January 2013 – awkward vodka

Tips for Bar Hopping in Frigid Temps

This weekend is supposed to be absolutely freezing — just one of the many perks living in Minneapolis. But heaven forbid winter turn me in to a hobbit. And I would hate for that to happen to you, so here are some tips to help you make it out to the bars, even though the sub-zero temps may try to hold you back.

Rule #1 – Pregame. Your alcohol blanket will become your best friend when venturing out for the night. Well, unless it backfires and you end up puking in an alley somewhere (not that I’m speaking from experience…) So be careful with this one, you don’t want to cross that fine line.
Ignore the haters – wear Uggs. You will be thankful for this outdated fashion statement when your feet are toasty and you aren’t struggling to make it across the icy/slushy/wintry streets in heels.
Have a cab driver’s personal number. Waiting outside in the cold trying to catch a cab at the end of the night is the worst. Have his number, call or text him as you begin rounding up the troops, give him your location and he’ll be waiting outside with a warm car. There is nothing better than that at the end of a good night out. Well that and Taco Bell of course.
Don’t bring gloves or mittens, you’ll just end up loosing one of them. It’s one of life’s cruel jokes. Instead, have strategically placed hand warmers you can use when outside and stash away when you get into the bar. And if you lose one – they are totally disposable so no worries! TIP: Open the hand warmers when you start pre-gaming. That way they’ll be nice and hot for you when you are ready to leave and need them the most.
Wear a cute scarf and/or hat. Lucky for you, scarves and hats done well never go out of style. If you can pull them off, definitely incorporate one or both of them into your outfit for the night. You won’t regret it…
But you will regret the mini skirt. STAY AWAY FROM THAT. Please. Want me to judge you at the bar? That’s how. Seriously, no one likes the girl in the skimpy party dress at the bar in the middle of winter. Who are you trying to impress?

Keep it Tight: Music

When you drink, you drunk eat. Pizza. French Fries. Cheese burgers. Mac ‘n Cheese. Bread Sticks. Tots. Potato Chips. You see it. You eat it.

Drunk eating habits cause us to actually have to workout. The best way to get through a tough workout is to have an awesome playlist (oddly similar to how an awesome playlist can also get you through a long day/night of drinking).

As K said in her Doctor Stalking post, “If you want to date a doctor, you gotta keep it tight!” So next time you need some motivation to get in a great workout, listen to one of these playlists from your favorite vodka-lovers…

Sarah’s Pump-Up Mix:
1. “Thrift Shop” – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
2. “Troublemaker” – Olly Murs
3. “Move it like U Stole It” – ZZ Ward
4. “Va Va Voom” – Nicki Minaj
5. “T.H.E.” – will.i.am
6. “Billie Jean” – Michael Jackson
7. “C’mon” – Ke$ha
8. “Feel this Moment” – Xtina and Pitfall
9. “Dancing On My Own” – Robyn
10. “Kerosene” – Miranda Lambert
11. “Dontcha” – Pussy Cat Doll

And the award for Sarah’s favorite workout song goes to…

Ray Ray’s Girl Power Mix
1. “Bulletproof” – David Guetta feat. Sia
2. “Turntables” – Ciara feat. Christ Brown
3. “S.O.S. (Let The Music Play)” – Jordin Sparks
4. “Red Hot Kind Of Love” – Christina Aguilera
5. “Leave (Get Out)” – JoJo
6. “Love on Top” – Beyonce
7. “Wild One” – Flo Rida feat. Sia
8. “Beauty and a Beat” – Justin Bieber feat. Nicki Minaj
9. “Can’t Be Tamed” – Miley Cirus
10. “Teenage Love Affair” – Alicia Keys
11. “God Is A DJ” – P!nk

And in honor of my favorite local DJ who loves to run, especially to girly music …

Kait’s Rocking Out Playlist:
1. “Calibria 2008” – Enur ft. Natasja & MIMS
2. “Percussion Gun” – White Rabbits
3. “Right Round” – Flo Rida
4. “Sexy Chick” – David guetta ft. Akon
5. “Tighten Up” – Black Keys
6. “Whatever You Like” – Nicole Sherzinger
7. “Toxic” – Britney Spears
8. “Dig” – Incubis
9. “Morning After Dark” – Timberland ft. Nelly Furtado
10. “Dance” – Big Sean
11. “Telephone” – Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce

Kait’s favorite: How can you NOT want to go kick butt when you hear this song? …

I Love Friends

In my opinion, Friends may be the best television show ever. There are so many good episodes that it was hard to pick just ten, but here they are…

#10 – The One Where Chandler Can’t Remember Which Sister (Season 3, Episode 11)

#9 – The One with Ross’s Teeth (Season 6, Episode 8)

#8 – The One with the Nap Partners (Season 7, Episode 6)

#7 – The One with Ross’s Tan (Season 10, Episode 3)

#6 – The One with the Video Tape (Season 8, Episode 4)

#5 – The One with the Rumor (Season 8, Episode 9)

#4 – The One with the Baby on the Bus (Season 2, Episode 6)

#3 – The One After Vegas (Season 6, Episode 1)

#2 – The One Where Everybody Finds Out (Season 5, Episode 14)

#1 – The One where No One’s Ready (Season 3, Episode 2)

What are your favorite Friends episodes?

Kait’s Doctor Stalking

Well faithful readers (so probably Sarah and Rachel) it doesn’t get more awkward vodka than this: yours truly, Kait, is stalking a doctor.

Before I dive into this post, I should give the one reader who happened to stumble upon our page a little background information about my love life. Okay, we’re done. (If you think I accidently left part of the blog out, I didn’t … it was my cleaver way of saying my love life is non-existent.)

I am choosing to omit names and locations in case our wildest dream comes true and this thing goes viral. I figure it would be best to not completely embarrass the victim of my pining.

This whole thing started off with a pretty innocent comment made by my co-worker, Stacie. She entered the office and started talking about the guy she saw from our parking lot. We work at a hotel and there is a small medical clinic practically in our back parking lot. My coworkers often talk about me being single and tell me who I should consider dating. So naturally, Stacie told me about a youngish guy walking into the clinic with a gym bag and that he was pretty good looking. She pointed out that he might be athletic seeing as he had a gym bag and thought he might actually be a doctor at the clinic.

My then boss, Jason, caught the conversation (really, I think he listened to us gossip more than he would like to admit) and chimed in that he knew exactly who we were talking about. He is indeed a doctor … with a very funny last name. This only encourages this whole situation and funny remarks. For instance, after talking about a 9 mile run I went on the night before, my other coworker, Max, chimed in with this gem: If you want to date a doctor, you gotta keep it tight!

As luck would have it, Doctor actually started coming into the hotel! At first he would just hang around in the lobby on his cell phone for a bit. Lobby visits turned into lunch at our restaurant. Lunch turned into Jason setting up an awkward introduction of me to Doctor. I thought Jason set the whole thing up because he knew Doctor. After asking repeatedly, I realized Jason had nothing to do with Doctor visits to the hotel.

For a good two months or so we were all into Doctor. If he was spotted at the hotel, I was notified. Then we noticed a strange pattern of behavior. He would have his car parked at his work for a week at a time, but come to our lobby and wait for a cab home. So we spent some free time wondering why Doctor would cab to and from work. We have come up with a few theories, but they seem a little off-base, so feel free to use the comment section on this post to draw your own conclusions.

This stalking went on for a good two months or so, but then something sad happened. No Doctor. For at least three months no one saw him. The jokes stopped. Coworkers were making suggestions of boys still in college for me to date, boys in nursing school, etc. but no Doctor.

The beginning of this week Doctor was back to making visits to the hotel! His car was in the parking lot, but he was still taking cabs to and from work. The jokes have started again and we have returned to stalking to occupy our free time at work.

I’ll keep it to that for my first Doctor stalking post. If you’re mildly interested I will be updating our readers randomly with stories … so check back 😉

I will also conclude my Doctor stalking posts by posting a tip on how to land a doctor.
Today’s tip: “If you want to date a doctor, you gotta keep it tight!”

Sunday Shameday

Sunday nights are the worst. I want to write a post about all the shame you feel after a weekend full of drinking. But I’m too exhausted from the weekend full of drinking to actually think through a blog post. Life is hard. So stay tuned until later this week when I have more energy and regain some of the brain cells I lost. Thank you, alcohol.

Happy Friday!

It’s time for Happy Hour, Baby!

Wine ‘n Dine: Veggie Pizza

Favorite Pairing: Pizza & Champagne

To celebrate Thirsty Thursday, we decided to make one of our favorite meals – Veggie Pizza paired with Dancing Bull Red Zin. Looks delicious! Want to make it? Don’t worry, we’ll tell you how…

Ingredients:

Green Peppers
Red Peppers
Yellow Zucchini
Onion
Tomatoes
Parm Cheese
Garlic Salt, Pepper, Basil and whatever else is in your spice drawer
Pre-made pizza crust. Love Boboli!

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Use a pizza pan and spray it with pam.

Super easy: Slice up the peppers, zucchini and onions and grill in a pan on the stove. Once they’re tender and cooked like you like ’em, spread them out on the pizza crust. Put sliced up tomatoes, parm cheese and seasonings over the pepper mixture. Then just pop it into the oven for about 12-16 minutes.

Serve with your favorite wine. One of ours happens to be Dancing Bull Zinfandel.

If you want to turn this pairing into the perfect threesome, add a couple episodes of Millionaire Matchmaker for good measure.

Enjoy 🙂

Favorite Pairings

Wine and cheese, chips and dip, Britney and Justin – these things obviously go hand-in-hand. Pairings are a beautiful thing, especially when they are food-related. So why not write a post about them? Below is a list of some famous pairings everyone loves, along with some not-so-typical, but equally enjoyable, pairings we can’t live without (and that you should definitely try).

FAMOUS:

Peanut Butter & Jelly
The classic American brown-bag lunch.

Brad & Jen
Until that bitch Angelina ruined our lives.

St Patrick’s Day & Green Beer
March wouldn’t be the same without it.

Cereal & Milk
Only the best breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon snack of all time.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate
Actually, peanut butter and anything.

Cory and Topanga
The model couple of our generation.

FAVORITE:

Pizza & Champagne
My two favorite things. How can you go wrong?

Goldfish Crackers & Spaghettio’s
Try it. Then you’ll understand.

Vodka & Diet Coke
‘Nuff said

Caitlynn & Tyler
Teen Mom’s only couple you want to root for.

Tequila & Goldschläger
It’s called a conquistador and it changes lives.

Pearl Harbor & Tears
Watching this always brings me to tears because it reminds me of my over-hormonal teen years, unconditional love for Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck and how someday I’ll grow up to be Kate Beckinsale. Oh yeah, and that whole war thing.

What are some of your favorite pairings? I’m always looking for new and exciting things in my life, so please share!

7 Beauty Tips for Slackers

1. Keep your tweezers in the car and pluck in the parking lot, or when safely stopped at a stoplight. Ever looked at your eyebrows in the rear-view mirror – EEK! Save time in the morning by plucking in the car on the way to work. Plus, the natural light helps so you don’t miss some of those pesky strays.

2. Use L’Oreal BB Cream. It is a moisturizer (with SPF), primer and foundation all rolled into one. You can apply it same as you would moisturizer and it evens out your skin tone almost perfectly. Set it with a little powder and you’re done. Best part? It lasts all day, even with oily skin!

3. Dry shampoo could save your life. Or use baby powder if you’re cheap like me. Sprinkle a little bit in your hair, tease it with a comb and you may fool some people into thinking you actually showered.

4. If you have a gross zit, try tooth paste overnight. It works (sometimes).

5. If you’re running late in the morning, bloated or hungover and just want to wear a t-shirt and jeans to work, throw on a cute scarf, earrings and nice flats. It’ll make you look like you actually tried.

6. If you don’t have time to shower, pin back those bangs. I’ve gotten compliment before while wearing my hair like this – like people actually think that’s what I wanted to do to my hair…

7. Pre-game heavily before you go out at night. I find that getting ready while buzzed gives you a steady hand to apply eyeliner and leads to overconfidence. Super easy to do your hair and make-up if you already think you look good.

Note: If this ends up having the opposite effect and you cry because you hate everything in your closet as well as your face – just go to bed and do NOT leave the house. I promise you won’t regret it.