...and I talked Meredith into trying scuba diving again! She had given it a shot during our accidental vacation to Jamaica, but had a lot trouble getting her ears to equalize - which is really painful - and so she was a little hesitant to try it again. But after I told her about the shallow dive at Stingray City where you get to pet, friendly, Muppety stingrays, she decided to give it another shot! Here she is suited up and about to dive in!
On Friday we both got up early! My plan was to head out for an early morning dive. Mer's plan (after she was finished wearing a light-fixture as a hat) was to read by the pool.
After a few more passes, Meredith had gotten used to the stingrays and was feeding them and petting them like a seasoned pro! The creatures are so big and heavy (they must easily weigh 100+ lbs!) it takes a while to figure out how to feed them without getting knocked over when they get friendly and swim into you!
Later that night, Meredith and I decided to drive all the way across the island to the touristy part to see if we could find any fun night life going on. (We didn't). We did, however, find several giant cartoon statues to take photos with. Including this giant frog...
After we were done at the reserve, we headed back to the resort! Meredith hopped on the internet to do some emailing, and I headed out to the boat for a two-tank afternoon dive!
On the way out the reserve, we can across another blue iguana sunning himself on a patch of grass right next to bench. He didn't seem to mind us either and let us get close and take some photos.
Grand Cayman is famous for being one of the few places in the world that has blue iguanas - and our first stop was a huge wildlife preserve where you could (if you're lucky) see them. Here's Mer out front with a huge blue iguana.
We ended up settling on a little Italian place we found a couple of miles down the road and the food was great. We ate, drank and used a bunch of touristy brochures to make a list of things we wanted to check out on vacation! Worn out from a long day of traveling, and being out in the middle of nowhere with no kind of nightlife at all, we decided to call it an early night!
...and a third TV in the second bedroom. A realization that caused Mer to bust both boobies out! (The best part is, we didn't even end up turning any of them on. We were just excited by how extravagant the place was.)
Right when we pulled in the resort's parking lot, our concerns were put at ease. It was clearly a nice place. But even that didn't prepare us for how insanely awesome our accommodations were! We checked in, got our keys and when we opened the place we just kept saying "Whoa!" over and over again. The place was enormous! Here's Meredith a photo of Meredith in the living room that I took in the kitchen near the entrance.
About a week later, it was time to go on vacation! Our flight was at 7am, which meant we had to leave for the airport around 3:30am - so we didn't go to bed. Here's Meredith doing some middle-of-the-night last minute dishes!
Mexi Brunch + Margaritas = Sleepytime! (aka - The Best Photo of All Time). This is one of the photos that the longer you look at it, the funnier it gets.
Meredith had to get up for work bright and early the next morning too and bid me goodnight a little past midnight. (Siege was on hand to mock yet another early-departing guest).
After I was finished modeling my new look, Ellen and Leigh set out to make a version for Meredith. Notice the wonderful feminine re-interpretation of the original work that resulted in an off-the-shoulder look with a full-length skirt!
If you would've asked fifteen year-old me what I'd be doing on the night of my thirtieth birthday, I know without a doubt that he wouldn't have even come close to describing this photo.
I hadn't really planning on doing anything to celebrate my actual birthday, but I relented and decided to text a few people and see if anyone was available to meet up for a last-minute, low-key dinner at Kate's Joint. A few people texted back so at 8:30 Meredith and I headed over to Kate's to meet up with Ellen, Vinay...
August 7th was just a normal night around the house...but as soon as the clock struck midnight, Meredith appeared out of nowhere and sniped me with a birthday-treat!
Sarah and Brandon had just gotten their dog, Monkey! They were both preoccupied so Meredith and I got to spend a lot of time babysitting her! Look at her chubby little pink puppy-belly!
While unpacking we also discovered that we both had matching, tan, corduroy jackets! (Mine used to belong to my grandfather - I don't know what Meredith's excuse is. Hahah).
Siege, Ellen, Sarah (and KT - not pictured because she showed up later in the afternoon) = BEST. FRIENDS. EVER! Keep in mind, this wasn't about helping one person move...this was about taking taking our U-Haul to BOTH of apartments, and then unloading all of our stuff into our new place. Oooof!
Schweaty! Ellen and Meredith are showing off rolls of that packing saran wrap that I used tons of (because you can use it to just bind everything together instead of having to pack everything in boxes. It's awesome).
Meredith and I finally decided to take the plunge and move in together! We expected a long and tumultuous apartment hunt, but we hit the jackpot on the very first place we looked at! On Saturday afternoon we were given the keys and headed over to scope the place out and prepare for our move a few days later! Here's Meredith kicking back in our brand new "holy shit we're living together" bathtub!
Remember crazy Brandon that invited Grant, Jake and I to come and party in Budapest when we were on vacation in Europe? Well, he emailed me to tell mehis friend Kinga was coming to New York for the first time and I promised to take her out. So Meredith and Kinga came out to dance too!
...and we teamed up for this incredibly hot photo. (I don't know if you know this, but I'm going to let you in on a huge secret: WE ARE HUGE FUCKING DORKS.)
The post-procedural patient. Hahaha. Meredith had read that if the whack was successful and the cyst had been ruptured, it would take a few days to for it to go away. Nothing to do but wait! (Spoiler: the cyst didn't go away).
And Siege snapped a few funny pics of Mer and I goofing around on the beach with his fancy cam. (Thanks for sending these over, Siege!). Here's our impression of that old Coppertone advertisement where a little dog is tugging at a girl's bathing suit.
...pictures like this. Hahahaha. OMG, man Ellen Stagg really is a broseph trapped in the body of a buxom blonde. I love how she's even using two fingers to pretend she's "spreading the pink." Girl's hardcore RAW.
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