Well it's been a busy past month, therefore, the blogging was placed on the back burner. This will be short and sweet, but i will return to a normal schedule beginning next week.
Less than 6 months till the wedding...Ryan is so excited he can hardly contain himself with all the talk of flowers, centerpieces, church music and more. Several weeks ago we began our pre-marital classes. During our first session the deacon had to ask us several questions - separately. Ryan looked at me as though the deacon told him he was going to have to take the SATs. I went first with the questions and when he asked me if both parties were entering into the marriage freely and without duress, I thought Ryan might let the cat out of the bag and tell the deacon i threatened to cut him off if we didnt get married. Luckily, our answers were sufficient and we got the official "OK." Now, we get to take our compatibility test but I'm pretty sure there is no refund on our deposits if we turn out not to be compatible though...
Good news on the work out front, I finally purchased some tennis shoes so i no longer need to work out in my Uggs. The bad part is that my ass continues to get larger. Apparently, you actually have to USE the elliptical machine in order to lose weight. Go figure. Over Thanksgiving, i tried on my wedding dress for the first time - just as fabulous as I remembered, just a skosh tighter than i recalled :)
So, for the holidays Ryan and I headed home to Indianapolis. When we left Houston it was a lovely 75 degrees. When we landed, it was about 20 degrees. Me no likey. Upon our arrival to the airport parking, we were informed that the lot was full and only people with reservations could park there. Reservations? Really? At a parking lot? This was nonsense. But, the lovely attendant informed us, we could have our car valet parked for an economical $15/day. I told Ryan we should park our car across the street at the Taco Bell - even if they towed it, it'd be cheaper!
Hope everyone had a good holiday and has an enjoyable new years!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
7 Months!
Well it's 7 months until the big wedding day. Things have been busy the past few weeks and finally, no medical shenanigans to report in this blog!
Since we sent out our save the date's, i realized we probably needed to get our registries started. I had flashbacks to my trip to Crate and Barrel with the registry nazi, but i knew it needed to be done. So, I hijacked Ryan and convinced him it would be good for us to go to Bed Bath and Beyond one Monday night a couple weeks ago. When we arrived, I expected them to give us our scanner gun and set us loose. Oh no. The "wedding consultant" escorted us over to her office (aka bistro table with cheesy wedding decorations.). She clearly loved her job and could not wait to explain every element of wedding registries. After about 15 minutes, I thought Ryan was going to abort the mission before we even started. Luckily, the store got busy and she had to send us on our way.
We got off to a good start, adding some basic items we needed. And then, Ryan wandered off and added the following items to the list:
1. A wok - because he's "always wanted one"... too bad the closest we get to Chinese is teriyaki chicken and white rice
2. An electric martini shaker - my thought - if you're too lazy to shake your own damn martini, you shouldn't be drinking it.
3. A extra large bag of sour patch kids (candy) - this doesnt even need a comment because i promptly deleted it and smacked him in the head.
I attempted to return his focus to things he was interested in...and managed to get about 30 minutes of his attention before calling it a night. Overall, the trip was successful so we have just one more registry to finish the trifecta.
Last weekend, we took a break from wedding planning and work and went to visit our friends Scott and Sam and their daughter Brooke in Charlotte, NC. When traveling with Ryan, I am required to follow many rules that are down right absurd by my travel standards. Ryan is very nervous to fly so he insists on arriving at the airport 5 hours in advance of the flight. I begrudgingly agreed to arrive 2 hours in advance. I'm considering getting Ryan one of those senior citizen ID badge holders that old people wear around their necks with their tickets and ID's. We checked in and dropped off our suitcase which was embarrassing due to the gnawed handle from Austin a month back when he got bored and ate it (note to self, add luggage to registry). A whopping 20 minutes later we were through security and sitting at the gate. sweet, 1 hour and 40 minutes to do nothing. My plan of arriving late to the airport works out much better - no wait and I get my exercise in as i run through the terminal like a mad man.
While in Charlotte we went to the mall to get sunglasses for Ryan and I took the opportunity to corral him into the jewelry store and look at wedding bands. Surprisingly, we found two that we both agreed on in relatively short order. I don't understand why all things wedding for men are cheap (tuxes, flowers, rings) while women have to spend ten times as much. Nonsense. We went to check out and our sales lady went on to the next customer. The woman running the register came over to go over our order. She looked at me and started explaining the insurance for the wedding band. In true form, I was making a mockery of the situation and said "oh, the wedding band isnt for me, i'm just his girlfriend." She looked horrified, so i quickly ended my joke and said "just kidding!" She just looked at me and said "your business is your business." Ryan told me to go away. haha, note to self, love is a serious thing and one should not make jokes in the jewelry store.
Sigh...on a positive closing note, my plans for my bachelorette party are coming along well....we will be partying up in Vegas - responsibly of course. Ryan and his best man Scott remain undecided and of course in true male fashion, will likely wait until the last minute to plan anything. Additionally, Ryan and I have decided to celebrate our everlasting love by spending our honeymoon on an Alaskan Cruise. Non-traditional, but as most people know, Ryan claims to be allergic to the sun and I really do not like sand....together we're a hot mess. So Alaskan Cruise it is....now i just have to stock up on Dramamine so i don't spend the whole trip puking. More importantly, should the wedding weight loss plan not produce desired results, attire for Alaska will be much more acceptable than attire for the Caribbean.
Since we sent out our save the date's, i realized we probably needed to get our registries started. I had flashbacks to my trip to Crate and Barrel with the registry nazi, but i knew it needed to be done. So, I hijacked Ryan and convinced him it would be good for us to go to Bed Bath and Beyond one Monday night a couple weeks ago. When we arrived, I expected them to give us our scanner gun and set us loose. Oh no. The "wedding consultant" escorted us over to her office (aka bistro table with cheesy wedding decorations.). She clearly loved her job and could not wait to explain every element of wedding registries. After about 15 minutes, I thought Ryan was going to abort the mission before we even started. Luckily, the store got busy and she had to send us on our way.
We got off to a good start, adding some basic items we needed. And then, Ryan wandered off and added the following items to the list:
1. A wok - because he's "always wanted one"... too bad the closest we get to Chinese is teriyaki chicken and white rice
2. An electric martini shaker - my thought - if you're too lazy to shake your own damn martini, you shouldn't be drinking it.
3. A extra large bag of sour patch kids (candy) - this doesnt even need a comment because i promptly deleted it and smacked him in the head.
I attempted to return his focus to things he was interested in...and managed to get about 30 minutes of his attention before calling it a night. Overall, the trip was successful so we have just one more registry to finish the trifecta.
Last weekend, we took a break from wedding planning and work and went to visit our friends Scott and Sam and their daughter Brooke in Charlotte, NC. When traveling with Ryan, I am required to follow many rules that are down right absurd by my travel standards. Ryan is very nervous to fly so he insists on arriving at the airport 5 hours in advance of the flight. I begrudgingly agreed to arrive 2 hours in advance. I'm considering getting Ryan one of those senior citizen ID badge holders that old people wear around their necks with their tickets and ID's. We checked in and dropped off our suitcase which was embarrassing due to the gnawed handle from Austin a month back when he got bored and ate it (note to self, add luggage to registry). A whopping 20 minutes later we were through security and sitting at the gate. sweet, 1 hour and 40 minutes to do nothing. My plan of arriving late to the airport works out much better - no wait and I get my exercise in as i run through the terminal like a mad man.
While in Charlotte we went to the mall to get sunglasses for Ryan and I took the opportunity to corral him into the jewelry store and look at wedding bands. Surprisingly, we found two that we both agreed on in relatively short order. I don't understand why all things wedding for men are cheap (tuxes, flowers, rings) while women have to spend ten times as much. Nonsense. We went to check out and our sales lady went on to the next customer. The woman running the register came over to go over our order. She looked at me and started explaining the insurance for the wedding band. In true form, I was making a mockery of the situation and said "oh, the wedding band isnt for me, i'm just his girlfriend." She looked horrified, so i quickly ended my joke and said "just kidding!" She just looked at me and said "your business is your business." Ryan told me to go away. haha, note to self, love is a serious thing and one should not make jokes in the jewelry store.
Sigh...on a positive closing note, my plans for my bachelorette party are coming along well....we will be partying up in Vegas - responsibly of course. Ryan and his best man Scott remain undecided and of course in true male fashion, will likely wait until the last minute to plan anything. Additionally, Ryan and I have decided to celebrate our everlasting love by spending our honeymoon on an Alaskan Cruise. Non-traditional, but as most people know, Ryan claims to be allergic to the sun and I really do not like sand....together we're a hot mess. So Alaskan Cruise it is....now i just have to stock up on Dramamine so i don't spend the whole trip puking. More importantly, should the wedding weight loss plan not produce desired results, attire for Alaska will be much more acceptable than attire for the Caribbean.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Hostile Blog
I can't believe its already the end of October. And with the end of October brings my least favorite holiday...Halloween. Yup, i said it. I hate halloween. I dont think I hated it growing up. Although i must admit, costumes were never quite as cool covered up with big jackets and scarfs. Down here in Houston, its still 80 degrees so kids can pick whatever costume they want and not have to winterize it. I remember being a Hula girl one year and wearing a turtleneck and jeans under the costume. I cant be positive, but I'm pretty sure they don't even sell turtlenecks in Hawaii. When we lived in an apartment, i had a good reason not to participate in Halloween...usually no one went around to the apartments asking for candy. However, last year, when we moved to Houston, Ryan was overjoyed by the prospect of giving out candy. I was less than thrilled at having to listen to kids shrieking at the door all night for candy. As most people know, i'm not a fan of children 99% of the time. I want to have kids (not any time soon of course), and I think my friends kids are super cute and adorable. I just like being able to walk away from them when i've had my fill. I'm pretty sure this stems from me being so obnoxious as a child. The dogs are good training wheels for me at this point in life. And so, we stocked up on candy again this year to hand out to the same kids that play in the middle of the street when i'm trying to drive down the road...yup, i remember doing that too. To add to the joy, the dogs bark at anyone walking by the house, so i can't wait to listen to them bark all night when people are actually ringing the doorbell! Sigh.
In the past few weeks, a couple mildly amusing events have occurred. In the world of medical updates, to make a long story short, I was having pain in my chest for several days and was told by my nurse on retainer (Erin) that i should go to the ER and get checked out. Ryan was thrilled at the prospect of getting to spend another night in the ER! So, off we go. Of course, with everyone in Houston thinking they have swine flu, i was prepared for hours of wait time. However, I forgot that when you say chest pain, they roll out the red carpet and usher you right in. Of course they have to stick about 10 monitor leads on me which required me to take my shirt off in the triage room. Great. The door to the waiting room only opened about 59 times. Note to self....increase work out routine, you still look like a fatty! After answering a million questions, the nurse proceeds to put three wrist bands on me. One with my allergies to meds, one with my basic info and one that said "Limb Alert." I wasn't clear if that was alerting them to the fact that i have all my limbs....but after making that joke, she clarified for me that it means i have an issue with one of my limbs, in my case, the blood clot. She didnt seem to appreciate my humor. That is until ryan pipes up and asks if she can give me "The purple wrist band." She cracks up at this. I'm confused. I say, what is the purple for? She smiles and says "It means Do Not Resuscitate." How amusing for them. At this point, the nurse came in to start my IV. I'm pretty sure this is the first thing you learn when you go to nursing school. Now, I dont know how to do it, but i do know that when you start the IV, you make sure that the line is cinched off. This lady puts the IV in and as soon as she does it, blood comes spurting out the end like a fountain. I am laughing and she is getting mad because its making it come out faster. Ryan is as white as a sheet...thats what he gets for his DNR joke. So now there is blood all over the chair, my pants, and my shirt that was in my lap. They decide to take me to a room...things are off to a super start. Thankfully, nothing serious was wrong. They discharged me with non-specific chest pain....which really means they just didnt know what was wrong with me. Most people dont.
The next night Ryan tells me my laptop is broken. This of course pisses me off and I'm certain he's wrong. I plug it in, no power seems to be getting to it. This is likely because of the three sections of electrical tape that is holding the wires together after Austin chewed it on several occasions. I take the battery out, put it back in, press the power button about a hundred times. Still nothing. I reach over to unplug the cable from the wall and get electrocuted! No joke. None of this static electricity shock, the damn thing jolts my arm and i can't release my grip. Of course I scream, causing the dogs to come racing in and Ryan is laughing at me. It was time to call it a night and go to bed.
This past weekend, i was looking forward to doing what i do best...being lazy. I had just woken up from a lovely morning nap when i opened my eyes and see a Chihuahua in my living room. WTF?!? I get up and watch the rat dog scamper outside and see another unfamiliar dog outside. They both go running over to the fence and sneak under a hole that they had escaped through. For those who aren't aware, our neighbors have about 5 dogs that literally bark all day and most of the night. I walk over to their house, intending to be a good neighbor and say "hey, your lovely dogs dug under the fence." No one answered. So left a polite note saying they needed to fix the fence. This was about 11am. I see them several times throughout the day, no response to my note, nor do they fix the fence. Two more times that day their annoying dogs were in our backyard antagonizing Austin. The next day, same thing. Finally, two days later, they put up another piece of wood to block the hole. Pretty ghetto. Hopefully Austin gets hungry and just eats the little rat next time he scampers over.
Well, thats what I've been up to the past couple weeks. Ryan has been sick since yesterday. He's not sick often, but when he is, he's a big baby. Being the good fiance, I offer to go to CVS to get him cold medicine. Now, I get that certain medicines these days require you to sign your life away back in the pharmacy so you dont make meth out of it or whatever other crazy things kids do with it. Though i must note, i can barely tolerate taking the recommended dose, much less drinking a whole bottle of that crap. In any case, I get the standard NyQuil and take it up to the register along with a couple other misc items. The lady looks at me, looks at the Nyquil and says she needs to see my ID. I'm like, "come again?" She says, "Ma'am I have to check your ID because you have to be 18 to buy any cold medicine." HA HA, are you kidding me? I get that i look young for my age, but under 18?? Really? On a Sunday night in my sweats and no make up? I hand her my ID and she reads it over and hands it back to me with a smile, "Thanks!" I'm hoping he makes a quick recovery otherwise he can go and get his own quasi illegal medicine.
And in wedding related news...we sent out the save the dates today. If you dont get one, it probably means we dont like you. Kidding....mostly. :)
In the past few weeks, a couple mildly amusing events have occurred. In the world of medical updates, to make a long story short, I was having pain in my chest for several days and was told by my nurse on retainer (Erin) that i should go to the ER and get checked out. Ryan was thrilled at the prospect of getting to spend another night in the ER! So, off we go. Of course, with everyone in Houston thinking they have swine flu, i was prepared for hours of wait time. However, I forgot that when you say chest pain, they roll out the red carpet and usher you right in. Of course they have to stick about 10 monitor leads on me which required me to take my shirt off in the triage room. Great. The door to the waiting room only opened about 59 times. Note to self....increase work out routine, you still look like a fatty! After answering a million questions, the nurse proceeds to put three wrist bands on me. One with my allergies to meds, one with my basic info and one that said "Limb Alert." I wasn't clear if that was alerting them to the fact that i have all my limbs....but after making that joke, she clarified for me that it means i have an issue with one of my limbs, in my case, the blood clot. She didnt seem to appreciate my humor. That is until ryan pipes up and asks if she can give me "The purple wrist band." She cracks up at this. I'm confused. I say, what is the purple for? She smiles and says "It means Do Not Resuscitate." How amusing for them. At this point, the nurse came in to start my IV. I'm pretty sure this is the first thing you learn when you go to nursing school. Now, I dont know how to do it, but i do know that when you start the IV, you make sure that the line is cinched off. This lady puts the IV in and as soon as she does it, blood comes spurting out the end like a fountain. I am laughing and she is getting mad because its making it come out faster. Ryan is as white as a sheet...thats what he gets for his DNR joke. So now there is blood all over the chair, my pants, and my shirt that was in my lap. They decide to take me to a room...things are off to a super start. Thankfully, nothing serious was wrong. They discharged me with non-specific chest pain....which really means they just didnt know what was wrong with me. Most people dont.
The next night Ryan tells me my laptop is broken. This of course pisses me off and I'm certain he's wrong. I plug it in, no power seems to be getting to it. This is likely because of the three sections of electrical tape that is holding the wires together after Austin chewed it on several occasions. I take the battery out, put it back in, press the power button about a hundred times. Still nothing. I reach over to unplug the cable from the wall and get electrocuted! No joke. None of this static electricity shock, the damn thing jolts my arm and i can't release my grip. Of course I scream, causing the dogs to come racing in and Ryan is laughing at me. It was time to call it a night and go to bed.
This past weekend, i was looking forward to doing what i do best...being lazy. I had just woken up from a lovely morning nap when i opened my eyes and see a Chihuahua in my living room. WTF?!? I get up and watch the rat dog scamper outside and see another unfamiliar dog outside. They both go running over to the fence and sneak under a hole that they had escaped through. For those who aren't aware, our neighbors have about 5 dogs that literally bark all day and most of the night. I walk over to their house, intending to be a good neighbor and say "hey, your lovely dogs dug under the fence." No one answered. So left a polite note saying they needed to fix the fence. This was about 11am. I see them several times throughout the day, no response to my note, nor do they fix the fence. Two more times that day their annoying dogs were in our backyard antagonizing Austin. The next day, same thing. Finally, two days later, they put up another piece of wood to block the hole. Pretty ghetto. Hopefully Austin gets hungry and just eats the little rat next time he scampers over.
Well, thats what I've been up to the past couple weeks. Ryan has been sick since yesterday. He's not sick often, but when he is, he's a big baby. Being the good fiance, I offer to go to CVS to get him cold medicine. Now, I get that certain medicines these days require you to sign your life away back in the pharmacy so you dont make meth out of it or whatever other crazy things kids do with it. Though i must note, i can barely tolerate taking the recommended dose, much less drinking a whole bottle of that crap. In any case, I get the standard NyQuil and take it up to the register along with a couple other misc items. The lady looks at me, looks at the Nyquil and says she needs to see my ID. I'm like, "come again?" She says, "Ma'am I have to check your ID because you have to be 18 to buy any cold medicine." HA HA, are you kidding me? I get that i look young for my age, but under 18?? Really? On a Sunday night in my sweats and no make up? I hand her my ID and she reads it over and hands it back to me with a smile, "Thanks!" I'm hoping he makes a quick recovery otherwise he can go and get his own quasi illegal medicine.
And in wedding related news...we sent out the save the dates today. If you dont get one, it probably means we dont like you. Kidding....mostly. :)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Clarification
It has been brought to my attention that I perhaps was a bit too presumptuous by indicating I had won the Groves football pool. This is incorrect as the game tomorrow could bump me back to second place. My apologies to my dearest Uncle Tom.
To add to this clarification, i thought I'd also include one last ridiculous event that happened last monday in the on-going saga of my blood clot. With still no resolution for my blood clot, I had one last test to have done, a CT Angiogram. I arrived expecting an hour wait as usual, but was surprised to be called back after just 15 minutes. All went well as she explained the procedure, put the iodine in my arm (which makes you feel like you're peeing your pants for those who have never had it!) and in 10 minutes, I was done. I departed for work and forgot all about the test. About an hour later, as I was sitting in my office, my neck and head started to itch. I didnt think much about it until it got to the point where my whole neck and back also started to itch. My boss walked in at that moment and looked at me and said..."uhh, what's going on with your face?" I pulled out my mirror and realized I had hives all over my face. LOVELY. Ahh yes, I remembered the conversation earlier that morning when the CT Tech noticed I was allergic to Shellfish and noted that "sometimes people who have shellfish allergies will have a reaction to the iodine." Isn't that my luck. I proceeded to beg my coworker for benedryl and contact my dial-a-nurse (also known as registry nazi) to see how long these hives would be on my face given I had was set to see all my HR co-workers from around the globe in 24 hours. Upon my return home, Ryan laughed at me and told me if we survived by natural selection, i'd be out of luck. Sigh. Tuesday morning most the hives were gone and the ones that weren't were covered up by makeup so I arrived to the conference looking fabulous as usual ;)
To add to this clarification, i thought I'd also include one last ridiculous event that happened last monday in the on-going saga of my blood clot. With still no resolution for my blood clot, I had one last test to have done, a CT Angiogram. I arrived expecting an hour wait as usual, but was surprised to be called back after just 15 minutes. All went well as she explained the procedure, put the iodine in my arm (which makes you feel like you're peeing your pants for those who have never had it!) and in 10 minutes, I was done. I departed for work and forgot all about the test. About an hour later, as I was sitting in my office, my neck and head started to itch. I didnt think much about it until it got to the point where my whole neck and back also started to itch. My boss walked in at that moment and looked at me and said..."uhh, what's going on with your face?" I pulled out my mirror and realized I had hives all over my face. LOVELY. Ahh yes, I remembered the conversation earlier that morning when the CT Tech noticed I was allergic to Shellfish and noted that "sometimes people who have shellfish allergies will have a reaction to the iodine." Isn't that my luck. I proceeded to beg my coworker for benedryl and contact my dial-a-nurse (also known as registry nazi) to see how long these hives would be on my face given I had was set to see all my HR co-workers from around the globe in 24 hours. Upon my return home, Ryan laughed at me and told me if we survived by natural selection, i'd be out of luck. Sigh. Tuesday morning most the hives were gone and the ones that weren't were covered up by makeup so I arrived to the conference looking fabulous as usual ;)
Two weeks of Shenanigans
It's been a lengthy two weeks so i shall share the highlights by categories for your amusement, yet somehow, none of the events in this post have anything to do with my wedding (8 months away as of today!). It's been a good lazy Sunday...full of excellent sports. Plus, as an added bonus, Colts are the SNF game so i get to watch them down here in Texas...yahoo! In news of the Groves Football Pool, I won the week, and bragging rights until next week...although my cousin came close to snatching victory from me.
On the workout front - the elliptical was fixed and I was back on the path to a svelte wedding body. Still no tennis shoes, so yes, the workout continued with my Uggs. Things were going well until last Saturday. I was sneaking a workout in before Ryan and I were headed out for the night. Things were going fine until I got done, felt sick to my stomach and proceeded to puke in the kitchen sink. While I'd like to believe i was sick due to an extremely vigorous workout, the cause was more likely the 2 ding dongs i had snarfed down just minuted before my workout. Indeed, i needed to buckle down with my discipline.
On the dog eating me out of house and home front - Austin continues to eat everything he can find. I should just throw money on the ground and let him eat that...it would save me having to clean up after him. Last week he ate both the window sills off the entry way windows. Yesterday he managed to get one of my few remaining flip flops off the bathroom sink and woke me up by dropping the remains on my face. And finally, on Thursday, after i returned home from a work trip, i made the foolish mistake of leaving my suitcase on the floor and woke to him having eaten the leather off the handle. Note to self, add luggage to the wedding registry. For those not aware, Austin is the dog that I acquired shortly after moving to Texas. I was lucky enough to be inducted into Texas culture by attending a livestock auction for work. Yes, that is right folks. During the auction, i was provided free beer all day and on the way out, a woman selling puppies for $5 caught me in a weak (drunk) moment and I snatched up the cute little puppy. I suggested to Ryan that we name him Miller Lite since that was how we came to adopt him. Somehow, Ryan didnt see the humor in that and we settled on Austin.
In travel news - Most of you who know me, know that I have the worst luck when traveling. However, I had been on a run of good luck until Thursday. After being in Annapolis all week for work, my co-workers and I had a late flight back into Houston on Thursday night. We were scheduled to arrive at 9:45. I was hoping to get home and be in bed by 11. We boarded the flight on time, landed on time...I was a happy camper. I told co-worker Chris to go ahead and go home and I would ride back to the office with our new co-worker Lori to get my car. We proceeded to the luggage claim, grabbed our bags and I thought we were off. I asked Lori where her car was located and she confidently replied, C2 garage. Great, we started walking. As we walked into the garage, she gave me a funny look and said "This doesnt look right." Lori has just moved to Houston (big mistake there) so hasn't flown out of the airport before. I said, no worries, there are three C garages, perhaps its one of the others. So, back to the other garages we go. Each garage was the same reaction..."This doesnt look right." After an hour of walking around, in the 85 degree heat and humidity of 100%, we decided to call the parking security office. I explain the situation and the lady says, no problem, we inventory the cars each night. I'm thinking, that job has to suck. She tells me that all she needs is the license plate number and they can locate it. Relieved, I tell Lori, and she says she has no clue what her plates are. We are both about to cry at this point. So, our only option left is to have parking security officer deputy dog drive us around every garage - oh by the way, there are 7 garages, each having 6 floors. At this point, it is midnight and I am ready to call it a day, but dont want to be rude. Lori tells me to take a cab and go home. I feel bad, but do not look a gift horse in the mouth. Deputy dog drives me over to the taxi stand and I hop in. I tell the guy where I'm going and he attempts to put the address in the GPS while driving. I tell him, buddy, no need for GPS i know where i'm going, but he ignores me and continues to fumble with GPS, mumbling under his breath. Finally he gives up and says sorry "I just woke up a bit ago for my shift." I"m like, SUPER...perhaps he can fall asleep while driving like a previous cab ride i had a couple years ago! Things were mostly non-eventful until we got about 10 minutes away from my office and the cabbie almost merged into a motorcycle rider. The motorcycle rider had been next to us for almost 5 minutes, but clearly my sleepy cabbie had not been paying attention. I yell and he swerves back left and then starts yelling about how the guy came out of nowhere. Uhhh, if by no where you mean in your blindspot! Finally, at 1:15am, I arrive at my car, pay the crazy cabbie and head home...this is why my mother doesn't like me taking cab rides. Of course, upon arrival, my ferocious guard dogs start barking and wake Ryan up. So much for being quiet. I drop my suitcase (see previous post about dog eating handle off), take out my contacts and crawl into bed at 2am. The alarm at 6am was brutal.
On the workout front - the elliptical was fixed and I was back on the path to a svelte wedding body. Still no tennis shoes, so yes, the workout continued with my Uggs. Things were going well until last Saturday. I was sneaking a workout in before Ryan and I were headed out for the night. Things were going fine until I got done, felt sick to my stomach and proceeded to puke in the kitchen sink. While I'd like to believe i was sick due to an extremely vigorous workout, the cause was more likely the 2 ding dongs i had snarfed down just minuted before my workout. Indeed, i needed to buckle down with my discipline.
On the dog eating me out of house and home front - Austin continues to eat everything he can find. I should just throw money on the ground and let him eat that...it would save me having to clean up after him. Last week he ate both the window sills off the entry way windows. Yesterday he managed to get one of my few remaining flip flops off the bathroom sink and woke me up by dropping the remains on my face. And finally, on Thursday, after i returned home from a work trip, i made the foolish mistake of leaving my suitcase on the floor and woke to him having eaten the leather off the handle. Note to self, add luggage to the wedding registry. For those not aware, Austin is the dog that I acquired shortly after moving to Texas. I was lucky enough to be inducted into Texas culture by attending a livestock auction for work. Yes, that is right folks. During the auction, i was provided free beer all day and on the way out, a woman selling puppies for $5 caught me in a weak (drunk) moment and I snatched up the cute little puppy. I suggested to Ryan that we name him Miller Lite since that was how we came to adopt him. Somehow, Ryan didnt see the humor in that and we settled on Austin.
In travel news - Most of you who know me, know that I have the worst luck when traveling. However, I had been on a run of good luck until Thursday. After being in Annapolis all week for work, my co-workers and I had a late flight back into Houston on Thursday night. We were scheduled to arrive at 9:45. I was hoping to get home and be in bed by 11. We boarded the flight on time, landed on time...I was a happy camper. I told co-worker Chris to go ahead and go home and I would ride back to the office with our new co-worker Lori to get my car. We proceeded to the luggage claim, grabbed our bags and I thought we were off. I asked Lori where her car was located and she confidently replied, C2 garage. Great, we started walking. As we walked into the garage, she gave me a funny look and said "This doesnt look right." Lori has just moved to Houston (big mistake there) so hasn't flown out of the airport before. I said, no worries, there are three C garages, perhaps its one of the others. So, back to the other garages we go. Each garage was the same reaction..."This doesnt look right." After an hour of walking around, in the 85 degree heat and humidity of 100%, we decided to call the parking security office. I explain the situation and the lady says, no problem, we inventory the cars each night. I'm thinking, that job has to suck. She tells me that all she needs is the license plate number and they can locate it. Relieved, I tell Lori, and she says she has no clue what her plates are. We are both about to cry at this point. So, our only option left is to have parking security officer deputy dog drive us around every garage - oh by the way, there are 7 garages, each having 6 floors. At this point, it is midnight and I am ready to call it a day, but dont want to be rude. Lori tells me to take a cab and go home. I feel bad, but do not look a gift horse in the mouth. Deputy dog drives me over to the taxi stand and I hop in. I tell the guy where I'm going and he attempts to put the address in the GPS while driving. I tell him, buddy, no need for GPS i know where i'm going, but he ignores me and continues to fumble with GPS, mumbling under his breath. Finally he gives up and says sorry "I just woke up a bit ago for my shift." I"m like, SUPER...perhaps he can fall asleep while driving like a previous cab ride i had a couple years ago! Things were mostly non-eventful until we got about 10 minutes away from my office and the cabbie almost merged into a motorcycle rider. The motorcycle rider had been next to us for almost 5 minutes, but clearly my sleepy cabbie had not been paying attention. I yell and he swerves back left and then starts yelling about how the guy came out of nowhere. Uhhh, if by no where you mean in your blindspot! Finally, at 1:15am, I arrive at my car, pay the crazy cabbie and head home...this is why my mother doesn't like me taking cab rides. Of course, upon arrival, my ferocious guard dogs start barking and wake Ryan up. So much for being quiet. I drop my suitcase (see previous post about dog eating handle off), take out my contacts and crawl into bed at 2am. The alarm at 6am was brutal.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A week in review
Blogging has proven to be difficult during the week, mostly because I'm lazy. However, this week had some interesting events, both wedding and non-wedding related.
For those who have been following my blog, you were aware that I was starting to work out for essentially the first time in my life when my elliptical machine broke. Tuesday was the day for this to be fixed. I raced home to meet the technician at 5pm. I opened the door and was nearly knocked over by the smell of dog shit. Oh yes, Austin picked today of all days to have a "loose stool" in his crate (this is the first time he has done this in a year). Now, we have a dog walker who comes at lunch since they can't last 12 hours in their crates, but she had left her standard note saying she was there so clearly this crime had recently occurred. I had just begun to clean up the mess when the doorbell rang. Great, I could barely stand to be in the house and i love these dogs, let alone a guy making minimal money coming to install a belt on my elliptical machine. I sprayed febreeze everywhere, worst trick in the book, and opened the door. I explained i had just gotten home and the dog had gotten sick in his crate and sorry about the smell. I'm pretty sure he did the repair in record time. None the less, the elliptical is fixed and 'Operation Wedding Dress' is back in action.
In wedding related news, we got our save the date magnets. Ryan was pleased with his work of picking them out. They will be coming soon to a mailbox near you due to the fact that 70% of the people invited are going to have to travel to the event. I never thought of Indianapolis as a destination wedding locale....
Speaking of destination locations, i went to the travel agency yesterday to get some honeymoon information. Due to the Internet, I dont see the value in travel agencies these days unless they can give you discounts. So i walked in with high hopes. These hopes came crashing down when I walked in and no one was there, hmmm. I stood there for an awkward second and then around the corner came an older man who wasn't a day younger than 80 and asked if he could help me. I thought, 'sir, you clearly haven't traveled in the post-WWII era, how can you help me.' I told him i was looking for information on a honeymoon and he said his daughter owned the place and could help me (thank god!). She was helpful....though just quoted me prices off the Internet. I was about to go when i asked her if there were any locations i hadn't named that she thought Ryan and I might like. She suggested an Alaskan cruise. My initial reaction was 'yeah whatever' but when i got home I actually looked through the brochure and thought this was exactly what Ryan and I would like. Neither of us are 'lay on the beach people.' Ryan tells everyone he is allergic to the sun and I hate the feeling of sand - yes, we are two freaks who belong together. Alaskan Cruise for 7 days plus 4 days touring the land seemed ideal. The catch, as many can guess, will be the price. Just as Hawaii was over the $5k budget Ryan imposed, so is the cruise. So I will be pondering over the next couple weeks how to afford this trip....suggestions welcome.
And finally, I have been trying to save money for the aforementioned honeymoon and as such, a couple months ago, decided to stop getting my hair done every month for $200 a pop. It's not cheap to look this good. So, i decided to forgo this expense and get just a hair cut every 2 months like the commoners and just touch up my highlights. Last month at CVS i found a light brown hair dye that I thought matched my hair color, but when it dried, didn't really do much but tint my hair a reddish color...clearly I was wrong. This time, i was convinced I had found a color that would work better. After going through the process though, I'm pretty sure i picked the same color and just added more ugly reddish tint to my hair. Luckily, I work with a bunch of men who will make it very clear what they think of my hair tomorrow. It's fine.
For those who have been following my blog, you were aware that I was starting to work out for essentially the first time in my life when my elliptical machine broke. Tuesday was the day for this to be fixed. I raced home to meet the technician at 5pm. I opened the door and was nearly knocked over by the smell of dog shit. Oh yes, Austin picked today of all days to have a "loose stool" in his crate (this is the first time he has done this in a year). Now, we have a dog walker who comes at lunch since they can't last 12 hours in their crates, but she had left her standard note saying she was there so clearly this crime had recently occurred. I had just begun to clean up the mess when the doorbell rang. Great, I could barely stand to be in the house and i love these dogs, let alone a guy making minimal money coming to install a belt on my elliptical machine. I sprayed febreeze everywhere, worst trick in the book, and opened the door. I explained i had just gotten home and the dog had gotten sick in his crate and sorry about the smell. I'm pretty sure he did the repair in record time. None the less, the elliptical is fixed and 'Operation Wedding Dress' is back in action.
In wedding related news, we got our save the date magnets. Ryan was pleased with his work of picking them out. They will be coming soon to a mailbox near you due to the fact that 70% of the people invited are going to have to travel to the event. I never thought of Indianapolis as a destination wedding locale....
Speaking of destination locations, i went to the travel agency yesterday to get some honeymoon information. Due to the Internet, I dont see the value in travel agencies these days unless they can give you discounts. So i walked in with high hopes. These hopes came crashing down when I walked in and no one was there, hmmm. I stood there for an awkward second and then around the corner came an older man who wasn't a day younger than 80 and asked if he could help me. I thought, 'sir, you clearly haven't traveled in the post-WWII era, how can you help me.' I told him i was looking for information on a honeymoon and he said his daughter owned the place and could help me (thank god!). She was helpful....though just quoted me prices off the Internet. I was about to go when i asked her if there were any locations i hadn't named that she thought Ryan and I might like. She suggested an Alaskan cruise. My initial reaction was 'yeah whatever' but when i got home I actually looked through the brochure and thought this was exactly what Ryan and I would like. Neither of us are 'lay on the beach people.' Ryan tells everyone he is allergic to the sun and I hate the feeling of sand - yes, we are two freaks who belong together. Alaskan Cruise for 7 days plus 4 days touring the land seemed ideal. The catch, as many can guess, will be the price. Just as Hawaii was over the $5k budget Ryan imposed, so is the cruise. So I will be pondering over the next couple weeks how to afford this trip....suggestions welcome.
And finally, I have been trying to save money for the aforementioned honeymoon and as such, a couple months ago, decided to stop getting my hair done every month for $200 a pop. It's not cheap to look this good. So, i decided to forgo this expense and get just a hair cut every 2 months like the commoners and just touch up my highlights. Last month at CVS i found a light brown hair dye that I thought matched my hair color, but when it dried, didn't really do much but tint my hair a reddish color...clearly I was wrong. This time, i was convinced I had found a color that would work better. After going through the process though, I'm pretty sure i picked the same color and just added more ugly reddish tint to my hair. Luckily, I work with a bunch of men who will make it very clear what they think of my hair tomorrow. It's fine.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Uncles
I am currently watching the Colts game while writing this blog and am not a fan of the ESPN announcing staff. They are not as bad as Madden and his non-value added comments, but they are pretty bad. Ryan has retreated into the bedroom so I am free to yell at the TV to my hearts content. The dogs aren't sure what to do about this behavior. On a positive note, my elliptical is getting repaired, FINALLY, tomorrow. This means i can get back to working out and hopefully return my ass to normal size.
A very important piece of information has come to my attention in recent days. It seems that my esteemed (paternal) Uncles are concerned for my use of poor grammar whilst blogging. Perhaps they are of the impression that I intend to submit my blog for consideration of the Pulitzer Prize. Whatever their motivation for concern, they will be sad to know that I have no intention of rectifying the situation. My grandmother unfortunately passed on this knack for grammar to my uncles and since I was too young to remember her, my father insisted on correctly my brother and I at every opportunity. Sadly, like an undercooked pasta thrown against a wall, this did not stick with me. And so i say, It's Fine.
My Uncles each have a special place in my heart of course...each of them thinking they are my "favorite uncle," and each trying to embarrass me any way they can. My Uncle Alan is the exception to the rest of the Uncles and is always very nice to me, but last I heard, he was not even aware of the Internet and is not likely reading this. My Uncle Bob and Uncle Tom led the Macarena, to my horror, in a bowling alley one year and has since requested it at every event we attend in my honor. And my Uncle Steve. Nothing says love more than when he takes out his dentures to please a crowd. I'm hoping neither the Macarena nor the dentures make an appearance at my wedding.
A very important piece of information has come to my attention in recent days. It seems that my esteemed (paternal) Uncles are concerned for my use of poor grammar whilst blogging. Perhaps they are of the impression that I intend to submit my blog for consideration of the Pulitzer Prize. Whatever their motivation for concern, they will be sad to know that I have no intention of rectifying the situation. My grandmother unfortunately passed on this knack for grammar to my uncles and since I was too young to remember her, my father insisted on correctly my brother and I at every opportunity. Sadly, like an undercooked pasta thrown against a wall, this did not stick with me. And so i say, It's Fine.
My Uncles each have a special place in my heart of course...each of them thinking they are my "favorite uncle," and each trying to embarrass me any way they can. My Uncle Alan is the exception to the rest of the Uncles and is always very nice to me, but last I heard, he was not even aware of the Internet and is not likely reading this. My Uncle Bob and Uncle Tom led the Macarena, to my horror, in a bowling alley one year and has since requested it at every event we attend in my honor. And my Uncle Steve. Nothing says love more than when he takes out his dentures to please a crowd. I'm hoping neither the Macarena nor the dentures make an appearance at my wedding.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Life Lessons from Gift Registries
Indeed, it has been a week since my last post. Apologies to my fan (Michelle). Sadly, blogging does not pay my bills and work this week was a bit insane. A highlight from my work week occurred when i was running late (shocking) on Wednesday. I grabbed oatmeal to eat at the office. Starving, I went into our kitchen at work, put oatmeal in our overpriced office dishes and then walked over to the carafe labeled "Hot Water." Now, i have made hot tea before using this exact carafe, so when i pushed the plunger on the carafe I was less than thrilled to watch coffee come spraying all over my oatmeal. I yelled a few choice words and in comes our secretary. "Oops, it looks like i put coffee in the wrong carafe, he he he." And thus, i started my day forced to eat coffee flavored oatmeal....yummy.
In wedding related news, I attended my first wedding registry event with my bridesmaid Erin. For purposes of this post, I shall refer to Erin as the registry nazi. This is a term of endearment, because without her help, I would have been hopeless. Until this point, I thought registering would be very exciting...the thought of selecting all the things i wanted seemed like an ideal way to spend a morning. HA! So, off to Crate and Barrel on Sunday morning for mimosas and registering, I was enthusiastic. When we arrived, it appeared I had missed the memo that this was a couples thing. I could not imagine Ryan getting excited about registering nor sipping mimosas on a Sunday morning. When checking in when we arrived, I was tempted to inform the sales person that Erin was my life partner, but remembered we are in Texas, where guns and ultra conservative opinions run rampant. We got our scanner and our instructions and were let loose in the store. It is a bit early to register but I am taking advantage of these events cause you get free food and a gift, so why not! Overall, it was a success and I'm glad to have one done.
I have created a list of my top 5 lessons learned from the event for my next marriage...just kidding Parents!
1. It is amazing I have been able to make it through life without having the 3 different cutting boards I was forced to register for by the registry nazi. During my first year living in an apartment, I learned the hard lesson as to why it is NOT okay to use the counter as a built in cutting board. So i could get on board with one cutting board. Sadly, I was educated that a wood cutting board is acceptable for certain foods, meat required a second type of material and a third cutting board that is smaller which allows one to cut vegetables and then easily pour them into a bowl. My biggest concern here is that i don't eat vegetables.
2. Apparently, it is NOT okay to offer guests paper napkins. Therefore, I am soon to be the proud owner of cloth table and cocktail napkins. I consider this unnecessary and was astonished at the amount of selection these cloth napkins come in. When making fun of this phenomenon the sales person gave me an evil look. I scanned the cloth atrocities and moved on.
3. Begrudgingly, I registered for a glass pitcher. Don't get me wrong, i like the pitcher, but until the registry nazi told me it was NOT okay to use my brita pitcher when guests are over, I would not have even gone down the pitcher aisle. But, since we were in the aisle, i decided to also register for a cool cocktail pitcher...that's more my speed.
4. Place settings. It is still not clear to me why one requires so many dishes to eat a simple meal. I scanned the large dinner plate I selected and started to move on. The registry nazi informed me that I needed to register for salad plates, dessert plates, and coffee mugs. Umm, what? First of all, i registered for 12 sets...I don't have a table big enough for 12 people, nor do we even have 12 friends down here in Houston, haha. Second, what is wrong with putting all the food on one plate? Seems to me this is a retail ploy to get more money. And finally, when I attempted to register for 2 different times of dishes, the registry nazi almost fainted. Apparently this is not allowed in the etiquette book. Sigh.
5. Last, but not least, a very important lesson learned by both myself and the registry nazi. When registering, apparently it is NOT okay to wear jeans and an nice top. When we arrived, I was confused. Each of the other females attending the event had on identical outfits. A top covered by a cardigan with dressy knee length shorts and high heels, hair done, full make-up. These southern bells looked like they were at their rehearsal dinner, not Crate and Barrel at 9am on a Sunday. Their respective men looked equally as nice, but bored beyond belief. I may not know why you need two forks at a place setting, but i sure know that 95% (shout-out to Uncle Bob) of men would rather be where i usually can be found on any given sunday.....on the couch or at a bar enjoying a good football game with a beer and burger.
In wedding related news, I attended my first wedding registry event with my bridesmaid Erin. For purposes of this post, I shall refer to Erin as the registry nazi. This is a term of endearment, because without her help, I would have been hopeless. Until this point, I thought registering would be very exciting...the thought of selecting all the things i wanted seemed like an ideal way to spend a morning. HA! So, off to Crate and Barrel on Sunday morning for mimosas and registering, I was enthusiastic. When we arrived, it appeared I had missed the memo that this was a couples thing. I could not imagine Ryan getting excited about registering nor sipping mimosas on a Sunday morning. When checking in when we arrived, I was tempted to inform the sales person that Erin was my life partner, but remembered we are in Texas, where guns and ultra conservative opinions run rampant. We got our scanner and our instructions and were let loose in the store. It is a bit early to register but I am taking advantage of these events cause you get free food and a gift, so why not! Overall, it was a success and I'm glad to have one done.
I have created a list of my top 5 lessons learned from the event for my next marriage...just kidding Parents!
1. It is amazing I have been able to make it through life without having the 3 different cutting boards I was forced to register for by the registry nazi. During my first year living in an apartment, I learned the hard lesson as to why it is NOT okay to use the counter as a built in cutting board. So i could get on board with one cutting board. Sadly, I was educated that a wood cutting board is acceptable for certain foods, meat required a second type of material and a third cutting board that is smaller which allows one to cut vegetables and then easily pour them into a bowl. My biggest concern here is that i don't eat vegetables.
2. Apparently, it is NOT okay to offer guests paper napkins. Therefore, I am soon to be the proud owner of cloth table and cocktail napkins. I consider this unnecessary and was astonished at the amount of selection these cloth napkins come in. When making fun of this phenomenon the sales person gave me an evil look. I scanned the cloth atrocities and moved on.
3. Begrudgingly, I registered for a glass pitcher. Don't get me wrong, i like the pitcher, but until the registry nazi told me it was NOT okay to use my brita pitcher when guests are over, I would not have even gone down the pitcher aisle. But, since we were in the aisle, i decided to also register for a cool cocktail pitcher...that's more my speed.
4. Place settings. It is still not clear to me why one requires so many dishes to eat a simple meal. I scanned the large dinner plate I selected and started to move on. The registry nazi informed me that I needed to register for salad plates, dessert plates, and coffee mugs. Umm, what? First of all, i registered for 12 sets...I don't have a table big enough for 12 people, nor do we even have 12 friends down here in Houston, haha. Second, what is wrong with putting all the food on one plate? Seems to me this is a retail ploy to get more money. And finally, when I attempted to register for 2 different times of dishes, the registry nazi almost fainted. Apparently this is not allowed in the etiquette book. Sigh.
5. Last, but not least, a very important lesson learned by both myself and the registry nazi. When registering, apparently it is NOT okay to wear jeans and an nice top. When we arrived, I was confused. Each of the other females attending the event had on identical outfits. A top covered by a cardigan with dressy knee length shorts and high heels, hair done, full make-up. These southern bells looked like they were at their rehearsal dinner, not Crate and Barrel at 9am on a Sunday. Their respective men looked equally as nice, but bored beyond belief. I may not know why you need two forks at a place setting, but i sure know that 95% (shout-out to Uncle Bob) of men would rather be where i usually can be found on any given sunday.....on the couch or at a bar enjoying a good football game with a beer and burger.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
9 months and counting...
For those keeping track, which i'm sure is no one but me, today is 9 months until our wedding. Kinda weird to think i could have a baby in that amount of time...yikes, not for a few more years (sorry mom). I can hardly take care of myself. In any case, things with the wedding remain pretty low key. I did order our save the date magnets though. I had assumed this would be a simple process. I under estimated that Ryan would actually have an opinion about this since he had zero opinions about anything wedding related at this point. So, i ordered several magnet samples and when they arrived, he inquired as to what i was doing and when i explained it to him, he stated he did not like the ones i picked and wanted to look at all the options. I of course, made fun of him but let him pick out the one he liked. Coming soon to a mailbox near you. I was also put on notice by Ryan that he thinks my blog is stupid since "anyone reading it I probably talk to all the time anyway" and also advised me he did not want me to write about him. I explained to him, as i did to my mother after my initial post, that I will continue to write about them and further protests to this will result in increased postings about them.
In un-related wedding news, Ryan and I decided to spend the day sprucing up our love nest. As I explained in a previous blog, our dog Austin eats everything he can fit in his mouth. This includes the carpet in our master bedroom. While the carpet was ruined several months ago when i attempted to clean it using bleach (note to self, dumb idea), Austin managed to ruin it more when he started eating the carpet by the door threshold. This has progressed over the past few weeks to where he is actually eating the carpet pad as well. I was awoken this morning to him throwing up the carpet and pad next to my face in bed. Yummy. I put my foot down and off Ryan and I went to Lowes to resolve this issue. Since we rent our house, we did not want to take drastic measures (that will come later when we are robbed of our security deposit). Therefore, we purchased an item that cost only $5.99. That item was a rolll of clear duct tape. Indeed, we trimmed the carpet evenly and duct taped the hell out of it to the cement slab. If that doesn't scream ghetto, i'm not sure what does. But I'm certain it will be a good 2-3 days before he figures out how to eat that.
Finally, today is also my ten year high school reunion. It's not clear to me, nor will it ever be, why people insist on holding reunions to catch up with people they dont care enough about to keep in touch with in the first place. I went to a large high school, so right off the bat, i didnt know half the people when i was in school. What would be the point of "catching up" with these people? The remainder of the people i knew, only a handful I kept in touch with when i went to college and now, the only person i still keep in touch with is Michelle, and thats only cause her parents pay me. Now, with Facebook, i find it even easier to avoid akward social events such as this by simply stalking people on Facebook. The 5 minutes it takes me to see what people from good ole North Central are up to is enough for me for 10 years. Perhaps if I went to a small school i might entertain this reunion idea but at the end of the day, i just dont really like people, thus, why i became an HR Manager.
In un-related wedding news, Ryan and I decided to spend the day sprucing up our love nest. As I explained in a previous blog, our dog Austin eats everything he can fit in his mouth. This includes the carpet in our master bedroom. While the carpet was ruined several months ago when i attempted to clean it using bleach (note to self, dumb idea), Austin managed to ruin it more when he started eating the carpet by the door threshold. This has progressed over the past few weeks to where he is actually eating the carpet pad as well. I was awoken this morning to him throwing up the carpet and pad next to my face in bed. Yummy. I put my foot down and off Ryan and I went to Lowes to resolve this issue. Since we rent our house, we did not want to take drastic measures (that will come later when we are robbed of our security deposit). Therefore, we purchased an item that cost only $5.99. That item was a rolll of clear duct tape. Indeed, we trimmed the carpet evenly and duct taped the hell out of it to the cement slab. If that doesn't scream ghetto, i'm not sure what does. But I'm certain it will be a good 2-3 days before he figures out how to eat that.
Finally, today is also my ten year high school reunion. It's not clear to me, nor will it ever be, why people insist on holding reunions to catch up with people they dont care enough about to keep in touch with in the first place. I went to a large high school, so right off the bat, i didnt know half the people when i was in school. What would be the point of "catching up" with these people? The remainder of the people i knew, only a handful I kept in touch with when i went to college and now, the only person i still keep in touch with is Michelle, and thats only cause her parents pay me. Now, with Facebook, i find it even easier to avoid akward social events such as this by simply stalking people on Facebook. The 5 minutes it takes me to see what people from good ole North Central are up to is enough for me for 10 years. Perhaps if I went to a small school i might entertain this reunion idea but at the end of the day, i just dont really like people, thus, why i became an HR Manager.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Speedbumps
Two unfortunate events occurred last night. First, the wedding work out plan has come to a screeching halt. Not, as some may assume because I'm a lazy ass though. While working out on Friday, Ryan and I noticed the elliptical was making an odd noise. I of course said "It's Fine" and kept plugging along. However, on Sunday when i attempted to work out again, it became apparent all was not fine as the noise had gotten louder. Upon removing the wheel cover, we discovered the belt had sliced in half and was hanging off. I would like to assume this was from the rigorous exercise i had been doing. Sadly, the safer bet is that it was never put together right. So, due to the holiday weekend, I shall be calling Nordictrack on Tuesday and getting full use out of our warranty. Stay tuned for the drama on that one.
The second unfortunate event involves our honeymoon. Ryan and I had planned to go to Hawaii...although at random times he still insists on going to Europe, not for the romance, but to attend a motorcycle race. I think not. Good thing for me, he has no passport. In any case, the plan was to go to Hawaii. However, upon further review, to stay where I wanted to stay and do the things we wanted to do, the cost was looking to be about $10k. Ryan almost went through the roof when I shared this small detail with him. So, I am now taking suggestions on Honeymoon options and have been given a strict budget of $5k.
The second unfortunate event involves our honeymoon. Ryan and I had planned to go to Hawaii...although at random times he still insists on going to Europe, not for the romance, but to attend a motorcycle race. I think not. Good thing for me, he has no passport. In any case, the plan was to go to Hawaii. However, upon further review, to stay where I wanted to stay and do the things we wanted to do, the cost was looking to be about $10k. Ryan almost went through the roof when I shared this small detail with him. So, I am now taking suggestions on Honeymoon options and have been given a strict budget of $5k.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Beginning of my Labor Day Weekend
With all (three) of my friends gone or busy this weekend, I had intended to get new tennis shoes on Friday. This was necessary due to the fact that Austin, who had previously eaten part of the heel off, finished the job by eating the toe completely. I'm pretty sure he is part goat. He has eaten 3 pairs of my flip flops (one of them being my beloved ugly crocs), many pairs of my underwear, towels, Ryan' backpack, the handle off my suitcase, computer cables, three TV remotes, my phone charger, my remote login token from work and most recently, my $300 eyeglasses. In his defense, he usually brings the items back to me after he has ruined them so there is no question who did the damage. Back to the tennis shoes, now that they were completely worthless, i had limited options to keep my work out schedule on track. Therefore, i was forced to work out in my Uggs. Note to self...wool and working out do not mix.
Friday shoe shopping was derailed however, due to an MRI that took much longer than planned. For those who don't know, a blood clot took residence in my arm back in January and has refused to go away. Lucky me. The ER doc when i first was having pain asked if i thought the pain was just from a pulled muscle. I thought to myself, "buddy, the only thing i have been lifting with my arm is a Baconater at Wendy's, a pulled muscle is doubtful." So the most recent specialist sent me for an MRI. Not a huge deal, more of an inconvenience. As I pulled in, I was thrilled to see it was in a strip mall next to a giant Specs (Texas liquor store). Classy. Later that day, my afternoon nap was interrupted by an unknown number. Of course I didn't answer but when I listened to my voicemail, it was the MRI place. Odd, i thought, that they would be calling. So i call them back and the conversation, no joke, went like this...
MRI Tech - "Ms. Groves, I'm sorry to inform you, there is some bad news."
I'm thinking, why is the MRI-Tech telling me medical news...was he at the Specs Liquor Store on his lunch break? Me: "Um, okay?"
"Shortly after you left all our computers crashed and we lost all the information from your MRI and the other gentleman who was here."
Seriously? How am I lucky enough to have stuff like this happen to me? Perhaps they need to invest in a backup system??? I'm no IT genius but...
Me: "So what are my options?"
"Well Ma'am, we're gonna need you to come back and have the MRI done again. Of course, no cost to you"
In what universe would it even be logical for me to have to pay a second time? So, now i have to go on Wednesday and have it re-done. I am pretty sure I should just tell my boss "the dog ate my homework" when i try to explain this one to him.
Friday shoe shopping was derailed however, due to an MRI that took much longer than planned. For those who don't know, a blood clot took residence in my arm back in January and has refused to go away. Lucky me. The ER doc when i first was having pain asked if i thought the pain was just from a pulled muscle. I thought to myself, "buddy, the only thing i have been lifting with my arm is a Baconater at Wendy's, a pulled muscle is doubtful." So the most recent specialist sent me for an MRI. Not a huge deal, more of an inconvenience. As I pulled in, I was thrilled to see it was in a strip mall next to a giant Specs (Texas liquor store). Classy. Later that day, my afternoon nap was interrupted by an unknown number. Of course I didn't answer but when I listened to my voicemail, it was the MRI place. Odd, i thought, that they would be calling. So i call them back and the conversation, no joke, went like this...
MRI Tech - "Ms. Groves, I'm sorry to inform you, there is some bad news."
I'm thinking, why is the MRI-Tech telling me medical news...was he at the Specs Liquor Store on his lunch break? Me: "Um, okay?"
"Shortly after you left all our computers crashed and we lost all the information from your MRI and the other gentleman who was here."
Seriously? How am I lucky enough to have stuff like this happen to me? Perhaps they need to invest in a backup system??? I'm no IT genius but...
Me: "So what are my options?"
"Well Ma'am, we're gonna need you to come back and have the MRI done again. Of course, no cost to you"
In what universe would it even be logical for me to have to pay a second time? So, now i have to go on Wednesday and have it re-done. I am pretty sure I should just tell my boss "the dog ate my homework" when i try to explain this one to him.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Wedding Work Outs
So, it came to my attention recently that I have gained some weight. This concern was confirmed by my mother who on her recent visit to Houston said "remember Jen, you have already been fitted for your wedding dress." True. It was time to take action. My solution, buy an elliptical machine. As most people know, my diet consists of Wendy's cheeseburgers, steaks and french fries and I only believed in running if someone was chasing me. Thus, my first romp with the elliptical machine lasted 10 minutes and I nearly required an oxygen tank. It is not clear to me how people can say they are "addicted to working out." The elliptical machine has preloaded work outs, which seemed ideal for someone as lazy as myself, until i realized the shortest workout was 20 minutes. My fitness self-esteem took a hit, but, none-the-less one week into my work out plan and i have now graduated to the 15 minute ranks. Austin (our dog) does not agree with the strange site of me working out. He barks at me while I work out. Chloe (other dog) won't even go in the office where the elliptical is. My response to their concern...."It's fine."
Why Blog?
I must admit, I'm not sure the point of this blog but I always get a kick out of reading my friends blogs, so figured, why the hell not. Mostly, this will be a place for me to update everyone on the wedding progress and how life is in Texas with Ryan and I.
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