Why I HATE the Wind.

Can't you just hear me complaining?? (Click on the pic for a zoom in view).

Texas on My Mind

I spent the first few days of this week at an Alumni Relations conference in Austin. All it took was one drive down Mopac into the heart of downtown on a sunny morning to make my heart ache to be back in that city. Our conference was at the Omni, which meant I could walk two blocks to meet both Morgan and Royale for lunch on a patio, where we sat in the sun and chatted like we were all still roommates, living together on the third floor of the DG house, eating our Mexican lunch on a Friday, still in our PJ’s. Before I left for the airport on Tuesday evening, I took a detour to campus and walked the drag, hitting up the Co-op and Tyler’s to add a few more UT t-shirts to my ever-growing collection and marvel and how everything looks so different from four years ago, yet still feels so very much the same.

The guy selling the silver rings at the little table among all the other artists is still there, with his sign recognizing him as the oldest vendor in the Renaissance Square. The chubby “homeless” guy in the tie dye t-shirts with the goofy cardboard signs still walks Guadalupe asking for money, even though I swear he also works at the Co-op. The yellow Starbucks that I passed every day on my way to class is still crowded with students meeting to study, while still smelling slightly odd and murky. Most of the shops on the drag look the same, although the bagel store is now a Potbelly and the Cadeau, where I’d always go to buy a cute birthday present, is now another trendy clothing boutique. I so wanted to be there, every day, walking across the street to campus and going to class. Being there, with all the current students darting around you and sporting their round up t-shirts really, really made me miss it.

So my new long term goal in life is to get back to Austin. Maybe in two years, maybe in five, maybe in ten. Maybe I’ll just spend every other weekend there this summer and go back for (more than just one) football game in the fall. I know I’ll be there more often this year for Royale’s wedding festivities. Showers and parties and a bachelorette weekend are surely in the works. We even talked about possibly coming down for a weekend to help her pick out her dress! That would be exciting.

So I’ve go Austin on the brain and missing my friends who I had a great quick visit with. Every meal I ate was with either Morgan, Jamie or Royale and we really got to chat and catch up with each other. I’m sure after one weekend back here at home, I’ll be perfectly content with Dallas again. In fact, I’ve got a date with Laura for the Mavs game and plans in the works for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in a few weeks. What’s not to love?

I Love You, Presidents

Happy President's Day! In honor of George and Abe, this post is coming at you straight from home, on the couch, in front of the TV. Nice. I feel like I have a lot to celebrate today, besides the day off from work.

In honor of Valentine's Day and me having two days off from work this weekend, I decided to throw eating healthy right out the window. I didn't take one day off like I did for the Super Bowl, of just the weekend off like I did for my sister's birthday. I took the whole week off. Mark and I basically celebrated V-Day from Thursday night until this morning, so I went ahead and started early this week, eating bad from the get go. We had our fancy dinner on Thursday and had (the very best ever) guacamole as an appetizer, and then I ordered a GREAT BIG burger with fries AND potato cakes. I had a beer. Yum. We got Paciugo for dessert and ordered the large size cup with four different flavors. For breakfast I had TWO grands biscuits, bacon, sausage and eggs. I think I must have eaten no less than 20 Hershey's miniatures this weekend. And that's a low guess. On Valentine's Day, we had our traditional romantic dinner at the McDonald's drive-thru and got (more) ice cream. Last night, we ordered pizza and i had FOUR slices. It was a fantastic weekend, food wise. I never let myself feel guilty about any of it.

This morning I knew I had to weigh myself to log my weekly weight. I debated skipping it altogether, but the online program I am using kept reminding me that today is my weight day. So I stepped on the scale this morning and cringed, more than usual.

Something is completely backwards. I lost two pounds. How?? I have no idea. Apparently burgers and pizza and chocolate, with bare minimal exercise works for me. Hmm. This also makes 5 pounds lost so far in '09. Woo! Slow and steady. Summer, here I come. Bring on the bathing suits.

One of my favorite blogs, yourwishcake, often posts about working out and and being healthy and staying motivated. plus, she's as cute as can be and makes all kinds of fun crafts. Following the lead from her blog, I am setting a goal for myself this week (just one, not a whole list! I gotta make it somewhat attainable) to run 5 miles. In 5 days. So that's a mere one mile a day for 5 days. The only catch is I have to run these miles, not walk them, like I tend to do these days. I figure if Sara can run 2.25 EVERY DAY, I can manage 5 short spurts this week.

Oh and in case you were wondering, Mark was pretty adorable with his Valentine's plans. He mailed me a home made card inviting me to dinner with him and since I never check my mail, it sat in my box for almost a week, while he sweated it out. I finally got it the day before the invite's date, much to his relief. He was brainstorming ways to get me to check my mail without giving it away. This is our third V-Day together and our third time to celebrate our own "Fake Valentine's Day," which basically means we don't go out on the 14th, but skip the crowds and preset menus and opt for a happy meal and ice cream cone on the real day and a nice dinner out sometime else that week. It means two days to celebrate and twice the fun.

Well, I'm off to the outlet malls. Let's hope for some good sales. Big plans this weekend as well - an out of town wedding and a trip to Austin early next week for a work conference. I'm looking forward to seeing friends and celebrating some pretty big news with them :) I'm also looking forward to wearing my new black dress to the wedding. I got it at Zara on the clearance rack for 14.99, marked down from $129.99. Dear lord. You can't pass up something like that!

Better Late Than Never

Over Christmas Break, I made this video of pictures from 2008. The first picture is Mark and I on New Year's Eve '08 and the last picture is us on NYE '09. It's a glimpse back at the year and set to one of my favorite Coldplay songs. I never took the time to upload it online, but finally got around to it today. I'm on "Winter Break" now, so I have a FOUR DAY weekend (woo!) and had some time on my hands.

So, here it is. A month and a half late! 2008, you were good to me.


2008... in pictures. from Amanda on Vimeo.

25

Everyone and their dog is doing this on facebook. My coworkers and I had a big discussion today at work about how lame this whole 25 Random Facts thing is. But secretly? I really want to do it. I'm facebook friends with the girls at work, so I had to secretly stash it on my secret blog because yeah, we have also talked repeatedly about how lame blogs are. I just smile and agree...

1. My freshman year of college, I went to Mt. Bonnell three times in two weeks with three different boys. Mt. Bonnell is a scenic overlook that is up in the hills above Lake Travis. It's very make-out-point like, even though places like that really only exist in 80's movies. I somehow managed to have three different boys take a liking to me at the same time and they all had the idea to take me to Mt. Bonnell. I kept telling each one that I had never been there before, even though some of these outings were only days apart.

2. I love cereal and eat it every morning for breakfast. I don't have it with milk though. I love it dry. I do pour it into a bowl and eat it with a spoon, even if its just plain, dry cheerios.

3. I've had my cat Gus for almost a year and a half. I never paid the pet deposit at my apartment. I used to try to hide him and not let him go near the windows, but now i don't even bother. I open the blinds halfway every morning for him to look out while I am at work.

4. I have been pulled over for speeding four times, but only gotten a ticket once. It was in a construction zone and I was going 26 over, so it hurt pretty badly.

5. I have totaled two cars. The first was in high school on my way to school, the second about three years ago, on the way home from work. But I was having to work on a Saturday, which sucked, so I always felt that I wasn't supposed to be driving in that spot at that time. Both wrecks involved me rear ending the car in front of me. Hmm. That's always your fault, right?

6. Sometimes when I am running, I start to make up dance routines to the music I am listening to on my iPod. They are always elaborate drill team competition routines from my high school days, and I always insert a lot of spins and turns into them, probably because I could never do the spins and turns very well. If I am running on a street with no cars/people, I even act out the arm movements as I imagine a flawless team of girls doing my perfect routines.

7. I also pretend that the music i listen to in my iPod is a soundtrack to my life, as if i were in a movie. I play out all kinds of scenarios, some real, some not, that fit perfectly with the song. I obviously wish i was on an MTV reality show.

8. My entire elementary school years, I wanted to be a teacher. I still have days where I wish I had been an education major and was teaching 3rd grade somewhere today. I think someday I will still be a teacher.

9. My senior year of college, I went with four friends to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was just how you would imagine Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street to be - crowded, messy and incredibly fun.

10. The summer before I started fourth grade, I spent several weeks with my cousin in Oklahoma. She always wanted to ride bikes, but I didn't know how to ride a bike and was too embarrassed to tell her. So I always acted like I hated riding bikes. By the next summer, I had learned to ride my bike and my cousin came to stay with my family for a few weeks. We rode bikes every day and she always asked me while I suddenly liked to ride them. I never fessed up. I did however fall off my bike that summer, and break my arm in two places. It sucked.

11.My favorite movie is Love Actually. My favorite book is Atonement. My favorite band is The Fray.

12. I love, love, LOVE listening to Kidd Kraddick in the morning. It reminds me of my dad driving me to middle school at MIS and I still listen to it as I get ready and drive to work every morning. I feel like they are my friends.

13. I once won a cell phone on the radio by calling in with the list of the five top songs of the day. I called before they had even played all the songs, just to make sure I had the number right. The DJ himself answered and when I told him I was calling early to test the number, he told me he would let me win. So I stayed on the line with him while he finished playing all the songs and then started the contest. Caller number 10 or something was supposed to win, but he totally cheated and just pretended that I had called in at the correct time. He was very sleazy and was making jokes with me that I was too young to understand. I never used the cell phone because my parents wouldn't commit to the two year contact to activate it.

14. My boyfriend pretends that Carrie Underwood is his ex-girlfriend, so I pretend that Justin TImberlake is my future BF.

15. I hate voicemails and avoid checking them until I absolutely have to. This means I usually have to go through three or four two week old voicemails to hear one when I finally need to check it. This same rule applies to work. I despise coming in in the morning and seeing my voicemail light blinking. Please, just email me instead.

16. At the end of college, my friends and I had rituals that involved eating terribly. Every Sunday night, we went to Chili's and ordered chips and salsa and the fried chicken strips. Tuesdays was McDonalds happy meals, sometimes even the two cheeseburger meal. With fries. Thursdays we went to Taco Cabana and ate tortillas and burritos and tacos. Fridays was happy hours at the Merc. It should be no surprise that I gained the freshman 15 during my senior year.

17. When I graduated UT, I literally left Austin after the ceremony to go start my job in Dallas. I drove with my mom, while my Dad and siblings pulled the U-haul home. I cried until at least Temple, at which time my mom told me to get over it and shut up. No part of me wanted to leave my life in Austin as a student living with all my best friends and having zero responsibility other than going to class and passing the tests.

18. Once I got back to Dallas and started working, it amazed me how much easier working full time was, compared with being in school. My job was demanding and I often worked late hours, but once I left work I didn't have to think about it until the next day. I didn't know what to do with myself in the evenings, since I didn't have to read, write papers or study. It was a weird feeling.

19. Now, I would love to go back to school. I miss sitting in class, taking notes, learning new things. I hate to see shows on TV with college kids in it because I am immediately so envious of them. It's not so much the lifestyle I miss anymore, but the actual being in school and getting to read and learn about so many new things. Yes, I am a bit of a dork.

20. I am really good at being a bridesmaid.

21. I do not like cheese. I will eat foods with cheese in them, as long as it is not one of the main ingredients. For example, I do not like and you couldn't pay me to eat macaroni and cheese, cheeseburgers, string cheese, anything with alfredo sauce or cheese enchiladas. Queso is the absolute worse offender. Yuck.

22. I had an internship at the Make a Wish Foundation in college. Among other things, I was trained as a wish grantor and assigned a kid whose wish I got to help grant. He was a high school student who had overcome a brain tumor and wished for a vintage Les Paul guitar. I know nothing about guitars, but we did get him what I later found out was a pretty amazing guitar. Autographed no less.

23. It is incredibly hard to think of 25 interesting facts about myself. Have I mentioned that I have an incredible boyfriend?

24. I won third place in the 2nd grade spelling bee. The word that I got out on was avenue. I also won 1st place in the Geography Bee in 4th grade. I beat a 5th grade boy in the tie breaker round and had to skip recess to take a test one day to try and make the regional round. I was so mad about missing recess that I raced through the test without even really trying. I remember my teacher asking me if I was sure I didn't want to look back over my answers before I turned it in and I just wanted to get outside and play with my friends. I never made it to the regionals.

25. In grade school, I read almost every Baby Sitter's Club book, in order. I say almost because they were writing them faster than I could keep up and I ended up losing interest around book number 82. I still have all of them, in big plastic tubs in my parents' attic.

Whew. Your turn.

Where'd she go?

I’m back. My brief hiatus is solely because I have been so busy lately. I met some friends for happy hour yesterday and we had this very conversation. One is a student in her last year of law school. One just started her own PR business. One is a PT and recently bought her first house with her husband way up north. We pondered over how we manage to always be so busy that even getting a date on the calendar for us to all get together is nearly impossible. Two other girls couldn’t make it at all and we’ve been planning this date since Christmas! I don’t work dreadful long hours, yet there are never enough hours in the day, week, or month. But, I’d always rather be busy than bored.

Anyways. One of the main things I was doing all last week was prepping for the Super Bowl Party at Mark’s. I always knew it would take actually inviting people over to really get the ball moving on decorating the house. We painted, cleaned, shopped, changed out his ancient framed photos, hung something over the mantle, rearranged, laid some stones in the backyard, bathed the dogs, bathed the cat (!), baked galore, grilled burgers, made dips with chips and dips with veggies, scrubbed the bathrooms and washed the windows (inside AND out). Just before people started arriving for the game, we stood back and admired out work. The house looked great.

The party was also a lot of fun. We had a good group of people come over and two of them even brought their dogs. I watched more of the four dogs chasing each other around the house and yard than I did most of the first half of the game! They all got along so well and it was hilarious to watch them play together. Everyone brought delicious food and we ate and ate and ate. In fact, we’re still eating the leftovers. Leftover burgers, leftover cookies, leftover cupcakes, leftover veggies, leftover chips and dip, leftover beer. No complaints, other than the extreme unhealthiness of most all of it. I ordered Mark to eat all the cookies before I returned to his house later this week. I think he’s taking my command pretty seriously, since he told me he had seven cookies with lunch yesterday!

In the middle of all the prepping for our gathering, I of course went to buy the iPhone. I won’t dwell on it. I know it is extremely annoying when people talk about their phones all the time. Play on their phones all the time. Email on their phones all the time. Text on their phones all the time. Use the facebook application to check photo updates on their phones all the time. Respond to every ring or ding or beep on their phones when you are trying to have dinner or drinks or a conversation. And I am not becoming one of those people. But I am AMAZED with this phone. It’s been about four days and, as my friend at happy hour so eloquently put it last evening, the iPhone will change your life. And it is. Another friend told me that it’s as addictive as crack, which I am also finding to be true.

So yeah, we took a quick break Sunday morning to dash over to the mall and buy the phone. Then I tucked it away for the rest of the day and didn’t really bring it out until mid-football game, and then everyone got theirs out and we downloaded applications for a full hour. At least. Ahh. OK. That is the end of iPhone talk on this blog.

This week is slow at work and I'm finding it hard to start and stick to one project long enough to actually complete anything. My apartment is a mess and I need to do laundry, as well as hit up the treadmill. Super Bowl Sunday took a toll on the trip to the scale this week, so I'm hoping for a better try next Monday. I am looking forward to going to the cycling class tonight because it's been two weeks since I've had the time to go! I'll end with some photos from this weekend and a promise to be better on keeping things updated. Happy Hump Day to all.

Well, the photo went in on the top and I don't feel like taking the time to move itdown. You can see our nice new green wall in the picture, which was during the 3D commercial at the Super Bowl.