Okay, I'm glad

I went to Linens N Things and after looking for forever finally found some gifts on K's cousin's registry. Then I went to GAP and exchanged my duplicate shirt for one in green. While I was there, I found a cute grey, three-quarter sleeve cable-knit sweater that I tried on. I really liked it and decided I was going to get it because it was on sale and really cute. But I decided to think through my wardrobe to make sure I didn't have one like it. It's a good thing I thought about it like that because I do have a long sleeve grey sweater that's pretty similar. At least that means I like my wardrobe! :)

ER called me at 9:45 and said they had just gotten their food at dinner, so our plans for meeting at 10 were going to be pushed back. WK and I decided to go ahead and meet there before everyone else because we hadn't made any other plans. I guess ER and her boyfriend ate fast, though, because it was only about 30 minutes before they called and said they were leaving for the bar.

It was good hanging out with everyone. It was ER, her boyfriend, WK, Emily's ex-boyfriend Steve (who she dated for like 4 years, so he's friends with ER too), and three of ER's boyfriend's friends. ER said, "It's so good to see you at night when it's not Wednesday." I know she meant it as a compliment, but it made me feel kind of bad. Most weekends I stay pretty busy either going to see K in Louisiana or going somewhere to see someone. When K and I are here on the weekends, though, we usually meet up with everyone and go out on Saturday night (since it's so late when he gets here Friday).

Anyway, we just hung out and talked, and I did take a lot of pictures. The bar we were at gives out mudslides with a little sparkler on it for birthdays. It was really good! It was a huge stack of chocolate chip ice cream on some sort of weird (but delicious!) chocolate wafer-like crust, and there was warm chocolate sauce. Mmm!!!





We stayed out until about 1:30, and then everyone was tired. It was a good time, though. ER, WK and I told a lot of funny college stories. ER's boyfriend's friend and I debated college football because the guy was a UT (ugh!) grad. I love talking about college football. We talked about Texas, "cougars" and the "$30,000 millionaire."

Steve and I are both new to the city, and he asked me how I like it. WK and ER are both from here, and they both love it, so I leaned behind WK and looked at Steve, gave him the thumbs down and said, "No." He nodded, agreeing. Then we talked about how it's such a pretentious city. And everyone at the table agreed. I told everyone that it's probably just the difference between living in a city and a small town. I've still only been here for 9 months, and I'm getting used to it.

But it was a great, relaxing, fun night with great conversation and lots of laughs and pictures. So I'm glad I stayed for it. I still wish K was here, but he's enjoying himself in Louisiana, too. They're actually building the fence right now.

ER invited me to her birthday dinner with her parents tonight. I call them my Texas family, and they joke about how I'm part of the family anyway. So I think I'm going to go to the gym and get a few more things done before dinner!

Productive Saturday

My Saturday has gone great so far. I've gotten two things accomplished on my to-do list as of right now: 1) Sleep late (11:30!), 2) Clean apartment. I even straightened up my closet. It looks awesome.

Now for the day, I have a few errands to run, including taking back my duplicate shirt I bought the other day from GAP. Maybe they'll have it in another cute color. :) I also have to go to Linens N Things to get K's cousin's wedding present. There's not one anywhere near where K lives.

On with the productivity!

Cool kids stay home on Friday nights

I'm feeling better about the weekend now. I'm just hanging out watching Frequency. It's a good movie! It's been a long time since I've seen it.

I wound up working late tonight, but I didn't mind because it wasn't interfering with any plans or anything. There's a little more definite plan for tomorrow night, which makes me feel much better. And I have several things I need to get done this weekend, so it's good I stayed here. I think I might make it a productive one. Or not. We'll see. :)

I keep trying to watch Letterman because Kerri Russell is supposed to be on tonight. She's the star I'm told I look like most. I think if I was bald, though, I'd get Sinead O'Connor. Right now, though, it's Kerri Russell first, Nicole Kidman second, "that Noxema girl"/Rebecca Gayheart third, and some random chick who won a contest to be on the cover of Seventeen magazine like 8 years ago. I don't get that one as often anymore. Anyway, the show isn't even on because the news is breaking in for weather reports.

Makes me glad I'm not working at a TV station right now. It was awful whenever it was storming! I remember there were tornadoes all over Oklahoma during the Stanley Cup finals. (I didn't even know people in Oklahoma watched hockey!) But there were some pretty angry people! We had callers saying, "This is tornado alley. A little rain isn't worth cutting into the Stanley Cup finals for." People were asking us for scores on the game, saying, "I figured since you were cutting in, at least somebody there was actually getting to watch the game," or "This is why sports should stay on ESPN or on stations where they don't show weather." Older ladies would flood the lines when the weatherman broke into Wheel of Fortune. And don't even get me started on what happened when there was severe weather during Oprah! I definitely felt my fair share of frustration from Friends or Seinfeld being broken into, but I never thought to pick up the phone and yell at the TV station.

After so many calls like that, finally I would say, "I'm sure the people with the tornado headed to their house feel differently than you do."

My first night interning was crazy! I had grown up watching the Oklahoma City TV stations, and all the weathermen were the same. They -- and many of the reporters -- were like celebrities to me. So I felt pretty cool when I met them. And then when we became friends, I felt awesome. Anyway, so I was with this reporter and photographer on a police-involved shooting. There were storms all around the city. The photographer was worried that the antenna on the live truck would be dangerous with the storms and lightning around. So he had me calling our weatherman, who I hadn't met yet, since it was my first day, and asking if we'd be okay to get our live shot done. The storm was a couple miles away, the weatherman told me, so we were safe for a few minutes. We had run out of the station in such a hurry that our cameraman hadn't gotten to grab his rain gear from his truck and put it in the live truck. So there I was, cradling the phone between my shoulder and my ear, and holding an umbrella over the camera. I had first the weatherman and then a producer on the phone telling me to count down for the reporter. I felt so cool. :)

So that's the first time that's happened on this blog! I'm really bad about telling stories -- really long stories -- in the middle of other stories as side bits. K always teases me about it, and he even has a fake "top 10" list of my longest stories. Some of them came as side bits to other stories, and some are total stories I just told him. Details are important! And I'd managed now for 2 months to not do that yet. :)

I'm starting to get sleepy. I'm very excited about sleeping in tomorrow. Maybe I'll even really do that productive weekend thing. ... But for now, I'm going to get ready for bed!

Worst Friday ever

I guess all of my (four or five) readers were as stuck on my situation as I am. I'm staying here because that's what I feel like I should do. My best friends only have one birthday a year. I won't get to see K this weekend, but I'm taking off work next Friday because I'm flying out that morning with him back to Pennsylvania for his cousin's wedding. Maybe the weekend after that, we can do as we'd planned this weekend and spend it all to ourselves.

I'm still very bummed about it, though, because I had thought all week until Wednesday that I was going to get to see him this weekend. It wouldn't have been so bad if I'd known it would turn out this way last weekend.

And it's going to rain all weekend. Bummer!

I got to work this morning, and my boss has this giant to-do list for me. I'm doing the majority of the projects for this weekend, and it's taking everything I have not to ask, "JUST WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO ALL DAY?!!" The other girl in the department whose job is similar to mine is working from home today because she's sick. So I'm going to be picking up part of her job as well, which I totally don't mind doing because she's awesome and always thanks me like crazy for helping her, and she always does anything she can to help me out when I need it. She's one of the few parts of my job that make me feel good and appreciated. My boss isn't as great at thanking or ready with the compliments as she is. He's a nice guy, I'm just starting to think he's really lazy and it's frustrating me.

But I have this to-do list to start on. If I don't get to work, our projects won't get done.

What would you do?

I need some serious advice. I'm totally stuck because what I want to do and what I feel like I should do are two totally different things. I think I know the answer, but I'm indecisive, and I want another opinion. Or two. Or eight ... *ahem* hundred. ...

This weekend is ER's 23rd birthday. She keeps saying it's not a big deal because "nothing special happens when you turn 23. It's just another birthday." But she also says the great thing about birthdays is that you celebrate being alive and simply surviving another year. Her birthday is Sunday.

If this weekend was almost any other weekend on the calendar, I would definitely go to Louisiana to see K. He came here last weekend, and all we have are our weekends -- that's the only time we can see each other. In the summer, he'll be out in the field a lot for drills and training and such. Last weekend, we were in Oklahoma visiting my family. Next weekend, we'll be with his family in Pennsylvania the whole time for his cousin's wedding. Last weekend, before I realized what the date on the calendar was and that ER's birthday is Sunday, K and I had planned to just relax together -- just the two of us. We were going to watch Elizabethtown (partly filmed in OK!!) because he's had it on Netflix now for like a month because I want to see it. It was going to be about us.

K spent all of last weekend in the car for me. Also, on Saturday, one of his friends and his wife have just moved to a new house, and a group of the guys are getting together to help him build a fence. I know most everyone who will be there, so it would be fun. I was looking forward to it.

But ER only turns 23 once. She has to do something with work on Saturday, so she and her boyfriend are going out for dinner Saturday night. Afterward, they're going to call and "we'll" all get together. Problem is, "we're" isn't all planned yet. I figured ER would want to wait until her roommate and childhood best friend, Emily, was free to come out with all of us. After all, we are the "Wednesday girls." But Emily is working on Saturday night. And Friday and Sunday nights. So that leaves WK and me. Which isn't bad, but I could see WK backing out. In the past when there weren't plans, it happened. It wound up being just ER and me, or nothing happened at all. Even though I'd started mentioning the weekend two weeks before to try to come up with plans.

If I stay here this weekend, I'll just hang out in my apartment Friday night being bored. Saturday, I'll probably go to the gym and clean my apartment or something. I'll wait all day until ER and her boyfriend call, and then we'll go meet wherever they want to meet. I could see it happening where we all get there, hang out for a bit and everyone is tired, so we leave at midnight. Which would make me pretty pissed. But at the same time, I've rarely been one to party until 4. If I give up my whole weekend, though, for one night, then it better be one hell of a night.

If I go with K, we don't have to have any plans. I'll be fine doing whatever. We'll probably go to the gym together Saturday (so either way I'll be healthy). We'll watch movies together and hang out with his friends building the fence. Sunday would be ours.

I know what I want to do, but it's not what I think I probably should do. And to be honest, it wouldn't be such a tough decision if there were at least some freakin' plans! If I stay here, I risk the chance that ER gets home from her thing with work, goes to dinner and is tired. And if we go out, she'll have church the next day unless she decides to skip (which has happened before).

Keep in mind that K is 5 hours away, so it wouldn't make sense to go to see him Friday after work and come back in time for Saturday night -- it's Texas or Louisiana (unless you have a jet, pilot's license and nothing to do this weekend).

Knowing all of the above, if you, lucky reader who isn't me, were in my situation, what would you do?

Amen!

This shirt is hilarious!

Seriously! I'm sad to say it, but this is so true. After all, who do you think looks better:

That's what I thought! Woohoo! One point for the pale girls! :)

Feeling better!

After I finished my post, I called K and talked to him while I was getting ready for the gym. Then, I actually went to the gym!

I rode the exercise bike because my friend who has the same knee problems as me for the same reason (growing too fast -- didn't you read my weekend post?!) told me her doctor said it was good to rebuild your knee after that. I was only going to ride for 12 minutes since I hadn't ridden a bike in about 7 years, but it wasn't so bad. I upped my time to 15 minutes, then 18 (+3 for the cooldown). I took it easy a bit, since my knee may not be ready to do everything the rest of my body wants to, but I still rode just under four miles -- on cascades, level 12. One good thing about the bicycle is that I could feel the burn in my butt, too. Nice.

I had a pretty good workout. I did some arm and ab work, and I did some more exercises on my knee. I didn't work out super hard or anything, but it felt good.

Then I came home and ate some double fudge brownie ice cream. And it felt even better. :)

Blah ...

First of all, what's wrong with my blog? My index on the side is all the way at the bottom, for some reason. That is definitely not awesome.

I'm feeling kind of blah right now. Today is one of those days that I hate living in Texas. Maybe it's because I got home earlier than usual which means more time to sit by myself. Maybe it's because I'm watching American Idol and they're singing sappy love songs. Maybe it's because I miss K. Maybe it's because I logged onto facebook and looked at all my friend's profiles and saw how much is going on there.

I'm guessing it's probably a combination of all of the above. One thing that I miss about Oklahoma is how easy it is to meet people. In Texas -- and maybe this is more a Dallas/city thing than a Texas vs. Oklahoma thing -- whenever I just randomly talk to someone in Wal-Mart or something, they look at me like I'm crazy or something. In Oklahoma, people laugh at the joke or smile and say something back. And the things I say to them aren't something like, "Tampons, huh? Supersize... sucks for you!" Once, for instance, I was on the toothpaste aisle and they were out of my toothpaste. The Wal-Mart closest to my apartment is surrounded by about 100 apartment complexes, so it's always out of everything. So I said to a lady who was next to me in the aisle, "This Wal-Mart is always out of everything!" She didn't even look at me. She totally ignored me. I would have been happier with, "No it's not! Stop talking to me, psycho!"

When I first moved here, I noticed that in Wal-Mart, people would cut me off without even acknowledging me. I didn't have much else to do, so I decided to conduct an experiment while I was shopping. So I started smiling at people as I passed them. Most people looked away quickly or didn't smile back. A handful of the hundred or so people I saw smiled back. And by handful, I mean 5 or less. That's another thing I miss about Oklahoma -- almost everyone smiles back, and many even say hello.

In a city, it's also a lot harder to meet people. On my way to work via mass transit, in the 9 months I've lived here, less than 10 people (Aaron, Rith, a guy whose niece went to OU, a girl who was on her way to school and liked the scarf I was crocheting, this guy who I see fairly often to and from work, a guy who wanted me to crochet a scarf for his mom from him for Christmas, and I'm sure a couple more than that) have actually talked to me on the way to work. A few more have talked to me on the way home, but still less than 20, I would guess -- and in 9 months, that's not very many. (I have a really good memory, and these numbers don't include the three or four people I know from work who ride the train.)

At my gym, this guy came up to me once and asked me if I was a runner. He said I was built like one. He'd seen me at the gym a few days before and wanted to introduce myself, but I left too quickly for him to catch me. He seemed nice, but I wasn't sure what his motive was in meeting me. After all, no girl had ever randomly approached me like that at the gym. So I found a way to bring up K in our conversation. It was a Thursday, and he asked if I'd be coming to the gym the next day. I said I wouldn't be able to because my boyfriend and another friend were coming in for the weekend. The next time I saw my friend at the gym, he barely even had time to say hello.

In college, my nickname was "the everywhere girl" by two different, separate groups of my guy friends because they always saw me everywhere on campus. I was accused by many of my friends of "knowing everybody." I wasn't in a sorority and I wasn't some huge drinker, I just have big enough hair that everyone remembers me after they meet me. :) So I went from the small town where I grew up knowing everyone to Norman and OU, where I knew everyone, to Dallas, where I know probably know about 30 people (that includes the people in my department at work). I'm sure if I were to sit down and count, it would come out to more than I realize, but the point is that I could probably count it person by person and come pretty close.

And my mood was picking up as I was typing this over Scrubs, but then even it ended sadly. I can't catch a break tonight! At least I had pizza for dinner...

My name is ------, and I'm a shopaholic

After I slept in today, I got up, showered, watched some TV and left the apartment to run some errands. I got my oil changed and my tires rotated. And then I went to hit up the Express and GAP sales. There was no sale at Express or anything that caught my eye, so I went next door to Bath & Body Works, who was having a sale on a few items I happened to be interested in. The wallflowers, which I love, were on sale for $6 -- the refills and the starter plugs. I bought the refills in Cherry Blossom, which is the scent K got me for Valentine's Day that is getting dangerously close to knocking Coconut Lime Verbena from my No. 1 favorite spot. Anyone who has a Bath & Body Works wallflower knows that they're great and that $6 is an awesome deal.

They also had these great candles for 25% off. I loved the Magnolia Blossom scent, and it was in a yellow jar, which was even better since yellow is my favorite color. ER's birthday is Sunday, and yellow is her favorite color, too. I immediately thought of her, too, for the candle. And Mother's Day is coming up, and since my mom and I are talking again, I might as well get her one, too. So $40 later -- all items on sale -- I left the store.

And went to GAP, which was also having a sale. I had seen a really cute cable-knit, sleeveless sweater on a girl a few weeks ago, and I wanted to ask her so badly where she got it. And there it was on sale at GAP! So I bought it.















In the summer, it's definitely too hot to wear jeans, and shorts these days more often than not are way too short, so I wear skirts every day. GAP had a pretty cute comfy skirt on sale, so I got it, too:
















I also got this sweater -- which was not on sale, but is really nice and soft and 15% cashmere, and which will last me for years -- in khaki.
















I also bought a really cute V-neck cotton shirt that was a really cute, springy bluish color. When I got home, I realized that I have a V-neck striped shirt from GAP that has stripes that are so small that it looks like it's a solid shirt if you don't look closely. And it looks like the same color.

That's the second time in two weeks that I've bought a shirt and realized I have one pretty similar to it already. I'm pretty sure that's not good. But at least both were summer short-sleeved shirts. I haven't really wore them in a while, so that's a good excuse, right?

I went to Victoria's Secret afterward to buy some more perfume, since I'm almost out of that. I just "stopped by" the clearance rack and found some cute nightgowns for $20, which is good for Victoria's Secret. K and I are approaching one year (Memorial Day weekend!), and we're talking about going somewhere in Texas for the weekend just for a mini-vacation for the long weekend. So I thought it would be a nice surprise to have a cute nightgown for that. And it was only $20, so I bought one.

And then, on my way out, I stopped by the American Greetings store. Mother's Day is coming, and it's always hard to find a basic Mother's Day card for my mom, since most of them say things like, "You're always there," "You're wonderful," "I want to be just like you," "I'm so lucky to have you," "My mother, my cheerleader, my friend," or something along those mushy lines that I can't buy because (a) it's not true, and (b) if I did buy one like that, my mom and I would both no it's not true, so what's the use in pretending? By buying a basic, "Happy Mother's Day, It's your day -- have a good one," card, I'm being honest and not faking feelings that aren't there. Not that I don't love my mom -- I do. She just wasn't the June Cleaver mother who a child buys those cards for. And if I did get her that card, she wouldn't appreciate it and it would actually probably make her feel worse because she would know I walked and bought it without reading it.

For my birthday last year, she got me a card that said:

Dear Daughter of My Heart,

I remember the first time I said 'I love you' to your face. (I meant it for the rest of you as well.) You had just been born, and I thought you were the most beautiful thing on earth. And in that little face of yours, I thought I could see the future. It looked beautiful, too.
Now I know that we're living in that future and that it's very different than I imagined it would be. It hasn't all been beautiful. Some of it has been scary and painful and sad.
But through it all, I've watched you grow and live your life with joy and courage and hope. And although we don't have as much time together as we did when you were little, I can still look into your beautiful face and tell you the same thing I told you back before I even knew who you were -- the same thing I will always tell you, whatever the future brings -- I love you.

That card meant more to me than any other birthday card because it wasn't b.s. It admitted that there have been rough times. Hallmark rocks for making cards like that.

It takes a while of looking through all the cards to find the right one that's not fake. So I started today. I found one that will be from both my brother and me. And I found a birthday card for ER and my friend Rebecca, whose birthday is in May. I also found a great pillow for ER that says "Forever Friends." It's one of those pillows that you put a picture in. It's really cute. So her birthday is done. There also was a great picture frame that says "Laugh" on the side, so I bought that for myself. It was only $8.

I'm still feeling a bit of buyer's remorse, though, because I don't actually need any of those things. But I'll be able to wear or use them for a long time. I'm not in debt buying any of these things, but still. I've decided maybe it'd be a good idea for me to make a budget for myself. And by that, I mean that I'll only allow myself to spend "X" amount of money on clothes a month. But at the same time, I don't go shopping every month, and sometimes there are circumstances where you need to spend more than usual for a special occassion or where you spend more one month and nothing close to the limit another. That is part of a budget, though, planning for those things. Maybe I'll keep track of what I spend and see if it's so bad looking at it that way.

Or maybe I'll just spread my shopping out more so it doesn't hit as hard as when I do it all in one day. :)

Back in Texas ... and what sucks about being tall

My Oklahoma weekend with K was great. K drove here from Louisiana, and we drove together to Oklahoma. We got to my dad's at about 1:15 a.m. We stayed up and talked to my dad and his girlfriend until 2:30-ish, and then we all went to bed. K and I got up early Saturday morning and ran around the park a couple of times. It was nice, and I did much better than when we ran in Pennsylvania. There were a lot fewer hills, too. :)

After that, we went straight to my dad's store for breakfast with my family. The weather was great, so my dad kidnapped K (not really) and took him golfing. As soon as they left, I said to everyone, "He better have a very important question for my dad while they're gone!" :)

After they got back, we cleaned up and met one of my friends who I hadn't seen in years. She's my age, but is married, has a 5-month old adorable son, and her husband is building them a house. Our lives are so different! It was good to see her, though. By the time we left them, it was 5:30, and all we had eaten was breakfast. We were starving, but we were supposed to meet my mom at 6 for dinner. So we snacked until it was time to leave, then met her and her husband at my favorite restaurant. I hadn't seen my mom since Christmas Eve, and we hadn't talked in a couple of months because we've been fighting (we don't really get along). Dinner went well, and then she and her husband folluowed us to the races to watch my brother. He did really well. He has two cars -- his car from last year and his new one this year. He won one qualifying race and came in third in the other. In the main race, he won in the not-so-fast class. In the fastest class, he led for 15 laps (there are 20), then his motor blew at lap 18. It sucked. K and I didn't get to race like we'd planned. But my brother did well, and I was proud of him.

We all went back to my dad's after. K and I were in the bedroom after we first got there. He had sat down on the bed and laid down where he was sitting. He was trying to get me to lay down, which I didn't want to do and didn't think was a good idea at the time, so I turned to leave and motioned for him to come with me. He reached his legs out to catch me and stop me. He had his ankles wrapped around my legs, and as I turned to leave, my knee dislocated and I dropped to the ground to get my weight off it.

I knew immediately what had happened. I grew pretty quickly in high school, and my knees didn't keep up with it. I dislocated them five times between the two of them, all doing simple things like walking a bike, moving like I was going into the splits (front-to-back splits), standing on one foot to climb over a chair at the movies, and even sitting on my bed doing math homework -- with my knee brace on! I had surgery after the first injury -- the walking the bike one. (It fully dislocated and chipped a piece of bone, which lodged into my joint. The doctors had to remove the piece and repair the cartilage.) Some of the times, my knee only partially dislocated, but that's still not a normal -- or good thing -- to have happen. I used to call the time when my knees were both healthy and I wasn't in a brace my "off season." The fifth time my knee was right at five years ago. My doctor told me I would have to do these specific exercies for the rest of my life. Every once in a while, my knee will still feel funny, but I figured for the most part I was over the trouble. After all, I'm not growing taller anymore.

Anyway, so I immediately changed from my jeans into shorts because I knew once my knee swelled, it would be tough and painful to get them off. My knee didn't swell, though, but the next day it was still tender and tight in places. I think what happened is that it partially dislocated, which still worries me because my brain says if it happened once, it could happen again.

K felt really bad about what happened. I told him it wasn't his fault and that he hadn't done anything that would have hurt any normal person who didn't have knee problems. I told him it didn't hurt, and that it just scares me when it happens.

So after that little scare, we all went back into the kitchen. It was me, K, my dad and his girlfriend, and a family friend and his wife. My brother and a couple of his friends came by, so we were sitting around talking and eating. After a while, K and I both went back to the room because I was so tired. He actually fell asleep before I did. Everyone was being pretty loud, so I woke up several times between that and K's snoring. :)

We woke up about 9:30 for breakfast and then went golfing. I just rode in the golf cart because I was worried about my knee and was limping a bit to avoid bending it. After golf, we went back to the house and sat outside talking and laughing at my dad's girlfriend's daughters' (got that?) puppy.



He's about 3 months old. He's really cute, but he's really dumb. His name is Chewy, short for Chewbacca. I have no idea why the girls picked that name.



We left that afternoon and came back to Texas. We got some dinner, brought it back to my place and watched the end of movie. Then we watched the end of another movie. By then, it was 10, and K usually tries to leave by 7 so he doesn't get back to Louisiana too late. I worry when he drives so late. Neither of us was ready for him to leave, but he had to go.

I talked to my dad's girlfriend on the phone after he left. She said that our family friends were asking when they think K and I will get married. They're all guessing sometime next summer. But first, he has to ask the question. Hopefully he got one step closer to that this weekend!

"Tagged"

So Celebrate We Will tagged me, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to respond by answering these questions myself, but why not? Seems fun!

Five movies you can watch over and over again:

1. Pretty Woman
2. Love Actually
3. The Wedding Planner
4. You've Got Mail
5. When Harry Met Sally

(Wow... I'm such a girl! I do like action movies, too. And comedies. And movies that boys like to watch...)

Five embarassing songs you know all the words to:

1. Almost anything sung by Hanson (I know. Please don't tell.)
2. "If I Was Invisible," Clay Aiken (Man, I sound like a dork...)
3. "Boyfriend," Ashlee Simpson (seriously, this is getting ridiculous)
4. "Tearin' Up My Heart," N'Sync
5. Anything I know the words to by Britney Spears

(FYI: Songs I know the words but think it's awesome I do: "Shoop," Salt N Pepa; "Baby Got Back"; "Ice Ice Baby"; "Bohemian Rhapsody," Queen; "I Touch Myself" -- just for giggles!; "Oklahoma" -- it's our state song!)

Five Memorable Halloween Costumes:

1. Ballerina -- I wore the tutu for weeks!
2. Clown -- one of my firsts!
3. Cheerleader -- Glad I wisened up before high school (just kidding, if any of you are cheerleaders)
4. '80s rock star -- I have the perfect hair for it!
5. My brother dressed as Frankenstein once, and it was awesome. He looked just like him. He was so cute! I think he was 9.

Five celebrities you believe may secretly be aliens:

1. Tom Cruise -- gotta agree with you on that one, Courtney!
2. Madonna -- Seriously, she looks just like she did 20 years ago
3. Paris Hilton -- no one should ever be that orange
4. Donald Trump -- maybe it would explain the hair
5. Martha Stewart -- She has to get all those ideas somewhere!

(I was going to say Dennis Rodman, but I don't think that one's a secret.)

Five occupations you could never hold:

1. Politician -- I would fall asleep all the time. Pretty sure that's not good.
2. Construction worker -- You get sweaty and dirty. Two of my least favorites. (Man, I am a girl...)
3. Anything that kept me isolated from other people. I have to be around people.
4. Accountant -- that whole math thing...
5. A position where I had to fire people. That would suck.

Five books you've recently read outside school:

1. Cosmopolitan (I know it's not a book, but I read it two days ago on the plane. And I read all day every day at work!)
2. Nicholas Sparks' The Wedding
3. Nicholas Sparks' The Rescue
4. Nora Roberts' Private Scandals
5. Danielle Steel's Wings

Five ways to perfectly spend an afternoon

1. At an OU football game
2. With K
3. Getting a pedicure and shopping with friends
4. Playing outside
5. On the beach (doesn't happen often)

Not your 5 favorite foods, but the 5 you're most likely eating:

1. Pizza
2. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3. Apple or orange
4. Some kind of chicken
5. Gummy bears or chocolate

Five lines you blatantly stole from a movie, TV show, commercial or song:

1. "Harry, I took care of it!" (Dumb & Dumber) Also, "Kick his ass, Seabass!" And pretty much any other quote from that movie -- "Our pets heads are fallin' off!"
2. "Say I'm a bird." ("You're a bird.") "Now say you're a bird, too." ("If you're a bird, I'm a bird.") from The Notebook. K and I quote that one. I know, we're disgusting. :)
3. "It's a sweater!" The Three Amigos
4. "It's so damn hot. Milk was a bad choice." Anchorman
5. "You know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay." The 40-Year-Old Virgin

After thinking further on it, I have to change some of my quotes. This is really hard because my friends and I and K and his friend and I all quote so many movies!! Number 2 and Number 5 are not movies we quote as much. I will switch those to:

1. "This is kinda awesome ..." from the GEICO "Tiny House" commercial. Also from that commercial are, "I think you are so awesome," and "This is not awesome!"
2. "I love you, but I don't have to like you right now," from How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days. I say it a lot to K joking around. Also, we're big fans of, "Our love fern! You let it DIE!"

Five people who immediately must respond:

1. Do I even have
2. five people
3. who read
4. my blog? (it's fairly new)
5. Anyone who wants to be labeled as freakin' awesome in my book.

Oklahoma-bound

K is on his way here right now, and we'll hang out for a bit and head to Oklahoma! I'm excited! I haven't been since Christmas. I've been busy!

Since I've been home, I've been to Savannah, Georgia; NYC; Pennsylvania (twice); and Louisiana more times than I can count. And Fort Worth, but that's still in Texas. I guess, actually, I went to Lawton, Oklahoma, in February, but I haven't been to my hometown since Christmas.

We'll get there kind of late tonight, but tomorrow K and I will get up and go running around the park. Then, we'll have my dad's famous barbecue at his store for lunch. That night, my mom is coming in with her husband, which will be interesting because I haven't talked to my mom in like two months at least because we're fighting. But we'll all go to dinner. And then she and her husband are going to watch my brother race. Obviously, K and I will be going to the races, too.

What's really cool, though, is that there's a special race afterward, and K and I will get to race each other in it! It'll be crazy! I drove my brother's race car once when I was 18, I think, and I swore I'd never do it again. I told K he should feel lucky because the only reason I'm doing it is because he's doing it too.

That Sunday, we'll all get up and go golfing. All the guys in my family golf, and my dad has some friends who will be visiting this weekend from Norman, where I went to college. I'm excited for K to meet them. I'm hoping that K has something to *ahem* ask my dad. That'd be awesome.

Everyone at work keeps asking me about when "it's" coming, and several of my friends are, too. So exciting. Hopefully sooner than later!!!

Blaming it on the Beach Boys

I have something embarrassing to admit. It's one of those little quirky brain funks you can't seem to get over. But before I admit this, I feel it is necessary to inform you of two things:
1) I have no sense of direction.
2) I graduated high school and college with great GPAs, and I was in an honor society all through both.

Now that you have those two important pieces of information, I'll reveal to you my brain quirk:
I get the East coast and the West coast mixed up. Not that I think Boston and the Carolinas are on the left side of the country if you're looking at a map, or that California sits to the north of Florida -- no. I always want to call California the East coast. Which in turn makes me think for a moment that Boston, the Carolinas, D.C. and everything else on that coast make up the West coast.

But the good part of all of this is that it's not my fault, because I know where the confusion came from, and it happened at a very early age.

I'm sure you've all heard the Beach Boys' song "California Girls." And if you have, you know the very first line: "Well East coast girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear ..." See, I just tuned out the rest of the song after that line until the chorus: "I wish they all could be California girls ..."

So my terrible sense of direction -- particularly with identifying the coasts -- can and will be blamed entirely on the Beach Boys.

Some "man"

Back in college, my dorm was a 12-story building. I lived on the 9th floor, so most of the time, I took the elevator. Most riders in the elevator were disgusted to see any able-bodied person take the elevator to anything below the 5th floor. Four floors is not too many steps to climb.

I work in a 4-story building. The main entrance to the building is on the first floor. Many mornings, I arrive at the same time as a man who works on the second floor, since we both use the mass transit system to get to work.

I take the stairs throughout the day when I need to get to other floors. If I go get a drink besides water, I take the stairs to the first floor vending machines to get one. As I am coming or going from work, though, most of the time I take the elevator. In a 4-story building, if those of us who work on the 4th floor don't take the elevator, who will?

But this man who works on the second floor steps into the elevator each morning and presses the button marked "2." The first time I saw him do this, I was disgusted. This man is in his early 40s at the latest, I would guess. There appears to be nothing keeping him from taking the stairs. But I watched just in case as he exited for any sign of a limp or uneven leg length -- nothing.

He should be ashamed of himself. What kind of self-respecting, able-bodied man takes the stairs to the second floor? Seriously!

Freak of nature

It amazes me that I can shed hair all day, every day, yet I still have enough for 10 people.

I swear, one day I'll wake up with absolutely no hair left. Actually, it'll probably happen when I'm climbing out of the shower. Something about shampoo and a shower head makes my hair jump out of its roots.

I remember

Eleven years ago today, I was in the sixth grade. Since we were nearing the end of the school year, it was time to do all of those piddly, fun things we always looked forward to every year. On April 19, 1995, it was the talent show.

And so the day began. We all arrived at school excited for the day, eager to see the acts everyone had prepared or excited to perform ourselves. I was sitting next to my two best friends then, Stephanie and Melissa. My teacher, Mrs. Mayes', son was performing at the time. Melissa nudged me and said, "Mrs. Mayes is crying." I looked over, and sure enough, she was wiping her eyes.

Then, we noticed several of the other teachers were crying. To a sixth grader, this is a very puzzling thing. A few minutes later, the music teacher gave an announcement, and we all went back to our classrooms. It was just after 9 a.m.

All of the rooms had a 19" TV in them. Mrs. Mayes immediately turned it on. There, on the screen, were images of a building that had been hit by a bomb. The building was the federal building. The one in Oklahoma City.

Things like that didn't happen in Oklahoma.

That day, the halls seemed quiter, even though everyone was talking about what was going on. I had an aunt, uncle and cousins who lived about 30 minutes from OKC, and their house shook when the bomb went off. Everyone that I knew of knew someone who either worked at the building or near it or who was affected by the bombing. And my hometown was still an hour and a half away from downtown OKC.

The first thing everyone thought was that it was a terrorist attack. "Muslim-looking" and "Islamic-looking" people were targeted in airports, many detained and questioned.

The bombing was all the adults were talking about, and it was all that was on TV -- all the local news channels, the national channels. More and more bodies were being found, and police and bomb squads were worried about more bombs that might be in the area. Pictures and footage were inescapable. For days.

President Clinton visited. Oprah even came to OKC. Things like that didn't happen in Oklahoma.

I was in honor choir, and we organized a fundraiser for the bombing. One of my good friends started making and selling ribbons that said "OKC," and sending all the money to the city. My mom organized a benefit concert. The honor choir performed in it, and kids from talent shows in all grades of our schools performed. Our theme song for the event became Alabama's "Angels Among Us."

I was supposed to go on a field trip to the capital and some other buildings. I'm not sure if one of them was the federal building or not, but the trip was cancelled.

My grandparents, who lived in the same town as us, wanted to take my brother and me to OKC to see the building before it was imploded. We didn't make it up there. My parents probably thought it was too dangerous.

I remember watching on live TV when the building was imploded. Now, there's a memorial there. My grandparents took us to OKC before the memorial was built. There was one tree, the Survivor Tree, that survived the bombing. Behind it, on a brick wall, someone had spray painted a quote that I took a picture of. I wish I could remember what it said ...

A day or two after the bombing, I wrote a poem about what happened. My teacher found out about it from my friend, I think, and gave the class an assignment to do the same (which of course made me everyone's favorite person for the day). My teacher asked for me to make her a copy and sign it. I made her promise not to share it with anyone. The very next day when I walked into school, there it was on the bulletin board as soon as you entered the doors.

A year later, when I was a big 7th grader at the junior high, I got a call from my 6th grade principal asking me to read it for the governor for the one-year anniversary.

It all seems so long ago, but I can't imagine an April 19th ever going by that I didn't think of it. For me, it's like 9-11 -- a big, terrible act that some thoughtless person committed, killing hundreds of people, hurting thousands more and changing lives forever.

After all, things like that didn't happen in Oklahoma.

Easter in PA

I just got back today from my Easter weekend with K. I left Thursday after work and drove to Louisiana, and we flew out from there at 6 a.m. It was a long day! We got to Pennsylvania a little before noon. K's dad, brother and nephew met us at the airport.

K's mom has been sick since February. She was in the hospital for a while, and she's now in a nursing home for therapy. She had heart surgery in 1985 -- before they tested for Hepatitis C. She got it, and she was given 18-20 years to live. Twenty-one years later, she's still fighting.
K is very close to his mom, and I've known it since the second day I knew him. The way he talks about her and his grandmother (who died a few years ago) is awesome. "Momma's boy" has a negative connotation and seems more to me like a guy who's a total wuss and lets his mommy rule his whole life. K, though, has a ton of respect for his mother, and it's very obvious. He said she taught him to be the strong person he is today. He told me about how he thought about getting out of ROTC in college because he just wasn't applying himself and making an effort. At the time, he was really focusing on his pre-med stuff. He told his mom he just didn't think he could do both. She told him that was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard. After that, he said he did a complete turn-around: He started maxing out everything in PT, he became a great leader, and he really worked hard in ROTC. When he got his bronze star when he got back from Iraq, he gave it to his mom. He said it wasn't really his, since he wouldn't have gotten it without her.

So it was really upsetting to him (and for me for him) to see her the way she was that Friday when we visited her at the nursing home. She was so weak; she could barely speak, and she wasn't even holding her own cup when she took a drink. There were several people there visiting toward the end of the day, and K's mom was starting to wear out. The nurses went to put her into bed, so K and I went out into the hall. K was really upset seeing her that way. She fell asleep, and we stayed for a while waiting for her to wake up. We finally left and met some of K's friends for dinner and bar hopping.

That Saturday, we slept in because we'd been up so long the day before (4 a.m. to about 2 a.m. ). K wanted to go for a run so PT wouldn't kill him when we got back. I went with him, since it would be good exercise. I go to the gym a couple times a week, and I always run on the elliptical. I know it's a huge difference from actually running, but I figured I'd be in pretty good shape. Wrong! I did well for the first mile and a half or so, and then it started killing me. I just felt like I couldn't get enough air, and I was getting tired. I was getting really frustrated with myself. When I was in the third grade, the counselor came around with this anti-smoking, anti-drug, anti-drinking projector slide show. There was a group of teenagers who hung out, and one of them smoked. He got really skinny and bony and gaunt looking. I remember in one part, they all were running playing sports or something, and the smoker guy got really winded and couldn't run at all. That's what I felt like. And I've never smoked!! I was so mad at myself, and I wanted to just say screw it and push myself harder and get over it. But at the same time, my body was going, "Sit down and breathe!" I sat down and tried to convince K to just come back for me because at that point we were at this track he was going to run around. He said he wasn't going without me. So I explained why I was frustrated with myself. He said, "Part of my job every day is working out. I run 8 miles every Friday. I've been training for years. This is what we do. You don't do this every day." He was so sweet pepping me up and refusing to leave me. He said he wanted to run because he wanted to spend time outside with me, and that's what we were doing. So we finished our run. (By the way, today -- three days later -- it finally doesn't hurt to walk.)

We visited K's mom again for a large portion of the day. We sat outside with her, and she was doing much better. K and I went out for a nice Italian dinner, and then we went out with the same friends from the night before. I finally got to meet one of K's high school and college best friends! I was so excited. :) We stayed out that night until 4:30 a.m. I was so exhausted!

Easter morning, K and I accidentally slept late. We went to 11:15 mass, and then we met K's dad at the nursing home to pick up his mother. She had gotten up and put on makeup, and she was so excited to be leaving and spending the day with family. K told me that his mom kept saying about me, "I really like her. She's so pretty. She's so nice." That made me feel good! :) We all went to K's aunt's house. I met a few more of his relatives I hadn't met. They were all so great! I think they all liked me. They were asking me questions about Oklahoma and Texas and the South. They asked about what kinds of food we have down here -- particularly meats, since my dad's a butcher. K's grandfather (his mom's dad) was a butcher, so they all grew up around meat, too. His mom is full-blooded Italian and a couple of his relatives are Polish, so food is pretty big for them.

I was joking around with K, calling him on something dumb he'd said, so he hit my arm playing around. His mom saw him do it, so I looked at her and said, "Did you see that?!" I looked at K like I was surprised. His mom was looking at him, playing around and trying not to laugh. I said, "Your mom raised you better than that!" She nodded at him. I said, "You know better than to hit a girl!" He looked at me and said, "I didn't hit a girl." I said, "You're right -- you hit a lady, and that's even worse!" His aunt and uncle started laughing, and his aunt said, "We like her!"

K's mom had a great day that day. His dad actually wound up getting her back two hours later than he was supposed to because he didn't want to pull her away because she was enjoying herself so much. I was glad she was doing so well.

That night, we went with K and one of his friends to their campground. I'd actually never been camping before. I don't know if I consider this camping, though. To me, camping is sleeping in a tent. We slept in a camper. I've done that before. We had a bonfire that night, which was fun, but by about 2, K and I were falling asleep. We got up the next morning and went to this waterfall area of the camp. It's so pretty!





















K and me in front of the falls after a night of "camping."










When we left, we went straight to visit K's mom again. I was worried that she'd be kind of down after having such a great day and seeing everyone the day before, then having to go back to the nursing home and not having something like that to look forward to for a while. Luckily, she was doing great still. She was still really talkative, she seemed strong and she looked good. I was so glad that her worst day was the first one, and things just kept going up from there. I really didn't want us to leave with her on a bad note because that would make it harder for K.

We got back to his place at about 11:00 last night. As usual, I didn't want to leave. It was such a great weekend. K is coming up here this weekend, and we're going to Oklahoma (yay!) to see my family. That should be fun.

And I am even planning on trying that running thing again ...

Obviously made by men ...

I just saw a commercial for Always pads. The end of the commercial said, "Have a happy period." What kind of slogan is that? I mean, seriously, what girl has ever thought, "Man, that was a great 5 to 7 days. I can't wait for the next one! And the cramps before -- awesome!"

Random questions, thoughts and confessions

Guys sure make funny noises at the gym.


If you know someone who's OCD, it's definitely not funny to move his or her things around. Seriously. My friends used to always do this to me, and it drove me nuts. Even moving two things a half an inch. My ex-boyfriend used to do this to me. It really stressed me out! (Notice I said ex-boyfriend.)


Does anyone know how to make coffee without a coffee maker? I'm pretty sure coffee has been around longer than coffee makers, but what did people do then?


Why is it that I can walk into a really good-smelling store, and when I leave, I smell the same, but if I walk into a smoky restaurant or a barbecue place, my hair takes on those smells -- and seems to want to hold onto them even after I've washed it. Twice.


Life is rough without a microwave! I wouldn't recommend it. Once in college, ours went out, and our apartment took like two weeks to get us a new one. Finally, I called and said, "This isn't working. We're starving over here." They brought us one later that day. If they hadn't, I might not be here today.


I think my bladder is an inconvenience. I don't have a bladder problem or even a small bladder, but i find it often gets in the way of my tasks. Many times, for example, I have been feeling very productive or "in the zone" at work, only to feel a growing need to go to the restroom. Often, I put it off as long as I can. It's a hassle! I have to stop what I'm doing, go down the hall, mess with a toilet seat cover ...


I'm sick of hearing about Katie Couric. And I went to college to be a TV reporter! Seriously -- she's switching stations. That's it! The purpose of TV news is not to report on those whose job it is to report the news. Especially when they'll be continuing to do so, just on a different network at a different time.


Pizza and salad are an awesome combo.


Coca-Cola Zero is awesome. If you haven't tried it, you should.


While I'm at promoting "healthy" junk food, if you haven't tried it, you have to try Dreyer's light ice cream. It's so good!!! Chocolate Fudge Chunk is awesome. I have not broken into my new tub of Double Fudge Brownie yet, but I'm sure it's just as good.


Isn't it weird that cleaning makes you dirty?


Why on TV do the networks bleep out "hole" in the world "a$$hole"? And why do they bleep out "God" in "G-d d@--"?


I think saying "G-d d@--" is worse than the "f-word."


There are a lot of women and girls who make themselves look chubby or bigger than they are by the way they dress.


I'm totally straight and in love with my boyfriend (who I hope will be my fiance soon!). But sometimes, I'll see a woman and think, "Wow, she is so gorgeous," or "She looks so pretty." And it makes me wish that I could tell her because if someone thought that about me, I would like to know. It's a good ego boost! I never say anything, though, because many people would think that was weird or think I was a lesbian or crazy or something. I wish society wasn't that way. But at the same time, I would feel slightly uncomfortable (just slightly) if some random chick came up to me and said something like that. I guess it would depend on what she looked like (like if she looked like she hadn't showered in a week and her clothes were torn and dirty, versus a girl who looks like she's clean and, well, normal).


There's a radio station where I live that often holds contests for girls to call in and tell the most outrageous stories. Once, this girl won for using her brother's razor that he uses on his face to shave her *ahem* bikini area. She did it because she didn't like his girlfriend. And she won the tickets. I've also heard this station giving away tickets to girls for the most outrageous lies they've told to their boyfriends. One girl cheated on her boyfriend with two of his friends. I think one of them was even married. Every time they have these contests, I want to call the station and tell them they suck for promoting such trash. But the line is always busy.


I hate "fake-baking," but I've totally been doing it lately because I'm going with K to visit his family over Easter. The skirt I'm wearing on Easter Sunday is white, and if I don't fake-bake, you won't be able to tell where the skirt stops and my legs start. Okay, so maybe it's not that drastic, but it's not too much of an exaggeration. (And I'm only going to get a lightly bronzed look for me, which for others is a pretty normal-to-light tan skin tone.)


I'm willing to bet that the word "confessions" in the title of this post is what makes most people want to read it. (Busted ya, right?) ;)

I've officially seen it all (with cellphones, anyway)

This morning as I was walking at a transit station, I saw a bus driver talking on her cellphone while she was driving the huge, charter-bus sized bus.

Wow ...

Drive friendly -- the Texas way

So I'm driving home from work tonight on this busy three-lane road in rush-hour traffic. (Actually, I guess it's technically a six-lane road with a median in the middle.) Anyway, I'm driving in the middle lane, and there's a car that has turned out of a shopping center and is waiting to enter traffic. Only he's pulled out into the right lane and the front of his car is halfway into my lane.

So I slow down and wave him forward. As I'm doing this, he remains there, blocking the lanes. I'm going at a slow enough speed and am far enough away that if he'd move, he'd be fine -- only the guy's a toolbox and stays there. I'm waving him more intensly now, saying, "Go, go go ..." because I'm not going to come to a complete stop in rush-hour traffic. So he raises his hands, like, "Why won't you let me go?"

Slightly angry because of this man's stupidity, I hit my brakes to come to a stop to allow the douche bag to get into my lane. To let him know that I'm frustrated because my good deed was greeted with his ignorance and rudeness, I gave a short honk on my horn. A moment later, he swerves in the lane as he shoves his hand out the window, flipping me off. He moved over to the left-hand lane. His windows were all down, so I rolled mine down as I passed him, and I yelled out the window, "Some chivalry there!" (Real insult, I know. But seriously -- I was being nice and he gives me TWO mean gestures!)

I stayed in my lane, and he went to get into the left-turn lane. He sped up and swerved straight at the back of my car as though he was going to rear-end me. He honks briefly as he's doing this, then he jerks back into the left-turn lane and flies past me.

What a jerk.

Fort Worth weekend

K and I had a great time this weekend. We spent some time by ourselves for an hour or so, and then we left for CG's. Once we got there, we just hung out at their place and had some drinks. It was fun to both be hanging out with one of our best friends. And it's funny seeing K and Joe together.

CG was not feeling well on Saturday, which was a bummer. We stayed around the house, and she took a nap for a bit to try to get better. While she was napping, we all watched The Skeleton Key. It was a good movie, I guess, but not by my standards. For me, I like a movie that ends my way -- where the good guy wins, the right girl gets the right guy, justice is served or you know it's just "happily ever after." Many people have disagreed with me on this stance over the years. For example, I swore after I saw My Best Friend's Wedding that I would never see it again because I hated the way it ended. My mom said, "Live doesn't always have a happy ending." Exactly! Life isn't always roses and peaches and happily ever afters. I prefer my entertainment to be positive and end positively. K and Joe both liked the movie, and K said he had never heard of anyone disliking a movie for that. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels that way about movies. Why on earth would you want to devote two hours to watching a movie, only to feel depressed by the ending?

So the movie really was, I guess... good. It just wasn't my taste. And I see no reason that I'll ever need to see it again.

Luckily, later that night CG was feeling a bit better, so we went to dinner at Olive Garden. Oh, it was good! We were so stuffed by the time we were done! We were too full to even go out afterward. We went back to their place and hung out more, which is really great. That's what K and I went to Fort Worth to do.

We slept in this morning and then went to lunch at Panda Express. I'm not a huge Chinese food fan, but it was good. We went back to CG and Joe's and played with Levi, their adorable chihuahua (I never thought I'd use those two words in the same sentence, but he is cute!).

































Then, we went to the mall and got our pedicures! It was nice, and now our feet look cute!

After that, it was time for us to head back so K could get home at a half-decent time. We cooked dinner together again, which was great. Another great weekend, gone way too fast.

Why I hate Sundays

Sunday is the worst part of my week. Fridays are the best. Not because Friday means I don't have to work for a few days and Sunday means work is either the next day or that I'll be spending Monday doing nothing while my friends are at work (depends on the week), but because I see K on Friday, and Sunday is the last day we have together for a while.

Friday is full of excitement in knowing we'll get to see each other soon, and we have the whole weekend together. But Sunday, no matter what we do, has a slight amount of dread and is filled with quick, stolen glances at the clock as we count the hours we have left until one of us has to leave to drive the five hours back home.

As soon as K leaves here, I feel sad and lonely because the person I most want to be here in the world is getting further away with every second. I find myself looking at the clock and thinking, "Two hours ago, he was still here, and we were lying on the couch together." And every time he leaves, I always hope that someday in the future -- hopefully not so far away -- there will come a time that Sunday will come and go with no dread, no glances at the clock and no five-hour drive for either of us.

Fun weekend coming up

K is coming to Texas this weekend, and we're going to spend it in Fort Worth with CG and her husband Joe. I'm excited because we've never spent the weekend with them. Joe is one of K's best friends, and CG is one of my best friends, and we always have a blast hanging out together. There's a NASCAR (woohoo!) race there this weekend, and K is going to have some friends in for it. One of them, Walt, is he and Joe's old roommate. Walt is stationed in Korea right now, so K tries to see him whenever he's back in the U.S. So Walt and his wife will be here, and we'll probably try to meet up with them at some point.

Tom & Kristin, some other friends of ours, were also going to be in Fort Worth with Walt and his wife. CG and Joe know both couples, so K and I were hoping we could all get together and hang out or go out or something. But I talked to Kristin today, and they're not going to be able to come. They're moving to D.C. next week, so they're really busy getting things done around the house. She's not sure if Walt is still coming, but surely they are. She said she and Tom might try to come just for the day on Saturday, which would be fun.

Either way, though, I know it'll be a great weekend. I'm really looking forward to staying with CG and Joe. And I told CG I'd take her out to get pedicures for her birthday, and this weekend is perfect! We'll let the guys hang out and ... scratch, or whatever it is they'll do, :) and we'll go get pampered!

I'm excited!

Klutzy kind of day...

This morning, I stood up from my chair and went to leave my office. Somehow, I managed to get the right, pointed toe of my favorite black heels caught on the bottom of the left leg of my black pants (and they're not even cuffed!). I stumbled into a shelf in my office, which allowed me to catch myself.

Then, just before lunch, I was walking down the stairs to get a Coke from the first-floor machine (Why not get some exercise?). A man came into the stairwell behind me when I was on the third floor, so I picked up my pace so he wouldn't hate me for walking slowly, since I hate getting stuck behind the slow person on the stairs (I'm a pretty fast walker and stair climber/descender, but you try it in heels!). Somehow, on the stairs, I managed to get my left heel caught in the bottom of the right leg of my pants. God knows I don't own a pair of pants that's too long, so that's not it!

And just a few minutes ago, as I went to leave my office to go to the restroom, I managed to bang the outside of my left heel on my desk. I have no idea how it happened.

Clearly, I am dangerous to myself and other people today, since even putting one foot in front of the other has proved three times thus far to be a challenging feat.

In the stars?

Okay, so I don't really believe in this stuff, but it's fun to read it sometimes, and it's definitely fun to twist them into what you want.

For example, here are two of K's horoscopes from last week:
"It's possible you'll experience a bit of buyer's remorse. This is only natural. You've chosen well, so stop worrying."
"Push to get the shopping done and all the arrangements made. The sooner this is done, the sooner you'll get on to other things."

And my fortune cookie from a trip to Pei Wei last Saturday with K:
"Be prepared to receive something special."

I'm ready!!! :)

Who can be productive on a Tuesday night?

Last night, I had a pretty productive night. I'm proud of myself! I came home and immediately plugged in my new Foreman grill, then I started doing laundry as it heated up. I cooked the chicken that was left from my night of cooking with K. Then, I cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed my apartment while my food settled. After that, I went to the gym.

Tonight, on the other hand, I got home early and have been sitting on the couch watching TV since then. I did get up to go get a pizza (I'm sick of chicken!). But American Idol is on! How can I be expected to have a productive night when American Idol is on?!

And can I just say, for the record, that Paula Abdul's clapping drives me insane? It's a mixture of a rich suburban mom who's had a bit too much wine to drink and is just leaving the salon from getting a manicure, and a baby who doesn't know how to clap yet. At least the baby looks cute; Paula just looks like an idiot.

While I'm being honest, Elliott's machine-gun vibrato drives me nuts, and I can't stand that one gnarly tooth. Paris finally looks like she got her clothes from a normal store instead of an overgrown Barbie closet. And Ace's eyes can't keep him around too much longer.

Kellie and Chris are my favorites, and I can't deny Katharine's talent. And Taylor is awesome, too, for being different. I hope they're all in the top five.

Playing house

K came in to visit me this weekend, and as usual, it was wonderful. He actually surprised me Friday night by getting here about an hour and half earlier than he had led me to believe he would. I had planned on running to Wal-Mart, vacuuming my apartment, cleaning my bathroom, then showering and shaving my legs so I would be smooth and feeling refreshed when he got here. I was on the phone with him as I got back to my apartment from Wal-Mart. I got out of my car and started unloading my groceries when our conversation was cut off. I figured he'd gotten somewhere where he lost his signal. All of a sudden, I hear him say, "I figured, why should I talk to you on the phone if I could just talk to you in person." I was totally shocked. It was great to have him there early. We just laid around my apartment and watched TV. K was actually pretty tired after his drive from Louisiana, so we went to bed at about 11:30.

Saturday, we woke up and talked and went back to sleep and woke up and drifted off again. We did that until about 10-ish, I guess, and then we watched TV for a bit, and K started looking for plane tickets for Easter weekend. We went out to lunch, and then we went shopping. We had bought some gerbera daisies and little pots for my porch. I planted them, and we did laundry together. K had also bought a blender to make his little protein smoothies when we were shopping. We had gotten a strawberry daiquiri mixer to test it out. We cooked dinner together that night at my apartment. I'd found this recipe for pineapple chicken, so we made that. It was really fun cooking together. K made us the daiquiris, so we had our grilled pineapple chicken with salad and grilled pineapples with our yummy strawberry daiquiries.

After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen and got ready to go see K's friends who are in from Germany. I had only met them once before. They're married, and they're both in the Army. Brandon, the husband (obviously), had been K's roommate a few years ago, and he's one of K's best friends. We didn't leave to go meet them until 11:30 or so, so we were both pretty tired by the time we got there. They were staying with a friend of Brandon's wife, and the area they live is growing rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that there are just no street signs on some of the roads. It makes it pretty difficult to get somewhere when you don't know what street your on! So K and I were pretty frustrated for a while there.

What I appreciate about our relationship, though, is that we tell each other if we're angry or getting frustrated. And it's always fine. Great communication really is key to a relationship. And after my last relationship (which had terrible communication), I definitely believe it.

It was fun seeing Brandon and his wife again. K and Brandon had gone outside for quite a while and talked by themselves. I stayed in the house and talked to the friend whose house we were at. She was really nice. K did say that he and Brandon had talked about me while they were outside. I couldn't help but wonder what K had told him... :) We got home pretty late last night after hanging out with K's friends. We slept in this morning and went to Fuddruckers for a nice, unhealthy burger. We went to the car wash, came back to my apartment and relaxed on the couch all day. It was so nice, and I hated that it all went so fast, as usual. When he left, he said how great the weekend had been and how much he had enjoyed cooking dinner together. Days like these last two make me wish that someday soon they'll turn to an everyday thing -- that the flowers I put in cute pots we picked out together will go on our front porch, that we'll cook dinner together in our kitchen and that he won't have to leave by 7 on Sunday night so he can get home at a decent time because he'll already be home ... with me.