Greetings from Arizona

by Brittany Geragotelis

So sorry for the internet silence these past few days (five to be exact), but I was in Arizona and had no web access. Matt and I took off on Thursday afternoon for the west coast because my nephew was being baptized and our whole family was meeting up to celebrate the occasion.


The weekend itself was really nice. We stayed in a really nice hotel called the Conquistador. It was actually a resort with a golf course, spa and several pools...there was even a waterslide! In short, the place was gorgeous! And in between doing family stuff, we were all able to spend some time relaxing by the pool.

Besides the fact that this was the first time our whole family (I have two younger sisters) had been together since my 28-year-old sister, Amy, got married three years ago, I was meeting my nephew, Cash Ryan, for the first time. Now, I know everyone says that their nephew or niece is the cutest thing ever, but Cash really is. Cutest. Thing. Ever. When he smiles (which he does A LOT), it just melts your heart. He's six months old and a pretty easy-going baby. He rarely cries and laughs when you talk to him. Anyway, the baptism was nice (and also interesting, to be honest; I didn't realize churches still performed exorcisms...way to go organized religion) and we all had a chance to get dressed up and spend the day together.


While we were there, I also got the chance to meet my 21-year-old sister Jacey's boyfriend, Micah, who has one of the best senses of humor I've ever seen (can you see a sense of humor?). Really funny...and very sweet to my sis, which is what matters most to me.







But the baptism wasn't the only thing we were celebrating....it was also both my parent's birthdays! So all of us girls (along with our special man friends) took my parents out to dinner one of the nights and surprised them with a Nintendo Wii. They had no idea we were getting them one and I think they really enjoyed the night. We even had the waiters sing to them!


All in all, it was a great weekend, and I was exhausted by the time I got back home...thus the reason you didn't get a blog yesterday. Now, I'm home for three days before heading off to New Orleans for work (and play). But more on that in a future blog...

5x5,
B.

I'd like to introduce you to Handi

by Brittany Geragotelis

I've been trying to convince my best friend, Tammy, to get a cat ever since we met. Animals love her and she's really great with them. Whenever she comes over to my apartment, she sprawls out on my floor and Murray climbs up onto her head and grooms her. Cohen just sticks his butt in her face.

The point is, she's great with animals, and I've always known she would LOVE having a cat around, but for whatever reason (ahem—not wanting to turn into a crazy cat lady—ahem), she hasn't been ready to take one on...until now.

A few weeks ago, our other good friend, Kate, told us that one of her co-workers had a kitty she needed to get rid of. The cat was somewhere between 1 to 3 years old and very sweet, but the other 7 cats living at that particular house in Brooklyn were picking on him and the owners felt it best to give him to someone else. See, one day, the owners found the kitty underneath a grill; He was tired and had a broken leg. So, the family took him to the vet, got him fixed up, the docs put a pin in his broken leg so it would heal and then took him home to heal. And because his leg was healing, the kitty got used to hopping around on three legs...and continued to do so, even when he was better. And this prompted the other cats to pick on him (man, this story's bringing back some not-so-fond memories of high school), which led to the owners needing to find him a new home.

And here enters Tammy. Superhero Cat Saver! She went and picked up the pretty, gray, cuddly cat yesterday. And in honor of his injuries and ultimately how he ended up going home with her, she named him HandiCat. Handi for short. Less than two days after being introduced to his new home, Handi is LOVING his new owner. And though she'll kill you if you call her the cat lady, I know Tammy loves having him around, too!

Welcome to the family, Handi!

5x5,
B.

It's weird...but kinda cool.

by Brittany Geragotelis

When we were at the beach last week, I got into the habit of waking up pretty early (like around 8ish; Hey, for a vacation, that's early). One of the mornings, I woke up (early), made some coffee (decaf) and went out to sit on the back deck (I liked to sit and listen to the waves in the morning) as I proceeded to try and wake up.

Only this time, I went out there, to find Matt's 8-year-old cousin, Maya, out on the deck, even more excited and energetic as usual. She was bouncing around and didn't even wait for me to ask her what was up before she spilled. "There's a wedding on the beach!" Sure enough, I looked out and saw an altar set up down by the water and about a dozen or so chairs lined up in front of it.

We were all so excited at the prospect of bearing witness to a couple's union--without having to get all dressed up to do it. It was exciting and sweet and for the next 30 minutes, I was glued to my patio chair as I sipped my coffee and watched guests start to arrive. By this time, Maya had lost interest and disappeared upstairs to find something else to hold her attention, so I was left there on my own to witness the blessed event.

As I waited, I tried to guess what the gown would look like. Would it be a big poofy affair, like a princess sort of look...or would the bride go the sundress route and wear something that could get sandy and wet? Maybe something modern...or a more traditional gown?


Finally, a crowd began to form as people headed down to the beach, including a few girls that were wearing the same sundresses, which led me to believe they were the bridesmaids. Everyone hugged hello and I watched as the officiant, dressed in a long, white, regal-looking robe made his way to the altar. I blinked as everyone turned to face where the bride would walk down the isle.

There was no dress. There were shorts. White shorts, actually, and a matching white button-up shirt.

And two brides.

The two women walked down the sandy isle together, arm in arm and their friends and family surrounded them as they approached the man who was going to marry them. As they reached the altar, the man threw off his robe to reveal white shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

In four words? It was (freaking) awesome!

I wish I hadn't been so far away that way I could have heard them, but man was everyone in that group happy when the vows were made and those two people were able to make those promises to each other. It was beautiful.

A little bit after the ceremony ended and the guests fled the beach, Maya appeared on the porch and I told her that it was two women who'd been married that morning. She looked confused for a minute and then said, "Two women?" I said, "Yep." Then, totally deadpan, she said to me, "That's weird...but also kinda cool." I asked her why it was weird and all she said was, "I don't know. But it's kinda cool, too." Then she skipped off to tell everyone about the wedding she'd seen on the beach.

5x5,
B.

Summer Reading List

by Brittany Geragotelis

When I was growing up, I was a book nerd. I spent all my life savings (up until the age of 15) on books. I had every single Christopher Pike book at one point (He was my favorite author. Come to think of it, I'd still love to meet him). I could sit down with a book for hours and just read. Getting lost in a book was my favorite thing to do. And surprise, surprise...it still is today.

photo credit: Dairy Queen

One of my best memories of summertime is of having a summer reading list. There was no schoolwork to get in the way of my pleasure reading and I had days on end to just plow through book after book. Our local Dairy Queen used to do this program where they encouraged summer reading. For every 10 books you read, you got a free ice cream. Your parents had to sign off on the books you read of course, and it was sort of an honor system thing, since we didn't have to write a book report or anything to prove that we'd actually read the books that were on the list (I doubt this would fly now).

Needless to say, I PLOWED through those free ice creams. At one point, I was averaging at least a book a day. I was Dairy Queen's biggest nightmare.

I miss those summers...making a pile of the books I wanted to read and picking them up one at a time. Now, as an adult, I just don't have as much time to read. I have a full-time job; I have other commitments I have to handle on a daily basis; I write books; I keep up this blog; There are so many TV shows and movies to watch. It's not as easy to shut out the real world for a day of reading.

But I'd like to get back to that.

So, I took a look at all the books that are on my shelf, just waiting to be read, and have vowed to have them read by September 1st. Here they are:

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
2. L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
3. Watership Down by Richard Adams (This is a re-read, but it's been so long since I read it, it'll be like the first time all over again)
4. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
5. Secrets of the Monarch by Alison Dubois
6. We are their Heaven by Alison Dubois
7. A Match Made in High School byKristin Walker
8. Getting the Girl by Susan Juby
9. Uncharted TerriTori by Tori Spelling
10. Practical Intuition by Laura Day

photo credit: Pinkberry

And I think that I'm going to treat myself to pinkberry after every book—just because. Who said I had to wait until I finished reading 10 of them to get a yummy reward? Don't we all deserve a little snack with our storytime?

5x5,
B.

Could I be turning into a vampire?

by Brittany Geragotelis

Just got home today from vacation and although I'm not happy to be away from the beach, I don't exactly hate that I'm back home. Mostly because I'm here with my kitties, who are SO happy to see me! Just take a look at these pics...

Murray and Cohen causing trouble.














Murray saying hello.














Cohen giving me the evil eye.













Anyway, yesterday was my last day in Maryland and it was seriously a blast. In the morning, Matt and I went to get our hair cut, then we worked out (him running outside; me, doing the elliptical as I watched "The Real Housewives of New Jersey"--Oh, the drama!). After that, we shopped. And I'm talking, serious shopping. But how could we not? The deals were insane because we were at the outlet malls and it's 4th of July weekend. I think I came back with a whole new wardrobe.

Anyways, once we got home, we packed up a picnic dinner of sandwiches, chips, coleslaw and strawberries and jumped into the car with Matt and his parents. We headed to a nearby grassy hill to listen to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and watch some crazy fireworks. It was a beautiful night. A pleasant 80 degrees or so in the shade, and we listened to some great tunes as the sun went down. There had to be at least 5,000 people there, and the atmosphere was electric. Check out Matt here, with some of the crowd in the background!

While we were sitting there on our big blanket, eating our yummy picnic meal, I felt something wet hit my shoulder. And to my horror, I looked over and saw a big glop of poop on my arm. I quickly realized it wasn't just any old bird poop: it was BAT poop! As soon as the sun went down, the bats came out to play. And I had been poo-bombed by the mother-daddy of the fanged creatures!

This got me thinking: what if Twilight and "True Blood" had it all wrong. What if the secret human-to-vampire-change secret is in the poo, not in the blood? Maybe that's what all the vamps want you to believe, so they can more easily change humans to vamps. Hey, it's not totally far-fetched, right?

Suddenly I'm ravenous all the time, wearing sunglasses to block out the light and I'm a total night person. All vampire-like behavior, right?

So what if my hunger might actually be because I've been eating like a glutton all week on vacation and my appetite's grown in the process. And yeah, I may be wearing sunglasses now because I bought two new pairs at the beach. As for being a night person...I've sort of always preferred nighttime over daytime.

But still, I could've been infected, right? Now, I've just got to find my other vampish peeps and we can stir up some trouble....

5x5,
B.

It's a sad, sad day

by Brittany Geragotelis

We're leaving the beach in an hour and I have to admit, I'm a little depressed. I'm sitting here, crying a little into the cake that I'm eating for breakfast (not really though, because that would be a waste of perfectly good cake!). Waking up each day, pulling on a swimsuit and heading down to the beach for some sun-soaking (don't worry, I wear 80 SPF! I practice safe sun.) and reading my magazines....there's seriously nothing like it. I really think my quality of life would be so much better if I lived near the beach--or at least just not in busy, busy NYC.

I'm so sad to leave, I don't think I can even summon up a blog today. So, instead, I'll just leave you with this picture. It pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now. This is Matt's dog, Tyler. She's not happy to be leaving either...

5x5,
B.

Vacation Breakdown

by Brittany Geragotelis

I only have one more day left at the beach before we head back to Baltimore and then NY. My time here has been sublime (albeit too fast) and has been full of a lot of relaxing, eating and having fun. Here's a rundown of what my vacation's been like:

Days down at the beach: 5
Hours (on average) spent soaking up rays: 15
Bottles of sunscreen used while here: 2
Naps: 3
Articles written for work: 2
Buckets of fries eaten: 3
Magazines read: 6
Days I've exercised: 1
Episodes of "Ghost Whisperer" watched: 7
Money spent: $93
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Milkshakes slurped: 5
Days dieting since down here: 0
Trips to Dunkin' Donuts: 3
Kids I've played with: 4
Days waking up past 10AM: 1
Movies watched: 1
Blogs written: 4
Bad days at the beach: 0

Okay, gotta head back down to the beach for my last-ditch tan efforts...see you all back in NY!

5x5,
B.