Nasty...Nasty Car...

(that was supposed to be a play on Janet's "Nasty Boys") Warning: This is a long post but only b/c of the pics. :)

Here's our trip in photos! Eric and I went down Friday night...my bladder made us stop at a gas station that had a mini casino. We played for like 3 min. We won! (like 14 bucks cumulatively. We smelled like truckstop smoke the rest of the drive. Awesome.) :) 

My friend, Emily, posts cute pics from her self-timer when she's on trips. Kinda funny, kinda cheesy, kinda cute. :) And we were a bit giddy after 4 hours in the car and caffeine. Whatever. Dont judge. They're cute. Damnit.  Our hotel was super cute-really contemporary! I recommend. 

Some people want to go to the (actually cool) club/bar in the bottom of the hotel...others like to jump on beds and take self-timed pictures. 

I look like something out of the movie Cocoon or Alien. And I'm okay with that. (Please note, I had all my clothes on. I'm not a sicko. Thanks.)

Saturday, we shopped a little. Among the places was American Leather's warehouse. Eric found a sofa and got it. An orange sofa. (I actually really like it.... just enjoy teasing him). It's more orange-brown than this pic shows. Please see his "test" aka can he beach himself on it...

As you can tell, no one was watching us go through the warehouse.

Sat night, his parents joined up and we headed to a great dinner to prepare ourselves for Nasty Car! YEAH-YUH!

It was so.windy. And the wind was friggin cold. Therefore, a sweatshirt and hat were added to my race attire. See me with my guy. (aka the guy's hat I was wearing). He didn't win. Whatever. He had pretty hats.

We had awesome seats.. 3rd row and right in front of the pits. Here's a pic of some of em coming in. All tires changed, gas filled, things replaced...in 14 seconds. Literally. Nuts. 

My attempt to capture how fast the cars were going in front of us. 

Loud might be an understatement for the sound as the cars roared by at 150mph. So, you're able to rent these stylish ear things. We also had a scanner that lets you plug your headphones in and listen to the announcer or even any driver communicating from his car to his pit crew, etc. Kinda cool! I think Eric was prolly okay with being unable to hear me...hahaha...

I cant remember the last time I've seen that many people in one place at one time. It was nuts! And I know people talk about "nascar fans" but really... I didn't see anything bizarre. Not sure if I was disappointed..haha.. I mean..a girl sitting by us had heels as high as my forearm's length and some guys had their beer/bags/etc in a shopping cart...haha...but really...nothing crazy.

Overall, I give the trip an A+. We had a blast. Definitely a unique experience. And if you want to borrow my hat, I'll think about it... ;)

And my day off was fab. I took total advantage- dropped off dry cleaning, wandered around utica square, ate lunch by myself at 2ish at queenies while reading my Tulsa People, bought a great dress for summer weddings, cleaned the apt...and Maureen came over with the bed! It's now in my dining room/area. As "stylish" as it looks there, I'm excited to get this sanding/staining/assembling show on the road. Maureen saved me some serious dough and the bed is super cute-very excited about my new project!!

*phew* That was a long-ish post. Thanks for indulging me. Hope you had a fab weekend and Monday! 

When you have too many communication devices...

Sitting on my sofa. On the macbook. With my work computer booted up next to me, my palm beside it and my work blackberry on the coffee table. Yeah, I'm serious. 

Checking work email really fast b/c....

I took the day off!! (I never do that! YAY!) So, I'll blog more later, but Nascar and the weekend was FABULOUS with a capital F! :) (Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you..that's where I was!) 

Hope you all had a great weekend! I'll post pictures from mine later this afternoon. Oh, and Maureen is awesomesauce and getting rid of an extra queen bed/mattresses from her guest room (she's moving) so she's donating it to the "Jax is re-doing her room" project and delivering today! YAY! (With Eric's help) I'm going to sand it and re-stain it. Hooray projects!

Sorry for all the exclamation points, but I'm in a good mood damnit! haha.. Happy Monday...from my sofa. Yeah-yuh!

"Friday's child is loving and giving..."

I was born on a Friday. Some poems say I'm loving and giving and some say I'm full of woe. Personally, I enjoy the former. *shrug*

Anyway, I'm taking Monday off! WOO HOO! So, trying to get stuff wrapped up. Why is taking a day off seemingly more stressful than taking a week off? Bizarre. Maybe that's just me.

I'm excited to go out of town for the weekend! Leaving tonight. :) Some of you know where I'm going...For the rest of you, await the photographs.. haha.. :) I'm not going far; dont get that excited.

A little note for Jenny: Have an AMAZINGLY FANTABULOUS shower!! Take lotsa pics and know I'm loving you from Dallas... (well, spilled where I was going, but you dont know what I'm dooooing..haha) :)

I am the ONLY one in my dept today. Some people work on flex schedules. Some people took the day off. Others are "working from home." I am being one productive beast. But, it's freaky quiet and it's making me want to knock sh*t out so I can go. Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Sidenote: The bastard didnt park in my place today. Ha! I felt very victorious like I'd done something to remove them...when in reality it was likely someone here for a meeting yesterday being rude. *shrug*

Lost

Lost was good last night, people. The blog I read on EW said they watched it twice to really like it. I'll agree with that. While you're watching it happen, you dont realize how Kate is really coming into her own. She's not running from things anymore. She's actually evolving as a character. I like that. You also might not realize her need to help tossed-away kids...Aaron...Ben. Possibly b/c of her back story? Just sayin.

Fav segment of Lost Diary this week:
9:21 -- Do you know how you've been having all these time travel related discussions over the past few weeks? About fixing the future, disrupting the future, changing the future? Listening to Jack and Kate and Miles and Hurley have these same conversations ... NOT HELPING!!!

9:22 -- "You didn't like the old me, Kate." -- New Jack. I like New Jack.

9:24 -- Ben's dad has figured out that Little Ben is the one who busted Sayid out of jail. I am kinda shocked he was able to put two and two together and get four.

9:25 -- "Say that again." -- Hurley

9:26 -- "When we first captured Ben, and Sayid like tortured him, why wouldn't he remember being shot by that same guy when he was a kid?" -- Hurley

Okay, so....if they cant change the future, I dont know how I feel about that. If they're just kinda playing their role.. (ie Ben didnt remember Sayid shooting him b/c Jacob/The Others whatever wiped his memory like Alpert suggested)..I dont think I like that. But, I have to admit I like them changing up the roles. Kate's being less...well..old Kate. And Jack's being less annoying with his mouth open. (ever notice he does that when emphasizing points? It's annoying.) And I like Juliet. A lot. Miles never fails to amuse me. And I still think he's Dharma man's son.

I dont want to like Ben's dad. And I liked him a little last night. *sigh* Although the relationship with Kate was creepy. So, does Ben even KNOW his dad? I mean.. when the whole camp takeover happens?

And who's in charge?! Ellie? Widmore?! I liked that name drop in there by Alpert "Ellie and Charles.." Ahh..the subtleties that make this show! :) I really do think it's Locke vs. Ben vs. Widmore. Alpert seems content to be the anti aging Jacob go-between but not have any real significance that I can see...hmm...

I must admit, I miss Desmond.

Next week's ep looks like something out of National Treasure. I want Ben to go to blows with Jacob. It seems everyone has gone back to the island for their own personal reasons. Interesting. And where the hell is Claire?

Stuff.

It's about to storm.
Someone (?) parked in my parking spot. :(
I couldn't sleep so I am over-caffeinated this a.m.
Lost Diary hasnt been posted yet.
I'm whiney.

"We" people and Gloria....

So, I went to Babies R Us at lunch to pick up some awesomness for Baby Munsell! First of all, I'm getting WAY too familiar with the layout of that store..haha.. Second, there are some funnnnnny people in there. Case in point... I saw a woman a little older than me, maybe early 30s. Rephrase...I saw her boots. They were silver. And over her jeans. And classic "hooker boots." A-typical for Babies R Us. Just sayin. She turned and only then did I see the ill-fitted WWF baby tee, lotsa makeup, and rhinestones on the front of her jeans. I thought to myself how she kinda stood out, but whatever...and kept walking as I heard her call after her small child...."Gloria! Come here!" in a stern voice. I stopped. Whoa. GLORIA?! That woman has a kid named...GLORIA? Nothin wrong with the name...just sayin it fit her about as well as her WWF shirt... I was amused by the whole thing. Likely too much.

Then, I headed to Chipotle for some burrito goodness...where I encountered the worst "we" people EVER. Who are "we" people? They're people that say things like "We like chicken! We like juice! We don't hit our sister" when referring to their child but it ends up taking over their entire vocab. We've all done it with kids at some point. I know...whatever. Hell, my mom used to do it (it drove me crazy then, too...). But, dude. Some people are over.the.top. (Yes, I took a picture of them. Whatever. You cant see them really. It was for example's sake.)

First, daughter went through (baby's mom, I'm assuming), "We want only a little rice...and blah blah blah..." Then, here comes grandma holding baby... "We like tacos. We'll have a taco." By this point, I was confused how much food they were ordering and how long it was going to take. Both also had on yoga clothes. In the middle of the day. On a Wednesday. Somehow, this annoyed me also b/c they werent in a hurry and I was running late back to work. They even confused the cashier! "We'll have a small pepsi" and she said "just one?" The woman said "Oh, no.. for me. Mom, what else do we want?" Wow. Just wow.

Have you played a joke on anyone today? I tried. I didnt get very far. I wanted to play a joke on the student loan people like "HAH! I'm not paying today!" but then I thought about the ramifications and they'd prolly not laugh. *Shrug* Whatever.

Eric and I went out to Molly's Landing last night. Even though I've lived here forever, I've never been there and really wanted to go when some friends went and talked about how good the food was. It was so quirky and cute..and the food was indeed damn good. I recommend if you're looking for something a little off the beaten path. :)

Oh, and finally.. I parked in my special parking spot b/c it's April! YAY! It sounds cheesy and silly, but I've gotta tell ya...I'm gonna love this "employee of the month" spot more than I love taking pictures of strangers for my blog on my phone's camera. 8:45 am and I'm in the front.row. Yeah-yuuuh! (It takes very little to excite me. I realize this.)

Way Back Wednesday!

I dont have a scanner here, but I DID find some hilarious old photos of me as a kid. I have no clue how old I was, but I took pictures of the pictures so the quality isn't the best... 

For those of you who may have thought I was prissy, you'd laugh if you saw half the pics I have (that need a scanner) of me covered in mud and loving.life. :)

And this goes to prove I was weird...even back then. I have a broom...or a stick...some pants that came off Lord knows what and a tee shirt thats obviously not mine...and a blanket (?) on my head. This is what happens when you're an only child looking for entertainment. *shrug*

"I'm just tossing your salad.."

Okay, so there was a girl in law school who was very sweet, very Southern and very cute...but she was not very common sensical. I really liked her, but I still laughed when I heard that someone had said something about "tossing salad" as a joke and she said "What's that mean?" I guess someone in the group explained "It means joking.. like 'Im just tossing your salad.'" From that point on, she said it all the time...student bar meetings...group events...out at bars. It was awesome. AWESOME. I dont know why I thought about that today other than someone talking about funny expressions at work....Anyway, I decided to share the inappropriate randomness....

And, let's all take a moment and mourn the passing of the giant, bug sunglasses. *sigh* They've made it through a lot, these cheap little magnificent eye coverings. They've shielded half my face from the sun's rays for over a year. Alas, after a few repairs, their time is done. I will be looking for more.


I've gone running at the gym TWICE this week. TWICE! And it's TUESDAY! Yeah yuh! I couldnt run w my stupid back but seem to be sprinting toward recovery...er..that was bad. Whatever, I'm running again.

Looking forward to getting out of town this weekend, but sad to be likely missing J Bug's shower. *sigh*

This blog was boring and took 2 minutes of your life you'll never get back. Sorry about that. Happy Tuesday!

Walkin in a winter..er...March wonderland?

Okay, soooo.. in photos...

The KS Capitol Building is really quite pretty. This is from the phone before Governor's bill signing...which I have to admit was prolly the coolest thing I've ever done with work. I got to stand up there with the governor (and the rest of the coalition who worked to pass the bill), she gave a conference, we took some pictures, and she gave us all pens (b/c that's the thing at bill signings). Anyway, I'll post a link to the news story if I find it. :) It was sleeting by the time I left, but I made it home okay without issue...

Friday night, went to sushi with Eric (Yum)! Relaxing end to a busy week. As we all know, by 9:30 am Saturday, the ground was blanketed... Can you believe it?! March! Sheesh!

Riverside.. on way to hair appt. Snow or no snow.. we cant have the world knowing I'm not a natural blonde. ha! Reason 6 billion why I'm glad to have my new car... 

Boston Avenue. Check out the lack of visibility in the pics. Cuhrazay!

Tree in front of Eric's.... pretty. :) It really was a pretty snow...bizarre, but pretty...

Had girlie dinner with B&S (if you watch GG, you'll enjoy that). Then, Lauren met up since she was in town! We sat at the bar at Sonoma for a couple hours and just talked n laughed. Good times. :) 

Today, Gracie finally got picked up from her vaca at mom's. She also got a bath. Please see her typical behavior when I pull out the blow dryer...hiding behind the toilet and not looking at me. Like "if I dont seeeee you, you wont blowdry me.." But, then lookie how cute she is all clean? Aw. :) 

 

Hope you had a great weekend! :)

Are.you.kidding?

Okay, so it creeps me out to blog about where I'm staying, etc. Now, I'm checking out so I'm blogging this crap.

Okay, so the conference room (blogged below) has REMAINED my room. I have the attached bedroom. I was told "No, we're overbooked. Sorry. Just shut the door to the conference room." Okay, fine. Whatever. For example's sake, conf room is 100 and my bedroom is 101. As in.. they have separate numbers and separate accesses from hallway.

Here's my question: What brain surgeon hotel worker didnt just shut off the conference room and give me a key to the bedroom part? I would have never been the wiser. But noooo.. from that point on, room service, my USA Today and my hotel bill was delivered to...the conference room. I have to walk through to grab it. SO.ANNOYING.

Aside from that, two mornings ago, I hear people trying to get in my bedroom. I open the door from the hallway and find two guys from the hotel "changing the locks" b/c the master broke. Okay.. so I'm freaked at this point. I was like "WHAT IS GOING ON?" But, I was running late. So, fine. Change the damn card reader/lock. Then, I get a knock on the door. Them again. "Hey, ma'am, can you let us in the conference room? We have a meeting in there in 10 minutes."

WHAT?! WHAT?! Do you REALIZE how dumb this is? *sigh*

I do it. I leave for my meetings. I come back. Shocker, but my card doesnt work in my door. So, I have to go back down. They make me ANOTHER key...which also doesnt work. I go BACK down...the girl comes up with me and her master doesnt work. To cut this short, I finally got a key, but I was angry. Patient, but angry.

The saga continued yesterday when my key-once again-didnt work.

The best part...haha...everyone acts like this is MY fault. "Why do you have that room?" I DONTFREAKINGKNOW! Then, they give a perplexed look and a "hmm..."

Okay.. so...I go next door to the conference room to get my bill this morning (ugh) and see....THEY CHARGED ME FOR THE CONFERENCE ROOM!!

Are.you.kidding.

Mind you, since I left the law firm, my nerves are at a much healthier level (flashbacks to losing my sh*t at random times...deserved...but still...I dont like it.) But, someone downstairs is about to get an earful. I would expect them to COMP something for the inconvenience not charge me MORE. And that is exactly what I'm going to say.

Anyway...you know what else is weird... how everyone, everywhere on tv is talking about Twitter. But they talk about it in that "I'm not really cool but I'm trying to be by talking about this more than I should" way. It's weird. This morning, Kathy Lee is talking about it. It's creeping me out. Hell, Twitter kinda creeps me out. (I know some of you love it. I just cant get into it).

And finally, pray for good weather on my drive home! I'm looking at the words "Blizzard warning" on my tv screen. Um. Nervous. Off to see history in the making...Topeka history that is! Hey, for those who don't know, Topeka is where Brown vs. Board was occured! :)

Looking forward to a nice, relaxing dinner tonight upon my return. :) Hopefully weather will allow that to happen!!!

This just in...

I blog a lot, huh? Espcially when I travel. I guess it's better than talking to the plant in my room. *shrug* Anyway, although this puts me here a day longer than I'd packed for, I just got notice I've been invited to the bill signing by the governor (the one I testified on)! All of us (like 10 of us) have been invited (on behalf of our companies). KINDA.FREAKING.COOL. Mind you, initially, I was not happy b/c I dont function well with unplanned changes regarding travel for some reason. But within about 5 minutes after I was able to re-plan, I was excited. I kinda wish I'd brought a nicer suit, though. I'm driving to the city to have dinner with a co worker tonight and plan to pick up a nicer blouse to pair under my suit to dress it up a little. Sheesh. hahahaha...

Oh, and you KNOW I'll post a pic! :)

I guess I wont be at the happy hr thing I set up... Arg. Eh well...have a beer for me!

And why did it get COLD again when I dont have a coat?!

...and LOST. HOLY MOLY! I have a meeting I'm getting ready for but am using Lost Diary as my reward when it's done! Agh! Ben?! I mean! Sayid! AGH!

WBW

Okay, til I actually get on my old computer, my way back wednesday posts arent that way back. I'm just going through my accessible photos and picking ones that make me smile.

1. Pat Green concert 06 immediately followed my first rodeo. Our little group had so much fun!(Who doesnt love Pat Green?) :) Rather than a winded paragraph, the reasons I posted and giggle to this day: Raven Symone. Creepy Old Men AND Raven Symone.

2. Homecoming 2006! Our now kinda small tailgate wasnt always small-and here's proof! I counted and to my knowledge: 5 people in that pic either have babies or have a baby on the way. WOW!

Hooray WBW!! :)

I got done with my meetings for today and decided to explore Topeka. You can see how well that went. At least Lost is on tonight...at least I think it is. Aw hell it better be! The hotel saga got crazier. Will have to post later.

DONT FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG ALUMNI HAPPY HOUR TOMORROW!! :)