Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Creepy photo made with a 'spooky photos' app on my iPhone

I was actually supposed to work tonight so I didn't make any big Halloween plans (not that I probably would have anyways).  I ended up getting tonight off and was planning on actually dressing up and going out for a few drinks with my roomie, but it turns out she does have to work tonight.  Vinnie is working also.  So instead of finding out what my other friends (yes, I actually do have other friends) are doing I decided I will probably just go home and bake some Halloween treats, maybe drink something spooky, and watch whatever scary movie they have playing on TV.  I guess since I'm 25 I don't really think its obligatory to make big Halloween plans anymore!

I did find a website with really cute Halloween facts, so of course I'm posting that here:

Via this website

Since today is Halloween, I've decided to take a look back down good 'ol memory lane at my past Halloweens.  This could get embarrassing but I'm doing it anyways.  I've always loved Halloween but I haven't always been able to do much for it because I've always worked in a bar or restaurant and since Halloween is kind of a busy holiday for bars and restaurants, I have usually always had to work.  So, this walk down memory lane is starting 3 years ago when I was 22.

I dressed up as a lady bug.  This was a last minute costume decision because I hadn't planned on having the night off from work.  The costume was a size Large and I had to pin it back so that I didn't look silly.  This was my first year at ISU and this was one of my roomies dressed up as a candy corn witch.  We went out to a couple of bars and watched a band play at the infamous nightclub 'Daddios' which was the bar that everyone ended up at because they had cheap drink specials.  So by the end of the night all of the girls were falling out of their costumes and guys were puking in corners of the bar and trying to drag the sluttiest indian princess, kitty cat, or lady gaga home with them.  I ended up not feeling very well this night (not even because of alcohol believe it or not!) so I drank a total of 2 coors lights and went home to bed where I stayed for the next 2 days because I had the flu.

The next year was my senior year of college.  

   

I dressed up as an Indian and the boy I was dating at the time dressed up as a cowboy.  I have clearly cropped him out of the above pictures because, frankly, I don't think he needs to be anywhere near this blog, nor does he need to be talked about ever again.  The costume was super cheap and kept ripping so by the end of the night I was wearing sweatpants.  I went to SIU Carbondale this year, which is know as being a party school.  We hung out at a winery during the day to watch our friends, who were in a band.  That night said friends hosted a big Halloween party which ended up sloppy of course.  Not my favorite year.

Last year I had just moved to the suburbs of Chicago right before my birthday so I didn't make any plans to do anything on Halloween, mostly because I didn't even have a job so I didn't want to waste money on a costume or on drinking. 

 My parents came to town for my birthday and we went out to dinner and then randomly ended up at a friend's Halloween party.  Obviously we didn't have costumes so my friend who was hosting the party reached into his big bag of costumes (seriously, he had one) and picked out a few costumes for us.  I was given the bumble bee costume, my mom wore a biker chick wig with an attached hat, and my dad was given something stupid that he obviously decided not to wear for very long.  I don't even remember what it was.  This night actually ended badly but while these pictures were taken we were having a good time!

So there it is, my walk down Halloween memory lane.  Not as exciting as I thought it was going to be.  For Halloween being one of my favorite holidays, I really have never done much.  Maybe next year when I have an awesome job and am making tons of money, I will throw an awesome Halloween party and dress up in a bomb ass costume.  Haha, what a joke!  Me, making tons of money, good one!

Welp, while I have a nice relaxing Halloween night I'll be thinking about all of those skanky college kids, getting f*cked up and skipping class tomorrow.  Ahh, those were the days!

Happy Halloween and remember...

  

...don't drink and fly!

XO. Tarah 

Halloweekend!

Prayers to everyone who has been affected by Hurricane Sandy.  She's a big 'ol bitch!

Both pictures are from google and are of New York.  The top one is at ground zero, the construction site of the World Trade Center.  I'm thanking my lucky stars that I am in the midwest and not over on the east coast.  We have even been affected by the hurricane (although obviously not nearly as bad).  In Chicago they are expecting 33 mph winds and crazy huge waves in Lake Michigan.  

Even though it's Tuesday I'm going to go ahead and do a weekend recap today.  I had a really good weekend.  Friday night I had to work so that night wasn't that fun.  Saturday morning Vinnie and I got up and went on the Chicago Brew Bus Tour.  This was a present from him for my birthday!  We started out at Goose Island Brewery.

Found this picture on google.

This was by far the biggest brewery that we went to that day.  I really wish we could've done a tour here.  I've heard touring that brewery is pretty legit.  We got to try 4 different beers here.

Beers we tried.

After tasting these beers and chatting about beer for about an hour, we headed to the Brew Bus and left for our second destination - Haymarket.

Image found on google.

This was a smaller, newer brewery in Chicago.  We were here for the longest amount of time so we ordered food.  Vinnie and I ordered the pretzels which were decent but I've definitely had better.  The 2 different mustards they served with it was not my favorite, and I love mustard.  The cheese served with it was delicious though!  We tried 4 different beers here too.  We also got to go on a brewery tour here.  That was pretty cool, even though it was a smaller brewery.  I've worked in several breweries so I know the process pretty well but it's always fun to hear about it at a different place because all of their processes are a little different.

Vinnie and I at Haymarket!

A couple of our little beers.

Our third and final stop was Moonshine.  It's more of an edgy, urban brewery in Chicago.  I think this might have been my favorite place because the whole place was really open and had a great vibe.  I would love to go back there to eat sometime.  We got to try 7 different beers at this place.  Although they were little, we were still kind of feeling it by the time we left.

image from Google.

Our beer flights.

I don't know what my hair is doing here!

View of the place from where we were sitting.

After Moonshine, we got back on the bus and headed back to Goose Island where we had parked our car.  The Brew Bus Tour was definitely a fun time!  If I did it again I would go a little bit later in the day though.  I think 11:30 am might be a little too early for me to start drinking.  We met some pretty nice people who were doing the tour too.  2 couples from Kentucky (loved their accents) and a mom and dad from Atlanta visiting their son who lives in Chicago.  I recommend the Chicago Brew Bus if you live in Chicago or if you're visiting!

When we got home we both napped for about an hour (I'm a terrible day drinker) before I had to get up and get ready for work that night.  Since it was the Saturday before Halloween (aka Halloweekend) I dressed up for work.  I didn't want to spend money on an outfit so I ended up just wearing my 80's attire that I wore last year for a 80's theme night we had at the bar I worked at.  I went all out for that theme night so my outfit was pretty rad (they said rad in the 80's right?) and I was really happy I got to wear all of that again.  I didn't get a very good picture of my outfit but I tried!

My sweet hair.

Picture taken in the bathroom of the bar I work at.

Pleather skirt, teal tiger stripped spandex pants, hot pink leg warmers, black vans.

We were pretty busy with it being Halloweekend and all so I didn't get home until pretty late.  Needless to say, I slept in late on Sunday.  Vinnie went to the Bears game so when I finally dragged myself out of bed I had to watch the game all by myself (well and with Marley of course).

Sunday morning Bears, Bloody Mary, and cupcake breakfast.

Please don't judge the way I look.  Me and Marley are obviously both very sleepy still.

Marley doing what he loves...looking out the window.

Vinnie's view of the game. So jealous!

I got all caught up on laundry (which my bedroom floor thanked me for) and when Vinnie got home from the game we went and got pumpkins (we finally found a place that still had some after calling 3 different stores!) and carved our little hearts out.  I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was about 11 years old so to say I was frustrated is an understatement.  I broke my carving tool and ended up using a steak knife but some how my pumpkin still turned out pretty good!

Vinnie's pumpkin is the bat creature thing and mine is the witch.

I would say my Halloweekend was a successful combination of drinking lots of beers, dressing up in 80's attire, Bears (who won again!), and carving pumpkins.

How was your Halloweekend?!

XO. Tarah

 

Birthday Recap

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a great Halloweekend!  I did!

Before I can update you on my weekend, I haven't even recapped my birthday from last week yet!  So let me do that today.

My birthday was last Tuesday (so I am not almost 25 years and 1 week old...eek).  I had to work that day, because I am an adult, and it was a very long day at work!  But you saw from the birthday post last week that Vinnie sent me beautiful flowers and that made my day muuuuch better!  My co-workers also took me out to lunch at a bar called Hop Haus.  They have great food but it woulda been a much better lunch if I could've enjoyed a beer.  Since we had to go back to work after lunch, this was not possible.

When I got home from work I had to get ready right away because Vinnie had made reservations at Wildfire for that night.  We got to Wildfire just in time and that place was amazing!

Vinnie's Beer Flight he ordered.

Waiting for our dinner!

Ribs and Shrimp. Yum!

Vinnie's rack of ribs were huge!

Dirty Martini for the Birthday Girl!

Our delicious Dessert!

After dinner we headed across the street to a place called Barcito.  This place is a bar that is located inside of Tavernita, a steak house.  Barcito made you feel like you were literally at a bar in Spain.  It had a very cool vibe.  Since it was such a nice night out they even had all of the windows opened.

Not my picture but this is Barcito.

 

Birthday Shots made especially for me!

After having a drink and a shot at Barcito we headed home.  It was a great night, one of my favorites.  I wish I had a picture of the outfit I work because I thought it was pretty cute for me throwing it together at the last minute.  I'll try to give you an idea of my birthday outfit:

Red Pencil Skirt (this one is from Target, mine was from Express)

Skinny Leopard belt from Express

These booties but in black, from Express

And then I wore a plain black fitted t-shirt from Old Navy.  I didn't even realize that almost my whole outfit was from Express, even the shoes!

Hopefully sometime this week I can tell you about my weekend!  I even dressed up for work on Saturday!  Everyone have a fabulous Halloween Week!

XO. Tarah 

At this time last year...

Today is the Friday before Halloween so, of course, my work sent out an e-mail 2 days ago telling everyone to dress up for a Halloween party today.  Really?  You're giving everyone 2 days to come up with a "work appropriate" costume.  Welp, this girl isn't wearing a costume today.  I thought about getting out of bed, putting a robe on, and going as an over-worked and under-paid 20 something year old but then I realized that's not a costume.  I realized that I wear a costume to work everyday - the 20 something year old who loves her job of being bitched at by customers all day and has it all together.  Haha, good one!  Anyways, looking around the office I see about 3 people dressed in Halloween costumes so I don't feel bad for not wearing one.  Even the girl in HR who told us all to dress up today before we left work last night is dressed in her usual attire that probably took her 2 hours to put together (she's not fooling me)!  Plus I actually really like my outfit today, complete with matching accessories!

I started thinking recently about how much has changed in the past year for me.  At this time last year EVERYTHING was different than it is now.

 

At this time last year I...

Had just left my life back in Bloomington and moved into an apartment I could not afford in the suburbs of Chicago.

Camden.  Apartments I moved to in the Suburbs.

 Was jobless and starting to literally run out of money (but would soon have 2 jobs that were possibly the worst jobs I've ever had).

Had just met the love of my life, but didn't know it yet. 

This picture was taken just a few months after I met Vinnie.

Had just met my future room mate who would allow me to move in with her when things started falling apart.

Finally realized I needed to step up and take control of my life.

Was crying...a lot.  And being comforted by Marley a lot (that dog has no idea how much of  support he has actually been for me, he's the most loving creature I have ever met in my life)

My little love bug.

Was really missing my parents and wishing that I lived closer to them.

Was very sad but still smiled a lot because of Vinnie.  He will never know how much I needed him at this point in my life, and I had just met him.  He was probably my only source of happiness at the time.

Had no life.

This time last year was the start of a very hard period of my life.  I struggled a lot but in the end came out happier than ever.  Now I am in an amazing relationship with an amazing man.  I have 2 wonderful jobs and even though I complain about them all the time I am so thankful to have them.  I am not struggling like I was last year.

Even though I don't like to think back to some parts of my life last year, I would never change the choices or decisions that I made.  I don't regret anything and I don't wish I hadn't gone through all of those hard times.  They made me stronger and made me appreciate everything I had in my life.  Those times really did make me the person I am today.  Everything from my past has led me to where I am right now.  If I had done one thing differently I might never have been right here, right now.  I might never have met Vinnie.  I thank God for everything he put me through, for leading me to this life, and for bring Vinnie to me.  I am so blessed.

Happy Friday!  Sorry for getting so deep at such an early hour!

And if you're celebrating Halloween this weekend...Happy Halloweening!

XO. Tarah



 





 

Birthday Weekend Celebration (followed by Hangover Sunday)

Happy Thursday!  I work tonight and tomorrow night so I'm actually not to fond of today but I'm sure everyone else is pretty happy to see Thursday roll around the corner.  Hello Thirsty Thursday!  Hello almost Friday!  Hello almost Weekend!  For me, when Thursday rolls around I'm like, Hello I have to work all day today and tomorrow!  Hello I have no life and no fun weekends ever!  Hello someone kill me I don't want to serve all of these bastards who have lives and fun weekends!  Can I say bastards on here?  Oh well, I'm not deleting that.  So clearly I'm salty about my life situation and the fact that I have to have 2 jobs just to keep my head above water.  P.S. most of this is sarcasm (kind of), I don't really hate my life that much!

Alright so I've finally decided to catch up and write about last weekend, aka - the weekend that I actually didn't have to work and I had a life!  It was birthday celebration weekend.  Me and Vinnie headed to Iowa around 9 pm on Friday night because he didn't get out of work until about 8.  We got there around midnight and pretty much went right to bed since it was late.  Saturday we got up and everyone had breakfast and coffee then my brother, my dad, and I all opened up presents.  We all have birthdays in the same week.  

That night we got ready and headed to Granite City Food and Brewery, which is just down the street from where my parents live.  I used to work at this restaurant a few years ago before I moved to Bloomington to go to ISU.  They have great beer and amazing food.  After dinner we went to Kelly's Pub, which is the Irish pub by my parents house that we always go to.  I got a little too excited about our birthdays and ordered way too many shots.  Sunday morning I woke up wanting to die and this feeling didn't go away until Monday morning.  Let's just say, this girl won't be marathon drinking anytime soon!  That was a really short recap of the birthday weekend but here are a few pictures to go along with it:

Dad, me, mom, Kiefer before dinner.

Kiefer and Myself - the birthday kids!

Vinnie Too-Cool and Me and Kelly's.  I love him :)

One of many shots consumed that night.

Oh you better believe my parents partake in shot-taking with us kids!

There were lots of other pictures that I am choosing not to put on here because, I'll be honest, I look terrible when I get to the blackout stage of my drunkness.  Nobody wants to see 12 pictures of Tarah sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes because she thinks it's funny when she's drunk.  It's not funny, it's annoying and ugly.
 
By the way, that dress I'm wearing is kind of hard to see but it's from Questhaven and it is so cute and so cheap!  I love their website!  They have awesome clothes that you won't find anywhere else and they have amazing prices!  Go check them out!

As usual, I wish that weekend would have lasted longer.  I can't believe how fast time flies whenever I get to visit my family.  I wish we were closer and I wish that I had more time to see them!  I'll stop feeling sorry for myself (no I won't!).  

Real quick before I lose your attention, today is my dad's birthday.  He is the most amazing and wonderful man I have ever met in my whole life.  He supports and loves me through all of my ups and downs (and this year there have been a lot of those).  I would be lost without him!  Happy Birthday Dad!  You really are the best dad I could ever ask for!

  

Have a lovely day!  And if you're partaking in Thirsty Thursday tonight...go eff yourself!

XO. Tarah