Halloween!

Hey all. I miss you! I thought maybe once I moved to Madison that life would slow down a bit, but nope! Just always on the go. I love everything I've been up to, but I am such in old lady now in that all I long for is a weekend on the couch with nothing to do. I do have that this weekend for the most part, but it's a rarity as always. Since I'm way behind (I started this post a couple weeks ago already), I guess I will back track a bit. A few weekends ago, we did our annual Halloween celebration. It's where a bunch of good 'ol friends from La Crosse get together every year and get dressed up based on a particular theme. This year's theme was Music Legends. When one Halloween is over, the next day, we all go out for breakfast and debate on the following year's theme. It's that serious. No joke. This is the third year I've participated, and I had such a blast! I was originally going to go as Gene Simmons from Kiss, but as time went on, I was just feeling less and less excited about it. L was originally going to go as Prince, but he too decided on another option. I chose this version of Lady Gaga, and L chose Slash from Guns N' Roses. As you'll see in some pictures, we both rocked it and felt awesome about our costumes. It's so much more fun when you're "feeling" your costume, and feel it we did! So many people complimented us all, and I even had a group informally choose me as the winner of all our costumes. How fun!

A good chunk of the group took Friday off work, and we all met in Waukesha for some drinks. We've always done Halloween in La Crosse in previous years, but since so many people have moved to various parts of the state, Waukesha seemed to be a bit more central for most of the crew. A few of our friends live in that area too, so it just worked out really well. We spent most of Friday just exploring different bars and enjoying each others company. It was such a blast. We all got a little tipsy to say the least, L probably more than anyone else. Before that weekend, I could say I had never seen him puke from drinking. I can no longer say that. ;) He had a good time, and so did the rest of us, so all was good. I was a little 'under the weather' the next morning if you catch my drift, so after almost throwing up my breakfast, I decided it was time to take a nap. That helped tremendously! More people rolled into town late Saturday morning, so again, we all just gathered and spent the day together. One of our friends who lives in Waukesha recommended we try this new bar called Jackson's, and that was an amazing choice. There was really no one in there when we got there, so we kinda owned the bar and just had a blast catching up with everyone. Eventually, we left and everyone put our costumes on. We had the most amazzzzzzzing group of musicians, I'm telling you. Every year, we have a theme, but I think this theme (out of the ones I participated in) was by far the easiest to tell that we were a group. It was awesome. We all got back together and went to Bernie's Tap Room, which is where we had a table reserved for us. We stayed there for a bit and had fun entertaining all the other people who were there, but eventually, we decided to go back to Jackson's because we thought we'd have a little more fun there. When we got back there, there were only a few people there, so we definitely livened up the place to say the least! It took the manager a few seconds to realize we were the same people that were in there earlier, but once he did, he was so excited. He even bought shots for all of us, which was at least 20 people or so. What a cool guy! What made it even more awesome is that our friend Baker has an app on his phone that allows him to connect to the jukebox and play songs, so he proceeded to dominate the jukebox by playing songs that represented each of us. While it wasn't planned, most of us engaged in a 'performance' of some sort when our songs came on. Seriously, so fun!! One other awesome thing - we didn't have anyone dressed as Michael Jackson, but shortly after we got to that bar, some random guy came in dressed as Michael. Too hilarious! The night overall was a blast. It's such an amazing group of people. Everyone is just genuinely excited, and the positive energy is amazing. I don't think anyone had even close to a bad time, so I'm super happy to have been a part of it for a third year. Take a look at some awesome photos to see how much fun was had!:)

 Me and L at Mutt's in Waukesha! This is where the danger started. We had shots and beers before 11:00am. Oops!

 L with some of his best buddies!

 We went to this bar called Toon City, and the entire place looked like this. Unreal!

 Ladies at the cigar bar!

Day two. Hanging out at Jackson's!

 This PBR wasn't mine, but I needed to take a picture with it. It was 32 ounces!!

You need to watch this video of L doing a dance to Monster Mash. I laugh so hard every time!

Me and T!

Something was clearly funny. ;)

 Slash:)

 Lady Gaga and Slash:)

 Walking from bar one to bar two!

Freddie Mercury doing his performance!

 Slash doing his performance!

 Beyonce, Slash, and Katy Perry doing the "Single Ladies" dance! See the video below, awesome!

Slash and Beyonce!

 Rob Halford, Alice Cooper, and Slash. Badass.

The guys owning the "stage" (aka: the window)!

Slash, Rod Stewart, Angus Young, Charlie Daniels, and Rob Halford.

 Just a bunch of randomness!:)

 Ginger Spice (Spice Girls) and Freddie Mercury (Queen)

 Fun pick of the ladies! From left to right:

Bjork, Beyonce, Ginger Spice, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Tina Turner!

 Slash and Gaga again. Confession: I love this picture!!

 No music legends theme is complete without Dee Snyder and Elvis. ;)

Most of the guys! From left to right:

Rob Halford, Charlie Daniels, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, Slash, Alice Cooper, Dee Snyder, Rod Stewart, Angus Young, and Freddie Mercury. To say they loved this theme is an understatement!

Another pic of the ladies. This time, we added in Josie and the Pussycats and Gwen Stefani!:)

What an AMAZING weekend!:)

Feelin' The Love.

These days, I seem to just kind of caught up in all the day-to-day things, especially the things that weigh heavily on me. Work is tough at times, my computer just kinda died on me last week (fortunately, I did some major research and was able to get my stuff backed up and restore it to its original settings to make it work again), and I miss my family and L pretty much all.the.time. You know, just lots of stuff that can make a person feel a little down here and there. That prompted me to think about my 'happy place,' and as you might imagine, L is where it's at for me. <3 Just today, I was kind of in awe when I thought about how long we've been in each other's lives in a 'romantic' capacity, however you define that. In a couple weeks, it will be 2 years by my calculations! Mind you, we were a bit on different pages in the initial stages of our time together; however, it's been quite some time since we've become 'that person' for each other, and I thank my lucky stars every damn day that he's in my life. I honestly don't know what I would do without him. Good to find that kind of happiness. :)) Not that you care, but this just made me want to take a little trip down memory lane, so bear with me (and gag if you must) as I share a bunch of pictures of us from the very beginning to now! So lucky to have all these pics after a near fatal computer crash, ha. You may think this is a lot of photos, but I cut WAY back for the sake of not boring you to death, ha! Anyway, be thankful today, folks! :)

Hardly knew each other here... This was on his birthday in 2009 and I ran into him downtown.

Busting a move at a bar after a conference in late 2009. First night we kissed. ;)

While we weren't together, we often look at this one (above) and talk about the obvious chemistry between us:)

He invited me to a museum event in MKE with some friends. Fun times! (Secret: This is the first night where I really allowed myself to admit, "Hey... I realllllllly like this guy.")

Sexy. ;) One of my first visits to LAX after we started really hanging out.

Go Brewers! (I went to a game that day, but he had to go back to LAX.)

Me and L in the Cave of the Mounds when we went on our Mt. Horeb trip! He looks scared. ;)

Enjoying the balcony at the winery in Mt. Horeb all by ourselves!

 Also in Mt. Horeb. A little sun broke through on a cold, rainy day at Firehouse Bar!

 Cooking crab in MKE!

Halloween 2011 (above and below)

Storm Shadow and Ultimate Warrior

Rotary Lights in LAX - 2011

L's first visit to Colby!!

Fun times in LAX (above and below)!

 Goofing around on our trip to Portage!

Beach stroll in MKE.

Hanging on my balcony!

Colby for Open House weekend 2012. I look gross in this pic, but I couldn't help but include it because I giggle every time I look at L sneakin' a peak. ;)

Picture with the big ice cream cone at Hawkeye!

Barnacle Buds in MKE!

Bodega in LAX!

Me and L at the Milwaukee Zoo!

In Rochester for my old roommate's wedding (above and below)!

Just relaxing in my apartment!

2012 Mississippi River houseboat trip (above and below)!

 Sushi in MKE!

 Pre-Halloween festivities in LAX!

Monopoly Man and Mrs. White from Clue!

Together at mom and dad's in Colby. Love this one!! :)

Merry Christmas 2012 (above and below)!

Chillin' at L's place a few days after Christmas!

 

Fancy'd up a bit on my 27th birthday (New Year's Eve 2012)!

 

And I will leave you with a dorky picture of us at Krispy Kreme two weekends ago. Since L moved to Madison, we've spent far too much time at this place. I'm lucky he's a good sport and puts up with me when I suggest pictures like this. ;)

Thanks for humoring me, folks! (Also, a huge HAPPY 4th birthday to my nephew Nash! I will do my best to get a birthday post up soon to celebrate his and my nephew Peyton's April birthdays!)