Kentucky Derby 143

Another Kentucky Derby is officially under our belts and this year was MUCH better than last year (ha!)!  I was in super recovery mode last year from a series of pretty nasty surgeries, so to be right up in the action with finish line seats was a far better time this year!

I've been going to the Derby since I was a youngin' - my parents were always awesome and included us in such a Kentucky staple. And even though I've been more times than I can count, every year it's always just as magical. And it's the absolute BEST time to live in Kentucky.

This year the weather was a super bummer (rainy + cold), but the Bluegrass has some Derby magic and come time for the 143rd run for the roses the sun was indeed shining bright on our old Kentucky Home! <3 I rocked black jumpsuits, wellies, and fascinators both days and couldn't have been more pleased with my choices.

First up was a gals day at the track for the Kentucky Oaks. I went with one of my lifelong besties, Jessica, we've been friends since kindergarten and it was such a fun gals day (minus the frigid temps). Before we left for a super fun breakfast little Lainey gal joined the fun and wore one of my fascinators from years past.

If you know anything about Derby week, you know it's ALLLLL about the fashion ... well that and the ponies ... and the celebrities, and the parties, and mint juleps (HA!)! But .... back to the fashion. There are A LOT of options of places to sit (or not for that matter) and with better places to sit comes a heft price tag right along side of it. So, for a fun a last minute girls day ... we opted for the cheap seats (because we had no idea the weather would be so cray) ... and therefore when you're not under cover and gonna be walking for miles ... you ditch the beautifully fancy shoes and embrace the rain boots! BEST decision EVER!

All of these girls ended up ditching their heels and wearing rain boots too ... but for the sake of the photos they adorned heels (look who didn't have hers, heheheee).

 We finished the night with a yummy yummy gals night dinner and wrapped the Oaks, just to wake up and do it all over again for Derby!

And whew, my Derby date was lookin FLLYYYYYY. Oh heyyy rain boots (again!) ... I actually switched out of the rain boots by race three and rocked heels for the rest of the day because the weather gods were on our side with that Kentucky Derby magic. But, alas - the only photo we have I'm rocking those pink wellies again.

 Hey pretty mama!

And all the fascinator love! I made both of my hats you see in these pics (I've done it every year since I've been a kiddo - a lot of us Louisville gals do) and it's absolutely one of my favorite parts of Derby. I think my Oaks day fascinator was actually my favorite of the two, but it didn't photograph that well. The top of it was much more to write home about than the straight on view. But, either way, my late night glue gun creations are my favorites and seeing all of the hats and fashion at the track is just something unlike anything else.

 Fam Bam!

And finish line fun with the baby bro in from NYC and daddy-o! We didn't have the winner, but man did we have fun!

Hope to be back next year for 144 ... come with me, I promise you'll have a good time!

How do I put this gently?

When i went to bed last Sunday and woke up Monday morning, i had no idea the week i was about to encounter at work.  well, that's not entirely true - i sort of did. it's 2 weeks before Black Friday. i work in retail marketing/advertising and the last couple of weeks have been a bit brutal getting everything together, so i guess somewhere in my mind i did know.  perhaps i was just trying to be optimistic for once, and think it would be better this week, silly me! By no means was it really THAT bad, things could have been much worse i suppose. BUT - it was more of just one of those "ARE YOU SERIOUS" type of weeks where a gal just can't catch a break at the office.

So, "How Do I put This Gently?": It was an epic FAIL of a week.

MONDAY

for starters, and lack of a better description

Monday went a little something like this....

one of those days where you're just walking along completely minding your own business and then WHAM! knocked flat on your back.  every meeting was running behind schedule, deadlines were creeping up entirely too fast and conveniently my sweet little dachshund Maggie decided to use our Ralph Lauren Down Comforter as her relief area. Just frick'n perfect.

So, i decided to call it an early night and hopefully wake up with a better attitude.  Good Morning Tuesday!

Tuesday

Ha, how quickly bad turns to good.  So, Tuesday is always a day of meetings for me.  I'm talking like every 30 minutes there is some meeting i have to be present for.  Normally Tuesdays aren't too bad, because they tend to go by really fast. HOWEVER, this Tuesday we had a meeting that isn't usually scheduled on Tuesdays - and we had A LOT to squeeze into a little amount of time.  In reality, the meeting is something i am really passionate about and usually genuinely enjoy (I will share this great cause with you at a later date), but for sake of time the story goes like this:

1. I was responsible for bringing lunch to the meeting, scheduled through lunch hour for everyone attending - of course i forgot - which started everyone off is a pissy mood. Grrrrrreat
• shout out - Thank you Domino's pizza for coming to my rescue - you took about 30 minutes, but your thin crust $5.99 medium pizza deals on our bellies made for much more pleasant co-workers
2. We had a HUGE excel sheet to get through (each person has their own excel sheet for voting, and then the votes and tallies are combined later in an even more massive excel doc) - about 3/4 of the way through the meeting 2 co-workers computers crashed (well -- hold that -- co-worker A's computer crashed, and co-worker B's died because Co-worker A decided to slyly steal her power cord - causing her computer to die before the documents were saved) and yep you guessed it COMPLETELY DELETED ALL ITEMS WE HAD BEEN WORKING ON!
• I'm not talking went to the saved, archived folder, or even the most recent items area in digital land in which we could pick up where we left off. I'm talking, NO WHERE to be found - THE JOYS of working on an old migrated server. Sooo, that means we have to start 100% over and finish the ENTIRE meeting (which has been spread over 3 days) in one day.
• This is to be completely by Friday. Yippee!

After that, the rest of the day was pretty much down hill from there and everything that happened i just felt like this

(oh look something great...NOT!):

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday actually did get a little better.  The morning was very blah, and then we were invited to Churchill Downs for AdFed Day.  Can't really complain about betting the ponies during work hours, except i may have had a bit better of a time if i actually won some money as opposed to losing it all.

i always go to the track expecting to walk out like this:

when in reality, i come out more like this:

THURSDAY

Thursday, you were lackluster. But the week was getting to me and all i wanted to do in this dreary, gets dark at 2 o'clock in the afternoon weather was PLOP:

BUT of course, life had a MUCH different plan for me and plopping on the couch, was the farthest thing from what happened.

FRIDAY

So, now we say HOORAY FOR FRIDAY!  Seriously, T.G.I.F. has never been said by me with such compelling force.  I'm looking straight past this day in the office and right on to the weekend. Happy Dance!

WEEKEND

No matter the outcome of what Friday has to bring: I will, I tell you, WILL find time this weekend to live like this.  Hunkered down, and doing absolutely nothing! ~ WHEW - FINALLY!

Giving credit, where credit is due.  I wish I were clever enough to

make these little clips myself, but instead I'm re-blogging them from

 "How Do I Put This Gently"