Thursday, September 28, 2006

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!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

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?







Wednesday, September 13, 2006

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?

Monday, September 11, 2006

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.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

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!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

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.

Friday, September 01, 2006

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!

2023 Recap

Oh, hey there. It's been awhile. I disappeared for a bit. Everyone's doing their 2023 year in review today, and I figured I'd ju...

StatCounter