It's a Jungle in Here

TODAY

2009-01-26T10:11:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'd like to start out by saying that I AM working on a post that will update you in far more detail than you care to have about the recent events of my completely ridiculous life. It is long. It will be posted today or tomorrow. But for now, since I miss blogging, and I was feeling a little silly this morning, so I did some mobile blogging. The pics were taken with my Palm Centro and emailed to this lovely little blog.

I tried to take a picture of my new Coach glasses, but it turned out like...that. Scary. Perhaps I am possessed. That would explain a lot.

THERE. Picture is equally as terrifying as the above demon one (i swear i am not ugly) but at least you can see those adorable glasses. Plus, my new lipstick, Creme Cerise from MAC. It came out in an LE collection like months ago, and I've been sad for months because I didn't think I could buy it, but then I randomly found it on their website. I was so happy. makeup makes me really happy, weirdly. Also, I'd like to say a big fat THANKS FOR NOTHING to my eye doctor for conning me into that $80 anti-glare coating on my new glasses, specifically for night driving, computer usage, and PHOTOS. Clearly a rip-off.

And one final one so you can see the eyeshadow, which I'm rather proud of today. It's Steamy and Club, also from MAC. I'm a huge makeup nerd and I love it.

You're welcome.

Look Ma, No Computer!!!

2008-12-05T09:32:00.001-05:00

My first attempt at mobile blogging, sent to you from my new Palm Centro! Just a shot to show you one side of my super-messy desk!! I'm so busy at work right now, plus I just got a second job waiting tables a few nights a week at Ruby Tuesday's, plus I'm trying to get ready for the holidays...I'm a busy girl!

Talk to you soon!!

In Memory Of A Former Golden Boy

2008-11-18T15:16:00.004-05:00

I was all geared up today to give you the second half of my riveting "Crafty, Isn't She?" post, but I have to take a small time out from that to remember a friend who passed away recently. That's an interesting way to put it, too, because I hate "passed away". It sounds too peaceful for things like this, which is simply a shocking tragedy.

A boy, a 25 year old boy that I've known nearly my whole life, died last Thursday. He didn't pass away peacefully, he died suddenly and far, far too soon. He was a very close friend of Cole's, and someone that has been a peripheral part of our "group" my whole adult life. His heart stopped and he never woke up. Drugs were involved. This guy has had problems with drugs for as long as I can remember. He had a lot of problems, and got into more than his fair share of trouble. But he was a good guy, with a great heart. He was like a big brother to my Cole, who has problems of his own. They were a lot alike, and Cole isn't taking this well. He's at the funeral as I type this, the first one he's gone to since his dad's, the summer we graduated high school.

Cole is very concerned because like I said, in our small town, this guy was known to be some trouble. So Cole thinks that now that he's gone, people will say bad things about him, will remember the bad times. But I disagree. Because he may have been a trouble maker, but I know another (reformed) trouble maker who would have been beyond lost more than once, without the help of his late friend. Not everyone can say that. So this post is definitely for Bret, but it's for Cole, too.

I remember in high school, he really was a Golden Boy. One of those guys who could do no wrong, who seemed to light up the halls. He was awesome at basketball, gorgeous, and super popular. Everyone loved him. We were still in high school when the drugs started, and he ended up graduating from military school. He really, truly was a sadly misguided good guy. We ALL started with the drugs in high school, he just stayed there and never got out of it. It's a story that doesn't surprise anyone, except those blindsided by loss. It shouldn't be a shock that someone who lived like that has died like that, but it is a mind-blowing shock. He called me, looking for Cole, the day he died. And neither of us called him back. I can't stop thinking about that. And 25 is so ridiculously too young, it's so unfair. I'm 24 and I don't feel like my life has even begun, and his is over. It's so sad, such a tragedy, that it actually takes my breath away.

Rest in peace, B.S.F. You will never, ever be forgotten.

Crafty, Isn't She?

2008-11-11T11:47:00.004-05:00

I did some major crafting this weekend, and wanted to share some of my very amateur creations with all of you! First off, the little cafe in my office building closed down. It was a really cute little lunch place, a really nice lady started it from her catering and cake business; she makes absolutely gorgeous cakes. Anyways, she closed down the business, so she was having a big sale of all her cooking and baking supplies. Hello?!? Sale? I'm all over it. So the girls from the office and I all went over there to look at what she had. I already love to bake (mostly because I love to eat baked goods), so I knew I'd end up buying something. I really wanted a springform pan so I can make cheesecakes and the like, so I was hoping she'd have one of those. And she did, but some lady stole it from me. Dammit. It was tiny..I had visions of mini cheesecakes! I had it in my hand, and then some lady came up and told me the ENTIRE TABLE of stuff I was looking at was set aside for her. How selfish. Apparently she is trying to start up her own catering business, so I guess this sale was pretty convenient for her. But still. I wanted to make some mini cheesecakes. But, what I did get was pretty awesome. I ended up with a set of KitchenAid brand cake molds, still in the box! They're mini (I later discovered you can make all 5 of them with one cake mix!) and shaped like flowers. They totally rock. There's a rose, a tulip, a violet, a sunflower, and a daisy. The daisy and sunflower pretty much look exactly alike, but hey, what do you expect? It's cake. Can't have it all. I made my first ever from-scratch plain white cake, and a giant tub of the most delicious cream cheese frosting you've ever had, and we got to work!

Arguably my favorite purchase was the box of sprinkles. Now, this is no ordinary box of sprinkles. OK, the box is rather ordinary, but pretty cool nonetheless. The sprinkles, however, are freaking awesome. I know what you're thinking, who needs a giant Tupperware of sprinkles? What are you going to do with all those sprinkles? Well, I'm going to put them on flower cakes. Among other things. Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture of the box of sprinkles, but let me tell you, it is impressive. There are bunny ones, heart ones, Christmas trees, snowflakes, those awesome silver balls (verdict's still out on whether they are ACTUALLY edible..the ingredients are water, sugar, cornstarch, and silver. I'm gonna go with "Eat At Your Own Risk". You know I'm eating them.) There is every color of sugar imaginable, and even a bag of pink breast cancer ribbon sprinkles! I know, awesome. My favorite by far, though, is the giant jar of white edible glitter. Yeah. I'll give you a moment to process that.

Cole, hard at work on his daisy creation. He had a great time, and wait until you see his cake. It's reeeeally something.

Cole's daisy, work in progress. And yes, I said daisy, not cracked open egg surrounded by black things. Shame on you for thinking that.

My sunflower, a work in progress. I wish it would have stayed this cute, because I kind of screwed it up.

OK, so I'm not gonna win any cake decorating contests. Yet. But it at least resembles a sunflower, right? I would like to take this moment to say that I suck at photography. It's frustrating, because I like to consider myself reasonably intelligent, and Cole got me a great digital camera for my birthday, but I can't figure the thing out. All my pictures have terrible lighting. Sigh. Here's my finished sunflower. See what I mean by messing it up? Couldn't stop myself.

No, that's not the Salvation Army symbol. Or, as my brother asked, "a diving badge". It is CLEARLY an orange tulip. Which was much more of a nice peachy coral in person. But it still didn't look like a damn tulip.

Cole's finished product. He subscribes fully to the "more is more" theory. Here we have black, yellow, and white sugar sprinkles, as well as white edible glitter, silver balls, and chocolate sprinkles (for contrast on the white part. Duh.). After I took the picture he added some snowflake sprinkles. I am not even kidding. And he ate the whole thing, and didn't even die from the silver.

More later on the rest of my super crafty weekend. (Or as I like to call it, Craft Fest '08). Talk to you soon!

You Had to Know It Was Coming...

2008-11-05T19:23:00.015-05:00

Yeah, it's my political blog. And of course it is nearly a week late, but what do you expect from the world's worst blogger? I have to say, I was pretty into this election. It didn't hit me until late in the game, but I caught a pretty big case of election fever, all right. It was very new to me too, since this is the first presidential election I've gotten very invested in. I've only been old enough to vote since 2002, and in the 2004 election I was still in college and too busy drinking to pay much attention. I did, however, manage to cast my absentee vote. For John Kerry. I'm not gonna lie. But this year I was way into it. I've been an Obama supporter from the start, and could not be more thrilled that he won. And I know a lot of people do not share my thrilled-ness, including my parents. But I think all of you non-supporters would do well to remember that he is our Presdient-elect, and in a few short months will be our President. And if that makes you nervous or uncomfortable, I really really think you will see positive changes in our country, and you will feel better. I honestly beleive that.

OK, I'm done with that now! I'd like to share with you my favorite photos from the historic election night. There were so many very moving and beautiful images, but these were the ones that really got me.

Our new President- and Vice President-elect, with their wives Michelle and Jill. Question: If Michelle Obama is the First Lady, is Jill Biden the Second Lady?

Insane shot of Obama's victory party in Grant Park, Chicago.

A woman in Brazil reacts emotionally to the news of Obama's election. Literally, the entire world celebrated with us!! And yes, that is my mouse on the picture. Nothing but class over here.

Jesse Jackson, who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr., watching the election of the first African American President of the United States. I know there was some controversy regarding Jackson's comments earlier in the campaign, but the weight of the change he has seen, the historical significance of this moment, is stunning. I cannot look at this picture without crying.

The new First Family-elect. Can you imagine how overwhelmed they feel, walking towards that crowd? It makes my heart swell. I think this picture is amazing.

All photos are courtesy of MSNBC. Talk to you soon!

Hair Of The Dog That Bit Your Lip Off

2008-10-30T16:12:00.012-04:00

Well, maybe not off. But yes, indeed, a dog bit my lip, nearly in half. And I am not even exaggerating, for once in my life. There was blood, screaming boyfriends (two of them), and stitches involved, despite my best efforts to avoid them.

It was Monday night. Cole got off work late and was at our friend Mike's house helping him fix a gigantic fish tank, and he called me to come and hang out with Mike's girlfriend Logyn, who is one of my best friends. So I headed on over for what was sure to be a lovely couples' evening of pizza and TV, with a little fish poo on the side. Well, I never got any damn pizza. Mike and Logyn each have a pitbull. (See where this is going?) Sounds scary, I know, but both of them are really nice, and I even still think that now. Logyn' s dog is a boy, Kapone, and he is almost a year old, and he's big. He's a purebred pitbull, and you can already tell that he is going to get REAL BIG. He looks like a pre-adolescent boy that's going to get really tall and lanky, like his paws and head are too big for his body and he has to grow into them. And we're buddies! Logyn's had him since summertime, and he's very playful and fun..a puppy, you get the idea. Now, I'm no dog expert, but I like to consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, and I'm familiar with the basics. You don't f*** with them while they're eating, don't get between them and their bone, blah blah blah. And I didn't do any of that! I swear.

I'd already petted Kapone and said hello because he had run to the door when Cole let me in. I sat down on the sofa next to Logyn, kind of in between her and Kapone, and turned to my right to give him some lovin'. And he growled and barked a little..you know, that scary mad sound dogs make that is kind of both..and bit my lower lip. I'm not sure if he was mad that I sat between him and his mommy, or if I moved too quickly and startled him when I went to hug him, or put my bag on his bone (Cole later told me there was a bone around there somewhere) or what happened. Logyn thinks I need to stop trying to find excuses for the dog :) . Anyway, it all happened very fast, and I didn't have time to be scared or upset by it, really. (Until about Wednesday, when I could not stop picturing it in my head, then it disturbed me greatly). But everyone else had plenty of time to freak the hell out, don't worry.

Initially, I assumed (as I think is common in situations like these) that the injury was very minor, and my main concern was not letting my blood get everywhere. I was mildly embarrassed, feeling a little silly for letting a dog bite me in the face, and all that jazz. So I ran to the bathroom to clean up. I would later find out that Mike and Cole didn't know what had happened at first, and thought that the two dogs had been fighting with each other. But once they realized Kapone had bit me, they proceeded to begin the chaos. (Leave it to the men). So I'm (rather calmly, if I do say so myself) blotting blood (of which there was quite a great deal) from my mouth, while Cole basically stands next to me, waving his arms in the air, jumping up and down, and screaming "She's BLEEDING!!!What the F***??!?!?!" I'm serious. He was probably screaming other crazy stuff, too, but that's all I caught. So that was happening, and by now Mike, having also figured out what had happened, could be heard in the other room punishing the dog. Logyn was helping me clean myself up, and looking for towels to clean the blood off the couch, and bursting into tears intermittently, hugging me and apologizing.

I had somehow become the most sane one of the group. Which is pretty weird. I'm never the most sane one of any group, even when I haven't just been bitten. My usual mode of dealing with any sort of crisis is "stand there and cry until someone suggests something better to do". But with all these idiots running around all crazy, someone had to take charge, you know? Might as well be the girl with the bloody face. So I told Logyn it wasn't her fault, told (screamed) Cole to get ahold of himself, and someone else got Mike away from the dog. Then I took a good look at my bite, and lost my new found maturity and composure for just a minute, cause it was not lookin good. At all. All that blood turned out to be disguising a rather serious, nasty cut. I'm no surgeon, but I knew right away that I needed stitches. Now all I had to do was round up these freaks and get them to take me to the hospital, which I was not looking forward to, to say the least.

We all went to the Emergency Room, and I was registered and admitted and whatnot. It actually took a lot less time than I expected, you know, from all the ER horror stories you hear. Anyway, the bloody face must have done it, cause they got me right in there. And that was when they told me I needed "a stitch or two". I didn't take it well. The nurse told me later that I "only freaked out a little bit", but I think she was just trying to make me feel better. I'm not a big fan of needles, and right up until I actually saw a needle, I was still hoping I could find some way around this. I've done it before. Turns out there's not much else they can do for a severed lower lip..stitches it is. I tried to get Cole to help me get out of there, but he's not as weak as my Mom, whom I have gotten to help me avoid getting stitched in the past. But that's a story for another day.

So, they stitched me up, and I must admit it was not all that bad. I did not die. The doctor was very nice, the Novocaine worked wonders, and I didn't feel a thing. One weird thing was, he put a towel over my whole face that just had a hole where my mouth was. You know, so the rest of my face didn't get my lip dirty. Or something. But it didn't take long. I kept getting upset because while he was stitching me up, the doctor and Cole kept talking about the dog, and what Animal Control might "do", which I wasn't liking the sound of. I mean, I like that dog! And even though he bit me, I didn't want them to take him away from Logyn, who I also love, or (God forbid) do anything worse. Apparently, though, Animal Control is pretty serious about stuff like this, especially when it's a pitbull. I say this because immediately after I was done getting sewn up, two nurses with clipboards came in to get a full report from me about the dog and what had happened. It was strange, because Logyn had run home to get all of Kapone's paperwork, just in case they needed the information about his shots and whatnot. (They didn't then, but Animal Control later went to her house to interview her and check out all the info.) But the nurses kept asking me questions about the dog that I didn't know the answers to, like how old he was and things about his shots. So I would ask Logyn. I mean, it's her dog and she was standing right there! But they didn't like that. I guess because it's supposed to be my report in case I want to press charges. But I obviously didn't, yet the nurses still wouldn't let Logyn answer any of their questions, and they really didn't even want her in there. It just made for sort of an awkward situation.

It was quite a night. After leaving the hospital, we all just went back to Mike's and I jealously watched them eat Papa John's pizza (Hawaiian, my favorite...jerks) until I started nodding out from the pain pills, and made Cole take me home. Because when I calld my mommy (AFTER leaving the ER, so that she and my dad wouldn't frantically rush down there), she told me that I wasn't allowed to drive home. So I didn't. :)

But all of that was a week and a half ago, and I'm all but back to normal now. I don't even think I'll have a scar. The only annoyance is that the dang stitches are taking too long to dissolve on their own! It really limits my mouth movement, if that makes any sense. Plus, I haven't worn ANY lipstick or gloss in the past nine days. That's the saddest part. And I guess if that's the worst part, I'm doing okay.

And yes, I still love Kapone. Although I'm not allowed anywhere near him, and Mike locks him up whenever we come over. (I think he's still on punishment anyway). And Cole wants to kick him in the face. But I don't hold grudges, especially against cute dogs. Talk to you soon!

An October Pictorial

2008-10-24T21:54:00.011-04:00

Robert and I celebrating our birthdays...his 22nd and my 24th!! Taken 10/16, his birthday, mine was the 8th but I was deathly ill with pneumonia...
Cole and me
Keira helping her daddy eat his cake. She had it all the way up to her elbows!
But she doesn't like to have dirty hands!!!
"Peace, dude"
She was coloring with her toes...she thought it was the funniest thing ever!
Me and my bestest buddy at an outdoor concert/cookout we went to last weekend in Charlottesville, we had a blast! She was a LOT more interested in that purple cookie than in taking pictures with me.

Robert, also known as Daddy, Princess Keira, and Mom, also known as Grammy, having fun at the cookout! Keira was so excited about going to a "pawty"She brought her "computer" in the car on the way to Charlottesville because she "had some work to do"

Sad But True

2008-10-20T09:35:00.013-04:00

What is sad but true is that I am a terrible blogger. I haven't posted in over a month. In my own defense, I haven't done much that was particularly interesting in the past month. I did start taking sales calls at my work, which was pretty new for me. I work at a company that sells and services Broadband Internet services, and I do Human Resources for the company, and some Accounting stuff. But two of the girls in the office (both of whom I went to high school with, in fact) had to take absences recently, Rachel to have her third little girl in 3 years, and Robin to get married and go on a long honeymoon cruise. So that left our sales department down to one person, which apparently is not enough, and they had Rachel train me in Sales before she left to go have a baby. And, yes, you read that correctly, it is her THIRD. LITTLE GIRL. IN THREE YEARS. Don't ask me how (why?) she does it. She's amazing.

Anyway, sales isn't my thing. Incidentally, I originally applied for a sales job with this company, but once they interviewed me and saw how awesome I am, they wanted me for the not-even-listed-yet HR job. And once I started working here and saw what sales entails, I was so glad that that happened, because like I said, sales isn't for me. I only applied for that slaes job because I was unemployed and getting a little desperate. I'm not necessarily shy, but I am very awkward. Very. And I don't handle pressure well. In fact, being rushed or pressured only makes me more awkward. So when people call in, usually they are looking to see if they can even get our Internet service in their area. (We service extremely rural areas of Virginia, most of these people can't get cable and can't get Internet anywhere else). So the sales person then has to use all of this topographic mapping software and our own database and tower maps and all this crazy crap to see if these people can get service, and they are on the phone while you're looking it up, asking you all kinds of other questions about radio modems that you don't know the answers to because you WORK IN HUMAN RESOURCES. And you want to scream it at them like that, but you can't, because that's rude. And then they probably wouldn't buy the Internet service, which is kind of the whole point. And I personally find myself between a rock and a hard place, because I don't want to admit to these potential customers that I don't know what I'm doing, because I feel as a sales person you want to instill confidence in a potential customer, or at least not let them know you're a clueless idiot, you know? But then I don't want to use the old "Geez my computer is being so slow" lie, because who wants to buy Internet service from a company when the employees complain about the speed? So I have to try to give them the whole sales pitch while I am looking up all of this stuff, and forget what I'm saying and stutter and just make things up. I mean, I lie to them so much. Poor misinformed things.

So it's pretty intense, and I manage to look like a complete idiot a lot of the time. But I did make 2 sales! Don't ask me how, it was luck or something, but I sold 2 new accounts! I was really excited, and so was my boss, which was pretty cool. Gotta love making the boss happy, right? And now I get to make my first commission report, and get paid commission on my 2 sales! Can't beat that. Almost makes the sales-call torture worth it, but not quite. I'm glad Kelly, our one remaining sales person, can handle it herself most of the time, and they really only need me on an emergency fill in basis!

I Was Kissin Valentino By A Crystal Blue Italian Stream

2008-09-15T12:18:00.015-04:00

If you could put music with your blog posts, the soundtrack to this one would be "Just Another Manic Monday". Because that is how I am feeling today. Sigh. One or both of my bosses has been on vacation for the past three weeks. And they're back. Sigh again. Plus, there is just that feeling in the air that summer is slipping out of our fingers. DAMMIT. SO I'm a little blah today. Sue me.

So, ever since I've entered the blogging community, it's like a whole new world has opened up for me. I have discovered SO MANY hilarious, touching, shocking, entertaining, and just AWESOME blogs. The Blogger website has a feature that lets you 'follow' blogs that you like, and lets you know when there is a new post on your blogs. It's pretty awesome. One could even follow this little blog if they so chose. (MOM) Anyway, I am following three blogs. And they rock. My favorite by far is Cake Wrecks, which is run by a woman named Jen. Readers submit Jen pictures of professionally done cakes that are, well, wrecks. Not like, they fell, but someone actually purposely created these ridiculous/offensive/puzzling/unbelievable cakes, and SOLD THEM. PEOPLE PAID FOR THESE, FOLKS. The best part of the site, though, is Jen's absolutely hilarious blurbs about each cake entry. She is spot-on with the kind of humor that I enjoy, and she makes me laugh out loud in my cubicle A LOT. My personal favorite is the cake where the bride had a recreation of herself in her wedding dress made for her cake. Check it out.

The second blog I follow is actually the first one that I found. It's called Working Girl, and it rocks too. It's written by two girls who call themselves Working Girls One and Two. I love their blog because it is very relevant to my life. They are both my age, recently relocated, and are starting out in the professional world. Like me! Plus they're freaking hilarious. (I like funny, as you may have noticed.) And they share my shameful love of trashy TV and celebrity gossip.

The third and final blog that I follow is School Teacher by Day, Superhero by Night. It's written by a woman named Erin, who is an 8th grade English teacher. And, apparently, a

superhero. Now, I have to tell you that I love Erin. I want to hang out with her. Her blog is so cool because she talks about her adventures as an 8th grade teacher. Let me tell you, I substituted 8th grade quite a bit, and ADVENTURE is an understatement. A huge one. You think being in 8th grade was bad? Try being a (fairly) rational, mature adult and trying to TEACH something to a bunch of those hormonal time bombs. Anyway. Erin does it! I love her blog because she has a great sarcastic sense of humor (again, like me) but mostly because she really tells you about her life. And you can just tell she's an awesome person. (Which is why I want to hang out with her). One of the coolest things Erin does on her blog is Wordless Wednesdays, when she just posts pictures with little or no descriptions. As a photo-addict, I like that. So (since im incapable of the wordless part) here are some newest pics for your viewing pleasure, including my latest Picnik creation.

You Can Take the Girls Out of the Country...

2008-09-02T13:23:00.005-04:00

Can you believe it's September already?! I sure can't..this summer has flown by. One of my co-workers and I were just talking about that last week, summer isn't as fun and exciting anymore now that we are (allegedly) grown-ups, and still have to work all summer. Anyway, in celebration of summer coming to a close, I wanted to share my story of New Jersey last weekend. It was quite an adventure.

We took the trip in celebration of my friend Logyn's 21st birthday, and 7 of us girls went. In a van. And one hotel room. But anyway, we were going to see a concert that we were really excited about, 2 bands that we love were playing together, Slightly Stoopid and Pepper. We live in a really (really) small town, but there are concert venues nearby and we get some pretty good shows around here. But, this particular concert wasn't coming to DC or Virginia, and being girls who love live music, we thought it was a great idea to travel the 5 or 6 hours to the Jersey shore (none of us had ever been) for this concert that we really wanted to see. So, we all piled in Logyn's boyfriend's minivan and headed up the East Coast. Mind you that this is the same van we all crammed in 2 days earlier for the ride to and the (very hungover) ride from DC. So basically, I never want to see that van again. Anyway, our friend Erin was driving the van because, as Logyn said, "she'll get us there the fastest". Plus, the rest of us wanted to drink mimosas in the van. Hey, we were celebrating, remember?

And drink mimosas we did. I believe we killed about 3 bottles of champagne before we made the final pee stop and everyone but Erin (poor, sober Erin) fell asleep. Not for long, though. I personally cannot sleep in cars, especially when I am half-drunk and excited! So before too long, we all woke up, hungry and having to pee, of course. Keep in mind that there are 7 girls here. Everything we did took an exaggeratedly long time. It was painful. It seriously reminded me of when I would substitute-teach kindergarten, and getting those kids to go anywhere in a semblance of order was like torture. Well, getting all us girls to use the bathroom and get something to eat was sort of like that. Also, it was at this point that we discovered how much more expensive things were as we traveled North. I was born in Michigan and moved here to Virginia when I was three, and have never necessarily considered myself a Southern girl. Until this trip. I'm pretty sure I belong south of the Mason-Dixon line.
We still made the trip in well under 6 hours. The obnoxious British lady on the GPS system in the van said 6 hours, but we showed her. Well, Erin and the North's higher speed limits showed her. Anyway, our hotel was pretty cool...and creepy. It was a really old building that had recently been renovated into a hotel, so at least everything was new. But decoration-wise...himmm. I think they were going for like a modern, funky look. Everything was done in black and white (and I mean EVERYTHING) and accented with lime green. I realize how hideous that sounds, but it was rather nice. Our room had this really cool lime green leather chair. The only thing was, the carpet in the hallways was this dizzying black and white graphic design. A nice thought, but after severl Jager bombs, such a pattern can give a girl a good case of the spins. Plus, it made it absolutely impossible to distinguish one hallway from another. Every time I left the room I had to take someone with me, or I may never find my way back.

The concert was great, my favorite concert I have ever been to. It was outside, we were a block away from the ocean, and beers were cheap. The venue was small, so we were really close to our favorite bands, and beers were cheap. The reggae band straight from Jamaica that opened was really really awesome and we got all kinds of free Jagermeister merchandise from the Jager girls walking around. Oh yeah, and beers were cheap. It was a really great time, but we started a little too early, and my best friend Jackie and I ended up having to head home at about 9:30 pm, just a few songs into the second band. We were drunk and tired, and went back to the hotel and ordered pizza, called our boyfriends, and went to bed. Well, after we ate the pizza. We barely woke up when everyone else stumbled into the room at various loud intervals, but we all woke up early the next morning craving a big greasy breakfast. Which apparently is not possible in New Jersey. Poor Logyn only wanted some chipped beef gravy, which we didnt even bother to look for in New Jersey. We wanted to go lay on the beach for a few hours, but when we headed out there, we saw something strange. You had to take a TICKET like at a toll before you went on the beach, and then PAY when you came off the beach. Are you freaking kidding me?! What kind of crap is that? We chose not to pay to use the beach, and headed South, stopping at a Shoney's once we got to Maryland. And that's when I decided I might be a Southern girl after all.

Talk to you soon!

Get This Girl Some Cheese

2008-08-25T09:55:00.016-04:00

For those of you who are not aware, food is one of the great loves of my life. ( I have a lot of them). I'm a pretty picky eater (I don't like condiments...any of them. Except barbecue sauce), but when I like something, I like it. As in, eat the whole family sized thing and then make another one the next day. It's a wonder I dont weigh 300 pounds....thanks for the fast metabolism, Mom! But I digress. I made this recipe last night and as I am currently eating a gigantic Tupperware of it for lunch, I thought I'd share it with you. Consider it a tribute to my love of food, and my love of cheese. And yes I know cheese is food, but I love it specially. Here is the first of many recipes that I will share with you! (try to contain your excitement). I originally found this recipe on allrecipes.com, which is a website I really love. People contribute their own recipes, and then other people can leave comments about how to modify or improve the recipes.

Easy and Delicious Mac N Cheese

Ingredients:
1 (1 lb) box of elbow macaroni (I prefer whole wheat to try and balance out the mass amounts of cheesiness)
2 cans Cheddar Cheese Soup
approx. 1/2 cup to 1 cup milk
1 (1 lb) bag shredded sharp cheddar cheese (again, sharp is just my preference. you can use goat cheese for all i care)
Directions:
Cook macaroni to your preferred doneness, remember that it will be baked for a bit too, so don't overcook! Dump the cooked noodles into a well-greased casserole dish. Add the 2 cans of Cheddar soup and stir. Add 1/2 cup milk and shredded cheese, mix well. Bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes until bubbly. Stir about halfway through and add more milk if desired.

As you can see, when I say easy I mean EASY. And delicious, I'm telling you it is the best macaroni and cheese I have ever had. Which is really saying something, considering the fact that macaroni and cheese may well be my favorite food. Although there are probably about 10 dishes that I say that about. But mac n cheese is in the top 3, for sure!!

But enough about macaroni and cheese. (I knew I should have packed a bigger lunch helping!) It's Labor Day weekend! Well, almost. It's Thursday of the week before Labor Day, but my brain is already ready for the 3 day weekend! Hopefully, if the weather cooperates, Cole and I will be able to head up to visit my parents at the river sometime this weekend. They own an acre of land on the Shenandoah River, about an hour from where we live. It's SO beautiful there, and they really love it. They usually go up every other weekend (whenever Robert doesn't have Keira, believe me when I say my entire family is completely obsessed with her, Cole included. But more on that later!). But Mom and Dad haven't been going to the river as much this summer. The weather has been crazy, right now it's 66 degrees and torrentially downpouring. Pretty weird for August. So anyway, they're heading up today, and I'm hoping there's at least ONE nice day this weekend so Cole and I can visit. He really likes to fish with Dad. I really like to sunbathe, plus I just love the water in general. And, there is ALWAYS a ton of good food being cooked up there. Other than that, I really don't have any plans for Labor Day weekend. I haven't seen much of Cole all week, so I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with him and just relaxing.

Well, that's all for now! I've gotta go meet with our company's lawyer, I'm going to court with him in 2 weeks to serve some collections warrants. EEEK! I'll post later today or tomorrow to tell you all about my adventures in New Jersey last weekend...quite a trip! Talk to you soon!

I Know, I Know...

2008-08-25T08:25:00.017-04:00

Okay, so I'm the worst blogger ever. I never post. It's pitiful, I'm sorry. I'll do better from now on, I promise. But in my own defense, I did have a crazy (good crazy) week last week! First of all, I took my very first paid vacation from a job, ever!! I felt like such a big girl. I took off Wednesday through Friday, and I even had to do some work at home on Wednesday and e-mail it in to my boss! What a grown-up I am, right?

I had a bunch of fun things planned for my little vacation. On Tuesday it was my good friend Logyn's 21st birthday, so a bunch of us went to D.C. to celebrate at a bar called McFadden's. It was so much fun! I haven't gone out in a while (since I'm such a grown-up old lady now), so I had a really great time. My best friend Jackie came home from fashion design school in Charlotte, North Carolina to come with us, which was really cool since I haven't seen her in a few months.

It was Trailer Park Tuesday at McFadden's that night, which was so hilarious. They had the Olympics playing on all the big screens, and $1 Natural Light and Budweisers. But the best part of Trailer Park Tuesday was the taco girl. That's right, taco girl. I didn't believe it either when the DJ made the announcement ("don't forget to check out our taco girl" "did he say TACO GIRL?!?"). But then, some time later, my girlfriends and I were on our way to the bathroom, and we saw her. She had a little stand set up and was dishing out tacos, 2 for a dollar. I was quite excited, as I am a girl who loves tacos. LOVES. But, we had been taking a lot of shots, and I just didnt think tacos were a good idea at the moment. Plus, 2 for a dollar? Questionable at best.

Anyway, the first half of Logyn's birthday celebration was a blast (more on the second half later). My brother Robert came, as well as some other friends I hadn't seen in a while. We all drank perhaps a little too much, taxied back to our hotel and ordered pizza, and crashed on various floors and beds of our little hotel room. The next morning we woke up early and hungover, and staggered out for the hour's drive home. I proceeded to nap until I could function well enough to do some work and email my boss, then it was time for Keira's Wednesday visit, which I barely survived through my brain-crushing hangover. But I'd better get to work, now that I'm back! More on Keira's Wednesday visit, and the rest of my mini vacation, is forthcoming!

PS. For your commenting pleasure, I have added a Cbox chat box to the sidebar of the blog...over there on the top!! So comment away! Talk to you soon.

I've Decided Weekends aren't Long Enough.

2008-08-11T09:13:00.015-04:00

This is something I have just decided as I get older. There just isn't enough time to get everything done that you didn't have time to do during the week, everything you had planned for the weekend, and try to get some relaxing and quality time in there? Yeah, right.

Take last weekend for example. I got off work Friday at 5, and went home. It was Robert's weekend with Keira, my niece, so I was pretty excited. Keira and I are best buddies, and I try to spend as much time with her as possible on her weekends with us. So I rushed right home after work to get ready for the weekend.

We really had a good weekend, the weather was so great! It was only in the 70's, not sweltering like we're used to in August. I was able to lay out in the backyard and get some sun-and a whole lot of bug bites!!

I had to work Saturday morning, I work in HR and Accounting at a small Broadband internet and phone company. Well, Saturday morning was the Annual Business Meeting for our local Electric Cooperative, REC. REC happens to be a partner of ours and an important investor, so it was important to my bosses (and so it became important to me) that we set up a booth at the meeting to advertise our company and well represent ourselves and REC. And all that crap. SO we went to the meeting...at 7:30 am on a Saturday...and set up our booth. Then all the vendors had breakfast until the members (the customers of the Electric Coop.) arrived, and they milled around our booths while they ate their breakfast.

Now, I'd like you to take a moment to imagine the scene. It is 8:30 on a GORGEOUS and I mean really, unseasonably gorgeous, SATURDAY morning in August. And this is an annual meeting for an electric company. What type of people do you imagine attending such an event?

If you guessed hundreds of senior citizens from several counties of Virginia, you would be correct. I have literally never seen so many elderly people in one place in all of my life. My co-workers joked beforehand that that would be the case, and apparently I did not take them seriously enough. SO that was fun, spending the entire morning trying to explain to these elderly folks what broadband internet even IS, let alone why they should buy it. And I'm not exactly a well informed salesperson, as I said, I work in Human Resources, with a little accounting on the side.

But hey, I got paid for it and was home by noon. Plenty of time to lay out in the back yard and catch some sun, right? Not if Keira has anything to say about it. So there I am, all oiled up and layed out, relaxing and jamming out to my iPod, and here she comes. She was not happy about me laying there not wanting to play, let me tell you. So my Dad ended up having an extra iPod laying around, which of course became Keira's. (her "iPOP", because her Pop gave it to her!) I abandoned my lounge chair and loaded it up for her with all her favorite Disney songs, and she was a happy camper.

Here she is listening to her iPod while watching a movie at the same time! Now THAT'S multi-tasking. Then Pop suggested that we put a movie on there for her, so I downloaded Finding Nemo, and The Jungle Book, two of her all time favorites. She thought it was the coolest thing!! The earbud headphones bothered her tiny ears though, so we ended up just resting them on her shoulders. Although to be honest, she would have been perfectly content to just watch the movie with no sound at all!

That was really fun. I LOVED seeing her have so much fun with it, she was just really excited. We all had a great weekend, Cole (my boyfriend) worked A LOT, but he had some time to spend with all of us on Sunday afternoon and evening, so that was good. And now, somehow, the week is almost over, and tomorrow is time to start another weekend! How time flies. Here are some more pictures from our adventures last weekend, and my latest Picnik creation.

Keira shares my love for all things makeup-related, and 'playing' with makeup is one of our favorite things to do together.

Talk to you soon!!

On Fake Strippers, Fun Pictures, and the Best Brother Ever

2008-07-30T10:44:00.011-04:00

So, a few weeks ago, the only newspaper in our little town ran a (front page) story about Chippendales-yes, the male dancers from Vegas. It seems the boys were planning on performing at Pepper's, the restaurant inside our Best Western (yes, I'm serious). Well, the whole town was terribly excited. The article said that the restaurant was selling 250 tickets, and they sold out within a few days of the article being published. One of the girls in my office was going, and was very excited.

Well, the show was last Friday. And on Monday, the newspaper ran another article, this one announcing that the Chippendales dancers who appeared in Culpeper were frauds. Phonies. Fake strippers. (the girl I work with who had gone wasn't in that day, so I didnt even get to tease her about it.) The article quoted the real East Coast manager from Chippendales, and he said the troupe was performing in Canada on the evening in question, and they don't come to Virginia at all, because our ABC laws are too strict. (thanks a lot, Commonweatlh!) Everyone was furious. Then on Wednesday, there was ANOTHER article (all of these articles were front-pagers, you have to wonder if this is REALLY the most important thing going on in town right now). Anyway, Wednesday's headline was "Chippendales wants to make good". Turns out, the real Chippendales made a statement that anyone who had attended the fake performance could send in their ticket stub to receive a free calendar. I told my friend from work to send hers in so she can hang her calendar above the printer in our cubicle. That should brighten up the work week, right? So, that's the big news from Culpeper, believe it or not.

And on the random entertainment front, I have recently discovered the joy of Picnik. It's a free (well, you can pay for the Premium version, but the basic one is free) photo editing program that lets you edit and add cool effects, text, and shapes to your pictures. They look awesome, it's so much fun, and easy for photo-dummies like me. I love pictures; taking them, being in them, looking at them, and now editing and playing with them!! Here are some of my favorite creations:

How cute is that? I'm hooked...there goes the work day. Speaking of work, I'd better do some. Before I go, I want to share some extremely exciting (to me) news. I AM GETTING A CAR!!! After over three months of not having my car working, even for one whole day, I am buying my brother Robert's car. It's a 1999 Dodge Durango, and it's really cute, and has no problems, and I LOVE IT. Love it. It even has a dock already for my new iPod!!! It's awesome, really, and I get it tomorrow when I get paid and give the brother my first car payment. So money will be tight for about 3 months until I've paid him off, but I'll have a car!!!!!!!!! I couldn't be happier. It's going to be a good weekend, that's for sure.

Talk to you soon!!

There's A First Time For Everything

2008-07-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

Well, here goes nothing..it's my first blog post! I'm not really sure how all of this works, so I hope I don't bore everyone to death. Here is where I will post fun and fascinating things about my every day life as a 23 year old person in the process of growing up and finding myself (as cliched as that sounds, it is true!) And what a process it is. So here's a little about me...besides all of the growing up and self-finding, I am currently also dealing with a new job (which i love), wonderful boyfriend (whom I also love), a lack of automobile (which I do not love at all), and a rapidly-growing addiction to makeup. Let's see..I have the most amazing family in the world; my best-ever parents without whom I'd be completely lost, my 21 year old brother/best friend, and HIS precious adorable amazing brilliant hilarious and unbelievable 2 year old daughter, who we get to see every other weekend, and on Wednesdays. (In case you didnt notice, she's pretty much my favorite person ever.)

The princess herself!

The whole family out for Robert's 21st.

Cole and me...my hair's much darker now!