i believed the skies were doorways home

   Losing loved ones. It's hard. I've watched friends lose their grandparents and it broke my heart. 

It's different for me. It's still hard, not for the same reasons. I have not been close with any of my grandparents. Complicated families, complicated relationships.And while my parents have not always had the best relationship with their parents it's still their mom or dad. It's their Julie. I was devastated when my mom lost her mom February of 2012. All I could think of was, that's her Julie. And when I watched my dad lose his dad fall of 2010, that was his goofy (more strange than goofy but whatever) dad. 

So as I watch my dad lose his mom, our last grandparent, all I can think is, that's his Julie. He looks just like his mom, and I look like him. Sure, they only met me when I was a baby and sent cards for every birthday and holiday; but I could never imagine losing either one of them (even at our darkest times.) So please pray for my dad. And pray for his mom, that she will pass when she's ready to go and feel no pain. 

Then she'll be reunited with my grandfather, and they can talk loudly about other people in purgatory together.

I've barely started and I'm falling apart

We could all use this today. 

Getting her down the aisle

   Weddings. 

   Southern Living makes it look like a fairy tale. The whole wedding party is gorgeous, in their coordinating dresses, laughing, looking Photoshop re-touched and perfect. I have had two of my best friends get engaged within the past year with weddings coming up in October. I remember calling my mom and gushing to her about how excited I was to be in the wedding. I instantly bought Southern Weddings, created Pinterest boards, and started counting down. But as I've learned it's more than that. It's a lot to be in a wedding. And I'm not just talking about money (cause it's a lot of that too.) But it's about supporting your friend. Asking if there's anything you can do to help. Ordering your dress on time. Buying them a hottie whistle for their bachelorette party. All these little things add up. Mom was helping me look up wedding traditions the other night and came across this awful (but some hilarious) stories about nightmare wedding parties. And I'm not just talking about getting white girl wasted and grinding on the Father of the Bride, but lifelong friends who ended up not even being in the wedding because things got so ugly between them and the bride. So remember, though all the drama, wedding presents, showers, and dress sizing: weddings can sure bring out the crazy in people but they can also remind you why you're best friends. 

How bout that ride in?

Well, we didn't find Emily on the roof the next morning.

No one got roofied.

As far as I know there wasn't a naked Asian man in any of our trunks (although I did ride in the trunk to dinner Friday night).

We successfully ordered a stripper. I was terrified of him.

We danced on the bar at Coyote Ugly. 

Successfully sang karaoke, had the whole bar Say[ing] My Name.  

AND look for our cameo in a new MTV pilot about Nashville (I'm the one with the pink VV koozie).

All in all I would say it was a successful Bachelorette Weekend. 

102 days to I DO. 

#OllertoLunn #hottiewhistle

Invitations with feathers and drink lists

Happy bachelorette weekend to this pretty lady! 

Still so excited to be part of your big day. But first we "SHE'S GETTING MARRIED" it up! 

Bachelorette recap to come next week! But first enjoy this weekend's, and I'm sure summer's, new anthem. The video is beyond strange (wouldn't expect anything else from her) but Miley this might just rival Party in the USA. Props to you. Also, want your abs. 

Summer baby

I couldn't have said it better myself Lilly.

p.s. LOVE the Gemini print, if anyone wants to get me a belated birthday present I'd love that Murfee scarf 

But no one said anything about a panda..

Hopefully you saw my post yesterday (and then immediately downloaded Bearly Legal) because The White Panda definitely did. And even offered up a challenge to my tag line of life being too short to date a DJ. Well boys exceptions can always be made. And I am single with a 401K. Happy Friday!

"Life's too short to date a DJ"

There's the age old awkward first date question of, "oh, well what kind of music do you listen to?" I honestly have no idea how to answer that question without rambling and sounding like a spaz. And if someone was to scroll through my Spotify "Stared" list they would have no idea of what kind of music I listen to either.I literally have a little bit of everything. But one thing's for sure, college made me love the "mash up." Sophomore year I discovered Super Mash Bros and then Junior year I fell in love, The White Panda. Every spring they release their new album for the year. And I have loved them all. But this one takes the cake. From the first track I was obsessed. Needless to say my summer playlist is set. Here are my top 5 individual tracks, oh and you can download the continuous mix or track by track here. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Barely Legal from the White Panda. Take it home, Lawrence.

1. Cashin' Dreams

2. Poetic Night

3. Let's Go on a World Tour

4.Money for Party Rocking

5. Push with Me

Make it last forever, friendship never ends

If you couldn't tell by now, I love love my birthday. And one of the things I love most about it is two of my best friends' birthdays are right after mine! The party never stops. Monday was my little and best friend Molly's 22nd birthday. Luckily this year's birthday did not include black bears on campus like her 21st did. And tomorrow is Jenn's big 2-5, her first life crisis. Being the kid who always wanted the best friend I hit the jackpot with these two! The only downside is they're not in the same area code, zip code, or in Jenn's case even state. So even though surprises were sent/on the way to these lovely ladies I wanted to show them some Pekarsk-ing Around love as well (they did guest-blog for me after all) So here's to post grad birthdays and one day being able to travel to each other to celebrate us Gemini girls! Good thing we found each other, no one else would be able to put up with us!

And everything around her is a silver pool of light

There's this rule, the birthday rule. And it states, on your birthday everything is magic. Your hair works, your make-up works, you look tiny, lunch is extra yummy, all that jazz. Yeah, this year that rule was multiplied by like a million. I had my first post-grad birthday on a weekend and let me tell you, that is the way to go. You get like three birthdays! But the best part of the weekend was spending my actual birthday day with momma. I am one lucky girl to have a Julie like her. There are a couple more guest blogs to come but I'm sneaking in a post here and there so keep your eyes open. But first, I give you 23, via pictures of course.

I have the best village, came in to work to find this!

After lunch surprise cupcakes!

Birthday selfie, had to

Beau-beautiful flowers from Jenn

Birthday lunch tradition with momma

BECCA made an appearance at lunch too

My gorgeous birthday cake, actually the middle layer of a wedding cake mom special orderd

Grilling out, belated birthday dinner at home

Wearing one of my amazing presents from mom, statement necklace by Julie

Deleting the Adjectives

Blogging. Not going to lie, this is an entirely new concept to me... and that's saying something, as I a write for a living. Hi, I'm Jenn... or, as Caroline so affectionately refers to me, "Aunt Srat" (though, truth be told, I'm more of a hipster... shhhh don't tell my sorority sisters).

I was first asked by Caroline to guest blog a few weeks ago and I have to say, my initial reaction sounded something like "Lord have mercy, little Srat, you have GOT to be kidding me" (yes, I had consumed a few beers at this point... no, I refuse to apologize, DC Brau is delicious). She wore me down pretty quickly (clearly). So I was given a date. An important date, at that. I was given the birthday week. Great.

So I sat and I thought... for 2 and a half weeks. Now, if you know me at all (which you don't, and you should probably work on that because I've been told I'm the Tina Fey of my generation), this is a bit of a problem. I write for a living. Writing is what I do. I take great pride in knowing exactly what I want to write, when I want to write it. Frankly, up until about 2:30 PM EST, this was not the case. Massive. Panic. Mode. But then I remembered who I was writing for... My best friend. Little back story for y'all, Caroline and I met 3ish years ago during a fraternity philanthropy event. Naturally, I was bent over a gin bucket filling up my cup and who do I hear but sweet sweet Caroline saying "Who is that girl she's so fratty I have to meet her." Frankly, the rest is history. We spent the rest of the day sitting in lawn chairs judging volleyball matches like we knew what we were talking about. Now we gchat judging anything that will stand still long enough for us to look at it (blame it all on our roots... Southerners, we love to judge, bless our hearts).

I digress... so 2:30 rolls around today, and I start looking back through some old text messages and I see one from Caroline that says, "Hey... I love you. Mean it." Now, that may not sound like a lot to some people, but that's not a word we throw out easily, and then I realized something... I may have only known Caroline for 3ish years, but she's been more of a friend to me than some of my oldest friends from high school. Supportive, caring, understanding, appreciative, helpful, empathetic... these are all adjectives that describe Caroline. But if we get down to it... you don't need those words to describe her at all. Like one of my favorite literary characters once said, if you delete the adjectives, you'll find the truth... and the truth is, Caroline is the perfect definition of the word friend. She will be there for you times are rough, and she will listen to you complain about the same relationship drama with the same person over and over (and each time she'll find some new way to make you feel better). I'm 25 years old and I can honestly say that in all my time alive so far, I've only met a handful of people as genuine and earnestly good as Caroline, and I am grateful to have her in my life. Grateful to call her best friend.

I still may be a little confused as to why she granted me with the honor of writing for her birthday week (Lord knows this is probably the worst blog post ever written), but I do know one thing... I am damn glad to call her not just friend, but family.

Happy birthday, little Srat. Ride or die. Sink or swim, I'll never throw you out like Fredo. Love you, mean it.