I realize I’m a day late, but just ask my friends – I’m the master of belated birthday wishes. And I’m also the master at Friends marathons, as my dear hubby found out yesterday.

You see, we just had our very first real weekend to ourselves. You know, the kind of weekend that normal people experience. We woke up on Saturday morning to no alarm, nowhere to go, nowhere to be, and nothing to do. I almost didn’t recognize that wonderful feeling because it’s been so long. I remember that I once had weekends like this  – if I dusted off my volume of college memories I would remember waking up late on Saturday mornings with sunshine pouring in from over the ocean and my roommate’s coffeemaker beeping like a banshee while overflowing coffee onto her desk (we never got that thing fixed). I would remember sliding into sweatpants through a blurry daze, knocking on my friend’s dorm rooms and gathering the girls for our slow crawl up the campus hill to the cafeteria for brunch (we had long since stopped calling it breakfast. We always slept in so late, who were we kidding?)

And then we would do nothing. The hours between my last class on Friday afternoon until I fell into bed on Saturday night were reserved for me. Not for papers or reading or work. But for me. I guarded those hours like a gargoyle, stony and cold to anyone who dared interfere with my weekend time. Even though most Saturdays had to be filled with some sort of event or obligation, I still kept schoolwork at bay. I needed a break from the reading and the analyzing and the thinking. It wasn’t a break for my body. It was a break for my mind.

So this last weekend, Jeff and I guarded our time with severity. We warded off calendar events and lunches and breakfasts and travel and shoots. And we did what we used to do before we started this business. We went to a new place for breakfast, then drove down to Target to pick up deoderant and toothpaste, then headed over to Ikea to brainstorm ideas for that pesky corner of our office that after two years just hasn’t organized itself. Then we made hot dogs and mac n’cheese for lunch and plopped down to watch the just released U2 360 DVD that was filmed at the Rose Bowl concert Jeff and I attended and scanned the crowd in slow motion to see our faces (no luck). Then we cleaned. Then we made dinner. Then we slept. And then I woke up on Sunday and spent the entire day watching episodes of House and Friends before dressing up like a Red Neck for our friends “Redneck, White Trash, Blue Collar BBQ Bash” and 4th of July fireworks.

It was beautiful and refreshing. I think my iPhone even went dead for a few hours and I didn’t even notice. Anyhoo, happy birthday America. It was a great one.

And even though it’s America’s birthday, here’s another sneaky peek from Ally and Katie’s Scottish wedding in Italy in preparation for the full feature coming to the bloggy-blog this week!

Hugs,

Erin