Entertrainment Junction | Keepin' It Mellow

I made an executive decision today to take Rob somewhere in Cinci that he's not yet been. Usually, I would've reserved this type of field trip for a day when Sydni was also here, but she's already been at least once and he hasn't... so... yeah. Entertrainment Junction it was!

On our way up, we had the fortunately-safe experience of witnessing a high-speed, multi-patrol car chase up Highway 75; reading the newsfeed later on, we found it was a shoplifter who had run over a police officer's foot in her getaway mission from Northgate Mall. The chase ended within visible space just past the exit we took. I've never before actually seen a high speed chase happen.... definitely an exhilirating thing.

high speed chase? uhhh, sure.

We made it to EJ without being witness to any other calamity on the roadway, and when it was all said and done, we both agreed it was a worth a day trip.

didja know?

displays

more displays

me & my love | santa & a window washer ;)

And since we're back in Cincinnati, it meant today inevitably finding some familiar faces for the evening. It wasn't hard. Well, it almost was, after I passed out for about two hours in what felt more like a coma than a nap... but who's counting, right? Rob was nice enough to kick me off the couch and into something better than sweats so that we could head out for a little while. We didn't have any specific ideas, so we defaulted to OTR, land of Neon's, Rheinhaus and Co.

fireside @ neon's

outdoor fire pits & silly friends (:

We found Nader and Keith in no time, and I even ran into some even more familiar faces [Kyle!], and some characters from as far back as college [Sal, Renato & Mischa - hii!!]. Sometimes I forget what and who I'll find roaming around this town now that I'm back. Go figure (:

Easy night though. Church in the morning!

xo | cmd

BOOM. Saturday.

Rob & Kyle are here [I still can only half believe that, for some reason..].
Kyle has never been to Cincinnati before.
Erego, Kyle has never had Taste of Belgium for breakfast before.

Don't worry... we fixed it.

a round for the table, please!

It was a no-brainer this morning when we finally got moving; Kyle never having visited Cincinnati before obviously meant he'd never had the full TOB experience [aka, chicken & waffles, from TOB]. We met up with Catie & Andy in the drab, half-sputtering weather downtown at TOB and introduced Kyle to this magnificent course. They sat us at the kitchen table, which is even more interesting for any trip there.

Plus, this awkwardly-statured gnome?

catie: "nice gnome?"
kyle: "too bad that's not a syrup dispenser"
catie: "that'd be genius. here's what it would look like if it were."

... It really doesn't take much to entertain us. (:
After breakfast, we all parted ways, partially due to the weather being monochromatic and... blah.. and the other part of it being that we just wanted to relax. We knew there would be a long night ahead of us, so we all headed home. At mine, we parked ourselves on the couch and watched Iron Man 3, this time without the descriptive services turned on, thank you very much.... Haha.

We hung out at the house for most of the early afternoon, and finally pulled ourselves together near dinner time. Rob wanted to show Kyle Newport, so we went off in that direction, of course taking a detour/pitstop up to the overlook.

kyle & rob | overlook @ eden park | cincinnati, oh

kyle on the wall lookin' at kentucky
overlook @ eden park | cincinnati, oh

We decided on dinner at Bar Louie Newport, joined by Catie & Andy, and afterwards back up to Norwood to Nader's place. His house is once again the common meeting grounds. Lauren met us there, and the cluster of us made a united decision that we wouldn't miss Oktoberfest two nights in a row.

Listermann Brewery it was!


oktoberfest!
nader. andy. kyle. rob. catie. lauren. cori
listermann brewery | cincinnati, oh

these girls! ♥ [+ photobombing rob in the back]
listermann brewery | cincinnati, oh

favorites (:
listermann brewery | cincinnati, oh

ermagersh.. cerggert! ;)
listermann brewery | otr - cincinnati

After Oktoberfest, it was probably the most comfortable decision to head into OTR, to the usual digs.. with the usual people.. PLUS VISITORS! I love that Rob & Kyle are here this weekend!

What I love even more, is how [& we just realized this this weekend] much alike Nader & Kyle are, not only in stature and eerily enough facial features, but in personality, too. They are just about the white and brown version of the same person. I guess everyone's got one, huh? Haha.

.. never met two un-related people who are more
similiar head to toe and inside-out.
rheinhaus | otr - cincinnati, oh

i. love. these. people.
rob. cori. kyle. catie.
rheinhaus | otr - cincinnati, oh

I have some downright knockout people in my life, and I'm so thankful for them. I didn't get to see all of them tonight but it's a healthy start (: It's been a whole day into this and I'm still a little off from the surprise of Rob coming out to see me. What I did to land this guy, I'm not sure, but I've never been anything but myself so I'll just keep doing that and hope he sticks around ;).  

can't get enough! ♥

So that's how we did an unplanned Saturday in Cincinnati. It wasn't entirely eventful, but I think we all had a good time, and that's all that matters. Next time, maybe I'll be able to actually plan some sort of outing (:

Anyway, we're done for the night .. even moreso than this entry is backdated :p

xo | cmd

'Twas a HAPPY Friday!

[backdated!]
My boyfriend is visiting from out of town.
He brought me Eli's BBQ at work today and hung out with me over lunch.
Have I mentioned I love this guy?!

eli's on the go. at work. this is winning at its finest. hahaha..

I finished the day at work, and headed home for the weeeeeekend! My staff and some of the other Express offices got together tonight to go to the Red's game; I wanted to go but I figured I should be a good hostess and spend time with Rob while he's here. So we headed out to Oakley to see Keith Stall's band King's Ransom play. I do not regret that decision. (:

oak tavern with my loves!

big brother nader!

he looks scared.. haha. [you should be... grrawr!]

& catie's friend bombing. perfect, all the way around ;)

ladd!

so easily my favorite picture from the entire evening. ♥♥♥.
this defines how i feel about him, in one picture.  

myself. irene. catie. this is a funny one:
we all used to work together at clearchannel.
now irene works with ladd.. & i work in the building irene's last employer vacated.
... & then we all hung out tonight (: small world.

he's mine, and i'm his. and together, we're just.... this. (:

one of my best friends in this city. no lie.

yeah, i drink bud heavy. don't judge ;)

We finally pulled ourselves together and headed out of Oakley and down into OTR. Our initial destination was Neon's or Japp's, but we made a stop at Rheinheist to find Andy, Adam & the rest of that crowd before we did so. Once we finally did get to Neon's, I found Beth!

heya, beth! [volleyball teammate & kp's bestie]

patio jenga. welcome to neon's.

a couple of my favorite guys. that one in the center, particularly ;)

he makes me happy.

So yeah... it definitely made more sense to share that in pictures. I love my friends, and I am so grateful for time we get to spend together. I'm really blessed, in so many ways. Rob has to leave sometime early tomorrow..... [sad face], but I'm not complaining at all about the time we spent together this week.

See ya in the morning!

xo | cmd