Wait, don't sit there yet. Here's a handi-wipe. Is that Snooki? What are we doing here?

Whew. Been a busy couple of days here in my little world.

Friday, my sister graduated from the Finger Lakes School of Massage- she is now a certified massage therapist! Yay Katie! It was a lovely ceremony and I was just so proud of her. She's finally found something she really loves, she's really good at, and that she can actually make a career out of.

My mom and dad came up for the ceremony and after a good amount of convincing, went along with my plans for dinner. See, there was this conference over at Ithaca College up the street from my house that had 3,300 registered attendants. Yeah, you read that right. It was also Gallery Night, which means a whole influx of folks downtown. Both of these are good things for our local economy, but in a town where nearly no restaurant takes reservations, it makes a poop sandwich out of trying to get a table somewhere for dinner.

I ended up making us reservations at a place nearly on the outskirts of town that still takes reservations. The Antlers is great- cozy, fireplace, the menu and prices really haven't changed all that much since the mid-90s and they have things on their menu that you cannot find anywhere else in Ithaca, which is really remarkable. Like New England Indian pudding. This is the best dessert anywhere. You can have your death-by-chocolates and ice cream flambes, this stuff is rich, thick, molasses-y and tastes like it takes hours to make, which it does, as I have made it myself.
Then we went back to my house and sat on the deck and looked down at the city lights for as long we could stand it, then drank wine & champagne in the kitchen. Everyone was delightfully mellow and agreeable and it was just so lovely.

Then on Saturday, after an exceptionally tiring hike on the rec trail with Minchy, we went over to the wonderful Gary & Maude Rith's for his birthday party where we ate delicious snacks (oh my, those cookies) and met many other cool people. Gary has a knack for bringing together cool folks.

Saturday night, my friend Eric had a bunch of us over to his house for chili, then we headed out to hear our friend Christen's brother's band play.  It was at this place called Corks & More which has these super-cool wine-dispensing machines.

However, we did NOT know that the band was playing for a fraternity dance. I must say, it was disheartening. EVERY GIRL THERE LOOKED EXACTLY THE SAME. Strapless black dress that barely covered her butt. Enormously high heels that were 1. too high for her to walk in, 2. too big for her (literally, some of these girls were falling out of their shoes), or 3. both. Hair ironed straight, even the same length! What the hell??? Now, I know that the more diverse, personable, creative, individualistic girls are not the types to cling to some dude at a frat dance, but holy criminey, it was a sad state of things for womankind. We walked in to the sight of a girl perched up on a barstool showing everyone in the entrance way that she had decided to go commando this fine eve. I refused to sit down the entire night. At least not without disinfecting the seat vigorously first.

Okay, there was one girl there wearing a tank-style dress, silver with sparklies. Her hair was wavy and I think she may have had bangs. SHE WAS THE ONLY GIRL WHO LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS HAVING FUN. Does this tell you anything? Even when they were being bumped & ground and slobbered on by the boys they were there to entrap, they all had this 1,000 yard stare, scanning the room for something better. Only the girl in the silver dress was dancing, whooping it up. (Of course, her dress made it easier for her to dance around and not worry about accidentally flashing the crowd, be it top or bottom. And she was wearing matching silver sparkly heels that were also quite sensible.) I wanted to go up to her and congratulate her for having a personality, but I thought that might be kinda creepy.

My friends, Christen & Lindsay didn't need a whore-dress and hooker heels to have fun.

And if that wasn't enough, yesterday was finally nice enough for us to have the first cookout of the season, yay! We also lit a fire in our new chiminea, and even though we needed lap blankets and eventually it started raining and drove us inside, it was good to know warmer weather is on its way.