I’ve been doing this nifty thing lately where I have hardly documented my life through social media. I think that’s evident since I haven’t posted anything since April 1. Whoops.

I assure you we are alive, healthy, and well. We have been doing pretty much the same routine as always, one weekend in St. Pete, one weekend in Orlando, with a few trips in between to Atlanta. It’s been a pretty hectic two months, that’s for sure and I’m sure I echo pretty much everyone you’ve spoken to lately but I CANNOT BELIEVE IT’S ALREADY JUNE.

So to quickly recap, this is what life has looked like lately for us:

April

• We were able to hook up with a longtime friend from high school who lives in the Orlando area for a Braves Spring Training game which was super hot but luckily, he and his family have tickets in the shade, so thank god for that. It was a sad moment for me as I realized I only recognized 2 names on our roster, and thus, I’m old.
• My friend Athena, who works at USF Tampa, was able to score me a VIP pass and seating to see Bill Nye, a personal hero of mine. It did not disappoint. If you ever get a chance to see him, DO IT.
• We also got to go to the Rowdies home opener! Professional soccer is not something I’m super into, but we had a really good time! The fan section was KRUNK, for sho.
• We also went to Animal Kingdom as we continued the use of our incredible Florida Resident Disney Passes. I was convinced that I had never been, and truly nothing looked familiar, but it turns out my uncle posted a picture of us on FB riding the Dinosaur ride back when I was in high school, so memory is not the perfect time recorder as you may think it is. I would post pictures of all the safari animals, but really, you’re not going to care.
• I got us tickets MONTHS ago to see Kathy Griffin who I’m pretty much obsessed with. That woman knocks my socks off, she’s too damn funny. We even braved going back to Lakeland for her, and I’m sure she’ll never know the sacrifice we showed for her.
  • Side note: Timmy is still pretty popular with the gays, as he is really a bear (look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about). He even got pinched by Katherine, Kathy Griffin’s look-alike drag queen, and got his picture taken for one of those gay nightlife magazines. HE STOLE MY DREAM WITHOUT EVEN TRYING. F@#$*@@, I should’ve been a gay man.
• April finally finished up with a trip back to Atlanta for my friend Mel’s bachelorette party and bridal shower. These girls, they steal my heart. This is my close group of friends from grad school, and man do I love them. We did a little clubbing, a little lake house fun, and it was such a needed trip for me. We also had time that weekend to go to the Inman Park Festival and meet up with my really good girlfriend Alex. It’s been forever since we’ve been able to go to an Atlanta festival, and god it was wonderful.We also stopped by Timmy’s friend’s crawfish boil, where I proceeded to amaze the men by throwing like a pro. (notice I didn’t say “like a man”. I’m a girl, and I throw like a person who knows what they’re doing. Gender ain’t got nothing to do with it.)

Braves Spring Training

VIP to Bill Nye? YES PLEASE

Bill Nye

The Science Guy himself

my free book, with a delightful inscription

Rowdies home opener

An Evening with Kathy Griffin!

my favorite picture from the bachelorette party

dancing up a storm

love them!

almost all her pictures are blurry because she didn’t stop moving

candid beauties

oh lord. It was that time of the night.

bridal shower time

Mel looking beautiful

most of the bridal party

May

• So began the month of a ton of family birthdays. My soon-to-be niece Caroline, my soon-to-be sister in law Katy, mine, my niece Charlotte, my father…July/August were THE months, if you catch my drift. I didn’t get to celebrate with anyone, which was fine, but for the first time in a long time, I was kind of lonely. I’m starting to miss my friends and family more than before, but now that it’s summer (not technically, but who are we kidding? It’s FL), it’s really the perfect time for everyone to start visiting and satisfy my friend/family cravings.
• I had 3 spine injections. Life is much better now.
• We had more beach weekends. This is really the sweet spot of FL weather. It’s hot, but not disgusting yet, and the beaches aren’t full with tourists. It’s delightful.
• We went back to Atlanta for Mel and Brandon’s wedding, which I had the honor of officiating. That’s two weddings now, and I’d better have a 2-0 record. I’m available for weddings and vow renewals in case anyone’s in the market.
• We packed in wedding planning that weekend as well, and it was freaking exhausting. We had a SUPER unpleasant meeting with one of our venue’s reps, and it was so bad I had to email the director and had someone else assigned to us. If you plan on using the Foundry at Puritan Mill, stay clear of Wendy Collins. She’s the WORST.
• That weekend we also got in our engagement photos, which we will be getting back this week and I’m about to pee my pants, I’m so excited to share with you “our vision”. You. Should. Be. Excited.
• My sister and niece Anna came to visit, and I LOVED IT. Anna is so not used to being by herself with all the adult attention on her (since she’s a twin), so it was really neat to see her personality without her feeling like she’s fighting for the spotlight. We took her shelling, and we watched her eat lemons including the rind. She’s a little weirdo, and I love her.
• We had a lovely Memorial Day evening basically doing a craft brewery crawl, starting with Green Bench with a co-worker, his fiancee and her son. GOOOOOOD times.
• I got to present at the American College Health Association’s 2015 Annual Meeting in Orlando last week, and it was fantastic. We had a crowd of 85 people, and when I got to the office today, I had phone calls and emails from other universities waiting for me, wanting to talk about how to integrate their college health services like we have! I was voted Secretary of the Health Promotion section for 2015-16, and I’m really looking forward to getting more involved with ACHA this year.
• Finally, we finished off our Disney field trips with a visit to Epcot on Saturday. I got over 24,000 steps that day, so yeah, it was a good day.

registry time

from my family in Panama 🙂

from my work family

delicious solo lunch at Skyway Cafe

May beach sunsets

Mel and Brandon”s rehearsal

I’m a moron

this couple…

we are morons

the look of love

beautiful night in Atlanta

the view from the Peachtree Club

Love my Lauren

this lady…

Anna-banana weekend!

beach time!

Green Bench Brewery shenanigans

Cycle Brewing

St. Pete Brewing Company

Memorial Day beer crawl

my hotel room view in Orlando

oh hey, Epcot fireworks!

Test Track faces

And now you’re all caught up. Life is moving quickly and picking up pace (as if that’s even possible), and we have even more trips planned out of town and in town with friends coming to visit. I LOVE SUMMER IN ST. PETE.

♥, VB