Coming Back

Blog will be back in full force in 2007....

New camera, trip to the Caribbean, lots of photos, new music, etc, etc.

I hearby set forth my resolution to write more often, if for no other reason than I hate seeing my visitor count so low lately...

Song of the moment - track 3, Dig, on the new Incubus album. Bliss.

We all have something that digs at us,
at least we dig each other.

So when weakness turns my ego up
I know you'll count on the me from yesterday.
If I turn into another
dig me up from under what is covering
the better part of me.

Feliz Ano Nuevo a todos! See ya'll on the flipside.........

Remember Me?

Boy, life's a whirlwind.

Had Thanksgiving with the little brother in DC. He got tired of all the walking. Had to watch boss' dog while he was away on his honeymoon. Worked like mad - went in early, stayed late, and worked on a Saturday for about three weeks. Work's still a tad crazy, but it's much, much better and I still love it!

Got a new iPod today since I sorta dropped mine last night. I almost cried, especically since it was kinda a crappy day. However, Best Buy came to the rescue, even though my 2-year product replacement warranty had expired 3 days ago. I got a new one, color, more storage, and I'm thrilled. Whew. I even got the price difference back in store credit! Feels like I'm cheating them or something.

Georgetown basketball well underway. This season ticket thing is turning out to be a good investment.

Went to random New Jersey to see this hilarious guy last weekend. Good times with the Langley ward crew and some turned around NJ driving. I licked a car. We did a chinese firedrill. I've now been to Princeton. Ricochet!

Now really enjoying How I Met Your Mother. Thanks PE.

Going to Damien Rice soon. Can't wait!

Office holiday party is next week. I'm a bowling team captain. We're going down....
And I'm finally taking a day off next Friday. What to do?! Christmas shopping for the family is half done. I think I need a part time job after the holidays to finance my life.

Hmm...what else? Two weeks to AZ. Three weeks to Caribbean. Saw a TV show on St. Maarten, Kitts, and Nevis today. I'm sooooo ready for a break!

9

Sleep, don't weep, my sweet love
My face is all wet 'cause my day was rough
So do what you must do to find yourself
Wear another shoe, paint my shelf
Those times that I was broke, and you stood strong
I hope I find a place where I feel I belong

Sleep, don't weep, my sweet love
My face is all wet 'cause my day was rough

SlackerTime!

Yeah, this whole blog thing.... kinda low on the priority list right now. Sucks to make choices between lots of good things sometimes.

Is it Thanksgiving yet? I need a vacation. Especially after this upcoming week.

Taking a breath... and we're off!

A Commandment!

Go listen to the new Damien Rice album right now!!

Then go buy it when it comes out in Nov!

Happy Fall

I've been in
8 states (MD, DC, VA, TX, OK, AR, IL, FL)
7 days
6 airplanes
5 airports
4 modes of transportation (plane, train, car, subway)
3 trips to Sonic
2 hotels/airlines
1 frazzled girl

Lots to say, thoughts running through my head, but no energy to do it....

For the meantime, enjoy the happy pumpkins.

Where in the World is Lauren San Diego?

DC, OK, FL, where am i this week? Life's a last-minute crazed frenzy at the moment. But it's short - so live it up.

Little Luxuries

Fall TV + DVR = recording way too many television shows.

I used to just be a LOST girl. That's it - that was enough. Now I've started in with The Class, fully pledged my love to Project Runway, Next Top Model, going to probably watch the Bachelor (barf, I know), loved Betty La Fea tonight (Ugly Betty, whatever it is in ingles. This show was a hit in Spain when I lived there, though I didn't watch anything but futbol games), and of course, the all important Grey's Anatomy.

Still catching up on season 2 of Grey's - PE and I've been watching as many hours at a time as we can this past week. We're on for disc 4 tomorrow. Is it sad to admit that I'm nearly in tears at the end of each episode I've seen? The story lines of the main characters, the medical story lines, the music - wham. Great show. Love it, love it, love it.

PE and I swapped our music collections the other day during a Grey's marathon. We think alike when it comes to music we enjoy (except for that stupid Carbon Leaf. Go ahead, leave a comment, I dare you), so we stole a bit from each other. I've got lots of new stuff to love! Yay. Emerging favorites: Matt Pond PA (all of it. every single song), more Embrace, Cedars, live Coldplay that I was missing, old school Genesis and Guster that I had once upon a time, new Starsailor, and some classic Kenny Loggains. Sweet.

Other luxury of the week - after my fabulous cheap facial that felt like a million bucks at Aveda Institute, I returned for a hair cut. Cheap! And awesome! The student that cut my hair is graduating in 3 weeks, so she definitely knew what she was doing. 18 bucks. That's it. Plus a scalp and shoulder massage before she starts. I'm a full Aveda convert.

Good tv, good music, and a cheap haircut - that's almost all a girl needs.

Party On, People

It's been awhile. Guess what? I'm 26 now. Woo hoo. Still mid-20s, but inching closer to late-20s, then the big 3-0. Cool. I can handle it. Yeah.

My birthday turned out perfectly. I was so stressed about it. So stressed. Ridiculous. I wanted it small, just a handful of close friends, no big blow-out, no inviting every single person I've ever met. Time to tone it down a little bit.

I decided that bowling would be the perfect thing, despite the previous non-ability to show up at a time when they don't have a 2-hour wait. I looked into reserving lanes, but their rates were outrageous, even for 10 people. Not gonna happen. I took a chance and rolled with it anyway, scheduling my shindig (and X's too, cause his birthday was earlier in the month) on Saturday at noon. What if there was a wait? What if someone had booked the whole place for a special event? What if blah, blah, blah? I really am more of a control freak than I've been willing to admit. What if everyone showed up late and missed bowling because of the 2-hour or 2-game time limit they place on you?

Thankfully none of those things happened - the place was practically empty, meaning we pretty much had our own personal waiter AND people showed up relatively on time. We all got to bowl, good times for sure.


Afterwards we headed home for a BBQ and lounged for the rest of the afternoon. Yummy food - not too much, not too little. Great food, great company, some cool/wacky/humorous gifts, and I properly turned another year older.

Harbin 3 forever!

Take Me Away....

Finally, two years of being in America (not that I don't love this country, I do, I just love travel slightly more), I'm finally getting more stamps in the passport over New Years 2006/7. It's been talk, talk, talk and no booking until we straightened it out this afternoon. Hip hop hooray!

St Maarten, St Barths, Anguilla, St Kitts, Antigua and Nevis, here we come! What's better than some sun in January?

Oooh...

Just realized I passed my one year blog anniversary!

Happy birthday, DrPepperChica. I'll have to go back and reread you to see how dorky you are.

Tally Ho

Lots of international blog visitors lately - hello Kuwait, Brazil, Belgium, Phillipines, UK, Slovenia and Canada. Strange....never so many all in one quick swoop. Too bad I've only been to one of those places.

Thank goodness there's only 15 minutes left in Wednesday. Not that it was that bad of a day, I just can't get myself together. The social life is taking over, and I haven't had a moment to catch up. I woke at 5:30 this morning for some unknown reason, and nearly considered staying up to get a head start on the day. Then I realized that would be insane and went back to bed. I could've used those few hours though.

Had a horrid time getting dressed this morning. Had the pants, shoes, put on the shirt, decided it wouldn't do with the pants, changed the pants, realized the shoes didn't go with those pants, changed shoes, and within 10 minutes went from a hot outfit to absolutely blah. At least it was approriate for the weather. Still haven't worn the rainboots - and it sucks that the rubber smell is now permeating my room. Gotta find quick remedy. Wonder if Heloise has any tricks up her sleeve. That's a fun word to say over and over again......

Got more responsibility today at work, which is a good thing, but I really need to buckle down and crank things out. I still feel kinda useless - like I haven't learned anything or can't do anything on my own. I'm going to blame most of that on my last job, where absolutely everything (it seemed) had to get approved 489 times before you could carry something out. I gotta get the indepedence and confidence back now that people don't question my work all the time.

I've got plans for the next 4 days, but I have a lot to get done around the house. Where's the time? Jeans to get washed and tailored, shoes to return, a pair to buy, wedding to attend, clothes to pick up, clothes to prep for consignment, mail to answer, books to read, DVDs to watch, birthday party to throw and enjoy....

New John Mayer is really good if you haven't picked it up yet. Already in love with I Don't Trust Myself, Stop This Train, and Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. Also listening to a lot of Pharrell. Weird.

Last night was the inaugural potluck for our newly formed "work sorority." There's eight girls, all the same age, so we're getting our gab on outside the office. It's nice to make friends at work. I also checked out chocolate happy hour at Love Cafe today - mmmm....amaretto cupcakes.... that'll be happening again very soon. Cupcakes for dinner - who can argue with that?

Don't Hate Me If I Pray For Rain

I finally got rain boots!

Even as recently as three months ago I would not have been caught dead in brightly colored rubbers (as ECSS likes to call them), or any sort of "functional" boot. I think I've finally seen the light though - no more wet wool pants that smell, no more cold feet, no more taking the metro when it rains. I am prepared. I may be stared at for such clunky things (they're really not that bad though), but at least my toes will be dry. Bring on the downpour.

Speaking of ECSS, here's a random photo of the month, thanks to Bloom cleaning out her inbox from 2 years ago....

You're Cinematic Razor-sharp

Snow Patrol just rocked my world. Finally, four months after the first scheduled date, and absolute sweetness. They took the stage at 12:04am and played for a solid 80 minutes. I think that was the 4th time I've seen them, and it was by far the most polished and best sounding set that I've heard. Everything clicked. They played maybe half of the new album (all my favs), and a lot of older stuff. Chasing Cars will never get old. They're gonna be in heavy rotation all this week. They'll be back in February - I'm so there.

Got to see Augustana open, which I've been excited about. I really enjoy the lead singer's voice - a little gruff and smoky sometimes, with a sweet falsetto. He mixed it up a little bit on my favorite song - Wasted - and I'm think I'm a convert.

Next up on the concert scene: Cedars, French Kicks, Matt Wertz, Vita Ruins, and Minus the Bear.

Time to settle into the new fluffy bed again. Ahhh....

God Bless America - We live on.

Pure Bliss

Ahhh......so happy in this moment. I just hopped into bed and I shall never get out again.

I got a new one today. It's amazing. It's larger than the other one. And thicker. And softer. And I have new sheets/duvet cover/shams. It's fluffy. And warm. I'm so floating in my dream world tonight. Happy!

Heavy Rotation Archive

I figured I should probably start archiving my latest music picks, more for my own entertainment than anyone else's. Too bad I didn't start earlier :(

April 9, 2007

• World Hold On - Bob Sinclar
• Sharam - Dubai - Global Underground Mix 1
• Dig - Incubus

January 21, 2007

• Continuum - John Mayer
• Everything Snow Patrol
• Wasteland - Augustana
• Follow the Cops Back Home - Placebo

September 13, 2006

• Newborn - Elbow
• every single track from Ljungqvist
• Move Your Feet - Junior Senior
• Lips of an Angel - Hinder* guilty pleasure, but they're from OK*

August 29, 2006

• It's a Hit - We Are Scientists
• For Your Love - Moony
• Streets of Tomorrow - Carla Vallet (Audi advert)
• Precious - Depeche Mode

July 25, 2006

• Close to Me (Beard's Remix) - The Beard ft. Amma
• Honey and the Moon - Joseph Arthur
• Say What You Want - Ian Carey
  
• Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar

July 14, 2006

• Distraction - Angels and Airwaves
• Nothing in My Way - Keane
• Lullaby - the Dixie Chicks

July 1, 2006

• Eyes Open - Snow Patrol
• Tri-State - Above and Beyond
• I Live to Fall Asleep - Manic Street Preachers

June 22, 2006

• Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
• Is It Any Wonder? - Keane
• Amazing (Full Intention Remix) - George Michael
• All at Once - The Fray

Egads!

I know I've professed hate for Nickelback many a time, but I think I've listened to their new song about 131 times in the last 24 hours. Go ahead, bring on the shame. Now that we've got that outta the way....

Long weekend was good, yet horribly, horribly bad for the wallet. Horribly. I am putting the credit cards away for good. I must! Friday night was awful and rainy - what else to do but hit the mall? In all honesty, most of the purchases I made were things that I actually need. I know you think I'm justifying myself, but really. Example - I walk to work now, and usually wear heels/dress shoes while at work. Summer's great - I can walk in flip flops. But what about the winter? No, I can't do sneakers. I've always had something against sneakers with anything but athletic wear. So I bought some flat-ish shoes that I can walk in and work in. And I need a pair of casual shoes to wear with jeans/khakis, since my other pair is finally falling apart. A legitimate replacement. I don't think I really needed to buy designer jeans, but I did. And they're hot. Not just hot, H-O-T-T hot. They're an investment. I will be rushing to a consignment shop this week to sell off old things...... cash is good!

I managed to buy a new bed at Ikea too. B is moving away and offered to give me his sweet mattress, since I hooked him up with it when he first got to DC. I had to upgrade the bedframe to a queen, but managed to get some decent bucks for the old one on Craigslist. CL is seriously amazing - 2 responses in the first 5 minutes after I posted, and about 8 in two hours. Who is browsing CL on a Sunday night of a long weekend? How does one pick the non-flaky person out of those? Let's hope I did....

Saturday morning was my long-awaited facial at the Aveda Institute. Students at the Institute are in training and prices are quite a bit cheaper, so I had lowered my expectations a bit. No reason - it was amazing! Soooo relaxing. Ninety minutes, and I felt a glimpse of heaven. Everyone should get one. I promise you'll be happier. Dark room, soft music, whispers, good scents, hot towels, shoulder/arm/hand massages, cool, cleansing masks on your face. Wonderous.

Jendesu came over on Saturday night and brought the guest of honor - Settlers of Catan! Yeah, she ended up winning, but we've got a couple new converts to the game. Our house will soon be making that purchase.

We threw a little BBQ yesterday in honor of not laboring. Mostly Niki's friends, and we finally got rid of the beer that's been sitting in our fridge since someone brought it to our last party. Good thing, or I think it would've been there til 2013. I made a cake in honor of X's birthday, and all was fun.

Rain, rain, go away, or you're going to force me to buy rain boots. If that's the case, hope I can find some that aren't bright pink or green or covered with gigantic psychadelic patterns.

Ushering in the Fall

This week has provided lots of run-ins with former coworkers and friends. Mix that with some happy hour specials, and that makes for good stories. :)

ACS, Al and I crashed Jacin's new place on Tuesday night, right by our favorite bar (heavy, heavy sarcasm there), The Front Page. Perfect location though. I love how life revolves around dowtown more and more. No more 'burbs, though I think I'm headed there tomorrow for some mega shopping. It's been ages since I went to Tyson's. I'm getting spoiled where I live and work, never having to travel to do anything. I'd best keep perspective or my VA friends will think I'm a snot when I don't want to go to Old Town.

Wednesday night was yet another goodbye to a former Sutton clan member, who's taking off to Boston. I'm glad we're all still in touch - we're all pretty different, but have a shared experience. I've now been nominated as the happy hour/gathering ring leader, so I'd best keep it up. Hopefully we'll crash McKenna's place in VT next!

Thursday night was megamix happy hour, with roommates, old work people, old work people who have moved on, new work people, former housemates, etc. The rain held off so we could enjoy the back deck at ESL. I've always wanted to go there and have heard rave reviews, but it's not what I expected at all. Not in the least. I think I owe it another visit at night before I dimiss.

Afterwards, AB came home with me and the roommates for some quality catch up time and dinner. It's about time that happened!

The weather is cool - I love bringing out the jackets and sweaters. Plan for the weekend is to clean out the closet, put away the summer stuff and bring out clothes for my favorite season. Ernesto - go away so we can barbecue!

The Punisher

I can already feel that I will not be able to get out of bed in the morning. No, not due to yesterday's bad egg incident, rather the 90 minutes I spent in the gym today, torturing myself. Man, that feels good! I am already starting to regret it though - muscles are tensing up. Any way to reverse the damage? Ab conditioning class didn't seem to do much at the time, but I know I'll be sorry in the am. Dread....

Just booked a ticket for my little bro (the littlest one, not the big little one) to come visit me at Thanksgiving! And it didn't cost an arm and a leg, plus it's into National. I've had major luck lately. I did already warn him that I won't be making a turkey - he'll have to deal. Yay for family on holidays, without me traveling to them!

Times, They Are A'Changin

It's been a relatively homebody weekend, and it's finally catching up to me on this Sunday evening. Haven't been outta the house except for church since yesterday afternoon, and the stir-craze is in effect. Aggggh!

I made cookies today and later found out that the eggs I used are more than a month old. Of course I ate a TON of dough. After reading up about salmonella, looks like I won't be puking (whew), just abdominal cramps and some other nasty stuff. Fingers crossed it doesn't get that bad.

So Caro is gone. The divorce has happened. We even completed paperwork at Comcast yesterday to make it official. Sniff!! Niki and I are definitely still in denial, pretending that she's only gone for the weekend. When I think about it, my roommate relationships are the longest ones I've got going. Boyfriends last about 6 months, but when you've been with roommates for 2-3 years, it's a lot harder to break up. We missed her at church today, especially the exact time she usually busts out the mints or makes a comment about someone's outfit. The three of us know each other so well; it'll be hard for anyone else to compare. New people in the mix will be good, if they happen to come in, but there is always a special place for Ms. CB. No one quite like her in the world. Hope the Big Apple is good to her! That said, we are excited for X to be with us, in the middle room.

Fun times helping Caro move to NYC last weekend. Well, fun for me, not so much for her, as she did all the hard work. Somehow I managed to stay up super late both nights - a little bit of the Spain party time coming back out. We grabbed dinner Friday at 2am at my favorite little Cafeteria, after a 45 minute wait in line. I love the NYC energy and variety of freaks, I mean people, that we saw out and about. I shopped til I dropped, though I didn't buy much, and hung out at JR's new place on Wall St. Visiting the roof deck on the 40-something floor at night made me want to move there immediately. Love, love, love it. I did decide that it won't be good for my personality to move there. I can see myself turning into this girl who dresses up in all black, just to hit the grocery store, and not being able to leave the house unless my outfit is absolutely perfect, especially if I'm headed to 5th Ave. Not good - I'm trying to become a little nicer, warmer, and moving to NYC is a huge step backwards. Not to mention having to get a second job, no money for travel, and watching the 401k contributions dwindling to nearly nothing. Not willing to be poor again.

The social scene is still madness. I'm rushing around like a mad woman, though I'm kinda ready for a break. More happy hours and goodbye parties in the week ahead.

Made my Christmas plans today - going to Phoenix. Yay for warm weather in the winter! Now if we could get that Caribbean trip in January figured out, I'm back on the travel circuit. Woo hoo!

Madness, I tell you!

I really need to update this thing. Too bad I have a social life. Perhaps later this weekend........

I <3 NYC

Someone find me a 6-fig salary and I'm there in an instant!

They Are Night Zombies!

Listening to some Sufjan currently....yeah...

Continuing from previous post...
Sunday church was really good. It was hard to wake up early and go to a meeting beforehand, but definitely a good Sunday. PE barbecued for me later that evening - delish. Perfect weather, great music and good food.

The rest of the week has included a rush-hour scramble to Chantilly, goodbyes to AF, EG, BD, prep for adios to BE, mockumentary times 2, bread bowl from Panera (finally!), new cardio class at the gym, Enrichment activity (and people actually came!), training sessions at work, and I'm exhausted.

Other fun fact of the week, I get to do alumni interviews for high school kids that want to be Hoyas. Hmm.... make or break 'em.... we shall see! Should start later this fall. I'm really excited. Not that the interviews have that huge an impact in the admissions decision, but I still like being part of the process. Hoya Blue, baby!

Time to pack for NYC. Or crash now and do it in the morning. That's the procrastinator's way, and that's what I am.

If I Had a Boat

I'm really behind on the chronicles of my life, and not that I write for you, dear readers (all 2 of you), I just really want to remember what I do/who I see/things I learn in this really fun time in life. This is an easy way for me to archive my activities, though I'll keep the really juicy, scandalous stuff to myself :)

So what have I been doing? Drowning in goodbye parties. Yes, it's that time of year again, when half the city moves away, and a whole new crop of people arrives. Even though I've been stagnant for many years (only in city location, not in personality, work, life, etc), it really does affect me more than I think. I have new friends to make, more friends to stay in touch with via the Internet (thank you, MySpace), and more thoughts about when I'm going to join the August rush. Change is good though; keeps things interesting. You definitely don't know what's ahead - that is one thing I've learned and one thing that is key to remember. For now though, I'll keep my feet planted in the middle and watch everyone around me spin in the life cycle.

Last Friday I said adios to MP, the best home teacher on earth. Well, the most diligent and serious for sure. I'm positive he'll continue to send us monthly email messages. Then I went to the movies with a couple friends + an Olympic champion. Pretty neat-o. And Little Miss Sunshine is amazing. Your mouth will be gaping open in laughter throughout.

Saturday was errand day - back to Banana for me to return/exchange my huge online order. I failed miserably at that personal challenge. I'm still failing, as I've been there twice in the last week, and I'm going again tomorrow. Not to buy though, just exchange and tailor.

Saturday night was our Goodbye Caro Ghetto Fabulous party. We did pretty close to zero prep (though miraculously we cleaned) - the way a ghetto party should be done. Beach chairs in the living room, Top Pop soda, tator tots, cheese hot dogs with ketchup, wings from Lucky Bar, marshmallows for dessert - high quality for sure. I was dressed sorta ghetto for me. Maybe ghetto isn't the right word, but it's definitely not in line with my classic BR self; brought on a new persona.
PS. This new Shinylicious lip gloss in Chocolate Cherry is fab. Who wants a taste?

Also Ran

SO obsessed with this new French Kicks song from the latest album. Great build up, by the time you get to the chorus you're just going nuts! Love their sound. You can check out their older stuff here.

Americana

Nat's games are much better when seated 8 rows behind the home team dugout, on the end nearest home plate. Thanks for the hookup, ACS. We lost, but saw some good action, and some tight pants up close :)

Also ran into 3 people from my various social networks. This city gets smaller every day. Love it!

Ready for the weekend. One more day....

What was I Thinking?

So yeah....weekend with married friends..... not the funnest! I'm going to attempt to be very careful in the way I write about this, because these people are good friends of mine and I love them dearly, and I'm leaving a clause open that I may in fact be the same way some day. Not my finest idea though, to go on this road trip. I expected a tad of what happened, only it was much more. Somehow I managed to deal, but I felt like an invisible mute the whole time. I have absolutely nothing to offer in conversations about which spouse used whose bank account to buy XX on eBay, or pregnancy schedules, or what my spouse does when he sleeps at night, etc, etc, etc and on and on and on. I can easily handle one couple at a time - that doesn't bother me too much. But two at once - never, ever again, while I'm still single.

Thank goodness for the two cats and late night TV that kept me company as I slept on the couch. The drive down was far longer than expected too. I'm glad I went, to finally see where CH lives, life in Charlotte, etc. And once is enough as long as I'm the 5th wheel.

We did manage to see Talledega Nights, which is absolutely hysterical. Quality all the way through - I was impressed. May catch that again tomorrow.

I finally, finally joined the YMCA today. Yay! I could feel my muscles tensing up while walking there after work, and I'm feeling it now. Haven't touched a treadmill in 2 months - I'm gonna hurt tomorrow. But the good pain.....yeah..... The place is 7 floors; I'm gonna have to settle in and find my favorite spots.

Exhausted. Sleep. Now.

Blue Horizon

Week three of the new job has flown by. It's been a tad slow at times, as I'm still learning and don't have a lot to do yet, but at least a leisurely breakfast fits nicely into my schedule once I'm at work. The cafeteria is seriously yum. The other day I had bacon, eggs, and hash browns - all for 2 bucks! Sweet deal.

I've eaten out every single meal this week though, with the exception of Monday's dinner. Whoa. Tuesday a handful of friends met up at Lucky Bar for wing night, Caroline's fav, and one last time since she's moving to NY in a couple weeks. I know she's leaving, but it really hasn't hit me yet. We're not really huggy/sensitive housemates, but I think all three of us will probably cry a bit that day. We'll see. We did just buy complementary shirts for our party from Urban though, which I'm really excited about. France, Germany, and Spain - all represented. A perfect parting gesture.

B and I went to see The Break Up last night at the Cinema and Drafthouse. Not a bad movie overall, if you're in the mood for brain candy. Small twist at the end, but I liked it. I always forget about that venue, but it's pretty fun.

As sad as it is to admit, I got sucked into The Hills at the end of the season - I'm so pissed DVR cut off the end of the finale!! I even got up early to watch it this morning before work - Paris or the Boy? Everything was set up, critical moment, and bam! Do you want to delete this recording? NO!! I want you to keep playing, idiot. Not like it won't be re-run a million times though. But still! I really couldn't stand Heidi during the show and her little club promoter aspirations, but the episode where she breaks up with her bf won me over. He pretty much begged, she stood up for herself and said you treat me badly, I'm not happy, and that was that. Good for her. I'm sure I'll start hating her again next season, but for this brief moment she's not so bad.

Off to Charlotte this weekend with EEG (but she's still EEW to me) to visit CC (now CH). Me and two married couples. I have no reason to be weirded out by it, yet I am slightly. I'm sure it'll be fine, as these girls are two of my best friends, but still. It's kinda the start of the drifted path between married vs single people, and I'm feeling it a bit. And of course I feel a ton of pressure now to marry someone who fits in with them. :) K, not really, but the three of us already made a pact to vacation together, so whoever I end up with is just gonna have to deal. Hope he likes golf!

Break Down

I gave in and bought a piece of clothing today. Ooops. At least it wasn't $200+ in clothing, as I've been known to do on random Saturdays. And I kept the receipt in case I feel too guilty and want to take it back.

But trouble ahead. I got an email today from BR with their fall collection, and I love almost every single piece. No joke. I love fall clothes. Much more than summer and spring. The rich colors, cute jackets and sweaters for those chilly nights. Love it. And since I'm going to NYC in mid-August....yeah, I'm thinking every BR in Manhattan needs to watch out.

And My Template Disappeared.....

Whew - and we're back in business. Thank goodness for cached files.
______________________________
Looks like I'll be playing the links game later today. Ugh.

With Love and Squalor

I grabbed a bunch of We Are Scientists from my little bros while I was home, but I didn't delve into them til today when the pod was on shuffle.

Newly addicted to It's a Hit. It's the happy song of the week. Shame I missed them at Black Cat.

But I still don't understand
What this whole thing's about
When all the words that you said
Are somehow stuck in my mouth
And this was going so well
But I don't know what I did
All I really can tell
Is that I always get hit

Sorry, Think You've Got the Wrong One....

I have a fairly common name, I suppose. Last name is very common, first name is top 40 for my year of birth, according to the Social Security Administration. My email address (or one of them, I should say) is first name.last name at gmail. I get LOTS of email for other people with my name. Does this happen to anyone else? Some recent samplings:

• A Hallmark card from "my mom" who is "thinking of me" and wishing she could hug me through the computer screen. She hopes I have a good trip to DC this weekend, and wants me to know that the hot water heater died so she's using the motor home to shower.
• Aparna wants me to know that priceline booked her flight a week early, and they won't change it and it's gonna cost 1300 so she can't come see me. She's really upset, but sends xoxo.
• Karen sent me her strategy paper for a class. Too bad I'm not actually in her group; marketing is my field!
• Keli filled out one of those "How well do you know me?" quizzes that she wants me to fill out and return. Somehow I don't think she'd know any of the facts I'd send back.
• Brandon and Krystal included me on an Evite to their wedding! Congrats, I suppose.
• Liz needs to reschedule our Friday meeting.
• Kathryn picked out some headphones that might work with my new iBook.
• Keli (same one as above) sent me my Feng Shui horoscope. Apparently I love kisses and affection, my love life will soon blossom, I like adventure (because I chose CA over FL), and I like to please people. Huh.
• Dr. Harber sent me notes from his lecture in the class I'm taking on human genetics.
• Anna thinks I want to be a panelist for the SWE overnight in Rochester. Weird....
• Scott congratulated me on my promotion with an Apple ecard.
• "Mom" sent me an Italy vacation itinerary. Wish I could've taken her up on that!
• Lisa wants to go out for drinks, wants to attend law school since she liked the Law and Order marathon, and has some wacky stories about Charity to share.

Hello Again and Adios!

I really have to set a lunch budget for work, or all my $ is gonna go bye-bye real quick, with no trace of disappearance. While out on Thursday for lunch (even though I took in leftovers with the good intent of eating at work), I ran into a former coworker who now works 2 blocks down. We're going out for lunch next week. Must stop! I resisted on Friday though - even after a group email went out with lunch plans. I had to eat those dang leftovers or they were gonna be bad. Next week I think I'll allow myself out on Tuesdays and Fridays. No more than 2x a week. Gotta join the gym still too. I'm drinking way too much soda. Health and wellness kick off with August....

Friday night was a reunion with NH (now NS) and JS and JL and other Gtown crew. The N and JS now live in Boston and got married in March. I don't think I've seen them in about a year, so it was fun to catch up. J wanted gossip - I have none! We dined at Cheesecake, and I definitely ended up 2 sets of leftovers from just one entree order there. It's always a struggle to pick something there - huge variety and huge portions. What exactly do I want to eat for the next 3 days?

PE picked me up after and we headed to Iota to see Getaway Car and to say adios to CN, who is soon leaving for New Orleans because of her husband's job. Maybe this is the year I'll finally get to Mardi Gras. On the way we listened to some old school Graham, and PE poked fun at my claim that they were the "band that changed my life." Truly they did, since they're the reason I even know CN! He said that just as we stopped behind a car with Michigan plates, a sign of my first outing with her. We met online because of GCB, and I went on a road trip to Detroit with her one weekend without ever meeting her in person first. Three and a half years later, we're still friends. Now she's moving on, but the GCB love will continue!

GAC was good, minus the crazy groupies that showed up and took over the place. Iota is really laid back, neighborhood bar, local music type of place. A gaggle of ridiculous girls showed up, probably 10-12 of them, hooched out, boots, fishnets, mini skirts, huge sunglasses, and gobs of jewelry. They snapped photos of themselves like wanna-be Paris Hiltons, danced all over each other, and even split up into two groups so they could stare at each other from across the room and crawl towards each other to meet in the middle and have a tryst. Ewh. At least they knew the words to all the songs. They gave them one iota of credit. (Ha ha, look at me, I'm so clever.)

I'm Really Tired of Coming Up with Titles

From now on maybe I'll just name the post after whatever song is playing on my computer, whether or not it has anything to do with anything, just FYI. The creative juices are running dry.

Thursday evening I got home pretty early after work, all set for a quick nap before seeing Editors at 930. I'm old now - I need a nap before I can go out. However, a call from a former coworker had me quickly headed out to catch a bite to eat with him before I hit the show. Finally I hung out at the famous Mackey's with SS! Good times all around.

Met up with PE in the metro, though I was 10 minutes late and he was just about to take off without me. I suppose I'm usually about 10 minutes late to anything. Ooops. We made it in plenty of time though; Cedars hadn't started yet. I really liked them. I hope they play again soon, which they should since they're a local band. Band #2 - not so much. We found a seat in the back and talked through their set, pretty much hating it.

Editors put on a good show, of course. The lead singer didn't seem quite so weird this time; he acted mostly normal. No strange poses, glares, intense eye staring, etc. Camera is really great live. I don't like it so much on the album, but there's another dimension to the song on stage.

Look at us through the lens of a camera,
does it remove all of our pain?
If we run they'll look in the back room,
where we hide all of our feelings.

I'll just close my eyes as you walk out.

You fall from grace, we fall with such grace.
You fall from grace, we fall with such grace.

They closed with Fingers in Factories, my fav. Very, very loud, hard, strong. Excellent end. I know they've been pegged as "Interpol from the UK," but I hope they keep going for awhile. I enjoy. The only thing I didn't enjoy was drunk girl in front of me doing a half-cheerleader woo-hoo yell, hands in the air, half Partridge family sway dance and hugging her friends after each song that was "soooo good." That, and the cigarette smoke. Can't wait til that Smoke Free DC thing kicks in next year. Febreeze might see a drop in sales!

Ups and Downs and Ups and Downs

Since starting my downtown job, I have yet to join a gym like I promised myself I would during the first week. I intended to go yesterday afternoon, but phone calls happen and I didn't actually make it. However, 2 points to me for working out at home. I tried a new workout, and apparently I can now look like Nick Lachey, according to the website. I am also super sore this morning.

I checked out a gym after work today - major sales vultures everywhere. I get a pretty decent corporate membership, so I'll probably cave in and do it. It's good for me, right? I'm still weighing other options, but I'd better move fast before motivation wanes.

I made it to Screen on the Green last night with BH and a couple other friends. The movie seemingly went on forever.... I love the concept of SOTG, but in all reality it usually goes like this: Get there 20 minutes before start time, and scramble for a seat. Tolerate mosquitoes. Make it through the opening Looney Tunes, and 20 minutes of the movie. Fall alseep for 30 minutes. Wake up, confused and cold, find an escape route and get outta there.

I had lunch with an old friend from home today. One weird thing about working downtown - your spheres of reality change during the day. I don't really know how to explain what I mean by that, but when I worked out in the burbs, there was nothing around. Everything revolved around work and coworkers. However, downtown I can step outside at lunch, eat with people that aren't my coworkers and have more than 3 lunch options. Then I go back and step into the work role. It's kinda weird to shift during the day. I like it though. I'm much, much happier downtown.

Looks like the rest of the week is going to be packed with activities. I need that right now.

Mondays.....

But right now
Everything you want is wrong,
And right now
All your dreams are waking up,
And right now
I wish I could follow you
To the shores
Of freedom,
Where no one lives.

The Weekender

Thursday I went with JMO, ACS, and a very special guest to the Gtown Young Alum happy hour, after a quick HH at work (Science Club was very cool - definitely gets my vote for a return). Surprisingly we knew no one! All class of 2005.... I guess we're old now. Oh well. Had some quality night time at the Cathedral afterwards. It's been awhile since I've done that.

Friday's plans got shuffled a bit. JAC came up from Charlottesville that night. I napped for about 3 hours so I could be prepared to go out (it's always so hard to actually get outta the house on Friday nights), but I decided to stay in instead. However, as soon as the pj's were on, contacts out, and opening movie credits were rolling, I got a phone call from some peeps at a club in Wheaton. I had promised them I'd go, but bailed at the last minute. They weren't having any of that, and they had a car come get me. I rolled outta bed and took off in the middle of the night. Turned out to be a hot night. I'm glad it went the way it did.

I slept til 12:30 on Saturday. What a bum! I guess I needed it though. The rest of the day I had no energy to do anything. I grabbed lunch with B in Alexandria and bought some stuff at the Crate outlet. I'm banned from clothes shopping, but I didn't say anything about housewares! It's all useful stuff anyway. We had a small crowd over on Saturday night - girl's night at Rita's.

Sunday was a huge BBQ at our house. I don't know how we seem to end up hosting these things every weekend, but it happens. We had a great spread, and thankfully some guys brought their huge gas grill. Cooking a full rack of ribs on a tiny hibachi wouldn't have worked out, I don't think. Also watched Everything is Illuminated. Watch it. Love it. Highly amusing. Many girls want to be carnal with me... because I'm such a premium dancer!

A Feat

Every single piece of clothing I own is clean at this very moment. The gigantic dirty clothes bin is absolutely empty. They're not all put away, mind you, nor will they ever be, but at least they're clean and not on the floor! I could probably go two months and not have to do laundry... Don't think I'm quite ready for that challenge, but it's a step in not buying clothes til Sept 1.

First day of work today was awesome. Yes, orientation was a little long and at times boring. It's gonna be cool though. After all the options I had several weeks ago, I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.

This is disturbing on many levels, but at least there's a new episode of TGS!

New Kid on the Block

It's been a good/busy/wallet-draining weekend. First day of new school tomorrow. My clothes are all laid out. I'm ready to go. Yay for a new job!

Down the Drain....

I spent a ridiculous amount of money today. I'm starting to notice a pattern - about every 3 weeks on a Saturday when I have no plans, I shop, shop, shop and drop a couple hundred dollars. This isn't good for the budget, people. I'm enacting a no-clothing rule til Sept 1. My birthday is that month, so I can splurge a bit then. But not before!

AF is out of town for the weekend and loaned us (I speak in the collective now. The roommates and I are married, we are inseparable, we did everything together today.) her car. That meant - dun dun dun - Target! First stop this morning. I really had nothing I needed. I came out with two shirts and pairs of yoga pants for the new gym I'm starting next week. Got a little gift for a friend that just moved back to town. A couple other things I got, in photo form:

One hundred+ dollars later, we went down the row to the cheap grocery store where I spent another hundred+ dollars. I haven't had a stock of food in so long though, so it's nice to actually have something in the cupboards. No more pasta!

We had to rush home to meet the Comcast man who came to fix our internet. When I called them on Thursday to report our constant outages, I expected the worst service, of course. Surprisingly that wasn't the case. Both people I spoke to were helpful, they scheduled someone to come within 48 hours (even on a weekend) and the technician showed up at the very beginning of the 4-hour timeframe I'd been given. He had us up and running in 20 minutes. They deserve a positive comment card, and I'm gonna give 'em one.

After that we had the rest of the afternoon free. Caro wanted to hit a couple stores downtown, and I needed to return something at BR, so we made our way down there. I walked straight to the counter to return my shirt, not even wanting to look around, no more purchasing, nothing. As I was waiting in line though, my eye wandered over to this super cute green cargo/military jacket on the sales rack. Hmm... I will resist. But of course the salesgirl commented on it. So I tried it on. Along with a super soft brown knit cardigan. Both were marked at 50 bucks, but I decided I'd get enough wear out of them that it was worth it. The start of my fall wardrobe! Luckily the cardigan was actually marked at 25 bucks, so I'm very satisfied with my purchases. But no more!! Someone find me some self-discipline...

Let's Go South

Last weekend was the long-awaited camping-turned-condo visit to MV and KatC's new place in the NC. KerC rented a PT Cruiser (I still really don't know why) for our ride down, super bright metallic blue. Google maps gave us the long directions, but TT, KerC and I finally arrived at 11ish Friday night. Yay for reunions! (There are way too many abbreviations in that paragraph.)

Highlights:
New fav board game ( thanks for the introduction KatC and MV!) - Settlers of Catan. At first I thought I'd be all confused and never get it, but by the second morning I was rarin' to go. I still don't think KerC gets it though.... Bye bye True Colors; you've been good to us, but we're moving on.

I almost bought one of these, but Tim convinced me that I wasn't really convinced. We drooled over some super-mod cool furniture that was way too expensive for any of our current statuses.

Super yummy Thai/Japanese food at a cool restaurant that's in a strip mall. I guess that's how they do things in the South.....

The drunk spelling bee at the Bickett gallery that we couldn't find. I think we were all out at the 2nd round, except KatC who went on to win 2nd place! Amazing. Some of those words were absolutely ridiculous, with varying degrees of difficulty. Stupidly, I missed justicious.

It was a wonderful chill weekend, lots of catching up, reading on the porch, pool time, board games. Always refreshing.

Caught the World Cup final. Yay for Italy!

I love this pic.

KerC needs to keep the tongue in check.

Tim is sneaking into the pic.

Kat, the wonderous hostess, even provided me with refreshing facial mask!

Anger Rising in Dreams

I had the worst dream last week. Awful!

NN, CB and I lived across the street from an airport. It was afternoon, C was on the phone, I was hanging out, and N had gone to the airport. She came back to the house to grab a couple things, and C realized that she was going to be late too. She quickly hung up and yelled that she needed to run to the airport. I offered to help her carry stuff, but I didn't really know what was going on.

We walked into the terminal and C began to check in at a kiosk. I asked where she was going and she said, "Oh, we're going to the Radiohead concert." Hmm.... okay. Where exactly, I asked. "Oh, it's in Salamanca." Internally I was about ready to burst since I've been dying to go back to Spain, but I kept my cool, realizing that they probably paid a LOT of money for their ticket and I wouldn't have been able to go anyway, even if I'd been informed. So, how much, I asked. "It was only like 300 bucks."

WHAT?

I freaked out. I started screaming my head off right there in the terminal. How could they not have told me? Why didn't they tell me? Do they hate me? Do they know how important this would've been?! Hello, Spain! Hello, Radiohead!

I walked outside and saw Niki walking towards the airport to board the flight. I started running towards her, freaking out, screaming, head about to burst. Thankfully I woke up then, but I have never been so angry in my entire life. Majorly intense.

That Disney Song Is Right

It is a small world, after all. (Apologies if that never-departing song is now stuck in your head.) Last week a few circles were connected, or reconnected, all within about 24 hours.

1) Left the house in the morning, headed towards the metro. As I crossed the street closest to my house, a guy came around the corner and walked next to me. He made some comment on the weather, we started talking, turns out he used to work at the place I'm starting at next week. J and I were headed in the same direction to work, so we continued our chat on the metro. He's a bartender/bouncer on the side, and asked me where I usually hang out in the city. Right then I remembered that he used to work at the Reef, where DH and I went every single evening in the summer of 2004. J totally remembered me and DH, even though that was a long time ago. Funny running into him in my neighborhood.

2) Saw an email on a list-serv from a guy looking for housing, since he's moving to DC in a few weeks. I totally recognized the name - I went to a church camp in Utah in 1997; we were in the same group together. I emailed him randomly to ask if that was indeed him, and sure enough! Crazy... 9 years later...

3) We had a little happy hour after work. Coworker A and I drove to Coworker B's building to pick her up after she dropped her car off. A said she knew someone who lived in that building - B wanted to know who, exactly, since she doesn't know anyone in her building. I then realized that I knew this person too; I interviewed with him and another friend of A's a few months ago. A also knows a friend that I was about to road trip with - she interviewed with him at his former company, then temped at his current company. Randomness. However, a reason that I do love DC.

It Is Finished

It's over. Break from the rat race for a few short days.

Breathe......

Adios....

Off to NC for the weekend with the Crate crew. Yippee!

While I was burning road trip CDs, my CD drive jammed shut. Uh oh....not looking forward to that when I get back. Tips, anyone?

Fantastic Fourth

Totally generic title, but I'm not in a creative mood at the moment. It's past my bedtime, but I'm not sleepy. Not good when you have an early morning meeting...

Anyway, the 4th of July was actually pretty perfect. The roommates and I + Javi + Shawn braved the mass Mormon breakfast party at the bishop's house, which turned out to be really fun. It was a trek out to Potomac, but well worth it. I actually got to talk to people that I don't usually see when we're in the swarm of 300 on Sunday. Plus there was a pool, tennis, b-ball, soccer, baseball, volleyball..... and lots of bacon! Mmm....bacon..... We stayed out there for a couple hours, then came back into the city for some BBQ and World Cup. At this point I'm not sure who I'm rooting for, now that Spain and England are out. No more watching hottie Ballack :(

We had a nice little crowd at our house for afternoon food and the game, then we watched the Wizard of Oz. It's been a long time since I've seen it - I've forgotten a lot of the weird little things that go on. As a child I was absolutely petrified during the tornado scene, so I usually hung out in my room during the first 10 minutes of the movie, waiting for the "It's Over!" shout from my mom. Of course I still had a nightmare about a tornado last night. I guess those will never go away.

After stuffing ourselves, we headed down to the Mall. I was a little skeptical, not wanting to deal with the crowds, but as least we're in walking distance. You couldn't have paid me to get on Metro last night. Some people from church planned to stake out a spot and raise balloons. We didn't necessarily intend to find them, but we saw balloons in a perfect viewing spot, and lo and behold, it was our peeps. We sat on the hill, right next to the Washington Monument, facing Lincoln and the show. You can never be disappointed with that type of location!


I tried to remember what I've done every year for the 4th since I've been in DC. I think I got it:
2006 - duh.
2005 - Just landed at National Airport from a trip to Phoenix as the fireworks were starting. I watched them from the airport windows.
2004 - Baltimore with Sam M. and Paul. Waterfront, music, etc. Then some random house party in Federal Hill.
2003 - NYC with Debbie, Jen, Kevin's secret burgers. Somewhere near the river, with an overpass blocking a lot of the view.
2002 - Just home from Spain. I think I hung out in Poteau, then headed to Tulsa the next day to start working at UCA camps...
2001 - Dinner in Gtown, with plans to head to the Mall after. It poured rain all through dinner, so Justin and I walked back to campus. Just as we arrived at our apt complex, we heard the fireworks starting. I think we climbed on the Henle roof to watch...or maybe we ran down to Village A....not sure.
2000 - Mall with Brooke and Erin. We walked there, and miraculously found Robin in a sea of 600,000. This was before I had a cell phone.....

I'll Never Grow Up

I just had to play that game with myself, the one my mom always made me play, where I had to pick up 5 things in my room. Her rationale - I pick up 5 things every day (or spend 5 minutes cleaning, etc), and eventually I'll get it all done.

With as many clothes as I have, it's gonna take me a month of 5s. I still haven't unpacked a thing from my trip two weeks ago. But I did 5 today! That's some progress....

Lyrics I Temporarily Forgot that I Love Until 5 Minutes Ago

I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed
Little angels hang above my head and read me like an open book
Suck my blood
Break my nerve
Offer me their arms
Well, I will not be an enemy of anything
I'll only stand here

Waiting for you
All my sins...
I said that I would pay for them if I could come back to you
All my innocence is wasted on the dead and dreaming

I'm gone......

Two Loves

I've never seen a single episode of Entourage, but I may have to start thanks to Mr. Grenier. He was quite lovely in this past weekend's movie watching. I think we all drooled. Why haven't I paid him any attention previously?

Second love of the moment - the Guillemots full album is here! Well, almost. It's released in the UK next week; not sure when the US date. However, you can listen to the whole beautiful thing on MySpace right now.

I'm mad raving about it. It's wonderous.

Blah blah blah blah

Blah.

Blah. I really don't feel like writing anything else.

Weekend's been pretty excellent, though I'm pretty much broke. Darn pay checks being spread out for almost 3 weeks. Seriously - who does that?

JO, AT and I caught Devil Wears Prada Friday night, after a quick dash down to Alexandria once the Gtown theater was sold out. We squeezed in a Mexican dinner first in Del Ray, which is a super cutesy neighborhood, complete with "the regulars" at all the 'hood restaurants, dog walkers and lots of stroller-pushing parents. I feel like that's the place you go when you graduate from the city. It's the starter neighborhood for the beginning of settled life. Will I ever know such a thing? Don't think I want to....definitely not anytime soon. I also realized that once I start the new job, I'll be within blocks of AT, JO and AS - all of us, back to college BFF state and regular luncheons. Yay!

Saturday morning drug me back to urban reality. Waited at home til our groceries were delivered from online shopping, then hopped the metro 2 stops to Mocha Hut, the best coffee shop/hang out/cafe around. I need to make it a much more frequent occurrence in my life. The food is seriously excellent. Free wirless. Comfy chairs and fun bar stools. N and I got some work done after scarfing down lunch, then I ran home to get my Spanish cooking started.

A guy from one of the gargantuan Mormon congregations in VA decided to host a Spanish pot luck dinner for those who have lived in Spain and advertised in on the list-serv. I didn't know him, nor do I know many people in the VA sector, but I decided it'd be good for me if I went. So I did.... A tad scary, but turned out quite alright. Que comemos durante la cena? Bueno, tuvimos una paella maravillosa, tortilla (mi favorita!), papas con mojo, chorizo, queso manchego, gazpacho (lo traje eso), arroz con leche, galletas.... Mmmm....deliciosa! Espero que tengamos otra cena en el futuro.

Pues...nada. Eso es todo. No estoy cansada, pero pienso que deberia ir a la cama. Manana es domingo, y ahora que Caro no tiene coche, tenemos que tomar el Metro a la iglesia. Tenemos que salir media hora mas temprano, lo cual es un desafio para nosotras. Voy a escribir mas en espanol otro dia.... es buen practica, no?

Thank You Wednesday

For not raining all day. Yes, you sprinkled a little while I was outside. But overall, you were lovely. I was even able to BBQ! Well, I didn't BBQ, Shawn did. Remnants from last weekend's 80s party. Who knew there was an Aldi around here? And who knew they have really, really good burgers? I do now!

We even braved the walk from ghetto Union Station area by the sketchy K. St bridge/Greyhound station to get to our house. It wasn't quite dark outside and we had a good group of people with some guys in it, so I felt alright. That's the sucky thing about going to Shawn/T's house. You can take the metro from my place in 3/4 of a circle, or you can just walk the 1/4 of the circle, which is major sketch, and I don't recommend. We made it though, without incident. How many more times will we make it without incident?

Hmmm....what else. Had a really nice commute home today. A little roundabout, but that's perfectly alright. Nothing like Monday's absolute commute mess. Seriously awful! I didn't have it nearly as bad as most people but it was still a pain. Water, water every where and not a drop to drink. Is that from Willy Wonka? Lemonade. The fizzy lemonade. Right? That's the part where they say that. I think.

I finally decided to move on from current job. I officially quit yesterday. It was weird. It's still somewhat surreal that I'm leaving this place and starting at a new one. All new people, all new copy machines to figure out, all sorts of new stuff. The more I think about it though, the more I feel it's the right move. Here's hoping!

Stank-a-roo

Rainstorms + City + Trash day = Grossed-outness on the walk to the Metro this morning

Decadence

Sleeping in til noon. BR sale, JCrew sale, headband craze, getting talked into highlights when all I wanted was a hair cut. Another round of blueberry muffins with more butter than you can imagine.

That's my Saturday in a nutshell. Tomorrow I MUST CLEAN.

Farmin' in Okieland

It was seriously so nice to be home over Father's Day weekend. I just kinda hung out - it's been awhile since I did that. Lots of time with the family, and I managed to see a few friends (that aren't yet married). I think we're going to make it a family tradition every year - blueberry season and Father's Day.

So here's the famous blueberry farm. We all got up at 6am on Saturday to get things set up for the U-Pick operation that my parents have going. Of course as soon as we had everything out of the storage shed, tables set up, buckets out, gate open, the clouds moved in for a torrential downpour. Thankfully, that meant I got to go home and go back to bed :)

What else did I do while home? Hmm....hit the bar scene in Ft. Smith. Can't say I've done that before. Ran into an old high school friend at the pizza joint one afternoon, who immediately exclaimed, "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" Very nice surprise to see him.

Had to get the usual food - snow cones, cherry vanilla DPs from Sonic, ribs from the gas station, plus mom's blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, blueberry......

We had a full family day on Saturday afternoon, even managing to drag dad to the movies (Nacho Libre), and dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant from which I'd gotten a gift certificate for my parents at Christmas. I'm glad I got a bite of my own gift!

For once it was actually a little hard to come back to DC. No more lush hills and trees and berries at my fingertips. A few more pics:

Honey, the dog who sniffs out ripe berries for herself

Learning about the berries from Mr. Berry, aka Dad.
The brosOur day's pick!

I Can Breathe Again

At 9:55am this morning, I was out the door of my office on the way to Cingular across the street. I've been mulling over the RAZR trend for several months now, and I just gave in. Cost me more than it should, but I can't argue. Plus, all the cheaper phones that I would've wanted are out of stock. I needed a phone instantly.

All my phone numbers are intact. Whew. Call away....

Uh.....

My cell phone just dropped on the floor.

It smashed into 2 pieces.

Granted, it was starting to detach. It's a cheap one, and it's 2.5 years old.

Guess I'll be running to the Cingular store first thing in the morning!

In the meantime, how I am going to survive the next 10 hours without my phone?!

Update, 10 minutes later:
Okay, I'm really distressed about this. I mean, it's 11pm. I don't think I need to call anyone. And I don't think anyone's going to call me. But I have some important stuff going on in life right now - what if I do need to talk to someone at midnight? Like west coast friends? How do I tell them I'm unreachable? What if my sim card doesn't work, and I lose all 300 phone numbers? Seriously....this is an issue....

What time does my Cingular store open.....

RIP

Pyke, rest in peace. I was there for your ownership transfer from Petsmart to Dre, and I waited outside the men's bathroom during your funeral. You'll be missed!

La Dee Dah

What to say, what to say.

There are fantastic blueberry muffins in my oven right now, whipped up by me, complete with streusel topping and blueberries that I picked myself, just a couple days ago. Lucky for me, my roommates don't really like them - all the more for me. Yum! They're smelling super good. I'm supposed to wait til morning to eat them.....

I realized today at work that I haven't shaved my legs thoroughly in ages. Sorry if that's TMI, but it's the truth. I threw on some shorts tonight to clean up the forest. Feels good. I just slathed on some weird smelling lotion that will tan 'em up. The things we women do for beauty! It's nice to lounge and pamper myself. Licking muffin batter off the spatula, smooth legs, slippers, chick flick on ABC Family. What else does a girl need?

Next Monday Niki and I are taking it to a new level, starting a routine of massages. She found a massage school in Friendship Heights that's pretty cheap, so we're off to de-stress. Man, I need it. Hopefully it'll be a regular thing, as often as I can afford to splurge. Fifty bucks for an hour for a graduate of the school, only 35 if you don't mind a student that has an observer. This could be a good, good thing.

Our little Izzy, the sugar glider, has gone back home after residing in the 314 hotel for a month. I immediately looked for her this morning, but the cute little thing is gone. I did see some free ones on a message board today....do I dare? In exchange for our sugar glider babysitting services, AF brought back some neat jewelry from Kenya.

Hopefully I'll have some pics from my OK trip up soon. My camera is on its last legs, so I used my brother's, and of course he hasn't sent me the pics yet....we'll see how slow he is.

Back...

Back from middle America. So refreshed. Head is in a much better place than it was a week ago. The weekend before I left I was so stressed and teary-eyed and weepy through the whole thing. That's been melted away. I have a new direction in life. I feel good about things. I have lots of options. That's sometimes an overwhelming position to be in, but I feel much, much better about life and where it's going. It's all good. I'll keep you posted.

Quick!

No time to write - I'm going to Oklahoma tomorrow! I'm excited. It'll be weird though.

Quick weekend wrap up - JR from Philly came down this weekend with his Swiss friend, who looks 19, but is really 5 years older than me, and is the size of a toothpick, no joke. We took her out Friday night to Tryst, which was amazingly not crowded for a late Friday night. Was very nice and chill. AC man finally came to fix our system, at 9:45 that night. Better late than never!

Saturday night we all went out to Five. By the end of the night, Caro, Niki and I were fending for our lives on the dance floor, as it was 85% guys who were complete animals and thought they could get all up in our business. We were throwing their dirty little paws off us every 2 minutes. It was disgusting. I'm used to some degree of that in clubs, but it's never been this bad. Absolute vultures. We had to leave - couldn't take anymore. We're on man-hating phase at the moment because of this, so watch out! However, if anyone of the male gender would like to step up and try to redeem your entire sex, be our guest.

The housemates and I were heathens on Sunday, sleeping through church and hitting up the Nats game instead. Company day there, free tix, t-shirts, and $20 in food vouchers per person. Oh yeah, we spent every cent and downed all types of junk food. Oh so satisfying, and the Nats actually played well! Good times.

Today was my last morning of tutoring for the school year. They had a nice little appreciation breakfast for us, and the students made cards for the tutors and said lovely things about us during our little party. It was really nice. It's been kinda hard to go sometimes in the early morning, but I think I'll go back in the fall for another year. I'd like to think I'm helping someone, even if it's just a little bit!

World Cup in full effect! I've been trying to go the gym when the games are on that I want to see. Yay for Spain finally starting off right! We'll see if they can continue to perform. Coming soon - my guapo survey of all the teams. :)

Time to sleep. Wake up early to finish packing. Wack! Flying to NW Arkansas via Detroit tomorrow. Then off to the blueberry farm. Back to the DC land in 6 days. See ya then.....

Britney, Honey

Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Surely we're all rooting for her to ditch the K-Fed for the manny. How perfect!

And after this a couple weeks ago, we gotta get you to move on.

The Shady Gym Regulars

Every gym has the "stand-outs" - the ones you always notice. I haven't seen many of my regulars in awhile, but they all came out of the woodwork today.

Gymmer number 1: Jock
Looks like a used car salesman. Mid-50s, gold chain. He's been going to the gym since August, but doesn't seem like he's made any strides. He likes to go in the afternoon and leisurely ride the bike while reading a book. Nothing vigorous, until he gets to mat exercises. Then he does this mini crunch where he tries to punch his chin into his chest really quickly, while kind of grunting. Not much range of motion, not sure what it's supposed to work. Oh, and I'll let you guess why he got that name.

Gymmer number 2: StareBear
StareBear is a starer. Like a blatent one. We can't figure out which team he plays for, cause he doesn't favor staring either sex over the other. He also wanders around a lot. Today he came out of the locker room, stared, did 10 reps of something, got a magazine, flipped through, did another 10 reps somewhere else, went to the check-in desk to sign in on the computer, stared, rode the bike for 2 minutes, got up, wandered around. That's his daily routine! Sometimes he'll sit and read for 20 minutes. I don't know what his deal is.

Gymmer number 3: The singer
She's a new one. Saw her for the first time yesterday, and she seemed a little off. She ran on the treadmill to the left of AB, inches away. His towel fell on her side, so she picked it up, and instead of just handing it to him, she walked around to his right side to give it to him. Was a little too friendly and eager to do so. She also stretched for about 10 minutes before she started, and I had seen her streching for another 10 in the locker room before she came out. A tad excessive if you ask me. Then while she's running, she starts singing. Outloud. For a long time. She did it again today. I actually saw her on my bus commute this morning, chattin it up with anyone around that would listen. Way too perky in the morning.

Lots 'O Goodness

Things have been a little hectic and outta control lately, but today was awesome. No doubt about it. I managed to make it to work early today, seeing that I now have 9am meetings on Thursdays. No more taking the 9:10 bus and arriving at 9:35....

I had the best Toffee Nut Steamer I've ever had at Starbucks around mid-morning. Can't wait for another one. Today it really hit the spot.

I knocked out a lotta work today that's been hanging over my head for weeks. What a relief. My muscles are sore from my gym workouts, so it means I've actually been getting a workout. Can't lose ground now, especially since excuses to not go have been prevelant recently.

And to top it off, I found a cheap ticket to go home next Thursday! I looked last week and fares had bumped to $700, but this afternoon I had airline karma. My boss was out of the office at a meeting, but thank goodness for Blackberries. I emailed to check in, and she wrote back that I could head outta here next week. Yay! That cheap fare is mine. Now I can make it home before the blueberries are gone, and before Nonie leaves for Switzerland and before the rest of my summer weekends get tied up. I don't think I've ever been so excited to go to Poteau.

Brain Freeze

I've been a little Lost on Wednesday nights without my show. (Ha ha, terrible pun I know). But thank goodness for some mindless tv that’s saved my mid-week tv hump night – So You think You Can Dance and The Hills. I know it's ridiculous to like these, but I gotta have something to do on Wednesdays.

I am ridiculously exhausted today. Hit me right as I got home – I could pass out any second. I should pass out now.

Have you gotten your Rita's yet? It's time, if you haven't. We made a little trip there tonight, thanks to B who has the car. Delish. As much as my house loves the Rita's, I don't really see us chillin on the Rhode Island Ave Metrobus route whenever we have a water ice craving.

Tired of Coming Up with Titles....

It's Sunday night - I'm bored and not yet tired. Always a dilemma. I should be asleep so I can get to the office early tomorrow and knock some stuff out, but no, I'm writing. Then I'm going to play online some more. Then I'm going to finish a movie. Then I might read.

I'm trying to book a ticket to go home sometime this month, but the web is being SUPER slow. I can't even deal. And the one fare I did manage to search for was $650. Yeah, no thanks. Love ya family, but not for that much $$$.

I had some Dairy Queen goodness this weeked - it's been ages! Their commerical on TV yesterday for the Monster Cookie Blizzard really got to me. I knew I'd be in Alexandria last night and vaguely recalled one in that area so I snooped it out. Yum! When I was about 8 years of age in Cordell, OK, we had a DQ in town for a little while. My dad's friend's daughter worked there. I remember going through the drive-thru once when she was working. I ordered my usual favorite and her response was, "I don't know how to make that yet. I'm new." After the store closed a couple months later, I was convinced it was all her fault, since she had no idea how to make things. Whether I was right or not, I guess I'll never know.....hah!

Time to finish The Lost Boys of Sudan, then maybe I'll get some sleep.

Thank Goodness for Shorts and Tanks

It's 86 degrees in my house and the AC has been running for 2 days. Houston, we have a problem. It's sweltering in here and it's only June 1. Anyone got some AC they wanna share? I pack light - you won't even know I'm there. Wait, that's a total lie, but I gotta do something quick. Stripping when home is getting old.

What else is going? The sugar glider is alive and well, though it pees often and pees on your arm. Work is long and a tad crazy, I'm exhausted at the end of the day. I had hoped to hit the gym 4 times this week, but I haven't made it even once! Saw DaVinci Code last night. I liked it - why is everyone hating on it? Take it as a piece of entertainment, and leave it at that. I just finished reading The Kite Runner, which is AMAZING. One night on the way home from work I was reading on the metro platform, waiting for a train. I was almost in tears. A few pages later, while actually riding in a metro car full of people, I gasped outloud. It's emotional. It's dark. Parts are hard to read. But it's great. Also read Middlesex, which is quite different from my normal picks, but I liked it.

I need a vacation. Might be time to pay a visit to the blueberry farm. A friend suggested Bermuda again. Anyone wanna spare $500?

Netflix Neurosis

I really have a problem. Does this happen to anyone else? I wouldn't really consider myself a movie buff. I like them, sure, but music/concerts/playing instruments is really more up my alley. Then I signed up for Netflix. With a queue at 130+ movies and growing, I'm never going to catch up! I'm headed towards a lifetime subscribership.

I've become quite particular as to my movie-viewing schedule. I'm very well aware that I need to get movies sent in on Thursday morning so I have a new one (or two or three) for the weekend. They don't mail new ones on Saturday, so those mailed on Friday sit until Monday. I usually try and watch 1-2 early in the week so I get them out by Thursday and the crop stays fresh.

I was exhausted last night after a long day at work and had to get up early today for tutoring, but I just had to watch one. The long weekend messed up the normal schedule. Thankfully I had a foreign film that I watched on speed 2x – works perfectly! Cut the time in half, I could still hear the music playing quickly and had plenty of time to read the subtitles. Is that wack? Or does anyone else do this?

Flying By....

Since Caro sold her car, we're now resigned to taking the metro to church. That's hard for us, seeing that we can't get out the door on time when we're driving, and now we have to leave extra early. You'd think we'd be able to get outta bed by 9:30, since we're up way before that during the week. Niki's usually the slow one, but this morning she was the one waking me up, telling me to hurry.

Church was good. Wasn't in a social mood really, and all the interns on the metro make me less inclined to want to talk to people. Whatev. I survived. Sucks that it was already 3pm when we got home - day already gone! We made lunch, I made the best cookies ever, and we watched a chick flick. Not a bad afternoon, even though I didn't get a nap.

It's now too early to go to bed, but I have nothing else to do but work. Yes, work for work's sake on a holiday weekend. I'm overwhelmed at the moment. Sigh. What to do, what to do.....

Public Transportation Observations....

This week I was on a bus headed somewhere, when a teenage boy sat next to me. This young chap seemed to go for the tough look. Lots of black, greasy hair, no smiles, I dunno what else. I was reading my book, minding my own business when I heard a familiar song blarring from his headphones. What's that? Could it be? YES.

Lady in Red.

But not just any Lady in Red. The Spanglish version. No freaking way. Where can I get my copy?!

Got off the metro at Ft. Totten the other day and saw a guy with a WB shirt on, you know, with the logo from the television station company. It said "See a Cop? Warn a Brother." I laughed.

Scatterbrained Saturday of Shopping and Shakespeare

Boy, that title's a mouthful. Onward!

Last night hotel 314 was near capacity, though Caro graciously gave up her bed via text message for a guest. The two J's were over, needing a place to crash temporarily. J1 is on a mission to find a place in DC, now that he's started working downtown. He's currently living in Frederick, so the whole 4 hours a day on a train thing really isn't working. Time for him to come play in the city! I'm glad to have a good friend back from abroad that I can hang out with reguarly. J2 is between leases, so he's crashing our place for a few days. Hope he doesn't stumble in too drunk too late tonight, as he doesn't yet have the spare keys. I'm trying to stay awake til that happens, but we'll see.

We didn't actually end up looking at any apartments today for J1, but whatev. The one place he wanted to see has all sorts of bad reviews online, so I advised him just to skip it. We decided to head to Georgetown to enjoy the weather. Too nice to stay inside, and nothing else to do. That darn Circulator bus makes it too easy to get there and spend $, which is precisely what I ended up doing!

Took me about 15 minutes to actually get out the door this morning. I swear Niki's rubbing off on me. I thought I was ready when I hit the door. Wait, I need an umbrella. Ran upstairs to get it. Back down. Need a jacket. Up. Down. Windy - my skirt blows up - change clothes. Back to the door, left keys somewhere. Searched for a few minutes, found them back upstairs. Finally made it out. I'm sure there were a few more trips up and down. Lost my mind today a bit.

We hit Gtown Park Mall for an ATM and a couple cookies, opting to walk through JCrew to get back to the street. Uh, bad idea. I walked out with 2 tanks and a polo. What happened to my shopping budget?

Mexx is fast turning into my favorite store. Awesome sales, if you're patient. This weekend all the sales stuff was marked down another 25%, so what did I do? Took about 20 items into the dressing room. Only came out with 5, all super cute stuff and in colors I don't normally buy - aqua and white. And an amazing brown skirt. Yay for sales! I'm excited to wear them. I used to "save" my new clothes, keeping them in the closet for a few weeks before their debut. Times have changed - tomorrow will display a couple new purchases.

I hope I got some sun today. We chilled at Dean and Deluca, sipping our sodas and soaking rays before heading home. Afternoons like that are near perfect. Now if only the tan will show up....

Tonight a small group of friends went to the Shakespeare Free for All at the Carter Barron ampitheatre in Rock Creek Park. Lovely setting, free theatre, weird story, a tad long, but good and fun. Pirates and brothels, people coming back from the dead, what else do you need in a play?

!!!

Niki and I are watching a sugar glider for 3 weeks!! A few hours ago I didn't know what they were, but we have one!! In our house!! And it climbs on us and jumps!! And it's way cute and eats almonds and apples!!

Our friend AF is going to Africa tomorrow for 3 weeks to volunteer at an orphanage. She was over for dinner tonight and talked about her little pet. After 15 minutes of figuring out what it is, Niki volunteered to babysit while she's gone. And voila! We have it. Can't wait to play with it! Should be a fun few weeks....if you wanna come see it, let me know! It's friendly. And loves to be held close. And likes to crawl on your shirt. And jump from things. And sleep in a sock. Yay! I'll take picture of Izzy soon.

Hello, World

Where has the blogging energy gone? To the moon or something....

Anyway - weekend update. B and I made an valient attempt to see the DaVinci Code on Friday night, like the rest of the world. However, unlike the rest of the world, we didn't buy tix online, opting to show up and see what was available. Got to the theatre at 7, next available showing, 11:45. Uh, no thanks. We grabbed dinner at my fav Thai place in Gtown, hashed out more of "our relationship/friendship" issues. I thought we got somewhere, until it started all over again 24 hours later. When do you throw in the towel? We have issues. We will always have issues. We are on different spheres of existance 95% of the time, and have never been able to figure out how to get on the same page. When I think we're on the same planet, one of us is probably faking it for the sake of simplicity and harmony. So yeah....the friendship saga continues, but I'm determined to hang in there.

I was finally able to sleep in a bit on Saturday. No volunteer stuff this weekend. I had hoped to finally clean my room and put away the 4 loads of laundry I did last week, but nope. Instead I met up with Caro and 2 friends downtown at H&M for some quality shopping time. Well, I went there to return stuff from my spree the week before, but had the wrong receipt. Drat.

In the afternoon the roommates and I + a roommate's sibling + a friend went to the Greek festival at the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. I've intended to go every year, but this was the first time I actually made it. BEST lamb gyro I've ever had. Smothered in tzatziki sauce and feta cheese. Delish. The live band made me want to dance and yell "Opa!" a bunch of times, but I restrained myself, seeing that I'm not Greek.... We toured the cathedral briefly - beautiful. If you haven't been in, go check it out. I'd love to attend one of their services sometime - it's so different from mine.

Sat night, metro'd down to Alexandria to meet up with EW, now EG, and her new hubby Todd. She's in town for the summer making MAJOR bank at a law firm. Is it time to rethink my career? Hmmm..... We hung out at her summer home then went to Robin's graduation party. Robin's always the perfect hostess with tons of yummy food, including homemade salsa, heavy on the cilantro. Just the way I like it.

Sunday held more graduation stuff - a handful of friends graduating from Gtown Med. Wow, is all I can say. I honestly don't see how anyone makes it through pre-med, 4 years of med school, then 4+ years of residency. That's dedication. Kudos to them. I did skip church for graduation, but I still heard an opening and closing prayer with some inspiring words in between. Made me think back to my graduation ceremonies, hard to believe it was 3 years ago. I love Georgetown. I'm glad I went there. I love tradition and being part of a school that's more than 200 years old. Not many places like that in America.

Jorge (a brave med school graduate) invited me to dinner with his parents on Sunday night, so we headed out to Annapolis to dine on some seafood. I went for the ribs, but hey, I like what I like. I was expecting a half rack of ribs, and gasped when I was served 2 full racks. SO much food. I gave about half of it away and still couldn't finish it. His parents are from Ecuador, and are absolutely lovely people. I'm glad I finally met them. Jorge and I have been friends for about 6 years now. I think he said I'm the oldest friend he has in DC at the moment. That's kinda cool. He's off to residency at UVA, so he'll still be close by.

Must sleep now.....ackk....