There are limits to my comedy.

Relocation...check me out!

2011-05-11T20:34:00.000-05:00

I migrated the bloggity blog to:

http://www.shellzana.com

Check me out there! New posts! Pics! Fun times!

Anyone Out There?

2010-11-23T22:20:00.002-06:00

Hello world.

I am revamping the blog! I think it's time I talk more about my life here in Austin. Pictures and thoughts coming soon. First, Thanksgiving in New Orleans!

More to come...

Back in the Saddle

2010-02-23T16:18:00.004-06:00

I have been learning HTML at work over the past month, and it makes me miss the blog. I realize that blogger doesn't really require any knowledge whatsoever about HTML, but every so often I would have to awkwardly make some tags or link something. And I suddenly realized that I have done a terrible job of documenting the past year. And it was a wonderful, scary, exciting year! So here I am again to pick up where I left off...

Everyone keeps asking me how "married life" is. Which is sort of a weird question to answer. But you know what? It's awesome. That's how it is. A year ago, I was stressed out over living in the wrong city, and missing my boyfriend, and wondering when things would start changing. And now, I live in a new city, with new friends who constantly visit me, in a new house, with a new job, and a new husband! I see Aneil every day, and once I change my work schedule, we will even carpool. We watch tv together in the evenings, and chat before we go to sleep. We joined the same gym. We can go out on weeknights! Constant hanging out with my best friend is pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to me.

End of gush.

Now that I am dunzo with wedding (I'll post some pics here once I get the official ones), life has not slowed down, but is definitely less hectic. The house is adorable and warm and wonderful. We will slowly be adding color and decor to the walls. We keep having dinner parties and super bowl parties (WHO DAT!) and other events. It is so fun to be able to host and fill the house with people we love.

Rundown of stuff that has happened since previous post:

Work friends threw me a surprise bridal shower, so it turns out they like me. I also got assigned a real project which I am excited about (El Paso particulate matter, you have met your match!). I really like my job!
The house looks great, although we are not completely organized. When I watch house shows on tv I sort of understand them now. I need curtains.
Wedding was wonderful and magical. Glad I married my brown boy.
The Hyatt Lost Pines was rustic yet luxurious and we loved every minute we were there. I learned archery!
The Saints won the freaking Super Bowl. Our party was so fun, and everyone was excited!
Lots of birthday parties, a bachelorette party for Carol in Fredericksburg, friends visiting for the marathon, a heart party for Aneil's dad, so many fun things I get to do now that I am here. I love Austin.

Promise to blog more. I took more photos and remembered things much better when I blogged more. I'm gonna be better.

Things I hate this week: the enormous piles of paper we need to file, the fact that American Idol conflicts with Lost now (Lost will prevail), and the weird weather (80 degrees Sunday, snow on Tuesday, really?). Things I love this week: Neha coining the term "upper east siders" for ourselves because we live in upper east Austin (xoxo indeed), Zumba, and being home for a snow/nap day.

XOXO.

T-Minus 2 Months!

2009-11-09T16:45:00.002-06:00

Okay, sorry that I neglected the bloggity blog for so long, especially leaving on a random environmental story. I am sucky. But busy. And cutie. So it's excusable.

Much going on over the past few months. Life at the TCEQ is going well. Wishing that I get assigned an actual air quality planning project someday. In the meantime I have been busy with some smaller projects, and have been tasked with giving our website a facelift. Eh. I still like my job, at least in theory, and I like my coworkers, so I'm just gonna go with it for a while.

My other job is part-time SAT tutoring. I just finished up several months of tutoring my 2 students, so now I just have to wait and see how they did on their respective tests. I'm like a nervous mom!

Our house is done! We close this Friday. Oh, how joyful it will be!

Wedding planning is hitting an all time high. In conjunction with house closing and moving, this has proven to be pretty taxing for the Ewing/Naik clan (i.e. me and Aneil). We have the main stuff out of the way, but still have to edit the wedding ceremony (it is weird to have to do this), eventually get hold of the musicians, finish up the song list, and at some point, get presents/favors and finish up our craft projects. The details are exhausting.

All in all, things are going well, if overly busy. We have made time to camp at Pedernales, visit Austin Karaoke again, go to ACL, survive a health scare, and are still as cute as ever. I apologize to everyone who feels neglected or out of touch, it's just been crazy being me lately!

In other news, I am a little bit out of the pop culture loop, so I gots nothing to say on the topic of new music (I saw Travis a few weeks ago, it's like I'm living in 1999 on the music front). I also got nothing on TV...no Mad Men or even Gossip Girl lately for me, so you know I must be busy! I did watch a handful of Vampire Diaries episodes online, and was sort of intrigued...Boone as a vampire = hot stuff. Saw Where the Wild Things are...made me melancholy. Saw Whip It...made me giggle.

Not to be a weird sports fanatic (a la the rest of my family), but I am seriously excited about the PERFECT 8-0 Saints! Holy shite!

This week I love: my wedding shower, the fact that the guy at Best Buy called Aneil my "husband", and the new house! This week I loathe: the Austin FOX affiliate for not showing the Saints game...WTF?, the lack of more hours in the day with which to craft wedding favors, and the absence of key best friends at wedding events.

Love Canal

2009-07-17T06:15:00.004-05:00

This is completely insane. Also, I have no idea why I didn't already know this story.

So Love Canal was a neighborhood in New York that was built on top of a hazardous waste disposal facility. Most of which were chemical byproducts from Hooker (now Occidental) Chemicals. They threw some clay and soil on top and thought they were good to go. Built tons of houses and an elementary school.

Around 1978, there was a lot of rain, and chemicals started leaching and moved to the surface. i.e. kids were playing in pools of things like benzene. Wowza, I can't even imagine it. Apparently lots of sick people and birth defects. Eventually the federal govt had to help relocate everyone.

This was the start of "Superfund" sites, i.e. the EPA program to address abandoned disposal sites.

Find out more here:

The Love Canal Tragedy

This topic came up while I was talking at work about how I'm essentially going to be living over the old airport. Lucky for me, my employer is the TCEQ so I was able to find out about remediation. Mueller was part of the Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) and they excavated 10,000 cubic yards (!) of soil, mostly due to jet fuel, plane maintenance areas, etc. So hopefully we will avoid being a future Superfund locale.

Yikes.

Me likey

2009-07-06T23:20:00.002-05:00

I really like sushi. I appreciate the deliciousness of fancy, fresh, yummy sushi. But it is pricey. And sometimes you want the cheap grocery store stuff, just because you start to miss the taste of seaweed and wasabi in the interim period during which you are saving your pennies for your next fancy sushi meal.

I will sometimes eat HEB sushi. It is gross, but I get desperate, okay?

But I discovered this place off of Mopac (I think the annoying shopping center it's in is called Arbor Walk) and Braker called Maki. It's sort of like the sushi cousin of Freebirds. You pick a wrapper (traditional or this crazy looking tofu stuff), you pick a meat (I like tuna), 3 veggies, and a sauce (I looove their spicy mayo),and they roll it in front of you. And they have a magic sushi cutting machine. I realize that purists may think this is a travesty, but the process engineer in me likes the efficiency. Add a $1 bowl of edamame and a drink, and you can have a FEAST for all of $8.50. Definitely better than grocery store, although you can't expect it to be gourmet. Love the concept though.

Working Girl

2009-07-01T18:03:00.004-05:00

Coincidentally, I got my first paychecks for both the SAT prep job and the TCEQ job today, so I am on an income high! Huzzah!

Sorry I have been blog MIA lately. Working 40 hrs/wk really takes up all of your blogging time. Also, I have been making lesson plans for my tutoring job, so it has been really nuts around here.

First, TCEQ is pretty good so far. My boss and everyone in my group seems really nice, so that bodes well for me. I have a cubicle, which isn't too bad of an adjustment since that's what I had when I worked downtown. Also, it is MUCH better than my ridiculously loud office at Channelview, so I am not complaining. The only sucky thing is that there's no lunch bunch, so I sit in my office and read or work on SAT stuff during lunch, which is stupid. It makes me miss the gals from One Houston Center, and our gossipy funny lunches. Boo.

I am trying to make friends, but have yet to make significant progress. I try to chat but am a little awkward about bothering people, since it's hard to tell who is working on something really important or not. I did get asked to be on the division softball team (Lord help me) so that's something. I will let you know how that turns out.

As for the job, as far as I can tell, I will be drafting the state plans for how we will comply with air quality standards. Seems like a bunch of reading and editing, so hopefully I will like it once I get started on an actual plan. I think I will be good at it.

In other news, we also had a pre-construction meeting with our house builder, and it looks like we are all set to start construction on July 10th. Oddly enough, July 10th is my darkest day, but maybe this will help to distract me and/or associate something good with that day.

In wedding planning news, I became sort of crazy-efficient during my last week of what my mom calls my "engagement vacation" and got lots of stuff done. We found an officiant that we really like. His name is Sam, he is a Presbyterian pastor, he loves biking and rock n' roll, and the bumper stick on his car says "God Loves Everyone...No Exceptions." He was quite a find.

Also booked a florist. I tried to avoid this, but January isn't exactly the best time for flowers, so to get the look I wanted, this was the best bet. I also couldn't imagine doing flowers myself or getting my family to do it. At any rate, they are ridiculously expensive, so I can't really get as many as I want, but will try to make do. I told Aneil we can just throw rose petals and jars of M&Ms on some of the tables to save some money. Ha. The bouquets will have hydrangeas and orchids and irises and roses. I am so excited about them!

Also, Aneil is the best fiancé ever. He really took over the wedding favor project and the seating arrangement project. They will be seriously awesome.

Went and saw "Up" again. Still cried. A lot.

Aneil is watching "Lost" from the beginning, so I watch with him. Forgot how laaaaame Ana Lucia was. Boooo!

Saw Jenny Lewis when she was in Austin. Her voice and stage presence get better every year. Love her. Hate her. Love her.

This weekend should be awesome. Heading to Lake Charles for "Red, White, Blue, and YOU!" festivities. Fro is bringing his roommate (who is really cool) and allegedly we will see our friend Brandon. Plus I will have Aneil in tow. Mom is making pork roast on Friday and Jason is making steaks on Saturday, so it will be a meatza feasta. I am trying to brainstorm potential patriotic movies to watch and have come up with "Independence Day", "The American President", "National Treasure", and "Ghostbusters II" due to its use of slime to animate the Statue of Liberty. Am I missing anything essential?

This week I love peaches, red-haired chanteuses, and getting paid.

Love to all and love to America!

Diamonds on the soles of my shoes

2009-06-09T08:55:00.004-05:00

Hi lubs!

Much news. First, I have too many jobs, and sadly have to give one up. I am keeping the SAT teaching gig, because starting in August I can do that one in the evenings. Also, my boss informed me that I will get to tutor a National Merit hopeful starting this month, so it should be fun and less overwhelming than teaching an entire class.

The big news is that I got a bona fide full time job at the TCEQ, working in the Air Quality division, which I start on June 22. I am really excited about getting paid again! And oh joy, health insurance! Also, the job seems to be tailor made for my weird skill set, so I am looking forward to starting. Will keep you posted on highs/lows of new career.

I have to give up the KMFA volunteering/internship, much to my dismay. I hoped to work out an early bird schedule at TCEQ such that I could spend the afternoon at the radio station, but they are making me stick to 8 to 5. It has been fun, and the people are really nice. I have become obsessed with Vivaldi and the tofu sandwiches at Wheatsville Co-op in the short time I have worked there. I am not sure public radio is for me, though. The non-profit pace is a little too slow, or something. Too many years of optimizing everything for profit has ruined me. In the meantime, if you lub classical music, tune in to 89.5 FM or become a member or volunteer like I did!

Last night I went to volunteer orientation for Camp Fire Boys & Girls! As some of my older friends might know, I was quite the little CF girl back in the day. (My mom can tell you stories of having to sell hundreds of boxes of candy.) Houston doesn't have a CF council, but Austin does, so I decided to volunteer. My original intent was to be a Club Leader (i.e. have my own little group and meet with them every week) but I am worried my current multi-job schedule may be too much for that. Luckily, there is a perfect job for me...Club Events Coordinator. I basically get to make calls and set up large events and organize registration and advertising. It sounds really fun, and I am very excited about it!

In the meantime, there is tons of activity in the Naik/Ewing household. We are building a house in Mueller! Our floor plan is called the "Oasis" and is apparently the top choice amongst single old ladies, so it really fits in with the Golden Girls aspect of my personality. Sadly, no room for a lanai, but we will have an adorable front porch. We are currently in the throes of home design 101 and we have lots of meetings and home depot trips to do. Hopefully we will begin construction the first week of July. We are crazy excited about the new house and have already started bickering about things like countertops and paint colors! Like a real life married couple! Ha.

Alecia took me to Ikea yesterday to get ideas from their showrooms, and I found some color combos I really like. Also, Ikea has terrific window treatment ideas, so it was really fun. Luckily, I only have to obsess about home design for a short time before construction starts, then we are locked into what we choose. I guess then I only really have to worry with paint colors and all the glorious little paint cards I brought home from Home Depot.

Wedding planning is moving along at a snail's pace. Aneil has been working diligently on the wedding favors (yes, we are freaks and are already making favors) and I think he has that planned for most of the weekend. Concurrently, we took a dance lesson in an effort to improve our surprisingly terrible slow dancing technique. Apparently I try to lead all the time (imagine that) and Aneil wiggles around too much. We made an attempt at a box step with turns and I think we are going to take a few more lessons next month. Our instructor, Darren, is the cutest ballroom dancer I've ever encountered. He is small and British and looks eerily like Tim from "The Office." Before he met us, he was sort of mortified by our First Dance song, but once he was convinced that we were being ironic he was totally on board. He then spent half our lesson showing us funny music videos on youtube and entertaining us with stories. Plus he loves "Freaks and Geeks" so he is automatically a winner in our book. It was a shockingly fun and fast hour. Can't believe I was dreading it so much beforehand.

I opted to go with the Austin Cake Lady for the wedding cake, because I fell in love with her Mexican Vanilla w/ Bavarian Cream filling. (Get excited, everyone!) Aneil was a lil annoyed that I sort of just wrote her a check and was like ok done and done! But I mean, I was in a cake-daze, it was that delicious! So I partially blame the cake and I partially blame the fact that I am only slowly getting used to making joint decisions. Marriage is hard, y'all!

Okay, so lots of stuff going on, but if you know me well, you know that this is the pace that is most comfortable for me. I am feeling more like myself and am excited about all the goings on! I will be better about photos in my next post, but it is too much of an ordeal for today. Much love to all!

xoxo.

Wedding Planning Sundries

2009-05-28T16:57:00.011-05:00

So we have been wedding planning for the past few months, but I never manage to blog about it. Figure I would get you up to speed on where we are in the process. (Albeit I have to omit some of the cooler elements, else I start spoiling surprises!)

We have a cutie location all picked out called Creekside Pavillion. It is indoor/outdoor, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. On the January day we visited it, the weather was perfection, so here's hoping it is like that next Jan. The outdoor area is real adorable, and is adorned with lots of twinkle lights at night.

The indoor area is well lit and has tons of windows and feels really open and happy.

They do all the catering on site, and we think it will be delicious! Plus they provide everything, but will let us BYOB, so it is quite the deal. Love this place!

We took some engagement photos, and although this sitting was just for funsies, they came out really nice! I mean, Alecia did have to take something like 600 photos to achieve this, but hey, it was worth it! Ha. Lesson learned: make sure you hire an awesome photographer for your wedding! Now we have to decide whether we want another more formal (read: less sweaty) sitting, or if we want to make a video that sort of interviews us about our love. We might annoy everyone (including ourselves) if said video turns out too precious, but it might turn out cool. Vote in the comments!

Now to the fun part. I chose some navy blue bridesmaid dresses at a bridal shop, but then the other day I was randomly shopping on Overstock.com and came across really pretty dresses at literally 1/3 the price of the other ones. So I called up all the bridesmaids, and got them ordered in the same day. I love bargains! Plus the blue is exactly my favorite color (Violet-Blue for all you old-school Crayola fans...remember how Blue-Violet just wasn't as pretty as Violet-Blue? Oh Crayola, how I miss the simplicity of the classic colors!). So, yeah, I am extremely excited about the dresses!

I can't wait to see them in real life so I can start planning color schemes and whatnot. Seriously, I thought I would hate doing all the girlie color/flower/lame stuff selections, but once you start researching, you start getting really into it.

I can't talk about my dress in this forum, as it is public (read: Aneil will look at it) so believe me when I say it is lovely. I managed to buy it off the rack at half the price, so I stayed close to my budget, but feel like I got much better quality than I could have afforded at full price. Brides of the world, buy off the rack! It was sort of nerve-wracking to have to rush to the store to make sure they didn't sell it out from under me, but it was worth it. I stare at it sometimes. Also I MAY have tried it on for funsies a couple of times while no one was home. It's fine. If you're dying to see a picture, let me know and I will email you one.

I bought some cute flats to wear with my dress. Mom told me to get heels, but Maria and Bree recommended the flats, and I'm thinking that's the way to go. I just don't think I could handle heels all day. These were on sale at DSW (bargains! yay!), and even have a lil something blue included in the insoles, so I am happy. Here they are being shown off by my Webkinz friend, Peter.

We are in the process of creating really cool favors and seating chart schemes (we are freakish planners, of course we have a seating chart!) but Aneil has made me swear not to reveal our secrets. They will be awesome and totally us, so prepare yourselves for charm galore!

I still need a florist. Alecia says she can sneak me into the June Bridal Expo (I will probably help out her booth as needed) so I can meet some flower people. I found this bouquet photo on The Knot and now I am obsessed with having irises in January. I hope I can make this happen.

Okay, that's all for now. We have a cake tasting on Monday, and I'm really excited about the cake lady, so hope it tastes as good as it looks. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, hearts and stars, and have a great weekend! I will be back to non-wedding topics in my next post!

Sing it loud so I can hear you

2009-05-27T08:44:00.037-05:00

So, as previously posted, Maria & Casey got married on May 23rd. There was a lot of pre-wedding preparation and craziness beforehand, but it all fell into place and was fun and lovely.

Last minute prep, as Liz & Thomas scan photos for the slideshow.

And we transport the flowers to the hotel.

And Amee does Maria's hair for the rehearsal. I like how Thomas got roped into helping with Maria's hair.

Later at the church, Aneil got some blurry pics of our practice walks.

Rehearsal dinner was delicious! Steaks and salads and tarts, oh my! Seriously, Cafe Eccell's strawberry tart is a thing of beauty. Sorry in advance to anyone in my wedding party, as we cannot afford to provide you with a steak dinner.

Then on the big day, I gave my digital camera to Aneil so all my preparation pics are on my Kodak Funsaver. I will have to get them developed and get back to you. We'll see how those turned out. Thomas kept calling it my "old-timey" camera.

Here's the ceremony:

Seriously, Maria's nieces and nephew are the cutest kids around.

Liza & Julian. Check out the look on the old lady's face to the left!

Liz & Brian.

Me & Matt. My mom worries that I will be making this "silly" face throughout my own wedding.

Amee & V. Amee looks real princess-y in Indian clothes.

Neha & Sean.

Bree & Travis.

The Bride!

And the newlyweds!

The reception was a 2-parter. There was a lunch reception, with a full buffet, the couple's first dance, and the cake cutting, etc. The highlight for me was Julian's charming best man speech, which included a lengthy discussion of the movie "Heat."

We thought the 2 babies on the right looked like miniature versions of Maria and Casey. Also, that's Leela on the left. She is Maria's niece, and a dancing fool! I love her so.

Best friend photos were mandatory.

Maria changed into a gorgeous sari, for what seemed like all of 2 minutes, then the reception was over!

We showered and changed and relaxed before the nighttime reception/dance party. Aneil, Amee, and I went to the Freebird's on Northgate and it was extremely nostalgic. Gig them! Needless to say, we did not eat many hors d'oeuvres at the reception.

Dance party was awesome. Started out as a baby dance off.

Lily won the dance-off, mostly because she did a crazy pull-up-the-skirt move. Here she is in action.

Thomas actually did a dance very reminiscent of my brother's patented "squat and stick out your tongue" dance, prominently featured in our infamous dance-a-thon home video, circa 1986. Apparently the classics never die. Thomas just does it with more style.

Thomas won over all the ladies, including Neha.

The night eventually devolved into this (of course):

Our faces are nuts here.

Check out the color coordination! Also, I am madly in love with Maria's dress.

We took Amee to Northgate for all of 1 hour, and all of her Aggieness apparently was reawakened. She did the darling Shiner Tattoo move at least twice (that I remember).

I love how serene Aneil looks, as he is oblivious to Julian's shenanigans.

I feel like this photo sums up Maria and Amee's relationship.

At times we were cute.

Other times, not so much.

These two were cute entire day. Lub.

Eventually we were drunk and emotional and gave the couple a mini send-off. Note Julian's single tear. Bye bye friends!

I continued crying for a good solid half hour (Aneil says it was an hour) after we got back to the hotel room. I will miss my Maria and our constant hanging out over the last few years. I know I already moved to Austin a couple of months ago, but after the wedding it really did feel like the end of an era. The end of our single days of studying and shopping and missing boyfriends and chatting for hours. New York is awful far away, but we've got to visit sooner rather than later!

Check out a million more photos at my shutterfly site. It was a labor of love to upload those, so enjoy them or else!

PICTURES!

Maria & Casey!

2009-05-24T08:24:00.003-05:00

Just Married!

True Love.

More to come.

xoxo

M-A-L-F-E-A-S-A-N-C-E

2009-05-22T09:23:00.007-05:00

Quick post before I head to Colsta.

I am 9 kinds of sore from the "Everlast Shadow Box" class yesterday. I woke up making sad sounds and basically couldn't flip over in bed. Plus I had to suffer the indignity of watching myself punch the air in 360 degrees of floor to ceiling mirrors. I am no Rocky. Aneil says the soreness is good because that means "it's working" but whatevs. I am pathetic. I hurt and no one was even punching me back!

Also, we heard about the Austin Chronicle Adult Spelling Bee from our friend Logan, and decided to check it out. It's an annual event to raise money for the library. Turns out there are some hardcore spellers living in Austin! There was this one guy named Geoff, who was trying to intimidate people by wearing his National Scrabble Championship t-shirt. And apparently he's won the Spelling Bee 3 times before! It's fine. We were way out of our league.

There were about 300 people to begin with, and we had to take little spelling tests where we identified the misspelled words. Words like bellwether, pastime, liaison, etc. Along with 48 others, I made it to test 2! Then we got words like pulchritudinous, scleroderma, oeuvre, etc. And along with 21 others I made it to the stage and the actual spell-out-loud bee!

I was really nervous. And of course I messed up my very first word, MALFEASANCE. Not particularly difficult, but after "M-A-L" I pretty much blanked. Ha. Oh well, Aneil got an exceptionally blurry photo of my making my be debut.

Look how scared I was!

Yet, excited (the beer probably didn't help my chances)!

I feel like the blurriness here really represents my state of mind in the moment. Honest to God, I could not spell my name at that point.

It turns out I was way out of my league anyway. Before we started there was a debate amongst contestants about which established set off bee rules we should follow. And it turns out the Scrabble champion guy could deliver the goods, spelling ONOMATOPOEICALLY and some other weird word correctly for his 4th win. Dude was amazing.

Seriously, this guy was a spelling machine!

All in all, a strangely fun night with a quirky word-loving subset of the Austin population. Reminded me of the movie "Wordplay" which you should all check out if you can. It's about the national crossword championship and it features all sorts of celebs and crossword lovers talking about crosswords. Amazingly entertaining.

Anywho, peace out and enjoy the long weekend!

This week I love: word nerds, salads from Wendy's, and imminent friend reunion. This week I hate: VCRs, the SAT essay section, and the way I look punching the air.

Blog Makeover

2009-05-21T08:13:00.008-05:00

Okay, so the blog needed a little TLC, so check out the new template and updated links!

New photos are definitely on the way. I've figured out how to get photos onto the Mac, so expect some Maria wedding pics soon.

Anyone catch the American Idol finale? Did you record it in any format that can be transferred to yours truly? My previous post about surviving without cable should be edited to say that I am not faring as well without Tivo. We have a VCR (that's what pre-dated the DVR, for all you kids out there) and I set it to record my beloved Idol finale so I could go practice for my SAT tutoring interview (I have to teach a class...scary.). Well, Aneil got home before me, and found that the VCR ate the tape (it did this to another tape last week, but we wrote it off as a fluke). Luckily he was able to record the last 15 minutes for me, but apparently I missed appearances by Cyndi Lauper and Lionel Ritchie! Nooooo! Weirdly, reality show full episodes don't really show up online the way normal tv shows do (anyone want to school me on copyright laws for reality tv?) so I caught a little bit of grainy footage on youtube, but it's NOT THE SAME. I am one sad pop- culture-deprived-bunny. I feel like newly crowned American Idol Kris Allen's face really expresses my disbelief that I missed out on most of the extravaganza:

Apparently this is what I missed:

KISS! Cyndi! The dude married to Nicole Kidman! And...Jason Mraz? Meh.

Anyway, it's fine. The entertainment blogs have freakishly detailed descriptions of everything that went down, so it's almost like I was in the Nokia theater myself. Almost.

On that note, I strangely love TV watcher blogs, so next season I'm going to add a TV Watch feature to my own blog! Vote in the comments for what show you would like me to recap. Here's what I watch regularly: Lost, American Idol, Gossip Girl, and Mad Men. I used to have a ton of cable reality shows on that list, but the one benefit of my no-cable lifestyle is that I have managed to drop them off my radar (goodbye Real Housewives! nice knowing ya!)...so yeah, vote below. Also suggest stuff I may have left off the list that you know I secretly watch anyway (The Bachelor comes to mind). I am thinking of adding Glee to my repertoire as well. (Have you seen it yet? Love!).

The great Atlas Shrugged attempt 2009 has commenced. This year is interesting because while babbling on about how I will never know who John Galt is, Aneil mentioned that his BFF John's middle name is Galt. Dude is freaking named after John Galt! (btw Aneil had no idea that this had any literary significance.) At any rate, I am only 100 pages in, thus still shy of last year's record 151 pages. We'll see how it goes this time around. Oh how I love reading about railroads!

Job prospects not great, but hopefully this SAT teaching gig will work out okay. I have what is basically a teaching audition on Tuesday, so wish me luck! Would I be a good teacher, or as Aneil suspects, will I sort of hate high school students? Discuss!

Anywho, I am off to a workout class intimidatingly titled "Everlast Shadow Boxing". Scary. I do this in honor of the fact that I am missing out on this weekend's Master Pancake: Rocky IV edition. It will probably be worth it to see my lovely brown friend get hitched.

In the meantime, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!

2 Months Without Cable Hasn't Killed Me Yet

2009-05-12T11:30:00.002-05:00

Austin has been kind to me for the past couple of months...here's the latest:

The job "search" has gotten depressing. There is a slim chance I could get a pitiful full time job, doing budgeting for government projects, or inspecting pipelines, or something like that, none of which sound appealing, so it's looking like I need a career makeover.

In the meantime, I am training to be an SAT prep course instructor. Which means I have to take the SAT again (not officially, but my score will determine whether I get hired)! I mentioned this in casual conversation at a bar the other night, and this girl at our table looked at me like I was either a) the most haggard-looking 16 year old she had ever seen, else b) some sort of diabolical genius that managed to earn an engineering degree without ever taking college admission exams. Oy. At any rate, the next 2 weeks will include lots of critical reading and geometry. On the plus side, they pay really well (albeit at part time hours), and if I like it, hey, maybe I will become a bona fide teacher after all!

Aneil still rocks. He is fun and we play lots of Scrabble and chit chat and watch movies starring Cher. It rules. I cook him dinners and he dotes on me a lot, and he doesn't mind that sometimes I eat stinky foods or dote on the webkinz to a ridiculous degree. We need more space than this tiny apartment, so we are looking at houses soon (hopefully starting tomorrow!). I have no idea how to buy a house, but hopefully it will all work out. Then we can have barbecues and get a dining table and all will be right with the world.

Wedding planning is moving right along. I still need a cake and flowers. Otherwise we've got a place, food, musicians, engagement pics, plus I have a dress. We are well on our way, I think.

So I joined the 24 Hour Fitness and actually manage to go about 4 days per week (which is pretty impressive for me). The main draw is that most of the time at least one of the tv's is tuned to "Golden Girls" and I need my fix, since Lifetime and WE don't beam into our digital converter antenna box. Also sometimes VH1 Classic is on the tv near the ellipticals. And on Sundays you can bet that you'll see Bravo's Law & Order: CI on at least 2 tv's! This place is cable tv heaven! Aneil says I can't just do cardio all the time (although that's the only way to watch tv) so he went with me on Saturday to act as my very own personal trainer in the weight room area.

In pop culture news, every TV show is in finale mode. Here are the ones I care about:

1) Hopefully the Gossip Girl spin-off about 1980's era Lily Rhodes will get picked up. The quasi-pilot was adorable, and included Andrew McCarthy as the dad, and Libby from "Lost" as the mom, plus lots of Veronica Mars alums. With a fun soundtrack and lots of neon.

2) What's up with "Lost"? Honestly I can't even tell if I enjoy it anymore, but I have a compulsive need to watch. Jack is extra-annoying this season. So is Locke. I am weirdly fond a Miles, the ghost whisperer guy. That's about it. Allegedly this week we find out about "The Incident". I hope it puts us back in a normal timeline.

3) I have little to no interest in who wins Idol this year. Sad!

Otherwise, lately I love: new Andrew Bird , new Bird and the Bee.

Star Trek (joy!) >>> Wolverine (blah!).

I want to include more photos, but it is cumbersome (read: I dunno how to) with Aneil's computer, so I'll save that for next time.

XOXO,

Shells

Yes!

2009-03-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

This movie looks like it's going to be wonderful! I can't imagine how they are going to make "Where the Wild Things Are" into a feature length film, but I'm willing to check it out. Apparently the trailer (set to "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire) is coming out next week. Eep!

Yakkety Yak

2009-03-13T10:15:00.005-05:00

I don't feel like going to the gym, as it is too rainy outside, so I am going to blog instead! Yay!

1) Being unemployed isn't too bad so far. I mean, yeah, the lack of income is sort of sad, but I get to see Aneil EVERY DAY. Which is totally worth it. Plus, I'm becoming very domestic. I cooked fish yesterday! I cooked! I rule!

2) Daytime tv totally sucks. Instead, I am watching these Battlestar Galactica dvds that were loaned to me like, 6 months ago. Anyone watch this show? I can't decide if I like it or not. It's so DRAMATIC. I like the sassy pilot, and I caught myself saying "frak" the other day, so maybe it is growing on me, I dunno. I loves me some Edward James Olmos, so I guess I'll stick with it. My only issue is that these people are not from Earth, but like, they use the same words that we do, like a "phone" is a "phone" yet sometimes they have their own special words for things. I don't really get it.

3) I hate applying for jobs. I am not getting too down about it, because according to the news, it's not me, it's the sucky economy, but it's still hard to not take it personally. I got a reject from a job I didn't even want, and it made me sad! What's the world coming to? Instead, I am thinking about just spending a bunch of time volunteering, since I can technically afford it for now.

4) Did you see Jon Stewart take down Jim Cramer? It was intense! I sort of felt weirdly bad for Jim, as he just had to sit there and take a beating. Then I realized that he is annoying! I used to hate how U of H's business school played Mad Money on the big tv's in the lobby all the time. Jon Stewart rules!

5) Speaking of Jon's...As if Jon Hamm could get any dreamier, there is video of him as Lex Luthor, asking the government for a $100 billion bailout so he can kill Superman. This guy is funny too? It's almost too much to take. Here's the link: Jon Hamm, I love you so.

6) The way the Austin weathermen are SO EXCITED about our 3 days of rain is pretty adorable.

7) George Clooney back on ER last night reminded me why that show used to rule. And Nurse Hathaway still loves him! And Benton is still annoying/awesome! Man, I used to love that show.

8) Had fun playing poker last weekend, and apparently I get to play mahjong tomorrow, so I am one happy game-playing camper.

9) Still no wedding dress. It's fine.

Love to all!

Shells

This is not my beautiful wife!

2009-03-07T11:00:00.002-06:00

So I decided to go ahead and join a 24 Hour Fitness here in Austin, my new homeland. I guess technically I was a Bally's member back in H-town, but I sort of stopped going after a while. But kept the membership. Why do people do that?

Long story short, I am getting married, and my mother thinks it would be a great idea for my to lose 40 LBS! by the time I get married (on 1/9/10 for those of you counting down). I mean, that's a lovely thought, and 40 LBS! would get me down to the smallest I've been in my adult (read: post high school) life, but it seems daunting. Mom keeps reminding me that I have "totally done this before" and that she knows I've "got it in me", but she doesn't realize that the time I did this before, I had a boyfriend who gave me such low self esteem, I HAD to work out and diet or I would just cry all the time. Literally, on days I would have to skip my workout I would have little anxiety attacks and obsess about it all the live long day. But I mean, I was a size 6 so I probably should have been happy about it.

Now I have this nice boyfriend who loves me a lot. If I told him that I decided to wear a white trash bag to the wedding, I bet he would say he would still marry me. And he would mean it.

But I figure I will at least try it anyway. If I lose let's say, 10 lbs before the wedding I will be pleased. Maybe 40 LBS! can be a hypothetical goal. I will keep you posted. If I get really ambitious maybe I can make a pie chart. Mmmm....pie....

Today I actually did go to the gym. I've decided that the biggest perk of the gym is that they have cable tv (unlike Aneil, and I guess now, me!) so I can watch The Daily Show in the mornings. Today was one of those bizarre Tori episodes of Saved by the Bell. Have you guys read Chuck Klosterman's hilarious Saved by the Bell essay in his book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs? It addresses "The Tori Paradox". You should check it out.

But okay, I wonder what part of my day will make me happier? My 40 minute, 400-calorie burning workout, or gorging on crepes with my insanely beautiful friend Kat later today, or when my cutie boyfriend gets home later and gives me hugs...hmmm.

I am going to a "Girls Night Out" tonight with new girls I don't know very well plus all their friends. Pray for me.

XOXO,

Shells

Who watches The View?

2009-03-05T10:31:00.002-06:00

I mean, I know I am a stay-at-home cutie now, but I seriously can't make it through more than 20 minutes of that show. The women are just too irritating! I do love Ellen, though. Maybe if Barbara Walters and Whoopi had some sort of charming dance like Ellen's it would help? Nah, probably not.

The geniuses over at my former place of employment accidentally paid me for 6 weeks of unused vacation rather than 3 weeks. Is it any wonder this place is in the red? When I called to correct it, there were no, oh wow thanks for pointing that out, man, you are great! Rather, it seemed like they were annoyed that they had to do more work, and asked me to cut them a check (for way more than I owed them!). What idiots! Ugh. Lucky for them I have the sweetest, most honest fiance in the world, who convinced me that yes, I should inform them of the mistake, else I may have just kept it. My dealings with all things HR or Payroll since the end of my stay have been nothing but irritating. I have to channel all my happy memories with my delightful coworkers to even remember why I worked there in the first place.

End of rant.

In pop culture news, I am perplexed by the American Idol "wild card" announcement last night. The only real bright spot was that Anoop (my personal fave!) got a spot. Anyone have any Idol opinions? Anyone watch this show other than me? Anyone else shocked that someone actually covered "Mandolin Rain" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range on Tuesday night? I mean, Bruce Hornsby, really? Really? Whatevs, I'll keep watching, of course. I'm pretty sure that my bizarre need to watch AI is probably Aneil's least favorite aspect of our co-habitation. Oh well, too late, sucka!

Thanks to Amee I am obsessed with "The Daily Plate", this food journal application within the Livestrong website. Their database is INSANE. Much better than any other I have seen. You basically look up whatever you ate (and can rest assured it's in there) and click "I ate this" and it logs all your calories for you. Since I'm supposed to be Bride dieting, it should come in handy. Check it out if you love obsessing and/or calorie counting.

Has anyone tried this Paperback Swap website? It seems cool.

More soon,

Shelley

Anyone still out there?

2009-03-03T15:51:00.002-06:00

Hi, sorry about the demise of blog. Things got sort of nuts after Bonnaroo, apparently. Here's the rundown since then...

1) Bonnaroo was simultaneously fun and exhausting. I did not shower for like, 5 days. The sets were extra-long and the festival grounds were great. But yeah, never doing it again.

2) Then we went to Chicago to visit Amee and take her to Lollapalooza, which was wonderful. First, we saw Amee. Second, we ran into Wayne Coyne in the street! Plus, the festival was lovely and fun and the weather in Chi-town in the summer is awesome.

3) We also visited Val in Philly. Liberty Bell, water ice, cheesesteaks, Andrew Bird, joy. We also hooked Val up, so there was also romance in the air. Lub. Since our trip, she has actually moved back to Houston, so Texas has definitely cheered up.

4) I left my job downtown to go work at the Channelview plant, which I actually liked, other than the fact that my Nomex was pretty snug after 3 years of cubicle life. I only lasted 2 months before I left, though. Because...

5) Aneil and I got engaged in December. He totally surprised me, but I said "no doi." Seriously, that's exactly what I said. He was cute. Things are looking up.

6) Decided to end my mid-life crisis by quitting my job (which, if you were to ask Barack Obama, was a stupid idea), and moving to Austin. I am on Day 2 of Real Housewife of Travis County life, and it's okay so far. I probably need to get a job ASAP, but am sort of enjoying this mini-vacay.

Okay, that should bring the blog up to speed. Promise to post more soon.

XOXO,

Shells

ROOOOOOO!

2008-06-09T22:04:00.000-05:00

3 DAYS UNTIL BONNAROO!

(i am so excited)

Here we are now, entertain us

2008-05-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend marked the debut of darling brown boy’s 90’s cover band, My So-Called Band. Niiice name. The first show was a Memorial Day pool-side BBQ at the drummer’s apartment complex. Here is my attempt to chronicle the event. Keep in mind I have piss-poor photography skills.

Check out the setlist (which I got autographed). Lots of rockin’ oldies but goodies. Strangely, “Bombtrack” turned out to be the biggest crowd pleaser, especially among the 40+ demographic. Interesting. My take on it is that it was obvious that the band loved playing that song the most. And lil Amy, the singer, managed to scream “Burn Burn!” with admirable gusto.
I gotta say, I did not know all of these songs by heart. During the 90’s I was sort of really poor and couldn’t afford cds, thus managed to miss out on the bulk of the grunge movement. My friend Lauren and I would check out 60’s and 70’s cds from the library and make tapes of them (ah, tapes). I think this explains my love of classic pop, my bubbly demeanor, and my obsessions with David Bowie and The Beatles. Ha. At any rate, if I was in a cover band I would either choose 60’s all-girl or 70’s glam rock. Comment below on your cover band of choice. But this isn’t really about me, is it?

Moving on, here is a pic of Sommer, the hot chick bassist. She is not intimidated to play bass in a band with Aneil, so you gotta give her props for that. Plus she’s real nice to me so we must love her.

Sommer is married to Jim, who is a much much better significant other than yours truly. He had a fancy camera (a la Bo) and ran about getting artsy camera angles. Here is a shot of him taking what is likely a far superior photo than I could take. Think of this as a photo within a photo. Like Hamlet’s play within a play, but more grunge. Although, if you think about it, Hamlet is pretty freaking grunge. Oh, the angst!

To reiterate Jim’s superior husband skills (I almost typed husbandry and it made me think of A&M’s excellent ag dept), here is a link to the website (!) he made to put all his superior photos. There are some really charming shots of Aneil, so it is worth a click if only for that. Well, I guess the whole band is attractive, but like how we all have a favorite New Kid on the Block (mine? Jonathan. I know, lame in retrospect, right?), Aneil is obviously my favorite My So-Called Band-er.

Click here for much better photos.

Here is my completely non-artsy photo of Aneil, in which he smiles at me. It reminds me of the time me and the brown gals went to New York and Maria, fresh out of a photography class, kept getting annoyed with Neha for making us smile and wave in front of landmarks rather than taking candids. This photo does not necessarily represent the essence of the band, but I like to think it expresses Aneil’s undying devotion and constant willingness to amuse me and/or humor me.

Here is the only decent photo of John that I took. He has one of those slick yet disconcerting electric drum kits. I’m not sure if Fro approves of those, but will ask him next time I see him. At any rate, John is Aneil’s BFF and he is real cutie and funny and managed to survive a Spinal Tap moment during setup when a pillar fell from the apartment staircase and almost crushed him. Scary.

Kenneth plays lead and he is also one of Aneil’s close friends. He actually showed up to the show wearing a cropped sleeveless Megadeath tshirt, so I dunno why he changed. Didn’t get a photo of the original outfit (sorry ladies). Kenneth is lovely and likes to hug and makes me laugh a lot, so he gets a thumbs up from this critic.

Amy is the hot singer girrrl. She has one of those husky slightly affected voices that I really wish I had rather than my limp Jewel-like instrument. She held her own on the mostly boy music that was played (apparently the Lillith Fair did not occur according to this 90’s band…good/bad? Discuss.) Plus she is wearing shorts with roses and skulls on them and that’s pretty rock n’ roll.
Here is a pic of a dude who came out on his balcony to check out the band. At first he seemed confused, but he sort of got into it. A fan!
Here’s some of the crowd around the pool.

Also, I kept making fun of a couple of dudes who kept eating kielbasas, like the entire afternoon. Seriously every time I saw them they were getting more food. I thought this was freakish until I was later told that they had competed in a triathalon earlier in the day. Ha. I’m such an asshole sometimes.

Sadly/awesomely, some cranky neighbor called the cops and the show got shut down with only 2 songs to go. Doh. I think the band felt validated in a way, so that was good. Plus the cops were very nice about the whole thing.

Most of the rest of my photos are blurry, so that's it from me. If I wouldn’t have been so delirious from the heat, I would have thought to get everyone together for a band photo, but alas, we will have to wait until next time.

XOXO, Groupie Girl

"I Believe" that "This Is My Now" because in "A Moment Like This" I wonder, "Do I Make You Proud?"

2008-05-22T20:03:00.000-05:00

Hi there Upper East Siders,

Today my coworker and I could not stop talking about the stellar American Idol finale and our weirdly overwhelming crush on the winner, David Cook:

Seriously, this dude started the season with a strange comb-over hairdo (I believe streaked with magenta?) and a sad lil soul patch and now he's Dreamy McDreamerson. It's amazing what a decent haircut and growing a beard can do for you. Plus he loves crosswords. At any rate, my American Idol loves are typically not everlasting (i.e. I never actually purchase any of their post-Idol records, albeit I downloaded at least 3 Kelly Clarkson songs back in the day). But I dunno, I spent all night fantasizing about my dream wedding to David Cook (obviously he would serenade me with his strangely awesome cover of Mariah's "Always Be My Baby"). Ha.

Not to be outdone, Aneil pointed out that he is a better boyfriend than the Idol ever could be, as he has never had an ugly haircut, and his beard is far superior (both true):

I guess he has a point. Besides, based on the Idol's profile, he loves Our Lady Peace (ha) and he sang that stupid "Dare You to Move" song as his singer's choice, so obviously he has questionable taste in music. Aneil trumps him on that too. Ha. (No doi, Aneil, I love you the most!)

The other highlight of this week was getting to see Amee (!) and her sis Megha (now a doctor) and her friend Tianna. I had been yeaaarning for girlie hanging out time, so Monday was ideal. We feasted at Lupe Tortilla, talked smack about our frenemies, giggled, then came to my house for Abita! Strawberry beers and the premiere of "The Bachelorette." I was so excited!!! I miss Amee so.

Also I worked out 4 times this week already...am still averaging a 13 minute mile, though. i.e. sloooow. I had to start icing my leg...running sucks.

In other news, this weekend I will be in Austin for hanging out fun times, a birthday party, Aneil's mom's Indian chicken (yum), and the debut of Aneil's 90's cover band, brilliantly named "My So-Called Band". I'm ready to get my jam on!

In summary, this week I hate: my stupid apartment and its stupid noises, Algebra II, and no "Lost" this week.

This week I love: the new American Idol (le sigh), Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Scrabulous, and cookies.

XOXO,
Shells

No way you're never gonna shake me

2008-04-28T22:26:00.000-05:00

I think I am having a mid-life crisis...it's one of those disconcerting times when I can't figure out what I'm doing with my life. Not panicking yet, but mostly just restless. It's time for a change.

Not to worry, for now I am coasting along and keeping myself more-than-occupied with the backlog of novels and movies that I neglected during those 2.5 years of business school (it is so weird that I am already done with that!). Nonetheless, this can only last a little while longer before I start needing some forward momentum. Presumably, that would include living in the same town as my brown boy, but we are at an impasse right now (who moves?), so I am trying to not fixate on that aspect of life. Maybe I just watch too much "Made" but I kinda want to try something new...

Enough of that, though. In maintaining the status quo news, I have been reading trashy fiction (mostly) devoid of literary value, watching lots of tv (well, mostly "Idol" and "Lost"), and trying to make a dent in my Netflix queue. The running is not going well, as I sneeze constantly if I go outside (nerd alert) and I run like a duck on the treadmill. I can go about 4 miles...that is very very short of the 13.1 I need to do. Ugh.

My lovely bff's birthday was last week (huzzah!) and brown boy's is this Friday, so there's lots to celebrate lately (thank God those 2 were born!!!).

At any rate, I am out of charming things to say...hopefully your comments can add to the substance of this entry until I get around to more meaningful topics. In the meantime, here is my week in review:

This week I hate: my upstairs neighbors and/or most things about my current apt although I appreciate the fact that there are no bugs, the information-overloaded NFL draft coverage, and family dramarama.

This week I love: Ben from "Lost", David C. from "American Idol", Aneil from "Austin, TX" and oreos from "Nabisco".

You know you love me,
S

Hi I'm Back.

2008-04-21T16:45:00.000-05:00

I decided to re-open the blog to the internets (it got me in a lil trouble last month). So hope you enjoy the more ambiguous info to come.

In recent news, brown boy and I are going to Lollapalooza!!! We are really excited, not to mention getting to visit my lovely Amee in Chi-town (yes, I insist that we refer to it as Chi-town).

Hope you are all doing well, and expect more posts soon.

xoxo,
S

The World That I See Is Beautiful

2008-03-17T18:22:00.000-05:00

Hi bunnies!

Just got back from Austin, and had a wonderful impromptu SXSW weekend. Maybe it lacked the star-power of my momentous 2002 experience, but it was just as delightful in many ways.

I sort of gave up on SXSW a couple of years ago when Amanda and I attempted to go to some shows, but were turned away in favor of badge-wielding hipsters (in their defense, we were badge-wielding hipsters back in 2002). So this year, I really only planned to hang out with Aneil and maybe try to get into one low-key show. (Thus I did not bother to bring my camera, so no photos…I will simply borrow Pitchfork’s show pics for the blog).

Back in maybe 2003, I bought a charming LP by a completely random band based on a quick sampling at Good Records in Dallas. Band was called Snowglobe, and they were vaguely Elephant 6-ish, thus fitting right into my genre of choice. I wasn’t sure where they were from or why they never toured, but I loved the album, and went on to put one of their songs on the first mixtape I made for Aneil (to dazzle him with my indie cred). He later managed to find a used copy of another of their later albums, but to my knowledge, none of our friends had ever even heard of these dudes. Much to our delight, they were playing a SXSW showcase this year, plus it was at Opal Divine’s, which was far enough down 6th street to not draw crazy crowds. Our enchanted evening started off with shockingly easy-to-find parking, easy-to-get-into show, and chit chat with the adorable band. It turns out they are roughly our age, and are essentially just like our friends. Ha. They even told us that they don’t tour because one of the guys is in med school, so apparently med school DOES ruin everything for everyone! And we purchased their other LP and the bassist was so glad that we were fans that he went and got the rest of the band to sign our copy. Plus they kept chatting with Aneil (he is real normal and charming with bands, whereas I am slightly nuts). It was a really satisfying experience.

The singer looks an awful lot like the lead singer of The Shins, no?

Aneil charmed the bass player:

Then Saturday we had a charming picnic with friends at a park along the water. I convinced Aneil that Popeye’s chicken is the quintessential picnic food (seriously, my family always did that!) and we bonded with one of Aneil’s BFF’s girlfriend (she is adorable) and several of her friends, all of whom were incredibly nice. Then we decided to walk over to this free Garden Party at the French Legation (some random historical area). They has $1 cans of PBR and free popsicles, and we got to hear 3 decent shows. (Sadly we didn’t know that one of my random bands of the moment, Noah and the Whale, played a few hours earlier, but ah well.) We got there in time for Thurston Moore, She & Him (Zooey Deschanel’s band), and Okkervill River (Aneil loves them). Was laid back and fun, and it was sort of cool to see indie screen goddess, Zooey D. take the stage, seeing as I consider myself a super-fan after sitting through all 6 hrs of “Tin Man” (for the record I love her minimalist AM pop collaboration with M. Ward). We topped off the afternoon with Freebirds, so I was a happy bunny indeed.

She & Him

The Him

The She - Man, is she adorable or what? That's it...I am going to have to grow out my hair and get me some adorably 70's style chunky bangs.

Our plan was to head back downtown to catch a free Snowglobe show, but we were awful tired after our day of fun in the sun and we didn’t want to push our chances at snagging another great parking spot, so we just headed to a random bar on Congress with Aneil’s bandmates (they are a 90’s cover band named “My So-Called Band”) to watch some random tribute bands and hang out. The Beatles tribute band threw me over my Beatles cover limit (after last week’s lame American Idol theme night) but I really enjoyed the delirious commitment of the Devo tribute band that played later. Ha.

So that was my weekend in Austin. Lots of sunshine and hipsters and music and fun. Just gave me more reasons to want to move there (besides the fact that darling brown boy lives there). We’ll see how that goes…

In the meantime, hope you all have fun this week…it’s almost spring!

This week I hate: Houston traffic (I hate this all the time, but it was particularly annoying last week), George W.’s apparent loss of his remaining grip on reality (did you hear about his strange Western sing-along last week?), and my apartment’s cell phone reception (yes friends, this is why I don’t tend to call you back or catch your calls for that matter).

This week I love: that a fun weekend could make me forget the previous week’s crankiness, free music, dancing, and mac n’ cheese.

xoxo

Sea of Love

2008-02-26T21:25:00.000-06:00

So the Valentine's party was a success. Sadly, our co-hostess Maria caught the flu, so there was a clear drop in the level of sass at the party, but it was still fun. Even Sean commented that he initially thought the idea was stupid, but was real excited about his goodie bag. An excellent variety of cards, play-doh, candy, etc. Plus everyone played along and seemed to have a fun time. We even got to meet new friends, and all was glorious. I love parties! No, I didn't take any pictures, but Sean did so I will try to retrieve them soon. I have been pathetic about picture-taking lately, not sure why.

I was down in the dumps last week, as I saw no friends all week, and essentially watched American Idol then went to sleep every night. By Thursday I hit my limit, and just yearned to have a conversation with a best friend. It seemed like so long since I just dreamed up theories and thoughts with someone and didn't bother with exhausting discussion about our love lives or futures or careers or whatever. I dunno, maybe that's why people start book clubs. Heh.

At any rate, I am feeling much better now, and am embracing my American Idol lifestyle this week. Anyone watching it? There is this incredible 16 year old kid that is just so talented and utterly adorable, he makes me giggle incessantly. It's sort of amazing. Everyone else is meh.

Quick thoughts about the Oscars:

I love Jon Stewart.

I can't get over how beautiful Marion Cotillard is.

My only moment of genuine excitement was when Marketa and Glen from "Once" won for best song. I was happy to see that the soundtrack is the top album on iTunes now. Also, did those songs from "Enchanted" suck, or what?

James McAvoy is tiny and has the same accent as Fran from Travis. Cutie.

"No Country for Old Men" was excellent, to be sure, but it made me feel blaaaah. I actually liked "There Will Be Blood" and "Juno" better, although "Once" was definitely my favorite movie this year.

Is it lame to think George Clooney is hot? I dunno, he's so Cary Grant-ish. Dreamboat.

At any rate, that's about it for this week, gang. I apologize for being boring, but I am just laying low for now. It's actually not too bad, but I am so used to being constantly busy and tired that it's just sort of strange right now. I am trying not to be restless. I can do this. Luckily I have approx. 26 hrs of Idol to watch per week, plus 1 hr of "Lost". Couch potato. Actually, I look like a lil red potato when I run, so maybe it's a theme.

Thanks for reading this drivel.

This week I love: home-cooked meals, surprise presents in the mail (lub-dub!), and girl scout thin mints.

This week I hate: achy shins, the complete lack of CampFire girls in the Houston area...I'd rather support them than our rival Girl Scouts...my "Camp Fire" secret name was Re-Mi-Ho...I can't remember why.

I'll try to be more charming next week. There will be Rodeo BBQ, Wilco shows, etc to talk about!

XOXO

I love the Power Glove. It's so bad.

2008-02-13T20:09:00.000-06:00

Hello friends.

Big news of the week: I met childhood crush FRED SAVAGE. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, as Aneil told me he wouldn't be there. Jealous much? Ha.

We went to a screening of the 1989 classic Nintendo movie, "The Wizard" starring Fred, Christian Slater, Beau Bridges, and the adorable Jenny Lewis. Remember this one? Emotionally disturbed little brother is awesome at pretty much every Nintendo game so he travels with his brother and a cute redhead to California to compete in Video Armageddon. And there was the evil kid with the Power Glove? And they premiered, wait for it...Super Mario Bros. THREE! At any rate, the director, the actor who played the "wizard" himself, and Fred were at the screening and did a Q&A (sample audience question: "Who was a better kisser? Jenny Lewis or Winnie Cooper?") and autograph signing. Needless to say, I made Aneil wait with me in line so I could meet Fred and get my poster signed. (Yes, I bought a glow-in-the-dark Wizard poster.) He was really nice and adorable and essentially looks exactly the same. Seriously. I got real nervous and could barely speak to him but I did say that I loved him all through grade school. Aneil asked him whether Rilo Kiley came to be because Fred knew Jenny Lewis and his brother Ben knew Blake Sennett from Boy Meets World, but sadly it was not true. It did make him laugh though, and I'm pretty sure I swooned. Ha.

I didn't realize how super-fan I was, but apparently I was the only person in line who could even remember the name of his short-lived sitcom, "Working" and had seen "The Boy Who Could Fly" about 50 times.

In other "the more things change the more things stay the same" news, apparently it's not just Fred Savage who looks the same after all these years. About a month ago I went jogging with Aneil in Hermann Park, and we stopped to stretch next to the road, and a guy I knew from high school, who I haven't seen in about 10 years, recognized me from his car and yelled out the window at me. Apparently even while jogging I look identical to how I did in high school (albeit chubbier). Then yesterday I was walking to my car from work, and as I passed a Starbucks another guy yells, "hey didn't you go to my high school?" And it wasn't even a good friend, I vaguely recognized him, but he was like, yeah I thought you were familiar. Seriously? Do I look exactly the same? Ha. Anyone who knew me in high school who reads this lame blog should leave me a comment and let me know.

In other news, Maria and I are having a Valentine's Day party this weekend, so I'm really excited. It is supposed to be a best friend love free-for-all but SOME people (read: Erik) think it's a "couples" party, so that's lame. I have vowed not to hold hands and/or make out with my boyfriend the entire time, so if you happen to be in Austin this weekend, be sure to stop by and maybe I will hold YOUR hand instead.

Lost is getting good again. I will avoid spoilers for you folks who are not caught up this season, but I love the new sassy Ghostbuster guy and the new awkward guy. In other tv news, who do you guys like on Project Runway? I strangely love "fierce" Christian. Ha.

This week I love: Lucky Charms, American Idol's "Hollywood Week", and candy conversation hearts.

This week I hate: the fact that it gets dark at like, 5:30pm, the lack of chemical plants in Austin, and that Make Me a Supermodel show.

Anywho, hope you all will be my Valentines!

XOXO,
S

Yoda = Best MADE coach ever?

2008-01-31T18:33:00.000-06:00

I'm having an extremely nerdy week..."Lost" premiere tonight (eeeep)! We will finally find out who the heck is on the mysterious "freighter". Whatevs, I'm lame.

I also Netflixed "The Empire Strikes Back." I know I watched it when I was little, but most of the Star Wars trilogy is a mish mash in my head, and I just felt like viewing it as a grownup. My favorite character, even now, is Yoda. He's almost like a zen cousin of Jim Henson's Fraggles.

Also, the whole Jedi training sequence really reminded me of an episode of MTV's "Made." I mean, here's this stupid kid who seeks out a "coach" and essentially says "I wanna be MADE...into a Jedi." But then halfway through his training he just starts whining and not listening and being annoying in general (i.e. the MO of every single kid on Made). Then Yoda has to give him the whole "Do or do not there is no try" speech. Awesome. "Return of the Jedi" is on its way via the USPS, but I'm not worried, because in every episode of Made the kid always has an epiphany and eventually beats the odds and learns something about themselves. I get the feeling lil Luke will beat the odds, finish his training with ol' Yoda, and maybe just maybe defeat the empire. Maybe.

Not much else going on. My eyes are doing great and almost feel back to normal. It's pretty weird to be able to see without glasses. At least now I know if I am ever stranded on a deserted island inhabited by hostile natives/polar bears/black smoke monsters at least I will be able to see without worrying with glasses or contacts.

Work has been busy but I have lots of free time now that school is done. I'm trying to fill my time with running and watching movies but I am probably going to need to come up with a new project soon. Luckily M is back in town to save me from my humdrum existence!

Wow, the Democratic debate is pretty rowdy and star-studded tonight...did I just see Rob Reiner? Ha. I wish Oprah had aligned with Hillary, if only to give her a makeover. Otherwise, Obama is more appealing in general. Wolf Blitzer...not so appealing.

Anywho, that's all I've got going on...see? You didn't miss anything all those months I wasn't blogging. In the meantime, have a fun Groundhog Day.

xoxo,
S

Can't Take My Eyes Off You

2008-01-22T23:43:00.000-06:00

So on Friday I had Lasik surgery. Don’t let anyone fool you, it doesn’t “hurt” but it is terrifying nonetheless. They numbed my eyes and gave me (apparently useless) valium and put me in a chair. I felt some pressure on my eyeball, and was supposed to look at a light until…everything went black And a horrifying burning smell ensued! Oy, it was terrible. And that was only phase 1! The second part was worse, as you could sort of see the outline of these little instruments apparently pulling back your corneal flap. Then you have to stare at a light while the laser corrects your vision. Then the doctor strangely squeegees your eye. They gave me a stuffed dog to hold onto while this went on, and I was gripping him for dear life. It was all very traumatic. Luckily, darling brown boy was there to take me home and essentially dote on me for 2 days. I woke up around 9pm…no pain, but still fuzzy. I can currently see pretty okay, but everything is hazy (I am praying this is part of the normal healing process). I go back to the doctor on Wednesday for my checkup.

The best part of the whole ordeal was that the doctor who did my pre-op and post-op exams looked like a doctor version of my friend K. So A and I kept referring to him as Dr. K and it made me feel strangely better. Also, when I woke up at 9:30pm and announced that I wanted spaghetti, A went out in the rain for takeout, thus validating his #1 best boyfriend status.

In other news, I have resorted to watching NFL games due to lack of college football. Did anyone catch the NFC title game? Fun stuff, and although I normally love old man Brett Favre, I gotta say I was happy for the littlest Manning. Poor guy, can you imagine if your older sibling was one of the all-time best (name occupation here) and you happened to do the same job but people think you will never be as good as your sibling (or parent, for that matter)? At any rate, I will be cheering for the Giants in the big game, as I can’t get over how android-like Tom Brady is. Seriously. He’s freaky. Plus they’ve won tons of Super Bowls. Boring. Next.

A and I officially signed up for the Rock n’ Roll Marathon in San Antonio in November. This means we have 10 months to go from being a chubby (yet adorable) okay-couple into a lean, mean (still adorable) super-couple! Seeing as his profession requires organizational and planning skills, A has devised a workout plan for us that uses a spreadsheet (which of course I love and will therefore utilize). Apparently I have to run/walk at least 4 days a week. Luckily Tuesday (i.e. American Idol performance day) is a Rest day!

Also, oh man, the news about Heath Ledger completely caught me off guard. Like, I gasped and had to hold my heart, I was so shocked. (I've officially decided that CNN is basically a glorified version of InTouch magazine, due to their idiotic coverage of the story.) I was so super stoked about his performance in the new Batman, and I have actual affection for the movie "10 Things I Hate About You." I just keep thinking about that heartbreaking part in Brokeback Mountain when he sobs and holds onto Jake Gyllenhall's shirt. Oy. So sad. Also he's our age. Creepy. I was going to post a photo for ya, but it's too depressing.

To end on a happy note, here is some good news from our friends at the ol' CW. Starting next Mon Jan 28th you can start watching "Gossip Girl" from the beginning with a replay of the pilot, PLUS bonus scenes and interviews. Joy of joys! At least this can tide us over until Thursday's premiere of "Lost".

In summary, this week I hate: dry eyes, the premature end of Gossip Girl due to the writer’s strike, and the devastating loss of a true talent.

This week I love: boyfriend, making new goals, American Idol, and Maggiano’s meatballs.

XOXO,
S

Ooooh! It feels good to be free!!!

2008-01-15T21:43:00.000-06:00

Hi! I have been inspired by my love for "Gossip Girl" to reboot the blog.

Sorry I fell off the planet after June, but I was sort of frazzled. Here's the 2nd half of 2007 in review:

July - Let's face it, I think I was suffering from a wee bit of anxiety. Also took an awful summer class that stressed me out big time. I also started clenching my teeth in my sleep...weird, no?

August - Took a much needed vacation with my gal A. Visited all the West Coast darlings and drove from San Francisco to San Diego. Precarious but completely beautiful! Finally stopped clenching the teeth.

September - Got to attend the ACL festivus. Bjork rocked my socks.

October - Tons of people got married. Lots of love all around. Visited DC. Fun stuff.

November - Pretty much did school work for a solid month. Endured the worst teammate of ALL TIME. Still managed to pull it together AND turn 27

December - I GRADUATED!!! Also, festivus was fun, of course. I love festivus and I love seeing best friends all in one place. If you missed it, try again next year!

Okay, that brings us to the new year. I didn't make any resolutions, but I will try harder to update ye old blog. I am super busy at work, but now am without schoolwork so I have a lot of lag time. Yesterday I convinced Aneil to train for a half marathon with me in order to keep me busy. If the past 3 weeks are any indicator, without schoolwork or college football to keep me busy, I will literally spend entire evenings playing FreeCell and watching reality tv.

Anywho, moving on, here are the pop culture things I am currently nuts about:

1) Lost (watched all 3 seasons on dvd and am all caught up...have a crush on Sawyer)
2) Law & Order: CI (it's so lame but wonderful...read: have a crush on Vincent D'Onofrio)
3) I had a dream I was dating Daniel Day-Lewis but kept calling him David Alan Grier. Either way, have a crush on DDL.
4) Gossip Girl!!

At any rate, I promise to be back soon. If you have any suggestions for projects I should be working on now that I am a free woman, leave me a comment.

Hope to be back in top blogging form ASAP. You know you love me.

XOXO,
S

1 2 3 4 tell me that you love me more

2007-06-26T18:35:00.000-05:00

Hellooooooooo friends.

I am assuming I have lost a lot of readers due to my extended hiatus, but I have been super lazy lately. Or super busy. It depends on how you want to look at it. My summer school class (Human Resource Management) is pretty easy but the pace (test every week!) makes for some intense study sessions. Just think, after I graduate in December, you will have more blog entries than you’ll know what to do with!

There have been many, many events since last post. The weekend following the Philly trip I headed to San Antonio for Amanda’s graduation. She was lovely, of course, and I felt like a proud parent. This has all been well documented in other blogs, but here are some of my favorite photos.

Amanda had to wear a floppy beret (oh, the irony!):

We started drinking around 6:30pm after feasting on Korean BBQ. Oak Hills was the scene, and it was jam packed full of newly minted doctors and lawyers, including these folks:

I FINALLY got to hang out with Carla, who was drunky and newly engaged and utterly adorable. Check out her blog in the new link on the right of the page. Anywho, here she is with her fiancée, Michael, who had this really great Biggie shirt, complete with bedazzled sequin bling:

Obligatory Best Friend Photo:

Okay, so the next weekend I headed back to Austin (with family in tow) for Memorial Day weekend. We did lots of grilling and feasting with Aneil’s parents, and we even made a day trip to San Antonio to hit the boardwalk and make memories. We feasted at Casa Rio on the Riverwalk. We also saw the worst 3D movie of all time at the IMAX theater. I blame Aneil and Fro for choosing it. But check out how cute we are in our glasses:

The next weekend Aneil came over to hang out with me and provide moral support when I cut my hair. Here we are waiting for my appointment at this cute bookstore with funny stuffed toys next door to the salon:

Here’s my new hair:

We also got to hang out with Maria/Casey and Bree/Travis at Kelvin Arms and held our first ever appetizer party! Appetizer party rocks my socks. Aneil and I crafted little tomatoes filled with hummus, ham swirls filled with onion, and mini corndogs. Everyone brought 2-3 appetizers and they were all delicious…THEN after a night at Kelvin, we came home and snacked on the leftovers…brilliant!

The following weekend I headed back to Austin to see Aneil, since he was leaving for Bonnaroo the next weekend. I stupidly had school on FRIDAY NIGHT. Ugh. So I didn’t leave until Saturday morning, but we still managed to a) go the mall, b) eat at Thundercloud (oh California Club Sub how I love thee), c) drive out to the middle of nowhere to pick up Aneil’s repaired stereo from this kooky fella who was sort of like a hippie high school physics teacher who loves electronics, and d) boogied with Neha and Jules and Aneil’s other friends at da club. The only thing missing was an appetizer night, really.

The next weekend was super sad, as we had to say fare thee well to our little Lamonica. She moved to Portland last Friday and I’m already bummed because I have no one to call up to drag to random shows or have dinner with or anything. It’s super dumb when best friends move away. At any rate, we threw her a bon voyage the Saturday before she left (complete with appetizers of course) and then we partied it up in Rice Village. Lamonica got super drunky, so it was fun of course:

Okay so that just about brings us back to the present. Last weekend we just watched tons of Veronica Mars (have you all started watching this yet? It’s so awesome!) and celebrated the fact that I don’t have to take my Management final, so no more school until July 5. Hurrah! So I am spending lots of time planning for Amanda and my trip to California (!) in August and doing math puzzles. It’s glooorious. Not much else to report so here’s my list of things I love:

1) Macaroni and Cheese
2) Red seedless grapes & white cheddar Cheez-its (I eat them at the same time!)
3) Boggle tournament with Aneil
4) Travel guides
5) Visits from Anthony
6) New Feist album I purchased at Waterloo with Chad (seriously, how can you not think this song is great? and the video is ADORABLE!)

Here’s my list of observations I made while listening to FM radio on the way to Austin:

1) “Light My Fire” is probably the hottest song containing an organ solo ever recorded
2) Oldies stations should really play more Zombies and Bowie and waaaay less Rush
3) The fact that 80’s and 90’s is considered “oldies” makes me feel like an oldie
4) Hearing a live version of “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads on the radio makes me yelp with joy
5) I don't understand the appeal of the new Rhianna or Justin Timberlake song…I am ready to find my poppy summer anthem, but haven’t heard a good one yet. Am I going to have to re-use "Big Pimpin'"?

Here’s a random list of reasons I like Aneil:

1) He likes to challenge me to Boggle tournaments.
2) He did not think it was stupid to drive all over town looking for Veronica Mars disc 6 to rent, then give up and just go buy the whole season at Target…in fact, he encouraged it.
3) He thought that going to Katz’s Deli for 2 meals in a row because it was so tasty the first time was a great idea!
4) He worked really really hard on a classic rock playlist to enter this contest: XM & VH1 Contest
5) He holds my hand even when I’m smelly or boring.

Anywho, I have also added new links to the right of the page so you can check out some stuff that I am interested in and/or endorse.

If you're studying for a professional exam of any sort I am sending you good brain vibes. I love you all and promise to be more bloggy from now on...

Motownphilly back again...

2007-05-15T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hello! I just got back from a long weekend in Philly with my BFF from Bayport: Kim, Dona, and Val. We shipped Val up there, well technically to Delaware, about 1 year ago, so we got to check in on her and her doggies and experience as much of Philly as possible in 2 days. Kim is originally from South Philly (think: Rocky’s neighborhood) so we got the local flavor tour as well. Here’s my best effort at a synopsis.

Continental serves strange foods courtesy of SkyChef (which I think is owned by Lufthansa so I am blaming the Germans!). Our “meal” consisted of a small pizza topped with ranch dressing, chopped steak, and goopy cheese. Why does this food item even exist? Also, we watched “Music and Lyrics” on the plane, which I was just SURE I would love, even though Maria and Casey gave it 2 thumbs down (I mean come on, I love Drew and Hugh and the 80’s and pop music!). But they were right after all, as the movie was exhausting and sort of soul-less. Kim pointed out that it made the plane ride seem even longer. Blah.

Friday we headed to Philly to do all the tourist-y stuff. We ate DELICIOUS pizza at this place called Grotto’s, which apparently is a popular chain serving “boardwalk/beach” pizza. Northerners and Midwesterners are sort of weird about their pizza and its geographical origins, but “beach pizza” gets my seal of approval. This was simply the first of many many “Meals Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats.”

Here’s the Liberty Bell. Apparently it had a casting flaw which was “repaired” at some point, then when they tried to use it again the “repair” cracked even worse and left it non-operational. I dunno why I thought it would be HUGE because it was sort of little. Here’s me and Dona taking our turn at a snapshot:

Also Ben Franklin is a big Philly celeb, so we saw his grave, and the place where his house was (the only part of it still intact is the privy…eww), and his post office. I love Ben. You should read his autobiography. He’s sort of a wack-a-doo.

Then the girls let me drag them to University City, where all the colleges are, so we could stop by the World Cafe HQ. World Cafe is significant to me and the brown boy and played an integral part in the story of our lub, so I was excited. Lots of hipsters were there enjoying happy hour, and a DJ played some tunes. Sadly, no shows that day. Here I am making my delighted muppet face:

So then we were off to enjoy Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #2 at this place called Tony Luke’s. It was sort of situated under the highway, adding to its off-the-beaten-path appeal. I ordered my cheesesteak with American Cheese and Onions and it was pretty good. Yes, I ate the whole thing. We then had to walk off the cheesesteaks so we wandered around Penn’s Landing and saw some sights. We also saw what appeared to be the equivalent of Midtown, i.e. yuppies galore, but it was somewhat charming. We headed back to South Philly for the best Philly treat ever: WATER ICE. I have always made fun of Kim and her insistence that water ice is somehow different/better than snow cones, slurpees, shaved ice, etc. But she was RIGHT. It can only be described as ICE that is like WATER, or WATER ICE. Apparently it is a secret scientific phenomenon that creates water ice, and only certain places know how it is done. Here at Italiano’s I opted for the Gelati, which was water ice layered with vanilla ice cream. Oh water ice, how I love thee:Okay, also there is this other strange northern phenomenon called Wawa. Really, it’s just a convenience store without gas pumps. But EVERYONE goes there. They have dozens of flavors of coffee and they sell tons of packaged cakes and little sandwiches. I honestly don’t understand the love for Wawa but I appreciate it nonetheless. Here I am with Kim selecting a Tastykake:

Northerners also love their Dunkin Donuts, as there is one about every few blocks, probably more than Starbucks. I tried a couple, but nothing can ever ever top Nelson’s Donuts in Lake Charles. Between the donuts and tastykake, I managed to keep my saturated fat equilibrium constant until lunchtime. Check out Frankie Avalon and Fabian in this mural!So we headed to the Italian Market, where there are lots of butcher shops and produce stands and smelly fish and whatnot. We spent a while in a cutie kitchenware store and Val bought us some fresh pasta to cook for dinner. While there we of course had to hit Cheesesteak Valhalla, i.e. Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s. We wanted to compare/contrast, so we got 2 of each and split them amongst the 4 of us. I was complimented by a local on my ability to utter the words, “Whiz Wit” with a straight face and therefore properly order my sandwich. Cheese whiz, although seemingly a terrible idea, was actually delicious on the sandwich! I can’t really say which place was better, although Geno’s tasted less fat-tastic, but it may just be the lack of Whiz on my sandwich from there. It was very confusing, but I give Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #3 the edge over Tony Luke’s, I think because the sandwich bread at these 2 places was delicious. Also grease ran down my arm and that’s FINE.

Geno's?

Or Pat's (in the background behind me & Val)?

Then we headed to Jeweler’s Row, which is basically a couple of blocks in downtown with tons and tons of jewelry stores. We window-shopped a lot, and a quirky old man told us some long-winded yet charming stories about Philly, and I want to say he talked about how he knew Albert Einstein. Anywho, I spent an exorbitant amount of money on this necklace (it’s a black pearl done up with little diamonds and white gold meant to resemble a sea anemone). I am craaazy about it:

So freshly adorned with jewels, we decide it’s time for more WATER ICE, so we head back to Kim’s neighborhood to sample the water ice at Pop’s. This time I opted for orange dream with soft serve ice cream and it too was GLORIOUS. Post water ice we headed home, where Val made us an excellent meal consisting of fresh pasta, olive oily garlicy delicious sauce, bread, salad and wine. YUM. While she cooked, we strangely watched “Center Stage” which apparently all of my friends secretly own on DVD/VHS. So weird. We also discussed how the movie is TERRIBLE in every way yet weirdly entertaining. Kim astutely pointed out that at least it was better that “Music and Lyrics”, which was just a little sad, considering one of the co-stars is Olympic figure skater, Ilia Kulik.

Next morning we woke up at 5:30 (OMG) for the big Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Thanks to your generosity, I raised $1130 for the cause!!!! Thank you so much! I have no idea how long it took me to run the race, however. We started late because of the huge crowds at the bathrooms, and by the time we got to the start line the walkers had already started and it was just a wall of people. I tried to keep up with Val, dodging around people, but was a little timid due to wonky knee. I did my best, but still got pretty slow by mile, like, 1.5. Ha. Nonetheless, my official time was around 55 minutes, but I am guessing that my actual time was closer to 45 minutes. I was very proud indeed and don’t worry, I will make good on my promise to send you guys official Shelley training mix tapes in appreciation for your donations. You are all awesome!

We had time for (what I thought would be) our last Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats. We drove around a while until we found a sandwich shop that was open and we feasted on hoagies loaded with meats and cheeses and whatnot. They were actually pretty good, and I strangely adapted to the local cuisine, and felt like a champ. We then hit Rita’s for more WATER ICE. This place is the water ice chain, so slightly less authentic, but I did discover that Mango is my favorite flavor and I liked that they use frozen custard in their gelati. Oh Water Ice! Swoon!

Then it was time to head home, where airport dinner consisted of Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #5, i.e. Philly style pizza. I split a slice with Dona in a futile effort to save our arteries. But I mean, we got on the plane, where they served us our final Meal Consisting of Meat, Cheese, and Saturated Fats #6, which was a strangely delicious cheeseburger wrapped in plastic. This time there was no movie, so Kim and I chatted the whole way home, which proved to be much more entertaining than Music and Lyrics anyway.

So, my trip was fun and exhausting and I love my engineer gals a lot. I am currently in water ice withdrawal, and my soft serve cone from Chick Fil A today was just NOT the same. I have, however, gone vegetarian for the rest of the week, to do a little damage control, so hope that helps.

In other non-Philly news, my Amanda is done and done with law school. I don’t understand why they make them start law review classes immediately after they are done with normal classes, but maybe that’s not much to ask considering they will be making the big bucks someday. I get to attend her graduation this Saturday and I’m sure Chad and I will be bursting with pride. I am very very excited. Stop by her blog and wish her a congratulatory comment (she loves comments).

My latest tv obsession is Veronica Mars. I love mysteries, plus I love teen drama, so it was basically made just for me! She is like Nancy Drew with spunk! Aneil convinced me to watch it so I Netflix-ed season 1. I love it. It's also not as scary as Criminal Intent, so I don’t get scared at night. Ha. Why am I a 13 year old chubby girl at heart?

In other news I can’t stop eating Raisinets and I check them off as a fruit/vegetable on my weight watchers checklist.

American Idol tonight!

Love you all!

Let's bowl, let's bowl, let's rock n' roll

2007-05-08T22:23:00.000-05:00

My most darling brown boy had a birthday party this past weekend (in case you missed it, his birfday was May 2). We made awesome party favor bags complete with Aneil's seasonal mix tape, $1 movies from half price, stickers, pencils, and candy. Ready to paaaartaaaay:

We headed to the bowling alley, where they had $3 white russians, poured from pitchers! And there were tons of friends there. I mean, most of these folks are shellzana guest stars, since they are technically Aneil's friends, so if you are interested, check out photos here. (Aneil, you should email this link to all the people on your evite...I don't have access to do it from my account.) In the meantime, here are some folks you may know and love:I bowled in a lane with Carol, Sean and Kevin. Kevin had an unfair advantage, being the high school bowling coach, and all, but we tried our best. Despite the fact that Carol was totally kicking Sean's booty at the beginning of this game, they still paused to show off all their adorable pink/redness:Aneil was so excited the whole evening, his face was achy by the end of the night. Here he is smiling with his friends Bob and Kenneth:Check out my amazing bowling score! I was tops amongst the ladies, and most of the boys. I rule:

Also check out this AWESOME ninja turtle cake:

So the party was really fun, and I am so glad that this boy was born 27 years ago. I lub him (he's handsome, huh?):

Work is super busy this week, but I am still in a happy mood. I am leaving for Philly on Thursday, and thanks to your generosity, I raised over $1000 for Race for the Cure! I am so proud/amazed by everyone! :)

In other news, I joined Netflix. My first selection was "Just Like Heaven" with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. I sort of loved it. For all you kids who are constantly irritated that I never watch movies, add a comment with your recommendations and I will add them to my queue. (I love that Netflix has put the word "queue" into mainstream use.)

I am sad/relieved about the cancellation of Gilmore Girls. While I love the girls ever so much (not to mention Jess), it is time to say goodbye, methinks. In the meantime, my current tv obsession is Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Sort of love Vincent D'Onofrio. Ha.

Until next time's Philly update, good luck on finals and graduation, everyone! This week I love: boiled eggs, Netflix, bowling, birthdays, and my dearest Aneil!

Lemonades and Tow Trucks

2007-04-24T20:17:00.000-05:00

Oh so many events to speak about!

I am almost done with school for this semester. We have to make a bibliography and our paper will be done and done. Huzzah! All that’s left is one more test (on which I need a 65% to keep my A) and completion of my biodiesel project. Joy of joys!

I am going to Philly in a few weeks to visit my friend Val, and she suggested we run in the Komen Race for the Cure. We are raising money for breast cancer research, and I am real impressed with my best friends and their extremely generous donations (over $700 so far!!). Here is a link to My Race Page in case you want to make a donation and/or check out how adorable I am. Everyone who donates will receive a photo of me finishing the race (it might kill me but oh well) and a copy of my training mega mix cd.

Aneil came over this weekend, and we were actually extremely productive. We met up with Maria and various and sundry medical school pals, plus Kevin. I drank tons of raspberry lambic, and I tried the cherry kind but it wasn’t as good. Kevin lectured me about not adequately training for my race, but I promise to run a mile tonight. Seriously. But I mean American Idol is on tonight, so we’ll see.

Then Saturday Aneil helped me hang things up on the walls of my apartment. He also made me a charming coat rack (which I have no idea how I lived without before). Aneil had various power tools and levels and whatnot. I remember when I decorated the old apartment I just used a hammer. But I guess his way was more efficient. It looks real great and homey.

We also ate at Spaghetti Warehouse, which was yummie as usual. Our waitress was adorable and called herself a “chili ninja”. Aneil also won me this Bart Simpson from the claw machine (best claw machine in town!). Afterward, I worked on my paper at the bubble tea place.

And BIG NEWS, the Kelvin Arms started serving glorious glorious Frozen Vodka Lemonade again. To tune of “Here Comes the Sun”: Lem-o-naaade, it’s been a long cold lonely winter. Lem-o-naaade, it feels like years since it’s been here. Needless to say I got Drunky McDrunkerson and Aneil managed to convince me to play Golden Tee and the equivalent bowling game, which I will call Bowling Tee. Bowling is much easier, as there is no slope, sand traps, water hazards, or wind, i.e. Golden Tee for Dummies. I got over-zealous (also was drunk) and missed the rolly ball and banged my hand into the machine and I now have this huge hand bruise! Did you know that you could bruise your hand? At any rate, I suppose my injury will keep my on the sidelines next time I’m at Kelvin Arms. Also, here’s a shout-out to Jeremy and Emily, who we also saw at the bar. Crazy Jeremy had to be at the plant at 5am, yet was still partying like a champ when we left the bar at 1am. At any rate, he said he reads the blog, so I am excited to have another fan. Ha.

Sunday I ate dinner with Maria and Lamonica (oh Chuys tortillas I love you so), then we headed to Numbers to see Tapes n’ Tapes, which I had never listened to before, and was just going so Lamonica would have someone to go with. WELL, we both drove there, and parked next to each other, and we go outside after the show only to discover we had BOTH been towed! It was a lil scary, since Lamonica left her purse/phone in the car, and I had absolutely no one to call to come get me. Here’s the mortifying part: I saw Joel from Town Hall (Ho-el, as you may have known him) at the show and we chatted and (Thank God!) exchanged numbers. So I call him up and he gives us a ride to the police station. I was mortified! It was like, oh hi Ho-el, I haven’t seen or heard from you in 5 years, can you give me a ride? UGH. He is still just as nice as a person can be, so I’m sure he didn’t mind, but I was still so embarrassed. At any rate, here is what to do when your car gets towed in Houston: call the Tow Hotline: 713-308-8580 and be sure to memorize your license plate number because they need it to find your car. They will be able to tell you where your car got towed. Luckily, Lamonica’s mom came to pick her up, and the tow place was only 10 minutes from my house, so we were able to get the cars. At this point it was like, 2am, and we were in the lovely 5th ward, and that’s fine. Also it cost me $180 to get the car plus I got a $65 ticket. I am chalking this up to a rather pricey lesson learned, and am not eating out for the next month to save up $245. BLAH.

To end on a not-complaining note, here is a list of food items that Aneil and I have been given in the past 3 weeks. We do not ask for these things, and I’m pretty sure our lil round bellies do not make us look undernourished, but we keep receiving free things (which I love):

1) As Aneil orders a shake at Chick-Fil-A, I ask the guy at the counter if the new flavor is any good, and he gives me one to try. A whole shake!
2) We go to Chili’s, where you stupidly have to pay for chips and salsa. We say no thanks we don’t want chips, but a few minutes later our waiter brings out chips and says he just hates to see people not eating something, so have some free chips!
3) Aneil orders this spaghetti covered in “beer chili” rather than tomato sauce every time we go to Spaghetti Warehouse. The waitress brings out the food and we are all excited, but she comes back and says that there is not enough chili on his spaghetti, and it is because the manager is skimpy with the chili. She then proclaims she is a “chili ninja” which was pretty much the most adorable thing ever, and comes back with a small bowl of supplementary chili.
4) As we walk into Kelvin Arms, I immediately ask if they started up the lemonade machine again (apparently it is only a summertime drink), and when the guy actually says yes I yelped with joy! Then he was like, do you like raspberry? I’ll swirl some raspberry liquor into it for you to try. It was yummie, and FREE!

So, I am trying to count my blessings and not get too bummed about the towing incident. So thank goodness for generous waiters/bartenders, moms being there when you need them (the whole ride to the tow yard made me feel 15 yrs old again), and Joel and all my other darling boys who I know would have done the same for a damsel in distress.

Happy birthday to Amanda!

Home is where i want to be, but I guess I'm already there

2007-04-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

Hello world!

Well here I am in the new apartment. Seriously though, it doesn't really feel like I moved at all, since it’s the exact same apartment layout, only 2 doors away from my old one. It has some “upgrades” to flooring and accessories (I must admit the bathroom and kitchen look much fancier), but all in all not worth the effort of moving at all. I am hoping that my next move will be into a place that I actually own, such that I can’t be evicted on a whim.

My darling brown boy, mom, and Fro came over and helped me pack and move the majority of stuff. Aneil also scrubbed the bathroom in the old apartment, so I’m pretty sure I owe him everlasting love and affection. My engineer friend Dan brought his cute kids over and they were really helpful as well. Shelby also did an excellent job rearranging my refrigerator magnets. Lamonica got there just in time to watch us all collapse from exhaustion, but I love her for making the effort anyway.

School has been extremely busy, but my biodiesel start-up company project is going well. The company owners are excited about our work and I think they are going to have us act as financial advisors when they meet with the bank to get their loan! This sounds lame-o but I am sort of excited about it. Now I know how to project financials and value a company and build a business plan to take to a bank. I am very proud!

My other classes are coasting along. Lots of work, but I am done with everything by the end of the month, so huzzah!

I am trying out this new self-improvement program: Complaint Free World. I read about it in my mom’s People magazine. Basically, it takes 21 consecutive days to form a habit, so the objective is to wear this little purple bracelet and try not to complain/gossip/criticize/bitch for 21 days. Every time you mess up, you switch the bracelet to the other wrist and start over! Apparently it has taken people months and months to actually accrue 21 days of not complaining. I mean, I realize that it is a futile effort (Amee even pointed out that we won’t have ANYTHING to talk about if we can’t gossip or complain), but I am hoping that it will help me have a more positive outlook in general. Also the church that started up the whole thing has really cute and completely inoffensive beliefs.

Not much else going on. Am still completely obsessed with American Idol. I have had 2 dreams in which contestants have made cameo appearances. If you want to hear about it, ask me. All I will say is that in one of them, I HELD HANDS (!) with a contestant, and if you know me, you know that's about as risque as my dreams get. Ha.

In an effort to unload some unwanted books from my overflowing library, I'm making an effort to read the chick-lit type books that I have either bought on a whim or received as a gift. I figure I should read them, but probably won't keep them when I'm done, thus reducing the burden on my bookshelf. They almost make me feel dumb because I kind of get involved in the stories and enjoy them, while simultaneously knowing that I have gotten absolutely nothing out of the book whatsoever. But I like some of them. Hmm. Anywho, here's my recent reading list:

The Year of Yes - Memoir in which girl says "yes" to literally anyone who asks her out for one year. I actually liked this one somewhat. The author tries too hard to seem cerebral though. Lots of obnoxious literary references. Lame.

The Room-mating Season - Good grief, this book was stupid. Also lots of awkward romance-novel-ish scenes in which our heroines do it with older men. Blech. The only high point was the fact that sometimes the author would refer to a character by stating their full name and then a key personality trait, like, "Shelley Ewing always was the intelligent one of the group. Yet she had a sparkle in her big brown eyes that suggested something more." Hahahaha. Reminded me of my good old Sweet Valley High books I loved at age 12.

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing - I actually liked this one, and it occasionally had charming insights and good sentences. Reading the section in the middle about her dad was painful, but I can actually reccommend this one.

The Lovely Bones - Dead girl watches her family from heaven. Just started this, but it's basically a Lifetime movie so far.

Anywho, I should get back to watching America's Next Top Model reruns. I realize that the quality of my reading and tv watching material have taken a nosedive recently, but I really can't handle much more mentally taxing activities until school is done. In the meantime, I love: chick-fil-a shakes, halfprice books, hanging out with Erik, my family, and brown boy supreme. I am omitting the "I hate" segment of the blog due to aforementioned attempt not to complain. Listen to your Talking Heads and smile! Oh what I wouldn't give for a Talking Heads-themed week on American Idol!

My heart

2007-03-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

Today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 53. It made me really sad when I first wrote the date on a memo this morning at work and realized it. I cried in public numerous times (which is always great) and I'm pretty sure my team from school thinks that they have driven me to tears because I am stressed about our project. Albeit this has helped to motivate them so I will stop crying already.

Anywho, I think I was just sad because I couldn't call him and tell him happy birthday and I haven't been baking a chocolate cake or shopping for his present all week. I just miss him a lot.

This is just not my week. I'm hoping that once I move and finish this round of tests and presentations I will feel better in April. I'm trying real hard to hold it together.

I promise to update more soon, but in the meantime I'm going to study for my test. Love you.

i'm getting old and i need something to rely on

2007-03-04T22:12:00.000-06:00

You know you are becoming a lame-o when you open up your blog entry with a lyric from a Keane song that is so 2 years ago, you don't even think you like Keane, and you only like the song because the cute boy on American Idol (who you voted for, by the way) sang it on the Tuesday night show.

Oh well.

I wanted to blog last week, but got too busy, so you're getting my now-fuzzy recollection of 2 weeks ago. Sometimes you have these simple days/hours/moments that make you feel really happy, and I had a lot of them that weekend.

My life as I currently know it is never serene or normal or the way I think it should be. That's a sad, depressing fact. There are lots of little things that aren't the same anymore. I don't work with my best pals from my old plant. I only see Amee every few months instead of on a day-to-day basis. And my dad is gone, so my family dynamic is shifted and strange-feeling and I always feel a little lost without him. Sometimes it's hard to face this fact, and I've gotten really good at swallowing my pain and just I dunno, dealing with it, but I can tell you, it sucks all the time and apparently always will.

But there was something about last weekend that made me feel alive and normal and back to my old self. Even if it was just for two days. Maybe because I was done with my first round of tests and completely left schoolwork behind for 3 days. Or maybe because the sun came out and it was safe and warm to play outside. Maybe because I got to ride to Austin with Maria and got to chat with Amee along the way. Maybe because I went out with friends and it felt normal and comfy and happy. Maybe because Amanda called me just to tell me what she ate/drank the night before. Maybe because Aneil and I had a crazy-fun day of arcade games and putt-putt and hot wings. I just felt like I had my old carefree life back for a little while and I loved it. Thanks to everyone who participated in it.

The fun continued on Tuesday when I realized that the dreaded Reliability Conference that I attended was also being attended by my best work friends from Bayport. Oh joy of joys to sit in the smarmy hotel bar having after-work drinks with Dan and Val. And giggle at discussions about safety critical variables with Dona and Ben. Joy.

Things turn back to reality eventually though. Mom and Fro came to town so we could take Mom to the airport to go to the Philippines to see my Grandma (who is real sick). I love that lady, and can only hope she gets better so I can visit her soon too.

This past weekend was also good. I got to hang out with my brother, which is rare, but I can't tell you (or him especially) how much I love to just hang out with him. He is a good egg. Also Aneil came over and we shopped on Westheimer and I got to drink Raspberry beer in the middle of the day, which is always a good thing. I love him the most.

I hope you all have some happy moments this week. Even though they are fleeting, aren't they wonderful? Seriously, full of wonder.

This week I love: mini-M&Ms, raspberry lambic, and reliability conferences. This week I hate: saying goodbye.

up & up you go for to steal the secrets of the heavens...will you share them with me my bright and brilliant spy?

2007-02-18T21:56:00.000-06:00

Spending weekends (mostly) alone can be a treat sometimes, although I miss you all. My school schedule this semester is slightly more exhausting since I am taking an extra class. If I continue at this rate, I will be done with my degree one semester early, which in dog years is like, 3.4 years or something like that.

In addition to constant schoolwork, I am also currently on a self-imposed “budget.” In my latest attempt to play grownup, I am trying to save my money so that I can someday own a home or whatever. When I announced my thrifty new budget plan, one of the actual grownups at work asked me what program I was using to help with my budgeting. This is a fair question, I suppose, since my raison d’etre at work involves meticulously accounting for changes in performance metrics (not unlike meticulous budgeting) so I suppose I have the aptitude for it. But the very idea that I would apply this sort of skill to my actual personal life was pretty laughable…truth be told, my idea of “budgeting” has thus far involved only purchasing clothing from Target or off sale racks, and frequenting the Subway $3.99 fresh value menu. I know it is a slow start, but I am feeling very thrifty and accomplished and am certain to have THOUSANDS of dollars saved in no time.

Studying for inane tests, eating off value menus, and watching 5.5 episodes of “My So-Called Life” on Saturday got me waxing nostalgic about my undergrad experience. This, on top of my lack of showering for 48 hours and re-wearing the same jeans for 3 days actually made me feel like it was 1999 again! I guess enough time has passed since college that I actually recall it with a mix of embarrassment (how could I have been so DUMB) and overwhelming affection. Saturday night, while taking a study break, I yearned for a trip to Will’s dorm room, where we would talk about the universe and its largeness and/or our smallness. And at lunchtime I wanted to call Amanda and make her go with me to ponder over why lord why we didn’t have boyfriends and eat mountains of thai noodles. Then we would feel super decadent and call Chad and make him go with us to buy second-hand treasures and collectibles to decorate our apartments. And I would force my poor roommate (and in her absence, her cat) to help me analyze in great detail every email and/or IM conversation with boys: a) I liked, b) I made out with but didn’t really like, c) I thought maybe liked me but couldn’t tell, d) who really just needed help with their thermodynamics homework, but maybe there was a subtext about loving me?

So yes, hearing Angela Chase muse over how she kept waiting for life to begin and for something to happen and for things to really kick start her life made me wistful for the time when I felt the same way…and when hanging out with friends was something I took for granted. But I guess we can’t be Angela forever. Decisions have been made, life has happened. Friends have gotten married and they’re having babies. Loved ones have been lost. Hearts have been broken and healed again. Is this what I was yearning for?

I feel so far removed from my angsty former self, but am desperately in love with her anyway.

Anywho, back to this week…I hate: stomach viruses, veggie booty for its questionable but totally possible involvement in the great stomach revolt 2007, the fact that during illness I watched a marathon of “Grease: you’re the one that I want” and now I actually sort of care about the outcome. This week I love: you (you know who you are), getting mountains of valentine cards from my favorite brown boy, Subway sandwiches, and Jordan Catalano.

cupid, draw back your bow

2007-02-06T21:31:00.000-06:00

Last weekend was Neha's wedding extravaganza. She was unbelievably beautiful, as expected. What is it about brides? I just fall in loooove with them every time. Anywho, here she is getting ready:

The final product was really amazing. I started crying (ridiculous, I know) because she was so pretty! Also all of this stuff was sooooo heavy I have no idea how she could even walk.

The ceremony was surprisingly short at only about 1.5 hours. The priest was real funny and did (approximate) translations for everything. e.g. "So Neha's brother is like, hey, Julian, will you love Neha and make her happy? Then Julian is like, hey, of course. And they are like, hey, okay then." It was charming. He sort of sounded like Strongbad from homestarrunner. Ha. Also, there were mango smoothies and snacks (!) served during the ceremony. YUM. My camera is a lil wonky ever since festivus, so this one is a lil blurry, but it's the only shot I have of the ceremony and it includes Jules:

As promised, here is a photo of me in a sari. It is not really fair because I am standing next to Amee, who always looks amaaazing in Indian clothes, so I look sort of bleh, but I tried real hard. I only sort of felt like a taco, but it was still a relief to take that thing off at the end of the night.

So the ceremony was real nice, and the cocktail hour was fun (me and Aneil ate tons of samosas!). The reception room was gorgeous and so so so nice...I am realizing that my wedding will pale in comparison to my fancy friends. It's fine. There was tons and tons of dancing it sort of felt like one of those dance marathons, but I think we pulled it off well. At the end of the night, Aneil and I were super-sweaty, but still managed to snap one last pic:

We are adorable!

Hope everyone is having a good week. School sucks, but I'm doing okay otherwise. This week I love: weddings, Neha and Julian, songs by Sam Cooke, and Veggie Booty. And I love you!

oh how i love tater tots

2007-01-30T20:52:00.000-06:00

I was real delighted by all the comments about my previous post, so I will address those now:

Sure, let’s be friends. I am always up for hanging out, although it should be noted that I never have “slow time” and pretty much have to be booked 1-2 months in advance. This is not because I am hip or fun, but because of self-inflicted double-booking.
My life is not always wacky and/or good times. You may notice that I only blog approximately 1-2 times per month, so a lot gets packed into those entries. Most of my life is spent reading things like “Reengineering the Corporation” or “Strategic Management” and/or waiting for the next episode of American Idol.
I love my belated Christmas gift. I do indeed love gifts that combine science jokes and rock n’ roll. I will start calling Fro “Phreaux” in the future when he is being particularly Louisiana-ish.
I mean I do like mayonnaise and think it has a place in ham sandwiches and various salads, but I think maybe it has too high of a fat content for me to fully embrace. Also in junior high I was obsessed with this infomercial about this hand blender that you could use to make your own mayo. The image of the eggs getting blended into a jar full of oil has been with me all these years and it makes it hard to eat liberal amounts of the stuff. I tried dipping fries into mayo (per your suggestion) a couple of weeks ago, but I just…didn’t get it. Sorry, sour cream is still A#1 in my book.
But it’s a different story if you’re talking about jalapeno mayonnaise though. OMG it is delicious! We will got to Kerbey together and partake sometime soon.
Not only was there karaoke at my party, but tons of fried lumpia as well. I am very filipino indeed.
I talk to him all the time and date him and whatnot, but I still got nervous/excited when I saw that Aneil posted his first-ever comment on blog. I am pathetic.

Anywho, the past few weeks have been extremely busy. I started school, and I am taking 3 classes this semester as opposed to my usual 2 so that’s already sort of exhausting. One of my classes is online, which I think will be difficult for me, since I am a Procrastinator Supreme. I am also taking an independent study class in which my team is helping complete a valuation of and business plan for a biodiesel start-up. Biodiesel is a pretty cool technology although apparently we couldn’t grow enough crops to replace petroleum even if we covered the whole US with soybeans. If scientists can just figure out how to harvest oil-producing algae, we will be in business. Can you imagine being an algae farmer? Ew. If you’re interested in biodiesel and other alternative fuels check out this link: National Biodiesel Board.

I am getting kicked out of my beloved apartment so that the complex can renovate and add upgrades. This means I have to move to an identical apartment in the same complex, which is stressing me out. I tried to find a new place to live altogether but that proved to be exhausting and expensive, so I will stay put. I have also made a vow to be budget-minded in the meantime, so all the money I am saving by staying in my stupid apartment complex will go into my new money market savings account. I am very excited about it. My goal is to save $15,000 by next year. I think I can do it. I am going to glitter glue a chart similar to the ones used at tele-thons and put it up on my wall.

Also, this weekend is Neha and Julian’s wedding! It is totally surreal, but I am very happy for them. I get to wear Indian clothes, so I am sure to be adorable so I will post pics next week. The sari I am wearing is real cute although my lil Shelley tummy pokes out of it. I don’t mind. So it should be super-fun and I’m already real excited about it. Here is a rough approximation of what I will look like in the sari:
As you may or may not know I am addicted to the Canadian teen drama “Degrassi: The Next Generation”. Only recently have I discovered that the 1980’s original series, “Degrassi Junior High” comes on at like 4am on Saturdays (God bless Tivo!). It is super-dramatic and has pretty bad acting and lots of teenage issues. The current version is much more daring, but I suspect that the 80’s version (which plays like an after-school special in which kids say “a-boot” and “sawry”) was scandalous at the time. I currently have this Degrassi Junior High – Complete Series in my amazon wish list.
I am a dork. Thanks for loving me despite that fact.

What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?

2007-01-14T17:17:00.000-06:00

Hi! So I guess I took a long enough hiatus, and am back in blog business. Hope you all had great holiday and got to hug lots of people you love.

Since last update, I got to have a festivus, which was real fun and of course my heart was nearly bursting with love and happiness. I think everyone had a good time although we didn't manage to have the gift exchange, and there was no dance party portion of the evening. Maybe next year I will ditch the karaoke in favor of dance party. Here is a link to my photos: Festivus 2006.
And here is a link to Bo's much better photos...as it turns out having a) a better camera, and b) well, talent, makes for far superior party pics. This has further humbled me, and my pathetic lack of photography skill: Bo Knows Photos. I hope everyone had a great time...Maria and I are tentatively planning another party in March sometime...maybe in Austin?

Dreamgirls??

Don't mess with us.

Best Frens (plus loads of Chardonnay)

I gaze adoringly at Chad and Reido.

Like cute Neapolitan Ice Cream.

Super cuteness. They are probably laughing at...

Me and Fro rocking out brother/sister style.

See? Bursting with Happiness!

I then went home for Christmas. Fro's cute new gf came along for Christmas eve too so she was fun to have around. We played board games and gorged on steaks and potatoes...it was glorious. My favorite gift was my new crock pot! I used it this past Friday to make pot roast...you put in raw food, go to work, and when you get home you have a hearty meal! Amazing.

Then New Years was in Austin this year. Mom's BFF threw a party so we went and ate delicious gumbo and filipino food. Afterward, Aneil and I went to his friend Jenny's party, and we danced the night away! It was pretty fun. Also, New Years Eve-eve, Aneil and I went to Alamo Drafthouse with his pal Aly and her bf Klaus, and we watched these guys make fun of Die Hard, Mystery Science Theater style. It was super funny. Then we went out on the town with Aneil's friends John and Johnny. They were most excellent dancers and we had a great time. Aneil and I are all about the boogie lately. Next time we are in Austin, we all have to go to Red Fez and shake our moneymakers together!

I also attended the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Mom and I had fun and the Tigers won, so hurrah!

Here we are in the superdome. It was LOUD.

Fro is the one in the middle playing the quads. We were real proud.

Hooray! Go Tigers!

I have since returned home and after a whirlwind week of driving through Louisiana and Texas, I was exhausted. So this past week has been all about maxing and relaxing (chillaxing?) so that was glorious. I start school this week, so it will be back to constant activity for the next few months, but I don't mind.

Here is a list of things I love this week:

White Condiments - I have been putting sour cream on most foods, but for sweets I prefer cool whip.
Sarah Mclachlan's cover of Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection." It nearly brought me to tears last week. Just so pretty.
The SAINTS! NFC Championship here we come!!!
My Boss - made me a pan full of homemade lemon bars and they were delicious...how cool is that guy? Also he quoted "The Big Lebowski" during lunch and couldn't stop giggling about it.
"Irreplaceable" by Beyonce. I realize it is a lil dumb and she rhymes the word "minute" with, well, "minute", but I love it so.
The TV show "Sports Night". Have you seen it? You should.

This will have to do for now. Before I sign off, here is a great recipe I tried for super-low-fat pita pizzas. They were DELICIOUS. I recommend dipping them in SOUR CREAM.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place pita on cookie sheet and spread store bought pizza sauce on it (I used Contadina...it came in a squeeze bottle!).
Top with mozzarella cheese and sprinkle on some Italian seasoning.
For toppings, I used low fat turkey pepperoni (which is surprisingly really good) and I sauteed some onions, peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes in olive oil. YUM.
Bake 6-8 minutes.
Enjoy!

Love you all!

Who Dat?

2006-12-11T20:51:00.000-06:00

Quick update, since I know Amanda and all my other studious best friends need study break distractions (i.e. blog entries) to read and comment on. You are all adorable…it is ridiculous.

This past weekend was fun, although I got sick on Thursday night (of COURSE) so was feeling yucky all weekend. Not to worry, it was just a little cold, but it still kept me from all of my fun outdoorsy plans. Aneil came over (hooray!) and we went to holiday dinner with my coworkers. We actually had a nice time, and ate a super decadent meal…since I was sicky we figured since we weren’t drinking we could splurge on fancy entrees instead (brilliant!). My coworkers are all grownups, but most of them are really cute and fun and friendly so it was a good time. Aneil sat next to the one guy (my coworker’s husband) at the party that could quote Bill Murray movies and/or “Almost Famous” so they did that all night…ha, it was like ope I’ve lost him to “movie quote guy” much in the way I typically lose him to “Golden Tee”. But he was a super-charmer and everyone commented on our cuteness so hurrah.

Saturday my cold was in full effect, so we just watched tv and lounged about all day. He even indulged me and took me to Freebirds, but I could only eat half of my Half Bird, which was pretty pitiful, and further evidence that I was indeed very very sick. Heh. Also, “The Santa Claus Movie” from the 1980’s is NOT as cool as you remember. “Scrooged” is pretty ridiculous. And “The Shop Around the Corner” is more charming than “You’ve Got Mail”. Also my holiday love affair with Jimmy Stewart is in full effect, so I’m thinking about renting more JS movies to warm up for my holiday viewing of “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

Sunday I had to “study” for my Marketing final, so I watched Sunday Night Football while I did that. My dearest New Orleans Saints totally stomped the stupid Dallas Cowboys and I was totally channeling my mom, as I kept yelling at the tv whilst all alone in my apartment. I kept saying things such as “Suck it Tony Romo!” and “Suck it Cowboys!”…who am I? I dunno why, but my family has always haaaated the Cowboys, besides the fact that I am bitter over not being qualified to be a cowboys cheerleader. (Love that show!) Anywho, I think my mom, in one of her famously wacky emails (I swear, her punctuation could make her the new e.e. cummings and/or James Joyce), sums up the Saints win best:

"of course, i watch the game, hollering by myself. the "aints" are awesome and for real this season.not to mention fun to watch. they gave the over rated cowboys a good" whuppin",and showed everyone the new "america's team".talk about knocking down thier shaky pedestal. everyone in the sportsworld picked dallas to win,huh!!showed them. besides, drew brees is my new man,and that reggie bush my new football baby!"

I like that she qualified that Drew Brees is her “man” and Reggie Bush her “baby”…oddly enough I totally agree with that logic!

Not much other news…festivus preparations will be in full effect after my final tomorrow, so I am really excited about that. I can’t WAIT to see everyone. I am already smiling just thinking about it!

Hope everyone has a good studying week!

This week I love: the Saints, Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Aneil, Oreos, and Jimmy Stewart. This week I hate: the Cowboys, post-nasal drip, studying, and saying goodbye on Sunday.

home of the brave lil toaster

2006-12-06T17:43:00.000-06:00

Helloooh my fellow patriots!

I have just returned from our nation’s cap-i-tal. I did not get many pictures, because let’s face it, I am crappy at taking pictures. Luckily my storytelling skills are slightly more advanced, so here we go…

I flew to DC with Amee’s friends, Preya, Rachel and Nisha. We arrived at like, 11pm eastern standard time and we got to see Amee’s cute apartment. It is tiny, but adorably chic and just totally Amee (even smells like her old apt!). It’s in one of those neighborhoods where only young yuppies with BMWs live, but it was real cute. We walked across the street to this bar that was packed with people, and was real loud. Lesson no. 1 about DC: people are rude and are prone to shoving you around. We nearly got knocked out getting off the plane due to crazies shoving themselves down the aisle, and I got tossed about quite a bit at the bar. In their defense, or whatever, most of the people there were drunk out of their gourds (one girl vomited and it almost hit my shoe), but still. Amee’s coworkers were all there (and drunk out of their gourds) but they were all cute white boys and they all adore Amee, so they were charming nonetheless. I decided that the real tall guy was the Jim to her Pam, so I was a lil jealous, as I wish I had a Jim of my own. Oh also, there was this cover band that was full of singers in a House of Pain kind of way, plus drummer, bass, guitar, etc, and they played current songs plus songs that are so last year (Hey Ya), then like, old school hits a la “Push It” and “Summer of 69”. At first I rolled my eyes a lot, but ultimately caved in to their charms (they were actually sort of good!) and bobbed and danced about as best I could whilst not being shoved.

Saturday was shopping extravaganza in Georgetown. I got to cross the Potomac, so I felt very connected to US history and whatnot, then felt connected to current US policy when I shopped till I dropped and deficit spend-ed my way to happiness. There were too many stores to even think about going to each one, and I bought a coat, a blazer, blue ballet flats, 2 lil purses, a tank top, and a skirt that I want to wear to festivus. I gotta say, it was pretty exhausting. I am not very good at shopping without Amee there to tell me what is fashionable and what it is uggo, so I wanted to take full advantage of her skills while I could. But shopping sort of kills me, and as there were no Auntie Anne pretzels in sight, I did not received the required sustenance that I needed to keep my spirits up. Luckily we skipped on the long walk back to the Metro and got a cab back to her place.

Dinner that night was in Chinatown at this Tapas place called Jaleo. It was a cute place, and there was tons of Sangria and whatnot. I got to see Amee’s former coworker Kim, whom I used to hang out with when she lived in Houston. She is real cute and hip and I still love her. I also got to meet her fiancé Tom, who was also real charming and looked a lot like Trey Anastasio, so that was funny. I loved them both because they are totally “my type”, and would totally be best friends in the event that we lived in the same place. I’m pretty sure I charmed my way into an invite to their wedding, so score! Also, Kim’s friend Katie was my dinner date, and I loved her a lot as well. I didn’t get to meet a lot of Amee’s other friends, because we had to split up into 2 tables, so that was a lil dumb, but I got to witness the cake portion of the evening, so yay.

Post-dinner, we tried to go to this club called Indebleu, which ultimately ended up being the equivalent of my personal hell. First, there was this annoying bouncer who claimed it was “guest list only” night, so we stood in this roped off area for alleged losers while these pretentious-looking uggos wearing sunglasses at night and lots of man-jewelry were able to get in. We eventually enter, and the place, as Tom put it, was “packed with assholes”. It was also really loud and smarmy and just so so crowded, you couldn’t even hang out with your friends, really. I was super-irritated, but luckily I think everyone else was too, because we left there after about 30 minutes and headed across town to this other place, where Amee’s friend knew of a brown party at another club. It was a lot more fun, because it was still crowded, but you could actually move around, and the people there didn’t shove as much, so that was a welcome relief. The music was actually real good, and every 8 songs or so they would play Indian “da club” music, and Amee would get really excited and sing along, so it was all worth it. I did miss my own brown boy a lot though, because there were tons of boys there but none of them were him (3 weeks since seeing him and counting). I found one awkward-looking bearded guy with a hoodie on, and pretended that was Aneil and I felt a little better just knowing he was there.

Before we skipped town on Sunday, we went back into the city to eat lunch, sample salty oatmeal cookies at Teaism, and see Dupont Circle in action (kudos to Rachel for quoting “The American President” while we were there). Although there were rude people and whatnot, I liked DC a lot, and it was very cosmopolitan and charming and had great public transportation systems, so I approve. I am also glad Amee fits in so well there and that she has a lot of friends to look after her. Good trip all around.

Sorry Amanda, we didn’t see Abe, but I almost bought a presidential action figure version of him from Skymall for you.

In other news, LSU is going to the Sugar Bowl (think it has something to do with USC losing to UCLA, but I am not caught up on Sportscenter, since I just had the girliest of weekends ever). However, I can easily predict an LSU blowout over Notre Dame (I mean, come on people!).

Also, they are doing the nomination hearing for Robert Gates, the possible new Sec. of Defense. I mean, is it really necessary to poke and prod at the guy just to get him to admit that we are losing in Iraq? If I were him and I got asked whether we were losing in Iraq, I would have responded with an eye roll and a “no doi” and been done with it. I suppose this is why Bush has yet to nominate me for anything.

The whole Russian spy radiation scandal makes me think of Alias, and now I wonder just how much creepy Rimbaldi-esque stuff is going on in the world right now. Also I wonder if there really are spies that look like Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan (le sigh).

I just bought a new iPod nano (my first iPod!) and I am super excited. I have already started composing playlists for Christmas festivus. "Last Christmas" by Wham!, anyone? Anyone? Get ready to shake those moneymakers!

Anywho, this week I hate: shoving in general, no brown boy visits for 3+ weeks, and not being done with finals yet. Things I hate this week that everyone else seems to love: Laguna Beach, sangria, and cheesecake. And finally, this week I love: independent book stores, rose-flavored soap, Beauty and the Geek reruns on MTV, and beautiful public transportation systems.

define a transparent dream

2006-11-30T22:55:00.000-06:00

Sorry no posts. I had a final exam plus have been in Louisiana. But there’s no excuse for letting all you lovers and/or haters down. I sorry.

Instead of trying to chronologically log the last 3 weeks of my life, I will use a Cheers/Jeers system to recount the highlights:

CHEERS to the Ewing family. We don’t hang out as a unit that much anymore, and okay, we had one minor meltdown about 3 hours into LSU-Ole Miss game weekend, but that was probably just re-adjustment to constant togetherness. I would venture to say that we did pretty well with Thanksgiving…lots of turkey, lots of casserole items, lots of football, lots of funsies in general. Highlights are Fro’s final home football game, meeting his new gf and actually being charmed, drinking hurricanes and watching LSU beat Arkansas, 2%-ing my way through the A&M game (i.e. declaring “we will lose we always do”) but then doing a dance of joy when we won, the family movie “Zathura” that we watched as a family, and turkey coma.

JEERS to Gilmore Girls in general. I don’t get it anymore (new writers are poops). It is sort of like I was in love with GG, then we started growing apart, and now it is just trying to be so terrible that I will just go ahead and break up with it myself. Lorelai marries Christopher in Paris? Whaaa? No more witty banter? Seriously, the best pop culture reference we can get is “let’s all wear uggs to our 2002 themed party”? No more “la la la’s”? Why lord why? I am so disheartened by our dying love, and I think that it is appropriate to quote Carole King (who sings the GG theme song FYI) and say: “It’s too late baby, now it’s too late, though we really did try to make it…something inside (i.e. the writing) has died and I can’t hide it I just can’t fake it…no noooo!”

CHEERS to Smart Ones frozen meals for making the most delectable low calorie meal ever, “Santa Fe Style Rice and Beans”, which I have been consuming on an almost daily basis for the past month, and actually reallllly missed for the 4 days I was in Lake Charles eating high-calorie homemade foods.

JEERS to the BCS. Yes, blog fans, I strangely know a large amount about this year’s BCS at-large picks, besides the fact that I actually know the term “BCS at-large”. The other Ewings looooove College Football, and I watched Sportscenter more in the past 2 weekends than in my entire life. Everyone should cross their fingers and hope for LSU in the Rose Bowl (come on people, they are in the top 5 but may not get a BCS bowl?), and make a mean face and direct it toward Notre Dame, who will always and forever get picked because they will draw in more ticket sales (damn that Rudy!).

CHEERS to best friends who attended Benjy’s happy hour. i.e. 2 best brown girls + Kevin. Maria told me that she and Amee marveled at the fact that Kevin managed to incorporate himself into the brown gal bunch. I think it is mostly because he commented that white girls are hard to tell apart, and then let us watch The Bachelor while he did some sort of fantasy football thingy. Also I loved how both Amee and Megha say the letters “O M G” aloud. And the fact that none of us wanted to touch the calamari pieces that looked too octopus-like. Eww. And getting extra drunk and eating cheese-its and watching “The Office” is real great.

JEERS to The Bachelor. I mean, I watched it this season, simply because we always watch it but I dunno if I can do it anymore. Rule of thumb is that anyone with a spark of personality gets eliminated, and if you are bland you may get selected. You also have to refer to the “romantic journey” ad nauseum, and constantly say the phrase “I have strong feelings for you”. Lorenzo, good luck with your bland pretty teacher from Florida.

CHEERS to Aneil, just because I miss him A LOT, and won’t see him until Dec 8th, which will make it nearly a month since last time I saw his furry face. I like this photo of him…he is dressed up as Marty McFly, but just in case no one confused him for Michael J. Fox’s doppelganger, he built a flux capacitor to tote around on Halloween. Also the fact that a flux capacitor, best friend, and Lone Star beer can make him look this happy basically sums up why I love him so. (That and his knowledge of the movie Short Circuit and his sparkle eyes.):
JEERS to studying for your management final only to discover that nothing you have read/memorized for the past week was actually on the ridiculous exam.

CHEERS to seeing Amee this weekend and then seeing 1 million other best friends for Christmas.

kick off your sunday shoes

2006-11-12T21:46:00.000-06:00

Hi! I am old now. It's fine. I had a great party though. Many thanks to my #1 best boy, Aneil, for helping make it all happen. Planning a simple bday party is quite the to-do, so I'm pretty sure I will never be able to have a wedding. I will post as many pics as I can (read: as many as I can tolerate due to blogger's charming quirks), then I will provide a flickr link to the rest of them.

First, shout-out to favorite boy! I find him charming and he was instrumental in planning the party. i.e. he made reservations, bought cake, balloons, and picked up the tshirts. So yeah, he did everything. He dotes on me. I dont mind.

Our crowning achievement was the party favor bags in which everyone received an I (heart) Pie tshirt from Boomerangs. Here are some hot girls modelling them:I got 2 yes 2 cakes, one cookie (yum!) and one cookie monster:

Since I had 2 cakes I decided that the candle-blowing effort counted as cardio, so I treated myself to a piece of each kind of cake. (Here's the most cleavage you will ever see on this blog):I received lots of beautiful gifts, and was so super-excited to receive them, as evidenced by this photo:

After the pizza party, we headed to Emo's to see Tilly and the Wall. Surprisingly, Amee (who came all the way from D.C.!) wins the award for most enthusiastic glitter-thrower:I strangely did not get any best-friend photos with Amanda (weeeird!) but I did manage to snap a photo of her, plus Aneil's best friend John, so I guess that will have to do:Okay, I am exhausted from all the picture posting, so I will end with this one...I feel like my gift from Amanda pretty much sums me up:Other photos can be found at flickr (let me know if the link doesn't work!)

After Tilly a bunch of us went to Beauty Bar for dancing and other antics. I think my favorite thing about birthday was that Amee had the most fun of anyone at the rock show, and Amanda had the most fun dancing at da club. Bizarro universe, sure, but fun for everyone!

Thanks again for helping me celebrate!

count your blemishes...you can't, they're all gone

2006-10-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

Weekends + rock shows + best friends = happiness!

Friday night I trekked up to Austin for my belated Valentine's Day gift: Built to Spill concert for me plus 3 friends. The 3 I chose were Aneil, Chad, and Amanda. Alex added himself to the mix, and was a welcome addition indeed.

Built to Spill, whom I adore, are pretty awesome in general, but when they "jam" it sort of kills me a little. Hi hello I love pop songs which are typically 4 minutes tops, so the extended jam is a little exhausting. Here's some incessant jamming in action:

Luckily, however, their set was basically a greatest hits collection. Here is a good one of Doug (complete with fluffy beard) playing my favorite, Carry the Zero:

Here I am attempting to casually make a photo in which we look like we're a couple, but due to awkward camera angle my head is larger than his entire body.

Amanda and Alex attempt to pose for multiple cameras paparazzi style:

I love these two:

The cosmos were working in our favor, because multiple best friends appeared later at Club Deville, since Sean's band played a show down the street also! I loooove running into best friends out on the town and it was much fun indeed. Some of Aneil's friends were there too, so it was festive indeed. Here are some cuties:

Neha and Sonal are adorable sisters:

We are not sisters, but apparently are in love with our own, and each other's faces:

These lemon drops were the beginning of the end for Amanda:

I like this boy:

Unfortunately I didn't take any pics at lunch the next day, but it was lovely, as there were meat pies and Sean and Carol and Amanda and Alex and Kat and Such and Chad and Aneil. I had the best time ever! And gorged myself on flaky buttery yumminess.

Aneil and I went on anniversary special date Saturday night. First, he took me to Cavender's Boot City to try on boots:

I liked them but am going to wait before purchasing because as it turns out boots are pricey! But I look sort of adorable I think! We also tried 2 fancy restaurants, but the wait time was ridiculous so we ended up at my fave, Z Tejas, where I ate the richest most delicious fish ever. I washed it all down with rum, so by 10:30 I thought I might pop and/or pass out...oh! the epicurian lifestyle I lead! Extravagant! So instead of a night out on the town with friends or a movie date, I opted to have Aneil take me home so I could change into pajamas and fall asleep during the SNL monologue. Pathetic.

So, good weekend overall. It turns out I love: rock music, best friends, boyfriend, meat pies, cocktails, and overeating. No doi.

In weekday news, I had to come home and cram for my Marketing test but I think I did okay. The rest of the week I will be busy putting together my Management paper. School is exhausting, and apparently studying while simultaneously watching "Scrubs" season 4 works pretty well.

Houston janitors have gone on strike due to the recent formation of a janitor union, so it might start getting stinky in our building. Today the building manager went from bathroom to bathroom to drop off bottles of liquid soap, since there was no one to refill the soap dispensers in the bathrooms. Oy.

I am an idiot and had to call Tivo to make sure I understood how to fast forward/rewind. Apparently when you fast forward it auto rewinds a little to allow for better commercial manuevering. Brilliant, but apparently confusing for little brown girls trying to Tivo "The Bachelor".

Apparently Yellowstone National Park is sitting on top of a potential "mega-volcano" and if it ever erupts it will wipe out all of mankind and restult in an ice age. Ruh roh.

FM radio observations from my trip to Austin:

1) Light rock radio plays entirely too much Faith Hill. Also she sucks. The song "This Kiss" gets worse every time it is played, and could very well cause the Yellowstone mega-volcano to build enough pressure to erupt any day now. Light FM must be stopped! Her other song, "I love the way you love me" or something like that, may even be worse.
2) Celine Dion's Titanic song has not held up very well (i.e. it sucks so so much), despite its Oscar win. Blaugh.
3) The Beach Boys' "Kokomo" is really really awesome. This is true even when considered completely independently from its association with "Cocktail" (although who doesn't love a good Elisabeth Shue movie?) and viewed apart from the Beach Boys' brilliant catalogue. It's just great, great great.

I read a funny article today rating the top hits of 1964 and the writer's review of Doo Wah Diddy is hilarious. Here is a sampling:

As you can see by my dramatic re-creation of Mr. Mann's inner monologue, I am generally underwhelmed by this tune. HOWEVER. Its Wikipedia page does contain what I believe to be the greatest sentence in the history of Wikipedia: ''The song would later achieve worldwide fame when it was performed by Jesse and the Rippers on Full House, sometimes in medley with the Beach Boys' 'Kokomo.'''

As anyone who knows me could attest, I love Full House in a weird way. I'm sure once I figure out the damn Tivo functionality I will start recording reruns off TVLand. I love Uncle Jesse and the Rippers and their belief that a 60's cover band with no original material could maybe just maybe land a record contract with a major label! Love it!

2 ,yes 2, "Kokomo" references in one journal entry! Score!

Happy Day!

2006-10-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

1) Jeffrey WINS! Project Runway. I'm going to reference my previous post, and make note that I was completely correct that he did not cheat, but was over-budget and had to lose the wigs. (But wasn't Tim Gunn adorable with all his crying and proud dad behavior?) Also, today I found the dress I purchased last weekend online, and it was part of Shelli Segal's "Rock n' Roll meets Hollywood Glamour" collection, so obviously it makes sense that I love Jeffrey's rock n' roll aesthetic. (Or, "goth", as Michael Kors would say). At any rate, hurrah for Jeffrey. (And for gorgeous Marilinda, the model.)

2) Tivo arrived! I think I have it all hooked up, but apparently it takes some time to set up so I might try it after Top Chef, but I am so excited!

3) Top Chef premiered and the new host is hot and only slightly less robotic, but still an improvement. I like that they specifically noted that Tom Caligula (or whatever his name is) is NOT an avuncular charming Tim Gunn-type mentor, but a mean mean judge. THIS is the reason that Top Chef won't replace Project Runway in my heart in the off-season, but I DO love food, so we'll see how the season turns out.

4) I made a 97 on my Management test! Hooooray!!!!!

5) Apparently I have lost 1 lb this week!

6) I see Amanda and Chad and Aneil in less than 2 days!

7) All 3 of my favorite brown girls are coming to my birthday party next month.

8) I SEE AMANDA CHAD AND ANEIL IN LESS THAN 2 DAYS!

le happy sigh

quick summary

2006-10-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

Wilco makes me happy. Excellent show with 2 encores and a happy enthusiastic crowd. Plus Jeff Tweedy is freaking adorable. Plus there was a best friend collision extreme, with Amanda, Alex, and law school pal Amos, plus Aneil and his 2 best friends, Jenny and John. I think the group dynamics were okay though, and everyone had a lot of fun.

After the show, we went to Oak Hills for some post show cocktails and pizza. (visit Amanda's blog for photos and witty commentary)

I hated to say goodbye to such cute kids on Saturday, but luckily I was still able to hang out with Amanda the rest of the day at the fancy mall adjacent to Fiesta Texas. We were shopping for dresses for her to wear to a wedding, but I am the one who ended up buying a dress. Did you know Neiman Marcus only accepts American Express or Neiman Marcus credit? What's with that? Even McDonald's accepts Visa! Whatever. I am now a Neiman Marcus credit account holder...I'm sure that account will see tons of action in the next year, since I love to buy couture and designer brand items. Bleh.

We also drank Godiva Elixir, which was a delicious chocolately treat that you should all try!

In other news, I bought a Tivo! It arrives in 3 days and I can't wait. Obviously now that I am a Neiman Marcus shopper I can afford such extravagance! You can rewind TV! I can record Ugly Betty while I watch The Office! Holy crap! And the countdown to television bliss begins...

Project Runway finale tomorrow...prediction: Jeffrey is not found guilty of cheating, but is over budget and can't use the blonde wigs he planned to use for his models. I love his collection, so I am hoping I am correct and he gets to compete. Also, Amanda and Alex introduced me to Top Chef, which is the equivalent of PR but with food, so luckily I will have something to Tivo until PR comes back for a new season.

I am pretty uninteresting lately, but I'm blaming it on school work and lack of spare time to cultivate my quirks and whatnot. I will try to pick up some slack by visiting darling brown boy and seeing Built to Spill this Friday. Yes, I am going to Austin the weekend before my test. I'm craaazy!

I just got super excited whilst watching "Made" because the geeky girl who was made into a pageant queen got a kiss on the cheek from her crush, the guy who watches Stargate with her. I freaking love this show!

In summary, this week I love: tater tots with What-A-Burger ketchup, the fact that Amanda understands my love for What-A-Burger ketchup, the fact that Aneil doesn't understand my love for What-A-Burger ketchup yet accepts it nonetheless, everyone I saw Wilco with, Wilco, Sushi Zushi, the very thought of Tivo, keeping in touch with old friends, and young love. This week I hate: the very thought of my Management project, my bizarre addiction to Starbucks vanilla lattes, Houston drivers, and the fact that at this moment I'm not eating tater tots with What-A-Burger ketchup.

my ideal evening

2006-10-11T21:35:00.000-05:00

So I finished my management exam, which was real long and entirely made up of essays, but I felt good about it (at least I was able to write something for each question), so that's good.

And after a solid week of dieting, exercising, studying, and being hopped up on espresso, I came home, put on pajamas, made cheese toast, and am currently drinking a lone star beer and watching the Project Runway season finale.

All that's missing is a handful of best friends and a cute brown boyfriend, and this could be the best evening of all time.

Hope everyone else is smiling. In 2 days I will be watching Wilco and it will be grand.

and you may tell yourself - this is not my beautiful wife!

2006-10-10T20:44:00.000-05:00

Hey beauties.

The past couple of weeks have been significantly less eventful than the previous weeks’ and their constant vacations, but I will do my best to keep it interesting.

The other day I was driving home from work and I stopped at a red light and 2 men crossed the street in front of me. As he was walking, the big guy pulled his shirt up over his belly (I guess he was hot?) and just sort of held it there, belly exposed, and kept on walking. It was so funny...and I had to of course fight the impulse to get out of my car and hug his big ol' belly. That's the thing...I love bellies! My brown boy has a little one and I love it. By definitition I am supposed to hate bellies, since they are unhealthy and I don't want to lose any other loved ones to heart disease, but I can't help loving them! Maybe because my dad had a big furry belly and I loved hugging it too. My best frens may even remember my long ago fascination with "fluffy" boys and my unfortunate experience with one named Will Rogers (never before in the history of the world had a pretty hipster so thrown herself at a chubby OPAS exec). At any rate, I guess I've given up on overall fluff, but I gotta say, it's harder to give up the belly.

Speaking of bellies, check out the cute fluffy snowman/penguin statue I purchased today. When you press the button it sings, and the snowman dances and the penguins jingle bells. Can you believe they are already selling Christmas stuff?

Other things I have been thinking about:

1) How do they make store-bought hamburger buns? If it’s just a whole bun that is cut in half, why are the edges so smooth? Why was there never a Mr. Rogers episode in which he visited his neighborhood large-scale bread manufacturing facility? (oh man, his visit to the crayon factory was awesome)

2) Has anyone (besides me) noticed the amount of sexy that has been brought back lately? I mean, I’ll go ahead and say it, “Justin Timberlake, mission accomplished!” Here is a plot not only of the national average amount of sexy but my own personal sexiness, shown pre-JT and post-JT. (shown as percent sexiness):

Also, (and I don’t think this is a coincidence) the mastermind behind it all is the strangely charming, belly-toting Timbaland, further evidence that bellies are sexy, um back, um sexy/back. (Note the huge % increase in the chart above.)

3) Is it wrong of me to be rooting for evil Jeffrey on Project Runway? I think it’s a combination of the judges comments exasperating me (one week he is awarded for being rock n’ roll, then the following week they say he is too rock n’ roll and needs to tone it down, so the next week when he tones it down, he is berated for not keeping it real). Ugh. Also I’m glad he stuck around so we get one more week of Michael Kors incorrectly referring to his style as “goth”. And let’s face it: given the choice I would obviously opt for Jeffrey or Uli to be my stylists. Also, I think as my love for Tim Gunn grows, Michael Kors is less and less appealing. Sort of like when you have a boyfriend you looove you sort of lose interest in checking out other guys altogether. This is further proof that my love of Tim Gunn is indeed pure and true (love, truuuue love).

4) Why is “Flavor of Love” so appealing? Aneil (who does not have cable) is constantly perplexed about why I would watch such a thing, but when he came over this weekend, he too, was completely hooked. Our genuine excitement that a new episode was coming on was alarming. It’s just laugh aloud funny and perplexing and shocking all at once. And every time he kisses one of his ladies, he exclaims “Flavor Flav!” Why???

In non-pop-culture news, I was 3-for-3 in terms of hanging out with best girl friends last weekend. Amanda was in town for a bridal shower, Maria came over after she left to have dinner with me, then Amee stopped by after visiting her parents! Eeep! I love all of those girls!

Also, brown boy and I made it to our 1st anniversary as a couple. This was met with not much fanfare, as we live in 2 different cities, but there were lots of icky phone calls about love and whatnot. He is great, and I might have completely fallen apart this past year without him so yay brown boy! (Also he is cute, so that’s a relief.)

Thursday I am going to a meeting with my company’s VP of Engineering. We want to tell him we need to spend millions of dollars on compressor components. I really don’t belong in such a high-powered situation, I don’t think. And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

I have a management test tomorrow so I should get back to learning about motivation theories and whatnot (laaaame). This weekend I am going to San Antonio, where I will see Amanda + Wilco + Brown Boy, so I can’t complain at all! Life is busy but sunny this week, so hurrah!

like throwing a popsicle into a volcano

2006-09-19T23:22:00.000-05:00

I survived ACL Festivus 2006! Here is a link to all my pics:

Here's a link to Amanda's pics complete with best fren hanging out photos from Saturday night.

If you want to actually see musician's faces and whatnot, check out Lauren M's photos on her blog. Just goes to show what a press pass, fancy camera, and you know, talent, can do for you.

Anywho, I am slowly recovering from festivus. I'm a lil sunburnt and tired and for whatever reason my eyes are still real red, I'm assuming from some combo of allergies and sweat/sunscreen in the eyes all weekend. I started with a very ambitious lineup, but the crowds + heat made it sort of unrealistic. Here's what I saw:

Friday:
Guster (saw first half...sweated out my entire 32 oz. iced tea)
Wolf Parade (so so awesome and rockin...i love Canada!)
Gnarls Barkley (we were real far away, so the sound was pretty sucky, but they were pretty good)
Cat Power (loved her hotness combined with sultry voice and extreme awkwardness. also loved her backup singers and wished i had backup singers)
Ray Lamontagne (hot anglo-Jesus-looking singer songwriter...real talented and hottt)
Van Morrison (sound + crowd rudeness made this sucky)
John Mayer (heard the end of his set while at the Waterloo hut...pretty rockin guitar playing, but then he encored with his radio hit, so that was sort of grating)

Saturday:
Centro-matic (played my favorite song "Love Has Found Me Somehow"!)
Ghostland Observatory (Kenny thought it was a woman, but pretty sure singer was a very agile dude)
Ben Kweller (poor darlin got a double nose bleed and couldn't finish his set...ended with a pretty good tune though)
Secret Machines (I don't remember it was so hot at this point that's all i could focus on)
The Shins (pretty eh show due to sound quality...indie pop doesn't hold up too well on big festivus stages, I suppose)
Calexico (tried to will them to play Alone Again Or, but to no avail)
Explosions in the Sky (pretty fantastic and delightfully LOUD)
Willie Nelson (greatest hits galore, although sound quality sucked (again) love that guy, though

Sunday:
(Slow start on Sunday, and instead of moving around, just watched a couple of shows in their entirety due to sheer exhaustion.)
White Ghost Shivers (wacky vaudeville-esque Austin band...real talent + baudy humor)
Flaming Lips (we got pretty close and it was goofy fun times indeed complete with inflatable human bubble, go-go dancer alien chicks, a choir of santa clauses, large alien and spaceman dancing balloons, fake blood, confetti guns, super hero guitar techs, and hit singles)
Tom Petty (started raining real hard in the middle of his set...plus there were so many people it was hard to hear from as far back as we were, but we did hear some greatest hits.)

All in all a very fun weekend indeed. Amanda, Alex, and Erik made it to the festivus, plus we got to hang out with Kat and Such on saturday night. Also, plenty of Aneil's friends made cameos. It was real great. Although the heat was still pretty intense, although an improvement over last year. I wished I could've seen more shows, but there were just too many people so it was slow going between stages. Doh. Also why oh why was Stars playing while Wolf Parade played? Doh again.

And I feel it necessary to mention the delicious meat pies and sweet tea. Mmmm.

So, this year's festivus was a success indeed. Although I am exhausted due to a trip to Corpus for a meeting on Monday. (8 hrs of driving isn't the best way to top off a festivus weekend.) My Marketing test is done and done, so hopefully the rest of this week won't be too bad.

So, this week I love: best friend reunions, rocking, rolling, and meat pies. I hate: the fact that I watched "Center Stage" while I could've been studying last night, lack of a new Project Runway this Wed, my ridiculously overactive sweat glands, people who litter, and the crappy customer service at the Watermark hotel in San Antonio.

ain't no mountain high enough

2006-09-13T22:51:00.000-05:00

I’m back down to sea level and have had a hectic work-school-birfday-project runway filled week, so this is my first chance to post.

Colorado (specifically Estes Park) was pretty fabulous looking. Like, if Houston is the awkward somewhat smelly guy in your homeroom that you think is nice, but ultimately hope to avoid, Estes Park is the great looking jock with big muscles who is surprisingly nice to everyone. For example, here is the view from the house where we stayed:

The mountains are just THERE, like, just so brazen and THERE. Purple mountain majesty, right there in your face. They are gorgeous and make you feel really really small. Also they air is noticeably cleaner, and lacking in those charming evil particulates I am used to inhaling every day. Although when hiking up small hills I would get winded. Apparently I am an oxygen pig.

The first day there, me + Kim + Dona + Val went to town for burgers and cookies and shopping galore. As a nod to Angela’s “auf”-ing on Project Runway, I let the “crazy necktie lady” at the craft fair dress me up in crafsty couture made exclusively with neckties fashioned into rosettes. I actually look sort of cute, I think. Of course I purchased the hat, although I have absolutely nowhere to wear it. Hmm.

Next day we actually hiked about the national park. It was a lil exhausting, but super fun and really pretty. I kind of got carried away taking pictures, but I couldn't help it. Here are my girls in front of the waterfall we found:

That's Dona (former boss), Kim (engineering guru), and Val (super cool animal loving role model).

I also was real enamored by the elk. If you would like to view my 5 million photos of elk, I will be happy to send them to you. Apparently it is elk mating season, so they were out and about. Here are 2 fellas fighting over a girl, or something:

I also fell in love with these Aspen trees, because their leaves sparkle in the wind/sun. Here I am making myself at home with a clump of them:

So the trip was a success! And I returned for a couple of days only to leave again on Friday for mom's birthday in Lake Charles. We had much fun, with pistolettes, and redneck karaoke, and mom's spectacular roast beef, and birfday cake and best frens. Much fun indeed.

And after another crazy work/school week, I am headed out tomorrow for ACL festivus. If you are in Austin, we must hang out. I can't wait!

In summary, this week I hate: the (non-walk-in) closet-like size of my new cubicle, the fact that I watched a "Flavor of Love" marathon, and my upcoming Marketing midterm. This week I love: Jif peanut butter, the American version of The Office, soap that smells like apples, and crawfish pistolettes.

Gotta go (re)pack. Lub to all!

and the dish ran away with the spoon

2006-08-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

Very good week so far. Friday my dearest brown boy managed to hitch a ride with his friend to Houston, so that meant special date for Shelley! We went to one of our favorites, Maggiano’s, to giggle over the song selections of the resident piano crooner (who else would follow up Frank Sinatra’s “New York New York” with Cameo’s “Word Up”?), and eat mountains of Caesar salad and spaghetti (meat sauce AND meatballs…i.e. Amanda style). An aside: Amanda, someday you should try meat sauce + meatballs PLUS marinara for an extra treat…I will take you to Maggiano’s on a special date next time you are in town.

Anywho, we also went to House of Pies and Aneil won me this supersweet toy out of the claw machine:

It is a flying cow and I’ve named it Julio.

On Saturday we trekked to College Station for Maria’s marathon birthday celebration. I’ve already teased her for having a birthday lunch instead of dinner, since we ended up hanging out at her parent’s house and eating their food allll day. This had it’s perks, however, because there was a large game of Cranium, hanging out with Maria’s nephew Thomas, and a real competitive Jenga tourney. That night I drank 2 chuggers + a pint I think + 1 shot so I was pretty much a goner. That is A LOT of beer. I also ate glorious glorious cheese fries from Fitzwilly’s and attempted to drunkedly play shuffleboard. It was fun but the following changes to College Station were extremely disturbing:

1) Thai Taste closed down!!!!!!
2) Nipa “Hot” closed down!!!!!!!
3) There are about a million new restaurants (TGI Fridays and the like) along the previously barren portion of University Drive
4) Duddley’s has been renovated such that
a. The bar has a backlit fancy liquor display. Yes, liquor. At Duddley’s.
b. The Ms. Pac Man table is GONE
c. The booths have been upgraded.
d. They have added a damn Golden Tee machine…I realized this when Aneil and Casey simply never returned to our table after they went to get drinks from the bar.

I did not get to go to Los Nortenos, so that was disappointing, but I DID get to see my darling Chad and he was pretty and wonderful as usual.

Sunday I was feeling pretty ooky from all the beer and/or sleeping on the floor and/or waking up toooo early, but once I ate my leftover mountain of spaghetti I felt better. Maria and I even had an Emmy viewing party, although I realized that I really don’t watch any of the shows up for awards. It was pretty pathetic. Conan, however, was very funny (as expected). Oh also the one show I actually watch (Project Runway) lost to The Amazing Race, of all things! Pretty disappointing. Also did any of you watch the red carpet pre-show?? The hosts were so freaking awkward and asked the celebs the most inane/insulting questions ever. The weird little dude would ask people about Tom Cruise’s mystery kid and/or say things like, yeah too bad your show was cancelled, hope you win anyway. So so soo awkward.

In other news, I am already way behind in school, but I’ve managed to memorize the four P’s of marketing so hopefully I’ll make Erik proud. This weekend I head to Colorado for my girls’ weekend with my old coworkers from the plant. Apparently the highs are in the lower 70’s and the lows in the mid 40’s so I can’t wait. (No excessive sweating for 3 whole days!)

Lub you all!

you've got soul you've got class...

2006-08-24T19:10:00.000-05:00

Hello beauties.

I am back to life back to reality after our fancy "no, really, believe us, we're upper class" spa weekend. I've decided that a) it is always better to stay in a fancy hotel, b) spas are sort of funny because everyone is naked underneath their plush bathrobes, c) you can never drink too much fancy lemon water, and d) room service is the best thing ever.

Mom and I made it to San Antonio and immediately received fancy 1.5 hour pedicures. As it turns out, I loooove pedicures. They do this thing where they put your foot in a bootie filled with warm wax and it is glorious. This is what $100 feet look like:

Shelley

Mom

I figure at $10 per toe, it is worth it. If you factor in the work done on your calves/heels, it is actually only like, $6 per toe, thus basically CHEAP.

Also at fancy hotels there is pointless "turndown" service and while you are getting a pedicure, someone comes and leaves you snacks in your room. Mom enjoys the fancy sugary pecans:

Later at the hotel restaurant, Mom goes on and on to the manager about how she looooved those pecans, so when we got back to our room, there was a gigantic bowl filled with pecans awaiting us:

The next day were our fancy massages and facials. I mean, I guess the massage was okay, but sort of awkward. I liked the facial a lot though. And it was funny, because on your way out of the treatment room you always received a glass of lemony water and grapes. So luxurious. We also would hang out in the "relaxation room" and eat fruits whilst lounging on chaise lounges. Ridiculous but great.

After a long day of exploring and shopping, we met up with my Amanda for dinner. She was pretty and stylish as usual:

So it turned out to be a fun weekend, and we are planning on making it an annual event.

Since then I started school...Marketing and Management. If anyone has any brilliant ideas for an innovative new (fictional) product that I can market for my project, that would be great. I am not creative...helloooo I'm an engineer.

Project Runway was so-so this week. The designers had to make outfits for "real women", namely their mothers and sisters. The twist, I guess, was that they couldn't design for their own mom, but someone else's. More enlightening than the show itself was Tim Gunn's blog, in which he agreed with me that Uli's design was the best, although I was amazed at the normal-ness of Vincent. Except of course when he declared that he was inspired because Uli's mom has "this European air about her". Yes Vincent, it's because she is FROM Europe. Oy. Currently thinking Michael, Uli, and Vincent are headed for the top 3. Yes, I said Vincent...there is always a wild card thrown in...remember Wendy Pepper (season 1) and Santino (season 2)?

This weekend is Maria's birfday festivus in College Station. CHUGGERS! CHAD! CHEESE ENCHILADAS!

Okay, that's it for now. I found a bunch of photos on my camera I never posted, so expect some photo-journal-ing soon.

Lub-dub.

there is no growing in knowing where you're going

2006-08-15T17:48:00.000-05:00

Hello! I have a lot of exciting and thought-provoking topics to discuss today, but first and foremost, I have to talk about the supersweet care package I received in the mail today from my darling tall brown girl! I was finally able to make it to the apartment office before closing time, and retreived my PURSE and my strange lil Barbie notebook. The notebook strangely says:

"Sweat is the sweet des moistening the soul:hands are the wing with which ideals soa into great heights."

I don't understand it at all, but I love it and its sentiment about sweat, since I'm officially the sweatiest woman on earth.

Here is the fancy purse: I looove it because it is dainty and charming, yet surpisingly sturdy (excellent yarn choice!). I imagine Amanda probably was able to crochet it with her eyes closed and/or whilst watching tv, thus making it even more impressive. Now I know that if we ever really did live in a best friends commune, we can rest assured we would be clothed and/or accessorized as long as Amanda is around.

In other news, I feel it's time for my weekly Project Runway update (since the new episode airs tomorrow). Last week, in an attempt to substantiate the claim that "models, this is a competition for you too", the models got to display some personality and choose their designers and, in a surprising twist, choose the "fashion icon" their designer would be designing for.

They even interviewed a couple of the models, actually giving them names and whatnot! Also one model was revealed to be real chatty and annoying...I mean, she annoyed her designer, and he's used to being around pageant queens, so that can't be a good sign! In the end, Michael won, since apparently hot pants are "in", as evidenced by a) Michael's win and b) our observation of lots of hot pants at Cafe Adobe a couple of weeks ago. Here's the winning Foxy Brown-inspired creation:

In other random news, I noticed something odd/interesting a couple of weeks ago. I travelled to one of our manufacturing plants for a meeting, but none of the participants were to be found, so me and the 2 other downtown people wandered up to the engineering floor to see if anyone was around (in their defense, it was 4pm on a Friday). I noticed that this guy who I worked with for a couple of months during a turnaround had an office there...we only worked together for 2 months, and that was over 2 years ago, so needless to say we are friendly but not best friends or anything. Anyway, I stopped by to say hello and noticed that sitting on his desk right next to his computer was the turnaround mega-mix cd I made him 2 years ago! I didn't mention it or anything, and barely even noticed, but as I was driving home, I got to thinking, wow, this person whom I barely even know is still listening to a mix cd I made over 2 years ago! It wasn't weird, just sort of flattering and further proof that I make freaking awesome mix cds. It's strange to know you have some sort of (albeit minor and trivial) impact on random peoples' lives all the time.

As we all know from watching/memorizing High Fidelity, the making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

On the subject of pop music (one of my favorite things) cheers this week to Christina Aguilera, whose new single is sort of great. I still sometimes find her vocal chromatic scale jibber jabber sort of grating, but her new song is pretty damn interesting. Kudos! Also, although I don't really understand his hot-guy appeal, Justin Timberlake deserves some praise for his latest single too. I can't even tell if I like it or not, but it is different and interesting to the ears, so thank goodness for that. Listen to that right after Nick Lachey's cornball ballad, and you will understand what I mean. So, well done former Mouseketeers. Jeers to Jessica Simpson who managed to rip off "Holiday" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" in one song. Good grief, when will the public finally get bored of her again?

Last weekend I visited Aneil's brand new Round Rock Premium Outlet Mall. It was gorgeous and I was gushing with pride because he worked so hard for the city to get it built. We walked through the whole thing, and I bought various and sundry designer items (including a Michael Kors skirt that I intend to wear whilst watching PR tomorrow). So if you are in Austin, make a trip out there and spend some dollars in Round Rock so my Aneil gets a bigger bonus this year.

I parted my hair on the other side last week, and everyone now thinks I got a haircut and/or look great. It's weird. My hair, however, is revolting and continuously tried to revert to the old part, so I keep mashing my hair against my head. I hope to win the battle.

I saw Adrienne today, so that was a treat. She is real pretty and great and was a good roomie for me, since she is the Bert to my Ernie. Also she talks to me about engineering projects, which not many other people do, since no one understands my job. Ah well.

I am really loving the latest book I am reading "The History of Love". Aneil claims that he has turned me into a "romantic" but I'm not sure that this is true. However, it is a relief to enjoy a book so thoroughly after reading a series of duds. "The Kite Runner" was okay but the writing was real sparse and of course, there were the nightmares I had about war. I like this current book, because every so often there's just a really great passage, and it makes me smile or yearn or FEEL something at any rate. Aneil critiques books based on the number of really great sentences that he reads in them, and I have decided to adopt this rating system as well. Lots of good sentences so far. I will chart it all up for you in Excel when I have a chance.

Spa retreat this weekend...that means Mom + Pedicure + Best Friend hanging out! I am so excited. 2 more days!

In summary, this week I love: former mouseketeers and their pop music innovation, blueberry instant oatmeal, red delicious apples, Dawson's Creek marathon on Noggin, and well crafted sentences. I do not love: the crappy stretch of highway between Austin and Giddings, the fact that Lifetime has replaced my 5-6pm Golden Girls with episodes of Reba, and the instability of the ethylene market.

make it work!

2006-08-05T08:24:00.000-05:00

About time for a posty-post. Thanks for all your babe-I-love-you-so-please-don’t-go comments from previous entry. My blog self esteem is renewed, and I feel rejuvenated and prepared to “carry on”.

This has actually been a pretty good week. Last weekend my darling brown boy made a special guest appearance. We went out 2 nights in a row! This is quite a feat for us, and I think qualifies us for at least 2-3 hermit-like weekends. At any rate, we ate dinner with my lovely former coworkers from the plant. Not my grownup-in-their-30’s coworkers, but the ones that are actually my age. (My collection of friends is so varied and eclectic, sometimes it boggles the mind.) I was real excited that my pal from A&M, Ben, was there too, as I miss him and his charming cynicism. Oh the joys of the chemical plant! We also feasted a-plenty on fajitas…my first fajita experience at Pappasito’s. I had never really cared for the place but now Aneil and I are in love with the fajitas (that come with an inexplicable yet surprisingly delicio-so side of drawn butter! On chicken/beef! Ooooh how my tummy smiled!). We also played pool, and I feel as though my I-can’t-play-this-game mental block has disappeared, because I was suddenly not-sucky at it. Oh also, the pool hall (in beautiful Clear Lake) was really ghetto, sort of in a high school JD/Lake Charles non-threatening way. A window was broken…a fight broke out in the parking lot…the bartender had a Vanilla Ice haircut…but it was all sort of charming in a strange way. We also found ourselves in Midtown/River Oaks later that night to meet up with other engineering pal, Rob (reference my T/A super post dated sometime in October). Hard to believe we lasted till 2am! Ooooh and then Sat night was Thai feaaaast with Maria & Casey. Yummie. Also tons of drinky drinks at The Kelvin Arms (pub that Erik likes). We discovered a Ms. Pac-Man table!!! And then our boys abandoned us for Golden Tee Golf for the rest of the night. Oh well.

Only 1 more week of this MIS class (praise be!). I can’t wait until it’s over!!! Although I have enjoyed my study team in this class, as they are all older than me and therefore cynical and funny. At any rate, no more classes, just 1 presentation and the final exam. Thank Goodness!

I got a promotion at work! I will now be an Engineer II (oooooh!). Apparently I am worth far more money than one would think. It’s pretty damn ridiculous. On Wednesday I booked me and my mom for $100 pedicures…extravagant!...to celebrate. Oh my God, am I a yuppie?

This week was the big Project Runway “someone will be disqualified” episode. I gotta say, I was expecting a lot more catty drama, but it was overall pretty anti-climactic. Keith, the arrogant judges’ favorite, apparently was in possession of fashion how-to books, which apparently are illegal. Kayne, the pageant dress designer ratted him out to producers. Overall pretty lame. Although, Tim Gunn did mention that he snuck out of the apartment one time, and another time was caught using the internet…probably some much juicier stories there, but no details were mentioned. So goodbye Keith, I will miss your delightful bitchiness and the amazing hatred you inspired from Mom-bot. At any rate, one of the sort of boring designers got the boot for making a sort of boring outfit in a sort of boring fashion show. (And where oh where is Michael Kors???) The producers definitely should have dragged out the Keith drama more. Luckily Angela is still around to be all kooky and weird with her craftsy couture and Vincent is still around, and constantly on the verge of a meltdown…all delicious tv. Plus, I giggle pretty much every time Tim makes a speech…and his blog is probably a little better than the show.

Okay, and I am hesitant to be so forward-thinking and live only for my future plans (as opposed to living in the moment, I guess) but I just can’t help it! Here’s why:

1) Ameeeeee is in Houston and I will be seeing her tonight! Oh there will be joyfully large helpings of tex-mex and girl chat.

2) Next weekend I get to see brown boy + get a much needed haircut + get to see the fabulous new preeemium outlet mall in Round Rock that Aneil has been working on for several months…I’m so excited, and I fully intend to purchase something at the Michael Kors store and the Coach store! (Oh my God, I AM a yuppie!)

3) The following weekend, mom and I are taking a luxurious spa retreat weekend in San Antonio! That means posh hotel, riverwalk, facials and pedicures and massages, even more tex-mex, and AMANDA!

4) The following weekend is Maria’s Northgate birthday fest. Oh the chuggers! Oh the Ms. Pac-Man! Oh the Aggie excitement!

5) The following weekend is my first-ever trip to Colorado, with my grown-up former plant coworkers. It will be a girls’ retreat and I am hoping to hike, drink a lot of gin/light beer, and read a novel if I can fit it in.

6) Then 2 weeks later is ACL festivus! Friday’s lineup is just too too much for me to handle and I will have to miss out on some top notch acts due to double booking. Doh. Plus lots n’ lots of best friends will be in attendance. I cannot wait!

Okay, so all in all things are moving along pretty well. I really just think I am “so over” my computer class and am flush with the end-is-near excitement. I finished “The Kite Runner”. It was pretty good for the first 1/3, but basically faded into sentimental say whaaat? by the end. (Felt like my 10th grade “Grapes of Wrath” what-the-hell-is-that-ending-about? experience.) Just started “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss. Anyone read it?

Anywhooo, I miss everyone a lot, and don’t talk to you nearly enough. Let’s chat/hang out soon.

her face is a map of the world

2006-07-24T19:01:00.000-05:00

Was thinking about discontinuing the ol' blog, since I have been lacking feedback comments lately, so I am assuming no one reads this. It may just be that people are only responsive to happy frivolous blog posts, so I will just post those from now on. Although those kind of days are fewer and further between.

Anywho frivolous item #1:

I think that rebates in general are a big joke. When I bought my computer, I took forever to collect all the required items needed & I sent away for a rebate, never received the check, then about a month later, got a note saying that my submission was incomplete. When I finally called HP I was informed that "oops!" someone keyed it in wrong, and I really did qualify for the rebate. Harumph. Maybe not all people a) send away for the refund or b) would bother checking on it afterward until they then forget about it. What a crock. After all of that, I was informed that I will receive my check in 4-5 weeks. Bleh.

Frivolous item #2:

I have lost 8 lbs in the past few weeks! Aneil is real proud of me, and bought me TWO pairs of DIAMOND earrings, which I of course adore, and wear constantly...whether it is to bed or to the gym or wherever! One is a pair of diamond studs, and the others are dangly and have little bitty diamonds along the bottom. I love them and I love him a lot.

Frivolous item #3:

The Pirates of the Caribbean sequel was real terrible. Which is a shame, considering how delightful I found the original. There were lots of goofy faux native island cannibalistic tribe antics, and voodoo looking lady who reminded me of Lisa Bonet, but with a completely incomprehensible accent, also an inexplicable and totally out of left field love triangle brewing amongst the 3 leads. BLEH. And I got bored of all the special effects by the end, and yearned for an ending that converted the strange fish/squid/octupi pirates into normal humans but that did not happen. Also there were lots and lots of tentacles of all shapes and sizes throughout the movie, which was sort of exhausting.

Frivolous item #4:

I hate hate hate hate my current MIS class at school. I am supposed to be studying for my exam right now but I am just BORED of the topic, the test material, and everything! 3 MORE WEEKS TO GO!

Frivolous item #5:

I can't believe Malan got kicked off of Project Runway. I mean, his dress was uggo, but I will miss his faux-worldliness. Plus, he reminds me of what I envisioned Professor Snape to be like after reading the Harry Potter books. Now that I associate Snape with Alan Rickman, I find him huggable instead of sinister. Anyways, and what was with that Angela lady? Yes, Vincent is infuriating, but man, was she a super-bitch or what?

Frivolous item #6:

My car is developing all sorts of issues now that it has almost 85,000 miles on it, so I am yearning for a fresh new car. I am currently yearning for an infiniti G35 coupe. I am also considering a Maxima and I secretly love the Beetle convertible (cream with a tan top). Any thoughts? I am hoping to wait until end of year, but my A/C is making weird noises, so perhaps sooner.

Frivolous item #7:

I got to go to a free! screening of "Little Miss Sunshine" with Kevin and Maria. They are real fun/funny friends. Movie was charming. Sort of made me feel the way "About a Boy" does, but not as giggly. Charming nonetheless, especially when considered post-Pirates viewing, it is even more wonderful in comparison.

Okay that's all for now! Hope to get to talk to some of you guys soon!

i remember skies reflected in your eyes

2006-07-14T17:55:00.000-05:00

Phew! It’s been a long week. I feel roughly like the remainder of my delicious froggie cookie looks. I tried to refrain from eating his whole face, but in the end (i.e. 2 seconds after this photo was taken) I happily devoured the rest.

At any rate, this week has been pretty sucky for various reasons, I suppose. Monday was the anniversary of my dad’s death, and it made me real sad. (Many thanks to Amee, who called both me and my mom to chat. I really appreciate that a lot.) I miss him all the time, but this week made me remember the shock and the funeral and those couple of weeks of freaking out more vividly. However, lucky for me, dad visited me in my dreams, so that was fun. We listened to Colin Hay’s cd and ate cereal, since I’ve recently discovered the joys of lactose-free milk. Although, I remember him liking Grape Nuts, but he turned his nose up at them in my dream, so apparently in the after-life you don’t have to eat as much fiber, so that’s a relief as well. I really miss him, and although I have lots of people to love me and I even fell in love during this year, no one can ever ever replace my buddy, and it’s scary when you begin to realize how irreplaceable someone is in your life and that you will, even (maybe especially) during happy moments, feel a little sadness because they’re not there to share it with you. Every “life” moment will be like this for the rest of my life. Every success and failure and joy and sorrow will make me feel that loss. It’s really hard.

Also, I’m ultimately paranoid all the time and constantly worry about the people I love. I am also unnecessarily concerned with everyone’s heart health, and I no longer like old people. I used to love seeing old couples together, but now I sort of resent them. It is irrational, but I do. And I hate it when Aneil talks about us “growing old together” because it implies that we will actually live that long, which you just can’t assume.

But not to worry, I am mostly still pleasant and funny, or at least I try to be.
Anywho, in terms of dealing with this week, I’ve found it easier to avoid thinking about it by a) avoiding people I know and/or b) allowing myself zero free time. This has resulted in full-on immersion into 2 places where personal connections and/or thinking are lacking: the gym and school.

On Monday, I went to the strength training class that I used to attend, but have managed to avoid for about 7 months. I was pretty tired by the end, and it took until Thursday evening for my arms to finally feel okay enough to lift them above my head again. I am pathetic. I am however becoming a superstar on the elliptical trainer, although I sweat like it’s going out of style or something. Seriously, it’s ridiculous, I have to admit.

School in the summer can bite me as well. Constant reading of long case studies about websites and e-commerce. UGH. Makes me miss contract law. I’m also convinced that the professor hates me. Plus I have to work on homework/projects all weekend. Sucky, indeed.

Oh also there’s a war on in the MidEast. Freaks me out.

I am also reading The Kite Runner. It’s really pretty good, but parts of it are just excruciating to read. Poor Afghanistan.

I flew to Corpus Christi for a meeting yesterday. (Sorry Amanda, but all I saw was the airport and some grain fields and the Olefins plant.) Meeting was unsuccessful at best, but I really liked flying on Southwest. It was my first time, and although Hobby Airport is a little ghetto (the security chick for my departing flight yawned and barely scoped out my bag in the x-ray machine and they had red neon numbers marking the gates), I love Southwest. They have these great two-toned uggo (but comfy) leather seats, and it’s a free-for-all with no reserved seating. And had free doughnuts at the gate. Plus the flight attendants are spunky and make lots of jokes and wear brightly colored Bermuda shorts. (maybe the shorts make you more spunky?) And I mean, the company emblem is a circle with wings and a cartoon heart in the middle of it. What’s not to love?

My one tidbit of exciting news this week…Project Runway is back! Finally something watchable on tv again for the summer. I loved the strange man who made a hat out of a bread basket. Also the guy from Atlanta who made a cute dress from coffee filters. Plus I adore Tim Gunn, and wish he could be my personal life coach who would constantly tell me to “make it work” when I need encouragement. I looove him. I’m also of course afraid of, yet in love with, Heidi Klum.

Okay, that’s all for now, but take care of your hearts and tell your daddies you love them.

when we meet on a cloud i'll be laughing out loud

2006-07-10T21:27:00.000-05:00

i can't do this all on my own...

2006-06-30T21:44:00.000-05:00

Oh so many update items!

My brilliant, although at times exasperating brother, Fro, has apparently ACED his MCAT test. He informed me of this with a phone call at approximately 11:45 Tuesday night (yes, I was asleep). Our exchange was roughly like this:

“Hey Shell, guess what I got a (not to be revealed but rest assured well above average score) on the MCAT. I was worried I screwed it up, since I didn’t really study this time.”

(Yawning). “That’s cool, Fro. Yeah, we Ewings have a “standardized test” gene that pulls us through regardless of lack of preparation. That’s awesome.”

“Yeah, I am pretty excited, so yeah okay I’ll let you sleep”

“Umm okay. You rule!”

After waking up in the morning I checked with Amee (whose sister is in Med school) to see if Fro’s score was any good, seeing as I know nothing about med school admissions, and she said it is a great score, and he will get into a school for sure! So of course I cried a little, as I am emotional all the time, apparently. But see, my dad always wanted to be a doctor, but didn’t get into school the first try, then got married and had most adorable baby ever (me) so he gave up his dream. It’s sort of great that my brother is going to be able to fulfill that dream now, and my dad would be so dang proud. *Tears*

Hmmm. Just realized that having nicknames (a la “Fro”) for all my friends would make blogging more fun. If you regularly read this, or we regularly hang out, shoot me a comment with your preferred nickname, and I will attempt to incorporate it into subsequent entries.

In other news, I have one more online exam and I am done with my law and ethics class. My brief (hahahahaha) encounter with law made me really appreciate the trials (hahahahaha) and tribulations of my law school darlings. I am also convinced based on all my future-yuppie best friends’ school experiences that I could be a doctor a lot more easily than I could be a lawyer. I would suuuuck at law. But now I know what a tort is, and I know that the statute of frauds requires a contract to sell a good for greater than $500 to be in writing, so my life is basically complete.

Last night I went and saw Tilly and the Wall with Kevin, Jason (Kevin’s pal + A&M chemE), and Maria. We were 4 of the maybe 8 people at the bar who were of legal drinking age, so yeah, we were feeling a little old. Maria and I had lil crush on the opening band’s bass player (love those bass players) solely because he was wearing a button up shirt with an enormous cobra iron-on. (Which we have decided to attempt to craft for our own darling boyfriends.) Closer inspection revealed that he was probably roughly 19 years old, but whatever. Tilly and the Wall was charming charming charming as ever, and did not let me down and did indeed dance around and throw copious amounts of glitter. Maria developed a huge crush on their cute tap dancer, who sported a hot pink tutu, and managed to pull it off nicely. Kevin decided to propose marriage to the lead singer (unless of course Pam from “The Office” is suddenly available). It was grand and glorious fun, and you gotta love a band that can make a 25 year old cynical lil career girl to jump and dance and scream out the lyrics “I want to fuck it up! I want to fuck it up….yeah I feel so alive, yeah I feel so alive!” repeatedly. I felt 16 again.

I also just realized that I haven’t posted an Ayn Rand progress chart recently. It’s because I haven’t read any more since that posting. I officially blame school and the ridiculous amounts of reading involved, but I think more accurately, Atlas Shrugged is just to damned exhausting for me. Foiled again! Maybe I’ll try again next year.

Okay, I should study for my final exam. I looove you all and will return in 5 days!

i've got my mind set on you

2006-06-27T20:16:00.000-05:00

Love is in the air! There's something about the summer that makes it an ideal time for love (or other various forms of hormonal attachment). Summer romances, holding hands with cute boys at camp (if I haven't forced you to watch my all-time favorite MTV Special: Fat Camp, let me know, because it's awesome!), weddings, engagements, and as was the case when I was 18, hooking up with the waiter at the coffeeshop where you loiter.

I'm not complaining or making fun or anything cynical like that...I love love. It makes me smile and giggle and feel happy to see couples in love. And I guess I can't complain either, because I happen to be ridiculously in love too! (Okay, please don't vomit all over this blog entry)

To stay consistent with the theme, Here is a picture of beautful Kat and cute Such from their wedding a few weeks ago. Kat looked so perfect, that I've decided that for my wedding someday, I would like to be a sparkly blue-eyed blonde. I will probably need a professional wedding planer to accomplish that, but I hear they can and do work wonders. Kat and Such are great because they are so obviously in love and sparkly eyed and crazy about each other.

The same day I saw Kat's wedding proofs, I was checking out cnn.com and they had released pictures of Nicole Kidman's wedding to that country singer guy, and I've gotta say, Kat looked waaaay more fabulous than Nicole. I'll let you judge for yourself, but I imagine you will agree. Nicole is real pointy-faced after all. Plus her skin tone srt of blends right into the white dress. (Although admittedly, I love the poofy sleeves a lot.)

In other exciting news, I am almost done with my first summer course. I haaaate summer school's pace, although my professor is fun. I just completed a 14 page paper about the ethical clusterfuck that was the corporate governance at Fannie Mae (that was almost the title...but I decided against it at the last minute). Summer II starts in a week. Joy.

I'm not looking forward to the next couple of weeks. July 4th was the last time I saw my daddy, and he died on the 10th. A whole year ago. It's so weird. I've become increasingly paranoid in the past year, and if left alone too long (or without school assignments to keep me busy) I think alot about death and the afterlife and how I don't know what's going to happen. I remind myself of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice. But less freaky. That said, I miss my dad a lot, and can only hope hope hope that there IS an afterlife so I can see him again someday.

In less depressing news, well really AWESOME news, the new season of Project Runway commences in 2 weeks...oooooh joy! I've had to resort to watching America's Got Talent since I ran out of Scrubs episodes, so the new PR will be a relief. Although everytime a magician auditions on the talent show I wish that Europe's "The Final Countdown" will start to play...a la Gob.

In summary, this week I love: love, dumplings, hummus, the prospect of leisure reading, the concept of the afterlife. I do not love: the show "my super sweet 16", unethical accounting, oatmeal, and tortfeasors.

back on the chain gang

2006-06-21T22:04:00.000-05:00

Feels like it's about time for a post!

This afternoon I was walking to class. My grown-out-of-its-sassy-haircut hair was pulled into 2 awkward pointy ponytails which of course did no good, as my flopping-straight-into-my-left-eye bangs whipped all over the place. I was trotting toward Melcher Hall, when this fellow passed me by, boping to his ipod and smiling...he yells at me, "You shouldn't let that hair hide such a pretty face!" I start to laugh, and after he passes he yells after me, "You know I'm right!"

I was also pleased because I made an A on my Ethics Case Analysis. Also, my claim that ultimately, by doing the "ethical" thing, the subject of the case study could keep the "Karma Police" at bay was met with a "YAY!!" from my ultra-hip-dad-type professor. I was very excited. I've also decided to apply a WWTYD (What Would Thom Yorke Do?) standard to all future ethical dilemmas.

I know I've been absent lately and I apologize. I had a great vacation (which I will comment on below) and immediately followed it with tons and tons of summer school work and constant busy-ness. I have also started this fitness kick, so anytime I'm not doing schoolwork, odds are good I am at the gym. Okay, and admittedly, I've been watching "Scrubs" episode upon episode, and of course now wish I was a doctor. (Side note: the epsiodes guest starring Brendan Fraser are amazing...and I don't think it's just because I secretly loooove most of his movies...)

Is it possible to be rapturously in love with a song? Because that's me and "Jesus, Etc." by Wilco. Oh man, it's wonderful.

Paradoxically, I also love Beyonce's "Check Up On It" but in a completely different way. More in the way that compels me to continuously inform Aneil "you can look at it as long as you don't grab it."

Here are some learnings from my vacation week:

1) Little brothers will remain about 10-12 years old in your mind, even as they are graduating from college. It doesn’t help that once we get to the restaurant, he enthusiastically orders the largest menu item and burns his tongue on “freaking awesome” blackened alligator tail (which, in his defense, WAS freaking awesome). He later burned the same tongue on bread pudding.

2) The Sam Houston statue in Hunstville is freaking enormous. For the first time ever, we got out of the car in order to take “Wilco Summer Photo Contest” photos with the big guy. I was slightly frightened. We continuously exclaimed obvious phrases such as “man, he is so freaking huge” or “why is he so huge” or “why does this thing exist”?

3) Ice Cream is wonderful. We ate it pretty much every day while on vacation. Here are the instances I actually recall: DQ Blizzards on Monday (Heath Bar, yes!). Dipped Ice Cream Bars at Six Flags on Tues. Braum’s shakes (and spur of the moment outlet shopping) in Hillsboro on Wed. Maggie Moos (best cinnamon-caramel-heath-chocolate flake cone ever!) on Thursday. At some point we also ate drumsticks and we also bought a half gallon of Blue Bell. It was ridiculous. Every time we ate it, we would feel pudgier, but would simply exclaim “Vacation!” and high five and everything was fine again. Note: I haven’t been able to stomach any more ice cream since vacation ended. Oh well.)

4) Knowing natives really helps keep you entertained. Gloriously self-employed Bo was able to hang out with us both nights we were in town (!) and totally charmed Aneil…heh. He took us to Campisi’s (yummie Italian I used to go eat with the Suggs) and Gloria’s (a Salvadorian restaurant that strangely became a club that played Bruce Hornsby and Hall & Oates remixes (?) about 30 minutes into our meal).

5) Anthony works entirely too much. My “you’re a lawyer shouldn’t you be working at 8:30 pm” joke was met with the not-a-joke response, “no, but I have to go back to work after I finish this drink.” Either that, or he was bored of me…I did, after all, force him to watch American Idol with me.

6) I miss friends such as Anthony, Erik, and Bo more than I realized.

7) I love Aneil more than I realized.

8) X-Men 3 blasphemously killed so many main characters and/or rendered them powerless (read: rendered them uninteresting) that it mostly made me sad...introduce and destroy The Phoenix within 45 minutes? Wha' happened? (Wow I'm nerdy)

9) I am too damn old to deal with the annoying kids who attend concerts at Emo's.

10) Being lazy and only getting up off your ass in order to go buy a huge burrito with your best boy basically amounts to my ideal Sunday.

Okay, I'm spent, and there's an America's Next Top Model marathon on VH1 so I'm out. I should probably also read some contract law, but that's probably not going to happen.

try a little...tenderness...

2006-05-16T23:04:00.000-05:00

Hi gang!

Sorry my blogging slacked off post-finals. Since I am no longer confined to my apt to work on take home test, I apparently have less time for procrastination...i.e. blogging.

Therefore I have many topics to discuss and embarrassing obsessions to relay.

1) Why oh why are former boyband members allowed to record albums? Have any of you heard the latest from O-town's Ashley Parker Angel (why is that not a girl name?) or 98 deg's Nick Lachey? Oh good grief, they are awful awful awful.

2) I am pretty sure I’ve brought it up before, but what the hell happened to Billy Ocean? That guy was basically like the second coming of Lionel Richie, but he had some great tunes…he even had the equivalent of “Dancing on the Ceiling” with his “Get Out of My Dreams Get Into My Car.” Billy, if you are bored and googling your name and this blog pops up, you should know that you still have fans who love you and want you to record again! The new millennium needs its own “Caribbean Queen.”

3) Peach cobbler (a la mode) may be the best dessert ever.

4) Taylor on American Idol just sang the Otis Redding song that I have been obsessed with for 2 solid months…”Try a Little Tenderness.” I will be shattered if he doesn’t win this thing. Also I think his song choice is further evidence that he and I are meant to be (don’t tell Aneil).

5) Everyone makes fun of the fact that I never ever watch movies, and apparently am therefore useless. But I watched a shocking number of movies this weekend…although the proportion of movies starring Queen Latifah is really high.

“Last Holiday” – Queen Latifah is diagnosed with a brain tumor and 1 month to live, she cashes in her bonds, goes to a resort, and ironically learns how to live! I loved it.

“Pride and Prejudice” – I don’t know why but I loooove this story and I loooooved this version…could Keira Knightly be any cuter? Mom insists on using the subtitles for pretty much every movie we watch, but we tried this one sans titles at first. When for the first few scenes even I had trouble understanding what the heck they were saying, I look over at mom, ask her if she understands, and she says “no pretty much nothing, thank God I already know the story.” Then she says “the only one I kind of understand is Donald Sutherland”…whom I pointed out is the only American in the movie…needless to say we added the subtitles, and really picked up on all the nuances, i.e. dialog…did any of you kids see it? Did you have a huge crush on Darcy? Also, did the giggly sisters drive you insane like they did me? Did you strangely miss Colin Firth, just because he usually shows up in movies like these? Just checking.

“The Family Stone” – Sarah Jessica Parker is dating that weird looking guy from “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and has to meet his family…including Luke Wilson, Diane Keaton, and Coach. Also the girl from “The Notebook” who is just too cute for words. Unfortunately the rest of the cast of “Coach” couldn’t make it to the family Christmas.

“Beauty Shop” – Since we were so charmed by the Queen in “Last Holiday” we went back to the store and got this one…also adorable…and the hottt guy from Amistad was the dreamy African electrician/classical piano player who lives upstairs and just happens to fall for our heroine. Yes!

“Walk the Line” – Everyone else in my family hated it, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. But then again, I do looove rock n’ roll. And Johnny Cash is real damn cool. And the performances truly were Oscar worthy.

And I watched…for the first time…”Jesus Christ Superstar”…It was everything I hoped it would be…strange and cheesy and pretty and psychedelic and blasphemous and religious all at the same time. Jesus was teeny tiny but rocked out his angry solo. And Judas was fantastic. I loooooved it of course.

Okay, sadly, this sums me up. I am going to Fro’s graduation on Friday and then Dallas (!) for Six Flags fun on Monday. Plus I get to spend an entire week with my darling brown boy, so I’m really really excited. Mmmk that’s all…peace out.

you're a fool...that's what's wrong with you!

2006-05-04T17:20:00.000-05:00

I have been coming to the realization over the past few days that I am, indeed, getting very very old. I will list a few examples (i.e. evidence) of this phenomenon:

1) Post-Aneil’s Brifday Party, Erik and the kids wanted to go do something after the bars closed, and I thought to myself “are you crazy? It’s 2am I should’ve been in bed hours ago, or curled up in a ball reading a book at least.”

2) This morning I was taking various (4 to be exact) vitamins/hormones (although admittedly none of them are required to keep me going, but are preventative). And I thought to myself “I should really get one of those day of the week pill holder thingys…that would really help me out!”

3) Every night this week I have watched either American Idol (and voted for the wacky guy with gray hair) or golden girls (and laughed at the wacky gals with gray hair).

4) We went to the mall on Saturday and I didn’t really want to go into the young trendy stores (except for Fossil, since Aneil loves it) but instead actually said “you know, I’ve been buying more and more of my clothes from department store collections…they’re much more classic.”

5) Aneil was panicking because he turned 26 this week, and I kept saying things along the lines of “don’t be silly! 26 is YOUNG.”

At any rate, I am feeling like an oldie, but am trying to embrace it. We are going to the symphony on Sat and I have plans to go to Foley’s with the girls at work to shop for something “smart” to wear on Sat. Le sigh.

Also, I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon, and here’s the thing…I looooove grocery shopping. Yet I hardly ever do it. I will wait and wait until I have eaten every last bit of edible meals in my apt before I make the trip. Yes, all last week I ate the last 2 lean cuisines and 3 cans of Chef Boyardee. (item of note, “Boyardee” is recognized by Microsoft spell check AND is auto-capitalized!) Anywho, I love the whole grocery store experience, and I love coming home and having fresh fruits and milk and bread and bags of lite Caesar salad (my goodness, I am addicted to those!). I also looooove store-bought California rolls, and I eat them the second I get home from the store. Okay, so why do I wait and wait and wait until the last minute? It’s very strange, indeed.

Last night in lieu of watching “Flavor of Love” reruns on VH1, I popped in a video that Aneil loaned me called “Serendipity.” Has everyone already seen this? With John Cusack and the shockingly hot Kate Beckinsale? It was real silly and contrived but made me think (a little) about soulmates and fate/God whatever you believe. I used to not believe that you had a soulmate, and there were lots of people in the world that could match you. But recently Erik + Aneil (the most sensitive boys in the world, I think) have convinced me otherwise. Especially Erik’s point that God has a plan for your life, and if you never “meet your soulmate” it’s not by chance, but it is his plan to do other things with your life. At any rate, although the movie is silly and oh so obvious with the “matching gloves” symbolism, I thought it illustrated nicely what I think about the subject. Sure, there is a soulmate meant for you, but you have to follow your heart in order to find them. God can point you in the right direction, but you still have free will (that’s the gift that makes us human!). Both characters could have ignored the clues and married the other people they were with, but they followed their hearts and found happiness! It’s a nice thought.

Today the apartment maintenance people apparently came by to investigate the mysterious dripping/raining above the toilet in my bathroom. I received a note on the sink that informed me that it was the A/C not draining correctly and it was signed, "Jesus". It made me smile, although I'm sure "Hey-Zeus" was the guy who fixed it, for a split second I felt like I was getting a note from the big guy himself.

One final note, I stumbled across this news article today, and it made me giggle throughout the workday (I have italicized my favorite part):

Mr. T: Take my advice, or else

NEW YORK (AP) -- If Dr. Phil can dispense advice, why not Mr. T?

The TV Land network announced Tuesday that it will start "I Pity the Fool," a series where "The A-Team" star travels across the country dispensing inspiration and advice.

"The 't' stands for talking," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm going to talk it up. It's what I've been doing all my life."

The series starts in October. He'll offer help to people struggling with personal or professional problems.

"My show ain't no 'Dr. Phil,' with people sitting around crying," he said. "You're a fool -- that's what's wrong with you. You're a fool if you don't take my advice."

procrastinating is a terrible thing

2006-05-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

Okay, I am supposed to be working on my finance final. But it's so hard to get started. I feel as though once I do get going on it, I will (maybe?) get really into it and work to completion. But seeing as it's not due for another week, I've hit a brick wall.

Instead, here are the things I am obsessing about today:

I'm intrigued by this news story:

Why would you plagarize chick lit?

I often tease Amee for reading what I refer to as "pink books", i.e. not romance novels, but the fiction novel equivalent of the chick flick. They put them in the general fiction section, but you can usually locate them pretty quickly due to their bright pink covers. Almost always about young professional smart women who have misadventures and romantic encounters with hunky men who are drawn to their quirkiness.

These books are not as ridiculous as some of the harlequin romances, but they are indeed very formulaic and silly (I have found that while reading them is tiresome, I enjoy listening to them as audiobooks, because they are easy to enjoy while driving.) So I am fascinated that this girl would actually have 40+ passages in her book that are shockingly similar to those of now, 3 or 4 other books. It's ridiculous. Like she cut/paste her book together! What makes me sad, is that since she is young, this could reflect badly on all young writers, some of whom are truly talented.

But you gotta feel sorry for this poor girl...makes me think of the kid in Elizabethtown (a terrible movie..don't watch it)...but in that, he is a young superstar shoe designer and his shoe flops and loses billions for the company. I can't imagine being part of a screwup that big at such a young age.

Okay, anywho, I feel like a lame-o but I just voted for my favorite American Idol this week. The gray-haired guy was just so charming this week and I am worried that he could get sent home. His rendition of "Something" was actually sort of sexy. Heh. I guess I love the older men. I'm sure my 3 votes will help save him from elimination.

Okay, I did it again...4 votes.

your love is lifting me higher!

2006-04-30T21:19:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah! Yeah yeah yeah!

I'm back in Houston. I just watched an hour long MTV "True Life - I want a perfect body 2" in which the kids don't use drugs or surgery to acheive their ideal body. So they worked out and whatnot whilst I watched and ate a burrito. I am also baking "magic dream bars" for Maria to cheer her during studying hell. I am a fattie, it's fine. This week I am vowing to work out every day since I don't have any school. I think I can do it.

I got to see AMEE on Friday. I stopped by her parents' house Friday on the way to Austin since she was in town. She looked great and told me tales of Exxon corporate life. Ooooh. She is coming back Memorial day weekend, so I can commence the countdown.

This weekend was Aneil's birfday extravaganza. Technically his birthday is May 2, but that's a Tuesday, so we improvised. Here are some highlights from the party on Sat night:

My darling brown boy donning the supersweet "birthday boy" hat. The party was at Serrano's...yummie! I think he should consider adopting this as his new look in an attempt to keep Austin weird.

Kat and Such went above and beyond and got him the Ghostbusters I&II box set...the perfect gift! Except he already owns it and is an avid fan (thus the sad face in pic). I am secretly hoping he decides to give it to me, as I do not own II on deebeedee. And you gotta love that Statue of Liberty scene.

Sean and Carol steal camera and take multiple self-portraits. Sean looks crazed, but boy is that Carol adorable. I feel like this picture sums up their couple-ness.

Aneil and best fren Phil. They are so freaking cute when they hang out together. Aneil will quote an obscure movie, Phil will complete the quote and they will laugh and nod knowingly, indicating that they love each other and they are the coolest guys ever. Sometimes one of us will recognize a quote and they nod and grin to each other like, yeah they're pretty cool too I guess.

Here's where I figured out how to make Sepia-colored photos...

Me + the ever-precious Sarah Sugg. We had mucho laughs making fun of weird girls and giggling over cute boys. She also charmed everyone with her spunk + beauty. She made Aneil a really cute card covered in glitter and Lisa Frank stickers. And balloons! So fun!

Erik and his friend (Jenny, I think?) make the best sick faces EVER!

Aneil and his best friends John and Rachel. I try really hard to charm them constantly but am never sure if I succeeded. Aneil looooves them and they are real delightful and hotttt so I will keep trying to charm.

Next morning we had lunch with all our parents at Kerby Lane, since mom was in town visiting Priscilla. Here we are looking sassy with our cute haircuts.

Aneil and his unbelievably cute parents. His mom is so pretty and has this calming peaceful demeanor that I am really drawn to. His dad is precious and so so funny...can only hope Aneil turns out half that cute when he is grown up.

We were worried that lunch would be awkward, but the parents all loved each other and we all laughed a lot. I like this picture because everyone is giggling. I also think they might all hang out sometime and not invite me and Aneil. :(

After a weekend of partying, I looked super sexy by Sunday morning. And luckily darling brown boy was there to capture me eating my whole grain granny ceral (he prefers cocoa krispies). I'm glad to be back, and am grateful to have a boy who loves me even when I look like this in the morning. (Although don't get me wrong, he still makes fun of me a lot.)

Everyone have a great week!

why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?

2006-04-28T00:08:00.000-05:00

So I’ve been jamming to my recent purchase “Jesus Christ Superstar” a lot this week, and it’s got me thinking (likely blasphemous) things. First, I feel really bad for Judas (makes sense, as “Superstar” is mostly told from his point of view). I mean, Jesus was his pal. He was in his inner circle and was at the last supper and everything! They were BFF. Then he turned him into the priests and ultimately doomed him to death. Man, that was a bonehead move. I wouldn’t dream of betraying any of my friends, especially if their life was on the line, but I mean, surely Judas never thought he would do that either…Sucks for him that his best pal happened to be the Son of God. Oops. Poor, poor Judas.

I also was thinking about the time and place of the events and the relatively small (in the grand scheme of things) number of people who got to interact with Jesus. Made me think, wow it’s crazy that so many people have faith that this man was the Son of God, when he was from such a seemingly random place and time and whose years of teaching were so limited. At first I felt like it is such a random strange thing to believe in, that I wondered why I had faith in it to begin with (purely on an intellectual level…like, why would I believe in someone who was crucified because people thought he was a lunatic?). But then I thought, maybe the fact that it WAS so seemingly small and random and strange yet has somehow endured and been documented and carried on through generations that makes it even more believable. Like, there must have been something unbelievably amazing about Jesus that made some people believe in him, and made others so afraid of him and his power. And it was all so amazing and awesome that it has endured as truth for all these years. I dunno, something to think about I guess. I should probably read more about it, in lieu of jamming. But I have to admit, I like thinking of Jesus as a “superstar”.

In other less philosophical news, I am going to Austin this weekend for darling brown boy’s birthday party. I am really looking forward to it, and to giving him his super sweet present.

Only other topics of note:

This was my last week of lecture. I have one final in 2 weeks and 1 take home final, so shouldn’t be too bad.

Why are celebrities so into procreating lately? I mean, Britney Spears? Again? Good grief.

Innertube tummie is getting out of control and may indeed take over my entire body at any moment. Need to work out need to work out.

Goodnight and goodluck.

it's over and done with

2006-04-24T00:17:00.000-05:00

Hi gang!

I am back in business. Fabulous computer has made using Excel + IMing + downloading pics to blog possible! Huzzah for technology! Also, I realized the other day that my new printer is also a scanner & copier! Sweeeet.

Last week was busy and went by in a flash. I also ate these fried foods:
1) Chick-fil-a #1 combo with a ironic diet coke
2) Chicken fried Chicken & squash casserole at Treebeards.

As promised, here is the graphical representation of the progress I have made in my strive toward an Objectivism epiphany. Not so bad so far, although I apparently am under the impression that it is a Danielle Steele novel, because I keep hoping the railroad lady is going to make out with the copper mine guy, but Ayn Rand will probably not make that happen for me. I need some romance! Ha.

In other news, I went to Austin this weekend and got a cuuuuuute haircut! (See pics attached below.) We had a lot of fun, too. Aneil drove me to the salon, then we went to Waterloo, where I got a copy of "Jesus Christ Superstar" double disc for $4 and a Pretenders cd for $5. We also went to an adorable (and supremely delicious) Brick Oven pizza. I have no idea which one it was, but I am assuming Aneil does. We also baked a deliciouuuus carrot cake for Amanda's birfday.

Sat night was the birfday festivus supreme. Korean BBQ until I almost popped (considering I ate half a pizza for lunch). There is also this ice cream called Mo Chi that was the best dessert EVER! We then went to Oak Hills to catch up with the whole gang! (Link over to Diane's blog for a bunch of pics) Here are the few that I took (and the group photo I stole from Diane's page):

Love you all! Good grief, my friends are pretty. And Amanda is the hottest best friend ever! Yay for hanging out time. I wish all my best friends could've been there. Have a fun week and good luck with finals, everyone!

to my heart he carries the key

2006-04-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

Hi darlings!

I have a new computer! It doesn't take 5 minutes for my IMs to appear! I can actually use Microsoft Office! This rocks!

Last weekend I went home. It is stressful most of the time, because of all of the work on the house and lack of daddy. However, I want to give props to Fro, who really came through and went above and beyond to help Mom over his spring break! He is alot better at communicating with her than I am plus he supervised all of the house repairs despite his ridiculous allergies/wheezing/sneezing. He is also living at home this summer to look after mom, so that's great too. When did Fro become a grownup?

Fried Foods Consumed since the end of Lent:
1) 6 Filipino Eggrolls
2) Serving of Fried Okra
3) The Tortilla Strips on my Chili's Quesadilla Explosion salad

I strangely have not had Chick-Fil-A yet. I meant to today, but I HAD to have steamed dumplings. I don't even like dumpligs usually, but am convinced that the food court dumplings are laced with some sort of addictive substance. I yearn for them constantly. Also, I am so over french fries, and may quit eating them altogether.

American Idol was great tonight...what's with that? Obviously working under the watchful eye of Rod "Do You Think I'm Sexy?" Stewart really helped. Really, it's just that when they have theme shows that cross genres, they all do pretty well. That Katherine chick is unbelievably beautiful. However, I'm ridiculously charmed by the goofy gray-haired guy.

I see my darling Amanda this weekend, so be jealous, kids.

I am 10% done with Atlas Shrugged! I can't believe it! I'm going to start tracking my progress in Excel and copying it here for your reference (since I can use Excel on new computer!!). I understand now why the people who recommended the book to me did so. They were all brilliant, talented, amazing people. So a philosphy that tells you that everything you do should be for an objective reason and that achieving all that you can is ultimately benefitting the greater good makes sense to amazing people. I don't mind the book so far, but yes, it is tedious. I hope to make it through the whole thing this time.

Okay, I have to do something about my messy apartment. At some point, it gets so messy it starts making me sad. We've hit that point.

sugar sugar, oh honey honey

2006-04-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: This will have to be the longest post ever, since much has occurred since previous practically forgotten post. I will try to use list format to help keep things organized.

It’s almost Easter (which I love). I’ve included the above picture for the occasion. Also because it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh, and I don’t know why. Also think it adds that quirky je ne sais quois that my blog has been lacking recently.

1) My mom came to town to hang out and we ordered this enormous lobster. Of course we later realized that just ordering a lobster tail would’ve been a better idea.

2) I also had jury duty, which I was hoping to photo-chronicle and whatnot, but my juror number never got called, so I didn’t even get considered for a jury. I was dismissed at noon, after sitting in an assembly room and watching Fox news for 3 solid hours (lame). On the upside, they sold really delicious breakfast tacos at the snack bar, and I had a funny conversation with a guy about how “Atlas Shrugged” is impossible to read.

3) I’ve also decided to endorse the concept of the “lingerie shower”. I went to Kat’s, and it was charming and not scandalous at all. She is also the cutest person alive, so that helps.

4) I went to visit Kevin after the shower, and he took me to Mike’s Place, a neighborhood bar. They were having karaoke night, and it was the sort of absurd lewd drunken songfest that I’m convinced only exists to amuse/amaze/astound people like me. Very strange indeed. In pathetic news, the heels of my shoes got wedged in Kevin’s doormat and I have the scraped knee from hell. I really don’t think it will ever heal. It’s been more than a week and it’s still kind of gross looking.

5) I was sick and stayed home from work and literally all I did for 2 days was watch tv. It was gloooorious. I re-watched Arrested Development Season 1, then Maria loaned me Season 2 (so so funnie). She also loaned me a bootleg copy of the first few episodes of 3…eep! I also watched a lot of MTV reality tv (8th & Ocean!) and caught an episode of Blow Out. Oh joy. I did NOT study for my stat test, but it turned out to be not too terrible, so in retrospect, I’m glad I was a sloth for 2 days.

6) My internal clock, however, is completely confused due to sloth days + daylight savings + current addiction to Starbucks Café Vanilla Light Frappucinos. This is still better than the exorbitant fat intake associated with the Eggnog Latte addiction and the supply/demand issues with the Seattle’s Best Honey Vanilla Lattes…since the only Seattle’s Best anywhere near me is at the Borders on W. Alabama. At any rate, these Café Vanilla thingys are delicious and I crave them constantly.

7) Also crazy about this cafeteria-style restaurant downtown called Treebeards. They rent out a church dining hall at lunchtime and it’s quaint and they have the best squash casserole around…but only on Fridays!

8) What’s with the e-harmony old man in the commercials? He freaks me out a little, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because he’s sort of orange-y and claims that he can help me find the soulmate I’ve been searching for, someone who will accept me for who I am (i.e. my “everlasting love”). I’m also convinced that I would never ever have matched with Aneil via a computer dating service.

9) Also is it just me or is American Idol getting crappier every week? Could be that the first week I watched was the one where Barry Manilow coached them + rearranged their songs for them, so maybe that’s why it was better…they need you back, Barry! Seriously, I had no idea that guy was so talented before I watched that episode. Oh Barry, well you came and you gave without taking…

10) I miss this girl like crazy already:

11) I always miss this girl:

12) This past weekend was delightful. Spent time with darling brown boy…he took me to see the cu-te-est singer-songwriter duo since Simon & Garfunkel…The Weepies. They were actually cuter because they are in love…she listened to his solo stuff, he listened to hers, they found out they were each other’s fans and got together. She (Deb?) is amazing and obviously the star. The opener was Mike the Electrician, who was also charming as heck.

13) Saturday we played disc golf. I could tell it wasn’t a real sport when the group ahead of us was smoking whilst throwing their discs. Some people were really good at it. Aneil wasn’t half bad. I was mediocre, but had fun playing in the sun, so whatever.

14) Think I’m going to move to Austin someday.

15) I still loooooove the Cookie Monster from Cheddar’s.

16) Kat and Such are adorable and I bet their wedding will be super fun so I’m excited about that.

17) Last night, in lieu of doing my taxes, I watched Deal or No Deal (and 2 straight hours of The Apprentice). Deal or no Deal is strangely intriguing, although the game takes no skill whatsoever. Even “Press Your Luck”, in which you simply pressed a button to stop the board, included trivia questions to earn “spins”. And in “Price is Right” you have to know stuff like, how much Hoover vacuum replacement bags cost. But Deal or No Deal simply requires you choosing a number 1-26 and watching the hot models open the cases. Sure there might be some statistics involved, but it’s still all luck. But there are hot models + Howie Mandel so I guess that makes for good tv. I also liked on “The Apprentice” when the British guy started jumping up & down declaring his project manager was a “wanker”! Ha I’ve wanted to do that on many occasions.

Okay, that’s about it. School is really busy for the next few weeks, so I will be more absent. HOWEVER, I have ordered a new computer…a glorious lil laptop…so I will probably be more inclined to update blog since it will take a fraction of the time it takes now. Eep!

big bend it like beckham

2006-03-22T22:05:00.000-06:00

I’m back! Big Bend was fun, but first, here is my Lake Charles Painting Pictorial from 2 weeks ago.

Bo + Spackle = Fun Times:

Teamwork is important whilst spackling:

Aneil & Lauren try to do actual work whiles Amee tries to spackle Aneil’s head:

Aunt Jenny provides donuts + provides occasional commentary:

Okay, so last week was spring break. Which meant I got to go to work + work on my Finance project, so it wasn’t much of a break. On the plus side, since I had no classes, I got to watch American Idol for the first time. The dad-looking guy makes me laugh, and there are a couple of girls who are awesome. Also although I hate modern rock, that bald-headed "rocker" guy is really good.

Thursday I left work and headed to Austin. Along the way I was so excited because I stopped at a random gas station that stocked Trolli Strawberry Puffs, which, for whatever reason, you can’t find anywhere anymore! (Maybe because they’re sort of gross, but I love them.) This falls into my list of items that have been discontinued and I mourn the loss regularly:

5. Revlon Lipstick Color "Granite"
4. Freaks and Geeks
3. Tato Skins Chips (which in all fairness have been reinvented as TGIFridays Chips)
2. Trolli Strawberry Puffs
1. LEMON COOLERS! (damn you Keebler for purchasing the glorious Sunshine cookie company and discontinuing the best cookie of all time)

Okay yeah, so then, Aneil and I feasted (!) on Olive Garden Unlimited Soup + Salad + Spaghetti + Breadsticks. We just kept eating and eating lettuce and the nice waiter kept heaping grated cheese on all of our foods. It was strangely satisfying and delicious.

Then we had to get up super early to depart for Big Bend, which, it turns out is >500 miles away from Austin. We rode in my car and brought along Aneil’s friend Ashley, and his girlfriend/friend/something-or-other, Kristen. Both were real nice and Ashley found me to be a little odd, I think:

The other car consisted of Aneil’s friends Brent and Kenneth, also both very cool/nice/etc:

We finally got to Big Bend about 8 hours later…the scenery was great:

And our accommodations cozy (although every time the wind blew the rain cover I thought it was a bear/mountain lion):

Friday night was the chili cook out and it was delic-i-o-so. I filled my tummie with chili and s’mores and beer before heading to bed at like, 10:30.
Next morning we woke up and drove out to Boquillas Canyon to hike and look at Mexico from across the Rio Grande. While there we climbed one of the rocks:

So we could run down it:

But I was worried about my lil granny knees so I slid down it on butt:

Then we practiced the ancient art of rock skipping, and got somewhat addicted to it:

The perfect rock! (note crazed look in eye):

We also drove out to the hot springs and dipped our feet in. (It was hot) And then dipped them in the Rio Grande (It was cold). Post hiking, we were worn out, but had to rush to take showers at the lodge and get ready for the wedding. The weather turned out to be really pretty and everything fell into place. Here are Bob & Steph looking pretty:

The reception was fun. I didn’t take any pictures (doh!) but they decorated the ramada with white tarps and tulle and it was adorable and festive and super fun. The bikers/caterers, Pam and Sid, were really nice and made yummie fajitas (love that guac!) and in lieu of cake they had cookies in the shape of Texas that said Bob (heart) Steph. Adorable. We danced the night away, but of course were in bed by 9:30.

Next morning we were up and out of there. Goodbye Big Bend!

Seriously, it was the longest drive ever, especially because everyone got dropped off in Austin (around 5pm) and I had to keep driving by myself to Houston until 10pm or so. Phew! Getting up early Monday to drive to one of the plants at 7am was exhausting to say the least.

Anywho, I should start studying for my Stat test or something. Woo.

we're gonna go...where...we....can....shiiiiine

2006-03-15T23:38:00.000-06:00

Last week was very eventful. I went home weekend before last to begin Mom’s House Renovation Phase II, which included cleaning/spackling/taping walls. She decided to paint all the bedrooms + hallway + dining room. Exhausting. She also had surgery on Monday, so I stayed in town for that. It’s scary when your parents get sick and you have to be the one taking care of them. I guess that’s just how it works, but it still feels weird.

Then I had stupid Finance midterm, which I’m still convinced I’m not prepared for, but I took it and feel like I passed it at least, and that’s all one can really hope for when they haven’t really learned anything in 2 months.

Luckily the week took an upturn on Thursday. Aneil came over for our 5-month-iversary (go ahead and vomit on us). We ate Freebirds and I baked cake in a box and we toasted with cheap champagne. Very fun. Highlight was the David Gray concert at Verizon Wireless (I do love that venue). The crowd was weird and old and white, and I mean we had to make fun of pretty much everyone there…middle-aged ladies with bared midriffs, drunk girls doing “sexy dances”, girls exclaiming that they haven’t been to anything this “crazy” since the Dave concert when he did 2 encores! Because he like never does 2 encores! Bleh. However, David Gray is fabulous live. His voice was top notch and his band was excellent (love that drummer!). He was lovely and his songs are lovely and I cried a little during “Freedom”. Plus he is charming and Welsh and you just can’t top that.

Friday we departed for Lake Charles Painting Fest. We arrived in LC in time to watch the History Channel with mom and Aunt Jen and eat tons of pizza. Then mom put us to work prepping the rest of the rooms…there was sanding and priming and more taping and more spackling! So exhausting! We worked until 1am, watched an infomercial and went to bed on the raft-esque air mattress. The next day was better. Although we were super tired, there were donuts and pasa and eggrolls and magic shell! Plus Amee, Bo, and Lauren arrived to help. I will basically be indebted to them for the rest of my life. It was exhausting and my back was pretty sore from sleeping on the raft, but we accomplished a lot. We also got to watch the latest Harry Potter movie, which was pretty excellent, I must say.

This week has been equally hectic. I have a Finance project to work on, plus I leave on Thursday for Austin on the way to Big Bend for Aneil’s friends’ outdoorsy themed wedding. We will be camping and everything. My back will probably officially revolt and hate me for life, but what can you do? Hope everyone is having smashing times. I’m exhausted and would kill for a weekend of drinking and watching tv and loafing about in general.

oh, my life is changing everyday, in every possible way

2006-03-02T17:16:00.000-06:00

I was so delighted with all of my previous post’s fabulously long comments that I decided to respond (especially since I will be away from internet for 4 whole days!)

Right after I posted about the MSC faux Chinese, I remembered the taco salads! I looooved them even though they were sort of whatever. In fact, I am going to be in CS on Friday so I am planning on getting one for lunch. (I also get to meet Chad for dinner so I am super excited!) Eeep!

It is sort of weird. I have to go to A&M to interview potential new hire engineers for the company. I don’t really know how I feel about this. I mean, the course of these kids’ careers could depend upon my personal opinion of them. It feel funny. I think about how my life would be so much different if I had taken a different job in a different city with different people and it’s sort of amazing the kind of influence that your job has on every aspect of life! If I hadn’t moved to Houston, maybe I wouldn’t have stayed as close to Amee or Maria and they are best friends! And I wouldn’t have met my work best friends. And maybe because of that I would never have met Aneil since I wouldn’t constantly hang out with Maria, Casey and that gang. And maybe I wouldn’t be in school because the company wouldn’t be paying for it. I guess you can play this game with every decision you’ve ever had to make, but the idea that I will be directly involved with these decisions in other peoples’ lives is a lil freaky.

I guess you could also say that you have profound effects on people lives every day without realizing it (think: “Merry Christmas you old Building & Loan!” in my best Jimmy Stewart voice).

Okay, moving on…

We did walk through the tunnels, but it wasn’t “powerwalking”. I would know, since I took that stupidly hard kinesiology class at A&M. (It didn’t hurt my triceps but my shins! Oh man, my shins hurt all semester!) Instead it was brisk walking whilst dodging professionals meandering to lunch. There was also the constant smell of various foods, so that wasn’t too bad.

I got an A on my Statistics exam! Wooooo! But I have a Finance exam next week, and I know absolutely nothing. UGH.

Okay so I watched Project Runway Finale Part I…I cannot believe they are spreading it out over 2 weeks! Jerks! I gotta say I love Santino a lil more now that we visited his hometown and got to see his interracial couple best friends with tons of halfsie babies. Plus I adore his collection. What’s with Chloe’s puff sleeves? And why did she wait 5 months to start on her collection? So weird. Daniel V.’s collection was underwhelming although I didn’t understand why Tim Gunn haaaated it. Also, now that Heidi Klum is no longer pregnant I find her more irritating than charming. And when she informed the contestants that they had to make ANOTHER outfit and they’re all so sad, I was like, ugh STUPID Heidi!

And I received my hat in the mail today! I looooove it! Amanda T. is the best ever. Too bad it was like, 85 degrees today.

Anywho, I’m off to CS then to Lake Charles to commence paint project phase II (fill in holes). I also have to study (a lot) for exam so I’ll be out of pocket for about a week. But my return will be triumphant! Project Runway finale post-exam! Then Thurs Aneil and I are going to see David Gray (yay!). So stay tuned…

our love is all of God's money

2006-02-28T22:29:00.000-06:00

Time for a quick update before Finance Test studying.

Yesterday and today were a couple of those gorgeous days when I miss A&M. Today I would probably skip a class or two, go to the MSC and catch the LunchBox concert or PASA, grab some faux Chinese food in the MSC and lay in the sun next to Rudder Fountain. Maybe nap a little, pretend to study, and hang out with friends. Oh, college, how I miss thee (sometimes).

I am also nostalgic because one of my first college crushes (my Town Hall exec) friend-requested me on myspace. I proceeded to giggle for like, an hour, even though since then I have dated plenty of hotter guys (including current boyfriend). But I giggled nonetheless. Also realized that now that I am a grownup I will never get to have silly crushes on hot “senior” boys. Having a crush on a 30 yr old isn’t the same as having a crush on the senior football player or senior town hall exec. I was a lil sad about how that time in my life is over. Then I got over it.

The view from my office is great, but rumor has it some important manager types are looking for office space, and might take away my beloved window view. Cubicle sans window will be sad. Hope it doesn’t happen. Thought about chaining myself to the cubicle walls, but they would probably just move the wall (with me still attached).

I have a finance midterm in 1 week. I know absolutely nothing, as my prof’s lectures are scattered and not very effective. Oy.

Things I am obsessing about:
1) Mom’s house – will it ever be back to normal? Will we ever feel normal there again? Likely not, but we are trying. Also, cleaning out your childhood bedroom is depressing. I have to throw away old stuff really quickly before I wax sentimental about every single object.
2) Chunkiness – will I ever be back to normal size? Last years’ depression + going to school have done wonders to expand my belly. Tonight I work out and maybe tomorrow AM. Also we are power walking through the tunnels at lunchtime tomorrow.
3) Boyfriend – will we ever live in the same town? Oh God, will one of us have to move for the other? Which one? Am I ready for that kind of commitment? (I missss him.)
4) Project Runway – will Santino triumph? I saw the Fashion Week photos and his collection was my favorite by far. But what about Daniel V.?
5) The Bachelor – I liked Moana because she was more sophisticated and sounded smart and oh man, her wardrobe was stunning. But she was so freaking awkward that she gave me bad old bf flashbacks sometimes. Although she had weird hair and was a lil annoying, I’m glad Travis decided on Schoolteacher Sarah.
6) Brussel sprouts are delici-o-so. I had no idea. My dad hated them and wouldn’t allow them in the house, so I was a little afraid, but they are delightful little cabbage-y treats! And the low-fat butter sauce is great! Eat them now!

Here’s a link to Deborah’s wedding photos:
http://www.deborahandlonnie.com/Deborah&Lonnie.html
Note that Erik and I made it into the “slideshow”. Photo #104. Good lord, we are embarrassing. There is also a cute shot of me + Adrienne + Deb + Liz at photo #108.

Love to all!

oh no i actually mention care bears in this post

2006-02-22T21:17:00.000-06:00

I felt it was time for an update, as all my friends are dealing with drama rama, and I am not, so I can blog about stupid topics and try to lighten the mood.

Here’s where I gush about boyfriend, so if this sort of banter makes you want to vomit (admittedly sometimes I feel as though I want to vomit on us too) you should skip ahead:

Last week was Valentine’s Super Fest 2006. I say Super Fest, because it wasn’t just one day, but a whole week of fun, since we live in separate towns (actually living in separate towns totally sucks, but I’m trying to put a positive spin on it). I was delighted to receive a big bouquet of tulips on actual V-day and it was quite a surprise, and really pretty:

Aneil is really good at choosing flowers, and usually opts for something interesting and colorful (i.e. not roses) so I appreciate that.

I also bought a fabulous dress for our special date (Foley’s Red Apple Sale!). I’m pretty irritated because we didn’t take any pictures, and it’s a shame because we looked totally hot. Anywho, we went out for fancy Italian food and I drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of tiramisu, so I went to bed really early (lame I know). My Valentine’s gifts included: 1) another bouquet of flowers, 2) box of candy, 3) box of cookie monster valentines “Me Love You Like Me Love Cookie!” and 4) four tickets to see Built to Spill in May!!! (Yes.) We also got to spend the whole 3 day weekend together and it was just great. I mean, okay, he mostly sat around watching movies and doing math puzzles whilst I did Statistics homework, but it was still great. I love being in love! Yes, “in love”. There, I said it.

(End of gush)

Today isn’t as bad, but yesterday was really really gloomy and foggy and muggy. It was sort of strange, because it was so foggy that in the morning I couldn’t see anything out of my window at work (I am on floor 17). It was like living in a big cloud (a la the Care Bears) but a lot less cheerful and with less cupcakes. Make it was sort of like what it had to have been like at that evil emperor/wizard guy’s cloud castle…you know, the guy who wanted to get everyone to stop caring, for whatever reason. It’s kind of funny, but villains are always just a little too ambitious. Like that guy who wanted everyone in the whole world to stop caring, or the evil devil Tim Curry guy in “Legend” who wanted to rid the universe of all light, or those guys Murky and Lurky who wanted to get rid of Rainbow Brite so they could rid the world of all color. I mean, really. If they would’ve aimed a little lower, say, only rid the world of the colors orange and aquamarine, they would be a lot less disappointed when their evil plot is foiled by the underdog brave hero and/or group of bears with heart noses. Hmm.

Today was sort of boring at work. Everyone was away at meetings or whatever, and I had nothing super scary urgent to do, like I did last week. Now that I’m getting the hang of my new job, I think I need to start adding new tasks to keep me busy. I have a dialog with my boss in a couple of weeks, so maybe we can figure something out. Also, when I’m bored at work it makes me wish I had someone here to flirt with a la Dawn & Tim on The Office. I realize that I just declared that I am in love and whatnot and that’s true, but in a completely hypothetical way, I wish I had an office crush that I could go chat with whilst bored or to just giggle over occasionally and pull pranks with, etc. I am lonely for work best friends too.

Also I am not too angsty about living in Houston, but I am missing best friends a lot. Plus, best friends are vacating quickly. Val left for PA, and Amee is about to leave for DC. I will be left with Maria, who, bless her soul, is going to be studying non-stop through July. Ugh. It just makes me miss friends and want to move to various locations where there is a higher concentration of best friends.

Also, I miss Amanda. I keep brainstorming ideas of what we need to do next time we hang out, because I miss her a lot. Here is the list:
1) Hummus at Niko Nikos
2) Go to the Museum of Contemporary Crafting
3) Burgers at Lankford Grocery
4) Watch a minimum of 3 romantic movies set in various periods.
5) Filipino/Mexican feast that we prepare ourselves
6) Go to Lot 8, the Chloe (from Project Runway) boutique
7) Thrift shopping/Hipster shopping in Montrose

That’s all I have so far, but I am estimating that it will take roughly 1 week to do everything. Hmm. I also want to spend a whole week with Aneil, but I’m hoping to make that happen in May, for his birthday, after school is over. We are thinking about a day trip to Six Flags since I’ve never been there…eep!

I am failing in my attempts to be a weight watcher (sort of). I guess since I don’t do it regularly, and only on the days when I want to obsess and calculate points in everything (including gum) in the nifty spreadsheet, it won’t work. I am just worried because I fear that I am becoming large-ish again. But I love burritos, so I don’t know what to do. I like to think that my constant hunger is a physical manifestation of my hunger for life (!) but I mean, I am a chemical engineer living in Houston, so maybe my hunger for life is not as great as my actual hunger. I’m not too sure. I just know that I ate cobbler today and enjoyed it immensely.

Also failing in my attempts to read 2 or more books per month. Seeing as it’s the end of Feb and I’ve read 1 total, I’m way off track. Wondering if I can catch up this week with a few novellas…hmm. FYI “Fluke” by Christopher Moore was stupid, and probably a waste and probably not worthy of being one of my 2/months. Bleh I hate when that happens, but it still wasn’t as bad as “She’s Come Undone”.

Love yourselves and others as much as possible…

let's have bizarre celebrations

2006-02-13T19:55:00.000-06:00

I really intend to post entries all the time, I am just never home. And for those few precious hours I AM home, apparently I find it necessary to watch Project Runway and/or do homework in lieu of blogging. Bleh. Okay so very much has occurred since previous post. I will do my best to provide bulleted lists of events + highlights + personal observations to facilitate ease of reading.

1. I went to Dallas for my friend Deborah’s wedding. I got to ride there with my darling Adrienne (my college roomie) so it was good to catch up with her. I also noted that once we were in the hotel (we shared a room) within 3 minutes it looked exactly like our dorm room. Her side was neat and organized and she had things like lint rollers and hair dryers. Meantime my side was a complete mess and I had items like Junior Mints and 4 pairs of shoes. Oh well. This is basically us:

It’s easy to guess which one I am.

Okay, so we got to Dallas and ate at my favorite Dallas place, Café Brazil. It is one of my favorite breakfast places. In fact, here is where it ranks in my all time top 5 breakfasts list (yes I am truly a fat girl, as I keep track of things like this):

1. The Spinach Frita with fruit and a bagel that I had at Katz's in Austin with Amanda post-SXSW.
2. The breakfast at the hip SF diner in the Mission that Amanda and I chanced upon that had the delicious potatoes and herb cream gravy on the biscuits.
3. The Breakfast Sampler that I would always get on late night trips to IHOP with Brett. Her would always eat my bacon and sausage, but I always got the same thing and it was so fun.
4. Pancake breakfast-in-bed that Aneil made me in Sept. They were perfectly golden brown, and he bought the syrup you heat up in the bottle.
5. El Gordo crepes with Erik.

I was so excited that I took a picture of my delicious El Gordo crepes:

Also I want to point out that I did not take a single picture of the wedding itself. This is because I am a) worthless b) the worst photographer ever and c) hate stopping the action to take pictures when I am enjoying myself. I am assuming that professional photos will be circulating soon so you can all see how gorgeous Deborah looked and whatnot. Meantime here is a sampling of the completely useless pictures I did manage to take:

Erik fusing Flashdance and MC Hammer shit (The Office, anyone? Anyone?):

And myself doing the same thing but trying to do the arm spin move:

Since I have no actual wedding photos here is one of Deb’s bridal portraits so you can check her out. I like this one because it’s sort of artsy:

2. Newest best friend tradition is The Bachelor Monday. I decided to combine it with Taco Tues and came up with Mexican Monday. I made delicious tacos and dessert and my apt was filled to the brim with estrogen. I think in total there were 8 girls and we all yelled catty remarks at the tv the entire time. Yaaay. Last Monday was Chili Dog Monday, and was just as delicious. The Bachelor is so remarkably embarrassing. It’s great. This week was even more mortifying, as the Bachelor visited all the girls’ families. Most of them were mean. Ha.

3. I went to Dallas for Sean’s surprise (sort of) birthday party. Was lovely. I like how now that we are old grownups we are fans of the “dinner party”. Really I think it’s just that me and Carol like to hostess and/or make cakes and appetizers, but whatever. We got to hang out for a long time and there was delicious food and cake and karaoke and good times for all.

4. School has started and is already super-busy. My Statistics prof is methodical and engineer-like so that’s refreshing. My Finance prof is just a mess and her class exasperates me somewhat. Hope I survive the semester.

5. I think I’ve managed to at least stop the westward expansion of my ass, so that’s good. I tried to count weight watchers points like my coworker friend, Karen, but it’s really hard. Apparently I am accustomed to eating 758 points per day, when you are only allowed 22. UGH. Might be a losing battle, but I will fight nonetheless.

6. Why does the song “Relax” by Frankie goes to Hollywood get radio airplay? It is dirty dirty dirty. “relax don’t do it when you want to come…” Yes Frankie, I get it. Gross.

7. Everyone seems to have drama-rama lately but I’m coasting along just fine so that’s sort of made me paranoid. It might just be that I got 28 yrs worth of drama in the last 6 months of 2005, so I am due a break. If you are having drama, I love you so don’t panic. None of us know who/what/with whom/where we want to be, so you’re in good company.

8. I’m currently crazy about Of Montreal. 60’s-esque psych-pop. “What a shock”, you think to yourself.

9. I’m also wild about “Project Runway” and plan to go to Chloe’s shop this weekend…it’s in Rice Village!!! She and Daniel are my favorites, and I’m relieved they sent Nick home. Also sort of love Santino because he has a lot of ideas but no execution skills (like me!)

Okay that’s all for now. I promise to get back to normal posting soon. Smooch.

Longest post ever

2006-01-17T15:55:00.000-06:00

I really can’t compete with Amanda in the details department, but I shall do my best to put my spin on last weekend (and beyond!)

Also I suck and forgot my camera at home so I don’t have any photos to share. Instead I will do my best to include pictures that represent various characters and events.

It took an epic 3 ¾ hours to get to Amanda’s house on Friday (seriously, something needs to be done about the chaos that is the I-10 Katy freeway. I irrationally hate that place, and although I’m sure the people of Katy and/or the town of Katy is lovely and charming on some level, the small portions that I have seen from the highway exasperate me and are ugly and boring.

So I finally arrived and Amanda gave me my wonderful Christmas gifts, including my new mini lavender plant (pictured here along with my magic bean plant):

And she crocheted me a really pretty scarf. It is really soft and makes me look attractive and hip and warm and I love it. See it modeled here by Butter:

Okay so then we gorged on thai food. We ate 2 entrees plus an appetizer so we were stuffed. We also noted that we felt so full that it hurt, but then proceeded to eat more curry. Curry is delicious because it contains magical spices + coconut milk:

Post special-date, at which we talked about life and like/love etc, we met up with law school friends + Meisa for extremely strong drinks + pool + golden tee golf at Oak Hills Tavern. It was fun. I drank a lot and made note of the enormous-ness of my arms in relation to Meisa’s legs. Also a lot of cute boys petted my hair and said it was shiny. At one point we also (foolishly) took shots so that was great. We stayed at the bar until closing time, then went to TC for queso etc. Was delicious. Fell asleep drunk and with overly full belly.

Next morning we got up and went to the Antique Mart. It was really great. I bought a really cool serving dish, since I love being a hostess:

I also got pretty embroidered hankies and whatnot and this cute hat:

Post shopping I ate a huge greasy burger at Chris Madrid’s. It was delicious and had cheddar cheese oozing out the sides of the buttery bun. Mmmm. Drew and Alex proved to be charming lunch dates, so that was fun.

After that we went and saw the Golden Globe winning “Brokeback Mountain” with pretty Diane. It was amazingly depressing and made me feel like curling into the fetal position. On the upside, it was a well made movie, and there were sheep, and Diane bought these yummie King Kong sour gummies, although she said they hurt her tummie. We also saw a preview for an interracial love story movie, in which the main character’s friend tells her she’s “gettin’ her swirl on” (i.e. black + white = swirl). I’ve decided that I’m adopting this phrase to apply to my own interracial love, since it’s been pointed out to me on numerous occasions that I’m basically white (sigh).

Luckily, after depressing movie, Amanda and I spent the evening with 5 amusing and gregarious fellows. My lovely Aneil drove up from Austin and met us for dinner, so I was so excited. When I saw him I basically made a face like this:

We ate delicious Korean BBQ (I can’t wait until next time!) along with sushi rolls. We had to sit Indian style on a really hard floor, and the boys complained constantly, but it wasn’t too bad. Afterward we went to a bar called “Rod Dogs” with hideous dog art on the walls and a jukebox that seemed to play Nickelback every 3 songs or so. Ew. However, they had shuffleboard, which is really fun.

Post-Rod Dogs, the three As and I went back to A-1’s house and we played Riff, the DVD music trivia game Aneil got me at Target. It was pretty sweet. Well, sweet in the sense that my team won both rounds. The longest round was when each team had to name a British band and go back and forth until one team couldn’t name another. We eventually had to call it a draw. Although I’m real pissed at myself for not remembering Spandau Ballet during the heat of the battle.

Sunday we lazed about and watched Project Runway and football and played Scrabble. Amanda won (I’m so proud) and I taught her some new tricks just in case she ever decides to go pro. Also, sweet Alex bought me a really cool gift:

It is 5 tetris games in 1 and you plug it straight into the tv! Technology is amazing. I’m not sure why the boys were all about the gift giving this weekend, but I definitely encourage it. The best part is that they got each other gifts. So cute.

Anywho, the weekend ended much too quickly (especially for me, since I worked Mon so I missed out on penis cookies!). I love my friends + bf so it was great.

In other news, I had to work on Monday (bummer) but I got to see the entire (3.5 hr!) MLK day parade from my office window! It was pretty fun, even from way up there. I also got to see the girls for Bachelor + pizza fun. Woohoo.

Today school started and my statistics prof kept us for the entire 3 hr period and assigned homework...on the first day of school! Oy.

Anywho, more to come this week, as I have (even more!) school and car repairs and weddings in the pipeline. Love you all!

I'm no superman

2006-01-09T15:54:00.000-06:00

2005 = Worst Year Ever. I will avoid talking about the elements that added up to make it the “Worst Year Ever” and will instead make a short list of the good things that occurred during 2005:
1) General outpouring of love and kindness from large number of friends. I looooooove you all.
2) Met a cute boy to love.
3) Got all A’s for first semester in school.
4) Got a new job with nice new boss and coworkers. 5
) Introduced to “The Office” and “Freaks & Geeks”

2006 New Years Resolutions:
1) Read 2+ books per month
2) Eat out less
3) Study more
4) Exercise 4+ times per week
5) Take vitamins
6) Keep up with correspondence

In other new years news, I am back at worky work and it’s not so bad. I have a fancy new monitor for my PC so I no longer have to squint so yay for the IT department for caring about my vision.

I am in love with “Scrubs” and I think at some point around episode 5 of season 1 I decided I should’ve been a doctor. Also, based on stories told by my parents, I think this show is a more accurate depiction of a hospital than “ER”. Love.

My weekend schedule is jam-packed for the rest of the month, so I am stuck doing chores after work…blah. New season of “The Bachelor” starts tonight! (How glorious to not be in school yet such that tv shows equal news topics. I love being boring. Hooray!) Here are some festivus pics:

It's a (mostly) Jolly Holiday with you, Bert

2006-01-06T08:55:00.000-06:00

Well I guess it’s about time for an update. I apologize for the lack of chattiness lately, but I was away for the holidays, then my (albeit 8 yr old) home computer (quite literally) blew up and required repairs to obtain precious photos and files being held hostage inside the burnt-smelling CPU carcass. Today I venture to the Apple store for a much needed Powerbook upgrade.

Okay so last we chatted I was about to host Lionel Richie Fiesta Forever! It finally took place on the 17th and it was crazy. My mom was (almost too) surprised at how many friends I had. I guess I’m just really lovable and/or I’ve been real elusive the past few months, so people were eager to witness my public appearance (a la Willy Wonka) and/or everyone feels really sorry for me, which is another possibility. At any rate, there were oh about 80-90 people who made appearances, and I was real sad afterward because I couldn’t visit with everyone equally or for long periods of time. But it really was wonderful to see long lost friends and whatnot. There were actually so many people that I was (ridiculously) worried that I was part of one of those shows on TLC or Bravo or something and in fact, I wasn’t having a Lionel Festivus, but was instead going to be surprised with the wedding of my dreams or something. Which is a terrifying thought. So yeah I hope I get that kind of attendance at my actual wedding someday, assuming one ever materializes. My God, surprise wedding would be a horrible reality show premise. I’m surprised Fox hasn’t already tried it.

Post festivus, I went to Austin to visit with Aneil and meet his family. I was actually sort of stressed out, because it wasn’t a family event that I happened to be invited to, but instead an actual event planned around meeting me. So I did my best to be charming and funny and stuff my face with delicious Indian food. I hope it worked. His family is adorable too, so that made it easier.

Okay then I left Austin and almost immediately boarded a plane to Tampa to visit my mom’s sister (i.e. my aunt) and her family (weird uncle + psycho cousin). We weren’t looking forward to it (although my aunt is real cute) but we didn’t want to be home for the holidays and mom was pretty determined to leave Lake Charles (who could blame her? I hate being in the house without dad.) Okay so the week was decent enough, although the family situation in Tampa is absolutely insane, with my uncle being completely oblivious to pretty much the whole world (think: natural Zoloft to the max) and my cousin being unbelievably spoiled and/or selfish and/or insane. The last 2 days we were there she was upset because Fro went into her room while she was gone to get his mp3 player, and she basically went completely ape-shit crazy and yelled (at her mother!) to shut the f*** up, and other horrible things, then proceeded to continuously call the house phone with her cell so we couldn’t eat meals in peace, then blared the mix station with the bass turned all the way up so it shook the house. Yes. For 2 solid days. Crazy. Especially because her parents put up with that crap and in fact, buy her anything/give her anything/let her do anything she wants. We were completely miserable by the end of the week, and I made a silent vow never to see her again. Phew!

On the plus side we went to a Tampa Bay Bucs game and had a fun time. Maybe because we didn’t have to sit with crazy cousin. (I would make fun of the outfit she wore to the game, but that would just be mean and/or stooping to her level but suffice it to say it was humorous.) Other plus is that post-Tampa trips Fro and I love each other more because we realize that neither of us is insane, so we hug and buddy up a lot. It’s good.

We made it to the end of our tenure in Tampa, said our goodbyes (to my aunt only) and came back to glorious glorious TX. Fro went to Atlanta instead of Houston so he could play one final show at the Peach Bowl. Mom and I shopped till we dropped, then left for Austin to spend New Years with her BFF Priscilla and my BFF Amanda (oh yes plus boyfriend). Strangely/horribly/eerily, Amanda’s dad had a heart attack post-lawn-mowing, which is awful and brought back painful memories. We decided to start a lobbying group to prevent daddies from mowing the lawn after the age of 40. I felt sort of like a bad person, because although I was unbelievably relieved that he made it through surgery I was so jealous that he lived and my dad died. I’ve never been so jealous in my life. That’s probably a bad thing to say, but it’s true. Oh well.

New Year’s Eve was lame, as I finally had a small meltdown due to stress and sheer exhaustion. Stayed home with mom and Pris to watch Dick Clark whilst Aneil went to a party. Pretty pathetic, but it’s hard to celebrate the end of a year that so royally sucked. Anywho hope 2006 isn’t as bad.

Okay, so that’s pretty much it in summary. I’ll post some festivus pictures for your enjoyment. Hope your holidays were fun. La!

Feed the world, let them know it's Christmastime

2005-12-15T09:16:00.000-06:00

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

2005-12-02T15:49:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-28T22:19:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-23T15:33:00.000-06:00

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...

2005-11-15T22:22:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-08T21:54:00.000-06:00

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

2005-10-31T18:42:00.000-06:00

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

2005-10-27T21:40:00.000-05:00

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.