And where have you been, young lady?!

Sorry, Mom...

I've been out of it, and I apologize. On the downside, that means you haven't been graced with any hilarious, witty and entertaining posts from yours truly. (Apparently I think pretty highly of myself.) On the upside, now you get to be bombarded with them! Yay!

Without further ado, Post #1, or "What I've Been Doing for the Past Twelve Days," by Mrs. B.

When we last spoke, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the warp in the space/time continuum that made my shoes perfectly comfortable in-store, and unbearable at home. Yes, groundbreaking, earth-shattering news, I know.

Friday:

I ended up wearing those shoes (with a back up pair, of course) to work and was surprised to find that I made it through most of the day with only two band-aids. And as all of you ladies know, you can determine the comfort level of a pair of shoes by how many band-aids you have to wrap your feet in to keep the blistering/rubbing at bay. In the end, I decided to pack them to wear to the wedding with no back up plan. You'll find out how that went in a little bit.

I put on my back up shoes when I left work because I had to hurry to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy whatever I could scrounge together from my cousins' registry on the night before the wedding. Ugh. Yes, I know, it's my fault for waiting until the last minute, but I couldn't help it. I walked in, armed with a handful of BBB coupons, printed off their registry, and started rummaging through my choices. Of course, the $300 Kitchen Aid Mixer and the $300 vacuum were still available, but I could only afford about $30 worth of gifts. Guess what they got. Go ahead, I dare you. Give up?

They got spoons. I got them all of the random, individual serving spoons on their registry and called it a day. It's quite possibly the worst/strangest gift I've ever given someone, but in my defense, they registered for them, so they must have wanted them. And those things are freaking expensive individually - between $7-$10 a piece! (That's expensive to me, but maybe I'm cheap...) I'm sure they'll think of us every time they have a need to scoop, dip or stir.

Anyway, I bought their gift, went back to the house, packed for the wedding and the weekend, and we went up to The Hubs' parents' house. We finally got to hang out with The Kids, and had a really fun night at the bar with them. I drank a lot, but never really got drunk. (Which seems to be how it goes since the gallbladder left town...) At any rate, we got to hang with them, which should buy us another month or two of crazy schedules that interrupt friend time. Bah, I hate that!

Saturday (we're up to May 23rd in my 12 days of abandonment):

The Hubs and his dad changed some belts on my car and then it was off to the wedding. But first, we had to make a stop at the prom:

The MIL wouldn't let us leave until she got pictures of us in the front yard. It's endearing, I guess. The Hubs went to his senior prom with a bunch of friends, so she never got to take these pictures 10 years ago. It's a little fun to indulge her. (Btw, I'm wearing the shoes in this pic.)

The wedding was nice. It was the first time I had ever been to a Catholic wedding with a full mass. Other than the awkwardness of the whole stand up, sit down routine, and not knowing the songs or the responses, it was very nice.

Here's the happy couple, my Step Cousin, Steve, and his new wife, Jen.

I'm sure they'll look just as happy when they open up their spoons...

The reception was good. I had the most amazing roast beef I think I've ever had, and I did The Booty Call, The Cha Cha Slide, and The Cupid Shuffle - in my shoes! They actually ended up being one of the more comfortable pairs of high heels I own. I'm really glad I gave them a second chance.

Sunday:
I went out to lunch with The BFF and Tonja, and then we had shopping to do! We hit up Wal Mart and Target for camping supplies, and then I went home and did grocery shopping with The Hubs. Lots of shopping that day, nothing really exciting to report.

Monday:
Memorial Day. Instead of going out to my Mom's house, we lounged around all day and enjoyed the first day in a very long time that we had absolutely nowhere to be. The Hubs did homework most of the day, and I enjoyed an all-day John & Kate Plus 8 marathon while cleaning out my closet. (Yes, it took almost a whole day to clean out my closet. Don't judge.) I filled 3 trash bags full of Goodwill goodness, and sorted and organized all my junk. What a fun and exciting life I lead.

Wednesday:
I went with MFN andThe BFF to see "A Chorus Line". Can you say "booo-riiing"? OMG, I thought it was never going to end! Luckily, I'm not crazy, and MFN and The BFF felt the same way. Maybe we're Theater Snobs, maybe we've been spoiled by Les Mis and the other amazing shows we've seen, but man, was that a rough two hours to sit through. Oh well, at least I can add another show to my list.

I got the 2009-2010 schedule the other day, and I'm pretty much going to have to get a second job to pay for my theater habit. "Mama Mia!", "The Color Purple", "Rent", "Chicago", "Legally Blonde: The Musical", "Dreamgirls", and I'm super excited about this one: "Mary Poppins"! I HAVE to see all of them, or I'm pretty sure I'll die. (What? I'm being overly dramatic? You think so? Okay, fine. I'd really, really, really like to see these shows, and if I don't, I'll be really sad. Better? Good.)

Thursday:
I realized on Wednesday that there was no way I was going to be able to get all of our camping stuff organized and packed, and clean up our apartment in time for the trip on Friday, so I took Thursday off. I spent the first 4 hours of my day reformatting my iPod and adding/organizing songs. Ugh, what a P.I.T.A.! Then I spent the rest of the day cleaning, organizing, and packing. When The Hubs got back to the house around 11pm, we only had a few things left to do on our list. It never would have gotten finished if I had worked that day.

Friday - Sunday:
Camping. I'll give it it's own post.

Monday (today!):
Back to civilization, back to work, back to the diet and exercise. I'll give the whole diet and exercise thing it's own post, too. (Aren't you lucky?!)

So you may have had to live without me for 12 days, but as you can see, I had a lot going on.

Do you forgive me? I sure hope so.