Reasons I Hate Living in an Apartment: #712

The people who are currently living above me are loud. Really loud. Are they walking around wearing scuba flippers up there? I can hear them pounding around up there all hours of the day and night. Are the constantly dragging very large pieces of furniture across the floor? Hammering nails into the walls at 2 AM? Running laps around all 700 square feet of living space? I've started either keeping the TV turned up very loud or having my iPod plugged into my ears at all times. Which means I miss a lot of phone calls, but at least I can choose what is blasting in my ears.

End rant.

My weekend of absolutely zero plans other than laying around and perhaps painting Mark's kitchen didn't quite go as planned. Friday afternoon Mark's best friend from college called to let us know he was in town for a wedding and wanted to hang out. We were already discussing making dinner at home and heading up to Home Depot to look at paint colors when this little call threw a wrench into the whole plan. We still hit up the paint department, stared at the 1,000 different squares of color for about 20 minutes, finally blindly picked two and got samples, took them home and put them up in the walls and then Mark mowed the lawn while I feel asleep. Since we didn't hook up with his friend and his GF that night, we made it a point to see them Saturday. They were staying at the Gaylord out in Grapevine, so we met them up there and spent about six hours at the hotel's FABULOUS pool with a beach bag full of illegal cans of beer ($4.50 per drink at the bar? no thank you). We left with great tans and no desire whatsoever to pick back up the paintbrushes (although we do have about 5 different patches of colors on the walls currently: picking a color is so hard!) We went to bed early with plans of hitting up the paint department early this morning to makeup for our lost time.

But then, this morning when I checked my email, my friend and fellow Bride to Be had emailed to see if I wanted to go to the Dallas Bridal Show today. Woo! So I sent Mark on his way and told him he could paint the kitchen ANY color he wanted at this point, and I met Laura for lunch and an afternoon of DJ's, Latin Cover Bands, Cake samples galore, balloon arches, veils, free drawings for a wedding day makeover and about 280 different chair covers. Whew. It was really fun and also quite exhausting. By the last row of booths, our bags of giveaways and brochures were so heavy that we had the drag them out and we avoided eye contact with every vendor we passed. I did manage to sign up for a "free" facial from a Mary Kay consultant, create a registry at Bed, Bath and Beyond (with nothing on it yet?), and enter for a chance to win a Bachelorette Party at... get ready... Texas Motor Speedway. Oh joy. Laura informed me on our way out that she was giving everyone a fake phone number. Hmm. Smart.

But really, the bridal show was fun. I felt like I was a part of this exclusive "Bride to Be" club and like all the girls there had that same happy engagement glow. Plus, I did find some really cute bridal boutiques that I hadn't even heard of before, many of who I for sure want to go check out for dresses. And the lady at the LuLu's booth even snuck Laura and I one of her coveted coupons, even though she swore they were only for referrals. I think we smooth talked her pretty good :)

When I talked to Mark earlier tonight he hadn't made any paint decisions yet. He figured I needed to come be a part of the final decision. But one thing we do know - our little kitchen project will involve some chalk board paint. Stay tuned for that one!