to say this weekend was a busy one would be a massive understatement.  friday ran into saturday, saturday ran into today, and now i'm left feeling a bit weary.

i went home for the weekend without the hubs, and for good reason.  friday night was spent with two out of the three of my best friends from high school.  my friend hope was leaving for nicaragua yesterday morning and i desperately needed to see her one more time before she left for four months.  i have to say, this was my absolute favorite part of the weekend.  it's amazing to me that although we don't see each other very often, and we don't really talk much outside of our reunions, we settle into such comfortable conversation.  we painted our nails, reminisced and caught up into the wee hours of the morning, and it was wonderful.

saturday was spent olive-gardening (bet you didn't know that was a verb) with my ma and the older of my two brothers.  we filled up on unlimited soup and salad and carbo-loaded on breadsticks to gear up for some shopping, and some animal-visiting at the humane shelter.  then i made them they happily volunteered to join in on the SOS action.

normally, i'm not all about kitties, but this one looked identical to an awesome cat we used to have.  seriously eerie.

then, in the evening, i met up with two of my college roommates.  it was paige's birthday and we ate mexican and went to see a sketch comedy show at shadowbox cabaret with a couple other friends of hers.  fun was had, but i was starting to feel a little ragged from all of the running around, so i took off halfway through the show to make it home to my pjams.

oh haiiiii birthday girl

getting out of bed this morning was, in one word, rough.  but up it was, to finish up my young life small group lesson and then head to my friend crystal's baby shower.  she is the third of my three high school best friends, the lone soldier that was unable to join us on friday night.  and who can blame her?  girlfriend has had a little bun cooking in the oven for about 8 months now and we didn't hang until 11pm.  she looked beautiful and the party was uber cute.  unfortunately, a) i forgot to take a pic of the gift i made for baby noble (which i was quite proud of, btw), and b) i had to cut out before it really even started to get back to fort wayne to lead small group.

loved it.

whew!  did you catch all of that?  at the end of the weekend, i'm a bit frustrated.  i hate that, although i got to spend a bit of time with everyone, i didn't really get to give all of myself to anyone.  time was given, but when there's so much focus on just surviving the weekend's demands, how much quality can really be expected from that time?  and where was my sabbath day?  bear with me this week, guys.  there's about a 72% chance that posts will be getting shorter and grumpier as the week goes on.

i apologize in advance, you know, just in case.  do you get really grumpy if you don't have a day of rest, or do you thrive on the go, go, go?

you better believe it's bachelor time.  as you may recall all the way back from, well, yesterday's post, this show is absolutely a guilty pleasure of mine.  i started watching it with my mom back in the first season, when the guy wasn't ripped or good-looking in any way.  in fact, alex was kind of an all-around tool, which means, at the heart of it, this show hasn't really changed at all.

in high school, all of my girlfriends used to speed to my house from youth group to gather 'round, watch and discuss.  and on finale night, you better believe we used to have a sleepover...on school nights.  watch out, folks, we're getting dangerous here.

same story in college.  my roommates and i would all pour a glass of wine and meet up in the living room for some quality bonding time.  fast-forward another three years to tonight's finale and you'll find that nothing has changed.  at the last minute today, i texted some girlfriends of mine to see if they would be up for watching together.  i figured it would be a long shot, as the rest of the girls have children, but the bachelor is serious business, so they found a way to work it out.

as cheesy as it sounds, and as much as boys would roll their eyes over this, some of my favorite memories with my friends over the years have come from watching this show together.  on a special, last year, about the show's history and popularity, one group of women explained that this show is like the super bowl for chicks.

they were absolutely right.  we talk about and relate to each other over this show like men talk about and relate over sports.  just like each player has their stats, each female contestant has a list of pros and cons, and sometimes just plain crazies.

and that's why i've decided to make this season a bit of a competition among friends to thicken the plot.  i found cheat sheets with all of the women's names and pictures on ABC's website and printed them off for each of my friends.  we made notes as we developed first impressions, discussed, and before elimination, we voted on which girls would go.  only one of us even got half of them right.  seriously, brad, what were you thinking?  we even rewound the preview at the end to try to analyze which girls look like they'll be around for a while.  we'll continue to vote each week, only being able to select from the pool of girls we originally thought would go on.  it's like our own bachelor march madness.

based on first impressions, i think brad should stick with these three:

marissa, the sports analyst.  beautiful, down-to-earth, and seriously?  any girl that likes sports is more than welcome to take up residence as my friend.

emily aka holly madison (the resemblance is uncanny).  i love how the previews make it look like she is going to challenge him in a real way and actually question this experience and the relationship.

shawntel, the funeral director.  she was by far my best first impression and just seems so natural.  plus, hello, she's a funeral director.  awesome.  she wasn't featured much, so i'm excited to see more.

and now for the ladies i'm a bit more skeptical of:

ashley.  okay, yes, she's a cute nanny with a sob story, and she got the first impression rose.  but really, she grabbed his butt within 15 seconds of meeting him.  i also feel like she's trying to be tenley.  quality?  meh.

meghan, fashion marketer - did you see her huge pink shoes?  woof.

and for painfully obvious reasons, model madison.  fangs?  really?

who's on the top and bottom of your list?  i'd love to hear!  seriously, gossip away.

*all images from abc.com