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I almost started a bikini line yesterday…

| cheriarmour

So yesterday, this bikini that I ordered finally arrived at the house.

I’d been in need of a new bathing suit in forever – the last bikini I bought was this adorable pink number that I’d managed to randomly snag at the Target like two years ago.

My stepmother-in-law gave me a gift card to Victoria’s Secret, and after I searched high and low, I picked this:

Bralette

It seemed like the suit would offer me adequate coverage, all while being really cute.  Plus, I was able to pick a pretty big top, and the color was fine.  So it finally showed up, and I put it on and it was HORRIBLE on.  Absolutely horrible.  The bottom was cute, but the top wasn’t supportive at all, and my boobs were literally hanging out of the bottom of the suit.

I live close enough to the mall that I was able to run over with the invoices, and browse what they had in-store.

VS Dude: Hi, welcome to Victoria’s Secret. ::motions to the package in my arms:: Do you have an exchange for us?

Me: Yeah, I bought this online, but the top isn’t supportive at all!  I want to look around to see if I can find something.

VS Dude:  Well this stuff isn’t that supportive.  But we have stuff in the back.  You should check there.

Me: Ok cool, I’ll do that.  Do you mind hanging on to this package for me while I shop? (I figured I wouldn’t be as much of a shoplifting suspect if I wasn’t carrying a bikini around in a big empty mailing envelope.)

VS Dude: Uhhh.  Yeah no.  Will a bag work?

Me: Sure!

VS Dude: ::Disappears, never to be seen again::

So for the better part of an hour, I wandered throughout the Pink room in VS, and in this back room where all the big-boobed swimsuits hide out.  I wandered near and far.  And I found nothing.  Finally, I left in an angry huff, with no bathing suit, and feeling distinctly as though something was wrong with my body.

I know rationally that there’s nothing wrong with my body, but in those moments, I was really tempted to call a good plastic surgeon and let him or her just chop my chest down to a size that would fit a little better into a VS swimkini.  But, I’ve seen Botched, and I really shouldn’t have to hack my body, a body that can run 26.2 miles, lift, dance, and swim, to fit into a suit that rivals one I had when I was a flat-chested 12-year-old.

What I do need however, is to find a suit.  A suit that I can wear a S/M on the bottom, and like a DD on top.  Is that too hard to ask?

Where do you find your bathing suits, large-chested women? 

 

 

When it rains…

| cheriarmour

Firstly, my trashy television watching has hit an all-time new low. As I write this, I am watching this horrible, terrible show called ‘Party Down South’, which is like the country version of ‘Jersey Shore’. The clothes are much worse, the accents are much harder to understand, and one episode featured the girls taking their credit cards and going on a shopping spree…at Plato’s Closet. [Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Plato’s Closet, mind you, but generally when you think “shopping spree” Plato’s isn’t typically what comes to mind, right?]

Dead BatteryI told you guys last week that I rolled out of work one day, only to have to beg a jump off my boss, because my poor car wouldn’t start.

So we replaced the battery blah blah, and I went on my way.

Wellll isn’t it the case with cars, I scheduled an oil change on Saturday morning, and $669 later, yes, you read that correctly, I have spent the weekend without the car, and I will drive off with new brakes, new rotors, and god knows what else.  Also, one of the techs either drove my car around or accidentally dropped something on my hood because I am sporting a nice new dent on the front.

Blah.  I hate car stuff, and I’m really thankful to have Austin to tell me when it’s time to go in, or when he can just fix something himself, but I already am really trying to be a budget person, and it’s really freaking hard when something always seems to crop up and wipe you.

But oh well.  It’s certainly not the worst thing in the world to be without a car on the weekend of the 4th, right?  I swear, in our travels this past weekend, we saw no less than a million people pulled over for goodness knows what, so I’m taking this weekend as a time to save on gas, see what it might be like to share a car, should we ever be in a place where we need to do that, and hang out around the house, where lord KNOWS I have things to be getting done.

And at LEAST it’s not the transmission like it was with my poor old Taurus, right! $669 is WAY better than dealing with a whole new car 🙂

Anyone else having car troubles?  I hope not! 

Ann Coulter

| cheriarmour

Right turn from all the marriage talk and all this talk of texts gone wrong….

So, I can’t really even dignify this by linking to her article – if you’d like to read it, Google it, but Ann Coulter made some pretty heinous remarks about the World Cup as it relates to our country.  I get it, it’s Ann Coulter’s job to say horrifying things and get paid for it, but why do people feel the need to just be so damned mean?  And I’m not gonna sit up here and call her awful names or attack the way she looks, cause to me, that’s stooping to her level.  But it almost makes my throat hurt to know that she spews venom and gets paid for it.  Like, it’s completely beyond me.

img via AP/Peter Kramer
image via AP/Peter Kramer

Which brings me to this.  Once again, feel free to Google this, and luckily I’m not in a place where I’m yet lambasted on the internet, but there is a site, called Get off my Internets, or GOMI, which is entirely dedicated to (mostly) bashing bloggers.  I poked around on the site yesterday and I was astonished by what I was seeing.  Like, talking about a blogger’s weight, talking freely about a blogger’s relationship, or referring to someone as a “skank” for posting pictures of themselves in a bikini?  Just awful just awful.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good laugh, but I feel like if I felt like something like that was going on with a blogger, I’d just STOP READING THEM.  It’s really quite simple.

Why do you think that people feel the need to be so hateful behind their computer screens?

Happy Monday! My sister is a wife!

| cheriarmour

I am celebrated this weekend by going down to Charlotte to witness my little sister getting married. She called me up two weeks ago and told me she was going to get married, so Godspeed dear little sis, as folks are reading this, you have said your “I dos” and you are a married woman!  BAHHH! Make sure you help me to congratulate Deb, but not too much, cause she’s super private and might kill me when she discovered that the paparazzi shots I took are all over my world-famous blog.  Pardon the photo-dump, but you didn’t think i was going to watch my little sister get married without taking any photo evidence, right? PS you HAVE to tell me if anything about this post is weird – WordPress was crashing on me left and write as I was writing it, so let me know 🙂

DSC_0731DSC_0732DSC_0733DSC_0742It was really cool to see, and it literally took two seconds.  We enjoyed some dinner later on that evening, and I had a good time exploring my parent’s new building in downtown Charlotte – since they’re almost empty nesters (they will be as of August), and they moved to a party pad downtown, so I read by the pool, lifted at their gym, and explored for a little while.  I really didn’t want to leave when it was all said and done, but I’m down to my last few days at the old job, and I have to work hard to end on a good note.

How was your weekend? 

My sister is getting married tomorrow + random things Friday

| cheriarmour

Surprise!

My little sister is getting married tomorrow in South Carolina, so tomorrow morning, while all you sleepy-heads are sleeping, I am going to pack myself up, head down, and snap a few photos of my little sister getting hitched.

siblings

Deb is the one on the far right, and this photo was taken when she was the white rabbit in her middle school’s production of Alice in Wonderland.  We were all so little.  And now, she’s getting married like WHAAAA!  It’s so short notice, but I was able to get a sub for my usual Saturday Zumba class and the drive is only about three hours and twenty minutes.

Random things Friday:

A few random things.

  • After a ton of trail running and running in the heat, I think my right calf muscle has had enough of chronically being dehydrated in this heat, and uneven running surfaces, because it was cramping something fierce.

foam rollingI managed to find the poor foam roller at the gym, and I found the trigger point and released a lot of the tension and cramping I was feeling.

  • I’m overwhelmed by the congrats I’m getting on my new job! I am so excited to have the job, and now that the cat is officially out of the bag, I’ve gotten a lot of congratulation emails, a lot of hugs, and a lot of high fives.  However, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and I’m terrified that I’m going to do a bad job at my new job.  And I want to do a good job, I want to stay there for like five years and be the best person they’ve ever had for the job.  Is that too much to ask?
  • I fell asleep in fully sweaty dirty clothing from teaching a class last night and that’s disgusting.  I know it.  But I feel asleep watching “The Challenge” on MTV, and I woke up like at midnight, and I could barely even drag myself into bed.  If it comes as any consolation, I did have the wherewithal to put clean clothes on, and I will be washing my sheets today.
  • We met with the photographer from Blest this morning at Bob Evans, and it was great.  They have really put my mind at ease as it relates to the photos, and I’m positive we are in good hands.  As a total side note, our server was the worst and would disappear for like, decades at a time.
  • I’m trying not to mentally check out at work because I recognize that although I have put my two weeks in, it ain’t over just yet, and I need to give it one last final push.
  • I want to get a GOOD chunk of wedding things done this weekend.  That means a good chunk of invites, some more stems for my bouquets, and paying a few of my vendors the other half of the deposit I owe them.

Tell me something random about today!

 

Full Circle.

| cheriarmour

A little over two years ago, I was desperately job searching.

I was not yet full time at Fleet Feet, and I had this complex where I felt like the loser in mine and Austin’s relationship.  I know that is imaginary, but once you’re told “no” so many times, your brain starts to play bizarre tricks on you.  You trick yourself into thinking that there’s something seriously the matter with you and your resume, and that the work that you are doing is unimportant.  That l-word starts creeping into your mind too, especially when you see how well friends seem to be doing through the lens of social media.  [Pro tip: No one ever puts the fact that they’re 3 months behind in their house payment on social media, so don’t sweat how amazing people’s lives may seem.]

So 2, nearly three years ago, I interviewed for a position at at my new job, that I felt like would be perfect for me.  So perfect.  I had one interview, then two interviews, and was in the process of setting up my third interview when they broke it off with me and told me that the job would not be mine.

I was heartbroken.  The news came through in an email, and as I received it, I began to dissolve into tears that didn’t stop for two days.  Poor Austin bought me smoothies, and did his best to calm the sobbing, which came in spurts.  I think he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for that.

So about a month or so ago, I interviewed, a very low-key interview for that same job, which had opened up.

One interview turned into two.

The second turned into a third.  And finally, I was offered the job.

I’m in shock.  It’s surreal.  I’m happy.  I’m visualizing all of the incredible things I want to do on the job.  And finally, I am grateful grateful that everything comes full circle, and will happen when it is supposed to.

photo (10)Grateful grateful grateful grateful.

What are you grateful for? 

 

 

2 issues.

| cheriarmour

^^Anyone who knew who this group was before I shared their colorful video with you, please stop by, cause you got 10 points for Gryffindor.

Anyhoo, Happy Sunday.  As you read this, I’m enjoying brunch and a heavy does of day-drinking with some friends in honor of Austin’s 28th, plus we are sending some friends off.  They’re moving to South Carolina 😦

I will take loads of pictures of the brunch, which will include some Southern things so those of you reading from like, Canada will understand why the South has a serious problem with our weight.  Yeesh.

I have 2 issues I want to bring up.  And I’m not trying to be a complainy-no-friends, but both of these things are really needling me, and I need like, someone to rub my back over it.

1.  I am seriously looking for a summer bikini, and I’m overwhelmed.  I tried to go to the mall today, to Victoria’s Secret since my soon-to-be stepmother-in-law got me a giant gift certificate to VS.  It took me approximately 15 seconds to start to feel really overwhelmed with how overly perfume stinky the store was, and then I just turned around and got a diet lemonade and left.  But if anyone has any really good suggesions for a bikini, please send them my way, because I need one as it’s been 90 degrees at least every day here for the last week and a half.

2.  Secondly, I am sick and tired to DEATH of the coffee shops here in Raleigh.  Last week I was blogging from this hispter coffee shop in Raleigh from the outside, and was totally grossed out by how much cigarette smoke was out there.  Honestly it made me feel cranky and sick, and I totally hated it.  Today, I went back there, asked for two Splenda in my coffee, to which the barista pointed at a pile of Splenda across the way, but refused to put it in my cup before she brewed the espresso in it.

I’m sick of paying four bucks for a coffee to vicariously smoke a cigarette that makes me feel nauseated and have people be really mean to me.  I want to open a coffee shop one day I think.  Now that day won’t be fore 10 billion years, but I’d kinda like for it to happen and I will actually me nice to my customers and ask that smokers smoke not on the patio so that people can like, chill.

What are you up to on this balmy Sunday?

Oh, and please don’t forget to vote for me to be your cover chick!

White Ford Bronco – Where were you?

| cheriarmour

So on Wednesday, Austin turned the big 2-8, so in celebration, I took Austin on date to the first place we ever went, which was the Rockford downtown.

The Rockford is really cool spot, and was an excellent choice for Austin to take me to because the food is good, fresh, and it has a little bit of a vegetarian lean – I could easily find something on the menu without having to do too much wiggling to figure out something to eat.

So I took him there, and we had the best time.  He brought me flowers.  I hope we never stop “dating.”

Date NightThis poorly lit, sorta blurry photo is the only documentation I have of the night cause we asked this guy at the bar for a photo, and he snapped a terrible one, and I was too embarrassed by his terrible photography skills to ask him to do another one.  Oh well!

Okay, so let’s make a right turn.

Bronco Chase 6-17-94The other night, Austin and I watched this ESPN documentary that documented June 17th, 1994.  Which was 20 years ago, by the way, if you’re looking to feel super old.

I’m not really interested on anyone’s opinion on OJ’s guilt, however, what I am interested in is finding out what you were doing when this chase was going down.

For me, I was with my family (there were only 5 of us at this point), at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont.  I remember it being one of the most amazing vacations in the entire world – I also remember coming back to the condo from a swim or something, and my parents being transfixed by this chase that was happening in real time.

The Knicks were also losing a game, if I’m not mistaken.

Where were you during this chase? 

 

Wedding Wednesday (I skipped last week)…and it’s Thursday

| cheriarmour

As we get closer to the wedding day (by the time you’re reading this, you will be 64 days and some hours from the big day) things get crazy.

Every day, I find myself working on some other project.  I am really enjoying it, and I have yet to feel sheer panic.  I know it could happen, I mean I know myself pretty well, but so far my attitude has been pretty good about the whole thing.  Since we’ve gotten engaged, my grandmother passed, I threw up during a marathon, my parents moved houses, my little brother graduated high school, my dress is still not here, and my groom’s band doesn’t fit, but all in all, I’d say I’m taking things in stride.

So yesterday, Offbeat Bride published this article entitled, “Why my wedding isn’t about me, and never was”.  You can read it here.

I never felt like my wedding was about me.  I never felt like that bride for whom the earth would stand still.  An episode of bridezillas was not in my future.  But I like things the way that I like them, and that’s the way I felt they should be.   The day was mine and Austin’s – I viewed it as a party that we were the hosts of, and we were inviting special friends and family of ours to attend.

Jessa Wedding
via Tumblr – remember this incredible surprise wedding that Jessa invited everyone to by text? The one where Shosh accidentally wore white to?
via Tumblr - them wedding dance movies doe....
via Tumblr – them wedding dance movies doe….

So imagine my surprise when my mother began taking some control of the situation.

It started hours after we were engaged, when she asked me if we had a date yet.  Of course we didn’t, we’d been engaged for like 3 hours at that point!

And through the next couple of months, there was a really awkward push and pull.  My mother would kind of state, as fact, the friends who she wanted to come.  Friends of my mother’s reached out to me to inquire about the status of their invitation.   Friends that I didn’t know well or care for really.  My mother complained endlessly about the venue, and told me that she thought about refusing to come if I had the wedding at that venue.

And it blew my mind.

My mother really and truly believed the wedding was for her.  I felt differently.

So I reached out to some folks on a bridal forum who confirmed to me that there was a HUGE difference between our generation and my parents’ generation.  For my parents, the wedding truly was about showing off for the friends of the parents.  It wasn’t about the couple.  And it certainly wasn’t about the bride.

And somewhere, for me, there was a shift.  No, I wasn’t going to let friends and family push me around about what they wanted for OUR nuptials, but I also wasn’t going to be a huge bitch about refusing people’s advice.  It still continues to baffle me that perfect strangers and distant relatives would be so rude as to make demands or pushy suggestions on our day, or that a distant relative would send me rude emails regarding the big day, but instead of getting myself baffled and angry, I’ve been choosing to do what the Haitians say, eat the proverbial chicken, and spit out the bones.  When the advice is really stupid, I just pretend like I think it’s great, or I just politely state that I will ask for help when I need it.  When it’s great, I take it.

And God BLESS those friends, two in particular, who have stepped up and been an incredible source of help and advice as we go through this process.

Brides, how is your planning going?