Love It

OK, I know I haven't posted in forever, but this is pretty cool, and easy to post quickly, so there ya go.

Claudio-o! Dear Claudio-o!

Oh my gosh I am exhausted but I HAVE to blog about all the stuff that is happening! Basically at work we have been doing straight manual labor for the past two days and I can hardly move, but it is all towards a goal and is keeping me occupied so I don't think about all the bad shit that is trying to get me down.

I just have to say that I don't think the fact that I like nice clothes is my fault. I mean, it definitely has something to do with my need to shop and my love of fashion, but it is something about the actual fabric that makes me addicted to it. I totally get this from my mom, who has more fabric than Fabric God, who I am sure is very well-dressed. I just like the way things feel, and I think that I project my internal view of myself onto the clothes, and literally think to myself "I will not be doing right by myself if I don't have this. It is obviously meant for me, and I will honestly regret not buying it." I understand this is shallow, but I am so not alone it is not even funny. But the thing is that I really don't care if it is a freakin' Chanel shirt, if I can see through it and it looks like only a person who wears a size 2 could pull it off, forget it. The fabric has to look high quality and it has to be reasonably priced. This is why I love Old Navy right now. I know this is like the third time I have mentioned it, but seriously, just go. Now. I want to end this little tirade with a story my mom used to always tell me so I wouldn't feel bad about spending my entire paycheck at the Gap. When I was a little girl I was very well-dressed by my mom and Grandma, and the outfits usually involved frills or ribbons, which I adored. My mom told me that my elementary school teacher used to always say that she could tell when I got a new dress or leggings because I wouldn't pay attention in class the first day I wore it, I would just sit and smooth my dress. Feel it, make sure there were no wrinkles, and basically touch the fabric. It is just me, and I guess as long as I am not letting this particular personality situation run wild at Dior, I am good.

So THE MOST exciting thing happened at work last Thursday! Jessica GOT ENGAGED! Jason drove all the way down from OK to surprise her. When he got to the Museum one of our summer workers David called up to our office and I just said "hello" and I guess he thought I was Jessica. He said "There's someone here for you with flowers." I knew it had to be fore Jess, and it just took a second of me thinking about it to understand what was going on. I ran downstairs, and saw Jason, and thankfully Jess was in the other building so it was a COMPLETE surprise. Jason was hyperventilating slightly, and as soon as I made sure he was here to propose, I ran upstairs and got the camera and my keys so we could go to the other building. On the way up I ran into Joy, and once I told her the deal she was in a panic too! THEN the phone rang and it was for me, but I was frantically trying to get the camera so I told Joy to just take a message, but it turned out to be Jason's sister. She wanted to make sure I was taking pictures, and once we assured her we were totally on it, we took Jason to the other building. It was just magical. We kind of stood in the doorway out of earshot so they could have their privacy but I could still take some pics. Of course she said yes, and below are some great pics from the moment.






Yet another crazy thing that is happening is that Jess and I are going to see Coheed on the Van's Warped Tour on Saturday! We are both SO excited, and have been listening to Coheed non-stop the past few weeks to get psyched up for it. This will be the second time I have seen them live, but the first for Jess. She is going to FREAK, and I am glad I get to be there to see it. It will totally be worth all the bug bites I am going to get.




OMG and Harry Potter comes out tomorrow. I literally can't think about it I am so excited!

There is of course other stuff, but I really need to go to bed. Mom and Carol got back safely from Germany and they are coming up tomorrow to fill me in on everything that happened and share pics and such. If I can just get through the next three days, happiness awaits me at the Smirnoff Center...

Summer Fun

Today was a fun summer day! The clouds and rain held off until tonight, thankfully. Last time I blogged about the summer movies that I have seen and are loving right now, and I mentioned that I want to go see Transformers. Now, I did not watch that show when I was a child; I was more of a My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite kind of girl. I have actually seen the animated move from the 80's, but only because I agreed to let David watch it while I was doing a paper since I never thought I would actually like it. Well, I did, and the paper just had to wait. Anyway, we went to see it today and it was a really fun, action-packed, nostalgic in a way type of movie. Everything you could ask for in a summer film, I would say. You definitely don't have to be a fan of the TV show to enjoy the special effects and funny banter of Shia LeBouf. Geez I hope I spelled his name right! I am not one to become "into" the It guy of the moment, but I LOVE him. He is just so cute and funny, but not in an Ashton Kutcher asshole type of way. Many thumbs up from me!

Another thing I am OBSESSED with this summer are dresses. When I am not at work, I am almost always in a dress now. Granted, I can admit it has something to do with the fact that I have gained a few pounds and I like something comfortable on when I don't have to wear work clothes, but dresses are very in right now, which means a few places are doing them right. One of these places is Old Navy, who often does everything right. I have like 6 of their dresses, and they are all fabulous. I like them because they are short enough to be cute with leggings or jeans, but long enough that I can wear them by themselves. Today to the movies I wore this little number with ballet flats:


This is the other one that I bought. I am thinking of wearing this one to Coheed:


I have two others from there that are a jersey knit fabric and they are amazing! They aren't on the website anymore, but one is short and the other is long like a goddess dress. I can't wear any of them to work yet because we are still in the middle of moving everything to the other building, so I have to wear jeans every day.

And of course, I promised from last time pics of baby Ben. He is so so precious!!

The Miracle of Life

Well, folks, life is changing all around me. I can't do anything to stop it, so I am trying really hard to embrace it despite resistance from other areas of my life. Here are a few things that are going on...

As you all know, David and I bought a house. You also might know that I am an anal retentive person, and I am trying my darndest not to throw everything we own in boxes RIGHT NOW, rendering it all useless until we move. The truth is that I could pack up everything but our bathroom, closet, computers and TVs and we would be good, but I don't want us to be climbing over boxes for the next month. However, I started looking at the calendar and realized I have about 5 free days in the next month that I have to pack! How did this happen?!?! So tomorrow Dave and I have to go buy boxes so I can start packing stuff away. I am FREAKIN' excited!

The MOST exciting thing that happened this week is that Jennie had her baby!! He is premature, but after trying everything to get him to stay in he just didn't want to! His name is Ben, he is 16 inches, just over 3 pounds, and breathing on his own!! We are all so proud of Jennie for pushing through and keeping him healthy. Welcome baby Ben! We all love you SO much already! I got to go in with Jennie to the NICU and see him yesterday and he is truly a miracle. I have attached a few pictures! Update: I don't have the pics on this computer, so they will have to come later..

Things at work are changing rapidly too. The same weekend that Dave and I move Jessica moves to Oklahoma, and things at work will never be the same. I am not suggesting that it will be horrible; I think things will work themselves out with the new dynamic between myself and my other co-workers. That is not the problem, and there really isn't a problem, it is just that while I thrive on some changes, others scare me, and this is definitely one that is going to shake me up. But, change is inevitable, and I know that I will be able to use all that I have learned from Jess to help me move into my new work world. The rest of the year will be interesting!

In less life-changing news, relatively speaking, it pains me to know that out there in the world there are people who have an iPhone, and I do not. I realize that purchasing a home is a much better investment, and now that we have a house I know I can't choose the iPhone over the fridge we need to buy, but oh do I want to. It is not like my much-sought-after-at-the-time pink Razr doesn't still work really well, it is just that the iPhone would be like having my computer with me at all times, which is a scary thought, but extremely tempting. I literally watched a 20 minute movie about it, and even David was drooling. Grrr. To those people out there who have it already, enjoy it bitches.

The greatest thing about this summer is all the amazing movies out right now! I have been to more movies in the past few weeks than I have in forever. Let's see...

1. Knocked Up -- I have blogged about this one before. GO WATCH IT NOW!!! The comedy will blow your mind if it is your thing.

2. Ocean's 13 -- So so cute, and a great way to kind of end the series. I am not sure if they will do more, but I guess they could and it would probably go over really well. I didn't like that Catherine Zeta Jones and Julia Roberts aren't in it, but I did like that Matt Damon had more of a role and he is also extremely funny with the whole nose thing. You just have to see it!

3. Ratatouille -- I actually just got back from seeing this, and it is hands down one of the most endearing, cute, entertaining movies I have seen in a very long time. I will definitely be buying it immediately when it comes out.

We are planning on seeing Live Free of Die Hard, Transformers, Harry Potter, Shrek 3, Hairspray, and a few others. Yay for a great movie summer!

The other love of my life right now is knitting. I finished Ben's baby blanket last weekend, and it is so so cute! I have now started on a blanket for myself that I am extremely excited about. I hope you all have a hobby that you love ad time to do it, and I will try to keep this thing updated more often!!

A Week of Exciting News

It is Saturday night here in central Texas, and for once I am not drop-dead exhausted at the end of the day. The ONLY reason for this is that I took a two hour nap earlier in between shopping and dinner. This past week has been pretty exciting, and I have a lot to post about in general!

Three amazing things happened this week that definitely need reporting. The first is that my pregnant friend Jennie finally found out the sex of her baby!!! This has been a long time coming, and unfortunately for the baby it took too long to reveal its true identity which left us with no other choice than to come up with a nickname for it. Here is the story behind the nickname: So my good friend and co-worker Jennie is preggers, and in unrelated news, her first cousin Laura has a son named Brooks who is 4. Brooks is extremely precocious and smart and imaginative, and provides us with hours of quips that entertain. So one day Brooks asked Jennie "Are you having a brother or a sister?" to which Jennie replied "What do you think, Brooks?" Brooks said "Ummmmm, I think it is a brother." "OK, well what do you think I should name him, then?" asked Jennie. "Ummm, how 'bout Dragon?" LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Awesome. The best part is that Brooks answers with Dragon EVERY TIME we ask him what the baby's name should be, so now Jennie's baby is affectionately known as Baby Dragon. We found out this week that the baby is indeed a boy, which is better because no matter how we try to justify it Dragon is just more of a boy nickname. The baby will be named Ben and he is due September 17, but he will always be known as Baby Dragon.

The next amazing thing that happened is that Jessica was offered and accepted a job in Oklahoma teaching 6-12 grade history and geography! She has been looking for a good job there for what seems like forever, and I think this one is going to be an amazing fit. I am very excited for her, even though it will be very hard on me when she goes. However, I AM excited about all the teachery organizational stuff she is going to get to do!!!

The third thing I already kind of mentioned in my last post, but DAVID AND I BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! It is the one from the last post, and we close in like a month!! AHHHH!! It is very exciting, but stressful at the same time with work and all. We are getting the inspections etc. done this week, so hopefully nothing major will be wrong and we can keep going on schedule!

OH!!! The other exciting thing is that the documentary that Jess and I are in finally came out!!! It is in 6 parts, so check them out below!!!













I am getting tired, so I will post more tomorrow. Check out the doc!!!!!

Growing Up Can Kind of be Fun

For the last two weeks Dave and I have been looking at houses to buy, and as I have expressed before, I feel unprepared to make such a huge life choice. However, as we have looked at them, I feel more and more comfortable in my ability to run my own home. One fear I have had in looking at the neighborhood we have been looking at is that we would get some old looking 70s house. Some of them had weird features, but the one we have ultimately decided on is very young looking and in a great neighborhood. It was built in the 70s, but has been completely updated, and it is in our price range. I knew it was the one when I walked in, but to be safe we looked at some more. That just made it more clear that that house was the one, so I am feeling pretty confident that we will be making an offer on it this week. It has four bedrooms plus an office, which is more space than I even know what to do with. The best part is that I do not have to do any major work on it to be able to move into it, which was not the case with all the other houses we saw. It has a great backyard, and is next to a mansion house with parking spots for all the guests they have at their many events. It is two streets away from one of my co-workers, and about five away from another. Yay! Pics are below...









Today I get to go to my friend Charlotte's wedding, which I am very excited about. This is the first wedding of one of my life-long friends that I have gotten to go to, and one of my bridesmaids Stephanie is in her wedding too. Pics later!

Watch Out!

Oh my God Jessica and I are going to be in a documentary really soon! I know I blogged about it last time, but the preview for it was just released, so I have posted it below! AHHHHHH!!!! I love The Office.



In unrelated news, I have a sty on my eye. Oh dear Lord it is gross. And I forgot my glasses this weekend, and while I was in Kohl's I bit the crap out of my tongue. So basically my entire face hurts, and I am sure that sometime soon the cavity that is clearly visible on one of my back left teeth will begin to hurt and I will finally have to find a dentist in Waco. Yesterday before I came home David and I looked at a house in Waco. I feel completely unprepared to buy a house for many reasons. One, I am only 22. Two, I like to make multiple online purchases from J.Crew and Zappos each month. Three, I spend all my free time blogging and not cleaning my current space. Four, it just feels like such and old thing to do. The house we looked at was pretty cool, and anyone would be lucky to have it, especially first-time basically teenager homeowners. However, to be practical, we are looking around first. We have Charlotte's wedding here in town next weekend, then the hunt begins. Wish us luck!

Oh Lordy

I am sorry about the sleepy message last night!! I went to Sonic tonight and got myself a Route 44 Diet Dr Pepper, so hopefully I will be a little more awake tonight. Oh my gosh things have been crazy here. Today was my sister's graduation celebration, and it was a lot of fun. Lots of guests! So I think I have given up on reporting about Chicago, except to say that it was a lot of fun and I would love to go back. REALLY good food, and I learned a lot at the convention. So I was watching TV earlier and happened to be watching a classic episode of Jackass, and it got me to thinking about the second Jackass movie and about how much I love the scenes where Johnny Knoxville is dressed up as the old man and his balls are hanging out of his old man sports coach shorts. They aren't his real balls, they are fake old man saggy balls, and they are EXTREMELY hilarious. Just thought I would mention that one because you really need to see it if you haven't!!

OK, so here is a little more detail about the documentary Jessica and I are going to be in. It is about the Office Fandom, which is kind of the cult following of the TV show The Office. The Office is AMAZING, so go out and rent the first two seasons, or better yet, buy them all on iTunes. It is so well written and such an intelligent show, it is just almost mind blowing. So, I introduced The Office to Jessica, and now she is also obsessed with it. We have a white board at work that asks "Which character of The Office are you?" and we put down different ones for each other. Right now, I am "Boob Job Jan" and Jess is "Michael's Boss Ryan." Awesome. So I read a blog call OfficeTally, which is all Office, all the time. If you would really like to join the club, visit www.officetally.com. It is just an amazing site and really helps fans connect to the show and the actors in ways that I have never seen before. Separately, there is a girl, seat18b as she will be known, who is in film school and does amazing edits of Office clips with fun music. To see her videos, click HERE. She is pretty well-known in the Office Fandom, and has even been asked by the show's executive producer to have some of her videos on the Season 3 DVD. So in one of her film school classes her final exam was to do a film of some kind, and she chose to do a documentary about the Office Fandom. The creator of OfficeTally posted an ad for fans to send in their footage for her video, so Jess and I did it! Seat18b had a bunch of questions for us to answer, and we also reenacted a scene. To see our scene, click HERE. Since sending her the footage we have gotten a lot of really positive feedback from her, and we have kind of become online friends. She is definitely a kindred spirit, and has told me we are featured quite prominently in the film. It will be on YouTube very soon, and I will be sure to tell everyone!!! Yay for The Office!

Other things, hmmm. OH! If you are a girl, and maybe if you are a boy but I don't know about the boy clothes, go to Old Navy immediately! They have REALLY cute stuff for so cheap right now. I got a huge bag of clothes for just over $100, and I have already worn two of the things with many compliments. Go now!

OK, so even though I love my job dearly, there is a lot of weird shit going on right now and I am glad to take a break, even if it is moving from one extreme of crazy to another. After many threats to the contrary I am not giving up on it yet, and in the mean time I am enjoying seeing my dad. Don't forget to check out Life Before Blogging at www.lifebeforeblogging.blogspot.com!!!!!

Oh So Tired

Oh dear God I am exhausted. I literally made myself write this post, and I LOVE to blog! I have no energy to finish recounting the events from Chicago; let's just say my dream one day is to work at Kiehls and live in the nearby neighborhood while going to school to get my master's in photography from the Art Institute. I loved it. My sister graduated from high school today, which is the real reason why I am too tired to post this weekend. It is not her fault, it is just that my entire family is here and dealing with Dave's family too, it is just a tiring experience. Add on to this long day having to rescue two of the nicest dogs I have ever seen off the side of the road, and you have a cocktail for sleepiness. I love going to my high school's graduations because it is like a little mini reunion. I am literally falling asleep writing this post, so the last thing I will mention is that I am going to be in a documentary about The Office! It is almost done and will be on YouTube shortly. I am EXTREMELY excited!! I will try to post a more coherent entry tomorrow, and also post a memory on Life Before Blogging. It has been a while!

Last stand of the flies...

Their origins were humble, looking out above the country they would soon overwhelm. Truly born to be warriors with their metallic armor and featherlight weapons; the day would soon come for the invasion to begin. On the day that fate would call theirs, they emerged in a matter of seconds, only to realize that their plan had a fatal flaw -- what they once thought would be an easily navigated exit turned out to be impenetrable. They were trapped, and the hours were ticking away until the return of the monster that ruled the land below. To no avail they attempted escape, and inevitably the creature returned. Backed against their thwarted route of escape, they were taken out one by one in a brutal first round of battle, but eventually the bloodshed ceased. If only they could have known what tortured awaited them. The monster was not satisfied with killing them one by one, she wanted them to suffer for their gall and skills of evasion. She returned with prisons that bound their arms and legs, but caused no pain, just excruciating starvation. Most of the army was captured this way, men side by side, being cruelly awakened and reminded of his state, just for the pleasure that the beast felt in knowing they were still alive. This massacre went on for days, and surely at any time they will be put out of their misery. Alas, they continue to attract more brave soldiers in the attempt to rescue their comrades. Carry on, fly masters...

This is the so sad story that runs through my mind as I was chasing flies in my apartment with sticky traps. I feel bad for killing them, but not at the same time. Stupid flies. I am the monster in the story, by the way, and I feel this is how it would have gone down if the flies were like Spartans.

Chicago: The Food

Instead of giving a day-to-day account like normal I am going to break the trip up into categories. I decided to start with food because it was exceptionally wonderful on this trip. And according to Jack the only good pictures I take are close-ups of food. Whatev. Interestingly, the very first meal we ate on our trip was at McDonald's in the Hispanic part of town.



Thankfully that did not set the tone of the rest of the food on the trip. So after McDonald's we were supposed to go to the Shedd Aquarium, but Jack did not realize that parking was at least $16 anywhere you go, so we ended up just driving around trying to find a free parking place. It was not going to happen, so we went sight-seeing downtown and ended up at a wine tasting bar right next to the House of Blues. It was called Bin 36, and was very nice. It was a dressier place, so I am glad I was wearing my new red dress! Our waiter was one of those that knows all the wines by heart and knows which cheese goes with which wine, and so forth. I ordered a flight of Left Coast Reds, which means four individual servings of red wines that come on a little place card that tells which one is which. Jack got a flight of whites which were really good too. Our waiter also brought us a custom-made cheese flight to go with our wine. Heaven!!







We had dinner reservations at 7:30 that night, so after wine we went shopping for a while then went to dinner at Gene and Georgetti's. It is this wonderful mafia Italian
restaurant and we got a very quiet table in the corner. The food was amazing all around. Just a note, the entire time we were there this wonderful crusty-but-soft-in-the-center bread was everywhere. I LOVE BREAD. So that is what I ate first at Gene and Georgetti's. We then ordered calamari, and Jack and I got salads. I ordered the petite fillet mignon, but it was huge. Even though at that time I was stuffed just on bread Jack made me eat the entire steak. Maybe Jennie's fav story of the trip is me leaning back in my chair after I finished my steak, moaning and rubbing my stomach in the pain of fullness, then reaching over and buttering myself another piece of the delicious bread. How could I let the whole loaf go to waste?!?! It was just really good, and a great way to start off the trip.




The next day was Shedd Aquarium all morning. At most of the big museums there are nice restaurants as well as cafeteria-style eateries for those on a budget or with kids. It was Mother's Day, so we decided to eat at the nice restaurant at the Shedd, which I think was called The Breakers. We sat at a lovely table overlooking the harbor, and ate organic, environmentally friendly food. That is another thing I love about Chicago, is that they are very earth-friendly, and do things like on use sustainable resources in their food. At the end of the meal Linda and Jennie both got these beautiful white chocolate shells with chocolate mousse and a side of berries for free since they are moms (to-be). I have been told that the picture of this particular dessert is my best work yet.





That night we ate at the Chicago pizza chain Giordano's for some traditional deep dish. We got Canadian bacon, black olives, and mushrooms, and it was delish!!!




Monday was the first day of the conference, so lunch was on the house in the exhibition hall. It was good, but not really worth mentioning. What is worth mentioning is the churro that Jennie bought and made me eat. "Do you even like churros?" "Well, it is fried dough rolled in sugar...what do you think?!?!" Yum! That night we had dinner reservations at La Scarola with the owner of the exhibit design firm who is doing our free enterprise exhibit. There was wine, pasta, dessert, and coffee, and it was wonderful. The best part was that Druce (that is our designer's name) was super nice and picked up the tab. We closed down La Scarola, which was really fun!!


La Scarola!


Day two of the conference: no free lunch. We took a cab into Chinatown and dined at this tiny little Chinese food restaurant that I can't remember the name of. I got Orange Chicken, and let's just say it was nice to eat some real Chinese food! No Panda Express here! That night was when we had 9:00 dinner reservations at Frontera Grill. I later learned that Frontera was just named the #! restaurant in the country, which it totally deserves. Despite having amazing food and drinks at a somewhat reasonable price compared to the other places we ate, we got to eat next to Jamie Oliver all night, and our two groups closed the restaurant. Jamie Oliver is the naked chef, and he was there with a group of his friends celebrating a birthday. I got a glass of wine and these amazing little pulled pork biscuit things, and a crazy seltzer water float for dessert. We ate there in Tuesday, and on Thursday I had the day off to recoup from the trip before returning to work on Friday. For the first time ever I had the chance to watch both Ellen and Oprah, and guess who was featured on Oprah??!?!?! Frontera Grill and it's amazing chef Rick Bayless! I had just been there like 36 hours ago! It was pretty cool!


The room where we ate at Frontera.


Jamie Oliver

Day three and our last day of the conference. After hearing Doris Kearns Goodwin speak and going to one morning session, Jennie and I caught a cab over to the Art Institute. We were really hungry, and opted for the nice sit-down place in the Institute as opposed to the cafeteria. Unlike the Shedd, however, both looked amazing! Eating at the Art Institute was amazing. Jennie and I shared a huge hamburger and a fruit crisp with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. It may have been my favorite meal of the trip, just because it was so relaxed and delicious and a wonderful, beautiful atmosphere. I also had about 6 cups of coffee, which I regretted with a night of plane riding ahead of me. Jennie and I spent the afternoon at the Art Institute, and on our way to the airport we stopped by the Windy City hotdog stand to get our authentic Chicago dog. I did not get one because I was still full from lunch, but Jack's and Jennie's looked goooood! The rest of the trip was McDonald's and airplane food.

All in all one of the best culinary experiences ever. I would totally recommend any of the places we went, plus many many more I am sure if I has had the time to stay and look around more.

Chicago Here We Come!!

This week has been insane in a we-have-accomplished-nothing-and-are-living-for-The-Office-tonight kind of way. Today is Carrie's last day of work, which is entirely tragic. She will be missed greatly! She is sad too, but not too much seeing as how she has a kick-ass job in FL waiting for her! Congrats Carrie!! We have all gone out to eat for lunch twice this week, which is unprecedented. Today at lunch Jack proved to be extremely excitable, and since Sammy was with us, the amount of ragging on the girls reached a new height. The latter half of lunch was spent trying to convince me that Volvo's are trash and I should just suck it up and get a BMW. I liked that Jack lives in a world where he pays me enough to buy a car like that. Buying a Volvo will already put us in the food stamps line. Maybe that is because we will also be buying David a new truck at the same time, but whatever. The point is that Jack is excited about Chicago. We are both extremely excited about the food, which is not the point of going, but always ends up being the main attraction. By the way, Jack is my oh-so-goofy boss, for those of you who don't know. I am actually more excited about The Office tonight, because in order to get to Chicago I have to pack. Grrr. Tonight Pam will confess her undying love for Jim fireside in front of all the people who already know. I love it!! It BETTER HAPPEN NBC!!! In honor of two of our fav things -- The Office and Natalie Dee -- we are making Weiner Wings for dinner. To learn about Weiner Wings, go HERE. We are thinking of doing a video response, so look for that at some point. Then the rest of tonight will be spent packing. I have to be at Jack's house at some ungodly hour on Saturday since we will be in the city by noon. We will be right by the lake every day at the convention center and various museums and restaurants until Wednesday night. The trip's official title is... DUH DUH DUHHHHH... LAS VEGAS II: CHICAGO!!! Love it. Thanks to Jennie for that one. I have left all the dinner reservations up to Jack, who never disappoints, and I have been looking up directions to more important things. Like the Chicago Keihls store. AKA, Mecca. Things I have bought for the trip include: tiny toothpaste, of which I already have a bunch but I love to shop in the tiny travel section; Life Savers; gum; a toothbrush holder; oil absorbing pads for my greasy face; a new pair of sunglasses; and Dramamine for the plane. All necessary, all piss David off as he is waiting for me to shop for them. Double worth it:) JK! So Chicago here I come!!! I am excited. Are you VERY excited? Yes, I am very excited. Are you EXTREMELY excited?!?! long glance... No, just very? That's cool. I am very excited!

Here are some pics of Carrie's last day on the job.... :(

Things on the Mind...

Yesterday my mom and I went shopping to pick me up some new jeans. I had intended on buying one pair of "nice" jeans from the GAP and two pairs of "work" jeans from Wal-Mart or something. I also needed a pair of black sunglasses because I have continually been breaking the fashion code of wearing brown sunglasses with everything. They are a $20.00 Target pair and I love them, but they do not go with my many black outfits and they are getting a little worn out. So I buy some beautiful Fossils that are black on the outside and marbled green on the inside, then we went to the GAP. Now, please let me know if anyone agrees with my next theory. I love the GAP, because, like I have blogged about before, they carry jeans that are long enough for me. However, it is still hard for me to find a pair that I really like and fit me well, because two pairs that are the same size, cut, everything, always seem to fit differently. That is good I guess because it means they are made by hand and are high quality, but it means that I have only ever found a small handful of jeans from there that I love love love. So that is my theory, that no two pairs are alike. Anyway, yesterday I was wearing a pair of my love love love GAP jeans that are a size 8. I have gained some weight since I got married; nothing huge, just like 5 or 6 pounds, but I now need a size 10. I took 4 pairs into the dressing room with me, and the first two I tried on did NOT fit. My mom suggested I go get size 12 in both. I suggested I go jump off a cliff. Thankfully, the next two I tried on fit very well. I was amazed that in one sitting I found two pairs that worked out; that never happens. The other bad thing about GAP jeans is the fact that they cost a fortune. But, I was lucky, so I bought both and now will be wearing $70.00 jeans to move the dusty nasty Museum collection. The point of this is is that while I was standing there in the jeans department looking for a size 10L, I inwardly recalled the days when I could wear a size 6L with no problemo. *weep* But, on the other hand, I do not recall a time that I was not self-conscious about my weight. Even when I weighed 100 lbs at the staggering 5'10" that I am still today, I worried about what I ate and the jeans that I bought. How did this happen? I look back on pictures of Young Mary Beth and want to tell her to eat all the McDonalds she wants!! Do it now while your metabolism allows it!! But I can't. Why? Because she is me, and I still obsess about my weight. I am comfortable in my size 10L jeans because I like having curves and boobs, but I will use the close call of buying size 12s as my reason to get off my butt and go the gym every once and a while.

Yummy Yummy Eggs!!

Today is Saturday and I am at my parent's house for the weekend while David is in Waco continuing on his life-long quest to finish his thesis. I HATE it when he has to stay in Waco, or when I am with him in Waco for the weekend and he has to work on it while I am there. I wish he would just get it done already!! Anyway, my mom has been at computer training all morning, and for fun I thought I would make a different breakfast. My inspiration was the movie "V for Vendetta." I liked that movie alright, but it has always stuck in my mind that not once but twice Natalie Portman was made eggs in a basket for breakfast in that movie. Eggs in a basket is where you cook the egg inside the toast in a frying pan. I tried it and really liked it, so when my sister and her friend Holly were ready to eat breakfast I made it for them too. I think it was a success! Here is my recipe for Eggs in a Basket:

2 pieces white or wheat bread
2 eggs
1 Kraft American cheese single
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Lite!
Salt
Some sort of non-stick spray
Large frying pan
Cup or wine glass

Set the eye you are going to use on medium heat and place your pan on it.

Lay out your pieces of bread and butter them. Take your cup (I used a wine glass with better results, the rim is thinner and cuts easily) and punch out a circle in the center of each piece of bread. Save the centers and set them aside.

Spray your pan lightly with the non-stick spray, then place your bread baskets butter side down on the pan.

Immediately crack the eggs and put one in the center of each piece of bread. Sprinkle a little salt on each one.

Cook until the bottom of the egg is firm enough to flip. You don't want the bread to get burned, so flip asap. Before you flip, put a little butter on the bread so it gets nice and brown when you flip.

Once you have flipped the baskets, place half of the cheese single on top of each egg and put the centers that you set aside butter side down in the extra areas of the pan. Flip those until they are as crispy as you like them.

Once the cheese is melted and the eggs are cooked to your liking, remove the baskets and put them on a plate. Put the centers that are still in the pan on top of the cheese.

Enjoy! I suggest eating with a fork and knife. Yum!

Blooper Reel for Office Fandom Documentary

Saturday Blog

Mary and Jessica's 2nd Vlog!!

They are here!

So literally a few hours after I blogged about my new fun shoes that are on their way, they arrived in the back office! Jess and I are so so excited. Here are pics of the fun shoes!

I LOVE SHOES AND ZAPPOS

Ok, so yesterday I got an email from Zappos.com saying they were offering free overnight shipping on all orders. I get one of these email about once a week, but I always delete them since we are trying to save money. However, there is a pair of shoes in my favorites folder on Zappos that I have wanted to buy for forever, and every time I get one of those emails I am tempted to buy the shoes with it, but I don't. There is also a pair of shoes on J. Crew that I have wanted. They are distressed blue Jack Purcell lace-up sneakers, but they are like $65.00. The ones I wanted on Zappos are $67.50. These prices are just too much to pay for a pair of basic tennis shoes. So all the Jack Purcell shoes on J. Crew are unisex, so I looked in their men's section just for fun, and they had a pair of blue slip ons. I love them!! Since they were also too expensive, so I looked on zappos, and sure enough they had them for $5.00 cheaper and free overnight shipping and no tax. Yesssss. So as I was in the middle of this realization Jessica walked in and caught me looking at shoes, like she often does. But this time, instead of reprimanding me, she was like "Oh I want those in white!!!" So we each got a pair, mine in blue and hers in white. Both pairs for $90.00 even. And they will be here today. I LOVE Zappos! That is really the reason for this blog, because Zappos relies on word-of-mouth, and since they did such a great job with this particular order I wanted to let everyone know how great they are. They always have the biggest selection of shoes for reasonable prices. I also love them because they have about 400 pairs of Borns. I have bought a couple pairs of Borns for them. Check out the story in pics below...

www.zappos.com


These are the Ed Hardy deck shoes I originally wanted. They are REALLY cute, but not really wearable with a lot of stuff at work. I think this is another reason why I have hesitated ordering them.



These are the J. Crew shoes that I loved but were also too exensive.



The J. Crew deck shoes. VERY cute, but too expensive when there was a much less expensive version on Zappos.



Yay! The ones I ended up buying. $45.00 even



Jessica's shoes!!

Tall

Ho hum, this weekend has been non-eventful. That is ok, though, as I a usually too busy to think straight. A couple of things to discuss today. The first is the fact that I have been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD from the beginning. I have to watch it on my computer with headphones on because David will not watch it with me. He is not too fond of venturing into the unknown, especially when the unkown might seem a little girly. Buffy is not girly, I don't think. Anyway, it took me like three months to get through the first season. It is not that it was bad, just very corny compared to the rest of the show. The Office is like that too. What is up with that? Ok, so now I am obsessed with Buffy. I was borrowing the seasons one at a time from a co-worker, but I just said screw it and took the entire box set from my mom. The Chosen Collection, as it is called. I love it! I have a crush on David Boreanaz, who plays Angel. Very appropriate name, I think.



The next thing to talk about is my newest you tube discovery thanks to my friend Deana. His name is William Sledd, and I have literally been watching his videos all day long. At one point my mom had to tell me to take my freakin headphones off and talk to her because I had been listening to them all morning. One of the many reasons why I love William, other than the fact that he loves J. Crew, which is my fav store ever, is that he works at the GAP. I really love the GAP because they make jeans that are long enough for me. I am 5'10", so finding long pants is just plain hard, except for at the GAP and J. Crew. Just today I was wearing a pair of my favorite jeans, which are GAP. I also love that he loves the Long and Lean jeans, which I have a couple of pairs of. Recently I bought a pair of very cute blue and white stripe seersucker pants there, and they are super long and very sailor-ish looking. I really need a cute pair of red shoes to wear with them! Listening to him talk about the GAP all day makes me want to go shopping there, but I know I need to stay home! I also just bought a swim suit from J. Crew, which was on super-duper sale. It is a new one this season, too, so I guess it must have gone really fast and they only had the select sizes left. The one I got is a really pretty color of bugundy. Pics below.





So other than William, I had a kind of high school weekend. I talked to my high school best friend Deana for like two-and-a-half hours last night on AIM, which was so so fun! It was really nice to catch up after so long. Then today I got together with my friend Charlotte who just bought a house in Harker Heights with her fiance Dane. I got to see her house which was so cute. It is brand new so it is just waiting for her to bring on the charm, which she totally will. It made me look forward to me and Dave looking at houses this summer! I forgot to mention that Charlotte is also my high school friend, hence the high school weekend. This week my co-workers are back in the office after a long week at the Texas Association of Museums meetings in Austin, so I am sure there will be lots of stories to tell! OH OH OH!!! And new OFFICE this week! I am SO excited I can hardly stand it. The last thing I want to mention is to check out my new blog Life Before Blogging at www.lifebeforeblogging.blogspot.com. It is a blast from the past for those of you who have known me for a while!