Falon’s World

Tonight Eric and I met Rebecca, Collen and Matt and headed to Forest Hills Public Schools for their Footloose play. Rebecca’s boyfriend, CJ, was playing the drums for it and CJ’s younger brother was actually in it. It was very entertaining and afterward we all went out to Applebees for half-off appetizers and some drinks – a great night for sure!

There were no cameras allowed so Eric only got this one shot with his camera phone:

This afternoon, I woke up early from sleeping to get ready and head to downtown GR to meet Eric and a myriad of his friends and coworkers for dinner at HopCat. They have an awesome burger, crack fries and beer special for $5 – the service sucks but the food is excellent. Afterwards, Kelly and I headed to the movie theater to see My Sister’s Keeper based on the book.

We were both very, very, very disappointed in the movie. They changed the ending and that kind of ruined the whole thing for us. I was pretty impressed with the character development and thought that the actors chosen did a good job but ultimately, the ending was a flop. Lesson learned. I had a great time out and about with Kelly though . Maybe next time Eric will deign to join us (this time he chose to take more photos of downtown – which won’t be posted…everyone has priorities ).

Every night when Eric drops me off at work, he wanders around downtown and takes photos. He definitely got some good shots – just wish the result wasn’t me getting left at work.

I miss sleeping in during thunderstorms or just being holed up all warm and dry at home…listening to it pour, but they seem to mostly happen when I’m at work…

Somehow, Mason held still long enough for Eric to get these nifty shots (taken at 2 am):

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Well, this is usually one of my very favorite holidays. With my birthday, beautiful beach days and fireworks – what’s not to like. Unfortunately, this year my birthday was mediocre, the weather was mildly chilly and rainy and I had to work, therefore missing the fireworks.

Before all of that though, we went to Rebecca’s place for some hot dogs, burger, fruit and rice krispie treats. Gus has grown so much!

She calls him her crocodile – he’s growing so incredibly fast though!

Afterwords, I went home to nap for awhile before going to work. I met everyone downtown before work to hang out for a bit and then headed in. Eric got some pretty cool fireworks photos though:

Well today was the big kick-off for B93’s Birthday Bash 17. We bought our tickets months and months ago and were ready for a day out in the great weather with some live music. I was especially excited for today with several people I was really looking forward to seeing. The torrential rain from the night before had disappeared and it was a beautiful and sunny morning. We headed out a little late since I worked last night, got out at 7:15 this morning. Eric picked me up (late as he slept until past the time he was supposed to be at the hospital to get me) and we headed home to catch 2 hours of sleep before getting on the road.

It was a sloppy, muddy mess at the fairgrounds:

We missed Frankie Ballard and the first special guest, Bomshel. I was ok with that. Last minute, Eric decided to park in town and walk in, paying $5 extra rather than wait in a line at least an hour before getting in. That enabled us to be in our pretty excellent seats for The Lost Trailers. I was excited to see them and was not disappointed, they put on a great show!

Next up was Julianne Hough, I had no idea what to expect but she was pretty entertaining as well. Tiny little thing, definitely could tell the men in the crowd liked her lol .

Next up was Zac Brown Band. I was really excited to see these guys since we had only saw part of their show at the Intersection last time and what we had seen was really good. Their flight from Denver got canceled and Kenny Chesney sent his jet to get them to GR. They had to stop to buy new guitars and other instruments and then at Wal-Mart – attire was Dickie’s all black and white bandanas…pretty freakin’ cool!

Next was supposed to be a Special Guest, Craig Morgan and Blake Shelton. We went out for a break and some water, saw some friends:

When we got back, we discovered that they were clearing out the grounds due to mass flooding from the river into several different parking areas, leaving many people stranded…

They announced the Special Guest as Michelle Branch and put Craig Morgan and Blake Shelton up on stage with her all together. They each played about 2 songs and then they closed the place down .

Craig Morgan is one of my all-time favorites and I was beyond disappointed that he wouldn’t be performing an entire set.

I was also excited to see Blake Shelton, Eric says he’s a great show and I’ve never seen him but enjoy his music…another bummer…

We left very disappointed to hear on the way home that they were cancelling the second day of Bash and refunding for the tickets. Then we realized how burnt we were and that was the cap to the evening.

Eric’s Croc got caught in the mud at one point and sprayed mud all over his back…resulting in a very interesting burn…

After six years of school, and a particularly difficult, grueling and miserable last year, my parents agreed to throw a party. Partly for me, but partly just to get friends together to have a good time and some drinks. We had volleyball/badminton set up and some GR friends came too. It was a good time.

My poor parents had so many problems getting the party ready to go but we all had a good time – thanks Mom and Dad!!!!

Well, today is Grand Valley’s graduation ceremony. I was only walking because Grandma and Grandpa Gray were going to be coming early especially to see me, but due to unforseen and extremely unfortunate circumstances they were unable to attend. Also unfortunate, I had already said I would walk and family was coming to see it so I was obligated to continue. The ceremony seemed rather long to me but we got it done and Eric was able to take some good photos. It didn’t really seem like that big of a deal though because I know I still have 3 more weeks of clinical rotation to go before I’m truly done with school.

As we walked to our seats:

Eric said he “might’ve” teared up a little at this point I had no idea (and neither did he) that this moment was so important to him!

We went out to lunch with the fam in Allendale, at Main St Pub – it was delicious!

After lunch, we went home and took a nap before getting ready to meet everyone out for a couple of celebratory drinks. Of course, it was absolutely pouring…

We stopped at McFadden’s first for a small party of mostly Social Work majors:

Next we went to Mojo’s, where CJ was playing to have a couple more drinks and hang out with a different crowd:

I am officially done at Grand Valley State University…

Tonight we had friends over for Group Dinner since Kelly is in town. It was delicious. From there we headed to Juke’s for some fun with Dirt Road Logic and Union Guns. We had barely arrived though and Rebecca called to say that she was miserable at a party with her selfish roommates and wanted to come home. I immediately left to get her. But, on the way there, the truck was making some horrendous noises and it felt like grinding under my feet. We made it back though and I met Eric at home. Where he told me that most of his friends had ditched out shortly after I had left so it was just as well that I did something else rather than sitting in the bar by myself.

ETA: The truck turned out to have bad wheel bearings and Jason said we were lucky the wheel hadn’t fallen off already – whew!

Tonight we took a nap and then got up late and headed to Relay for Life at Grand Valley. It is an all night event with people taking turns walking around the track the entire time. During this there are different talent-type show/events on a stage in the center. Surrounded by people with tents and other bedding to be comfortable the whole night. I’ve never attended and it was definitely an interesting experience. Rebecca is really into it and plays a part every year so we went looking for her when we got there.

There were a lot of very amusing and entertaining things to watch!

The rest of Eric’s photos are HERE.

Eric’s gift to me on our Anniversary was tickets to the play Lion King at Michigan State University. I was very excited, I love going to plays and have not been to many. Eric’s seen The Lion King before and really enjoyed it so I knew I would also like it.

It was AMAZING!! The costumes were spectacular and the seats were really great to see everything. I absolutely loved it!! Can’t wait to continue to see more plays and would pay to see this one again! Highly recommended!!! Thanks babe!