sitting back and letting myself laugh

Here are a few things this past week that have made me take a mental note to "never forget this moment".

{via}

1) Our electricity was out for a couple of days after a storm hit Chicago. No internet, an uncharged laptop, no TV. AKA the perfect time to snuggle up to a book. Oh wait, it was nine at night and I couldn't see tiny print and I couldn't find a darn flashlight if my life depended on it. So I just sat there in the dark. In my family room. Alone. Well, with my dog.

But then my dad came home and surprised me with an mint chocolate chip ice cream sundae. Awww shucks, dad. We chitter chattered a little bit, but for the most part we soaked in the pleasant, peaceful silence as gentle raindrops began to fall outside.

2) My dear cousin Kelly got engaged in April and is getting married next August. I kinda love love everything and anything wedding related, so needless to say I've been excitedly jumping at every invite to go wedding dress shopping. Last night we went to a place where Kelly found one she liked, but she wasn't quite ready to commit. But forget the dresses, the ladies that worked at this boutique were the real show stoppers. In a bad way.

The main gal helping us had a comment for everything and in a smug-annoying-trying to be funny way, criticized the place Kelly is thinking about having the reception. Which is a bunch of malarkey because we were three years ago for my other cousin's wedding and it was absolutely beautiful. Then she bragged to us about donating to charities and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo that had nothing to do with us finding a dress. Oh and she also told Kelly she was "over shopped" and she would only let her try on a veil with two dresses even though Kelly had it narrowed down to three. I don't know, maybe I'm just not familiar with wedding dress shopping (because I'm not) but this lady was really getting on my nerves.

Not to mention the salon owner was perched in the back like a cat. Didn't even know she was there until she abruptly answered Kelly's question, "Could I get my measurements?" with a a harsh "NO. Unless you are ready to buy the dress." Cat lady scared the bejeezus out of me.

3) Sitting on the couch with my dad and having him show me how to use his new Ipad is about the best thing in the entire world. It's safe to say that my dad is fairly technology illiterate. Ya know, he likes things old school. Like type writers. Which only two years ago was his main method of writing letters for work. But anyway, he went to his first class on how to use this lil trinket, and it is really cute seeing him explain everything. "Oh oh and Kathleen if you press this button, you can control the brightness of the screen." OR, "How the heck do I get to my email? We went over this in class. Don't tell me. Don't tell me." He may be one of the world's biggest advocates for returning to a simpler time, but I have a feeling he is going to really enjoy this bugger.