Feed the world, let them know it's Christmastime

Hello all!

I have fun photos, etc to share, but haven't had time to download them (hi hello what could be more thrilling than Lionel Richie in concert?). In the meantime, I felt like it was time to give a brief update so that you at least know I'm alive.

Finals are over! Thank God. I can go back to living life instead of procrastinating and complaining about having to read about long run average cost curves.

New work is good so far. My coworkers and boss are so incredibly nice. It is also weird working in an office instead of at the plant. Observations thus far:

1) There really is this office humming noise...like the sound of keyboards clacking + copiers whirring + phones ringing + murmuring behind cubicle walls. It's real weird.
2) It is way less hectic than the plant.
3) It is weird/cool to ride the elevator up to my 17th floor cubby and see buildings all around instead of distillation columns.
4) The coffee at the coffee bar is in individual packages labeled "Office Coffee", which I find hilarious.
5) There are 17 million places to eat in the tunnels and/or near the tunnels.
6) I love love love my new boss. Today he bought all of us fancy chocolates from the new store in the tunnel. He also offered me his theatre tickets, since he can't go. Also he's so nice and appreciative of the lame-o reports I made this month. Yay.

In other news, I am in total party-planning mode. I reserved the clubhouse, called and got cost estimates from jason's deli & chick fil a. I am so excited. I can't believe I will get to hang out with 75 best friends this Sat. I need a new outfit.

I am also crazy about the following things this week:
1) Scratch-off lottery tickets, specifically the "Holiday Bingo"
2) America's Next Top Model
3) Wilco...also had a dream last week in which I hung out with Jeff Tweedy and he looked strangely like the messiah (but with a mullet)
4) Jason's Deli Taco Salad (holy crap it's so delicious)
5) Pepper Jack cheese
6) Cheap makeup purchased at my local CVS (since I left my "real" makeup in Lake Charles)
7) Mom's go-getter attitude (we have a new roof and will soon have floors)
8) Any item that has been labeled "holiday" to make it more marketable (for example today i bought "holiday" salt n pepper shakers)
9) Jesus (i.e. reason for the season!)

you're gonna make it after all

I figured my law school friends could use a study break, so here is a timely update.

Wednesday was my last day at the plant. I was really sad to go and was delighted that so many of my engineer friends came to my farewell lunch. I even got to sit with 3 of my favorites, so that was a plus. Unfortunately, I had to have one FINAL "development dialog" with my (now former!) boss. The only thing I hate is when she goes on and on about my "humorous demeanor" and that I need to be "more poised and understand that not everyone will appreciate my quirks". It always makes me mad because I feel like she's basically saying "your personality sucks and everyone will hate you the way I do." Lucky for her I don't tell her what I think of her personality.

Moving on, I started here at One Houston Center (OHC for short). It's pretty sweet. My cubicle neighbor is adorable and chats with me all day. New boss is equally adorable and isn't here today because he went to see the Rolling Stones last night. I loooove him. I don't technically have any work to do, so all I've done so far is read some background material. Also we randomly went to Starbucks downstairs mid-morning (holiday drink fix!) and we can walk to all sorts of charming places for lunch. My latest idea is to move to the super-sweet Rice Hotel lofts. I can see them from my window (best view ever!) and I can either ride the metro or walk through the tunnels to work if I move there...hmmm.

Tonight is Amee's birthday fiesta. We are going to this restaurant with belly dancers, so perhaps I will be able to utilize all the "skills" I picked up in those classes. I definitely have the tummie for it.

Tomorrow I go visit boy in Austin. He's real great. Sigh. (End of gush)

My house is a mess. Tonight I bake pecan pies (yes, all you hot boys out there, I am a corporate tycoon AND I can cook/bake/bellydance...you should be pursuing me if you're not already) then I go to party.

Week in Summary:

Number of hours spent studying for 2 finals: 0.

Number of hours spent browsing MySpace: 3.

Number of hours spent cleaning apartment: 0.

Number of hours spent flirting with boy on phone: 4.

Number of hours spent researching 401k mutal fund options: 0.

Number of hours spent researching Anthropologie website: 1.

Geaux Tigers

I had 4 whole days off to give thanks for various and sundry things. The holidays are really going to be a bummer this year, but we are trying our best. Mom and I went to Baton Rouge to cook Thanksgiving dinner for Fro on Thursday. Then Friday was uber-LSU day. We got up at 6:30 to make sure we got to campus in time to see the band rehearsal. Fro is a graduationg senior so he is pictured at right (the kid in the black tshirt) singing the LSU alma mater with the band.

Okay then we travelled to the middle of campus to see the drumline warm up. This was pretty entertaining and people enjoyed it a lot. I also took a video of a cadence but will spare you that. Fro actually wrote a lot of the music they played this year, so that's pretty sweet. You can see him here playing tenors.

Okay then we had to go wait for hours to see the football players go by then the cheerleaders then Mike the Tiger then the band. While we were waiting for mom's friend to meet up with us to get our tickets, mom randomly saw "that guy from the John Lithgow show". Luckily I was on the phone with Aneil, who strangely knew that the "guy" was "French Stewart". Turns out his wife is from Baton Rouge. So mom and I were excited about our celebrity sighting:

Whilst eating concession stand food (sausage on a bun and peanuts) I got to thinking...what do other countries serve in their concession stands. I mean, I assume they serve food at "football" games in Europe or Asia...I doubt they serve peanuts and hot dogs and nachos. Hmmm. Also the smell of and/or the sight of people eating nachos is real gross to me, yet when I am eating them it's somehow okay. I don't understand that either.

Okay so the game finally ended many many hours later (oh yeah the Tigers won) and we marched back to the music hall with the band. Fro et al played all sorts of crazy stuff and he was so excited. He is sort of like a local celeb amongst followers of the band, so that's cool. Also he's real good at it. No wonder he's my parents' favorite.


In other news, apparently I have finals in 2 weeks. Have I even opened a book since my last exams? Nope. Ah well, waiting for the panic to set in.

I also start my new job on Thurs. Hope I don't screw it up too bad.

I am enormous right now. I have to work on that. Eventually.

The oldies station has been playing a lot of Chicago lately (woo!). Also, I randomly heard a Yes song today. Call me crazy, but I occassionally enjoy their prog-ish-ness. (I am lame.) Kudos to the oldies station for reviving Yes.

No I haven't been leisure reading or watching tv or movies or listening to new music. I have become completely uninteresting and chubby. It would be a problem, but I'm not too sad about it right now. I'm just glad to have days off sometimes. I'm hoping to become interesting again soon.

Oh, the highlight of the day is I bought a really cute picture frame today and put a really adorable baby picture of Aneil in it. I am in fact going to take a picture of it and post it here, I am that proud of it. If you're still reading this, I commend thee.

this one's for amanda

Sorry for the lame-o posts lately, but my home computer is sick sick sick (again). Think it's about time for an upgrade (i.e. perhaps a powerbook!).

Life is much improved since previous post. Turnaround (at least my part of it) is complete, and I am back to normal working hours. By next Thursday I will start my new job, so I have been busy wrapping up projects, turning over files to other people, and packing up/cleaning my office. This is a more difficult task than one might imagine. I've gotten to the point that I keep throwing things away, just so I don't have to deal with them anymore. Last Sat I attended my new downtown workgroup's fancy holiday dinner. It was actually pretty fun, and my new boss is adorable. I'm really looking forward to moving.

In other news, I had 2 glorious days off Sun-Mon and spent them mostly lying around and holding hands with charming boyfriend. I don't really intend to gush, but here is a short list of presents/favors done by aforementioned boyfriend in the 4 day period in which I saw him:
1) Prepared a feast on Friday night that was ready when I got home from work.
2) Vacuumed my apartment.
3) Folded laundry and organized linen closet.
4) Attended holiday party with me and wore a suit (including suspenders)
5) Got me the following items for birfday:
a) An entire cookie cake
b) Cheese & crackers
c) A bookmark that says "Jump into Reading"
d) A miniature engineer's ruler
e) A VHS tape of him in the audience at an ACL taping
f) A rubber ducky
g) The Sweet Leaf cups I left at his house in Sept
h) A VHS tape stolen from Hollywood video of the HBO movie "Don't Tell Her It's Me"
starring Steve Guttenburg because we talked about it one night when we first met, and
are pretty convinced no one else we know has seen it.
i) The special edition "Freaks and Geeks" complete series on DVD. (WOW!)
6) Took me to see Okkervill River on Sunday
7) Didn't get mad when I woke him up at 5:30-6:30 every morning, including my days off, but
instead stayed awake and chatted with me until I fell back asleep.

Oh also I'm obsessed with Starbucks' Eggnog Latte. Why is eggnog only around during Christmastime? Is it one of those things that we would start hating if we could get it any time of year? Should I write an extra credit paper on the supply/demand of eggnog for my finance class? Hmm. At any rate, I am planning on consuming at least 1 eggnog latte every week at school through the next month. God bless the Starbucks at the Bauer College of Business. Not sure I could survive Accounting without it.

Also starting to get pudgy due to turnaround bad eating habits. Although during the height of activity I had turnaround super metabolism, I am now back to normal yet still eat like a man. This has resulted in the return of the Shelley Innertube-esque Tummie. Seriously, I can barely get my pants around it. But dammit, I would definitely float if thrown into a body of water. At any rate, am going to get back into super-annoying-healthy mode starting Monday (duh can't start a diet on Thanksgiving).

Okay, I'm off to Lake Charles for some family hanging out + LSU football + Aunt Jenny birfday time. Should be good. Stay posted.

we gon' sip bacardi like it's...

As I was typing it I knew full well that quoting "in da club" is like, so 1.5 yrs ago, but I did it anyway and it still made me laugh. I think I knew that any inherent hipness of "in da club" had been sucked dry when I heard Oprah quote it one day last year. Okay and I was typing that last sentence I started to ponder over the exact reasons I don't like Oprah. I mean, I'm sure she's a nice deserving person, seeing as I doubt anyone could publicly fake being nice 300+ days of the year for 20+ years now. Maybe her apparent authenticity is part of her appeal, I have no idea. But when I worked at the bookstore about oooh 7 years ago (best job ever) Oprah's Book Club was in full swing. And although currently she recommends (obvious) classics such that I guess you can't really argue with her "taste", 7 years ago her Book Club always recommended lame-o new authors (e.g Wally Lamb...oh my God "She's Come Undone" almost killed me). And we had this big display of Oprah Books that people would buy just because she recommended them. And we always had to overstock strange self help books by alleged self help gurus that she would endorse on her show. People (read: women) would just buy up anything she was "selling" and I guess I started to fear that sort of power over the psyche of an entire culture. An entire culture of Oprahlogists. I guess that's still better than worshiping at the feet of Donahue. (Ha wonder how many other blogs referenced Donahue today?)

Anywho, back to partying like its my birfday...big 2-5 was last Thursday. A vast improvement over 2-4, even though I was at worky for most of the day and for most of those days (read: all of those days) surrounding it. The short version: had homemade cinammon rolls from Carl-the-Co-op at morning meeting (yum), had cupcakes at the Zone 3 permit hut that one of the operators brought in, got a birfday phone call from my favorite tank farm operator (who sang!), got flowers delivered from mom & fro, had cookie cake + tons of Val presents, got birfday wishes from entire turnaround since I had started announcing upcoming birfday 2 weeks in advance, went out for sushi with amee, jeremy, carl, kristen, eli, preya, and maria, got an entire lime cake from maria (yummie), and received cute new clothes & travel boggle (I reign supreme at that game). All very fun, except for work and my eventual depression on Sat as I missed Austin festivus and had to work instead. Oh but birthday continues throughout week, as I got bea-u-ti-ful gifts from Amanda in the mail and I get Aneil presents on Thurs...eep!

Several blasts from the past this week. Got email from Lauren...love her...plus she is back in Chuck so I will have another friend at home. Got email from Karli who is in Hawaii for a few months (jealous of her life). Karli mentioned that an ex-bf of mine has been asking for my #. Random, but may call him, as he taught me how to kiss (for reals). Received awkward phone call + charming gift in mail from Zach this week too. Made me feel small pangs, but am feeling okay about it.

Work will just not be talked about, as its hit an all time frustration high. Oh and hit the low point on Sat when my boss asked the group "does anybody have a fart machine?" And she started to laugh and laugh and it was just so sad the way it was completely devoid of real humor. Made me think of the pathetic "Office" episode when David takes the Swindon lot to the pub in attempt to convince them he's funny. Oy. So sad you have to laugh else you'll cry.

I love the song "I want a new drug" because I like the idea of someone wishing that the way I make him feel could be drug induced.

Theoretically will be off on Sunday and will get to see boy-I-heart 4 days in a row starting Thurs. Will have Thanksgiving off so can watch brother proudly march in final football game of year (who are we kidding there will be a bowl game I'm sure). Mom got us tickets to see Lionel Richie in concert (ha!) in Lake Charles on Dec 10. YES! And am still trying to stop procrastinating and start planning party. Am just so so tired can't get motivated. Am lucky apt is still quasi-habitable.

Okay, that is the executive summary. Will be better more frequent if turnaround ever ends. Also will start with the pictures again if ever I see mommy again and can acquire long lost camera.

Bye for now.

What i've got's full stock of thoughts and dreams that scatter

I'm exhausted. Physically and mentally, anyway. Luckily the emotional exhaustion is staying in check this week else I don't think I could deal with things.

Turnaround is ongoing. Sat was supposed to be my last day working shift, but apparently the turnaround is running behind schedule so we are working another week. I am hoping that Michele lets me have the weekend off so I can hang out with the fam, but who knows? Blah.
Last Wed was in the top 10 worst days ever...got bitched at (in front of everyone) at morning meeting, but not sure why. So frustrating. Then had to climb through a huge column. Then in the afternoon had to go through the worst column ever...the inside has hardware and fittings that make it resemble some sort of medieval torture chamber. Then totally bombed my accounting test. Then as if it couldn't get worse, my car got broken into. UGH.

Things picked up after that though. Friday I got home from work and Aneil was here and had prepared dinner, so that was delightful, of course. Then Sat we went on a special date, then met up with assorted best friends for drinks at Rice Village. Sunday we went to eat lunch with Amee Casey n Maria, so that was good too. After that he and I both felt sicky...I had a head cold, he had a sore throat...so we sat around watching tv all day. Which was...wonderful. I love sitting around with him. I don't know why, I just like him a lot, I guess. (Laaaame, I know. I'll stop now.)

Anywho, I wish there was more to tell, but I don't really want to talk about work, and really that's all I do.

Gilmore Girls was excellent this week, so I am going to stay loyal.

I've given up on Alias.


I haven't read a book in ages.

Only 3 more weeks then I start new job.

I miss my family and far away friends.

I have had a Hall and Oates song stuck in my head for 4 straight days.

I turn 25 in 2 days.

I need a vacation.

Turnaround Pictorial

Hi all. We've been having some fun at turnaround taking funnie pictures (in addition to our inspection photos...booooring). I'm realizing right now that although we as a turnaround group find them hilarious, probably no one else will. a) I think you sort of have to be there to get it and b) we are all delirious, as we never have days off. I made the comment today as I filled out my timecard that I "only" worked 84 hours last week. Wha?

Okay, the first pic is of me in a column. Rob insisted that I check out this "really cool" pipe, but really he was just holding the camera underneath and snapped my photo. I'm so freaking gullible. On the left you can see Rob, my food/tv soulmate. He is real cool, and likes hippie music and is a liberal. Also we make fun of everything together (which is somewhat necessary at t/a). In this picture he is actually standing inside a huge heat exchanger before it is installed. Pretty sweet, really.

The next is an awesomely unflattering picture of our fearless leader, Ben. In this one he is actually climbing through a column, which for a while was a rarity as he was always "in meetings." Ben went to A&M with me n' Maria n' Amee. I actually really love him and his charming cynicism. Coincidentally, I worked with his brother Lucas at the PO/SM turnaround last year.


The next one makes me laugh and laugh, because it's of Seth being a hole watch. This was taken by the person inside the drum, and Seth was sitting outside with a radio and air horn, making sure the people inside were safe. What's great is how male model-ish he is in the pic. We are thinking of selling the photo to one of those catalog companies.


Lastly, we have a cute lil co-op named Kristen. She is adorable and so very tiny (she too is a halfie, but I guess she got more of the cute lil Asian characteristics than I did). In this picture she is modelling inside a pipe. Note that she can stand up in it. Heh.

Anywho, that's most of our crew. They are a fun bunch (in that goofy engineer way). My last pic is completely unrelated, but I'm just so proud (a la Amanda and her tomatoes) that I have to share. Aneil was named October Employee of the Month at his work, and he got extra vacation and a plaque and everything. I'm so happy and proud and all those things so here's a picture of him with his award. Heh it's especially exciting because I'm so not the Employee of the Month. In fact I think my boss hates me. So at least one of us has charmed our superiors.

Okay, back to studying. I love you all.

i wanna sink to the bottom with you

It's been a while since my last proper update so since I'm ignoring school and housework and bills and whatnot for one blessed night, here we go...

Turnaround schedule is sort of killing me. Mostly because I don't have any days off. Which is pretty ridiculous, I think, but no one has asked me for my opinion yet. Other than that, it's fine. My boss is still dumb and I hate her a lil for the way she treats my friends/peers. So really any day that I don't have to talk to her too much is a good one. And turnaround has been keeping me real busy. And it's sometimes fun just playing outside and climbing all over the place (however scary and life-threatening at times). I really love working with Ben (fellow A&M chemE) and new friend Rob (who I do everything with because we are food soulmates). Anywho they are both funnie and all 3 of us are jaded and cynical and make fun of pretty much everything so it's not too bad. Plus, during turnaround I get to eat anything I want and basically eat m&ms and goldfish all day. Also ice cream. Woohoo. I will post pics soon.

Also everyone at work is being real supportive and happy for me about my new job (which I will be starting after thanksgiving). It turns out new job is a really big deal and has been described as "a make or break" opportunity for my "career" or whatever. I was sort of excited about it but everyone seems to think it's a huge leap for me, so yay about that I guess. Hope I don't f*** it up. I also am getting nostalgic and will miss all the operators bc it's like having dozens of dad-types. And I won't get doted on or get to wander around the plant anymore. I dunno, it's just sad a little. Although I'm so ready to get a new boss. Heh.

Umm, really I don't do anything other than work. Things with Aneil are still going well. He visited me last week although I was only off one day thus was not able to see him a lot and was a terrible hostess. But he's real patient and sweet and made me meals and held my hand and took me out and didn't get mad that I had to go to bed by 10. He's real great. I admit that I adore him a little.

Okay enough of that. I have random musings:

1) I don't watch any tv anymore. I could care less about Alias (sans the hot guy) and am started to get bored of Gilmore Girls. What's with that?

2) I looooove INXS' "Need you Tonight"

3) Does anyone else remember the Hair Bear Bunch? Man, I loooooved them when I was little. One of them had an afro...

4) Today I was in a meeting with a bunch of plant managers and they were arguing over a compressor issue or something and one of them says (straight faced and without smiling) "well this committee doesn't need to be Don Quixote about it or anything." He referenced DQ! No one else seemed as delighted as me so I didn't say anything but I was very impressed with his reference. Plus it made sense in the situation...yay.

5) Apparently my vocabulary is "strange" so I'm working on being more "banal".

6) I have a test next Wed and I don't really know what's on it. Ugh.

Okay, time for bed. Smoooch.

not as dumb as i look

I got the fancy downtown job! So I will be starting that sometime next month. I will really miss my coworkers and all the assorted hanging out and sarcastic comedy galore. But I am looking forward to being fancy for a couple of years. Heh. Hope it's not too stressful.

In other news, work was frustrating today. School was boring and I was so tired I had to leave halfway through. Oh well.

Now I have to clean my apt and do laundry. But just realized "Stayin' Alive" is on AMC. And it's one of those unbelievable lame movies that I ALWAYS watch when it's on. I love the lame-o Dante-inspired 80's broadway dance sequences. Oh man, it's great.

crimson & clover

Greetings all. Today was busy. I went to my company's downtown headquarters to interview for a job in corporate manufacturing support. Probably not as fun as my current job but I would meet a lot of important folk and it would be a lot different. For example, no being on call and no turnarounds. Which right now seems like a sweet deal. Oh to the left you can see me inside my favorite product tank. I am actually not too dirty in this picture so that's a change.

Oh I find out about the job tomorrow. I'll let you know.

I also got both my exams back today (accounting and finance) and I got A's on both! Hooray!

I'm gonna have to be concise because it is past my bedtime, but today I was listening to this lovely Sufjan Stevens song and it made me cry. I will copy paste this one verse below. You may not know but my dad (Keith) actually went by his middle name and his first name was Carlton. And I would always tease him and call him Carl or specifically "my Carl". And although I realize Sufjan was referring to Carl Sandburg, these lines really affected me today:

I cried myself to sleep last night
And the ghost of Carl, he approached my window
I was hypnotized, I was asked to improvise
On the attitude, the regret Of a thousand centuries of death...

a real whopper

Okay so much has occurred since last post, but I've been super busy thus no posts. Sorry, but I will do my best to summarize.

About 4 minutes after previous post was published (thank you to everyone who had kind comments and concerns I love you all), boy just sort of showed up at my door (one day early) to surprise me. And he had flowers and teddy grahams and an Ernie balloon too! It was pretty delightful, I must say. Next day I had to work, but weekend was real busy. We had to spend Fri afternoon buying supplies for mom's house and then Sat morning was Dan's daughter's birfday party at Chuck E Cheese. It was my first experience there. It was...chaotic. But we played games and I used my tickets to win a ChuckE stamp that says SUPER so it was worth it. Plus there were kids and babies. And Dona's daughter Nicole (she is 3 and is adorable) had a crush on Aneil and he gave her piggyback rides. I actually took a great picture of them but left my camera at mom's. Doh. Sat night we (plus a very generous Val and her "friend" Todd) pulled up all the carpet at mom's. Quite a task. But mom cooked us a great meal so it was all worth it.

Umm ok, also mom is doing a lil better lately (and so am I) so we are holding up okay, considering. She is having an easy time with the insurance and FEMA people but it is real hard to find contractors to do repairs in LC right now. Ah, stress.

Oh also boy and I decided to "go steady" or whatever you crazy kids call it these days. Guess I'm off the market. Although I don't really remember being "on the market" or anything. So I guess nothing has really changed.

Okay so all that's happened since then is constant working (turnaround woo!!!) and school. Had my first finance test last week so hope that went okay. Also I have a scary job interview tomorrow with 2 real important engineering manager people. It is for a job opening at our corporate headquarters downtown. Think I'm in way over my head but oh well. I'm just glad I get to leave my current job (regardless of whether I get the corporate job I am in the engineer rotation) because my boss is officially nutty. She doesn't like my bff Dan, and is basically forcing him out of our group. It's good for him in the long run bc she hates him and his new assignment is probably better, but the way she has handled it is real shady. I am just glad I am getting out of her group.

Okay, so that sums it up. Back to preparing for interview now. Promise to try to sneak in some turnaround pictures soon.

believe in who you are, you are a shining star

The stress level has hit epic proportions such that I've now hit this amazing wall. I have been completely rendered useless/stupid and can't seem to get anything accomplished. As you may or may not know, my life completely sucks this year. And I know people probably say that a million times a day and probably 92% of blogs pathetically declare that exact sentiment, but no really my life sucks a lot of the time.

Anywho, I'm basically sad a lot and I get easily stressed and I pretty much can't get anything done. I think all that's keeping me sane (or insane?) is that I've managed to maintain my ability to find joy/humor in really stupid things. I guess you could say that I'm easily amused, but to be honest I've been really thankful for this idiotic trait lately. For example today I got really excited over the super sweet rings I got out of a vending machine. And I spritzed myself with Tropical Mist bug spray and kept trying to charm everyone in the office with my strawberry-bubblegum-esque aroma. Ha. I'm sure they'll miss me when I'm gone.

Today my mom was exasperating me over carpeting. Yes, carpeting. Lucky for me my friend Valerie stepped in and is going with me to Lake Charles to help with mom's house this weekend. Also Aneil and Valerie's boyfriend (?) are coming to help so I hope things go okay. It's so hard for me to get along with mom these days.

And words can't express how much I miss Daddy. All the time.

Oh also I have a midterm next Tues. It's fiiiiine.

Okay so there's work stress (yes, turnaround schedule starts on Mon) and there's the exam then there's the general mom stress, also there was a hurricane. I'm sort of drowning here. So, I had this evening free so one might assume that I would be working diligently to learn about supply/demand or figuring out how to remove carpeting or patch roofs. But no. I watched Alias then played with my hair then got really ridiculous and decided to start taking funny pictures of yes, myself. Boy keeps complaining that I don't have any pictures of myself to give him so yes, today seemed like a good day to start. These are some of my amazing self portraits. Also, I noticed that in a few of them I look shockingly filipino. Heh.

In the meantime, I'm trying to maintain some sense of normalcy. I keep worrying that I'll pull a Bell Jar and will just start being crazy without realizing it. That prospect really scares the crap out of me. I also keep trying to evaluate how I feel about boy. I want to make sure that I really truly like him for him, and not just because he is nice and I need someone to be nice to me right now. I feel like I really do like him and I know I was already really liking him prior to my dad's passing, so I feel pretty confident that my heart is in the right place and that I genuinely like him. But sometimes I just worry because I don't trust my judgment at all.

Oh also I'm pretty sure that listening to Lionel Richie on a regular basis is some sort of warning sign that my mind is starting to go.

Okay this entry was ridiculous but I'll go ahead and post it before I change my mind.

Oh and that last picture is my "muppet face". You know how when the muppets want to smile real big or get excited they open their mouths real big and look straight at the camera? Ernie does this a lot too. Okay that's what I was going for there. I make that face a lot, and apparently felt it needed explanation. See? Crazy.

oh! my ovaries!

My friend Kim (seen making a weird face in the photo) came by the office to let us see Zoey today. I even got to hold her. Looooove her. She gets cuter and less pink and more charming every time I see her. I can tell she's going to be a chatty one because she constantly opens her mouth and makes lil noises like she wants to tell you something. And her eyes are huge and blue. Le sigh.

say you, say me

Okay so I've really started making progress with this photo album project. I've been attempting to chronicle my life from the age of 18-23. Sort of ends there, since photos post 2004 all appear to be digital. So now I've started obsessively trying to gather photos from various events from people's online albums. For example, here's a great picture from New Orleans bachelorette party. I like how we are all smoking menthol cigarettes and are already drunk although it was dinnertime and it was maybe 9:30. Oh man, what a fun trip!



I also found other albums online that contained pictures from last year's best friend reunion at my apartment (there will be a 2nd annual reunion this year too, so get ready for that. Anywho, there are also pictures of this past New Year's and I actually love this one of me and Erik.

So yeah, the nostalgia is a little overwhelming, but it's still fun. I love having these ambitious projects. Hope I actually follow through with this one. Heh. I am useless sometimes.

Is anyone else a fan of The Office (bbc)? Right now I'm halfway watching the one in which David Brent gets fired and/or the motivational speaker people tell him they don't want him anymore. It's seriously heartbreaking.

"If you want the rainbow, you've gotta put up with the rain - do you know which philosopher said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she's just a big pair of tits." Man, I love that show.

Oh also, I found one picture that contained the boy I like in it (I think from January mansion party in Austin). Allegedly this is the day I met him, although I don't really remember. Oops. I edited Casey out of the pic because he was making a really weird face. Heh. Plus I get jealous because Maria AND Aneil both have bigger crushes on Casey than on me, so I am a lil bitter. Heh. Anywho, for anyone who's curious about what the boy I like looks like, here you go.

Now it's time for a warm shower + some Hemingway + bedtime. Love you.

winter's love

This weekend was much improved and way less dramatic than last weekend. Amanda (my heart) came over Friday night and we ate copious amounts of Filipino food and drank beers. Then Saturday we indulged (again) at Freebird's and went cd shopping. We also went to hang out with my work bff at my old boss' house and had a family fun night, basically. Dan's 9 year old son kicked my ass at chess. It's fine.

After party we were too full of fritos and lemon bars and burgers and brats and beers to do anything so we stayed home and made mix cds and sorted my ridiculous collection of photographs from college. We convinced Maria she could study while we were hanging out...sucker!

It was all very boring/relaxing. I love that girl. Today we went to Baba Yega and drank carrot juice (how healthy!) and chased it with potato salad, which Amanda loved. I think it's because it was loaded with mayonaise but I could be wrong. We also went to get bubble tea with Maria and played an epic game of Scrabble. Wow, we are really exciting fun-loving chicks! Heh.

I hate saying goodbye to her, but oh well hopefully I will see her soon.

In other news, my mom and brother were able to get back to Lake Charles to survey damage to our lil house. They were able to clean up a bit and are planning on patching the roof today. My aunt was also able to go home and although 2 (yes 2!) trees fell on her house, she says it's not as bad as she feared. Apparently one tree took out the carport and my uncle's crappy car. And the other got the roof over her living room so some water got in, but she doesn't think it is a total loss, so that's a relief. I may have to go back next week to help in Hurrican Rita cleanup 2005. I'm giving it a grand name so it sounds like more of an event than the pain in the ass that it is. Poor Lake Charles.

Umm, also I took my first business school test. It was really long. Ugh. I actually think I have another test coming up next week so yay.

I love Teddy Grahams again.

I've decided that "Say You Say Me" by Lionel Richie is going to be me & boy's "song". It's so freaking awesome.

I'm also working on creating photo albums and I'm organizing my cd collection. If you know me you know these are really ambitious projects, as I have no organizational skills, but I'm doing well so far.

Okay, I believe that is all. See you soon.

when it gets dark i tow your heart away

I’m officially moving my journal to this website, that way I can link it to Amanda’s, since apparently I am in love with her. I also love love love reading Jen and Diane’s journals, so it’s a win-win. As time permits, I will slowly archive old entries from the livejournal locale and move them over here. In the meantime, hope you enjoy.

I managed to survive Hurricane Rita, and fled to Austin to stay with boy-I-like. Only took me 8 hours to get there, which turned out to be excellent time. Anywho, boy is wonderful and lovely and I really just can’t say enough good things about him. Basically living with him for 5 days was interesting and made me like him more, not less, so that’s probably a good sign. He was so patient and wonderful during my countless emotional breakdowns throughout the week, so I really appreciated that too.

But the weekend was pretty crappy overall, as mom weirdly decided to stay in Lake Charles and ride out the storm. She stayed at the hospital where she works, so at least that was better than our house. I was seriously so scared. I called her right before the eye passed, and then afterward couldn’t get in touch with her for the entire day. It is just awful not knowing what the hell is going on or whether your family is safe and then seeing tv footage of your hometown completely ravaged by wind and rain is horrifying. Luckily she is fine and is now safely settled in Baton Rouge. Our home is mostly intact, but apparently my aunt’s house was completely destroyed so that’s awful too. I know it’s all just material possessions, but I just hate that my family has to deal with even more stress. It hasn’t been our year.

I did make an attempt to go to ACL. I skipped Friday due to stress, but met up with Erik for Arcade Fire that night. Tried my best to have fun plus saw Sean+Carol, Kat+Such and Luke+Ashlee. Saturday was day of worried-about-mom stress. Aneil convinced me that I had to get out of the house so I went to festivus, but it was so hot and I was so freaked out and dehydrated. I actually blacked out a little at one point, and couldn’t walk/sit up and/or stop shaking. Ha then I hit rock bottom when I crawled underneath a picnic table (just to escape the crazy hot sun) and then just started crying. You know, in public. It’s fine fine fine. He actually crawled under the table with me to give me hugs so that was most appreciated although I’m sure we looked crazy. It was also about 15 min after this episode that literally all of his friends decide to meet up with us so they can meet me for the first time. I was hot and sweaty and nauseous and had been crying and due to the lying on the ground actually caked myself with dirt and dry grass a la a human macaroon. I was so embarrassed and disappointed because I wanted so badly to make a charming first impression. Instead I was pretty ugmo and probably pretty unchatty and/or unpleasant. Not so good. By the end of the day I finally heard from mom and then I felt much better. I also got to see Bo and Anthony and Kevin at the festival so that lifted my spirits too. That night was Built to Spill at La Zona, which had its own awkward moments that I won’t go into here. Sunday was much improved though.

Anywho, in short, I didn’t really see that many bands and it was so hot and I was so sick I only half-consciously saw some. But here’s the list:

Built to Spill – great, of course. And played my favorite “Carry the Zero”
Robert Randolph – was a little out of it whilst watching, but this is when I got to see Bo and started feeling better. Plus, RR is real hot.
Fiery Furnaces – still somewhat dazed, but got to hold hands with boy, and then found Anthony so yay
Bruce Robison – this is the show where we saw the smarmy old couple grinding/two-stepping
Drive By Truckers – this is the show where we saw the adorable little girl rocking out
Bloc Party – lots of energy, better than cd, hot, British, yes.
Oasis – hahahaha. Jerks.

Eisley – think they were about 14 yrs old. Very adorable.
Rachel Yamagata – she was good, but kept having technical difficulties. Oh plus this is where we saw the adorable little girl with the beach ball.
Rilo Kiley – yes yes yes it’s true. Jenny Lewis IS really hot.
Arcade Fire – not as good as I’ve seen them but still delightful. Aneil and I fought over who has a bigger crush on Regine.
Wilco – Jeff Tweedy is adorable.

Okay so that pretty much sums me up. Monday was a day-long special date, which was lovely. And Tuesday the drive back was easy and short and uneventful. Work has been chaotic, with everything being restarted after the hurricane scare. Thursday I had my first exam at school, so hopefully I got at least a B. Also Amee and I watched the premiere of Alias. I only mention that because I remember a time when my life was so-o boring that “watching Alias” was an event worthy of being in the ol’ blog. I am actually really sick n’ tired of the recent constant drama and find myself yearning for the day I can re-introduce tv-watching as a major part of my boring life. Until then, I just hope to survive to see 25th birfday.