"You worry about everything, “ Will said to me last Wednesday night over dinner.

“She worries about everything,” he reiterated to my mother- all in between mouthfuls of Hard Rock potato boats.

Yes. I admit it. I’m a worrier. I worry about everything- even really stupid things I have no control over. That’s another post for another time.

My worrying was warranted last Wednesday though, guys.

We totally got stood up!

Yes.

Stood up.

Hello, My name is Brittny Lynne B-Love and I have been stood up by another couple.

Here’s how it all went down (insert hazy dream sequence):

As I mentioned earlier last week, we were scheduled to go on

The
Longest
Date
Ever

with the couple we went out with a few weeks ago (NAMES! I need code names! Any suggestions?). We agreed on the date the weekend before, but still had to work out the time. The wife said she’d get back to me.

Well, I never heard from her. “Huh… that’s odd, “ I said, “I know! I’ll take the bull by the horns and shoot her an email to see about what time we’re meeting!”

Genius, right?

Notsomuch.

She never wrote back. Nothing. Not even a peep.

“Maybe she’ll call,” I thought- clinging to some tiny hope that some catastropic event happened in her life that prevented her from returning my email (ha ha).

Wednesday night rolled around and I still hadn’t gotten a call.

That’s when it finally hit me- we got dissed.

Punked.

Stood up.

Stranded at the Drive-In. (<- I had that stupid Grease song in my head all weekend. I walked around acting like Danny and pretending to be all anguished as I sang. Poor Will.)

Us! Will and Brittny! The nicest freaking people in the whole wide world, darn it! You can’t diss us! God will strike you down into a big smoky pile of ash!

Well… just FYI- as turns out you can diss us and you won’t be struck down into a big smoky pile of ash.

I spent all Wednesday night in a huff. What had happened? Why didn’t think like us? What did we do? Was it the Super Bowl thing? The fact that we own dogs? The fact that we actually like living in Oklahoma? Did we smell? Chew funny? Talk funny? Tell me! Where was our fault?

I couldn’t figure it out. Sure, I had my reservations about them- but that’s different! Will and I are totally allowed to feel that way- but them? They’re not allowed to. They have to love us. They have to want us to be the godparents of their freaking child. They have to want to name their first born Little Will and adorn him in OU onsies, dang it. They’re not allowed to have reservations!!! We’re the only ones entitled to that luxury.

Hmm. Maybe I scared them because I was coming on too strong. Ya think?

So, while the truth was that Will and I really didn’t want to go on the 10 hour date, it bothered me that they didn’t want to either. Like I said, what’s wrong with us!? I simply could’t believe we got stood up.

Then…

Then the blogging anxiety came. I’ll admit it. We were going on a blind date and I wanted to know what we were getting into. So like any normal rational person, totally untainted with the fear of paranoia, I googled the couple. Not much turned up, but then I began to wonder if she had done the same and somehow found my blog.

“Do you think she read my blog, Will?”

“Do you think she saw it and was offended by what I wrote about them?”

“Do you think maybe I’ll get an email back from her Saturday morning saying how she can’t be friends with a ridiculous blogger that talks about Suzy Qs and dog poop as if they were world-wide issues that require political intervention!?”

We then had the talk about “the blog” and how I need to be careful about what I say on here.

PS- I hate that talk. It makes me feel lousy and like I offend every living creature on the planet-including fluffy little bunnies and cute little girl scouts with pig tails- everytime my fingers hit the keypad.

Anyway, I worried all weekend that I had hurt her feelings and hence got stood up. STOOD UP BY PEOPLE I DIDN’T EVEN WANT TO GO OUT WITH!! WHY DID I FREAKING EVEN CARE!?!?! I guess simply because of what I stated before- it’s okay for us to have apprehensions about them- but what’s not to love about us (ha ha)!?

Will wasn’t nearly as hung up about the whole ordeal as I was. In fact, I think he was relieved that the “what’s their names again?” didn’t call. He was annoyed by the fact that although I knew we had no intention of becoming life-long friends with these people, I wanted them to want that of us.

Yes, I’m warped and odd. You should know that by now.

I finally gave up my whining Thursday afternoon. We got stood up. So what. Big deal. It’s okay. It happens. It’s silly to care about something all because someone might not like us (gasp!).

All was well in my world.

Until yesterday afternoon when the wife wrote me a lenghtly email saying how sorry she was and how she didn’t get to check her email Wednesday because the company made them move to a different area of Kuwait. She was so caught up in the move all weekend that she forgot to call Thursday, and she wanted to know if we wanted to get together this weekend.

Like a moron I said, “Yes! That will be great! We’ll be the bestest friends ever!!!” okay, didn’t say the last part- but I’m sure my enthusiasm gave off that vibe nontheless.

Can’t life be freaking simple!?

So I cried all last week when we WERE going out with them. Cried all weekend because we WEREN’T going out with them. And now I’m crying again because we ARE going out with them.

I totally deserve what I’m getting with all this friend crap. I totally bring it on myself.

So, as it turns out it wasn’t anything we did. I stressed over nothing. They actually do like us and I can sleep tonight.

Now I can legitimately start complaining about our next date.

It’s the small things in life that make it so worthwhile.

My Summer Swap gift arrived and was definitely worth the wait.

Can I first just say that I love Mrs. M?!

Mrs. M was my partner. When I found this out I got a little stupid. You see, I have a major blog crush on Mrs. M. She probably thinks I blog stalk her. In fact, I heard a rumor that she woke in a cold sweat the other night dreaming I was chasing her down and trying to get her to sign Blogging for Dummies book.

Mrs. M, please don’t be scared- it’s just me, Brittny!

As you can imagine, I was beyond giddy (yes, giddy) when I found out the one, the only, Mrs. M herself was my partner. I was a little star struck.

Not only that- but the woman got me some wonderful and very thoughtful gifts! I felt major blogging summer swap love when I opened what I got. Here’s the loot:

Satchel of Goodies

Ultra Cute Flip Flops

Monogrammed Things

Magnetic Notepad

Easiest Dips & Desserts

Reading Material

Guys- the gift was so much fun to open! Mrs. M was so thoughtful and made me three monogrammed gifts! They’re all so cute. And the recipes!? They’re stuff even I can make. I’m so excited about them and am going to try a couple this weekend! She even gave me a super secret recipe she rarely shares! How sweet was that!? I know I’m going on and on, but I’m really excited about my gifts.

Thanks so much for the idea Mrs. M & Jenny. I had such a great time giving and getting my Summer Swap surprises.

TGIW! I’m off to enjoy the weekend!

PS- Mrs. M, I think you might have added fuel to the already blazing blog crush fire.

<3,

Brittny

Why do I always feel stressed out when I reply to blogs? Those freaking word verifications totally mess me up. Do you know I very rarely “pass” on the first try? Seriously! What does that say about me!?

I JUST WANT TO COMMENT ON THE BLOG!!!!

I seriously have flashbacks to my ACTs. No lie.

Who would have thought the phrase:

Type

SDLFSJWETH

for spam verification

would cause me such pain and heartache....

Oh if only.

Oh if only I could talk about work. Do you guys realize what kind of material I have!? I could post for days. Weeks. Years. It’s good stuff I tell you.

The trouble, however, is that I yapped my trap a lot back during The Nest blogging era and a couple people caught wind of it.

It ruined our fun, guys. Don’t they want us to have fun!? I guess not.

We’re in The No Fun Zone apparently.

There have been so very many times I wish I could log into my blog and fire off the post of a lifetime, only to harness my zeal deep down inside and remember I work in The No Fun Zone.

Can I just say it sucks and isn’t fair!?! I spend almost 13 hours a day working, driving to work, looking at people at work… that’s alot of freaking time!

What else am I supposed to write about? Apparently nothing (Apparently. What a fun word. In fact, I’ve already used it twice… The word of today,kids, is “Apparently.” Each time you hear the word “Apparently” used in a sentence, jump up out of your seat, do a lap around your cube, toss ice water in your face, and yell, “Woot!” Then sit back down as if nothing ever happened.) .

Yep. The Forces of Work have spoken: “Thou shalt not blog about anything remotely juicy or interesting. Instead thou art resigned to crappy half-baked posts. Oh, and PS- James in Accounting needs yellow post-its.”

“C’mon Forces of Freaking Work! You don’t want me to suffer, do you?… Okay, maybe you do, but you don’t want my blog to suffer, right? That’s what I thought. So hows about you throw me a bone and give me some work leeway?”

To which they respond, “No! Because of your spitefulness you are hereby sentenced to one year of boring non-work related posts. In addition, you must wear beige stirrup pants, black loafers, and an oversized hypercolor t-shirt every other Friday.

Mmm. Wait. Beige stirrup pants are pretty brutal. I will show thee mercy. 6! 6 months of boring non-work related posts.”

“Stirrup pants and hypercolor tees!? What have I done to deserve such a sentence!?”

“Brittny, my child, you absolutely can not or will not post about work. It’s uncouth. It’s tacky. It’s just plain wrong. We forbid you to talk about how your coworker doesn’t wear undies to work, or how you have a manager who doesn’t know how to do anything in PowerPoint and therefore must spend 2 days feverishly drawing what the 25 slide presentation will look like so you can do it for them on the computer and they can take the credit.

There will be no talk of how you actually told a coworker you bet she was a good bulimic (by the way!- you’re a freaking idiot moron! Did you realize how horrible that was going to sound when it came out!? I highly doubt it.) or how you secretly spray Oust in your boss’s office when he’s not looking, simply so you don’t suffocate from the carcinogens (is he ever going to stop smoking in his office!?). He’s so on to you, by the way.

Wake up woman! There’s simply too many dangerous stories and we, The Forces of Work, must safeguard them for all eternity. Or at least until you get another job.”

“Umm, Forces of Work?”

“Yes?”

“You do realize you just told the blog world a few of my work stories.”

“Uh...well...mmm...uh...”

“Just say it, Forces of Work- you’re a freaking idiot.”

“Yeah.

Apparently.”

Just dropping in to tell you all to check out my friend Jenny’s blog! She’s so freaking creative (seriously, she blows us out of the water!) and has come up with a way to connect us even more! It’s not too late to sign up!

Maybe we’ll get to be partners!

ha ha- sorry Jenny, that probably has people running the other direction.

Have a great weekend! 

Sometimes I wish Will would read my blog. He gave me this place for my birthday, and sometimes I wish he would just stop by and surprise me with feedback. I mean, afterall girls, I am always by his side during OU Football season, NFL season, the Draft, Fantasy football, and a plethora of other mind-numbing sporting events. The least he could do is take an interest in my tiny little blog, right?

I haven’t mentioned it to him in a long time, and today I randomly get an email titled, “I Read Your Blog.” The body was a romantic love letter consisting of:

And you didn’t ever think I would read your blog…Will

Awwwww, what a sweetie right? ha ha. Okay, not really what I had in mind, but at least he acknowledged the fact that his wife is in fact a bonafide Blogger.

<3

Hi!
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I feel this immense pressure to have some wonderful, flowery “first post” wisdom for you guys, but do you want to know a secret? I feel so nervous to be writing right now! I feel this huge imaginary blog pressure weighing down on me to say the perfect thing on this perfect site.
Sigh, it just isn’t going to happen. I’m just going to blow the dust off these blog-typing fingers and try my best.
I still have no clue about some of the features on here, so bear with me as I fumble around. Hey, I’m just glad to have a corner of the internet again! Don’t you love the new site?? Be sure to check out emtwostudios (there’s a link at the bottom). Mel did such a good job on this place and I would highly recommend her if you want to create a new blog or template and have no freaking clue what you’re doing (ie: me!).
It feels so good to be back now. I can post a million times a day and not feel bad. I can write about whatever I want and well- you can’t stop me (ha ha)!
I look forward to catching up with you guys, I know it’s been a while. I still have some updating to do (the tagline, my links, bringing my archives over here, etc), but I will be posting here from now on.
Thanks for stopping by! I missed you tons.
<3
B-Love

Thank you for visiting.

There’s nothing like getting real mail.

Real, tangible mail.

The envelope is all worn from travel, and it’s so exciting to see your name on the front. Someone took time to put something in an envelope, address it, stand in line at the post office (which deserves its own post!) and mail something especially for you.

Getting mail is a special thing that I have to believe doesn’t happen as often as it used to. So often we’re glued to the computer. Hallmark E-cards have replaced the fun of physically opening one and seeing the handwritten message inside. Short little mass emails to everyone have replaced the intimate and intricate details one person writes to another.

I am the guiltiest of all regarding this topic.

Every single bit of my communication is through the computer. I am forced to handwrite Will’s grandparents only because they don’t want to join the new advancing world like most people their age (though I can’t blame them! I would miss the simplicity of life too.), but other than that (and like 1 card to my super friend Jamie!), I am a typer. That is how I keep in touch.

Isn’t that sort of sad? I mean, in some ways it’s great because you are able to immediately communicate with people and no longer have to wait for weeks for old news to arrive. However, it’s sad because I’ve gotten lazy! Getting mail is so much fun. How often do we get “real” mail? Will and I get bills and sports magazines and not much more. Getting a letter is such a fun surprise.

Have I rambled enough?

I guess I should get to the point.

Today I got the best surprise. Sweet and thoughtful African Kelli included me in her Calculated Acts of Kindness project. Now, I should tell you, this is what she is doing for lent and I’m not trying to draw lots of attention because I know Lent isn’t about “Wow! Look at what this person is doing for Lent!” but I was just so very blessed by her act that I had to write. I can’t even begin to tell you the elation I felt when I saw a cute little package arrive especially for me. It was such a day brightener.

I had a long morning and-as I have been doing a lot lately- was thinking about home. The sweet Indian mail deliverer came in with his usual smile and heavy accented, “Good morning!” I always smile when he comes in the office. “I’ve got some mail for you,” he says, sounding like the Indian convenience store attendant from the Simpsons. I took the package and contemplated opening it at work or at home. Because I have no willpower- and because I actually received mail that wasn’t one of Will’s sports magazines or wasn’t in the form of the AOL guy telling me I had mail- I was a little excited! I opened the package and totally smiled. I guess that is the point of doing something like this, but it’s so nice to actually experience it- especially on a homesick day!

Inside, I found an adorable apple apron she made (Yes, this woman will take Martha’s place whenever she retires), a Spring mix cd full of songs (which I’m sure is great and I can’t wait to listen to!), a Hershey’s king size almond candy bar wrapped in her own super cute adorable wrapping (I need to be creative like this!), and a sweet homemade card. It was the most fun surprise!

She went to a lot of work to mail all these packages for people. I imagine doing this every week for Lent took a lot of time and energy and I just want to share how it has totally inspired me to bless people like she blessed me!Remember Pay it Forward? It’s so true. Whether you realize it or not, when someone totally makes you feel special you so want to do the same thing for someone else so they feel that way too!

So, I keep looking over at my little package and smiling because first of all it made my boring “I Want to Go Back to America” day much brighter. Secondly, because I can’t wait to listen to the mix cd. Finally, because I ate half the 410 calorie candy bar and am totally mad at myself and am seriously considering just screwing it and finishing the entire thing (which hopefully I will not do!) and simply blaming it on PMS.

So, now I want to pay it forward. I’ll have to think of how I can do that. I hope some of Kelli’s other recipients feel the same way and we all just pass on our little warm fuzzy for someone else so they can feel the happiness of a little surprise the way we did! How can I do this? I really need to think. Here are just a few things I came up with:

*Bring some of the Eastern workers cookies.

*Buy lunch for the person behind me without saying anything.

*Buy the guards doughnuts (hmm, notice how all of these ideas entail food… what does that say about me??)

*Send my own little CAOK gift to someone. Unfortunately I’m not domestically blessed, but I bet I could think of something fun.

So anyway, I think I might go home and repost this with a picture of me and my cute apron just to show off A.K’s great creative goddess abilities.

Okay, Okay…So do I want to continue to ooooh and ahhh over my pretty parcel?

Yes.

Do I realize you want to vomit by now?

Yes.

Will I stop talking now?

Yes.

Thanks for letting me dote, and I’m sorry for going on and on (it annoys me when people do that) but it is lonely here and I feel out of place most of the time, so in my Kuwait life, little blessings aren’t so little. Does that make sense? I hope so.

I pray I am able to be a blessing to someone the way Kelli was to me- and I pray you are a blessing too

Now for the obligatory How Dinner Went Post.

Because I love my husband (and promised not to post our “private stuff” regarding dinner), I will skip all the juciy details and pithy little comments and simply say dinner bombed.

Isn’t that sad!? It was very unfortunate because we opted to go to Kuwait Towers (the Gaucho is on the list for my upcoming b-day!) and the view was spectacular but sadly we were both in too much of a funk to really appreciate it.

I’ll simply say the night started off with Will coming home stressed and exhausted and not really in the mood to go out. On top of that the very first thing he said to me was:

“Wow. That’s really bright red.”

See, I’m a lip gloss girl for the most part, but last night I thought I would pull out the stops and wear a really sexy- but classy- shade of red lipstick, something I don’t do very often.

Sidenote: there is SOO a whole paragraph that should be inserted here, but since I’m being a good girl I will just skip it.

Needless to say the fact that Will didn’t even tell me I looked pretty and simply pointed out my lipstick killed my good attitude, which in turn put me in a terrible mood so the evening was just sort of blah. It wasn’t horrible, and we ended on a good note, but it was far from romantic.

I sort of felt like Frank and Maried Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond last night.

After we ate, we went up to the observation deck which was neat. The view was awesome. I got some pictures but they didn’t turn out, which was sad. I did get a couple us I’ll post someday.

After that we came home and I went straight to bed. I figured a good night’s sleep would do us both good.

So that was our evening- okay but not as wonderful as I had hoped.

Today has been much more normal. We’ve been our normal, cuddly, “laughy“ selves. I love that guy a million times a billion- that’s a lot!

We woke up to our weekly phone call from Will’s parents. After that we played around for a while and then decided to go back to sleep. We didn’t get up until 11:00!

We had breakfast and watched a few shows and then Will thought we needed to cuddle on the couch for a while- and sleep some more! I think the fact that we slept in so late this morning has messed us up and now we’re like a cat or something, ready to sleep the entire day away- minus 3 hours.

Fridays are traditionally our lazy days and Thursdays are our errand days, however, we decided to be crazy and flip the two. Wow! We’re so spontaneous! I don’t think much is on the agenda today.

I need to work out so bad. You guys would be very dissapointed in the things I’ve eaten since yesterday. Therefore, I won’t even tell you! I’ll simply say I’m going to kick my butt into gear and get a serious work out in.

Sort of a boring post today. I guess it’s because I’m being good.

I listened to Zoe on the radio yesterday! All the way in Kuwait!! You girls totally have to listen sometime. It was so cool to actually HEAR a nestie talk. Okay… I’m weird"… I think you guys understand why I think that’s cool, right??

Oh- that leads me to our “on the way home conversation.” Will thinks I don’t have “friends” on the internet. He thinks I’m weird. Okay, so I used to make fun of people like me… but now I’ve joined the ranks of all the other computer nerds and have to proudly say:

I have internet friends.

Anyway, he doesn’t comprehend how by simply reading a blog I can call you girls my friends. I wanted to get into it but simply said, “You just don’t understand.” It was the best answer because I don’t think I am going to convince my husband that you can have friends that you’ve never met.

He then was like, “We’re never going to meet any of these people, right?” His reason being that everyone on the internet is a terrible psycho path ready to steal all our mounds of money (that’s a laugh- mounds of money).

“Okay, so yes Will, there are terrible psychopaths ready to steal people’s money, but not everyone that owns a computer is that way.”

I’m not sure he believes me.

He probably thinks I’m one of them- minus the steal the money thing.

He told me today my brain is on a “constant field trip.“

ha ha. He said it with love, so I couldn’t be too mad.

I think it has to do with the fact that I go a million miles a minute and am always talking to him about my- as he says with his little two fingers, “Friends.”

Yeah, okay, it doesn’t look normal… but you understand don’t you?

Don’t leave your field trip brained of a girl hanging here “friends!!!“

Okay, so it’s a little weird that I know more what you guys are doing than I do people back home, and it’s even stranger that if you were to list all the nest girls on one column and all your husbands in another column I could match girls to their husbands in like 3 minutes. However, I can never seem to remember Will’s cousin’s kid’s name. Hmmm, I guess that IS a little pathetic.

I think I’ll slowly ease him into the whole “nestie reunion” thing, don’t you think?

Maybe if I start now, in like 5 years he’ll be ready. Ha ha, but then I’ll be on whatever the nest comes up with for people married for like 50 years or something. Anyway, we’ll work on that one.

So that is what’s going on in my world. I’m thankful for the weekend and for having an awesome husband. So dinner didn’t turn out as perfect as I had planned, but there’s no one in the world I would have rather been with that instant.

Thanks for listening “friends.”

Oh- speaking of “friends,” Vanessa and Jill- do you girls have blogs?

CHRISTINAAAA!!! Why can’t I get to your blog!?

Okay, I’m really done now, I promise.

The bus is leaving for the next stop on my field trip and I don’t want to be late.

Ha. What a dork.