When Life Gives You Lemons.. Make It A Lulu

Ahh, what the joys of spontaneous travel to Portland with a couple of girlfriends sporting large cups of caffeine and questionable will power when waltzing into the glory that is lululemon will do for you..

Abby, Casandra and I decided to take a day trip to Portland. Mind you, half the day, of course, was made up of driving cuz tho it seems relatively nearby, The fair Rose City is still a good 2 - 2 1/2 hour drive from The Emerald City (you can't put those two terribly close together cuz green and red only work during Christmas people). No jauntyness about it, nothing quick.. no no no. But we gabbed and caught up and sang songs and voilà! We arrived - where much shopping excitement awaited us!

Oh and how it came and went so very quickly, as did our funds, within the first store, lululemon. This is due to the greatness of their athletic pants that Abby said she needed - she is a very striking, if not the best, yoga instructor, after all - and I'd been needing some new sweats myself.

After only a few minutes there, we focused in on these pants, called the groove pant, but I've since renamed them 'the best ass pants EVER' cuz when we saw our backsides clothed in these so-hot-they'll-burn-up-the-gym-pants in the mirror, we were all hot for ourselves. Seriously, guys? If your girl works out, spend the money ($84) and get her some of these.. you won't regret it. Mine are all black with a pale pink stripe just above the bum. Let me just say if I didn't before, I definitely put the 'ass' in assertive now. I almost can't stop looking at my own butt. I'm not kidding.. it rocks the hotness.

Quite exhausted and starving after so much staring at our gorgeous derrières, we galavanted over to the Hawthorne district, one of my favorite areas of Portland, after lunch, snacked again, window shopped further, and by 6-ish, caffeinated ourselves for the ride home, but made one more stop at this random junk-ish store called Pretty Good Stuff. Hats were tried on, bad jokes were made, Abby attempted her poor piano playing, but her dancing in the street and channeling of Mick Jagger were much better. Obviously, the sugar/caffeine combo and possibly the shopping delirium were getting to us, but that was the point. We headed back to Seattle shopped out, but happy.

Back home now, celebrating the Memorial Day holidayness by way of staying in my pajamas for as long as possible, I'll catch y'all up on the rest..

I wish I could say I stand before you corrected, but I can't.. cuz the only thing I really can tell you is that um.. I'm blonde. Suddenly. Well, blonder than I may ever have been in my life. And I don't think it's quite what I asked for or expected since I'm certain I went in to have my hair dyed and came out with it bleached. Sorry boys if you don't understand, but we, girls, know the difference. I'm still unclear how 'not my natural color, but just a bit warmer' actually meant 'oh I wish I could have hair the color of Jennifer Aniston's.' Hm. And you know what's worse? She explained that they didn't go to the root cuz they wanted it to look natural when it grew out and to prevent a definitive line. Um.. girls? If anyone tells you this, run, don't walk, out of the salon. It's a scam.

Now, we know I'm not the quickest one of us here.. yes we do.. but also, in my defense, her logic sort of made sense to me at the time.. AND the lighting at this particular downtown Seattle salon (which I will not name, but will tell you it does rhyme with PAIN and replace the P with a V) is a little strange so I couldn't really see it until I was home and worked with it the next day. So why, you ask, was I shocked when checking it out? Cuz I figured her logic meant........ ok, you know.. I really don't know what the hell she was talking about.. cuz looking at my hair it looks more like it was done a month ago.. not last Thursday.

But hey, I no longer look like Pat Benetar.. if that's the bright side.. Still, I took my newly blonder and still botched dye job'd self to a more reputable and highly recommended salon on Capital Hill and showed my soon-to-be saviorette how my hair was victimized. After her initial gasp - yes, she and the receptionist - she promised she could fix me. Two weeks from now. God, let's hope someone can. So kids, please learn from my mistakes. Don't wait to do things last minute when pictures that are supposed to last the rest of some people's lives, namely, your mother's, will be taken during her wedding and will be found in her house to haunt you for as long as you both shall live... Just sayin.

AND.. speaking of the BIG DAY.. are you dying to hear about it?! Oh please, no dying.. it wasn't all that or anything. My mom was very cute and slightly flustered and rushed and I think, actually nervous. It was sweet. I even lip glossed her cuz for some reason, when Mom asked me if she looked alright, the wicked step-sister decided to tell her just SECONDS before we all started the important walking down the aisle stuff that she needed lipstick. Um.. helllooo.. cow, thank you for completely ruining my mother's sense of calm she had just reached. She looked FINE.. but ok, she looked a tiiiny bit better with my lip gloss on her. It was a nice pale pink that goes with anything (seriously - it's by MAC and it's called Underage - refrain from the jokes boys - it's fab.). Still, that's not the point.. did I tell the W.S.S. that my aunt almost asked her when she was due cuz at first she thought she was 7 months pregnant? Nooo.. OR that her cleavage could barely be contained in the dress that just wasn't working for her? Nope. Did I want to? Ooooh yes. Very much. But I kept my mouth shut, let her dig her own grave with my family and truly, she did me proud. After two aunts (one who never says anything bad about anyone), a cousin, and my grandmother all said they didn't like her and would never go out of their way to spend time with her just based on her own control-freakish and rude words and actions that day, I knew avoiding her during the standard holiday visits in the future would be accepted appropriate behavior. Chalk that up on my list as something for me to be happy about Pomgirl!

And tho I wasn't happy with any pictures of me, here is a cute one with my adorable cousin, Mollie and one of my sister-in-law, Nadia, who's wearing the coolest vintage dress ever.

So here's to finding something that will make you happy - be it softball games in the pouring rain for Treena, the relief of that much, MUCH-awaited news of a job for LadyMiss (Yay!! And congrats!!), a weekend trip to San Fran for my sassy Pixie, the desperately needed mouse-eating magical pony for Léonie, happiness in a tablet for the spritely Pom, the bond between relatives created by despising the same person, or just a really expensive, but devylishly fetching pair of sweats.

It's all about the simple pleasures.. isn't it?