MEOW

Y'all have all told me what a sweet and pretty cat I have. What do you think now? Last night, Chrissy called and told me there was a cat outside her door and had been there for a while. The cat had a rabies vaccine tag and a collar so it was obviously an indoor cat. Chrissy couldn't bring it in with her roommate's dog, and it was freezing outside, so I took it up with me. Shelby was pissed, as you can tell from the first picture. She's is VERY unfriendly to other cats! She's only been around two but this is how she acted both times. She growls and hisses and then just stays in one place until the coast is clear. She stayed on the dining chair under my table all night until right before I took it home and she cornered it in my closet.

Chrissy had told me that someone else would get it when they got home last night but they never called so between the visitor cat meowing like crazy ALL NIGHT and Shelby's growling -- she even growled at my door when the other cat was shut in my room -- I didn't sleep. I didn't get much work done either. Paige, the other cat, kept meowing and rubbing all up one me and my key board.

Luckily, the vet was able to give the number for the owner when I called first thing this morning, but the guy didn't bother to call me back until after noon. The guy was such an idiot too, he said she was kinda an outside cat now... Well, PUT A FREAKING TAG ON IT WITH YOUR ADDRESS AND NUMBER! Plus, if you don't have a yard, I don't think it's right or intelligent to let your cat roam around the neighborhood, but that's me. No more taking in lost cats for me. Next time it's someone else's turn.

Update: Chrissy called again lat night after hearing an awful meow for help and big thump. Paige was outside, huddling in the bushes, and hiding from the head stray cat in the neiborhood. After all I went throught the other night, this Zack guy let his poor sweet cat out again to fend for itself and she wandered back to Chrissy' door. When Chirssy called Zack he said he's be over in like 20 minutes. He never showed. Poor Paige...

A Happy Thanksgiving

After my last post, I was feeling sad about missing out on all our fun family Thanksgiving stuff. Chrissy and I were stressing about projects and we had almost decided to eiher just go out to eat or order pizza. I couldn't let that happen. I took it upon myself to fix the whole thing. Honestly, I blew myself away. I didn't think I could cook all that by myself. The guys were commenting on what a great wife I'd be. HAHA Ok, usually, I'd be like "What? My future husband is doing all the cooking," but, really, I enjoyed it. I surprise myself! I really like playing hostess. I would make a great senator's wife or first lady.

Here was the menu:
Turkey
Ham
Stuffing
Asparagus Casserole
My dad's special jello/coke/banana stuff
Mashed potatoes
Rolls
My mom's cranberry/rum slush
Pumkin pie/ whipped topping and ice cream
Double layer spice cake





Too much cake and pumkin pie for Ben.


I'm amazing! I didn't even burn anything!!! Good thing I went overboard; my small dinner turned into 8 people- 5 of which were guys. I actually have leftovers. Today was great. It was so nice to sit around the table with friends and say grace. I really have so much to be thankful for. :)

A little insomnia... A little homesick

[My dad and bro John this past summer at an Astros game]


[This past Easter: Me, Mike, Kristi, brother Tommy and his wife Jerissa]


After three or four days with only a couple hours of sleep, I crashed after Sylvia's class but woke up after only two hours of sleep. Is my internal clock so screwed up that I can only sleep for a couple hours at a time now? I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I was in that mode where I wasn't totally awake yet but already worrying about all the things I have to do for class and for this Thanksgiving dinner I guess I'm gonna try to cook.

I thought I'd be fine not going home for Thanksgiving -- I mean I really don't have time -- but I'm kinda sad. My dad called the other day and asked me again if I was sure I couldn't come home. Totally made me cry. I always miss my family but I'm not the type to get homesick. I think with my dad's health he's more sentimental than ever before. He's on the liver transplant list because of Walter Payton's Disease (basically scarring of the liver). He's been on the list for 3 years and it's getting harder and harder to wait. Plus, my brother John is coming home and I haven't seen him since my cousin's wedding this past July 4th. I miss them.

Only 26 days 'till I go to LA for Christmas break! I'm not going to Texas at all, instead I'll spend the 18th through the 1st in LA and maybe some time in San Diego at my bro's. My favorite and closest relatives: my Aunt Candie, Uncle Walt, and cousins Kristi and Mike live out there. My cousin Mike had a surfing accident in Hawaii this summer just before his 16th birthday. He's paralyzed from the waist down right now. He's an incredible athlete- quarteback of his football team, basketball player and all that - so his rehab is helping. I know he'll walk again; he has that determination. Anyway, my aunt and uncle are taking him for some special new procedures first in Baltimore then in Colorado, before and after Christmas so it works out that I can go and spend time with Kristi. She's a senior in high school and getting geared up for college, plus she's been doing so much for everyone since the accident -- taking care of the house, etc. She needs some fun sister/cousin time and I'm so excited I can be there for her. We're already planning a day at Universal, Rodeo Drive, Malibu and where ever else. I can also get their house all decorated and ready for Christmas so it'll be nice when everyone else gets in.

No matter where I am for Christmas, I'm the one that does the tree and wraps all the presents. Maybe it's because I'm the youngest in my immediate family, or because I'm a perfectionist. I get it from my Aunt Candie. When it comes to all my home decorating and hostess tendencies, I patterned myself after her at a young age. We are very much alike in many ways. It's funny because Kristi and my mom are that way. People think I am Candie's daughter and Kristi is my mom's, which is even funnier because she's adopted.


[Aunt Candie and me: see the resemblance?]


I think I'm gonna try to sleep again.

Get to Work

So, I've spent the day avoiding Sylvia's assignments. I slept in, went running, and came home to find water pouring through the fan in my bathroom ceiling! The maintenance man finally came by after the water had stopped pouring in and he informs me that the people living above me must have had a toilet overflow. YUCK! So, I spent the rest of the day Lysoling the bathroom and finally cleaning the whole apartment, too. One I get started cleaning, it's hard to stop.

I really have no idea how I'm gonna fix this bag. (Tyrese's blog explains the bag thing if you don't know what I'm talking about)I spent 12 hours putting it together and I was so proud of it on Tuesday afternoon. When I showed it to Sylvia she had this awful unimpressed look on her face and then went to say it was a bad design and needs something to pull the eye around the whole bag. ??? I'm still trying to figure that out.

I find it funny that the spell checker on this blogspot.com doesn't recognize the word: blog.

What a Tease...

So, not having anything particularly exciting to write about today, I was going tell you all about my fabulous new blender I just bought. It has a food processor AND this little 'to go' blender that's just a thermous so you can make a single serving smoothie to take wherever you go! It's such a thrill. Ok, not so much, but that's what I was gonna write about and then I signed in and realized we have options on font now! I try to change my font to a friendlier arial and this is what I get:

An attempt to modify formatting failed unexpectedly.
A possible solution may be to save your post as a
draft and reopen this post and apply formatting again.

What's that about? I have all these options and I can't use them! What a tease. Let me know if any of you are able to actually use your new choices.

Charles Gibson is reporting from the Atlanta Aquarium tonight! I met him on the set of Good Morning America in NY when I was on a mission trip with my church choir 6 or so years ago. I was wearing my brother's etter jacket that had a letter for journalism on it so he took a commercial break to talk to my brother and I about how he got into journaism and asked about us and what we wanted to do. Really nice guy.

So, I just saved my post as a draft and gone back hoping to use the new formatting choices, they are gone! !?!

Lesson Learned

Last night Meredith, Joe, his girlfriend Ashley and I went to Cosmo and Lava. Mer has been talking about this place since the first night we went out, so this was highly anticipated. After sitting in traffic for almost an hour, we made our way across the parking lot and to th door. The place was packed!

I stuck to a couple amaretto sours but with three shots on the side. Bad idea. I'm still paying for it. I think two of them were red headed sluts but I have no idea what these guys bought us. It tasted like a jelly bean. Mer and I met a couple gorgeous med students and we talked for te rest of the night and of course, did another hot. I didn't realize how tipsy I was until we walked back to the car. Luckily, Mer had only had one drink at the beginning of the night; she was our dd.

So to make a long story short, I've been regretting all those drinks, all last night and this morning, while puking up the pieces of the Wolfgang Puck pizza I had last night. I finally fell a little better now, after wasting more than half the day.

Moral of the story: Don't take a shot if you don't know what it is... and My new limit: 1 drink every 2 hours.

Red

Joe took that picture last night for a photography class on color. He's a super-talented first quarter photographer here at PC if I haven't mentioned him on here already. :) (I wish i'd had time after Sylvia's class to fix my hair though.)

I'm not understanding many of my fellow Americans tonight. It's amazing to me the things that people believe and the disreguard for truth and justice. There is such a contrived idea of what the War in Iraq is about. I support the War on Terror, The War in Iraq, The President, and most importantly, our troops.

"Don Rumsfeld has been a superb leader during a time of change...Don Rumsfeld's a patriot who's served our country with honour and distinction. He is a trusted adviser and a friend, and I'm deeply grateful to his service to our country." - President Bush

A friend of mine from Tech came into town this week. It was so great to see her! I took her into PC and showed her around and she was very impressed wih all the projects displayed. She'll be back in December for her work and I can't wait for her to meet everyone!

Hoedowns

I glanced at the Hoedowns Website to get directions right before we left and was surprised to find a detailed description of etiquette for the gay country western bar. The list instructs novices to "stay on the outside or off the dance floor" so as not to get in the way of any real dancers. I had been excited to go country western dancing but I didn't dance. Our guys not only didn't know how to two-step, they were intimidated by the dancers already on the floor and wouldn't let me teach them. Dissapointing. Meredith got a dance lesson from a big, burly guy though. For her first country western dancing attempt she did a pretty good job!

The atmosphere was typical western: wood, stars and spurs, the dance floor closed off like a corral. Posters of half naked cowboys on the wall elude to the gay part. It was strange to walk in and into a wall of men, all of them just standing around holding their Budweisers and checking out all other "prospects."

I am from Texas and I had never seen the specific line dances these people were doing. They have classes at this place during the weekdays and I really think they make up all their own line dances to show off on Saturday night. I want to find a real country western place here where our guys will actually dance. :)

The Tavern and CJ's

I spent half the day yesterday debating whether or not to go out. I have a lot of work to do but I think I'd go crazy if I locked myself in my apartment alone all weekend. Tonight we are going to Hodown for Tania's class and tomorrow I have plans, so we tried to keep it low key last night.
Meredith and I met up with Joe and Ben at the Tavern and enjoyed a couple of drinks. The boys also enjoyed the view of the waitresses in extreamly tiny school girl skirts and cleavge-enhancing shirts while Mer and I enjoyed the bartender, Craig -- bodybuilder body, blond hair and blue eyes! He only made me pay for one drink of the four I had on my tab. :)
For Ben, we went to CJ's to meet up with Kathleen. Cj's is a huge hole-in-the-wall but fun. There was a cover band downstairs. They weren't too bad if you have no musical background and can't tell that the lead singer was slightlly flat ALL NIGHT. Of course, Joe and I were the only ones that cared. Upstairs was a tiny room packed with people and one really annoying DJ playing old hip hop. He was telling everyone how to dance and saying we were "too white." It's funny that when Mer asked him to play B.I.G.'s "Juicy," he was like "Who?"
All in all, it was a fun break from work. Enjoy the pics!

Dating Analysis

Why do we -- as women -- analyze everything in relationships? That's mostly what "Sex In the City" is about. Carrie makes her living doing it. Obviously it doesn't get her far, she's single after 6 seasons of dating just about every guy in New York.
I'm trying to be over this analyzing thing. What's the point? I can talk to my girlfriends about our relationship issues for hours, but in the end, there's never really a conclusion. The one with the issue usually ends up more confused than they were before. Sometimes I think I overanalyze; sometimes I wish I had analyzed more.
I just looked at Facebook and out of the blue my ex of 3.5 yrs is now listed as "in a relationship." I'm happy for him but it's weird to think of him with someone else. I broke things off -- and I'm glad I did -- but weird. You'd have to know him to understand that. Part of the reason I realized we weren't' right for eachother is because he's kinda anti-social, to the point where getting him to come out with me and my friends was like pulling teeth. He's a really great guy in a lot of ways, but when I met someone that was pretty much his opposite -- fun, outgoing, life-of-the-party type -- I was totally drawn to him and we dated from the day after I broke up with Mike to pretty much the summer. We never officially announced it on Facebook though! Unlike Mike and this new girl, we kept both our relationship status' to "single." It's so funny how Facebook has now become such a part of the college life, from meeting people and talking through messages to keeping in touch, to announcing to everyone that you're in a relationship. Ok so it sounds like I'm stuck on this, but really I'm just illustrating my point that girls spend way too much time and effort analyzing relationships too much, from before they really start to long after they have ended. What a waste.
I vow to not -- ok -- to TRY to not analyze (too much) anymore. :)

Did I mention that another ex of mine is moving to Georgia?... Just trying to keep this blog interesting!
Hope y'all enjoyed my ramblings!

EEEWWWwwwww, I'm totally admitting that I'm nosy, but this girl wrote the grossest thing on her wall about my ex mike bc his last name is Sampler: "By the way, the sampler is finger-lickin good!" EEEEwwwwww!!!!!!! That is so NOT RIGHT! Yuck! Oh well, good luck to them with that, ewwwwwwww!

I love Wednesdays :)

I actually slept in this morning -- such a great feeling after not sleeping for two days! I'm usually such a morning person but this whole situation here has completely changed my habits. It's not so bad. :) Wednesdays are great because I can sleep in and not feel guilty for relaxing. I'm watching lost and chillin on my couch while I write this and I'm not even thinking about what needs to be done for class. Ok, I kinda lied, I'm about to work on grammar stuff but for the next 30 minutes or so I'm still in my relaxing Wednesday mode.

Adrian and I went looking for a park to throw the football around at today and found the tree in the picture. Gorgeous isn't it?
We don't see trees like that in Texas -- especially not in Lubbock or El Paso. When we stopped to take the picture an older woman in the street with her granddaughter. She was so cute with her bright red lipstick and white bun! She talked to us for a long time about Atlanta and drew us a map to get to Chastain Park by way of Habersham. She called it the prettiest rode in Atlanta and from what I've seen of Atlanta so far, I would agree. Gorgeous houses, hills, big beautiful trees and a creek running next to it. Very charming. Chastain Park is very harming too. It's so nice to see so many people outside enjoying a park on a weekday. There are baseball fields, tennis courts, a golf course, playground and equestrian center all in the middle of this cute neighborhood with the sweetest colonial-style school. If I end up in Atlanta I would totally want to live there.

Ok, now it's time for my Wednesday bubble bath! Until next time...