took a foto.

spider juice on my rug. ewww.

i think it’s a brown recluse….do you?

-jessica

so, a few fridays ago, my little sister and i decided to do a little pre-wedding celebrating at the jive and wail (it’s just down the street).  since my roommate works there, we grabbed some VIP passes off the fridge and headed out.

vip @ jive n wail = free cover + one drink (better than nothing, i suppose)

all was well until my sister ditched me to visit the restroom.  immediately after she left my side, the men approached.  i guess lone girl at the bar means attack.  two guys “danced” up to me, requesting that i join them.  before i can even turn them down, a random voice behind me says, “sorry guys, she’s w/ me” and an arm settles around my shoulders. their response was truly fantastic, i must admit, “YOU WIN, SHE LOSES”

i turn around to see who is claiming me.  No, not an ex-boyfriend, not an old friend, not a cousin, but a bald man with a plain face sporting a mustache.

well, when i was little i used to watch a sweet cartoon called “rugrats”.  I specifically remember George from Fishyokia, and i must admit, i was a bit surprised to see him out.

here is a picture, in case you are curious about what he looks like:

same guy, i swear! we left shortly after that…

-jess

i have failed you all.  i apologize for the 20 lapse in activity on rockjessie.com, i assure you i will not let that happen again.

assuming i am forgiven, i’m going to carry on with the regularly scheduled blogging.

what has changed:

• my little sister is a married lady.
• i have blonde hair
• my wisdom teeth are officially counting down their days
• the grand levee is no longer?
• st louis has gone from comfortably warm to unGodly humid and hot
• the days are longer (my favorite)
• i went fishing for the first time this year

 things that are the same:

• i still haven’t caught any fish 
• i still haven’t made it to the Ozarks 
• i still don’t have a tan
• i still haven’t seen The Hangover
• i still haven’t purchased a protective case for my blackberry

other than the fact that my little sister is now a Bradshaw, most of those things are pretty uneventful.

so what i’m saying is, my life has been pretty boring other than all this wedding planning.  being the maid of honor is a lot of work!  but totally worth it.  i didn’t get much sleep this last week.  friday night i found it impossible to sleep soundly for more than about 45 minutes as i was terrified of over sleeping and missing my hair appointment and then, in turn, missing the wedding.  but none of that happened.

i must say, though, many things did go wrong.  nothing terribly big, but i would be lying if i said the whole thing went exactly as planned.  to give you an idea of some of the things that attempted to break the confidence of the bride:  2 left shoes not realized until the rehearsal dinner, non-functional aisle runner, tornado warnings, broken down car, unresponsive honeymoon resort, crying flower girl, lost necklace, bridal bug bites, wrong piano keys, lost cake deposits and a nearly missed 6am flight.

but despite the fact that every small thing went wrong, the most important thing was unshaken.  and that is the fact that no matter what happened, abby and josh were still madly in love with each other and never once even questioned what they were doing.

no cold feet.  except maybe emma because she didn’t have shoes until a few hours before the wedding.

here are a few photos so that you can see how beautiful it was.  the party was awesome.  the dj was the best i’ve ever experienced (let me know if you want his info, i strongly recommend!) everyone had so much fun and the party was raging until the lights came on.  even my grandparents danced the night away. 

-jessica

i’m gonna be honest.  most of the pictures from the bachelorette party are completely inappropriate for my blog.  assuming i don’t want an 18+ rating slapped on here.

so, no, you won’t get to see the hundreds (literally hundreds) of man-part photos. 

nooo not real ones, silly.  except for the playing cards (yipes!).  those are fun to pull out while you’re waiting for a pizza at 1am.  pizza which, by the way, wasn’t so good the next morning (though i tried it).  we went all out.  blow-up man with built in ring-toss (i’ll let you use your imagination on that one), 48 inch mr. willy, pin the macho on the man, phallic necklace, and more…good stuff, really.

our hotel room turned out to be entirely too small to accomodate us.  which was kind of a downer…but what’r you gonna do?  squeeze in and bear it.  the bathroom was massive.  pretty much the size of the room.  which is maybe why abby slept there on Saturday night.  or perhaps it was due to the close proximity to the toilet…but what happens in Chicago…!

we did a little shopping in downtown.  went to the biggest forever 21 i’ve ever seen. love that.  ran into a friend from college who just happened to also be visiting Chicago.  small world!

we praced about the town, danced on a piano, took a million cab rides, ending ultimately at the annoyance theater where Abby really got to let loose.  she got her long awaited lap-dance (well, sort of–nice guys, but definitely not professional dancers).  the show was called “skinprov”.  basically it went something like this:

{the place: museum} 

dude 1: (staring intently at imaginary photograph) I’m having trouble getting what the artist was really trying to say in this painting

dude 2: perhaps if you take off your shirt!

{shirts come off and fly across the room}

followed by 5 more similar shirt removals, then pants, then 3 layers of man-undies/boxers/etc.

the idea behind it was silly, but quite entertaining.

we didn’t get to see the beach, but i figured out, even though it’s about 80 degrees here, people in Chicago are still wearing trench coats & scarves.  because it’s friggin cold.  it’s just collllld there.  i don’t think i could live there.  i’m a creature that thrives under a warm sun. 

anyway, as promised, here are a few shots of the excitement.  i’ll keep them tame, but if you’re going to get all offended, you should go away now and come back in a few days.

now a few from the bridal shower.  theme = lovebirds.  everything was very nice, if i do say so myself.

-jess

you likie?

too many social media outlets.  just when i get good at facebook again, i forgot about my beloved blog.

sorry bloggie.  sorry readers.

i have much on my mind. 

such as:

1.) my sister’s bridal shower which was last weekend…pictures soon

2.) my sister’s bachelorette party which is next weekend (should be a smashing good time)  i will post SOME of the pictures, i am sure.

3.) my home in a few short months.  lease is up sept 1.  not sure where i’ll be living.  i have  new set of dishes, though.  it’s really the only thing i’ll own when i move out…

4.) where is my MO state tax return?? it’s been 2 months…

5.) is my posterior growing larger?  i’m positive that it is, due to my lack of gym time.

6.) i spent multiple hours washing my car last night, and a bird pooped on it this morning.  green poop.  right on my window.

7.) chuzzle.

ultimately, these things do not matter that much, but they are floating around my head today…

-jessica

yesterday was absolutely gorgeous here in st louis.  perfect temperature.  just the right sun to cloud ratio.  comfortable light breeze.  lovely.

i spotted the band from the school across the street playing some tunes on the playground, and this group of dudes playing craps on the back of their truck in the alley behind our building.  (they were also grilling and had some fold out chairs set-up).  these are only things you see on beautiful st louis days.

but we know days like these can never last.

today’s weather is super volatile.

sometimes the spring terrifies me.  i have always had a love/hate relationship with severe weather.  there is something absolutely fascinating about tornados and the conditions that support them.  when i was little my parents gave me a set of tornado chaser videos that i watched constantly.  they are so incredibly powerful and they can come on w/ almost no warning.  so much damage.

even when a tornado isn’t involved, things can get pretty hairy, like in Alton, IL yesterday when a building collapsed in the middle of downtown.  yep.  just over the river!

we haven’t seen much of the really bad stuff in stl yet, but it’s early, and will certainly come soon.

in other news…when the weather gets wet and muggy (like today), the creepy crawlies seem to want to take shelter inside.  this is no good for me because i have some serious issues co-habitating with spiders.  serious.

 so i have 2 phobias:

tornados
&
spiders

while we probably will not see a dreaded twister today (though it’s always possible), after this morning, the spider part is covered. 

guess who was chilling in my sink today?  giant brown spider (ok, by giant i mean…like the size of a quarter, but that’s quite giant enough for me.)

creepiest part?  he was not in there when i got out of the shower, so at some point that guy was just hanging out nearby while i went through the morning routine.  it’s very possible that he dropped from the ceiling because i’m not sure how else he would have managed to get in my bowl sink.  what i’m saying is….he could have dropped on my head. 

i wanted to take a photo, but i was too terrified to do so.  this is creepy brown spider #3.  i know this sounds paranoid and crazy, but i am relatively sure there are brown recluses.  which would make sense considering the fact that i live in the middle of brown recluse territory.  i don’t want their venom to eat away my flesh.

in the end, i did not have to squish him because there are other people in my life that are less terrified than me that like me enough to exterminate my spiders.  however, had i been alone, there is a good chance i would i have created a blowtorch w/ my hairspray and fried the little bugger.

should we bomb again??

-jess

There’s a spider on the drain and he’s feeling pain
And he doesn’t want to die any more than you or I
He’s struggling to live but he doesn’t have much time
Any more than you or I, you or I

weezer ~ the spider

it was flooding over the street this friday.  driving through the street puddle, i noticed this poor fellow about to be overtaken by the high water level.

 

funny thing is that i can’t seem to place him on a normal water level day. but google images helped me out. here is the norm:

sad thing about that other guy and the dog.  sad sad thing.

 -jess

I’m just looking for shelter
You’re just holding my hand if I hold you
You don’t have to belong here
We’ll just know when it’s right

good old war ~ looking for shelter

 

this is a great song, and an even better video.  i think you will like it.  so check it out, please :)

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

-jess

so guess what today is….

yep! it’s my one year anniversary at

i cannot believe how quickly it has flown by.well, good year, good place, good times.i realized today that i never showed you what was inside that egg.  since you are probably dying of curiousity, here are the final photos:

(nevermind i don’t have time now, soon, though)

-jess

So something happened the other day that made me lose faith in people a little bit…just, in general. And I know that it’s not a good response to have, I mean, why should the actions of one man affect how I feel about many people, but for some reason, it did, and I’m having a bit of difficult forgetting it.

It basically goes like this…

I’ve just left my apartment on a warm sunny day…the kind that seems to make people happy. And I am happy. I am off to buy supplies to make my sister’s bridal shower invitations (which turned out quite nicely, by the way).

I am still just steps away from my apartment when I pull up to the corner. It’s a quiet little corner with stop signs all 4 ways. Not much traffic here. I see a man walking diagonally across the road. He’s already halfway there, so I figure, I’ll wait.

It’s not as if I almost hit him. I did not speed to the sign then slam on my breaks disdainfully…I was in a melancholy mood and was driving the same. I never lurched forward from my stop. I gave him the “walk on across” nod. I honestly didn’t mind that he was crossing at that point in time…pedestrians have the right of way….right?

I wait for approximately 3 seconds and the man, a tall, skinny, bald, sweaty man, stops dead in the middle of the road just a foot or so from my car.

At this point, with a snarling face, he yells “gaw’ on, gaw’ head across, ya f*cking ugly f*cking woman”.

This really bothered me. My jaw actually dropped. I did not know how to respond. What have I done to deserve such harsh words and insult? The worst part was simply the look on his face…it was one of absolute hatred and disgust. The scary kind. I mean, I was actually terrified of this man that I had never seen before. And the intensity and anger in his voice…yelling as loud as his lungs would permit. Nearly growling at me as the words left his mouth.

I felt scared. The most scared I have felt living in Maplewood so far.

And then I felt confused. Because it doesn’t seem right that someone could exert that much anger onto another person that they have never encountered before.

I called my dad for some words of wisdom (he typically offers those quite well). He reminded me that this is why we have wars. That this is why people kill other people that they don’t even know. We can make excuses for the man…perhaps he was having a bad day, perhaps he was overheated from the sun, perhaps he was tired, etc. But does that make it okay for him to unleash what were probably the most hurtful words he could think of in the moment, at me? Well, I really don’t think so.

I struggled with it, though. I have only lived in this city for a few months, and this is really the first time I have experienced such unbridled and unjustified anger in person.

Perhaps I am overreacting…but I can’t help it. That’s just how it made me feel.

Why are people so angry?

-jess