friends for brunch at Kuba-Kuba and then continued the overhaul on the backyard.
We put down some pea gravel to make an area for the fire pit. I think it looks pretty great and will be useful for our Memorial Day partay next weekend! We ended the night with Grilled Corn, Veggies, and chicken with a homemade pesto sauce! Summer is officially here and I couldn't be happier!

Till next time,
M

Is this heaven?

When I am driving to work in the mornings, I usually listen to the radio. Today, they were talking about the end of the world, which supposedly will happen tomorrow. One the questions they were asking their listeners was, "What will your last meal be before the Rapture?"

The responses were funny to listen to. A girl called in saying that she was highly allergic to peanut butter, so her last meal will be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich since, you know... shes going to die anyways. Another caller said Chicken Parmesan. He was obviously Italian.

This crazy topic got me thinking ... what would I choose?

It was a slow moment at work, and after a few moments of surfing - I found my "heavenly" last meal -

                             Strawberries with Cream Cheese Stuffing and Graham Cracker Crust

(via Pintrest)

Its the perfect way to go out! Thanks to A and his strawberry pickin' skills this past weekend while home in NC, I wont even have to make a trip to the store!

In other news, the Eric Church concert was a lot of fun! Never a dull moment when you're around a bunch of country folk, that's for sure. I only took one photo -

I have only one comment from the night:
   While standing in line to use the bathroom, and when I say bathroom - I mean, Porto-potty...I saw two different sets of girls go into one potty together. How is that even possible? When I'm in there by myself, I'm extremely claustrophobic. The thought of having another person in there with me, freaks me out. Now, don't get me wrong - I enjoy the girl-talk bathroom conversation just like every other female, but I feel like girl-talk Porto-potty conversations are a little extreme, yes?

Okay, thats all - Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!
See ya'll on the other side!

Till next time (maybe) -
M

I sell paper for a living...

And, NO - its not like "The Office."

But I am feeling a little like Jim at the moment:

I had a difficult phone conversation with someone who is working on my Mom and Dad's divorce. I'm trying to stay focused on work, but the last place I want to be right now is in the office. What can I say, my mind is elsewhere.

Luckily, if the weather stays pretty - A and I are going to an Eric Church concert tonight!
Praying for no rain so I can hear a little of this ..

Till next time -
M

"What are you going to do with it?"

I'm new to this whole blogging world, but since I began talking about starting one - I've heard the same question over and over again, "what are you going to do with it?"

I hate to admit it, but I have been asking myself the same question. Upon starting the blog, I came to the conclusion that I will post, write, and share whatever I want. I don't want to theme my blog, or use this as a popularity contest, or even try to use this as a platform for issues I believe in...I just want this experience to be fun for the both of us and use this as an opportunity to share all the random things that run through my head. Hopefully, you get the picture and will enjoy the posts as much as I enjoy writing them.

If I want to review a new restaurant  - I will.
If I want to talk about what I am doing today, tomorrow, next month - I will.
If I want to post on something I like, don't like, etc - I will.

Whoa, watch out...Marit, the bad-ass is in the building!

Till next time -
M

Am I crafty enough?

The boy, A and I have been collecting wine corks from the numerous bottles of wine we drink. When we first started dating, I tried to keep every cork from every bottle we drank. Notice I said "I tried"...For those who know us, you'll know how much we enjoy our wine and if I had, in fact, kept every cork - our apartment would be over-run with them!
Even though I haven't kept every cork from every bottle (I had to throw away a few, but shhh - don't tell him), I still have managed to accumulate a nice stash of these little beauts...Now, what to do with them?

I thought something like this would suffice...



But then, as I started googling "wine cork projects," I realized I was thinking too small!!

Why not try to make some of these crafty things:

A and I are always on the look out for more seating, so why not make this comfy looking chair?

I wonder what the Prius would look like covered in wine corks?? Reduce, reuse, recycle - right?

Why not make A this daper suit? It's the perfect outfit for my sisters upcoming summer wedding...





So, I ask - am I crafty enough? ......

Who am I kidding?? .... Wine Cork bulletin board, it is!

Till next time -

M

Oh, hello!

Welcome to my world!

I'm a big blog fan and thought to myself...why not start your own? I know I'm not the most exciting person in the world, but I definitely feel like this is a creative outlet that I would enjoy and who knows, maybe other people will too.

Still trying to get the hang of all this, so bare with me people...

Let me introduce myself...
I am a newbie to Richmond, but not to VA. Lived in Roanoke, VA for a few years before deciding Richmond was the next stop. I enjoy the simple things in life - reading books (and of course blogs), porch sitting, music (Coldplay is my favorite - can you tell by my title?), a glass (or two) of red wine, great food, and spending time with my family and boyfriend.

Till next time -
M