geneva-on-the-lake and our 2-year anniversary (pt. 1!)

josh and i celebrated our 2-year anniversary on june 30th, so we wanted to get outta town for a while and enjoy each others company. our friend bob suggested we check out geneva-on-the-lake, ohio because he knows we like carnival atmospheres and old junk. this turned out to be the perfect spot for us!

a little history: geneva-on-the-lake is one of ohio's oldest summer resort towns and has hosted distinguished guests such as henry ford and john d. rockerfeller. the dance hall (no longer standing) hosted musical acts like jimmy dorsey and cab calloway. a lady we met at one of the antique stores told us about seeing eddie cochran and bobby rydell in some of the long-gone bars. but geneva-on-the-lake still retains much of its old-timey charm and reminded me of a strip straight out of the 1950s, complete with hamburger stands that open onto the sidewalk and hot rods driving up and down the street! i seriously felt like i was in a beach boys song.

josh and i headed out on thursday morning and it was the most perfect day we could hope for.







it was less than an hours drive. as soon as we pulled onto the strip, i knew we were gonna love the place! it was filled with old neons and signs. i felt like we stepped back in time!



we stayed at a place called the anchor motel. the inside of our room was wooden like a boat. i loved the cute anchors everywhere!











first we walked around and scoped the place out. i took lots of pictures of old signs and buildings. the band paintings on the side of the bar were terrible and hilarious.



















































to be continued!

s-a-t-u-r-d-a-y NITE!

after a crap week, my saturday more than made up for it.

it started out when i got my first correspondence in my new p.o. box. if you don't know what i'm talking about, check it out here: death comes ripping: a serial killer blog. the feeling i got when i saw my first envelope in that mailbox was PRICELESS!

next josh and i went on a super secret adventure to another city to find a gas station where i was supposed to meet some guy off craigslist. it actually wasn't that secretive at all, but it felt that way because i guess the guy didn't like the idea of some stranger showing up at his house and wanted to meet that way instead. he said he cleaned out houses for a living and was always finding odd stuff. he had a box of old photos that i gladly took off his hands for a small fee. i LOVE old photos! it doesn't matter if i know the people or not. the box was full of treasures!

look at these great wedding portraits. they have to be from the 20s-30s:




(i love how the background of this one looks so HAUNTING!)



here's one of my absolute favorites:



look at grace, all dressed up in this fancy outfit. i wonder what the occasion was?



look at this little troublemaker!



there was a cute little cardboard frame with a class portrait of st. gregory the great from 1953-54. love the saddle shoes!





the back of this photo reads "mrs. and mr. wand and their children (?) and nelly wand. sheffield, ala(bama) feb 2, 1923." 1923, wow! can you imagine?! i love that things like this survived so long.



some more great shots:





and finally, there is this shot, which is the main reason i wanted these photos in the first place:



this ranks right up there with the poor little post-morten guy phoebe gave me. it's sad, but beautiful at the same time.

after our top secret mission, we hit up some estate sales and junk stores. driving past a junk store near our house, i spotted THIS GUY in the window!



my cousins had the same toybox when we were growing up and it brought back happy childhood memories. the best part is that i recently saw a picture of the same toybox in yet another person's house, and i thought to myself, "gee, i wish I had one of those!" and now here it is :)

down in the dumps

life has been kicking me in the ass lately. i've been having car problems (not once, but twice!). i've been having health problems. i've been having people-are-big-mean-jerk problems. i've been trying to change my karma by doing nice things, but so far i'm getting the shaft. ugh.

next week is mine and josh's two year anniversary. we planned to go on a roadtrip with a bunch of friends to a music festival and just hang out and get outta town for a few days. that is no longer happening, as all the bands we were going to see are playing on sunday and we have to be back for work by monday -- no way thats gonna happen. no fun, and no plans for our anniversary anymore. i also found a message board where i was really excited to be posting and making new friends, as well as learn things from the people already there who had more experience on the website's topic than i did. i got deleted yesterday because the moderator apparently doesn't like me. probably sounds like something really stupid to be complaining about, but now not only can i not go there anymore but i got my feelings hurt and the whole thing was pretty mean-spirited. ugh.

thankfully, my friend jenny over at agonysdecay is working to correct this foul mood i'm in. imagine my delight when a tiny little coffin appeared for me in the mail today!



inside was filled with the most wonderful things: 3 pendants i picked out from her shop when the two of us were arranging a trade,



the cutest little packaging to put them all in,



awesome freebies including creepy gift tags AND almond-scented soap (my absolute FAVORITE scent!),



and the cutest little skeleton bone confetti!



i can not say enough nice things about her etsy shop. i already had the eternal embrace pendant that i won in a contest around halloween. and i can't WAIT to wear the three new ones i got in the mail...aren't the seahorses the best?!

i'm warning you though...if you go to agonydecay's shop looking to pick something out for yourself (or someone special!), you just might have a hard time...there's SO MUCH to choose from! i hope someone picks up the ed gein necklace, as that is another favorite of mine. ; )

i'll leave everyone with a teaser playlist from this past week's hot trash. i thought it was a pretty smokin show, although it was a less-than-smokin listener turnout (judging from online listeners, that is. i have no idea how many people were tuned in locally). if you like rock'n'roll, won't you check it out sometime??