Farouche

Peanut butter = death?

2007-03-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

No! More like ever lasting life!

I just realized that peanut butter I've been liberally spreading over my bread for pb&j sammies is the one that has been recalled. Yes I know I'm quite slow on the uptake but I bought it after the recall and so I figured the grocery store wouldn't have it on the shelf. I know I'm not in danger if I've been eating it for 2 weeks and have not had any symptoms of Salmonella yet. But, maybe I'm just ingesting a little bit at a time and slowly building up a tolerance and soon I will have gained super human strength. My strength will be stomach of steel! Yes! I see it now! Man! I've gotta make this peanut butter last so that I can continue gaining my tolerance. Just think I was gonna waste it on making peanut butter cookies for people but hell no now! It' all mine!!!

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01563.html

330 days

2007-03-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Jeff just got the tax package regarding Ireland. In order not to get charged American taxes on top of Ireland taxes, he cannot go back to the states for 330+ days. Boo! He's not upset but that means we are spending Christmas by ourselves and I'm kinda sad about that. What other surprises does this move have in store?

Waz up?

2007-03-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ireland is getting closer.
I'm lonely at work.
It's going to be a busy weekend
Jeffrey's still sick
I'm uncomfortable in my work chair today
Something is amiss in the friends realm
Went to a pointless historic mortar/concrete workshop this week
Kate, Lindsey & Matt, Christa - all in town this weekend
Emily's b-day bash
Need to clean house
Want to eat an artichoke

Thought I would provide a outline of my week.

Test

2007-03-14T08:44:00.001-07:00

Just testing something...don't mind me!

--
Stephanie Howard Eberhard
2007 Candidate, M. S. H.P
G.R.A., Visual Resource Center
School of Architecture
University of Texas at Austin

Hello Again

2007-03-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

So I guess it has been absolutely forever since I've written here on this page. It's not that I'm particularly busy but I just don't feel inspired to write about my pretty mundane life. Jeff has suggested however that I get back in the habit of writing. Mainly I think to occupy himself while at work but also so that I have a written record of the goings on in my life.

So, what has happened since I last posted:

1. I did get the job that I interviewed for in Sept./Oct. I work 21 hrs a week as a Graduate Research Assistant for a Landscape Architecture professor. I'm helping with the digitizing of her slide collection. It is tedious work but I get to drink all the free tea I want! Oh and I get to scan bar codes with a laser gun thingy....very fun.

2. I'm in my last semester of school. I working on my thesis which is about the Adaptive Use of Religious Buildings. I've slightly changed to topic due to the 3rd item (see below) which will cause me to finish my thesis in the summer. I'm not the only one and so I don't feel to worried about that.

3. Jeff has interviewed and accepted a position with Dell Ireland. This has been a 3 month process with our original departure date set for March but things did not work out as smoothly as expected so its been delayed until June. He will be doing essentially the same position as here but with more money and in Ireland with a million of places to visit just a jump away. I can't wait!

4. Jeff and I celebrated our 6 monthaversary. I bought him a beer making kit and he bought me a pearl necklace. I think someone got the better deal!

5. We got a cat last year that we named Snoop Dogg. It is evil and likes to attack innocent people.

6. We celebrated another low-key Valentine's Day by exchanging handmade cards and painting pottery. Now we both have painted clay chalices (sp?).

Ummm...drawing a blank as to other things but that's about what has been going on. I'll write more in the future....gotta write all about Ireland or I'll forget all the fun things we'll do!

Later

Support

2006-09-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

So let me give some back ground to this story and as it unfolds, things will make more sense.

I've been working on my thesis proposal for the past week and the stupid thesis approver dude doesn't seem to want to pass it. Anyway, I spent 2 hrs talking to my advisor/director of the HP program. He gave me all these ideas of what I should put in the proposal to make it work. Note: The official proposal is due tomorrow and if I don't get it approved I can't take the class this semester which sets me back a semester of school...fun.
So, I've been working on that and then I get an email from another professor about a Graduate Research Assistant position which she would like to me me for the following day. So, I'm freaking about the proposal and add the stress of semi-job interview on top. This morning the approver dude tells me I can turn in the proposal today so that if something is wrong, I can work on it the next day and still turn it in by Friday...Good. He wants me to turn it in by 11am. I have 12:30 class so I decide to go to the gym in between. I get all my stuff ready and pack a bag with interview appropriate clothes. Leave, turn in the paper, and go to the gym and do my thing.

Now, comes the understanding to the title....

I'm showering and changing after running and start to think, did I bring a bra? Normally us small chested gals don't have much of a problem going braless. But! I'm doing an interview thing with a female professor and my shirt is a thin WHITE shirt. No hiding the freedom boobs! So after spending a couple of minutes rifling through my bag, my fears are confirmed...missing. So what am I to do? Well thankfully I had worn a zip up sweater over my gym clothes. I put that ontop and hope it does the job. It does...no support but blessedly keeping me from showing the world my goods. Unfortunately the sweater has a yucky coffee stain down the front so I'd rather not wear it to the interview and its freakin' hot outside!! My plan? After class but before the interview, scour the drag in an attemp to find a bra in one of the stupid stores.

So I begin my search. I go to Urban Outfitters...no bra, no tank to hide, nothing but one little nude color soft bra that was too small and looked like it belonged in the kids section. I go to Whole Earth...maybe I can find a biodegradable bra? Good for the earth right? Nothing unless I was a 38DD. That I am not!

I'm running short on time at this moment and so decide to head over to the interview sweaty, bra less and exhausted. In a last hopeless attempt I go into a University Co-op girls clothing store I vowed never to go into. The last place and success! Offwhite 9.99 tank w/ built in bra. The support I need at an affordable price! The clerk even recognized my plight and offered to let me put it on in the dressing room and wear it out.

So! Here I sit writing in this blog, properly support and with enough coverage to be a disappointment at a wet t-shirt contest!

May I Introduce Mrs. Eberhard?

2006-07-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well since I haven't posted in over 3 months, I felt that it was time to let everyone know what was up in my world.

I have now enjoyed 2 1/2 weeks of wedded bliss. Jeff and I were married on July 1, 2006 at 8pm. It was a beautiful ceremony and unseasonably cool evening in July! Truely my perfect wedding. Everyone else has said it was lovely too but of course they are not going to tell me otherwise. So, I'm choosing to be niave and think everyone had a perfect time!

We went to Cozumel for our Honeymoon. Here are some pics from the trip:

We had a great time and just relaxed by the pool the majority of the time. Not much exploring to do on the island itself and we were too lazy to take the ferry other places.

Here we are at a restaurant/bar on the other side of Cozumel's called Mezcalito's. Very yummy!

Here are our fellow Honeymooners from Tyler, Texas. They particpated in a silly couples contest at the resort. We would have joined in but missed the beginning due to too much wine.

Jeff and I in the pool on a rainy afternoon. Only the drunk people and the kids stayed in the pool. Jeff discovered that I never say no to champagne so I had many glasses of champagne that afternoon!

Everyday housekeeping would leave a towel animal/art on the bed along with chocolates. I really didn't care about them cleaning the room, I just wanted towel animals and chocolate!!! We can't decide if this one is a bunny or a dog.

These are a random sampling of pictures. None of which are in time order or anything like that. We stayed at the Cozumel Palace, an all-inclusive resort. It was wonderful and Jeff and I have decided that all-inclusive is the way to travel to places like this. So, if we take a ski or beach vacation again, it will be at an all-inclusive.

Since getting back to reality, we've opened up the majority of the wedding presents which are wonderful (registries are a blessed thing!). We are in the process of writing a bijillion thank you notes. And, I'm in the process of looking for a job while I'm not in school. However, the job arena seems to be not very open at the moment. Heh! Well, there is still time and I'll work part time during the school year too! Hopefully this'll keep us from being so very poor :(

This is all for now but I will post more in the future. I'll even post some wedding pictures!

We closed!!!

2006-04-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

We closed on the house yesterday (Friday)!!! We got so excited that we packed up half the apartment last night until 3am! We're gonna try and finish the rest tonight and then move on Monday night if possible. Depends totally on when we get electricity turned on in the house. Yea! And even better (at least in the summer) we are only 15min away from the lake. Carlos 'n Charles here we come evey weekend!!! I have a good feeling that there will be a lot of boat rentals going on this summer.

How to fit everything in?

2006-04-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

So, here is the situation:

We bought a house and we close on it either April 7th or April 14th. This means at that point we'll be paying rent and a house payment at two places. Unless, we can either 1. break our lease or 2. sublease. We've talked to the apartment complex and they are not willing to work with breaking the lease and one of the agents said that they do not allow subleasing but to talk to the manager. In the contract, it does state that they will allow subleasing in certain situations with written consent. We have someone lined up who is very interested in subleasing our apartment. So, no problem there.

If all works out ok, we will be moving this weekend or next weekend. If it doesn't work out, then we won't be moving until almost the end of the lease meaning that we'll be paying for both apartment and house.

I have 2 (10-15 page) papers due in one month. Also due in 1 month, I have a building pathology presentation (have not even begun working on) and a National Register Nomination project for a historical district due. The two papers, the prof absolutely refuses to give extensions. And I have a final exam in one of those classes.

I'm planning a wedding for July 1st. I have an engagement party planned for April 22nd.

What in the hell am I supposed to do? Is this too much for one person?

Italy in Spring

2006-03-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from email to my mom:

I just wanted to drop you a quick line and let you know that everything is fine. I'm in Rome right now. Jeff and I stopped in an internet bar to get out of the rain and dry off a bit. Its been raining all day while we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum....so its been not quite as fun as it could have been but at least it kept the lines down! Yesterday we took the train down to Rome and met up with Flaminia and then went and took a tour of the vatican. She had tickets to the crypt or Scavi which are impossible to get and so we took a tour of that too. We leave this afternoon to go back to Modena and meet back with Jeff's family. Tomorrow we are going to Venice, Saturday, Florence and then Sunday we are going to San Marino. Quick trips but at least we get to see something! I've enjoyed traveling with the Nicolini's so it should be a fun time on the day trips.

We are staying at an old farmhouse while two of the kids are staying with the grandmother in Fiorano. When we got to that area on Tuesday, we were told that it had snowed recently and sure enough there were banks of snow along the side of the roads. Rome has been warmer and greener than northern Italy. The food is absolutely delicious and thankfully they have reasonable portions or I would have gained 20lbs. from this week alone!

Ok, well I need to jet so that we can get our train on time. Tell everyone that I love them and I will call as soon as I get back into the States!

Love you!

Steph

Not be lazy or anything but I thought that would be quicker and more efficient for me to do! Now to tell about the rest of the trip.

Jeff and I left Saturday morning for Houston to fly to Italy. Actually not Houston, Magnolia....so to Bella,Shasha, and Kat, sorry about not meeting up with anyone but we were out in the middle of nowhere and by the time we were done with dinner and a nap (one to many ritas!) it was so late to drive to downtown Houston! Big apologies!!!!! The next day I spent trying to get Jeff's sisters dresses for the wedding. It was only supposed to take an hour...it turned into like 5 because of a St. Patrick's day parade which caused massive traffic. But got those done. My cellie died so, sorry to anyone who tried to call and got no answer...forgot to charge it!

We left early, early Monday morning Italy and essentially flied all day long and arrived in Milan, Italy Tuesday morning. Drove 3-4 hrs (slept most of the time!) to Fiorano to the Nicolini family apt. and the farm house we stayed at. The next two days are noted above*

We got back late Thursday night from Rome and then early Friday morning, plans had changed and we went to Florence with Jeff's family. Florence was beautiful, although with 5 women/girls in the group a majority of the time was spent looking at the market that was set up along the main street. The churches were gorgeous but unfortunatley we didn't get a chance to look at too many buildings because it was only a day trip and kiddos were getting tired. So, we left around 5 and headed back to home base.

Because plans had changed, what had originally been planned as a big family trip to Venice turned into just me and Jeff. We took the train there and spent the day wondering around and getting lost. Venice is definitely a contained city, every maximum inch is used for buildings and streets. Its eerily silent because of the lack of cars. While I enjoyed Venice, I felt like I was more bombarded by tourist crap than any of the other places but maybe that was because we went on the weekend. Jeff and I left on the Intracity train which takes twice as long as the Eurostar but is half as expensive. It didn't bother us much because we purchased while in Venice a bottle of Prosecco and two personal sized bottles of wine. Four hours later we arrived back at "home" a little tipsy and very tired.

Sunday was a chill day as everyone repacked and we had lunch with the entire family clan at a restaurant up the hill. I think they beat my family record of a long lunch...four hours! Then we went to visit the mud volcanos...which is a lot cooler than it sounds! I swear.

Monday we left at 4:30am to drive back to Milan to come back to the states. We spent 3 hrs in the car, 8.5 hrs on a full plane to Newark, 3.5hrs on a full plan to Houston, 1hr in a car to Jeff's parents house, and then 2.5 hrs to Austin. I'm so tired of cars and planes and trains!!!!!!

Overall! Great trip but quick...more like wetting my appetite for more Italy! Now, back to reality. Mucho work to do for school which I am not excited about. Suckage...so I will be laying low for a couple of weeks!

Feedback

2006-03-03T07:56:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna post some ideas for the wedding and get some feedback from people. Not that Jeff's opinion doesn't matter, its just that everything looks good to him....he's easy to please!

Floral ideas

I'm thinking off white callas and green callas...I love the reds and oranges of these bouquets but I want to keep the colors summery and try not to go too fallish..eventhough I do like those colors a lot!

Centerpiece ideas: I wanted to keep the cost down and try and only do candles for centerpieces but I'm not positive it will be that much less.

Ok, so I'm not sure about this but I thought it was kinda cool and lasts longer than a bouquet but for the bridesmaids:
Would you be pissed off if you were a BM and held a fan instead of a bouquet? And would it be weird b/c I'm not asian nor am I having an asian themed wedding?

Ok it won't let me upload any more pics...so I'll be back in a bit and upload more...

Italia.....(LaLaLa)

2006-02-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

Thats me singing the national anthem of Italy. No you sillies not because of the Olympics, psh! Its because I'm going to be going for Spring Break!! Whoop!Whoop!!

Mr. Jeffrey and his family were going and so since I'm family now (yeah, you heard me Jeff...I'm family!)I get to go too! Jeff's and my job while we are there are saving his mom from boredom I think. Basically we get to entertain her, which equals traveling so I'm not complaining! They are so awesome for bringing me along!

Since I was supposed to be writing papers during spring break and now obviously I won't, I asked one of my profs if I could change my paper topic to something regarding my travel and he thought it was a great idea! So now I have to think of some kind of topic about rural italy....hmmmm...

Anyway, hopefully when I'm there I will get to see Flaminia who is in Rome. Not sure yet but I think it will be a possiblity to go and visit her for a day. We're staying in a small town called Fiorano which is near Modena which is where they make Balsamic Vinegar. Fun, tres exciting!!!

On Wednesday it will be exactly four months till my wedding. Yikes, I need a cake person, florist, dj, photographer, etc. I'm screwed.

But...I'm going to Italy!!!

V-Day

2006-02-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

You know I probably shouldn't put V-day. Some people could mistake it for Victory Day or Venereal Disease Day. So all of you confused individuals out there, I mean Valentines day!

So, I'm not a bit Valentine's Day kind of person. I think that too much money is put into one day to represent love that you should feel for the person in your life all year long. So, let me knock myself off my high horse however, I do enjoy celebrating it in a lo-key type way. When Jeff and I celebrated our first Valentine's day together, I told him that I wanted us not to buy anything but make something for each other. I thought it was a good way to mark the holiday but not buy into the commercialism of the day. So last year I made the point of making a several course yummy dinner and desert and a homemade card. Jeff made me a photo album of the six months we had been together with little notes by each picture. (If you've been to our apartment, you know what I'm talking about) It was all very sweet and cute and perfect.

This year, now that we have a special reason to celebrate Valentine's Day, both of us kind of put off making anything or at least planning anything. The main reason was that we thought we weren't going to celebrate at all because I was going to be in school till 8:30 anyway. But, Jeff asked me to skip the class on Sunday so that we could at least be together and I of course jumped at the chance to ditch school! So, come Monday, I'm scrambling to come up with something as was Jeff I'm sure. I finally come up with the idea of painting our own pottery. I figured it fell under the realm of making something and we could do it together and it would be fun. So that is what we did on Valentine's Day. It was great and on Sunday we should have a coffee much with I LOVE YOU on it and a cereal bowl with "Jeff's Bowl" written on it. Jeff also, brought home sushi for dinner (wonderful and yummy!) and chocolate covered strawberries (the biggest suckers you've ever seen! and also wonderful and yummy!) and a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne (I love champagne!).

So, long story short, low-key v-day but absolutely wonderful! Unfortunately today I feel very gross due to the bottle of champagne with dinner, bottle of wine at pottery place, and then additional bottle of champagne when we got home. Day after Valentine's Day not so wonderful!

Big P.R. Pimpin' and junk....

2006-01-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

I'm lazy...you can read an account of my travels in Puerto Rico at FSPOT and Fait du Chocolat
My thoughts on the trip? Everyone needs to go because it is so awesome. And I got a tan in the middle of the winter...'nough said.
Other news....

Jeff and I are reunited and the plans for the wedding are in full force. The date is set for July 1, 2006. It will be a grand evening wedding with lots of candles and twinkle lights. Jeff brought me back treasures from Israel. A beautiful gold and red pashmina. Greatest Love hits by various famous artists sung by Israeli singers. Chocolate (he knows me so well!). A bottle of wine (Again! he knows me so well!). A beautiful green necklace...and lots of pictures! I think he had fun.

I brought him back from Puerto Rico a bottle of rum, a t-shirt, and a sick and whiney fiance...oops.. I think I got the better deal.

School seems like it might suck if it wasn't for the fact that I only go three days a week. Its gonna be a lot of work this semester especially with all the other things on my plate.

UMMM...yeah.....I don't know what else to write...I'm lazy and boring right now...sorry!

Merry New Year!!!

2006-01-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to start the New Year right by posting as often as possible...this post is mainly copied from an email to Jeff but I figured it would get the message across anyway!

I ended up having fun New Year’s Eve even though it was kinda expensive…but oh well! I had talked to Phill of Scotland about hanging out but in the end I wasn’t able to get a hold of him. We were able to meet up with Lindsey and her pose though. Renee and I tried the Austin First Night thing and it was cool. We weren’t able to get a $10 button which would have gotten us into the places to see some of the performers but we decided to stay and watch the parade. It was really cool though and I’m glad we stayed.

We met Lindsey downtown after this long process of trying to park. Take a regular weekend in Downtown Austin and magnify the traffic by three fold. It cost us $10 to park and then Lind's group wanted to go to Apple Bar and so that was another $10 to get in. Once there it was pretty crowded and the music was horribly loud. After having already paid $20 I wasn’t really into drinking too much. It was enjoyable..I just mainly people watched because it was too loud to talk to the other people. At midnight the bar pass out champagne but I wasn’t able to get to it and so couldn’t really toast anyone…it was sad because I do love my champagne. Then Linds talked to this guy from law school who happened to be at a house party so we drove over to Yager lane to hang out at the party. The group was really cool and nice and they had a 2 keg kegorator. The house was inhabited by a group of guys who were in a frat at Southwestern in Georgetown. They were definitely not “frat” type boys though..so I gave my approval to Lindsey. We ended up leaving around 3:30 pm and then headed home. We were all a bit hungry by 3:30am and had a Taco C. welcome into the new year. We did not get to bed until 5am. Then we woke up at 9am to drive back to Dallas…it was fun let me tell you!

We went over to my mom's cousin Noelle’s new house and she’s done an amazing job in renovating the house and decorating it. The table settings were gorgeous. I’m so horribly envious and jealous of her talent. I definitely made up for my lack of champagne on NYE there. I think I had 4 glasses followed by Cocques san Jacques, prime rib (I was given the largest piece and could only eat half), potatoes au gratin, a large assortment of cheeses and a lemon curd tart (tart but very yummy!). Oh and she had some yummy appetizers of lobster and salmon and a frois gros paste of some sort. All very delicious and beat my lunch of Arby's earlier in the day. We got there around 5pm and did not leave until 11:45pm because everyone was having so much fun.

So now the holidays are over and that means the parties with the deliciously fattening foods are done and the diets can start!

The Giant Black Eyed Pea of New Years!

Happy Holidays and more

2005-12-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

I thought it was time to post again...it has be a long time now. I'm sure everyone is eagerly awaiting an update to my life! So here it goes!

X-Mas
Good. I ate way too much but I got lucky and was able to spend it with Jeff because he went to Cali the weekend before. Got lots o' presents one of which is a pretty Kate Spade purse. Jeffie bought me some VS panties (none of which were thongs surpisingly) and a really pretty silky nightie. I likey a lot! He also got me a Dane Cook Cd (a hilarious comedian and not bad on the eyes either!) and a David Sedaris Cd. Both of which he thought would be good for me in PR but I tore into them way before and have already listened to both....ooops! I'm more than willing to listen to them again with the PR group! I got Jeff a GPS tracker thing for his laptop. We used it in the car on our trip from Austin to Dallas and it is really cool. Although it isn't really necessary if you know how to get to point A to Point B...but it tells you restaurants and gas stations in the area and that is always a plus! And clothes, you can expect a girl not to get her guy clothes for a holiday..how else are we supposed to dress them?!?

Wedding Stuff:

So, after a discouraging attempt to find a place in Austin. My mom and I decided to look in Dallas. And while we found plenty of places that are available on May 28th, there was always something that we didn't care for too much. At this one place downtown called Marie Gabrielle while it was really pretty we thought the surrounding traffic noise would distract. There was Arlington Hall at Lee Park which much to my blonde headed surprise was an exact replica of Robert E. Lee's house and there was a huge statue of him. I just didn't think that I wanted my wedding at a place that represents a very disturbing time in US history...even though I do have a soft spot for historical buildings. Jeff didn't care for it either and my mom thought it was a bit too gaudy and stuffy. So that left us back to square one. So, now thoughts have turned to a high summer wedding, July or August in Austin and I've gotten approval from Jeff... (Sorry Flaminia for all the changing of the schedule!! and I totally understand if you would not be able to make it since it is your busy season!). We're looking at these two sites and . What does you think? I'm open to suggestions. Positive note for H12, they allow you to bring your own booze....so it would be free flowin'. Positive note for VV, they have space for indoor ceremony...so no sweaty pits!

And, I think I might have found a dress but I'm not positive. Its completely different from what I imagined I would wear so I need second opinions but my mom and sister both agree that its great. I would post pics but Jeff reads my blog and I have some old fashion tendancies. So, if anyone is interested and free Monday..I might be able to do a showing for some opinionated people.

Other news:

Jeff lefte for Israel earlier this week so I've been chillin' in D-town with the rents. I've been so lazy not doing anything but reading and playing on the computer. I haven't even been to the gym in a month...it is so sad and I need to get in shape if I want to look good at the wedding! Jeff's been sending me pics of Israel and it looks like he's having fun. I might post a couple of them since I don't have any interesting ones right now of myself...might change once I get to PR.

Looking for things to do in Austin. Renee (of Dallas and formerly of Florida)is coming down with me to Austin and we're gonna try and party it up. Downtown is putting on this thing called First Night and it looks really cool. Lots of performers and artists...my kinda things. If anyone is interested, its $10 to get in from 2pm to midnight. Should be lots of fun! I'm gonna try and meet up with Lindsey but it sounds like she has a lot on her plate while she's in Dallas. If anyone has any other ideas of what to do to ring in the New Year, I'm also up for suggestions in this area too!

Ok, well this has been a book of a post and I will let everyone's eyes rest from staring at the computer so long. Hopefully I will post more often so that I have less to say and the posting isn't so long!

Only in Texas....

2005-12-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Only in Texas would everything stop going because there is a 1/4 of an inch of ice on the overpasses. Yes, today was an ice day here. Normally, I would be jumping up and down and singing praises of hallalujah(sp?) but because I have two major papers due next week and I have not completed my library research yet....I'm not too joyful. And! Now I have to make up a full day of school on next Tuesday..thats 9:30am to 9:30pm and I was looking forward to that day to finish a paper that's due on Wednesday. I can still do it but it might require some late nights...damn it and my procrastination!

So, school closed at 2pm yesterday as I was in the library trying to find a book. The library is a very scary place after it closes....creepy! I had just found my book when the circulation desk closed making it impossible for me to check out my book...I thought about running with it but I thought I might get tackled by the big security guard....sigh...no book...no research...no paper...blah.

Well on another matter...Wedding update:

My mom is coming up next weekend to look at wedding sites with me. Very exciting...I have to come up with a list of places and make appointments to view the spaces. I hope we find one soon so that we can have all reserved before the end of the year...I hear after the January bridal shows don't even expect to find a place.

The date is so far is officially May 28th barring any unforseeable problems. The only issue is that my cousin graduates from high school that friday but I'm planning on having the Sunday (monday is Memorial Day). I think that should be fine... Another disadvantage to the date (minor but still important) is that I start summer school on the 1st of June which is the following Thursday. I can probably miss the first two days of school but I don't think that I can miss more than that. I know a week of honeymoon is enough but Jeff and I wanted to go very exotic and not on the same continent...which makes it difficult if we only have a week.

Oh something else that could be good is that I might already have a free wedding dress. My aunt was a wedding coordinator and someone who had two dresses and chose to wear the other gave her the unworn one (some people have too much money). She described the dress and it sounds like something I might like so I'm going to go look at it and try it on over Christmas in Dallas. It definitely will have to be altered (damn me being short)! So, fingers crossed and it will fit and I can use that money towards the open bar!!

Other than that not much else going on...just stressing over school!

And thanks to all the congratulations! Jeff and I really appreciate it...although I doubt anyone is going to say anything negative right?!?

Dummmm...deee...dummmm...Drum Roll Please!!!

2005-11-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have an announcement to make!

Jeff and I are engaged!

Can you believe it? I hardly can! It was a total surpise to me and I had no idea it was coming. He asked me in the bar where we first met...The Library. It was so sweet. Earlier in the evening he had prepared our first date dinner but I still had no clue that the proposal was coming. At the bar when he went down on one knee I thought he was going to ask me to tie his shoe until I saw the box. Its a beautiful ring, a marquis cut diamond on a thin white gold band. I love it so much and I am so happy right now I can't even express it! I'm also a bit nervous too...

I've been trying to call everyone to tell the great news but the list is so long and gets longer with every call I make. So, if you read this please do not be upset that I didn't call you and tell you myself. I'm getting around to it all!

I think the wedding will be either in late May or sometime in August depending on the venue in Austin. Other than that I do not have much other information planned on but I'm sure that I will be posting the trials and tribulations of planning a wedding while getting your master's degree!

Stuck

2005-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Argghh! I'm stuck up at campus until 5:30 today when my class got out at 2pm. I was originally supposed to pick up a take home exam at 5pm but then the pick up time got changed...very very annoying. Now I'm hungry and bored (I know I have papers to write and research and I could be studying...but where is the fun in that?) and I've got another hour and half to sit here waiting. Blah. Blah. Blah.

On a positive note, I got back a paper today and I got an A on it....whoop whoop! In some of my classes I'm kicking butt...in my law class...I'm a sinking ship...go figure.

Dumb blonde moment...

2005-10-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

No offense to the blondes out there especially since that is the color I choose to make my own hair but I'm using the title as a saying...

Ok, so Thursday I'm in my late night class called Preservation Planning and Practice. We were covering in class the idea of the cultural landscape and its preservation. The prof is showing different slides of building, landscapes, monuments, etc and we are discussing its relevance to preservation. So, she pulls up a slide of the Wailing Wall. In the slide there is a man in black and a blue chair. So we are discussing the wall and its cultural significance and I keep on staring at the man trying to figure out what he is wearing. It is really bugging me so right before she changes slides, I ask outloud

"Who is that guy? Is that a matador or just someone with a really fuzzy russian hat?"

A girl in class turns to me with look of disbelief and says..

"That is a Hasidic Jew!"

Then the class laughs and laughs....I was embarassed needless to say! I mummble something about trying to entertain the class and kind of slump down in my chair...yes not one of my finer moments!

Birthday

2005-10-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

So, last Saturday I celebrated my 24th Birthday. It was fun and I'll give a recap on what I did but first I must tell about Friday.

Friday - I decided that happy hour would be fun and so Jeff, Renee and I went to Baby A's for a couple of margaritas. Three margaritas later and a truck load of chips we were fully loaded. I had no idea that their ritas were so strong. So, I proceeded to make a fool of myself for the rest of the evening. Supposedly we went to Academy to see if they had any Astro's t-shirts and while Renee was talking to the cashier I went up and swiped her anti-bacterial gel and rub it all over my hands and everyone elses and for some reason it got on my shoulder and I proceeded to rub it all over my arms too! Jeff finally managed to usher me out where we returned back to our apartment and things got wild. Renee and I tried putting our legs over our heads in the kitchen and there was some jumping on people....regular pandamonium and such. I don't remember much after the hypnotic and vodka martini I drank. We were so drunk that everyone passed out around 10pm. I woke up the next morning not feeling my bestest! What a way to start your birthday huh?

So, Jeff took care of me and made me breakfast and lunch and walked around outside with me because I only felt good when walking in the cold air. Then he followed me around the mall all afternoon. It was a very nice day. Later, he took me to eat yummy sushi at Sushi Sake. Its becoming a tradition to eat sushi on my birthday I think...we ate it last year too! Later, we went downtown with friends and I managed to drink somemore...for being as hung over as I was in the morning..I sure didn't have any problems drinking more! Got home and crashed.

Overall very good birthday...and here are the presents I received:

Adobe Creative Suite from Jeff (a very expensive and much needed software program for school)
A longhorn decal for my car from Jeff
Trip to Puerto Rico from my parents (also counts as part of Christmas)
A bottle of nice wine and some money from my Uncle and Aunt
So microwavable cookware from my other Uncle and Aunt
Pizza stone and cutter wheel from my grandparents

So, overall not a bad birthday!!

Lets hope that 24 goes as well as 23!!

I'M BACK

2005-10-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize for all of those people who read my blog, although it is probably very few now, for not updating in a million years. It has been a very busy couple of months with grad school really kicking my ass! But I thought I would take a few minutes to let you know what is going on in my life and as I promised F, I will update more often.

School:
So, I'm in my third month as a Historic Preservation grad student. I'm taking four classes and I'm totally wiped out. I'm not quite sure how some people are working simultaneously. I really like a couple of my classes but there is my Preservation Law class which continuously leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm so glad I never continued down that track! I've just finished my first round of exams and papers, so we'll see how well I'm doing in the classes this week. Other than that, I have my own little schedule set where I go to school, come home and read....that is all I do. On kind of a cool note, there is a project I've been working on, documenting an historic building in Austin. In our last class that I have to do this project for, we explained the state of the building and mine was not in such great shape. Anyway, a girl in the class who volunteers for some historical society in Texas (can't remember which one) told her boss about the building and her boss wants to nominate the building as one of the "Most Endangered" buildings in Texas. So, I'm supposed to send it all this information that I've been gathering about the building so that it can be nominated. Pretty cool huh?

Personal Life:
For those of you who don't know, Jeff and I are living in sin and loving it. I love our apartment. It is so huge and there is a guest room for all of our friends who come to stay the weekend or in many cases gets too drunk to drive home.

I went to Las Vegas for Renee's bachelorette party two weekends ago. That was a very fun trip although a bit stressful because I had two papers due immediately when I got back. Four girls managed to kill 2 bottles of liquor, drink half a normal bottle of vodka, half a 1.75 litre of citrus vodka, and two flasks. We were totally sober the entire time! I swear!! I went to my first male strip show while I was there. It was the American Storm, supposedly these guys were on a show on VH1 to see who was going to be a stripper or something like that. Renee got all of them to sign a poster as a memento of her bachelorette party. I thought it was interesting and amusing but I don't know about the whole thing. I really don't think I want to go to a strip show for my bachelorette party. We managed to stay up till at least 5am every night that we were there. I would call Jeff before I went to bed and he would be getting up to go to work...ooopps! Got back to Austin extremely tired and not ready for two papers.

I went to Dallas last weekend to see my family and celebrate my birthday which is this upcoming Sat. I enjoyed my weekend although I wasn't able to see a couple of my friends up there. Jeff, me, and my brother went to the State Fair of Texas on Saturday and had fun. I've gotten my fill of fair food which I've been craving since the beginning of September. We looked around at the cars and the different exhibits and of course we did the Midway. My brother won me a little stuffed duckling at one of the booths. It was very sweet of him. I got some nice gifts from my family and my mom said that she would pay for my trip to Puerto Rico in January so I'm so psyched!

Now, I'm back here in Austin not wanting to go to school this week....booo! I need to also get back in my gym routine which I neglected all last week because of Vegas and papers. And this weekend, I'm supposedly going to Houston to see buzz fest except that Jeff and I do not know if the tickets have been purchased or not. So, then again we might not!

So thats whats been up in my life...hopefully I'll be back soon to update!

San Francisco!!!

2005-09-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

So! I made it back from San Francisco safely and I had a ton of fun! I wasn't sure that I would have any fun from the start of our trip..in fact, I wasn't sure we'd even get to go on the trip and have a repeat of cali trip earlier this year.

Everything seemed fine, we got to the airport with more than enough time to spare. The plane left on time we made good time to DFW to catch our next flight and got the gate just fine but thats where things started to go wrong. First everyone gets on the plane and then the pilot comes in over the speaker and says that there will be some thunderstorm activity over the flight plan for that evening...normally this would not be a problem except their weather radar is not working. So they got a technician in to fix it. They decided it wasn't fixable so they replaced the whole thing delaying us for an hour...yuck. Alas, finally we start going down the runway and then the pilot comes on the loudspeaker again...uh oh indeed!! One of the engines is not properly firing up. Great!!! So he heads back into the airport to have it checked out. After about 30min on the plane, the officials decide it is not something that can be fixed right away and put everyone on another plane. Thank god we got off the doomed plane!!! So now it takes another hour to get everyone on the plane and take off, making us 3 hrs late for our destination. Very nice way to start a trip!

We get into San Fran at around 3am their time and head straight for the hotel. We stayed at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. It is a very old hotel but overall nice. We woke up early the next day and headed out surveying the area. We stayed mostly in Union square that day looking at all the huge stores. I swear the area is like one giant outdoor mall. We also, went to the San Francisco Modern Art Museum. I enjoyed it a lot. I wish I had been able to go a couple of years ago when I was taking a modern art class and was learning about all the art work I was getting to see first hand. I think Jeff had mixed feelings about the SFMOMA. He got quite angry over Triptych by Rauchenberg. For anyone who is curious, its 3 completely white canvases...I thought he was going to storm out of the museum. Unfortunately, after we were tired and ready to rest did we find the photography exhibit which really interested him but by that time we were ready to leave.

Later we headed out trying to find the San Francisco Brewing Co. We didn't find it but ended up walking into a dive bar whose happy hour had just started. We ended up staying there from like 5-8 drinking tons of beer and then moving on to alcohol...I know wrong order! Jeff and I fell in love with our bartendress. She was nice but totally no nonsense plus she made kick ass drinks. We also met a local named Rob and hung out with him for awhile. By the time happy hour was over, Jeff and I were so smashed that we had to leave or risk never finding the hotel again. Ended up crashing sans dinner and slept through the night.

Next day miraculously there was no headache and we headed down to the Market center for the huge market that goes on every Saturday. Let me just say that I cried it was so beautiful. Fresh fruit and veggies everywhere. Beautiful flowers. Fresh cheeses from Cali and honey from local beekeepers. If I had such a market here in Austin, I would be in heaven!! From there we spent the rest of the day patroling the warf. Pier 39 is over rated is all that I have to say. But I love the sea lions...stinky but cute! We went to the aquarium but it was kinda lame. We also walked around Chinatown which is absolutely huge!

Our last day in San Fran, we rented bicycles and biked across the Golden Gate bridge. Its about a 10mile round trip, most of which is up hill. That was a lot of fun. Just on a side note...San Francisco is cold!!! I froze the entire bike ride. While I was working my ass off biking uphills, I did not break a sweat once! After that we went on a bay cruise and got to see the bridge from underneath and then Alcatraz up close. We did not get to go to Alcatraz though because tickets were sold out fo the entire weekend. The city has limited the number of tickets that are purchased so only I think 300 people get to visit everyday..something like that...I don't remember. Then we decided to try and find the brewery again for the 3rd time. So we asked some people and it seemed like we were never going to find this elusive brewery. Finally we found it in an area were we had been a million times in the last couple of days but never knew that it was there. We tried the beer which is made fresh with less carbonation and served at cellar temp. I really didn't care too much for the beer. I've had much better microbrewery beer here in Austin then there. Jeff thought it was the warm temperature of the beer that he didn't like. I think I agree.

After the brewery, we went back to the hotel and passed out again. Got up at 5:00am to leave for Austin. Came back here and now I have class this afternoon that I've spent all morning reading for.

I'd have to say that the vacation was a success. We didn't get to eat at some of the places I wanted to, but, you know, at the end of the day, I was too damn tired to care!

Back to School

2005-09-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! I know its been awhile but not much has been going on in my life...No job, no school...just sitting on my bum surfing the net. But!I have started school. For those of you who don't know, I have gone back to school to get my masters in Historic Preservation in the Univ. of Texas architecture school. Tres fun! I started yesterday and I think I'm going to enjoy it. It is a small group of about 7 people and I'm the youngest! I would feel like such an acheiver except several of them already have one masters degree and are just working on their second.

So my school schedule is too bad because i get Fridays off but Thursdays I'm going to school from 8am - 9pm....not so much fun...but I get Fridays off!!!!

Other things:

Jeff and I celebrate our 1yr anniversary today. I'm very excited! I bought him a watch which in my excitement already gave to him a couple of days ago. Its a Kenneth Cole....I told him in a couple years when I have money I'll upgrade it so it has all those fun dials (but dials cost!!). Jeff, however, went all out on his gift and bought a vacation package to San Fran. we leave tonight and get back Monday afternoon. It is going to be so much fun except I'm having packing dilemas! But I'll definitely give an update when we get back of what we did and all that jazz!

Went tubing last weekend with Jeff, Emily, Miles, Mel, Em's friend Josh, and my sister and her 2 friends. It was Christa's first time to go tubing and I think she had a lot of fun. It was so hot on the river and this time the river was low so it went very slow and everyone kept on getting stuck on rocks. This'll prob. be the last trip of the year and it was definitely worth it. Once again however, we ran out of alcohol before the end of the trip. Still haven't quite learned how to pack accordingly.

Tuesday night, Cory Morrow gave a free concert on 6th street. Erin called and invited me and Jeff and we went even though I'm not a country fan. It was fun.

Jeff finally got the promotion he's been applying for forever...and its here in Austin and not in OK. whoop!! So, he's been really busy with work lately but thats fine b/c I play solitare all day!! Just kidding (not really)!

Well I guess that is all for now!

Puerto Vallarta

2005-08-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

I went to Puerto Vallarta last week with the family. Very relaxing vacation except for the vendors on the beach asking you to buy a bolero every 5 minutes...but those aside, a true trip of peace.
Here is a photo diary of the time spent there because I'm too lazy to describe and nothing really horribly interesting occured either.

This is us on the bus to the airport....you can see the excitment in the air between me and my little brother.

Doesn't Jason (my brother) look like he belongs on the beach? You might notice that I'm not in a lot of pics...it is the fate of the camerawoman.

Wait!! Here I am...unfortunately not the most flattering picture since I had to take it of myself but at least that proves that I'm there!!

Here's the family at dinner one night...awww what a beautiful sunset....and multiple sunburns...The food was wonderful at the resort. We ate so much good food however I got to have a reminder of the food from Mexico all this past week. Lets just say that I've spent more time in the bathroom than I care to admit. So I didn't injure my self in Mexico this time..I just came down with a case of food poisoning!

On our last night in Puerto Vallarta, a sea turtle came onto the beach to lay its eggs. It was a pretty cool thing. I got to touch an egg. It looks like a ping pong ball and its hard like a normal chicken egg. This is an illegal picture by the way because supposedly you are not allowed to use flash photography while they lay their eggs....oops! How else do you take a picture of a sea turtle at night?

What's up you ask?

2005-07-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know I haven't posted in awhile but my excuse is that I've been packing and moving for what seems like forever. Yes friends, for those of you who don't know, Jeff and I have moved in together in a totally kickass apartment. Despite an old and cranky downstairs neighbor, this place totally rocks. Gorgeous pool that is constantly populated by beautiful people, huge apartment, good locations, its the perfect apartment...so far. Jeff bought a projector and made a big screen for the wall so needless to say there will be many movie nights over here at the apartment. And! there is a second bedroom and bathroom, so nice comfy place for all those out of town friends to stay.

I've been unemployed now for 2 1/2 weeks. I'm not sure if I'm adjusting so well to it. I'm used to being busy all day long or at least not having a lot of free time but now I have all this time to do things. I can't seem to get that through my head and so I've been pushing myself with a grueling moving schedule. Oh well! Everything is moved from one place into the other...now comes the task of unpacking. Another drawback about not having a job is the lack of income. Its a little disconcerning to see my bank account getting smaller and smaller and no income coming into it. Yikes!

Spent a really fun, lokey night last Friday at Renee & Ryan's house. It was a potluck dinner so everyone brought food and there was a ton of alcohol and it was all muy bueno. Then we pulled out the Battle of Sexes game. We discovered that our guys can be very gay. The night ended with Jeff passing out and having everyone write on his legs with marker and paint his toe nails. It was a learning lesson...don't fall asleep in a room full of drunk people who have markers. Anyway, we decided to do a potluck at a different person's house/apartment every month. Next month its ours. Should be a lot of fun. We can put that projector to use.

Everything else is pretty boring. I unpack all day, play on the computer, go to the gym and eat....not a real exciting day. However! On Thursday I leave to go to Puerto Vallerta with my family. It is going to be my parents, brother, sister and my sister's boyfriend. While not my ideal situation, no one can really complain about a free vacation to a tropical beach resort. I plan on getting really tan and making my brother learn salsa with me. He's almost as tall as I am now. Hopefully, I'll have lots and lots of pictures to post when I get back.

So, maybe since I have a lot more time on my hands, I might post more. Of course now that I'm not doing anything, I really don't have much to talk about.

Faye's Wedding & a 4th to Sleep on

2005-07-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend I headed down to that bustling coastal town known as Port Lavaca. No offense to all you Port Lavaca fans and lovers out there but your town is awful. I guess in my years of living in large cities has tainted my taste for small towns but I just don't know if I could ever enjoy a place where the biggest news was that the SuperWalmart just opened up. Despite my enthusiasm for the place, I can see its appeal. I thought it was kinda neat that everyone knows everyone. People are more relaxed and laid back and not so anxious and crazy as they are in a big city. I just think you could make a small town a little more attractive and still have the friendly atmosphere.

Anyway! On to Faye's Wedding.... Jeff and I got to PL around 3:30 for the 4pm rehearsal at the church. Jeff discovered that we forgot to pack his shoes and all he had with him were flip flops so while I was learning how to correctly walk down the aisle and bow at the alter, he went on a search for dress shoes (this is where that new super Walmart comes in handy!!). We finished up with minimal complications (we were short a bridesmaid and a couple of groomsmen)and headed over to the rehearsal dinner. Dinner was a nice arrangement of fried shrimp and fish with some sides...not a great way to stay on your diet but hey its your good friends wedding so you eat! We finished up there and then a bunch of the bridesmaids (Jeff and me included) headed over to the super Walmart to check things out (hey! this is small town america!). Then we went to the local bar & grill (?) to have a couple of beers before calling it a night. The place was totally hopping...no not really. It closed at 10pm but we kept it open to 11pm....oohhh. I really didn't mind b/c I was tired and I had to get up early to get my hair done for the wedding.

The wedding: Faye looked beautiful and it was really touching to see her and Danny together. I know that they will be good for each other. The wedding went really smoothly and the pictures didn't take long at all. We all went over to the reception after that. Food was served and then the music started. They began the dancing with something called the "Grand March". Now, I've been to many a Texas wedding and a few of them were quite country/old school but I have never heard of the Grand March. What it ended up being was kind of a line of couples that follows each other until in the end it forms a circle around the wedding couple. I thought it was a great way to get the dancing started but I don't think I would necessarily put it in my wedding. Anyway dancing and a ton of cake eating ensued followed by the couple leaving around 10:30. Jeff and I headed out and went to an after party at one of the bridesmaids in-laws house. Drinking, socializing, etc. Jeff and I left PL early the next morning so that we could go out on the lake that afternoon.

The lake was fun except for the incredibly crazy girls that were on the boat. They were high, drunk and insane. If I had been not so tired...I probably would have tolerated them more. I was glad when we finally moored at around 7pm.

The 4th of July was pretty uneventful. I didn't even go and watch fireworks. We did go see War of the Worlds which I liked but Jeff didn't care that much for it. Then we went to a party for a couple of hours. We headed home and just kinda hung out for the rest of the night....a relaxing way to celebrate the aging of our country.

Jeffer's B-day Party and other events.

2005-06-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

So Sunday was Jeff's 23rd Birthday. Yes, I am older BUT I at least look younger and still get carded at every place we go. Anyway, being the amazing girlfriend that I am I decided to throw him a big birthday party. So, I sent out the evites, planned the party, bought and cooked a ton of food, and ordered a keg. I was going crazy all weekend making sure all the plans were in order. I wanted to make sure that Jeff's birthday was a totally success since for the past 10 months I've been hearing how his last birthday sucked.

Well the party was a success! Even though NXNW gave us the wrong keg of beer and several people who said they were coming didn't, the party was still a lot of fun and Jeff got really trashed. I would just like to tell all the single girls who were invited to the party but didn't show up...you missed out on a big sausage fest of single guys. Your loss, my fun!! I like having all the guy attention on me I've decided. The party lasted out by the pool until around 10:30 when the big fat rent-a-cop told us we had to move so that people wouldn't complain about noise. Now I know why cars keep on getting broken into at my complex. The fat rent-a-cop is too busy policing parties and not paying attention to the cars(What he is paid to do!!!).

So the party moved to my apartment and keg out onto the porch. I think that we annoyed the upstairs neighbor but thats ok because her dogs peed on my herbs! We might have annoyed the downstairs neighbor when Tony's friend Mike puked off the railing but I'm not sure the neighbor noticed till the next day. Then around 1:30 everyone started passing out and I ended up with 4 guys passed out in my living room. At least they were too drunk to notice how uncomfortable they were. I'm just glad that I didn't wake up to one of them jumping in bed with me and Jeff like the last time one of his friend's stayed over.

Overall the party was a ton of fun. On Sunday after cleaning mounds of dishes Jeff and I went to meet his family in Giddings. We ate at a pizza joint named Reba's. It had pretty good pizza and his family is so sweet and cute. All his little sisters made gifts to give him. On our way back we picked up my gift to Jeff which was a monogramed flask and shot glass. I unfortunately was unable to give him my original gift which was getting his amp and subwoofer installed due to complications. Oh well! I think he liked it anyway. Then I took him to Austin Land & Cattle Co. for dinner. It was muy bueno. So I think that Jeff had a good birthday.

I also decided to stay an extra week at The Castilian because then I can get a paid holiday for the 4th of July. I figured I could use the extra money. I still haven't bought a ticket for europe. I'm kinda nervous about having enough money to go there and then live on until I receive financial aid. Also, I'll be moving right before I go so there are additional expenses before I go. I don't know!!! ARRRGGHH...I'm talking myself out of it once again I think.

Jeff and Tony water wrestling

Me and the Birthday boy

Some of the party people!!

2005-06-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

This doesn't quite do our Vegas hotel room justice. But believe me...it was totally cool!!!

Vegas Baby!!!

2005-06-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

So last week was a ton of fun. Jeff and I went to Vegas Monday night and stayed through till Wednesday night. I booked us a room at the MGM Grand and the room totally rocked! It was uber-modern and streamlined. It looked really cool. I'll try to remember to post a pic later. Anyway we did a lot of gambling and a whole hell of a lot of walking. I think I can be dubbed the walking Nazi after forcing Jeff to walk miles and miles in flipflops. His toes are still bruised. I guess all those torturous shoes I've worn for years have deadened all the feeling in my feet....oops.

While we didn't win any money, I have discovered an enjoyment in gambling. Before it scared the bejesus out of me and I would cringe at the thought of loosing my hard earned money. Jeff, however, described in a way that made me feel better about it. If you are playing at the low stakes tables or at the cheap slots, you are putting in $20 for an hour or two of entertainment. You pay the same thing for going to see a movie and the movie doesn't provide you with free drinks!!!

We also tried out the new monorail system. Ehh....I guess if you are going really long distances like from one end of the strip to the other it works well. But, if you are going a couple of casinos down, you walk just as much through the casinos to get to the monorail and in the same time you could have walked down the blvd. to the next one. And you have to wait anywhere from 5 min to 9 min. depending on the time of day you are traveling.

For all those Food Network fans out there, we ate lunch Wednesday at Bobby Flay's restaurant. Our meals were good but my plate was the perfect example of an upscale restaurant dining. Jeff had a nice filling pork tenderloin sandwich with seasoned fries. My meal of crab/cod cakes however, consisted of two 1 1/2 inch diamater cakes with about a 1/8 of a cup of red cabbage slaw. It was good but definitely not filling. I think that the most filling meal I had the entire trip was my breakfast at Denny's! Oh well!

We also went to Studio 54 Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun but we were already super exhausted to really get our boogie on. I do want to say that I wish that there was a law against certain people dancing. It really is frightening what some people will do when drunk and in Vegas.

I came back to work on Thursday...snore. But Saturday we went toobing. It was a blast but towards the end it got really cold because the sun had gone behind the trees. I realized while floating down the river that I was supposed to be somewhere either on Saturday and Sunday. When I got home from toobing I looked and found out that I missed one of Faye's Bridal Showers....eeks!!! I feel so horrible. I need to start putting a reminder on my phone for all these events! I need to call now and offer all of my apologies. I'm a horrible bridesmaid!

So now its Sunday and I'm back to work. June 30th can't come fast enough!

Fun in the sun!!!!

2005-05-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend was definitely busy and a ton of fun.

Friday I went and had lunch with Jeff at this Japanese restaurant. Lunch came in benzo boxes and it was soo yummy and delish! I ate way too much and had to be rolled to the grocery store in order to shop for Faye's party on Saturday. After shopping and buying waaaaayyyy toooo much food, I met up with Lisa and Kelly for a going away/birthday drinks/dinner at El Mercado. I must admit that their big ass magarita is muy bueno. Then I went over to Hickory Street Bar and Cafe to meet Jeff to have drinks for Tony's birthday. I held off because I knew that I'd be spending the rest of the night cooking....although $2 ritas and beer is sooooo tempting! Went home and started making food for Saturday night.

Saturday I got up early and started cooking. I made penis shaped cookies for the party and a frozen white chocolate raspberry torte. It was delicious. Then I met Jeff and his mom and little sister Erica at Manuels for lunch. Then I went back home to cook some more. I made the mexican seafood cocktail and the cheese platter and veggie tray. More cooking and chopping and then Jeff and the fam came over to swim. Took a little break from slaving over the stove for a little relaxation. Then shower and more cooking. The girls started arriving at 7:00pm for the lingerie/"slumberparty". The lady who did the demonstrations was a little disappointing but everyone had a lot of fun and the penis cookies were a big hit!! Lots of food was eaten but it you know me...I had more food than 10 girls could eat and there was tons leftover. When the party was done and purchases had been made, we headed downtown. Lots of drinking ensued and I did not get to bed until 4am.

Before I say anything about Sunday....I have to give credit to my friend F for introducing me to some of her friends in Austin. So, even though she's moved away and living large in Rome, some of them still keep in contact with me. On Friday afternoon, I talked to Philip of Scotland online and he invited me to join in on his wild weekend. Mainly they were partying all weekend going tubing and then boating on sunday. Well of course I couldn't do anything Friday or Saturday but Sunday seemed tempting. So, I ended up calling *cough, cough* sick to work and Jeff, Emily and I went boating with Phil and like 20 of his other closest friends. It was such a blast. Even though we waited at Carlos & Charlies for like 2hrs before the boats arrived, it was still a ton of fun and EVERYONE was sooooo great and nice. We all had a ton of fun and it kicked ass! Then one of the boat owners ended up paying for everyone's dinner. I couldn't believe it...he plopped down his boat, time, and gas money and then went and paid for dinner!!! Well we didn't get home until 10:30 or so and it was a bitch to get up for work the next day. Ohh! and God got me back for lying and calling in sick. I now have oddly splotched sunburns on my hands and 2 spots on my face. The burns on my hands are really bad and painful and have blisters. The ones on my face are dry and itchy. Payback sucks! and sunblock can be misleading!

By Popular Demand....

2005-05-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

So I guess everyone is wondering what has happened since the last post....well I guess I've kept you in suspense long enough.

I found out last week on Wednesday after contacting the professor in charge of the historic preservation department at UT that I am admitted. Basically, they had recently changed directors and my application and notice fell between the cracks. So, now I had decisions to make...

Friday morning before my flight to D.C. and visit to NYC, I decided upon reviewing the cost of one year at Pratt (45,000), that UT might be a more economical and more prudent decision. With that decision made I took off to visit the school I will not be attending!! Travel was an all day affair. Got off the plane and took a train to meet Kate in downtown DC. Ate yummy dumplings in Chinatown, saw the White House, and as Kate so nicely put it - George Washington's Penis! We headed back to her place in Virginia so we could make the 7:30 am bus to New York. I must admit that the subway is a nice and convenient way to travel and despite some slight turn arounds, Kate know's how to navigate quite well.

Saturday morning we get up and catch the 8:30 bus to NYC after missing the 7:30 and the 8am was too full. The 3 1/2 hr drive turned into over 5 hrs because of traffic. I think I would have gone crazy had it not been for Kate and I making fun of everyone on the bus. Once off the bus, we took the subway to Brooklyn and walked over to Pratt. It is a really small campus but really cool b/c they have outdoor sculptures done by students everywhere! We snooped around but pretty much everything was closed and under construction. It would be cool to go there but not worth the money needed.

Spent the rest of the day walking around the sights and sounds of NYC. Saw Central Park and Times Square and then walked down 5th Avenue. Stopped in the infamous H&M...I'm now in love and will be deprived of the store till my next East Coast adventure. OHHH!!! I forgot to mention that it is raining the entire time we are in NYC. Kate and I luckily brought umbrellas but our pants are drenched from the calves down.

We decided to take the 7:30 bus back to Washington. Got in around 12:30 but had no energy to do anything else but shower and sleep b/c I had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn to catch my plane.

So on Sunday mornings, the metro/train/subway system does not work early enough for me to catch my flight so I had to take a taxi from Kate's place in Virginia to BWI. It was an $80 cab fare. This did not sit pretty with me. Flight was long and uncomfortable and I was so tired from drunk boyfriend calling at 3am and waking me up. Got back into Austin to pay a $27 parking lot fee and make it in time for work.

Overall the trip was fun but too fast paced to really absorb and enjoy. I wish I had more time and a cheaper cab ride....it kinda ruined my last day. So yea!! I'm going to UT in the fall...again.

On a more current note...Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Any suggestions of how to celebrate?

Still Waiting...

2005-04-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

So still no word from UT. I was told to contact the professor in charge of the program since he refuses to give any information to the graduate coordinator. Yes my friends, a big pile of suckage! I leave on Friday to go to NYC. This might become my home for 2 years if I don't get any answer from UT. Arrrrggggghhhh!!!!

Anyway, Jeff and I went camping last weekend. It was a lot of fun if no slightly uncomfortable at night. Did you know that you have to reserve campsites at least a week in advance in order to get a site where you want? I found that out. I eventually reserved a site at Palmetto State Park outside of Gonzalez. Its supposed to be about an hour outside of Austin on 183 but....Jeff and I took the long way around and made it an 1 1/2 hr drive...ooops. The park was nice but very manicured and extremely family oriented with tons of playgrounds and paddle boats. It was nice but I usually prefer campsites in parks with trails that are longer than a mile and a quarter. Next time though!!! We ended up eating in Shiner on Saturday night. We thought we could visit the brewery and maybe sample some beer but it was closed. Instead we went to one of the only restaurants open... Werner's Steak and Seafood. From my understanding, they really don't get many strangers in the restaurant. I think we were the youngest of the clients but we were treated with great service. The food was really good and very reasonable too!! Don't worry we did the campfire food too!! S'mores were made and the next day Jeff grilled hamburgers and baked potatoes over the fire for lunch...it was muy bueno!!! The weather was kinda crappy on Sunday so we left by 1pm and headed back to Austin. Overall, a good weekend.

This week seems dragging but hopefully it'll pick up. I know its b/c I'm stressed about UT. OOOHHH and Jeff and I bought tickets to go to Vegas. We are staying at MGM in one of their fun new suites. It should be a blast.

I need to throw a party...Jeff bought a ton of alcohol yesterday and now it barely fits on my drink cart. Hmmm...keep your ears open!!

Still Waiting....

2005-04-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

So, I still haven't heard from UT and the graduate school coordinator that I've been talking to basically told me to stop bothering her and that she will notify me if there is a decision. This is absolutely ridiculous. I did buy my ticket to go visit NY at the end of the month. Actually I fly to DC to pick up Kate and then we'll both take the train up to NYC to visit the school. I need to call and arrange for us to stay overnight there.

Much more exciting news though....Renee got engaged on Friday night. Her ring totaled 2 karats in diamonds. Damn!!! Ryan proposed to her at Mt. Bonnell and took her to Jeffrey's for dinner and then rented the corner suite of the Driskell hotel on the 4th floor. Their room looked out onto 6th street. It rocked. So congrats to her! And the wedding is being planned for November.

Jeff and I are planning on going camping this weekend. I hope it doesn't rain. I guess I need to make reservations at a camp site. Any suggestions for local camping? I can't wait to break open the yummy s'mores.

Other than that just doing the daily grind. Work, gym, eat, sleep and the occasional downtown excursion. I think I'm going to drag Jeff to salsa dancing on Wednesday. If anyone is interested let me know! Its a Speakeasy and they give lessons at 8 for $5. Then its free dance after that. Fun times!!

Anticipation

2005-04-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

So I've known for almost 2 weeks now about Pratt. UT on the other hand has been stringing me along. First, the say its still in review. Then they say they never received my writing sample. Well duh! They never told me to submit a freakin' writing sample. So, I turned in the sample and now my app is back in review. They told me I would know by Friday or at the latest Monday. Here it is Tuesday afternoon and I still have no clue. How am I supposed to make my decision by May 1st if I don't even know if I got into UT?

Do you think it'll hurt my chances if I call or email everyday until they tell me?

Bright Lights...Big City

2005-04-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

Whats up in my life you ask?!?...well maybe you don't ask but I'm gonna tell you anyway!

So, Thursday I found out that I was accepted to Pratt Institute in New York. I'm super excited about it because I just figured that it was a shot in the dark applying to an architecture graduate program without having an undergraduate degree in architecture. Now, I'm trying to find out about UT. I called this morning and they said that they would call me back and of course this is the morning that I forgot my cell phone. I guess I just need to visit New York and get accepted into UT and then the hard part comes...making my decision.

This weekend was absolutely beautiful! I got off early on Thursday (everyone knows and envies that my weekends start on Thursday) and went to the gym and laid out by the pool. It was muy bueno...don't think I got any sun though. Friday was a bit chilly to lay out but it was still pretty. I went to the new Whole Foods off of 6th st. I was slightly disappointed as of having heard that there was a chocolate fountain and I didn't see any chocolate fountain. They did have a cool escalator for shopping carts and bag pick up where someone loads your car for you. Pretty cool but damn them for the lack of a chocolate fountain!

Had an early dinner Friday night with Jeff (artichokes and quiche) and then met up with Renee for a margarita or two at Chuy's. Gave her her b-day present (month and a half late). Then left and met up with Jeff and Mell downtown. We partied it up 4th street style....meaing expensive drinks but a nice posh and comfortable environment. Started out at Oslo's and then ended up at Cuba Libre sippin' on Mojitos. Met up with Jeff's friend Sicily and her guy friend....very enjoyable evening.

Saturday I had full intentions of going on a hike but ended up instead washing my car, laying out by the pool and throwing an impromptu bbq. Oh and my car got keyed in the HEB parking lot b/c I inadvertently stole someone's space...well I actually did know that there were 3 other people trying to get the same spot but I just got there first. The bbq was fun and very yummy. Jeff did the grillin' and I did all the running back and forth between my apt. and the grill...doesn't seem too bad except there are at least 3 flights of stairs between the two spots. I got talked into going downtown again Saturday night...I didn't mind though b/c I got to spend time with Faye. I told her that I wanted to throw her a naughty "tupperware" bridal shower.... and she's totally crazy about the idea.

Sunday, breakfast with Jeff and Manny Hattan's and then off to work. I met Jeff for Frisbee golf afterwork (I just watched). Went home and made dinner, watched a movie, slept and then it was off to work again to start another week! I'll keep everyone posted as to the status of UT...till I write again!

The Ice Cream Man

2005-03-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

There was an ice cream truck parked out in front of the Castilian this morning at 8:30 giving free samples. It left by 9:30am. I'm all for free ice cream but not at 9am. I need coffee more than ice cold milk products.

This past weekend was crazy. We went downtown and braved the SXSW crowds Thur, Fri, & Sat. nights. Thursday night, Jeff, me and F started out at a St. Patrick's day party with some of Jeff's ex-coworkers. We played beer pong....Jeff and I lost....F won. I was a very drunk girl heading out downtown. We also met a guy who got set on fire b/c he wanted to see if lighter fluid would evaporate....not the brightest crayon out of the box. Went downtown and drank more...got home really late and poor Jeff had to be at work early in the morning.

F and I chilled Friday. We went and had lunch with Jeff and then went and shopped at some shee-shee stores at Davenport village. It was fun times. Linds came into town and so did Kat and we all went to Manuel's for some extremely yummy Mexican food. Their ceviche, although they do not use shrimp, is really really good. Rolled my self home to get ready to go out to 4th st. We went out and met up with big Tim at Cuba Libre. I got hit on by a group of old guys who were into "International Commodities". Sure. The other one used the excuse that he was a hair dresser to mess with my hair....I wasn't amused...lets try creeped out. Otherwise, it was a fun night.

Saturday entailed lunch at Hula Hut and then off to have pedi's by highland. Jeff even got a pedi..but he didn't get his nails painted...it was a pitty. It did help his poor hurt toe which he claimed was the reason he got the pedicure in the first place. Dinner was a combo of leftovers from all the other nights out to dinner and PF Changs. Out again but this time we headed to 6th st. sans Linds who stayed behind with Tim. We ended the night in the hot tub with a couple of F's friends from college. I konked out soon after while they hung out some more.

Sunday went to work, came home and made dinner. Dinner was yummy and very healthy. I thought we might have needed something on the healthy side after all the take out and greasy mexican. Then I made a kickass chocolate soufflee for dessert. Jeff had already gone to bed so F and I enjoyed is lighter than air yumminess.

Overall a very successful weekend followed by an extremely busy week so far. Can't complain too much....although I always find a way to!!!

Dum..de...dum...

2005-03-16T07:34:00.000-08:00

Location: The freezing cold planes of The Castilian Leasing Office

Temperature: FREEZING

Mood: Did you not read clearly before? FUCKIN' FREEZIN'!!!!!!!

I'm tired of working. I want to be supported by my parents again so that I can lounge around and still have money to shop and go out to eat. I think my mood is based upon the sub-zero temperatures that I have been forced to endure the past week. Right now I'm wearing a thick turtleneck sweater and shirt underneath, pants, wool socks, and boots and I'm still a popsicle. How can they expect us to work in this environment?!? I'm dreaming of the tropics right now and the beach.....ohhh summer cannot come soon enough...neither can a nice long vacation.

So, what's up in my life you ask? I'll tell you.

Last Thursday, Jeff, his roommate, and me go to see the YinYang twins at Paradox. (If you are like me and dont' know who they are...think of the song "Shake it like a salt shaker...") Anyway, we get there at 8:30 b/c the group is supposedly supposed to go on soon after that and the price bumps up to $20 after a certain time. Well after waiting in line for 30minutes...we get to the door and end up havign to pay $20 anyway...suckage. That is when we find out that they don't go on till 12:30 in the morning. Let me give you a little time line from this point on so that you can get an idea of the evening.

8:55pm: Get into the doors - immediately order 3 drinks apiece since it is $1 wells till 9 pm.

9:15pm: We have all finished our 3 drinks and are on the hunt for more alcohol to make the wait more bearable. Order two more drinks apiece for $2 each. Down those quickly and have now gained liquid courage to join the sluty 18 yr olds out on the dance floor.

10:00pm: Have tired of the dance floor - we are in desparate need of the sobering effects of water. Down several bottles.

10:30pm: Find a table and sit down at it...5minutes later Jeff's roommate's head is down on the table as she seems to have had more drinks while our back was turned.

10:45pm: Leave the club without having seen the Yinyang twins b/c we are all too drunk to wait another hour to see the group.

11:30pm: In bed and the group still hasn't gone on stage yet.

Friday: I decided that I wanted a quiet night in. I know this doesn't sound like me but for some reason in my drunken stooper I asked Jeff if we could play Friday lowkey....ooops...kinda regretted it by Friday evening but it was still nice.

Saturday: Went out downtown. Met up with Erin at Barcelona. My guys were already drunk so the evening ended around 1am. Jeff passed out in the seat next to me. At the traffic light a taxi full of guys pulled up next to me. One rolled down the window and started saying stuff to me. I tried to ignor him for a while thinking doesn't he see the guy sitting next to me? When I eventually rolled down my window, he merely shouted..."I like your antenna!"...Ok.

Sunday: Work

Monday: Work and then met Jeff at Tony's apt. The guys were playing Kings with Hooters playing cards. Joined in with them with my newly acquired mojito (yum yum)! Mel, passed out and got a penis drawn on his cheek. Drove Jeff home. Slept and work the next day.

This weekend, the girls are coming into town. I'm extremely excited as it should be full of fun and adventure....watch out Austin!

Sniffle, Cough, Sneeze!!!

2005-03-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

So the girl who never gets sick has a cold. Of course it's all Jeff's fault. He works in an office with a ton of people...its like working in a day care center! If one person gets sick, everyone gets sick. So he brought it home to me. But thats ok because I'm sharing the wealth with people at work too! Both Lisa and Erin mentioned signs of sore throats (my first symptom). Oh well tis the season right?!?

I'm so excited about next weekend. F, Linds, & Kat are coming into town. It is going to be a hella crazy weekend. I'm going to catch up on all my sleep the week before so that I can party party party! I'm also going to see if I can get Renee to come in from Dallas too so then I get to hang with everyone! Whoop! I miss my girls...I just hang out with all Jeff's guy friends now. Not that anything is wrong with that but they aren't really any good for advice on whether a outfit looks good or my makeup is too heavy. They only notice my attire when my boobs are hanging out....Guys... So look forward to fun and interesting posts after next weekend. Hopefully there will be plenty of stories to tell.

Jeff heard back from the AmericaWest people. The are offering us a $25-$100 coupon on our next AmericaWest flight...the amount varies depending on how expensive the flight is. Total Suckage! That is assuming that we would ever want to fly AmericaWest again. ERRRGGG. We are still waiting to hear back from Orbits. They better have a better answer/solution. This has caused so much hassle and craziness.

Despite the trail of bad luck Jeff and I have experienced with vacations, I'm attempting to plan another one. I want to go where it is warm, sunny, and with lots of beaches. I'm thinking an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Does anyone have any suggestions or deals? I was originally thinking about doing a cruise but in the end it would be 3 days at sea and 1 or 2 days at a destination. That kinda blows....so I thought a resort would be more fun. I don't want to spend too much because I'm saving for gradschool and hopefully a brief trip to Europe (not looking likely though).

Anyway, thats whats up in my life.

Busted...

2005-03-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

For those of you who talked to me last week. It looked like it was going to be "OK or Bust" last week for Jeff. But yesterday he busted. He was denied the position in Oklahoma because of lack of tenure. It totally sucks for him because that means he is stuck in the same job for another 4 months with no hope of promotion and his boss is dumb a**. But, on the other hand, it is great news for us! The big decision of what is going to happen was made for us or at least postponed till I find out about grad school. I feel bad for feeling happy for myself but I really do feel horrible that he didn't get the job. Anyway, thats the latest scoop!

Skiing??...Ha! and other tales from the week...

2005-02-25T10:33:00.000-08:00

So from previous posts, you might have ascertained that I planned on going skiing this past weekend. Well....I didn't. Here's the story.

We drove to Dallas Thursday night and spent the night at my parents house. We got up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive to DFW airport to make our flight. We get there and of course there is a horrible line and we were running a little late due to traffic. So Jeff and I stood there and made fun of all the old people who were scared to use the electronic check-in thing. Of course then as soon as we get up there, it doesn't work for us...so we've just become the people that we were making fun of in line. A lady behind the counter helps us and then checks our bags for us and we continue to security check.

At this point in time, we are kind of in a rush to get to the terminal because we were in a crunch and Jeff wanted to get breakfast before we left. So, of course I get stopped and my carry-on gets searched. I ALWAYS GET SEARCHED!!! I swear I must look so middle class, suburbanite that I must be a terrorist. We cross security to hear that our flight has been delayed due to bad weather in phoenix (where our connecting flight was). Perfect! We went and ate breakfast, took our time, talked about the issues, etc. Finally, we go and hang out at the gate and wait while they start boarding. To avoid all the lines, we just waited till one of the last boarding calls to get in line.

Jeff goes to the ticket lady and she lets him through and then she looks at my ticket and she stops me and says, "Where is your paper ticket?"

I was like huh? paper ticket? I have my flight itinerary? She then continued, "You are going to have to go to the counter and talk to that guy about getting a paper ticket. You do not have an e-ticket..see no E. You just have a boarding pass."

Jeff comes back and tells her that he has the same ticket. She gives him back his stub and sends us back to the counter with minutes before the plane is supposed to depart.

We go and talk to the guy and yes we were supposed to have paper tickets with us and should not have been issued boarding passes without them. And no, we could not purchase new paper tickets or work out a deal that would prove that we belonged on the plane. And to top it off, no the tickets were non-refundable at that point and could not be used to purchase a seat on a later plane.

What had happened was we bought the tickets and forgot that the confirmation said that we would be receiving paper tickets because everyone does e-tickets now. My apartment complex signed for the fed-ex package and fed-ex did not notify me that I had received anything. So the tickets that we needed while in Dallas had been sitting in my apartment complex leasing office for over 2 weeks in Austin. We couldn't' even claim a lost ticket because everyone knew exactly where they were.

Oops indeed! And worse yet, our bags ended up on the flight. So, my bag went to California and I stayed in Texas....does this seem fair to you?!? I at least got mine back on Sunday. Jeff didn't get his back until Wednesday.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed with the lack of vacation. We ended up spending the day in Dallas and visiting with the family. I ended up calling work and asking for my vacation days back which I was able to do. Jeff on the other hand had to take his vacation days because of how the system works at Dell. So the ski trip ended up being a waste of time and money. Never use AmericaWest and now I have serious reservations about Orbitz too!! I want my money back but I don't know how to go about placing the blame in order to get it done!

So I said other news from the week would be included...but I'm fatigued and I'm sure this is a fair weighty chunk of blogging to ingest in one sitting. I'll try and post later today with more news.

Hmmm...

2005-02-17T12:56:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I figured I might finally update. Nothing much has been going on.

Saw the Real World people at a new bar called BarCelona downtown. I wasn't too impressed. The bar is cool though.

Enjoyed Valentine's Day with Jeffrey. He gave me a photo album with pictures of us and comments beside each picture. It was super sweet and almost made me cry. I made him a nice dinner with chocolate fondue as dessert and champagne. It was a nice Valentines...definitely not commercial.

Still waiting to find out about whether I get into UT and Pratt. I'm nervous but at least it is out of my hands now. I going to try and meet up with Kate in early April to visit Pratt's Brooklyn campus where my program would be.

Going to California tomorrow with Jeff. We are meeting his dad and grandparents and also going skiing. I'm a bit nervous about skiing. I haven't been since I was eight...so basically I've never done it. I just researched Big Bear where we are going to be and there is absolutely nothing to do besides ski. This wouldn't be a problem except that last night Jeff informed me that we will not be skiing on Saturday, only Sunday and Monday. He talked to his dad who informed him that it will be too crowded on the slopes. So, I'm kind of freaking out as to what we will be doing on Saturday seeing as there is really nothing to do. I'm not used to doing nothing while on vacation unless I'm at the beach. Eeeks...I'm nervous.... Of course if I don't like skiing then I'll be doing nothing all weekend ... I need to talk to Jeff. I'm used to going on vacations that are either all planned for me or in an area that has a bijillion things to do. I'm freaking out a bit right now if you can't tell.

Ok, well I'll let all know what happens when I come back on Tuesday...lets just hope I don't come back with a broken leg!!

Pinned

2005-02-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

Things I learned while in Dallas celebrating my sister's birthday....

1. Wrestling is a scary looking sport. Especially when its your little brother out there on the mat while some other kid is trying to contort his body and force him to say "uncle".

2. No one needs to see fat kids in a lycra/spandex combo outfit. *shudder*

3. Ft. Worth is f**king far away from Lancaster...especially at 6:30am on a Saturday.

4. My family can be a bit embarrassing when en mass and under the influence of wine and other spirits. (I knew this already but I always seem to forget)

5. My parents are oblivious to what goes on in their house at night.

6. Gotsta love beers from all over the world.

7. Green Tea ice cream cake is absolutely delish!!!

8. If I still lived at home, I would weigh 59086929385048 million pounds

I learned a lot of other things but I figure that is enough for right now. Off to start my week of torture.... I mean week of work.

90,000 Staples

2005-01-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

Did you know that we have at least 90,000 staples at The Castilian Dormitory Leasing Office? Unfortunately, I now do!

We have had to spend the better part of today doing inventory on every piece of paper, office supply, etc. I just spent the last two hours compiling the list only to realize that I forgot someone's desk and half of the back office.

This is my life......

Back in School Again

2005-01-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am going to say it before anyone else gets to...I am a nerd.

I am so excited because I am taking this architecture class during my lunch hour Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am taking this class for fun. I do not get any credit for it. I will probably buy the books and do all the reading. I'm going to say it again....I'm a nerd.

No, I talked to a professor in the department that I want to go to gradschool in and he recommended that I take the class. Its an Origin of Architecture class. I thought I was going to be the oldest person in the class but it actually is a dual class. There are both undergrad and gradschool kids in the class making me feel very comfortable. Another cool thing about taking the class is that the professor said that when I apply, to let him know because he will help me along....whoop whoop!!!

I miss taking notes. I always enjoyed them when I was an undergrad. I miss school...Okay Okay!!! I AM A NERD!

Cocaine

2005-01-13T06:30:00.000-08:00

So my boss comes into the office yesterday afternoon and says:

"I'll be leaving early today. If a police officer comes by the office after I leave, there is a small baggie covered by a paper towel lying on my desk in my office. We think its cocaine. Could you give it to him?"

Everyone in the office gave him a dumbfounded look and some asks, "Did you find that on a resident or in their room?"

He was like, "No, we found it lying in the stairwell so we called the police to confiscate it."

I should be drug dealer for the amount of narcotics that we confiscate in this building.

I'm Melting.....!!!!

2005-01-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

OMG!!...It is soooooo f-ing hot in my damn office. We can't turn off the heat and so we've been dying. What the hell is this 80 degree weather in January!?!?! It is not supposed to be like this! I'm sweating behind my knees and I don't have any energy to do anything. My skirt is sticking to the back of my thighs.....OMG I need air!!!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

2004-12-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

I finally get my birthday present from my parents almost 4 months later! They are going to Houston to pick up my bedframe from IKEA today...I think...at least those were the plans yesterday.

On another note, this is the first New Year's Eve that I have not had concrete plans....I'm hoping that the outcome will be better than past "planned New Year's Eves" Let's take a recount of the past couple of years....

2000 - With my parents. My friend's parents were too scared to let them out on New Year's Eve 1999-2000 b/c what if the world ended. Nothing exciting...nothing memorable...oh well!

2001 - Spent it again with the 'rents. Friends came over and we had yummy gourmet food. One friend was asleep by 11pm...I have such exciting friends....oh well!

2002 - My single Uncle let me and my friends have run of his apartment and bought us a couple of bottles of booze (we weren't quite yet 21). Steph got extremely trashed, supposedly hit on best friend's boyfriend, and woke up not remembering a thing. Friend wouldn't talk to her for a month and the friendship hasn't been the same since....oh well!

2003 - Tried to break the Dallas trend and moved the partying to Austin. Co-hosted a party with Faye, drank too much of everything, walked around with my personal bottle of champagne, had minor breakdown that resulted in beating an ex-boyfriend with a jacket in the middle of the street. I was very sick the next day and barely made it back to Dallas alive....oh well!

2004 - Figured Austin was too much and decided to move the party back to Dallas again for New Years. Rented a hotel room in Downtown and partied on Greenville with my Dallas girls. We got drunk before going out (bottle of champagne each), partied on Greenville (very expensive drinks), came home and roamed the hotel for unsuspecting boys. We met some boys from Gainesville, FL, hung out in their room, met thier friend, made out with him all night, woke up next morning, realized that I had no idea what his name was, left the hotel with a hangover and a red face....not quite so bad as previous years but expensive and a bit embarrassing...oh well!

2005 - ?? Remains to be seen!!

Santa Baby!

2004-12-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! Christmas was kind this year. I got my digital camera...so be expecting more posts with illustrations! I knew I was getting that but then my mom surpised me and my sister with ipods for each of us. It was totally awesome. Yes, it definitely was a good Christmas.

Another good thing...there were 3 family parties this weekend and no fights!!! Yea!! Unlike Thanksgiving, my extended family was able to put aside their differences and get along and at least act like they like each other. It made things so much more enjoyable.

Other stuff that was good this weekend...

Frois Gras 3 nights in a row
escargots
lots of chocolate
Seeing all the family
still being considered a kid by the family
shopping with my mom and sister (yes on Christmas eve...we're insane)
champagne 3 nights in a row
presents, presents, presents
seeing my new little cousin (he is so adorable)
watching my little bro competitively wrestle on video

Things I missed this weekend....

seeing all my Dallas friends (*tear*)
my boyfriend
my cozy apartment with my own bed & lots of clothes
creamed spinach (they promised at Thanksgiving that they would have it :( )
spending more time with my family

Well the goods out weigh the bads, so that means it definitely was a swell time in D-town. Now I look forward to a rockin' New Year's Eve.

Clowns on bikes and scary shoe polish guys

2004-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

So I took some time off of work and Jeff and I decided to go to New Orleans for a little break. The drive wasn't so bad...8hrs...long but doable. After trying 3 different hotels, we finally found the one we were supposed to stay at....it kinda sucked. They were doing construction right in front of our hotel room. We walked Bourbon St. and within 30 seconds of walking we were accosted by a clown on a bike. He seemed friendly and made balloon hats for us and only charged us a "donation" of $10. So generous don't you think? We continued on our stroll and the first bar I dragged Jeff into happened to be a gay bar. (Hey I was just going towards the loudest music!) Jeff was immediately a hit and was asked to take off his clothes for money in their calendar contest. He wasn't really feelin' it so he politely declined..we downed our drink and went along our way. (I supposedly owe him big time and will now have to drug to a strip bar like Sugar's or something.) We got hammered and spent the evening at Pat O'Brien's drinking and eating popcorn.

The rest of the time was similar to the first day...people asking for money for "services" (Everyone wanted to polish Jeff's shoes...if I had to hear, "I know where you got your shoes" one more time I was gonna deck someone!) and drinking and taking pictures. Jeff got to use his new camera a lot and there are bijillion pictures of me, New Orleans, and various other things along the trip. Oh and Jeff won at Roulette so that was pretty cool....I just sat on the side lines and looked pretty.

So overall the trip to New Orleans was a success. I only got testy on Saturday for lack of food and the only options being junk food. On the way back I got to meet Jeff's family and they are wonderful. Super nice and sweet. His sibblings are so cute and adorable. They had pretend Christmas for me Sunday afternoon and gave me a gift. I wish I had something to give them too. His mom said that she liked me to my face...so I think its a pretty good sign that they approve.

It was definitely an action packed 4 days and now I'm back at work trying to stay busy and dreaming of Christmas.

Mr. Sketch Scented Markers

2004-12-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

I just licked a scented marker to see if it tasted like it smelled...that is how incredibly bored I am. And, no it did not taste how it smells.

Anyway, had a fun weekend. Had Renee and Amy over Friday night for drinks and a movie....Jeff passed out and Amy and Renee held him down and put lipstick on him (haha teaches him to ever fall asleep in a room full of girls). Had he been a heavier sleeper, he would have ended up with his fingernails painted too.

Saturday, got up early and walked around Town Lake. It was nice and relaxing even though it was really crowded with morning joggers and walkers. Spent the day running around doing errands....Jeff bought a really, really, really nice and expensive camera. I bought clothes.

Went downtown Sat. night. Met up with Erin at Blind Pig. Drank some but stayed sober since I was DD. Boys drank too much and I had a sick boyfriend on my hands all Sunday.

Sunday, as always...worked.

Tonight I want to go view the meteor shower...I'm a nerd.

BANG!!!

2004-12-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

A bird just flew into the window. I screamed then laughed....it fell into the bushes, got up, and then flew away. Happy Monday everyone!

Yea!....Doh!

2004-12-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got a good review from my boss. I haven't had one of those things since March (see Yea Me!). We have these things called shoppers and they rate us on our leasing ability. I got an A on my shopping report. I was really scared when I found out I had been shopped because last time, back in July, I got like a 50 out of 100...oops!

Anyway, my boss calls me into his office to tell me and it makes me super excited. So, being me and how I cannot hold any kind of emotion back, I do a little dance in the middle of the office provoking everyone to ask me why I was so happy. I proceeded to brag that I had gotten an A on my shopping report and I would now have the pleasure of getting a little bonus for my wonderful efforts (I'm not modest at all!). I immediately got called back into the big man's office and got in trouble for bragging and telling everyone how good I did...doh! But I think I had a right to let everyone know how much I rock!!

Sweet Sound of Silence

2004-11-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I came back to work from my weekend only to find a giant 7 foot frosty the snowman sitting next to my desk. Now, I wouldn't normally complain about a 7 foot snowman by my desk except for two reasons.

1. It was well before Thanksgiving that they set up the monstrosity, violating my strict rule of one holiday at a time. (Please do not ask about this rule or you will be subjected to an hour long rant....just ask Jeff)

2. Since it was a blow up snowman it required a fan going inside of it 24/7 to keep it upright. This noise is very loud and very annoying driving me slightly crazy....kind of like the drip from a faucet.

So, said snowman was making me a very angry crazy person. But today I got the approval to move the horrible loud snowman to outside the office. Now, I get sweet sweet peace and quiet. I no longer have a constant hum in my ears. I can hear people when they talk to me. Its a wonderful new world that I can now enjoy!!!

Damn it!!

2004-11-25T21:07:00.000-08:00

Oh I forgot to mention. I managed to put my sleeve of my white sweater in nice and sticky, brownish caramel sauce. It wouldn't be so bad except its dry clean only and its the first time wearing it since it was last dry cleaned....damn it!!!

Pass the turkey with a side of hate and spite!!

2004-11-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord! Thanksgiving was a treat this year. We slaved over hot stoves and ovens with love and care to end up having a big family wide fight at the dinner table over plans for Christmas. Then it became a blaming game over who was more spoiled than whom or who needs to grow up...etc. I found things to do to avoid getting involved. I cleared the table, cut the desserts, etc..and my sweetie called just in time to save me from the brunt of the screams and yells. Jeff and I were in the middle of a convo when my aunt bursts outside in tears and walks down the street....oops.

A few minutes later my mom opens the door and walks down the driveway in tears as well. Supposedly at that point all hell broke loose in my house. I end the conversation and try to calm my mom and find my aunt. We decide that taking a walk around the block will calm the nerves and give people time to cool down. So me, my stepdad, my aunt, and the dogs go for a stroll to work off the turkey, stuffing, cakes, pies and glasses of wine and some of the anger. We come back in the house and things seemed to have calmed down and things went back to semi normalcy.

Now that half the family has left for the evening, the other half is sitting talking about them and what is wrong with them. I'm sitting in the dining room typing to F and listening in to them and chiming in whenever I miss a particularly juicy part. Ahhh...my family...I love them so, every disfunctional member.

I curse you!

2004-11-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel like you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Under sheer boredom and pure insanity I took it upon myself to create a new poster/flyer project. Yes dear friends, I do remember last weeks flyer woes but I have nothing better to do. Maybe I'll learn one day.....

Anyway, I'm sure my boss will tell me that it isn't along the theme that he would like to create in our "poster/flyer campaign" but I can tell you that I don't care b/c I don't see anyone else doing it. Nope, so he is just gonna have to accept it!

Rescue Me!

2004-11-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

...or rather my food! My food is being held captive by a 2-hour meeting. I'm hungry. I need someone to rescue my food. Maybe I'll just go upstairs and eat and save my food for dinner....hmm....what should I do? Devise an escape plan or claim my food as a loss?

Hola Mr. Fireman

2004-11-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

The stupid fire alarm has gone off about a hundred times today at work and each time it scares the living day lights out of me. This is very annoying. Its especially annoying b/c the alarm is not followed by hot fire fighters....now thats tragic!

Rush Hour

2004-11-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

I got a 1/2 of a mile away from my apartment this morning before realizing that I had forgotten my purse inside. So I had to turn around and get it making me even more late...oops. On a positive note, however, since it is Veteran's Day there was barely any traffic and I just zoomed down the highway and Lamar. Yea for holidays!

I brought a book today to work to keep me occupied while awaiting out "open house" that no one is going to attend....I realized I had already read the book...darn. So, I decided to do the NY Times Crossword Puzzle...I realized I'm an idiot. So, now I'm trying to keep myself busy and staring at a plate of 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies that seem to be calling my name. Why must the cookies taunt me so?

Back to School

2004-11-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

On a wild hair I decided to apply to the Pratt Institute for the Spring semester. It doesn't require a GRE score but I'll still study for the GRE so that just in case I don't get in I'll be able to apply to Columbia, UT and Chicago Art Institute for the fall. I need to get references for application. I hope my profs still remember me...eeps. What do you think? Am I ready for grad school? Am I ready for New York?? We shall see where the winds of fate will take me.

What time is it?

2004-11-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last 2 hours creating a flyer because the other 3 flyers I created last week were not good enough. Now, I'm being told...

"Just create one with no pictures...we need to get these flyers out today!"

....Excuse me?!? Why don't we just use the stupid flyers I created last week which have cute pictures, sayings and give all the correct information? Ahhhh I give up...plus I was using adobe photoshop and I have no clue how to use the stupid functions. I'm going cross-eyed from staring at the damn computer screen so long. Then to top it off. The computer's time was wrong so I got so excited when I saw that it was 3:30pm...but in reality it was only 2:30pm :( . I don't know if I can handle working until 7pm.

At least I know the managers will not be here for the rest of the week so I can do nothing...wait thats my problem right now! Oh well.

On a totally different subject, I went on ACC's website and checked out the courses I need to get into Columbia's M.S. Architecture program and its going to cost me at least a grand. Jeez...why does education have to be so expensive. Do you think my parents would help me out a bit with the cost? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Also, I need to take the GRE and I've been putting that off big time. I need to do that ASAP.

Well...back to work or at least the lack there of! Oh what is everyone's status on their novel for Nat'l. Novel writing month? I have a premise and main characters and about a page of text and that is it.

(The Sounds of Hair Being Pulled Out)

2004-11-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

Bumper to bumper traffic, 2 popped balloons in my face and already a unplanned meeting....wow! My Monday is going to be a real winner.

Four Weddings & a Funeral

2004-11-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

Nahh...just one wedding and hopefully no funerals. Friday night I went to my friend Rachel's wedding. It was way out in the middle of no where. It was so weird seeing my friend from high school who is my age getting married. We are the same age and there is no way that I feel old enough to get married. It was just surreal...it seemed like pretend but a very expensive sort of make believe. It was beautiful though. I have to give her props on the location, decorations, dresses, food, music, etc. For a 22 yr old arranging her first wedding with out any major help, she did an excellent job. Kudos to you Rachel if you read this and a huge congratulations!

Halloween weekend was very lokey for me. Jeff had been invited to several parties on Friday and I had been invited to one too but after the wedding we just went home b/c we were both tired and I had to be at work at 7am on Sat. (stupid work!).

Saturday I worked the Longhorn Saturday and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be, especially since I had to do it all by my lonesome self. The rest of the day was just lazy. We went and had drinks with some of Jeff's friends that evening, took a nap, went to an extremely small and fairly boring apartment party, went and watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then went downtown to watch all the crazies. I think this was the first Halloween that I haven't dressed up... (Sidenote: Jeff and I think that the girl Alex brought with him downtown was hitting on me...which isn't too much of a surprise since she is bi). We stayed an extra hour downtown since it was the time change this weekend and then ended up at Metro coffee house where I haven't been in at least 4 yrs. Hey for anyone that is interested...it is now a non-smoking facility. (That had always been my big complaint about Metro and my reason for not going to drink there)

Sunday did the work thing once again. Not too bad of a day. I made Jeff and me our last fatty dinner since we both have decided to eat healthy from now on. I made NY strip steak with bernaise sauce, roasted rosemary potatoes, and asparagus. For appetizers I had prosciutto on melba toasts and fresh mozzarella and grape tomatoes. Sooooo yummmmyyyy!!!! Cooking one big time consuming meal, however, gets cooking into my blood and I decided to keep on cooking after dinner and made meringues with the leftover egg whites and then I made muffins for breakfast. My apartment smells like a bakery. I enjoyed it. For awhile I had forgotten how much I enjoyed cooking b/c it gets boring cooking just for yourself.

Anyway, here it is Monday and I'm at work trying to avoid doing any work. Its another week of drudgery and balloon blowing.

PS. Its National Novel Writing Month and Flaminia and Jeff are trying to convince me to try and write a novel since they are writing one. I might but it has to be 50,000 words...thats kinda scary to think about. What would I write a novel about...hmmmmm.....

B.A. My Ass

2004-10-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

I got a college degree to get up every morning and blow up sixteen orange & white balloons to put on the corner of a building.

Just Rain on my Parade

2004-10-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

For all who don't know, Friday was my 23rd birthday. Luckily, I had the day off and so I spent it pampering myself. Slept in late, took a leisurely shower, shopped, got a pedicure....overall, it was a very relaxing day. Oh and I got F's card in the mail and the cute H&M earings....why doesn't TX have an H&M? WHY?!?

Jeff took me out to eat at Mushashino for sushi. I had this amazing avacado appetizer but Jeff didn't like it....so I ate it all. Then I had a spider roll...it was muey bueno and a spicy tuna handroll. I realized I had never had a handroll before and had to ask the sushi guy how to eat it....teehee. After a very yummy dinner, Jeff gave me my b-day present. His first idea (it was truely a wonderful idea!) had been to give me Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" painting but little did he know I already had it. He still gave it to me but my real gift was him filling up my wine rack with wine...now thats a gift I can truely appreciate! So, the evening went exceedingly well also!

I decided to invite people downtown to drink it up. So people met me at my house for a little pre-partying and then we headed down to sixth. It was my original plan to not drink that much because I was going to have to work the next morning at 7am...but....the office told me I didn't have to come in so I proceeded to get trashed. I started at Aquarium so that I could get my free t-shirt and as we got ready to move on to Touche's for the famous blowjob shot...we realized it was pouring. At this point we were trashed enough not to care and Renee and I drank more and went pretty crazy. We were all ready to go at 2 but the rain hadn't let up yet so Jeff and I decided to make a dash for it anyway. We were soaked through by the time we got to the car but with enough alcohol in my system, I didn't really care. It was very cute b/c we made out in the rain. Yes...awwww......an no Kate you can not puke!

Anyway, needless to say Saturday I was not feeling my personal best which was absolutely wonderful since my mother and brother were coming into town for a wedding. I survived and enjoyed their visit. They met Jeff and approved of him so that was good. Oh and my sister sent some super cute earings with my mom and some awesome venom lipgloss so now my lips will be nice and pouty!

Sunday, I worked and relaxed and it was just a normal typical sunday.

I HATE MY JOB

2004-10-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

When I applied for this damn job...it did not mention anything about lifting heavy boxes or signs. My boss just made me carry out a sign to the corner of the street that was literally as big as me. To top it off I slept on my neck wrong and I have crick in it! If I wanted a fuckin' manual labor job I would have applied to be a construction worker! I at least would get paid well for carrying heavy things as opposed to the crap I get paid now.

Sigh....what a way to start out my Thursday morning.

3:30 AM Football Tickets

2004-10-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

How I scored UT vs. Missouri at 3:30 in the morning Friday before the game:

Friday night Renee, Lissette and I went downtown to meet some friends from Houston staying at the Hilton. It was already midnight by the time we got there so we had minimal partying time. At two after trying to get everyone back together we headed back to the Hilton. There we hung out for almost an hour trying to figure out rides, where people are staying and then someone brought up blueberry pancakes. That opened up a whole other can of worms. Meanwhile, Lissette is chatting with this guy on the bench who is just listening and laughing at our loud, drunk selves. The game gets mentioned and poof....he gives us 2 tickets to the game, a parking permit for campus garages or lots, and 2 wrist bands to get into the Goal Post Club.

Moral of the story:
It pays to hang out in front of the Hilton at 3 am even when you aren't a paying customer!

Sun, Sand, & Mojitos

2004-10-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

So the trip to Puerto Rico might be back on thanks to F and if I can find a decently priced plane ticket. God! I need a break and I don't know if I can wait until December....of course mean bad work might not let me off!

OOHHH the gods, fates, almighty deities, spirits, creatures, nymphs, and all that is good and holy please be kind and make this work out so that I might keep my sanity!

Yea!

2004-10-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I received two pieces of very good information on Saturday from my family.

First good piece of information is that I have a distantly related person on the Arts District board in Dallas....could this be my chance to get involved in the arts world?

Second, is that when I was born my mother registered me with the French government meaning that I am a citizen of France or at least can receive a French passport (now Euro passport). France, right now, is offering free higher education to French residents. I could go to France and get my MA for free....how 'bout them apples?!?!? To make things even better (and makes me an asset to international companies) is that I do not have to get a work visa if I go to france...or a student visa if I go to school there. Also, since it is a Euro passport, I think I can work pretty much anywhere in Europe. Hootie-hoo!!!

The baptism party rocked on Saturday. My cousin Noelle knows how to throw amazing shindigs. She had a jazz band playing and catered food and her house and backyard are so gorgeous. I felt like I was a part of a Homes & Garden photo shoot. I drank champagne from 3pm to 8pm and it was so decadent and wonderful....I'm always going to drink champagne at parties from now on!

Can I take it back?

2004-09-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, I get a call from Jeff while I am still at work and he's telling me that he wants to dye his hair. I wanted to tell him no and to back away from the hair coloring section of the store....and I did but in the end I told him to go ahead and do it if he thinks its going to look good. I don't want to be one of those girlfriends who tells their boyfriend no for everything. So he did it.

Later that night he comes by to show me and when I open the door, he has my sweater (I left it over at his house) on his head. Dear folks, this is never a good sign. After about 5 min of coercing and trying to drag the sweater off his head....the hair is revealed! My god, it was awful! He looked like Eminem. I couldn't believe that he did that to his hair...it was completely yellow..not blond...not orange but YELLOW. For a brief moment I entertained the thought of calling off the relationship right there....I can handle many things but I cannot handle bad hair on a guy!

Supposedly he's going to dye it back today and go get a haircut. I'm not sure now b/c I teased him so much he threatened to keep it that way for the next two months until it grows out.

Sheesh! What a way to woo a girl....blind her with your dazzling yellow locks!

BF... What?!?

2004-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went to lunch with the cool boss and we sat around and talked. He started asking me about Jeff. He met Jeff on Saturday at this kick ass tailgate that he threw where we had to drink 40oz. Anyway, he asked me if it was serious and I said well no, not right now and kinda pussy footed around the question. I'm a very noncommittal person. So, he was like, "Man, my friends were asking who you were and who that guy was....Steph, you tend to sell yourself short! You don't need to settle for anyone!" It kinda sounded like he was telling me I could do better than Jeff. I probably should have been offended but I was really flattered that my boss and his friends think I'm pretty cute. He did tell me that I need to increase my self esteem....I didn't think I had that low of one! Then later...or maybe earlier that day...can't remember I was talking to F online and she said her Italian guy friends saw a pic of me online and wanted to talk to me. Jeez, Jeff came into my life at the wrong point....I could be playing around with some hot Italian or a big shot ex UT Football player.

Ok, now in reference to my subject title. Jeff and I are hanging out. I made him dinner and we were supposed to meet his friends at Hooters later but we ended up canceling b/c it was to far, etc. We were sitting on the couch watching CSI. Earlier I had told him about the incident with my boss and had playfully asked him when we acted upset..."What?!? You don't like other guys thinking your girlfriend is attractive?" We haven't talked about our status yet but he's referred to me as his girlfriend a couple of times but I have yet to call him my boyfriend. Anyway, we were sitting on the couch and he goes:

Jeff: Can I ask you a stupid question?
Me: Huh?!? Uh, yeah sure.
Jeff: Will you be my girlfriend?

For a split second I thought he was joking and almost laughed and told him to shut up but instead yes came out of my mouth. It was so middle school. It made me laugh....not at him but b/c it was cute/sweet situ.

So, in conclusion, I guess I am a taken woman. I am in a *gasp* relationship...we shall see how long this lasts for the commitment-phobic Steph!

What you should never say to another girl.....

2004-09-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

I was eating lunch yesterday with a friend from work who is a male. He and I were talking and all of a sudden he changed the subject.

To me, a girl, he says, "You know, Lisa (one of my co-workers), would be a beautiful girl if she just lost a little weight." "She just seems to have gotten a little chunkier lately"...etc.

OMG, I was so horrified that he would say that to me. I didn't know what to say. I was like George you cannot say that. That is so mean. That kind of ended the lunch there.

Uno Momento

2004-09-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

So here is to add to your cute/awww/eeewww/*retch* factor. Last night Jeff and I went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. When he got up to go to the bathroom, the waitress came by and told me that she just wanted to say how cute a couple we made..etc, etc. Didn't know how quite to respond so I just said thank you. I thought it was kinda funny.

I did what?!?

2004-09-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

So F came into A-town this weekend and we proceeded to paint the town red. I picked Dr. F up in Dallas and we headed down to Austin in my rental SUV totally chillin'. We stopped and picked up some kick ass $3.50 sunglasses at Fossil which will play a part in the weekend's festivities later on.

Once in town we restocked my liquor cabinet. The liqour store guy actually had to yell to the back to bring out more boxes. Unfortunately, it was a sad preparty compared to our last soiree but thats ok b/c F and I have a tendency to create parties just by ourselves. Jeff came over and played sober boy to our drunk giggly selves. We cruised down to 6th with F hanging out the side window for lack of a sunroof. Hit the street, F in her muy bueno blue jean corset and me in my lace up black mini-dress and big curly Texas sized hair. We detour to 4th and meet Emily and her hot boss and his very muy bueno friends at the new hip bar Foundation. We drink our expensive drink and then get a call that there are more people down on 6th and so we head on down there. I forgot to mention that F and I are wearing matching underware which after a couple more drinks...I proceed to show everyone.

The next chain of events is pretty hazy. I know there was alcohol and there were a lot of people and I know we headed back to 4th to meet up with Scotland and Geoff....otherwise things get pretty hazy. I ended up meeting some very cute Italian Castilian residents and made Jeff a little jealous I think by flirting with Matteo.

We ended the night with 2 girls and like 8 guys in the hot tub at my complex. Then this weird trio showed up and one guy kept on rubbing my feet....I got freaked out and got up and left. Regardless, the night ended strong and I felt like shit the next day!

On Sat, F and I did a little fruitless shopping and then once again got ready to go downtown. I made Mojitos and then we headed back down to 6th but this time armed with some pretty awesome shades. F's glasses were New York chic...my glasses were just plain goofy. They were 3 times the size of my face and I entertained myself by making everyone we came across wear them. They were my distiguishing detail of the night. Case in point, I was walking in a crowd down 6th with F and then Jeff appears out of no where and kisses me right there in the middle. I was so shocked that he just happened to come across me in a crowd but he later admitted that it was the glasses that he noticed. I managed not to get so drunk downtown this time since I had to work the next day. We headed back to my apartment for more partying mojito and hot tub style. This time the odds were a little better 4 girls and 8 guys....including our Italian friends and F's Jersey boy (he goes way back to her b-day). I headed to bed around 6am or so and then got up while everyone else's lazy ass stayed in bed to go to work.

I spent my sunday evening mourning the loss of F and my party pal and all around best source of entertainment and cleaning my reck of an apartment. Jeff was a sweetie and came over to help clean and stuff... and thats my weekend in a nutshell or something considerably larger.

Le Sob!

2004-09-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

My car is totalled. The adjuster called....I have no more car. What is a girl to do? I would like to cry right now.

International Whore

2004-09-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

I have become an international student whore. No, I'm not sleeping with a bunch of foreign exchange students. Last night I went to Cain & Abel's with my co-workers. When I got there I had to wait in line but a couple of international students who are staying at the Castilian recognized me and waived me up to where they were in line. It was an Australian and a couple of Italians. Once in I went over to the corner where all the people I know were drinking. In this corner was Patrick (Pat), the cute Australian that tried to get into the Castilian but we were full so now he lives at Dobie. I crush on him deeply! To the group we had several more Aussies join up and let me say that they were definitely not bad looking. Our fine Italian friends joined up with us for a bit to say hi. Then, later on a Mexican from Mexico City and a Puerto Rican showed up and let me say...Jose is hot. I crush on him too! I would have to say that we must of had the most international corner in all of C&A's. I love the accents, the kissing on the cheek everytime we say hello or goodbye....I love the international men.

Oh and here's an update on my stalker cable guy. Yesterday he called me while was at work. I missed the call and I returned it thinking it was the insurance company or rental car company...no it was "Terence" The Cable Guy. I was taken aback and in my confusion I told him I wasn't allowed to talk on the phone at work and that I can't talk until after 6pm....oopps. Anyway, when I got back from the gym later that evening. I had a missed call from the cable guy at 6:20....he sure doesn't waste any time! I need advice on what to do....remember folks, he knows where I live and my phone number.

Accounts of an Eventful Weekend

2004-08-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

So my weekend could be described as interesting...well interesting for me at least. Let me begin.

Friday was my first time to have a day off in 2 weeks and also the first time to spend an entire day at my new apartment. The day started off kinda crappy because I thought the cable guy was supposed to show up in the morning to install internet and cable at my apt. When I called Time Warner to see where in the hell he was, I was informed that the appointment was for sat morning...doh! Oh well! The day was still young and not much wasted so I decided to enjoy the complex pool and catch some rays. There was a creepy guy at the pool who sat in the lawn chair directly across from me while I laid out. It was odd to say the least. Anyway, I got nice and pink and headed back inside to take care of some errands before rush hour traffic started. I got dressed and while lazing on the couch I heard a big crash. I looked outside and nothing looked amiss so I just shrugged and continued with my plans. I head out the door to go to Ulta to pick up aloe for my slight sunburn and as I go towards my door, I notice a lot of people standing by my car and my car is at a weird angle. On closer inspection of my car, there is a open bed trailer sticking out the side of it. I laughed...my car is cursed. The hitch went through the bumper and knocked the front end of my car into the car next to me. The drive shaft might be bent. It smokes when you try to drive it....I don't think that is a good thing. So anyway, my car is not drivable and I am in a rental. Way to enjoy a day off!

Well thankfully nothing else happened to make my day worse. I went downtown later in the evening...uneventful. Came home and went to bed so that I could get up early for the cable guy. Cable guy shows up of course not until 11. That was an interesting experience. They guy sets up my internet and tells me that I look familiar. I profess no prior knowledge of him but maybe he's seen me downtown sometime. The convo ends and he leaves. I get a phone call 30min later from a weird number and its some guy named Anthony. It kinda goes like this:

Me: Do I know you?
Him: I just talked to you?
Me: You did? Are you sure?
Him: Yeah, Im the cable guy...remember?
Me: Oh yeah, hey!...is there something you needed from me?
Him: No, but I remember where I know you from.
Me: Really? Where?
Him: Downtown...we were supposed to go on a date
Me: Huh?!? Are you sure?!? Maybe I was really drunk...sorry that it didn't happen.
Him: Yeah well what are you doing today?
Me: Ummm...I'm about to leave and have lunch with some friends
Him: Oh well do you have a boyfriend?
Me: Well I'm seeing several people...(good friends...I'm not seeing anyone)
Him: Well would you like to do something sometime.
Me: Uhhhh....sure.....if you give me a call maybe we could do something.
Him: ok, well i'll do that
Me: Alright well it was nice talking to you...I have to go now..bye!

It was weird to say the least....I'm creeped out b/c now this stranged, stocker dude has my number and knows where I live....hmmm scary.

Went to lunch with Faye and Emily and then spent the rest of the day doing random things. Decided at the last minute to go out with Emily. Headed downtown and met up with her guy friends. Drank too much and flirted with every single one of them...it was great. Oh F and Red...you might be interested to know that Buddha Boy was there and his hair is short now and I did not end the night making out with him! I rock! Instead I ended up leaving with the group of guys instead of Emily. It was muy bueno! Then Emily calls me and her keys are in my purse and she is downtown. So one of the guys (Jeff is is name...I had been kinda interested in him during the evening) drove me down there to drop it off. We do the key thing and instead of heading back to Miles' place (Em's friend and one of the guys) we head up north towards jeep's place with the intention of watching a movie. We start watching the movie and then we start kissing and then.... Hey! I don't kiss and tell but for all you nosy people, nothing happened and he drove me home in the morning. I went to work and spent the day trying to recover from a very bad hangover....Its been awhile since I've been this hung over.

Now its time to get ready for another work week. Jeff is supposedly supposed to call me for dinner on Wed. We shall see if it will happen.

Updates

2004-08-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who are wondering whats up in my life, I thought I'd give you an update. Sorry its been so long since I've posted but with one thing or another I've not had time or info to post.

So I went to Florida at the end of July for a couple of days and except for some problems with the flight down there, all went well. I got nice an toasty and finally looked like I had enjoyed some out doors this summer.

I have finally made the move out of west campus and into an apartment off of 183 and Capital of TX Hwy. Fun stuff. The apartment is so much nicer but I hate the morning commute...let me rephrase that...I hate that I have a morning commute. I've been working so much lately that I have yet to have time to finish unpacking my apartment and it is still really rough looking in there. I did manage to install a glass shelf by myself with my very own power tools! I rock!

Otherwise, not much else going on. I have made friends with a nice Aussie named Pat and a couple of Latin American dudes that are just too cute! We shall wait and see if this develops into more than a Cain & Abel's Tuesday night thing.

Right now I'm looking for fellow music lovers who would like to go to the ACL Festival. I would love to have some company.

I guess you can look forward to more updates as soon as I get internet at my new place. Its slow to come b/c I have to keep cancelling my appointments.

We like to party....yea! We like to party!!!

2004-07-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

That song totally fit this past weekend. Talk about a total blast.

Friday started with Kate and Jo coming into Austin. We immediately headed over to Trudy's for a margarita and Tex-Mex...yum yum! We then completed the evening with going to the movies to see Bourne Supremacy...Matt Damon..yum yum.

Saturday we went to the mall and Flaminia made it into town....yes, the fun is about to begin! We got the apartment ready for a kick ass pre-party with all friends invited. Let me just say that 4 girls sharing one bathroom is not my ideal situation. We all got prettied up for party and later downtown. Some dumb guys who do not understand the words 9:30 showed up with only Flaminia dressed and ready and the rest of us with our hair curlers. People started showing up and then more people started calling to see what was up and decided to show up as well. It was a rockin' party with free flowing alcohol. At around 11:30 we pushed everyone out to head downtown.

Rockin' in the Tundra we hooted and hollered our way downtown, scaring all the cars along the way. We met up with everyone again at the Library where the Long Island's called our name. We drank there for a while. I ran into the guy I dated last summer. We started talking and he asked me why we stopped dating....hmmm...(ps he looked really cute..sigh!) I told him it was because he stopped calling me...he then countered by saying that I could have called him...oooppss! I did call but after a week and half of him not calling me I erased his number because I got pissed off. Anyway, we exchanged numbers again and in my drunken state I could not work my phone to save my life. Side note: You know most when they drunk become obsessed with drunk dialing people. Me, on the other hand, I lose the ability to work my phone. Well I wonder if he will call or if it will be last summer all over again....we shall see! So after drinking at the Library we headed over to a bar and the name escapes me now but Flaminia's friend Tiny was dj-ing there. He played some booty music and don't think we didn't have a bunch of girlies dancin' up on each other! OMG it was a blast and ended waaaayyy too fast. Eventually we headed home after many drinks and hijinks!

The night ended with a bunch of girls showing each other their nipples and compairing their color gradient. It was very interesting. I also drunkenly tried to detain a friend from leaving my apartment but she was so insistant that I gave up and lost interest. I got a visit from a neighbor who convinced us to stumbled down the complex and help finish their keg. I headed down with only one flip flop and came back with none...hmmm... Anyway, turns out the neighbor was a bit of an octapus and couldn't keep his hands to himself. After he walked me back to my apartment I kinda shut the door in his face....oops (i'm real neighborly). I then passed out in drunken haze.

Sunday I got up and went to work surprisingly chipper. It was a boring day with nobody coming at all. Then I headed over to the lake to meet Flaminia and her sister and her sister's friends. I got there and it was all rainy and overcast at the lake. We stayed for just a bit and headed over to Phillip of Scotland's house. I then went home and tried to make some sense of the wreck called my apartment.

So, in conclusion, it was not my typical boring weekend. Oh yes and maybe soon there will be pictures to grace your screen as well!

Ohhh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Wiener....

2004-07-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

So the highlight of my day today was (dramatic pause) the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile!!!!! As I was coming out of the elevators I looked out the main entrance and low and behold there in the parking lot across the street was the mobile. I ran into the office and convinced everyone that we needed a picture in front of it and funny enough everyone agreed!!! That just proves that we are all just kids at heart hoping for a Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile whistle. So we all headed over there and started striking poses for the camera. We heard from a bystandered that driver....a Ms. French's Mustard had just left the vehicle. (What I would have given to see the people dressed up in their costumes!) Here is evidence of our office escapade.

It definitely created a break in the monotony of my day.

Also today we had Dobie's corporate office come and take a tour at the Castilian. They specifically asked for me too...yikes! My boss says that they could be potentially shopping me so that they can see if they might want to steal me from the Castilian. I highly doubt that is the case but I wouldn't be opposed to everyone thinking that if it gets me a raise in the end!

Still waiting to hear if my application was approved by the apartment people....nothin' so far....

Oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Wiener because that is truely what I want to be....lalalala...

Zee Pictures

2004-07-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have stolen pictures off Kathleen's website from last weekend....enjoy!

Me and Ricky in the back of Lalana's car

This was right before I fell asleep....I didn't even get to finish my beer...wait I don't think I even drank a beer!

Hooooottt boy...baby you got it! We were all alustin' after Armondo!....mmmmmm

OOPPPSS!!! I almost forgot the munchkin's!!!

I'm Back From Outer Space

2004-07-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Oh yes dear folks! I am back to grace your computer screens with my antics and situational woes. What is going on in my life you ask?!? Well let me tell you!

Right now I'm in the process of looking for a new apartment. My current lease is up August 10th, so I'm just a tad bit stressed in this issue. My inability to find a decent apartment here in central Austin has forced me to seek accommodations in the dreaded Northwest Austin Area. Don't get me wrong! It is a very nice area and I've been able to find apartments within my budget that are really nice. Its just that I don't want to move so far away from Austin's cultural center. I definitely don't need to be so close to shopping centers. Oh well...c'est la vie.

This past weekend I went out dashing duo of Kathleen and Lalana. It was Kathleen's b-day so we've been partying it up. We went out Friday night and on our manhunt, Kathleen and I pick up a nice fresh pair of 21 yr old twins. Kathleen taught Boy and Boy's Brother a tough life lesson about older women (we tease you and then we don't respond to you when you call). It was a fun 6th Street time. Last night, however, I shamed myself. I became the person I hate ... The Party-pooper!!!!!! Yes (sigh) I fell asleep after 2 beers and a shot of whiskey! While the rest of the party played beer pong, I drifted off into slumber....I am so ashamed. I just might have to relinquish my party hat for this major faux pas! Mind you it wasn't even 2am yet either! Hopefully next weekend I will be able to redeem myself!

Other than that not too much going on in my life.

Oh I ordered a luggage set...I'm so excited! I can't wait to get it! I'm so lame...

I'm watching you!

2004-06-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

I had another plant stolen while I was in Dallas this weekend. Now I can't help but wonder everytime I run into a neighbor if maybe they are the theif. I give them an evil eye and continue on my way leaving the person wondering what they did to deserve such a nasty look. I know I should move the plants inside but I feel that I would be showing defeat and I refuse to give these plant stealing slimebags the satisfaction!

Oh on another topic but still complaining of course,my apartment leaked again so that when I returned after a weekend away, a nice mouldy smell greated me. I can't wait to move but I can't find a place where I would like to go. Uggg!!!

Help!

2004-06-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm applying to an assitant curatorial position at the Dallas Museum of Art. If anyone has any kind of connection that could somehow help me,please, please, please let me know! This job sounds realy awesome and I would love to get it. I've even brought out the old resume and cover letter to polish them up a bit for review. The qualifications seem to totally match what I've done in the past. Its just a matter of getting an interview!

Grrrrrrr...!!!!!

2004-06-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

This is my big fat grumpy GRRRR to the world! I am not in a good mood at all. I probably should not talk to anyone today or I'll be liable to bite their head off.

On Thursday I got my replacement phone and stupid Sprint couldn't transfer my numbers and they wouldn't let me take my new phone and old phone home to sit there and leisurely transfer my numbers....Oh no..I had to sit there and write down all my f***in numbers! So, if I don't call you, its not because I don't like you, its because I don't have your number in my phone or I didn't get a chance to write it down. Stupid heads! Sprint Sucks and the Samsung phone I have sucks even more than that!

So rest of weekend goes without a hitch..yea! Kate came for her b-day on Friday and it was muy bien. I had a lot of fun and ate such yummy food. Barbeque and Mexican food in one weekend...could it get any better?...well add in Chinese and Sushi and it would have been perfect.

Then today I was walking out of my house and it looked strangely empty around my apartment. Those of you who have been to my place know that I keep a ton of plants around my door. Well some jackass took off with my little tree that I had sitting next to one of the chairs! What the hell?...I can understand a chair or a table but now the dumbasses are stealing trees?!? What is this world coming to? Haha they didn't even take the little overspill water pot so I hope it leaks water all over their living room or front porch and then dies and litters annoying leaves all over the place!!!!!

I was considering renewing my lease at my place but now the tree incident has cured my moment of amnesia and now I've added something else to the running talley of why I hate my apartment..Lets review shall we?:

1. Stereo stollen from car in parking lot - $200
2. Chairs stollen from front porch - $15
3. Purse stollen from kitchen table in apartment $200
4. Plant knocked down and destroyed - $10
5. Tree taken from porch - $15
6. Leak seeping from under apartment wetting carpet - $0 (but made a smelly apt)
7. Loud neighbors - $0 but caused many sleepless nights
8. Broken mailbox - $0 but mail could be taken at any minute

Moving from that hell hole in August - Priceless

Yeah I don't know when my tally became a credit card advertisement but it just seemed to go there. And Renee - your point was proven. Last night I did not want to listen to anyone telling me not to renew (because it seemed the simplest, easiest thing to do) but now I was proven wrong.

So now I'm looking for a new place and I can't wait!!

Free Water Anyone?

2004-06-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

So I went to my boss' bbq on Sunday and the Castilian's Ozarka delivery guy just happened to be his neighbor. I mentioned how he looked familiar and he took that to mean that I was deeply and madly inlove with him. He hit on me big time. Within five minutes of meeting him, I knew what he expected out of a wife, how much he made and exactly what he thought of me. He started talking about when we are dating how I won't want to tell anyone that I'm dating the Ozarka water guy, etc. People, this all happened within the first 30minutes of meeting this dude. I faked going to the bathroom to escape him and fled home in a hurry. Of course the five or six? beers that my boss forced on me didn't help my judgement. I think I might have given him my number...ooops! Alright, Alright! I feel bad and I have to see the guy every week. I thought I'd throw him a bone or two. He might have had a slight drunken chance if it wasn't for the fact that he dipped..GROSS!!!

I think I must attract weird people. One of the football coaches heading up the Mac Brown Football camp hit on me yesterday too. He tried to get me to go downtown with him. The entire time he is trying to coherse me he's spitting whatever the hell he was eating all over me...again GROSS!!! I guess I just can't get away.

What Pin-up am I?

2004-06-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

My sister complained that I never put up any quizes on my blog...so here you go

You're Brigitte Bardot!

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kids! Don't Look!

2004-06-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

So Thursday night I agreed to babysit this family that I usually babysit for. Well the deal was that I was supposed to pick her up at home and take her out to get something to eat for dinner. I was totally cool with that. I was working on ZERO hrs of sleep so I had brought somethings over to occupy her and keep me awake. I had brought my entire collection of nail polish. As I picked it up to move it over so that she could sit in my back seat, it all dumped out on the floor of my car. So we're picking it up when what did I grab from between the seats? No, not nail polish....A Condom! Ooops I guess I didn't clean out my car as well as I thought..hehee..I quickly shoved it back into its place before she could see it. God, I hope she didn't see it! I'm guess/hoping that it was a leftover from the night of Ben's house. I wanted to laugh so much when I found it because then the little girl would want to know what I was laughing about and I really didn't want to explain to her parents why I have condoms in my car. Oh well...at least I was able to avoid that embarassment!

A gaggle, a pod, a flock...???

2004-06-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

As I was driving into work today I happened to observe a National Geographic moment...well maybe more of a GQ moment. What, might you ask, could I mean? Well dear folks, on the wild streets of Austin, I witnessed a pack of running boys. Now is that the correct term? A pack? I mean it is a flock of birds or a pod of whales but what do we use to reference running guys? They moved in unison...muscles flexed, bodies glistening with sweat. It was beautiful. They were like one organic being, one mind, one purpose...to run. Cars stopped, heads turned....it was nature at its best.

Ahhh....boys....

Drinkie-poo!

2004-05-30T00:32:00.000-07:00

How come I can not go downtown without drinking or getting drunk? I have no self control. hmmmmm....I wish I had someone to booty-call....

Anyway so I went to a bbq earlier today and it was mucho fun. I drank beers, ate undercooked hamburgers, and saw multiple guys buns! Can't get any better than that! Thanks F for the invite, totally superceded my plan to enjoy Barton Springs. I had a lot more fun.

I love bbqs. They are vital to any good summer. I love eating outside too. Despite bugs and wind and the glaring Texas sun, I love picnicing, barbequeing and anything else like that. Its like an adventure every meal. That was one of my favorite parts of France when I stayed there for awhile was that everyone ate their meals outside when it was nice weather.

Wow, I totally went off on a tangent. Back to drinking....I enjoyed myself tonight I pretty much drank all day...oops is that bad? I'm not sure? I found out though how small a world it is. I ran into someone who knows all these people that I grew up with...it was crazy man!

Anyway it was a good day followed by a good night.

Boobies?

2004-05-30T00:31:00.000-07:00

Last night I flashed a straight guy in a gay bar. Does it get any better than that? I think not!

Yup

2004-05-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

I spent an hour trying to fit the contents of two peoples kitchen cabinents into my kitchen. Its like a wall of dry goods in there. I have at this point 3 soy sauce bottles, 3 honeybears, 4 bottles of olive oil and numerous other canned goods. I believe I'll be eating chinese noodles for the rest of my life. I can't bare to throw any of it away either. My bursting kitchen is a sad replacement for the friends who've left. Well at least I can't eat my sorrows away.

I then went back into work to do some spring cleaning in the office. We were done with work at 9:30 but we stayed till about 11pm to hear some very interesting stuff that goes on on the job. Lets just say that for those of you who've heard me discuss it earlier...all my theories are fairly true. I was hired for a reason and it wasn't necessarily because of my amazing work ethic or killer resume. I just hope that I can take the information given to me and utilize it but at the same time keep focused and just do the work and not get wrapped up in office politics..one can only hope but I think shit might hit the fan soon. Another employee gave their two week notice today...things are looking grim.

A Curse on My Head...

2004-05-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

So when I went home this past weekend I spent some time with my grandparents being the good grandchild that I am. We were siting in the backyard sipping our drinks when my future and what I'm planning to do came up in the conversation. I was discussing my plans to go to grad school probably out of state next fall and other stuff. I have this thing all planned out and serious relationships/marriage is definitely not in the books for a long time. My grandfather who this entire time has been feeding the squirrels nuts chimes in his opinion.

Grandpa: Well Stephanie, you might not want to leave Texas. A lot could happen in a year....you could get married! (spoken in a heavily french accented english)

Me: What?!? Married! I don't think so...not for a long while

Grandpa: You never know! (a little smirk on his face)

This got everyone to chime in on it and sit there and exclaim how in a year and a half I could meet, fall in love and marry someone!
It felt like a very dark omen! I would like to inform everyone FAT CHANCE!!!!

Slightly Disturbing....

2004-05-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

Omg I've been working like crazy lately. I get home and I can't even keep my eyes open. I've had to decline so many invites out this week due to sheer exhaustion. I'm gonna start losing all my friends if I'm not careful but tomorrow I'm gonna party hard even though on Saturday I have to get up and go to work at 10am....C'est la vie! I won't complain when I get a fat check in the bank later on I guess.

Anyway...So I'm at work and I'm giving a tour of the building to a couple of 18 yr old boys. One is kinda geeky while the other one was pretty cute (waaaaayyy to young of course!). I take them on the tour and the cute one keeps on staring at me very intensely. Its a little unnerving but I've had to deal with worse! We're standing outside the door and I'm describing to them the different events that go on in the building for the residents. I'm trying to do the good salesperson thing and divide my attention equally between the two of them. I'm looking at the cute one and his hand which is by his face catches my eye. As I'm talking he slowly moves his hand from his face and runs it even more slowly and I guess one could say seductively down the front of his chest. I follow the hand just as your eyes would follow someones hands while they are talking. I've seen guys who sit there and rub their chest while talking to people...I guess a male thing to say "oh look at me and see how strong and broad I am!" I didn't think anything of it until it continued down further to the stomach and then further where it stopped in the groin region. I was mortified. I quickly turned away because I didn't know if I just made something more out of it or if he was being suggestive. Somehow I managed to continue talking as if nothing ever happened eventhough I was probably beet red! I felt like from that point on that he was always too close to me and I tried to make special efforts of keeping a wide berth of him.

I don't know why I reacted so strongly to gesture. I usally don't even notice things like that or even read into them. I finally understood how some women feel when they've been harassed. I mean I've had cat calls and whistles but this was a place of business and I don't know but I felt a little violated at the time. I was fine and comfortable with the guys again by the end of the tour, joking and laughing with them. I didn't even have a problem giving them a sales pitch at the very end. It was just that brief instant. Well anyway since I'm too tired to do anything else...I've pretty much only have work stories to discuss.

Homer rolling in his grave...

2004-05-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

I went on Saturday to see the movie Troy. I have to admit that it was not quite as exciting as I had anticipated. The moment I got into the theater, I started to question how they were going to fit 10 years of war in 3 hrs of movie. So needless to say they just glanced over the main events. I'd say the highlight was a nude Brad Pitt. How can that man be 40 and look that damn good?!? My sister and I just kept repeating over and over in the movie..hmmmm..Brad Pitt...naked...skirt....etc. I didn't realize men could look that tasty in skirts...leather ones for that matter. I guess you learn something new every day. Overall, I'm glad I saw the film but definitely won't go down in my book as one of the greats.

Mo' Money, Mo Money, MO'!

2004-05-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Most people know by know that I graduated in December - that was five months ago. I went home this weekend and along with my sister's graduation cards were two from me! Woohoo for late graduation cards! I got me some money to go play with!

By the way, one of the cards contained 25 $1 bills...I think I know what that needs to be used for...and its not 25 cokes from the coke machine!

A plastic city

2004-05-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

So I went home to Dallas this weekend for my sister's graduation. I spent a good 30min trying to avoid running into people that I graduated with. I was totally successful! I didn't say hi to a single one of them.....is that bad? I discovered that highschool girls are looking older and older (clothes and makeup wise) lately. My sis's friend and my little cousin's friends all had on gobs and gobs of makeup and the most revealing outfits even though it was freakin' 50 degrees outside. I felt old and dowdy.

Later after family dinner at a not so great Mexican food restaurant I headed to uptown Dallas to hand with the great Linds. I was really excited because I hardly ever get to see her anymore. I get directions from her friend David and I find the place no problemo except that he told me to go to TABC and when I called to see if I was at the right place, I kept on telling him I was outside of Thomas Avenue Beverage Company. It took us literally 10minutes to realize we were both talking about the same place. Despite it being uptown, it was a total chill bar and had a whole Austiny vibe to it. Then the suggestion was made to go to Manhattan's a bar/club off of McKinney Avenue. This was the epitomy of Dallas. Majority of the women were blond, tan, and wearing expensive clothing (don't forget about the louises!). Oh yeah and of course I couldn't turn with out having a fake boob in my face. It was so scary! I felt so uncomfortable and out of place! Dallas scares me now! The atmosphere at the bar was so agitated. I guess it was because we got there late and everyone was so extremely drunk. I cannot count how many times I had someone fall on me! (the problem with being smaller than everyone else!) It was an interesting experience and it was worth it cause I got to hang out with Lindsey.

My mom tried to convince me to move back to Dallas when my lease is up in August. I just don't think I could live in that atmosphere without totally losing myself. I don't want to look like those people. Oh well I guess Dallas isn't for everyone and neither is Austin (although I think it a wonderful city!).

Finally an Update...

2004-05-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

God! Its been insane at work! I worked six days last week but I definitely made up for all that work in my partying on Friday and Saturday night.

Friday: The party started at 4pm with Mexican Martini's at Trudy's. Me and some co-workers were saying our final goodbye to Ashley the girl who is leaving for a better job (lucky duck!). Then I was whisked away to Saba for amazing Mojitos (the frozen mojito that I had at Cuba Libre last weekend in Dallas was far better though) and especially yummy quesadillas. Home again to recuperate and ready ourselves for a night out on the town. F wore her scandalous corset top out and it was definitely a hit with the guys. Kate and I were a little more subdued however. Night ended at Lucky with John Apostol and Phillip of Scotland and 3 very trashed ladies (well 2 very trashed ladies - F threw up at the end of the night and Kate reminded me that I was in the middle of the floor dancing by myself....oops). Went home and passed out only to wake up every freakin' hour until I decided to get up at 10 with a not happy stomach and a headache to match

Lazy Saturday...had Dim Sum for lunch with Kate, F, and Phillip(not of Scotland) followed by an afternoon of movies. PS: do not allow movie dudes to convince you that a french film about the Marquis de Sade as an animal with a talking penis puppet is a good movie to watch. Bought some more chairs for the outside of my apt to replace those stolen. Cooked damn good turkey burgers and watched Y tu maman tambien with F. Got ready again to go out.

Headed to 6th ready for action..parked in secret scary rapist alley way (dangerous but hey its free!). Not so heavy on the drinking this night however. Downed a long island at Library, tried to find Rugby dudes at Daqueri Factory (which is located right across the street from Library but in our eagerness to find our manly men we trekked all the way down to I-35 looking for the dumb place) and then left and went to 4th when we didn't see our Rugby guys. Kate had never been to the Apple Bar so we stopped in and had some damn good martinis then continued on our Journey which eventually led us to Fado. Once in Fado, we immediately run into a group of 16 irishmen from NY. They buy us a couple rounds of drinks and all three girls fawn over a red-head irish dude who while his name is Joe we called Jamie (those of you who've read Outlander will understand). We all head out to my place to afterhours party with our Irishmen (why are american women suckers for an accent?). Some New Zelander Rugby players talk to us for a couple of minutes and while they are much hotter than our Irish dudes we already committed into hanging out with them (Sigh...I love a rugged Kiwi or Aussie). F promised me that we would run into the Kiwis again and that pacified me for the time being. Guys come over (sucks because only one of the irish guys we had been talking to showed up - red, the other two were these other guys that I wouldn't write home about.) Sit around talking - embarassing sex stories come up, I start to yawn and we kick them out only to have one dude who barely spoke the whole night knock on the door again and ask F to hook up later (laugh!). Another one called five min later and asked the same thing (she's one sexy mama!). Hungry, 4am run to Taco C, fall into bed and here I am at work avoiding stuff I should be doing.

Overall, good weekend...sad that I won't be in town for a repeat next weekend and that these awesome party ladies will be leaving me soon for bigger better things. A-town isn't looking so bright anymore....but good times are still to come and I have an awesome bonus in my bank account...things could be worse in the world!

You want me to do what?!?

2004-05-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

So this morning I had to take a drug test. Now I've been working since I was 15 and I've had several different jobs in several different companies and this is the first time that I've ever had to take a drug test or as I like to affectionately refer to it, a pee test. I got to the place at 8am when it opened and I wasn't 'ready' yet so I drank some water. I drank some more water and decided I would try my luck....but NOPE! I was like a camel. There was nothin'. I sat there for an hour waiting to pee and I couldn't. Of course once I did go I had to pee every 30min because of all the freakin' water I drank. Pee tests are so retarded!