the ashley's: August 2012

atlanta...one second after vegas (no really, it was)

i had a 7am flight from vegas direct to atlanta for my sisters graduation from emory. it was sort of the worst because i was so tired and it was mothers day and i wasnt with keya, but my sister got her masters degree which makes her officially and finally smarter than me, so i guess it was an important day. my parents, richard, and my sister picked me up and we went straight to a pizza place. it was pretty good but i think i might have been hallucinating at that point. i went straight to my parents hotel room for a quick nap and then got ready for the pillay/kanade/richard dinner at some damn good taco place. then we went out for some drinks and i
was dying of tiredness and did not need more alcohol. we went to bed and 1 second later my sister woke me up telling me it was time for her to graduate or something and i wanted to cry a little. we went to the school of public health where of course it was raining and the graduation was outside, holler. after the graduation, we went with the cramers to another ghetto cuban restaurant which was also damn good. then we went to ikea and i got my sister and ryan graduation presents aka put what you want in the cart and i will buy it for you because i have no brain cells left. later that evening, it warmed up and my sister and i went shopping and then to a nice relaxing dinner at the fancy atlanta mall and had a bottle of wine and some tapas. it was actually really nice to just hang out with her and it was quiet and we were both half assleep. the next morning at the crack of dawn, i flew back and was greeted by katie and my kookoo bird, who i missed sooo much. it was so nice to see my booboo.

jake and keya sent me flowers to atlanta for mothers day! it was bittersweet!

congrats to my sister for her masters in public health. this is a rare original family of 4 picture without jake or keya!

the two graduates and moi!

it was a crazy 5 days away from jake and keya but definetly worth it. its not that often that i get to go on these kind of trips and im sure it will get more and more rare as the years go by. plus i got to see my own mom over mothers day and that hasnt happened in like 10 years so that was nice too!

dirty 30 vegas pool party style

the u of i girls + vishwanath are all turning 30 this year, so to celebrate in style, we decided to go on a fantastic trip to vegas. we have gone to vegas before together for bachlorette parties, but this time we were just celebrating ourselves. initially we had some hesitation that we would be too old for vegas, but we very quickly figured out that either we are super immature (likely) or we arent really that old (also likely) and we are also amazing people (extremely likely). theres not much to say except we spent 2 full days acting like we were 18 and on spring break at marquee day club and wet republic; we ate a lot of pizza; we all got different degrees of sunburn; i wore neon headbands, friendship bracelets, and a mom bathing suit (sexy!); and some of the girls just never slept - like literally just no sleep (not me, i went back to the hotel at like 11pm every night bc i need sleep). im pretty sure noone gambled, we only went to one nice dinner and we were all kind of sleepy during it, and we went to the beatles love cirque show and its safe to say i might have been the only one awake but thats because my body was physically shaking from lack of sleep and too much chlorine. as rita said "that was a 100 dollar nap". sweet!

vish and i were the first people to get there at the crack of dawn. no better welcome than the cosmo pool!

mojitos at bamboo!

marquee day club...total insanity

ducky and a vodka lemonade

yup. that sums it up.

wicked spoon.

wet republic. more insanity.

i only have a couple pictures from the trip and thats probably a good thing. im surprised my phone wasnt floating in the water at some point....

san diego!

jake and i went on our second solo vacation to san diego for chichi and eshas wedding. we had a blast because it was kind of like a destination wedding and i got to reunite with a ton of my friends from u of i.

we spent the first day getting and settled and bar hopping. jake and i went to a nice dinner with some of the guys and then met everyone at our hotel bar, first the rooftop until there was a hurricane and then the lobby bar. it was a good time.

the second day, jake went golfing with slam and anil, while i bummed around with richard, mostly eating at various places and then varma was able to meet us and take us to get some fantastic fish tacos at ocean beach and then he should us around la jolla. the wedding took place at the hilton on torrey pines which was a beautiful location, and the sangeet was that night.

the day of the wedding, we woke up to a beautiful cool morning, and jake and i went on a nice long walk and got to take in some of the scenery. then jake surprised me with a nice massage and after that we got ready for the wedding! after the ceremony was over, we started the party early by breaking into the groomsmen hang out suite and started having some libations. we all quickly changed into outfit #2 and then had some cocktails and had a blast at the wedding reception.

the next morning, i was super hungover and had to take a nap in a booth at chilis, almost missing our flight (wat?). the airport security guy mistook my hangover for pure beauty and told jake that i was gorgeous (i think thats what he said, he might have said ginormous). i love hangover compliments.