OMG, can you believe it…

I’ve actually found a minute to post on my blog. Technically I should be inputting TV rates right now, but I need a break.

Some random stuff’s been happening lately – mostly great stuff.  Sorry I haven’t been writing as frequently. My life has been mostly work and Rusty so I haven’t had much to say. I’m really going to try to get better. To start, here’s an update.

* I turned 30 this month. I’m okay with it. My 20′s weren’t great as a decade, so I’m thinking my 30′s are going to kick some A. To celebrate I had a real grown up party at a bar and paid for appetizers and everything.  Then I went to Vegas over MLK weekend with my sister to drink all day and see some shows.

* I got a promotion at work, one I’ve been waiting for since 2009. Super pumped about the raise and the “Senior” now in front of my title.

* I’ve had Rusty for 5 months now, which is longer than he was with his foster family so I’m hoping that now  he knows I’m going to keep him forever and ever and ever.

* David Berkeley’s new album, “Some Kind of Cure” that came out this week is Awesome. You should definitely buy it.

* I’m going to the Superbowl! One of my FOX stations invited me, so I’m taking my brother and heading to Dallas next week. It would have been nice if the Falcons or Chiefs made it, but oh well, it should be a blast anyways. There is a party Saturday and pre/post game reception things that we get to go to. I don’t know if stars go to the network stuff or the Superbowl in general, but I’m just going to go ahead and throw this out there. If, by any chance I meet Jesse Spencer at any of these FOX events, I may not come back to Atlanta, because he will definitely fall in love with me & I’ll have to move to LA. Just Saying.

* Last weekend I went out with a couple of friends and KD’s little sis, who is 22. There was another young girl dancing at the bar and she was wearing the UGLIEST outfit I’ve ever seen. I really tried to be sneaky and get a picture but it didn’t work out so I’m going to try to describe it… She was wearing a buttoned-up red plaid flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to about mid fore-arm. The shirt itself was ok, but she had it tucked into a white/cream-colored skirt that can only be described as a cross between a tablecloth and a diaper. All of her friends were dressed relatively normal so she really stood out. I asked KD’s little sis if that is what people her age dressed like and she said no, so I don’t think it’s some new trend I don’t know about. It was just hideous and my description probably doesn’t make it sound hideous enough, but it’s all I’ve got.

All right, I better get back to it.

In case you’ve ever questioned my organization skills*

This weekend was pretty relaxing – which is funny if you consider I didn’t really relax at any point.

Like most of the weekends since the beginning of the year, there was a 30th birthday to celebrate. This weekend, it was Nate’s turn, so Friday night I headed to his place for a surprise party – unfortunately one of his out-of-town friends spoiled the surprise by sending him a text 30 minutes early.The party was the extent of my social interactions this weekend.

Saturday I caught up on some TV in the morning and then eventually got dressed and headed to Home Depot to discuss painting some rooms in my house – main questions were what kind of paint to use that is washable if the stairwell gets scuffed up and what do I do about the wall paper in the extra bathroom – paint over it, take it down. In about 5 minutes flat the guy at Home Depot talked me out of doing any of it myself  (kind of the anti-salesman if you ask me) so painting will have to hold off a bit until I can schedule someone to come do all the rooms at once.

Next up, in the process of vacuuming and mopping, I also decided to dust everything in my place – it’s been ages and was starting to annoy me. In the process of dusting the desk in my room, I looked at it and decided that instead of just swiffering everything I actually needed to pull out the Old English and do it right. While in the process of then going around the house and putting everything back where it belongs, I decided I wanted to move stuff around here and there. I’m not lying when I say this, it took me about an hour to get this how I wanted it…

The sad thing is, that even if you’ve been to my house, you probably can’t tell me what changed. But I know. I KNOW. For the record there are only 7 things out of the 17 things that are in the same place they were before. Counting the books as one thing, there are 3 new things and 8 things I took away. If I ignore the fact that the silver pieces really need to be polished, I’m pretty happy with this set up.

After I finished putting everything back where I wanted it, I was pretty over cleaning and just ready to read a little bit and go to bed.

Sunday, I got up intent on starting and finishing The Help for book club tonight. That did not happen. Instead I decided that I need to buy some clear shoe boxes for my closet so I went to The Container Store bought a case of 20 and went to town on my closet..

For the record, the 16 boxes showing replaced about 30 shoe boxes of varying sizes, colors, and shapes, but all labeled with tape and magic marker. (All of which I broke down to recycle causing about a bazillion paper cuts)Anyways, really I’m saving a ton of space by having clear unlabeled boxes because now I only need enough for the out of season half of my shoes – Brilliant. After I did this, all my purses on the second shelf got jealous of my shoes, so…

I went back to The Container Store and bought a few more boxes for my purses. There were a couple nice purses that I’ve been keeping in the cloth bags they came with, so I always forget I have them – that won’t be a problem anymore now that I can see them all.

I also decided that I needed to work on clearing out my DVR since I switch to AT&T this week so I watched all the backlogged episodes of House Hunters, Ellen and Jeopardy while doing a few hours of work stuff.

In the end, I did not read a single page of The Help all weekend, but I did finish Tyler Stanton’s Everyday Absurdities.

*ha, like that would ever happen.

Remind me of this post…

if I ever tell you I want bangs.

Blondie turned 30 last week. To celebrate she had an alter ego party. At first I was digging the wig with bangs and all. I was even thinking, hmmm, maybe I should get bangs. But a few hours later and I was all like, man, these bangs are driving me nuts. I guess it’s a good thing I had a test run…

What’s so tacky about Christmas?

First let me apologize for my recent lack of writing. I know you are all dying without me, but work has been busy. Second, this isn’t a serious post, so if that’s what you’re expecting from the title, sorry to disappoint.

Somehow, I have ended up with three different tacky Christmas parties to go to this weekend with my friends. I don’t know if this is just a trend of the last few years or if this has always been a trend people follow at Christmastime and I was just too young to notice. Whatever the reason, it puzzles me.

I get that there are tacky sweaters out there and I get that some people actually wear them, but to actually have to go buy one just to go to a party and have people tell me it’s tacky. I don’t understand. I’m not such a big fan of dressing up anyways and now I have to dress up for Christmas. What happened to just having a party and looking nice. Someone someday is going to look at pictures from the 2000′s and wonder why we were all such lame holiday dressers.

My family has never been a tacky Christmas kind of family. We are a list making, buy you what you want kind of family (favorite presents include a TV in my room, my own phone and a Cabbage Patch Kid who still resides in my guest room) So except for a dozen or so matching jewelry boxes that my sister and I received each year from an aunt, I’ve never really gotten a tacky Christmas present. If for some only God knows why reason I actually asked for clothes, my mom would take my sister shopping with her as a tacky buffer or vice versa.

The only time I can remember receiving clothes that I thought at the time were tacky*, was actually on my sister’s birthday and it was my own fault. My grandma took me shopping with her for sis’s bday and for whatever reason I was really mad at my sister that day. There were these two matchy navy and white outfits – one with a skirt and one with shorts. the one with a skirt was really super cute. The one with shorts, not so much. My grandma asked me which one she should get my sister and me being a vindictive little 7-year-old** I said the one with shorts. To this day I don’t know if my grandma read my mind and was punishing me or if she was just being nice, but she decided that she was going to get outfits for both of us, so she got my sister the one with a skirt and me the one with shorts. Touche Grandma, touche.

On that note, I have successfully avoided tacky holiday outfits for almost 29 years*** but I think I’m going to give in this year and head to Wal-Mart**** after work to find something to wear this weekend. I think I should get bonus tacky points for wearing whatever I find three times in one weekend also. If that’s not tacky, I’m not sure what is.

* Looking back, a lot of my clothes were tacky, but at the time I really really liked them.
**Guessing on the age, but 7 sounds about right.
***My birthday’s in less than a month – get excited, and if you need a list of what to get me, I’ve got it covered.
****Because surely I can find something tacky there.

Week One

It’s Friday and so far I have managed to stick to my no TV during the week and only 4 hours on the weekend. I’m actually a little surprised with myself. I’ve gotten a lot done and had some fun. Although I did not finish Catch 22 so I’m going to have to renew it again. I wonder how many times they let you do that…

Last Friday, EC convinced 12 of us to drive to Douglasville to have some authentic Tacos instead of going to Taqueria del Sol as usual. While it was fun and the food was okay, I don’t think I’ll make that trek again.

Saturday I spent a lot of time working on some stuff around the house and then went to KA’s place for a birthday extravaganza. It was her birthday and we were also celebrating 5 others. We played some corn hole and badminton and I learned I am really bad at corn hole.

Sunday I actually went to my Sunday school class because one of my friends was talking. I haven’t gone in probably over a year, so I don’t really know if I can call it “my” class anymore, but whatever. Other than that and church I didn’t really do much.

Monday after work I went to the annual august party for our industry. It was at the Ainsley Golf Club and the after party was at Whiskey Bar at the W Midtown. I hadn’t been to either place and they were both a lot of fun. The Whiskey Bar has an amazing Blueberry martini. I’m glad I don’t actually pay for my drinks at these things because I’m sure they were two super expensive bluberry martinis.  I didn’t get home until about 2, so I was pretty tired Tuesday, but so were the other 5 people from my office that went to the party so it was a slow day at work.

Tuesday night I had small group so I just hung out with the girls and then went to bed as soon as I got home.

Wednesday night I went through a huge plastic tub of baby/kid clothes my mom kept and that I was too lazy to go through 3 years ago. By going through, I meant that I never actually even opened it again after the I opened it initially and decided that I didn’t want to deal with it. This is one of about three tubs/boxes in my attic that I just took when we cleaned out the house and never did anything with. I’ve just moved them from place to place, so I thought I’d actually see what was in there past the top layer. I cannot believe all of the stuff my mom kept – most of it is going to goodwill or went in the trash. So that’s one thing out of my attic.

Last night, I didn’t really feel like doing anything at home, so I went with KW, LH, and SW to see Yacht Rock at 10 High. We’ve seen them before but not there – I think I’ve only ever been there for improv on Wednesdays so it was interesting seeing a show there. It was a lot of fun, but I am tired today.

When I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking how long it has been since I stayed out until 2am period, let alone twice in one week and on a Monday and Thursday to boot. That’s crazy. Sum and I used to go out on Thursdays every week when we first moved here and we would stay out until 3 or sometimes even 4 when the bars stayed open that late. I don’t know how I ever made it to work on Fridays back then because I really didn’t want to come today.

In case you were curious…

about the ice luge…

Another day, another year older

Nothing makes a party like an ice luge.

I had a great time last night! Thanks to everyone who came over. We had good food, summer brew, sweet tea vodka for the ice luge and a little bit of 90′s karoake. Using my birthday as an excuse was a great way to get people to do shots from the ice luge with me – not a single person turned me down. It was awesome!

I felt great this morning, which is unusual for me after a night of drinking. Apparently the secret is to mix vodka and beer instead of trying to keep them separate. Although about halfway through church I was ready for a nap, I managed to make it through lunch before falling asleep.

You should never roller skate with me…

Last night we went roller skating to celebrate a couple of birthdays. It has been about 9 years since the last time I went skating, but I think I did an okay job. It took a while to get the hang of it again, but I didn’t fall at all until the last time I was trying to leave the rink.

However, I think I am unwittingly a bad luck charm. I have been roller skating exactly 2 times since elementary/middle school skating parties. Both times, someone with me has broken a bone. When I was 18, we went skating and a girl broke her ankle. Last night one of the guys broke his wrist. While I wasn’t anywhere near them when they fell, I kind of feel responsible. For the safety of my friends, maybe I shouldn’t go skating anymore.