Picture perfect

So I've been thinking about doing some crafty-like projects recently (although, I haven't gotten past the thinking to actually doing yet). I was in the GW yesterday looking for some Halloween costume accessories (btw, GW is short for "Goodwill" for all of you non-thug speaking folk) and saw some furniture diamonds in the rough... I though "Oooh, I could totes do something with that..."

OK so my crafty craze started this summer... Back in July I puchased this painting for $15.

I hammered out the painting and the inner fabric frame, removed the hanging wire and sanded down the splinters.

Then I spray painted it black and... voila!!

Instant photo GENIUSNESS!! Although I shamelessly stole this idea from some other wedding photos I'd seen, I was extremely pleased with my crafty awesomeness.

So now with the frame I already have (it's currently just sitting in my upstairs hallway collecting dust) I can't just let it go to waste, so I'm thinking I want to add a bunch more frames, and do something like this:

With all different sizes, maybe painted different shades of grey and/or black and some funky shapes, it could look really cool. :)

~OR~

And I've thought about this ever since seeing the wedding photos...

We did 4 really cute shots using the frame. I'm thinking I might frame those photos and hang them up inside the empty photo frame. Genius, right?? I thought so too...

Now my only problem is finding a wall big enough...

But I can't think about that right now... I must work. Bah! Although, now it's time for lunch. :)

slr

Why can't every decade be like the 80's??

OK, so I've been on this huge 80's kick recently... actually, it's more like a lifelong obsession, but still..

80's tunes, 80's fashion (for one of my many halloween costumes, of course), 80's movies... the 80's were just all around awesome.

Here's my current 80's faves playlist on Groveshark (although I have one current song on the list that I couldn't leave off - I just love it). It's my "get pumped" playlist that I listen to at work. It helps get me motivated... especially on Monday's. :)

Go ahead - Listen and reminisce....

Oh and the halloween costume... I'm really excited. Although, it's actually for this crazy race I'm running in that weekend. I'm sure I won't be doing a whole lot of actual running, but whatever. It's going to be a blast, and it's almost required to wear a costume. So I'm going with a little of this...

and this...

some of this...

and a LOT of this...

:) My costume is going to ROCK!

Ah the 80's... What do you think of when you think 80's? Or more specifically, what song do you hear in your head when you think 80's? I think Footloose... That song IS the 80's. That and Danger Zone. Aw Kenny Loggins. I heart your golden voice... Speaking of Kenny, I saw the new Footloose movie this weekend. I was fully prepared to go by myself, since I was sure none of my friends would want to pay $10 to see it, but my awesome friend, Elaine, was all over it. :) She really is all sorts of awesome.

Needless to say, it was full of awesomeness. From the opening scene sing along (because who DOESN'T sing along to Footloose??), to Ren teaching Willard to dance, to the angry warehouse dance, the movie was all around fantastic. Props to Mr. Bacon for making the original so iconic, but I kinda like the remake better.

Anyway, I suppose I should get back to the present and actually get some work done today. :-P

Hasta Pasta!

slr

A 5-year reunion is kind of pointless and redick, but I'm glad I went... sort of.

So this weekend was my 5-year reunion from Whitman (whoot whoot!). I was really excited and anxious to see everyone and catch up and pretend to be a college student again, but at the same time a little weirded out that I was still in W2 and all these people were coming back to a place I never left... :-\ Small talk was bound to be awkward.

Anyway, the weekend started out great with a beer garden thing on campus. I squeeled, hugged, kissed, and caught up with good friends, and made awkward small talk with not so good friends (I mean we're not even friends on FB. Gawd!). Of course, then EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER ended up going to the Green, because way back in the day, that was the ONLY respectable bar in town (within walking distance, that is). We had some tastey fish tacos and dominated the pool table and had an all around good time, but I decided to make it an early night... I knew I had to rest up.

OK, so Saturday went like this:

Stole cheap ass pastries from the President's breakfast.

Headed to Clarettes for real b-fast with TriDelts (was too late to actually eat, however).

Post B-fast nap (too much sugar in pastries).

Reunion class photos.

Post class photo photo-op. I love Kyle. :)

Basked in the sun with the TriDelts on the RCC lawn.

Psych Dept get together.

Ditched Psych to hang with the History Dept (cuz they had beer...).

Whitman Volleyball game... we lost.

Attended shitty, f-ing bullshit soiree at the MW.

OK, so Whitman is a cheap mo-fo. They charged 30 bucks for this soiree thing, and promised enough "heavy hors d'oeuvres" to pretty much replace dinner, and yet they RAN OUT OF F-ING FOOD an hour into the event. Seriously??!?! So I had like 2 carrot sticks, a piece of cheese and a grape. And THEN, the President decided to make a superb ASS of himself by retelling a terrible story that completely ripped apart the integrity of one of the fraternities. At least Cronin wasn't ashamed of his douchey ways ("If there's a will, we want to be in it"), but George, you're just a douche. So, thanks Whitman. I'm not giving you another DIME!!

Thankfully the night was saved by a group of guys my class lovingly refers to as the Monstro boys. They threw an AMAZEBALLS party which totally made up for the complete disaster that was the soiree. There was good beer, good music, some random drawing contests, a game of charades, and the tastiest 2 a.m. grilled cheese I've ever had, but best of all there was no cliquey bullshit. Everyone talked to everyone and it was awesome. We did get a visit from the cops around midnight, but she took one look at us, saw the wrinkles and wished us a good night. :)

I left around 3:30 and the party was still going strong. I can't imagine what the boys felt like the next day. I know I felt like death warmed over, and I didn't have hours of travel ahead of me on Sunday. But the Monstro boys are troopers, so I have no doubt they rallied like champs. :) I heart those boys.

All in all, I'd say it was a great weekend. Whitman at least provided an excuse for us all to be in the same place at the same time, so for that, they did their job. They do, however, need to re-evaluate their strategy for our 10-year... cuz that bullshit ain't gonna fly next time. ;-)

slr

You know what happens when you let your laundry just sit in the washer? Your clothes smell like f-ing shit...

So, I'm lazy when it comes to chores. I leave dishes in the sink for weeks (especially silverware. I HATE washing silverware. And I HATE not having a dishwasher. GAH! Honestly, sometimes I only wash dishes when I know friends are coming over, or if I need like A spoon, I'll wash ONE spoon. That's how I roll...), I avoid picking up the dog's shit for weeks, sometimes months, I only mow the lawn when it's reached a potential health hazard level, and sometimes I forget about my laundry and leave it wet in the washer or dryer for days.

First off, my roommate is never around, so I have nobody to impress except myself, and that's not very hard to do - I'm easy. I don't let the house get like horders level (GROSS!), but I do slack on keeping things tidy. Anyway, my roommie (who lives with her bf about 90% of the year, but still pays rent and utils - score!) has a front loading washing machine for our house. It's cool and fancy complicated with all the buttons, but 1) I f-ing hate that I hit my knee on the stupid door all the time because I have to leave it open or else it starts to smell, EVEN after I actually remember to take the wet laundry out, and 2) it f-ing smells!! Even when I wash out the drum with "Dante's Peak" hot springs from hell level hot water and like a gallon's worth of bleach. I'm constantly washing and rewashing my towels because I can't stand stepping out of a nice hot shower, all clean and smelling yummy, and then drying off with a towel that smells like ass. The dog loves it, but the dog is a freak like that. And when that happens I feel the urge to immediately jump back in the shower to get rid of the smell that is now ALL OVER ME. For some reason this doesn't happen with my clothes, though. Just the towels... hmmm.

My friend Sydney and I had a sort-of conversation about this today:


Syd: Why would anyone buy hot pink towels?

me: Uh, because. Maybe they were on sale and gorgeous. Or their old towels were smelly. I hate smelly towels.

Syd: Don't you wash them?

me: Well of course I wash them, but it doesn't matter. My washing machine smells like ass. So then so do my towels.

Syd: Do you wash a lot of ass?

me: Obviously. Otherwise it wouldn't smell like ass. Maybe I should just buy new towels. Pink ones.

Syd: Or a new washer...

me: Yeah.


I'm still undecided on the towels vs. washing machine purchase. Although both would be awesome, there's not really enough room in the laundry room for TWO washing machines...

slr

Kindle WHAT???

My bestie, Amber, has steadily refused to purchase a Kindle until the cost dipped below the triple digits. Now that the new Kindle is $79 (seriously?!?! I paid at LEAST $30 more than that! Gah!) she ran out of excuses not to get one and begrudgingly agreed. But not before I threatened her life...

me: Did you see? Kindle down to $79. Damn it.

Amber: NO WAY!!! On amazon??????????? With wifi???????????

me: Yup. Go. Get. One. TOMORROW!

Amber: WOW. I am totes getting one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
me: Seriously, now. I will slap/cut/never be friends with you ever again, I mean EVER, if you don't.
 
Amber: LOL. I will... unless you think it will go down to 50 bucks. ;)
 
me: Don't push me..... I keep those plastic knives at my desk.

I think she got the message.

   

PS - I've decided I'm going to start blogging a lot of our conversations. And this is just scratching the surface. You'll see. We're freakin hilarious.

PPS - Video blogging, a.k.a vlogging, is the new "it" thing.

Next installment: Why your towels stink like your nasty ass washing machine.

slr

Tell me, honestly, who doesn't like donuts???!?!

At lunch, while munching on my awesome, yet completely devoid of any form of fried dough, salad, with the debate over which taco truck was the best in town, and our distress over the severe lack of ice cream trucks anymore, we decided that society needs more mobile food entities. Sweet, fried food, to be exact.



In the incredibly wise words of Homer Simpson: Mmmm... doughnuts.



NYC has a Sweetery truck that they dress up and drive around New York. My question is why hasn't this concept been adopted EVERYWHERE???

SO... the brilliant idea we had was for an utterly delicious Doughnut Truck. OMG, GENIUS!!! Donuts are realively easy to make, and wouldn't be that hard to make in a cramped truck, and there would be little risk of food contamination because you'd just throw everything in the fryer! And since summer is over, as is the season for the few and far between ice cream trucks, what better than to replace our sweet tooth with a warm, freshly fried piece of sugar dough???



This is only a delivery truck, since actual Doughnut Trucks don't yet exist...



And we'd have music playing like the ice cream trucks do, but we'd play "Our donuts bring all the boys to the yard..." :)

I'm thinking this could very well be my retirement plan... because, seriously, who doesn't like donuts?

slr

Volleyball mania!!!

OMG it's HERE!!!! It's finally here!! I love V-ball season!!

So I'm officiating high school volleyball again this year. :) Last year was my first year and although I was reffing mostly terribly painful Junior High games with a few JV and Varsity games thrown in the mix, I LOVED it! I didn't so much love finding blue slacks for the uniform (I searched EVERYWHERE! It's like they don't exist...) and I was physically exhausted by mid-November, but the extra cash made it all worth it. Last year that extra cash helped pay the security and pet deposits for the new house I was moving into. This year? Well, it SHOULD go to the CC debt... and some of it probably will. But I'm thinking I want to use some of it to pay for a trip to Turkey in Feb/Mar. :) We'll see. That's not quite set yet...

So last weekend (not this past weekend, but the weekend before) my 6'6" friend, Elaina, had a couple friends in town and we ended up playing a 4 hour long pickup game of volleyball on the grass court on Whitman's Ankeny Field. Granted, I'm only 5'7", but I was damn impressed that I actually kept up with them! My timing was off on my attack approach, and I can't jump for shit, but I notice that I always play better when I'm with people that are better than me. My serves and passes were good, and on occasion I got lucky and made a kill or two. I was extremely pleased. I hadn't played GOOD volleyball in so long that it was like a drug. I was euphoric for days... however, my body disagreed with me. I may have been in v-ball bliss, but my knees said otherwise...

And then this past Saturday I spent all day at the CC officiating a HS volleyball tourney. It was really good practice for me, since my first match of the season last Thursday was a little tough. I'm definitely rusty on my calls and can't for the life of me follow rotations (it was so much easier as player - I just knew wehre I was supposed to go!), but having a couple other officials there to give me pointers and watch my calls was really helpful. By the end of the day on Saturday (I reffed the championship match, btw) I was all over it! Definitely worked out some of the kinks, and made a nice $150 in the process. :)

OK, so since I started this reffing thing last year, it still amazes me how HARD it is to go from being a player to a ref. I'd imagine it's not too difficult going from player to coach (Elaina is the assistant coach for Whitman, which is totally awesome), but as a ref I have to be completely objective. I can't make faces at a terrible set (although I still do), or whoot and holler at an awesome dig or spike. I can't get pissed at the official for blowing the game, cuz I AM the official!! It's a lot of responsibility to be the deciding factor in a heated match. It's stressful, let me tell you...

Aaaanyway, all this volleyball makes me want to sign up for a doubles tournament or something... although that season is almost over. We'll see if I still want to do it when May rolls around. :)

slr

Someone else needs to make my decisions, because clearly I make poor choices...

OK, so back in April I was suckered into buying a timeshare-like thing. The deal is you get a certain number of points every other year and you can use them anywhere Hilton has hotels or resorts. At the time, it sounded like a pretty sweet deal! And I kept thinking about all the awesome trips I could take with my friends and it was just soooo appealing and tempting... and the sales people saw what a huge, gullible target I was and, well, here I am now.

However, now that I have it and want to start planning trips, everyone I've talked to about going on a trip can't go! They're all either broke or can't get the time off or are having babies or whatever. Not that I'm not happy for those folks having babies and everything, because I'm waaaay excited for them, but it definitely puts a damper on my travel plans. I probably just need to be a little more patient, but the more I wait and the more I think about it, the more I think I made a mistake in signing up for this thing.

Now, it's technically real estate, so I can sell it back or sell it to someone else, so I guess, when you look at it that way, I can still get out of it. It's not like I signed away my life. But it keeps me up at night thinking about the number of large, financially stupid decisions I've made over the last year... the car, this time-share thing...

*sigh*

I may need to sacrifice on a few ammenities in order to make up for my decisions... you know, like food.

People watching or peeping tom...

OK, so this may be a tad creepy (or maybe not), but I really like to get a glimpse of the lives of people through their windows at night. Now, I'm not sneaking through yards and hiding in bushes to spy on folks - that's called stalking - I just like to see what people are doing as I walk by. It's fascinating to hear what TV show or movie someone is watching, or to see a family sitting around the dinner table.

And, besides, I live in a BEAUTIFUL neighborhood. I tend to stare at the houses I walk by. Many of the houses are some of the oldest and well kept homes in W2. Each house is different with elaborate castle-like towers, Roman pillars on the front porch, and well groomed lawns and gardens and fountains. Some of the yards are like whistful sanctuaries that make you want to just run around in slow motion while cherry blossoms fall around you.




This one's on my route...

   

This house is in Astoria, but you get the tower effect.



 And I swear Bandit intentionally chooses those yards to do his business - if I was a dog, I would too!



emotional rollercoasters suck...

Maybe it's my crazy travel schedule the last few months, or it's something more physical, but I've been feeling off lately.  I fall into these funks sometimes. Usually it's because I'm just exhausted from life and decide to hermitize and crawl into my unsocial bubble for a few weeks, but this one is a little different... I WANT to be social, but I feel like I'm over analyzing my relationships and taking things too personally, feeling that my relationships are slipping. I've noticed I'm pretty needy at times too. That probably comes from my over analyzing nature, but I end up feeling like I'm not included in things anymore, which just perpetuates my need for reassurance and invitations to just hang out. Which then turns into guilt, which then just perpetuates the whole cycle...

I don't know. It's hard to explain. Thankfully I was able to talk to a good friend about it yesterday and that helped. But when I fall into these funks I wonder if this is the beginning of the end... See, my mom is bipolar and it usually runs in families. So there's a chance that I will develop bipolarism someday... and turn into my mom. And that scares the SHIT out of me. So when I fall into these funks, I fear they're just a glimpse of what might be...

Now, I'm pretty sure my funk is just a funk. Everybody has bad days, weeks, months... it's just part of life. And I'm not saying that I've been down for 3 months solid. It comes and goes. But I do notice that certain people in my life make it worse than others. I almost resent those people for not reaching out to me or noticing that we don't hang out or talk as much as we used to (there's that over analysis again...). I know it's irrational, and I shouldn't be so affected by it, but that's how I feel. Maybe it's time I distance myself from those people and focus on the relationships that make me feel like the WANT to spend time with me.

I also think this has at least something to do with my need to feel wanted. Now, I'm usually pretty good with being single. I'm not one of those girls that needs to be in a relationship to feel complete or whatever - I like the freedom. But living in WW is not by any means easy on the love life, and I wonder sometimes whether I will ever find the right guy. I mean, the ex-bf kind of broke me. It took me so long to figure out what I wanted and needed, that I feel like maybe I never knew what I wanted to begin with, and maybe still don't. My friends continue to reassure me that I'm young and have plenty of time, but I feel like the longer I'm in WW, the less time I have...

Anyway, that's what's been going on lately. I've thought a lot about apologizing to those friends that have seen the brunt of my funk (those friends that bring it out the most). It's not their fault and they don't deserve to be blamed for my issues.

Feel free to comment and tell me I'm crazy. ;-)

slr

Two in one day!!!

How can this be?!?!

Because I had to share this:

Move

Enjoy.

slr

Well hello there!!!

Yeah, OK, so I haven't posted in like 3 months... I could say I was busy, or had nothing of interest to post about, or both, but really I'm just lazy, or exhaused is more like it. I really have been busy the last few months. I don't think I've been home for more than a 2 week stretch since April. Work trips, personal trips... It's just been NUTS!!

My calendar since April:

12-18 April - Orlando, FL - Work conference

26-28 April - Hunstville, AL - Work meeting

17-22 May - Portland/Corvallis, OR - Work/visit my bestie

26-31 May - Seattle, WA - Home!!

10-12 June - Seattle, WA - Bachelorette Party

30 June-5 July - Portland/Corvallis/Bend, OR - Wedding/visit friends

11-15 July - Denver, CO - Work meeting

28 July-2 Aug - Portland/Sweet Home, OR - Oregon Jamboree Country Concert Festival

SEE?!? I am exhausted!! And it doesn't end! I'm headed to Leavenworth for a work retreat 16-18 August, then it's the "It's not WTEW (White Trash Extravaganza Weekend), but it kind of is" weekend in Yakima 19-21 August. And I still have plans to hit up Las Vegas, LA, and Hawaii sometime this fall/winter. There's even talk of a trip to Italy, but I'm not sure that one's gonna happen right away...

The house has suffered considerably in my absence. My roommie has pretty much been MIA since school got out (which I don't blame her one bit), but I thought we agreed that she would take care of the yard since I do NOT do yard work. I mow the lawn when it needs done, and even then I'll let it go for 3 weeks or more hoping maybe it'll just cut itself. That never happens... And I STILL can't figure out how to work her weed wacker, so I just don't even bother with that. But this weekend I have to do some upkeep (Weed and Feed the lawn, spray down the cobwebs, yank out the trees of paradise), which I am not happy about. THIS is why I don't own a house yet....

BUT I am very thankful that I have some really great friends to take care of the pup while I'm off on my travels. The dog hasn't been NEARLY as neglected as the house... At this point, I think Bandit considers them family, and they've started referring to themselves as Aunt Susan and Uncle Jim. And their pack of 3 female golden retrievers we refer to as Bandit's harem. :) They spoil him (tuna, lamb, potatoes from the garden, leftover minestrone soup) and have threatened to trade me for one of theirs because they love him so much. And our payment arrangement?? I bring Jim beer back from wherever I've gone (lately it's been McMenamins since my travels have taken me to OR). But really, what's one more golden when you've already got three? He fits right in.

SOOOO... since I've acquired a new obsession thanks to this weekend's festivities down in the quaint, very Republican community of Sweet Home, OR, I thought I'd recount my weekend activities with all three of you that read my random thoughts and rants. ;-)

My newly hitched bestie (Harmony) and I planned this weekend back in March this year. Apparently I am the only other friend of hers that appreciates country music as much as she does, so we decided to make it a countryfied girls weekend. :)



BEER GARDEN! And Harms was soooo proud of her Tammi Taylor sunglasses. :)



We had a great time camping and met a couple interesting folks... There was a group of about 30 camping right near us. We introduced ourselves, but they were clearly not interested in anything other than getting sh*t faced and passing out, which we were more than OK with letting them do. We also hit up a private little spot along Foster Lake and spent most of Saturday soaking up the sun, floating in the very pleasant water, and nearly getting clipped by passing boats (it was the PERFECT Saturday, actually). And we planned out some awesome gourmet camping meals (mushroom and onion egg white scramble on english muffin with Tilamook white cheddar cheese.... Mmmmmmmmmmmm).

As for the festival, it was way too regimented for our liking. Way too many rules. We kept getting told we couldn't stand here, couldn't dance there... it was so frustrating. And NOBODY danced. Everybody just copped a squat in their camping chairs and stayed there. But not Harms and I... when everybody left after Lady A on Saturday, we took up nearly the entire sitting area and danced our little hearts out. With nobody to tell us no... :) It was awesome. Anyway, after being fed up with all the rules, the last day H$ and I said f*ck it and stuffed mini alcohols down our shirts (we found it was easy enough to get them past the metal detectors. Yes, I said metal detectors) and proceeded to have our own little rebelious party.

As we rebelled, I was introduced to my new musical obsession: Christian Kane.

If in your youth you ever watched "Angel" (the spin off to Sarah Michelle Geller's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), and remember the sleezy turned sexy attorney Lindsey McDonald, or you watch his current show "Leverage" on TNT, well this is his band and they are AWESOME! Seriously. I never buy CDs anymore, especially not actually at a concert, but I did this time and we listened to it on repeat all the way home (it's been on repeat in my car every since. And t'll probably stay that way for quite a few weeks, too). :)

All in all, it was a great weekend. Got to hang out with my girl, Harms, and enjoy some awesome music.

I can't wait for our next adventure.

Um... yeah. A requirement for every girls wardrobe.

Read the full article here.

slr

Tasty Business

I've decided that I am so in love with the perfect oatmeal from S-Bux. No joke. It's not like it's really anything special, but I just can't keep myself from loving it. Maybe it's the perfectly sized container it comes in, or the perfectly measured condiments that come with...



Other tasty business... Fro-yo. After TCBY was so abruptly uprooted from the Dubya-Dubya (aka Walla Walla), I have been dying for a replacement... And we finally got one: The Peach & Pear.

http://whitmanpioneer.com/arts/2010/11/18/the-peach-and-pear-brings-fro-yo-to-walla-walla/

Finally a relatively healthy replacement to the ever enticing DQ Blizzard.

:-)

And if you are a white wine fan, and like the somewhat sweeter variety, I highly recommend Condundrum by Camus. It's a blend, so I have absolutely no idea what it is, but I have yet to find a wine I like more (and that's saying something considering my current wine country location...)

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program....

slr

Seattle sunblock

So I made it to Orlando... Granted it was 3 days later than originally planned, and I missed out on my dolphin swim, but I got me some vitamin D (minus the sunburn), some new friends, and a poorly drawn caricature.

So the conference itself was a bust. Many of the topics had absolutely nothing to do with me, so I was quite bitter sitting in a dark conference room pining for the poolside lounge chair and Mai Tai that was calling my name.



But once I was out of that dingy prison they called a conference room, I managed to make it to Sea World to see Shamu, and to Wet-n-Wild where I proceeded to relive a little bit of my childhood with some fellow conference goers and a couple resident Floridians, for whom I now have an excuse (besides the dolphin swim) to return to O-town to visit. :)

We also hit up some of the night life in downtown Orlando. Saturday night, post W&W, we headed out to the club which is definitely something I miss, seeing as how I currently reside in a town with limited civilization... And then after we closed down the club, we hit Mc.D's for a late night/early morning snack. We caused a rucus, to say the least... :) I think I got back to the hotel around 4 am... quickly showered, packed my bags and caught the shuttle to the airport at 5 am. :) I was dead to the world as soon as we took off.

And then I stepped off the plane into overcast, 50 degree weather and I immediately wanted to go back.

Government shutdown panic

So have any of you been keeping up on the whole government shutdown talk?? I'm scheduled to attend a conference for work next week, and I'm more than a little frustrated iwth the lack of concrete guidance, not to mention freaking out about the possibility of being furloughed. I am NOT a fan of this mandatory LWOP bullshit... OR the possibility of not getting compensated after the whole thing is over. (TOTAL bullshit) I wouldn't be so upset if I didn't have a non-refundable (although thankfully reschedulable for one time with no fee) ticket to swim with dophins in Orlando on Sunday. So depending on what happens in the next few hours, there are a few scenarios of what might happen. Here are the options:

Option 1 - Congress agrees on something or they pass another temporary CRA sometime in the next few hours and life continues as usual. I get to see dolphins. Yay.

Option 2 - Right now, the conference schedulers have officially canceled Monday's session, but haven't made a decision on the rest of the week yet. If by the end of today I receive instructions from my Commander to cancel my orders, I will cancel all my reservations and not go to Orlando, even if the gov ends up NOT shutting down and the conference is still a go in Orlando, at which point I will be pissed because I will have to reschedule my dolphin swim for who knows when and get my ass to Orlando on my own dime. And breathe...

Option 3 - If I DON'T hear anything about canceling orders, and by the end of today the conference is still tentatively a go for next week, I will get on the plane tomorrow morning and go to Orlando. Even if I have to pay for the hotel myself and turn around and come back on Tuesday. My time won't be reimbursed, but the plane ticket is already paid for and according to the lawyers, I would not be held responsible for paying it back.

Option 4 - No matter the guidance, I reschedule my flight for Monday (the new official travel day for the conference) and rearrange my hotel reservations to arrive on Monday instead of Saturday. Thus giving Congress the weekend to resolve the budget and me a little more time to decide on cancelations. But that means I'd still have to reschedule the dolphins and go to Orlando on my own sometime in the next 12 months (I have to notify of the intent to reschedule no later than COB Sunday - 2p.m. PST).Unless an agreement isn't decided on by Saturday though, in which case the conference will automatically be canceled/rescheduled and I'll hopefully be able to get a time during the rescheduled conference for my date with the dolphins.

Option 5 - the conference schedulers stop yanking us around and just make the decision to reschedule the conference already. I cancel my travel plans and reschedule the dolphins during the new conference dates.

Clearly options 1 (although highly unlikely) and 4/5 are preferred, but all this hinges on guidance that has yet to be announced. It's just a total mess and there's no way I can resemble anything like productive with this kind of uncertainty looming overhead. This not knowing bullshit is painful...

 

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THG disaster... please don't be another Twilight

I was/am a Twilight fan. I know, I know. Sometimes I'm ashamed to admit it, just like I'm ashamed to admit I was a massive NSYNC fan in highschool... but we're not talking about NSYNC, we're talking about my YA (young adult) novel craze. Ever since discovering the sacred pages of Twilight, I've been on a YA kick and almost refuse to read anything else. After the God awful movie was release, however, my Twilight fanatical ways came to a screetching hault. The first movie absolutely DESTROYED my spirit and I just can't get over it. (although I still plan to see the midnight premiere of Breaking Dawn...). Recently, however, I've found a new obsession...

The Hunger Games.

Anyone that's ever read this book knows exactly what I'm talking about... I freakin LOOOOOOOVVVVE this book/series. I totally had TEABS (The End of and Awesome Book Syndrome) when I finished the series. WAAAAY more than I EVER had with Twilight.

Now onto the reason for this post. Anyone who's anyone knows that THG the movie is in the works (YAY!) and the cast for the three leads was just announced... but just like Twilight, THG fans are not so happy with the selections...

Katniss -

Strong, independent, and looks 16...

My picks: Danielle Chuchran...

or Willa Holland

Gary Ross's choice:

Jennifer Lawrence

(so NOT 16... although I'm not TOO disappointed with this choice)

Gale -

brooding and way hot...

My pick: Ian Sommerhalder

(swoon!!)

Gary's pick:

Liam Hemsworth

(Ummm, he's gonne need some help on the whole brooding thing...)

Peeta -

sweet, clever, adorable Peeta...

Hunter Parish (PERRRRFECT!!)

Gary's choice:

Josh Hutcherson

(all I can say is WHAT?!?! Soooo wrong...)

I'm going to need a little mourning time and quite a few cocktails before I'm OK with this. This is HUGELY disappointing and I'm more than a little worried this may turn into another Twilight disaster. Seriously, I can't take another broken heart. I just can't. So I'm praying like never before that Gary knows what he's doing...

And this concludes my allotted time for THG discussion...

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Oh say can you seeeeee!!

Apparently after my beyond stellar performance at one of last year's games, the Sweets have asked me to return for an encore performance of the National Anthem at a couple of this summer's games. :)

Last year's game was a lot of fun, although quite short - we were rained out by the 2nd inning. We held out as long as we could, but when you can't seen the person next to you because of the rain, it's time to call it quits. The nice part was my sister and nephew were in town for a visit, and we made the best of the torrential downpour with a crazy game night with some of my crazy friends. :) Probably one of the most random, purely comical evenings I've had in a long time.

My nephew, Brady, and I... soaked. :)

Needless to say there's no doubt we will be frequenting many of the Sweets games this summer. With $1 beer nights at all Wednesday home games, it's almost a sin not to take advantage of the dirt cheap entertainment.

And how could anyone say no to Sweet Louie. :)

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I wish there was a bootprint so I could CSI the bastard...

As you can see by the very lovely iPhone photo above, my car of which I've been in possesion for just 5 months, was deformed by some jackass this weekend. I keep looking at it hoping it'll just go away, but instead I just feel a tight pain in my chest with every glance.

I got an informal estimate this morning and it'll probably run between $500-$1500 to fix. Ouch. I haven't called my insurance yet. I'm still debating whether or not to since it's just cosmetic damage and it's still drivable. Although, I fear the pain in my chest will continue until I fork over the cash to get it fixed.

I did call the po-po this morning and filed a report, but not before I racked my brain going over and over the events of Saturday to make sure it wasn't something I did. I've decided it wasn't. The officer said I'm lucky it wasn't worse and that it was probably just some punk kids.

Great. That makes me feel a WHOLE lot better...

*sigh*

Happy 279th Birthday George!!!

So in celebration of Mr. George Washington's Birthday, and in turn the Monday holiday, I took a trip to Boise for the weekend. I figured I needed a little mini vacation since the next holiday isn't for another 3 months, and all government agencies may be closing after March 4th if Congress can't decide on a budget or CRA... but I digress.

Boise!! The only time I ever make it to Boise is for work, so this weekend was a real treat. My friend Kim tagged along because she also had people in Boise she wanted to see, so it was nice to have the company on the drive and someone to split the gas with. :) We started the weekend off right and headed out to the bar for some drinks and pool. Unfortunately, Idaho still allows smoking in bars, so I was pretty miserable with the stench and the whole not being able to breathe thing (I'm so spoiled in WA), but we made the best of it. I think the best part of the night was the 3 AM carne asada burrito from the taco truck parked outside the bar. SOOO good (but apparently not up to par, according to my friend, Mike...).

We also did some shopping, went to a Stealheads (hockey) game, and hit the slopes up at Bogus Basin.

Now Bogus was interesting....

So Kim's friend, Cook, came skiing with Mike, Kim and I, and 2 runs into the day she started feeling pretty sickly. She ended up curling up in Mike's truck for most of the day fighting off a stomach bug. :( THEN, sometime after that, I caught my heal edge and took a nasty fall down the mountain hitting my head pretty hard. It took a while for me to realize I had a concussion. Stupidly, I did about 3 more runs before I couldn't do anymore. Like I said... stupid.

The drive down the mountain was interesting. Cook ended up getting sick out the window (somehow missing the truck) while I did everything I could not to do the same. By the time we got back to the house, I had severe nausea, a 100 degree fever, a knarly headache, and vertigo. I just curled up on the couch and reveled in my misery. Not even Mike's homemade turkey noodle soup, with HOMEMADE noodles, could make me feel better...

By Monday morning I felt more human, but I'm so glad Kim was there to drive home. I probably would've stayed in Boise had she not been there... which I actually would've been OK with. :)

So the moral of the story is:

Wear a helmet... or just take up skiing.

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Hi, my name is Stephanie, and I'm an infomercial sucker.

Over the past year or two I've fallen prey to a few informercials... Go ahead... say it. I'm super gullable. I've known this about myself since... well, since I could understand what "gullable" meant.

The first one was WEN Haircare...

In my defense, I was in the hospital for that blood thing and miserable beyond belief. The hospital didn't have cable, so in the middle of the night when the nurse would come in and poke me for bloodwork, I would stay up and watch the home shopping network or get suckered into the oh so enticing infomercials for the magic bullet or the fancy, never dull in your lifetime, even after sawing through a brick, knife sets.

Anyway, this WEN stuff lured me in and I called in my order in the wee hours of the morning. I liked the stuff at first, even gifted a bottle or two to friends, but after a while, I got tired of the stuff, and had WAY too much, and canceled my deliveries. I still have 2 bottles at home that will probably take me a year to use...

A few months later I decided to try bareMinerals makeup...

Now, I've had my fair share of bad luck with makeup, but I LOVE this stuff!! My sister even got me some for Christmas!! She's way awesome like that... Anyway, the only part about this that I fell prey to was the mail order delivery. I was paying the same price for half the product, plus shipping. I finally canceled my deliveries last month and started getting the stuff at one of the over priced beauty salons in town (the haircuts and stuff are over priced, not the makeup). :)

The last, most recent and financially STUPID informercial purchase I made was for the Food Lovers Fat Loss System...

Now before you judge me, it was a VERY convincing infomercial... OK, judge me. I deserve it. I got suckered, but not by the program. I actually like the program. I got effed by the "extras." I signed up for some "free" extra stuff, and forgot to cancel in time (my own stupid fault). BUT after I canceled, they were still charging me... so I called last week to bitch about it and demand a refund... and of course they said there was no record of me canceling. And of course I didn't have my cancelation # on me... It was Bullshit!! So... I canceled again, but only after paying up the ASS...and making SURE I wrote down the cancelation # this time. I am so stupid sometimes...

Anyway, the whole reason for this post was to say that after buying the "program" about 3 months ago, in an attempt to get bikini and 5K run ready, I'm finally actually doing it... Or at least this is my 3rd day of 21. We'll see how long I last. It's supposed to be life changing.... I'll let you know when I'm allowed to have tasty, frosty beverages again...

slr

Bieber fever baby!!

OK, so I'm not running around screaming his name, crying at the very sight of him, or scribbling "Mrs. Justin Bieber" on my notebook (because I'm already promised to Edward Cullen...kidding, I'm kidding. And not to mention that would be so so very wrong on so many levels), but I did take my 11 year old friend Tosha to see Justin Bieber: Never Say Never yesterday. I have to say, I give the boy props for being extremely talented, and for being blessed with great hair.

Anyway, Tosha and I had fun at the movie. We even splurged and saw it in 3D. I felt like I had a hangover after it was over (that 3D shit can be brutal), but I figured if we were doing it, we were doing it right. :-)

We decided it was a buyer... for her, not me.

She said she'd let me borrow it. ;-)

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Yes, I'm still alive...

...but life hasn't been all that interesting lately. My days consist of going to work, walking the dog, washing the dog, eating, sleeping, talking myself into going to the gym, deciding I'm too lazy to go, and resisting the urge to just buy a whole new wardrobe. Throw in an episode of Grey's Anatomy and Glee here and there, and you've got my life for the last 6 weeks in a nutshell. Now you see why I've been MIA with the blog.

I did, however, make a quick trip to LA a few weeks back (I forgot I did that!). It was warm, and sunny and beautiful and a really nice trip. Except for actually getting down there... that was a nightmare.

So Allegiant Air has these suuuper cheap flights from Pasco to LA. For a measely $100 round trip, I'm more than willing to subject myself to a middle seat next to a crying baby and a guy farting next to me every 5 minutes. But when the flight is delayed by an hour and a half because some lady doesn't recognize her own name when it's called, and the rest of us have to pull out our IDs and the crew has to go person by person checking IDs to find this woman... that's when I say it may not be worth it. They finally found the woman, after announcing her name 6 times... I was more than a little dumbfounded by the sheer obliviousness of some poeple.

But, I finally made it to LA, and spent a great day with an old friend from high school that I hadn't seen since graduation. We romped around Pasadena, drinking and eating our way through the cozy dive bars, reminiscing about times of old and admiring the incredible architecture. And he educated me in yummy beers and we ate some very tasty cajun muscles.



Pasadena City Hall. Very cool.

Then I was passed off to another friend and we headed up to Valencia. We watched movies, played with the baby, ate cookies and nutella popcorn (SOOOO good), and had a great time spying on the crazy neighbor girl giving a strip tease on her balcony. People in California are crazy...

Needless to say, I will be going back very soon. :)

And I will try harder to live a more exciting life for those that actually read up on what I'm doing...and then blog about it.

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