today wasn't supposed to be any kind of special day.  i had a party to go to last night, and i have work super early on monday, so i didn't plan anything today.  and by a series of serendipitous occurrences, it ended up being a pretty wonderful day.  

woke up to kristi putting on the movie "save the last dance" at like 9 am... finished watching it after she left to go to ikea with the portrait bug girls. freaking cheesehead that i am, i got totally inspired and promised myself i'd go to wednesday night funk class at the gym this week.  then, jeffrey called and then karen called and before i knew it, we were having brunch at a cute little place in our neighborhood, butterfly blue. (my belgian waffle was good but the bacon had a weird flavor.) 

next, we headed home for a quick game of scrabble (jeffrey whipped us soudly) before karen and i went downtown to try and find her bedsheets.  i unexpectedly found these funny little cabinet-extender shelves that i'd been looking for forever, which was a total freaking bonus.   we spent a while wandering the aisles of gracious home , where karen found superfly shams on a fabulous sale, and i fell in love with this new york-themed set of dishware from fish's eddy.  

and then everyone just sort of converged on my apartment, which is my most favorite thing.  i threw together some homemade pizzas and sauteed some veggies, and jared brought this amazing chocolate ganache torte he made.  kristi poured the wine and karen helped me set the table (with my new blue table-runner and a candlestick my grandpa made me).

and then we just sat around and laughed for, like, hours.  my freaking stomach hurts from all the laughter.  we introduced kristi to boggle (not her new fave) and i played my favorite song (i'm yours by jason mraz) like 40 times.    we started with a nice red wine my dad sent over, but quickly digressed to blueberry-pomegranate wine coolers (laugh all you like, they were freaking delicious).  karen and i called one another every hideous name we could think of as the boggle game got down to the wire. we are not the least competitive girls.  but jared ended up winning.  we were all bravado, he kicked our collective ass.

i feel full.

grateful.

thankful.

i love my friends.