They should bring back the talent competition

(Sorry, I have to remove this video until I find out why it's messed up my format)

When I heard about this, I felt sorry for her. Then I watched the clip. It was a strange question to begin with, but her answer wasn't even coherent. I've had friends in the Miss Teen USA Pageant and I know they are more intelligent than her, so how did she get to the final five?

The "USA" pageants are going downhill and this is just another example. May I remind you of the numerous scandals in the past year.

I blame it on not having a talent competition. That's why I stopped watching. It takes a more focused person to work on a talent and prepare it for a national performance. Otherwise these girls are just being judged on their "fitness level" because it's obvious the pre-interviews haven't screened for intelligence.

Poor thing. Maybe her mom should stop taking her out of school for pageant stuff.

8.

My dad was a merman!



Or so I believed until I was ten or eleven years old. Long after I found out that Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny weren't legit, I believed my dad was really a merman, and if he was a merman, I must be a mermaid. (And if that was the case, I was a decendent of Ariel.)

This picture was above my mom's desk in the kitchen for as long as I can remember and I seriously thought it held a huge family secret that only showed in pictures of him underwater. I never told anyone this, not my mom or my brothers; especially not my dad. I figured if he'd tell me when the time was right. Meanwhile, I would put salt in the bathtub every year or so to see if my tail would show.

Maybe it's because of The Little Mermaid, or maybe I was just a strange kid, but I still hold onto the dream that it's all true.

Datablitz: 8 Things You Might Not Know About Me

Here it is, finally, my Datablitz. I know you've all been waiting ;)

Delta Lost My Luggage!

It may have been American Airline’s fault, but since Delta was not helpful at all last night, I’m placing the blame where I see fit. As I waited in line amongst a dozen other disgruntled travelers, I overheard one of the Delta crewmembers tell another, “WE don’t ever transfer the bags from one airline to another,” or something to that effect in a semi-sarcastic tone. Sucks for me; I thought they did.

I wouldn’t be so upset except my camera, glasses, pearls my dad gave my mom and mom gave me, a gold bracelet and necklace, 2 favorite dresses, 2 pairs of dressy sandals I love with matching purses ¬– a girl needs options even if she’s only traveling for 24 hours – all my best makeup, 2 curling irons, Andy’s suit, two Banana shirts and three ties – he only needed the options to coordinate with all my options – and so much more are in there. Not to mention three new Intimacy bras worth twice what Delta will give you alone if they can’t find it! I won’t bore you with the whole list but let’s just say I’m not a happy passenger.

Andy and I spent the weekend in Lubbock, TX, where went to the wedding of two of my friends from college, Alyssa and Craig. Alyssa and I sat next to each other in the soprano I section of the FUMC Chancel Choir for three years, and being two of the five or six young people in the choir, we bonded, sharing relationship dilemmas and planning our weddings from the balcony of the church where we sat with the choir at the beginning of each Sunday service. When she started dating Craig, everyone could see that special sparkle. He gave me some seriously useful relationship advice not long after, that somehow stuck more than what the rest of my family and friends were saying. I have to thank him for that.



The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. The bride and the bridal party were beautiful. The church was stunning as always with its stained glass windows, huge organ, carillon, high ceilings and of course, amazing choir.

I realized just how much I missed singing in the choir every Sunday and rehearsing very Wednesday. It was strange not to be up there with them. At the reception, my friend Josh and I decided for my wedding, I need to just fly the choir to Ireland or wherever my wedding ends up. That would be easier than getting everyone into Lubbock. ;) (Did I mention you pretty much have to fly to Dallas or Houston to get anywhere else from Lubbock? Not very convenient.)

Oh yeah, I CAUGHT THE BOUQUET! Alyssa totally planned it, but that’s ok with me. If I ever get my bag back, I’ll include the pictures, complete with Andy’s bright red face.

We flew back from Lubbock to Dallas on American Eagle. Our flight was delayed for 30 minutes, but that was ok and fairly expected. We saw the bride and groom again waiting for their flight and wished them well. When we finally arrived in Dallas, we had to sit on the runway for another thirty minutes while we were towed in by a Chevy because the steering went out – and this was the second plane they sent, makes me wonder what was wrong with the first.

I waited to post this blog because I thought my stuff would be here, but it’s not and now I can officially complain about it!

Dream Diary: Shotgun Wedding?

Disclaimer: I know I have high expectations and I want my wedding to be perfect, but I know that's not the important thing, the marriage is. That being said:

Last night I had a nightmare. Weddings have been on my mind for – well – probably since I saw Cinderella the first time. I use to not be able to see the groom, but now I see Andy, only, in my dream last night, I saw him before the ceremony. Dressed like normal and acting like everyday, like nothing special was about to happen. I definitely don’t think the groom should see the bride before the ceremony, so I was asking him what was going on and generally freaking out, but that’s just the beginning.

I’ve had the dream before (in various ways) where I know it’s my wedding day but I don’t know who the groom is or if I do, I know we’re not ready. I freak out because I can’t remember any of the fun stuff, like the engagement, but worst of all in my mind: I didn’t plan anything. When I look around, everything is tacky or not decorated at all and the reception site is awful.

In my dream last night, I didn’t even recognize the church. I showed up in a dress that was awful on me and as soon as I got out of the limo, it got dirty somehow. The next thing I know, Andy was there, saying not to worry. I was really confused at that point but kept thinking that everything was ruined. I must have changed into street clothes and I went into this tiny bathroom to try to do my own hair and makeup. (Yikes)

Someone was with me – one of my friends or girl cousins – and I was telling them how upset I was about doing my own makeup and how nothing is the way I want it to be, but I told her, “At least I’m not showing yet.”

Yeah, and that was the turning point from “bad dream” to “nightmare.”

I then realized I was missing my makeup bag so I started running down the hall of the church looking for my mom and I ran into the choir room where a mix of my church choirs from home and Lubbock were gathered, about to start getting ready to sing at the ceremony. To my disgust, they started singing, "Here Comes the Bride," which is so typical and cheesy that I definately don't want it used at my wedding, especially not sung! My director from home, Mr. Galasso, saw me come in and said I should hurry and get ready. I ran back into the ladies room crying hysterically and then I started a sneezing fit.

I woke up and immediately sneezed three times.

Sunday Night Blah

Friday night has so many possibilities:



But this is Sunday night, Andy is kicking me out so he can go to bed:


Sunday night depresses me. After church and lunch, on a typical Sunday, the night is spent in preperation for Monday. I think I've finally realized how quickly weekends go by when you have a real job, and I don't even have one yet. And as much as I'm looking forward to being "out in the real world," when I am, I really hope I can find time to do other things I love and spend time with family and friends. Andy's got a set schedule now as a teacher, so I guess that got me thinking how once you grow up, free time is few and far between and weekends fly by. It's not like I didn't know that, but I'm not gonna have summers off like he does, and I'll probably be working longer hours, etc. Makes me sad. all the more reason to find a job I'll love.

Somehow, Monday is quickly approaching and I've managed to hardly accomplish any of my targeted tasks. The first of which would be my data blitz. It's a work in progress. I keep changing my mind. I'll probably do my "Eight things you might not know about me" which is for this blog because I was tagged – unless anyone has a better idea. ;) I guess I can't dance with Ty again.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out HTML to make this blog better. Keep checking for updates. I may just change this whole thing, you never know. Off to bed; bring on the week.

Dream Diary

I have incredibly random dreams. Almost every night, I have at least two bizarre dreams that I can vaguely remember and if I hit the snooze button, there are usually more – especially lately. In the past three nights I’ve probably had 12 strange dreams. The night before last I had three nightmares involving sharks(I’m not typically afraid of them) and woke up scared but now I can’t remember any details. So, I’m gonna try waking up and blogging about my dreams right away before I forget everything. This should be entertaining if nothing else. Maybe some of y’all will have some input as to what they mean…

The dream I remember, before Andy called to wake me up the first time, was about InDesign class. Yes, I had that class last night and it went on for the full five hours. I’m really enjoying that class and learning so much, but reliving it in my dreams is a little much. There were two sections. In the first, it was sort of class as usual, except we were working in a much cooler lab with colored walls, ergonomically correct chairs, track lighting, etc. (I never dream about actually being in PC).
In the second section, Belfi, our instructor, wanted us to bring in a stack of some of our old T-shirts. My stack had four shirts, all very similar, all very nerdy, all from this ice skating show called Stars on Ice that my mom and I went to every year. I would always get a T-shirt, even though they never had them in my size so they were always way too big. I know I kept them at home, in a huge bin filled with all my shirts from school organizations, All-State choir, pep squad, drill team, etc. My mom said she was planning to make a quilt or something from them one day. Eek. Anyway, I put one of the shirts on and it immediately changed from white to bright red (I almost always dream in color) and Beli started saying what a great piece it was, like it was a work of art or something. Completely random, I have no idea what that means.

My next dream makes a little more sense given that I’ve been wanting to go ice skating lately. If I haven’t mentioned on here before, I used to skate competitively for over five years. I miss it. Anyway, I dreamed I was going up to Canada to visit my friends to celebrate Big Foot Day. These are friends from Lubbock, TX, (Lizzie, Alissa, Josh, Blake, Craig, James (all from the church choir I was a part of while I was at school there). I just made arrangements to fly there and see them all for Alissa and Craig’s wedding this month, so I guess they were on my mind. Lizzie is from Canada, so maybe that explains the reason I was going up there, but Big Foot Day? Random.
I arrived in Canada and went straight from the airport, walking with my luggage in the snow, to some sort of dance and ice skating clinic. We did tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical and then changed into our ice skates and skated for a while. Blake and Josh were always dancers in the shows we did at church with me so they were there dancing too, but then Lizzie showed up for the ice skating portion and was telling me all about Big Foot Day and how much they were all looking forward to it. Then we were sitting around the dance studio, taking off our skates and the instructor came up to me and said she gave me a 6.5 for skating and asked me if I was out of practice. The power went out. And I woke up.

So there you have it, two of my random dreams. At least I dream in themes.

"Adverteasing" the Game

I woke up to this text message this morning. At first I just thought it was like a business "Shoots and Ladders." I had to zoom in to read the titles. How funny. The copywriter pulling her hair out– what reassurance.

As some of you know, Andy will start as a high school teacher officially this Thursday for business and computer software classes. He found this game in his classroom this morning and plans to use it. It's more or less a learning tool.

Oh, and for some of you out there who aren't as proficient as you'd like to be in the Adobe programs, they are teaching them in high school now. Scary, huh. So learn them before these kids get out and steal our jobs! Even scarier, Andy will be teaching them. Just kidding, he'll be great once I teach him. ;)

Astros vs. Braves

For our six month (semi-)anniversary, Andy surprised me with tickets to the Houston Astros vs Atlanta Braves game! I'm a huge Astros fan and I had looked forward to this game all year. It's been so hard not being able to watch them play at all and instead, having the Braves games on practiclly every night. I recorded the first game of three games Tuesday night and was so upset when I watched it. Astros lost 4 to 12! Yikes. I put my jersey on the next day, hoping for a miracle, and witnessed another dissapointment. We had a great time though. ;) Andy got us fabulous seats — for all the Braves home run action.

(And a really great view of my favorite catcher, Astros #11 Brad Ausmus. Seriously ladies, look for yourself. He made last summer when my dad and I went to at least 10 games together much more pleasing. ;)



Because of both upsets and because I had class Thursday night, I didn't bother to look at the results from Thursday's game. Of course, Astros won.

The Video I Promised

So, this woman woke us up with her speech at 8 am when we entered Glacier Bay and kept talking on and off for hours, sometimes with minute-long pauses in the middle of a sentence. I think she needs acting lessons to pump up her enthusiasm just a tad. You be the judge.