me + us

me×!us×

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Me and Mer. Thanks for all the presents, lady! Look at Maddy gazing up at Meredith with total adoration. I love how she's squeezed herself in between us.
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Family portrait.
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I had to cheat and use the camera to shadow my eyes. Haha.
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My eyes are so sensitive to light that it's hard for me to not squint even with my eyes closed!
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Their building's elevator was clearly designed for blue-eyed people.
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Me and my boo.
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Me and Mer.
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Me and Mer.
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On Saturday morning, Mer and I hopped in a cab and headed crosstown to meet up with...
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I had off work on Monday so Meredith and I decided to hop on the subway and to the magical faraway land of...
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Just a quiet Saturday night at home.
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We spent the afternoon watching DVR'ed episodes of Wife Swap. The episode where the black dude ends up living with an entire family that's into renaissance reenactment made me laugh until I cried.
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Mer and me.
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Full and happy.
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We got to the park and there were hundreds of people with daschunds!
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Meredith and I have the same exact eye-glass prescription which is awesome because either one of us can pick up and use the first pair of glasses that are around. Here she is wearing my "Larry Davids" (they polarize in the sun...noooo!), while I'm rocking her sassy "Sally Jessys"!
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Oh, Bret! How has it come to this?
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Letting them dry real good.
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On Saturday, Meredith parents came down to hang out with Maddy.
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Monkeys.
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Smooch.
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Me with the other future-Mrs-Battjer (getting married in 7 months! Eeep!)
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This is the photo I took of Meredith when she bid us all a goodnight around.
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Travel buddies.
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Me and Mer.
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Getting a smooch in the arms of a pelican...
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...and took the golf cart out onto the empty course for some eagerly anticipated High-Speed Drunk Driving on the Totally Empty Golf Course (highly recommended, btw) and watched the sunset. Haha. Yay, Christmas in Florida!
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Me and Mer. I love how you can tell that Mer's eyes are still focused on my dad's mustache. Hahaha.
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Up, up and away! See ya later, Yankee winter!
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Practicing our photo booth faces.
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Haha.
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Later that night we headed over to the Sly Fox for some quiet Saturday night action!
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Oh, summer.
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Here's the not-so-happy us. As a bonus, I also accidentally left my Kindle on the bus. :(
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Me and Mer.
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My skin feels like red.
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Meredith couldn't come to the beach because she had to go to work. But I let her enjoy it vicariously through the smell of my beach hair.
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Mer and me.
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Awww.
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I got home a little before 5am and found this little nugget wide awake and reading nerdy scifi novels (Alastair Reynolds!) in bed. Awww.
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Meredith had spend the afternoon uptown at her parent's house. After I got back from the beach, I went to meet Meredith at their apartment...
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Happy!
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You're the man now, dog. Hahaha.
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Great success!
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Before she could answer, I got down on knee and popped the big one! She was so surprised that at first she didn't say anything. She just kept looking around totally surprised trying to process what was happening.
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Yay!
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As the surprise wore off, she just started laughing and laughing. Her first words back to me after my proposal were inspired by Bret Michaels and VH1's awesomely terrible Rock of Love. She asked, "Will you stay in this house and continue to rock my world?" Hahaha.
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Hahaha.
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While Meredith sat on the couch, all of the roof guests quietly sneaked into the apartment but stayed by the door out of Meredith's sight. With everyone in place, I took a deep breath and tried to pretend that I was just casually joining her on the couch. As soon as I sat down next to her, the noisy party instantly went completely silent and Meredith noticed that everyone at the entire party was looking at the two of us and aiming cameras at us. Before she could ask what was happening, I asked "Remember four years ago when you asked me out on this couch?"
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The Soon-to-be Battjers! (I love this pic so much).
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Homeward bound (with sunburned noses).
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Yep, that's about right.
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Sunday was my first day back after my whirlwind, two-week solo-trip to Egypt!
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Happy February 2008!
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Check out this awesome Polaroid that Cynthia took of us! It's on our apartment door. Happy 2007!
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A little before ten, Meredith and I headed to the L train.
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And then we came back to the apartment, met up with Meredith, and got crunked on the housewarming wine Ellen had brought with her!
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Aww.
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Stuytown is policed by robots. If you don't have this ID card on your person at all times, you will be killed by their evil lasers.
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On Wednesday night, Meredith and I went to Bowery Ballroom to see...
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Flight number two! Dubai to JFK.
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Check out those tans!
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We came. We saw. We stared at rocks that looked like elderly people's junk!
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...we hit the beach. Check out my hot-pink sunburned chest. That's what happens when I try to go to the beach before 2pm!
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Couple. Drinks. (Swoon. Who's luckier than me?).
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Who's a tired one?
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On the way back to our guest house, we stopped at a cool little tea shop and got some tea and played Jenga!
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Here's Mer and me: gassed up, helmeted up and ready to explore.
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...to Phucket!
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We woke up Sunday morning and it was still overcast! But by noon, it started to look like it might turn into a nice day. While the clouds were disappearing, we hailed a longtail boat...
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We walked around Long Beach for thirty minutes or so, but Meredith was feeling really crummy (just in case you couldn't tell from the face she's making in this photo...hahaha) and it looked like it was about to start pouring soon. So rather than risk having to do the long walk back over slippery rocks in a downpour, we opted to hire a longtail boat to take us back to the beach near our part of the island.
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And here's a picture of my armpit thrown in to sex it up a bit.
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The gorgeous views were starting to work wonders on our hangovers.
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Here's us realizing that we were pretty, pretty drunk.
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For those of you that have never been to Thailand, the party drink of choice where ever foreigners congregate in-country is THE BUCKET. Here's an overview of how they make THE BUCKET from another entry from the first time I visited Thailand:

How They Make THE BUCKET:
Take a plastic beach pail with a little ice in it, then dump in two bottles of Red Bull (and keep in mind, this is the original Thai version of Red Bull that feels like it actually has amphetamines in it), a can of Coke, and an entire pint of Thai whiskey. They they throw in 7 or 8 straws in the hopes that you'll share it with strangers and not die drinking the entire thing by yourself. Any where you go on the beach, someone has a bucket and they're only too happy to share it with you. Cost per bucket? $3. Ooof.


We went up to the bar to get a bucket, and to my horror we discovered that the bar was offering a TWO BUCKETS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE special! Doh! I told the bartender that we only wanted one and she was like "Well, you're gonna get TWO! Give it away if you don't want it!"

That sounded like sensible advice to me, but Meredith wasn't having any of it. She was like "Let's EACH drink a bucket! WOOOOOO!" Here's her getting started while I show my reservations about solo-bucket-consumption. Ooof.
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Catching our breath!
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After the waterfall, we made one more quick stop before heading back to the hostel...
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Take two.
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Obligatory "we're riding an elephant!" photo.
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On the ride back to our hostel, we gave up our seats in the cab and sat in pickup bed where we got to enjoy a little over an hour of 65 MPH winds!
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Hahaha.
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Me and Mer on the raft!
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...of us pretending to be the boat drivers! Hahah.
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Drying off on the dock after our swim!
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I got to sit up front with the driver and Mer had to squeeze in the back behind me.
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The night was really funny. The girls also LOVED Meredith's big blue eyes and kept telling her that they didn't usually "go with" other ladies but that if she was interested in one of them "that was ok." Hahaha. We ended up getting really drunk and hanging out with the girls and answering a lot of questions about life in New York City.
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Here we are showing off our brand new Thai sunglasses that we purchased with our Red Bulls for a whopping grand total of $5!
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Except that this time it wasn't Thai New Years so there weren't mobs of people crowding the streets and throwing buckets of water on us.
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Sooooo excited!
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Hahahaha!
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...and then took Faisal's car (which he was kind enough to lend us) out so that we could explore Abu Dhabi on our own!
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Bernadette picked up my cam and shot this photo of us. "Look! We're finally relaxed and able to enjoy vacation!"
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Hahaha.
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Hahaha.
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...and goofy underwater photos.
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Then me! Thanks for lending your slender lady-fingers, gorgeous! We would've been flowerless without you!
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Three cheeseballs.
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...and sexy little pony tails like this.
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Any time Meredith gets a couple of drinks in here, she wants to dress me up like a girl. So I end up with bobby pins in my hair...
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First Place: Doh! (At least she doesn't have a big ol' nose like me).