Overload

Shoot, it's been more than 2 months since I updated my blog :( Well, there is a lot to catch you up on! Let's get started shall we?

On May 27th, I had a Spartan Signature Catering memorial day bbq shindig at my place. Even though the weather wasn't great, we still had a great time :) A lot of my friends from home came too, so it was a packed apartment!

This summer, although I've been taking classes and working, has been a lot of fun. It has been great getting to know Jackie, who lives across the hall from me, better. Whether we're making summer wreaths with cocktail umbrellas,

or cooking dinner, we have so much fun together. We just get eachother, which is really nice. We like to take midnight bike rides, watch tv shows and movies, cook dinner together and walk in on each other without knocking. We were both alone at our apartments for about a month, so we got to see each-other every day, except for when I went to Bonnaroo, which brings me to the next point.

BONNAROO! This was my favorite time so far. I got to go with two of my best friends, Caren and Jessica. Me and Jess left early so we could go to Nashville and Mammoth Cave National Park before we headed to the festival. Mammoth Cave was so beautiful and we learned so many cool things. Nashville was fun too, of course.

We relaxed by shopping, having drinks and eating dinner at Jack's bbq.

When Caren got out of work, me and Jess left downtown to head over to her house so we could take one last shower and pack everything up. It took us about 4 hours to go 40 miles, which was absolutely insane. On top of all the traffic, there was a semi rolled over that slowed things down considerably. Luckily, we were surrounded by feel good people and witnessed many funny things, including dancing on the highway. Once we finally got to our camp, we were ready to set everything up. Now, camping is not my thing, everyone knows that. We were the first people to start setting up our two person tent...and the last to finish.

We had it as a tee pee at one point and seriously considered calling it good. But we persevered and got it together with a little help from our neighbors. We also realized that we had the best camp lot out of all 98 that were not VIP. We were right by the ferris wheel and music tower, which is just a few steps from the main entrance. My friend Spring and her group were next to the camp I was at a few years ago, which is about a 25 minute one way walk! Yikes. It was great being so close because if we needed to grab a water, some food, or a less used porta potty, we could just walk back to our camp lot. With little sleep, great friends, and amazing music, I managed to see all the bands I wanted to which has never happened any year at Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo before, and we got great tans and lots of relaxation. It was perfection. I took so many pictures, which you can check out on my facebook page if you'd like because there are just way too many to post to this.

This is a list of the bands that were here this year:

This time saying goodbye to Caren wasn't so bad because I knew that she would be joining me in a few short weeks for Taste of Chicago!!!

A few days after getting back from Bonnaroo, apparently I wasn't "musiced" out because I went to see Fitz and the Tantrums with Jenny, Mandy and Greg at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit. I love that band and even better, their new album just came out recently so we had a 3 hour dance party!

My 4th of July was great this year, as well. I got to spend the whole day on Higgins Lake with Mallory, Laura, Amber, and Jess! We got to catch up, catch some rays, and I even caught up on some sleep! We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and I got the most delicious blackberry pancakes.

Once we got to the beach, we staked out a spot and relaxed. We went out into the water for a bit to see the boats and partiers, but came back to grill our dinner and hang out with each-other.

My best friends are all so beautiful!!!
When we got back to Jessica's house, we had a little fun with the sparklers :)

Every week-end this summer has been filled with working at the B&B and working weddings at the stadium, so the week-end of the 13th was special because I got to go to Chicago with my Aunt Sally, my Grandma, Caren, Bernadette, and Samantha.
Caren came up on Tuesday to hang out with me and it was fantastic. I got to show her MSU's beautiful campus,

my work, and we took bike rides

and just generally relaxed.

On Friday though, we went to Detroit for the day and met up with Bernadette. We saw Comerica Park,

checked out Campus Martius which was cool because there was a beach party going on

We then met up with Katherine and checked out more of the city. We saw the set for Transformers that they were building outside, went inside the beautiful Guardian building, and went to the Detroit river and waved to Canada. After going inside the Renaissance center, and so much walking, we went to Sugar House for drinks

and then Slows for some yummy barbeque!!!

. After dinner, Katherine dropped us off at Greektown and we decided to go to the casino because Caren had never been to a casino before! We didn't want to miss that opportunity, and Caren came out ahead!! She's a natural :)

The next morning, Megan drove us all to the train station so we could catch the mega bus. We left from East Lansing on Saturday morning and got to our hotel in Chicago around 3. We stayed at the W on Adams and it was absolutely beautiful.

The elevators even had 3-D art so it was trippy! It looked like a club in there!

Once we got settled, we headed over to Taste of Chicago!

We ate sooo much food. We got to meet up with Rhiannon and her son, Adama for a bit too which was great. My favorite thing was the rainbow cone. It was so refreshing and a unique concept.

Once we were full, we headed to the shore to look at beautiful Lake Michigan and let everything settle.

We headed to Milennium park to go see Cloud Gate and be tourists ;) Then we decided to go to Garrett's popcorn, because we are gluttons for punishment!!!

We parted ways with Rhiannon and Adama so we could go to our hotel and get ready for the night! We met up with Sally and Gram at the bar on the 97th floor of the Hancock tower for drinks and it was definitely a great view!

It was great company and a perfect beginning to our night. Once we parted with Sally and Gram, we headed over to Wrigleyville to see Amber, Mallory, Laura, and Jess. So many girls! I saw my roommate from my Disney College Program too! Sarah lives in Chicago so I contacted her so we could see each-other since it has been over a year already! We met at the Cubby Bear and danced the night away. I didn't get back to my hotel room until around 3:30am.

The next morning, I didn't have a voice. At all. It was like the scene from The Little Mermaid when she goes to speak and freaks when nothing comes out. Imagine that being surrounded by everyone at Brunch the next morning! My wonderful cousin Jessica met up with us at Mercat for brunch. The two of us had stumbled upon it last summer and loved it, so I knew we had to go back on this vacation. No one was disappointed! It was a 6 course meal fit for queens :)

We were all on the verge of death at the end, I think. I was so glad Rhiannon and Adama could join us for that, as well. It was so nice catching up with everyone! Believe it or not, we headed back to the Taste of Chicago when we were done with brunch to use up the rest of our tickets and I got ice cream again. And I got to try a delicious mango, lime and ginger popsicle. The weather was beyond perfect, and we got to do so much in literally 24 hours! I have the best friends anyone could ever have!

I have enjoyed summer and trips but now it's time to buckle down and save up money for when I graduate, and apply for lots and lots of jobs. My next trip will be to Savannah, Georgia with Caren, Bernadette and Katherine. This year, we better not get stuck in a hurricane!!!