Dragon Tattoos and CPA exams...

(I dunno; it's the best subject I could come up with to attempt to tie this post together)

So, last night, I thought "I'm going to bed early! Look at me!" I felt like I deserved a cookie...or at least some praise as I climbed into bed at 9:30. (I have a tendency to stay up on weekdays til at LEAST midnight. Night owl=me). I grabbed my book and, halfway through it, thought "well, I can just read one chapter."

Let me tell you... This book...
...sucks.you.in. I looked at the clock and it was 11:45 and I was pretty much done with the book. I have like 15 pages left. I kept reading...and reading... and reading. Mind you, I've been trying to go slowly b/c I want to save books two and three for my (EIGHT HOUR) flight to Maui. :) But it was just soooo good! Couple that with the fact that my roomie wasn't home and I kept reading the scary parts thinking, "okay, I'll stop the moment something happens in the book that gets my mind away from the scary stuff it's talking about..."

Haha.. Anyway, I love it. And I want book two. Now. (Saving book three for the plane isn't so bad, right? *Shrugs*) Are you reading/have you read the series? I know they just cast Lisbeth for the US movie. I think I like their choice; I hope she can be bad @ss enough. Just sayin. I definietly like their choice for Blomkv!st (Dan!el Craig!) Concerned that they want the movie to be in Swedish accents b/c I just dont know if they can pull that off without being cheesy.

Really quickly... I want to wish this guy....

GOOD LUCK!!

...as he slaves away on his (could-be LAST) CPA exam this afternoon!!!!!!

I'm looking very forward to cheersing him with one...(or two)... of these over some chips and salsa and Mexican food (the only way to celebrate.. duh) lata!

Happy Tuesday!

(I also may have put a vacation countdown thing on my blog. See it? There.. to the right? Yeah, it's not as fulfilling to see over 50 days. Arg. But, it will be when it gets closer!)

Colorado 2010 (Post one!)

First, thanks for the comments about the hair! :) Yeah, I want to go darker, but thanks to a ton of ya'lls' (the plural of ya'll is funny. but I'm keeping it.) comments and sleeping on it, I've kinda gotten the mentality "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"... especially before I vacation. I tend to get my hair exactly where I want it and then promptly change it. Soooo maybe some lowlights and then go for the full effects after Maui, when I won't care if it takes 6 mos to get back to blonde again. :) Ah, girls and their hair...

Anyway, soooo yeah so it's been a week since I posted the 2nd half of our trip... My photo uploading is kinda ridiculously behind... *cringe* Do you have a macbook? If so, does it take forever to upload photos to blogger? Mine does. It's annoying. Anyhoo....

COLORADO WEEKEND STARTS HERE!

We landed at the Denver airport and I wanted to find the paintings I read about in the conspiracy theory (I dig conspiracy theory in case ya'll didn't know...It's weird. I love it.) Eric and I were walking back from getting our bags and...WE SAW THEM! <--seriously all-caps-excited! So yeah, pictures happened. Whatever. They're creepy. I mean...right?!

sword-wielding-gas mask-wearing-army-man-killing-dove?! AGH!

Or...the cultural painting of said gas-mask-wearing-man appearing dead?! What.the.heck.
Okay okay...enough of that...

We got our car, headed to the hotel, and then set out on a walk to lunch! Our hotel was in the heart of downtown so well within walking distance of 16th Street Mall, etc. On our walk, we immediately ran into a guy I was friends with in law school! BANANAS! Such a small world, right?

Had a fabulous lunch on a patio (the weather was SO much better there), had a random photographer ask take our photo for "her business." (I haven't looked it up, but our faces are prolly on some triple x site now. Awesome.) After all that, we headed to SHOP.SHOP. SHOP. I teased my boyfriend for being high maintenance finding a ton more things than I did, but it is what it is. Dont you hate it when everything on sale is nowhere near your size? Arg. Whatever. But, still a great time nonetheless.

Went back and got ready for dinner! Made a quick, last minute reservation at a local steak place and set off to walk there...

....til it started raining. Rain + white pants = not good.. haha.. Thank gawd for building awnings. :) 16th street mall view! :)
We got to the restaurant....er....wait...We ordered drinks at what we THOUGHT was the restaurant, but upon seeing no steak on the menu, realized we were in the wrong place.

**Oops**

Exchanged a few "what do we dos?", laughed, drank our beverages, and headed on to the real place... hilarious! Apparently Pr!me Bar and Pr!me Steakhouse are a block apart (who does that?!)...
Ah...at last...Pr!me Steakhouse. Or at least somewhere else named Pr!me that had steaks. Who knows how any more Pr!me places they have in a block radius? ;) *laughter*
Dinner was followed by a walk back to the hotel wrapped in fabulous weather. :)

Our hotel had a cookie buffet with milk and tea every.single.night. Every hotel should adopt this awesome policy/activity. Immediately.
Goooooood morning and rise and shine for some rafting!

I'd never been white water rafting and was absolutely psyched! This was the creek we rafted and that video pretty much had me terrified of every level except beginning....b/c I guess you flip on every other level...and beginner is freaking class 3 rapids for crying out loud! Despite the adrenaline rush of the intermediate level weighing on my brain, we opted for beginner. Something about getting cold/hurt/drowning seemed to make for a bad mental image. ;) Anyway, glad we went for the beginner route b/c it was absolutely perfect! Just enough rapids and plenty of space in between them to take a few pics and relax... Good times. :) And our guide was awesomesauce.

Ready.to.raft. (or rob somewhere, but whatever...the all black wasn't intentional).

Rafts going in the water! (ignore the poor quality of the disposable waterproof camera)
Awesome shot of oblivious me while the guide checks out the raft coming over the rapid we'd just finished...b/c a dude was falling in YIKES!
our guide to the rescue!
This is my sexxy, I-just-rafted pose. (or the "we're waiting on the bus" pose, but whatever)
Same goes for Eric. I make a kissy face. He mocks weaponry with his paddle. Awesome.
We rafted. We have helmets on and life jackets to prove it. :)
Post rafting lunch on the patio (loved eating on the patio.. it's WAY too hot here to do that now).
boiled peanuts. A specialty. They tasted as good as they look. *cringe*
Some exploring and driving around through the little towns.....


scary hole in the creek where rafters get stuck.. Ignore the hot mess hair and please be scared of this rafting hole. It's scary. Dangit. ;)
Our hotel!! :)
All the pics after this are in last week's post! :)

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

Do blondes really have more fun?! *nervous*

That's right.. it's the time of year I want to change my hair. As usual. haha.

Every year, I want to go darker.

And every year, my stylist, who I LOVE, talks me out of it. Admittedly, it doesnt take much talking to get me to say "yeah, nevermind." She knows me pretty well...and I've never stayed dark for very long.

I know she's scared I wont like it. And it's SO hard to get back to blonde after that...er...hard on my hair that is.

And I'm getting ready to go to Maui. I know I know. I dont want to HATE my hair in Maui.

But, I'm kinda over being this blonde.

And a little change never really satisfies me. My natural hair color is mousy. or dishwater. or lots of other things I don't like as adjectives for my hair. And that's how I feel a "little" darker looks on me...mousy. So I say go big or go home. Blonde or brown. All or nothing.

I've been playing on Marie Cla!re tonight. And yeah, the image is horrible b/c I kept adjusting my face and ended up looking like I'd been playing in photo booth on my macbook. But, this was the best I could get it.

Ah, the great debate... Will I or won't I? *le sigh* I have some weeks to decide....I'm really getting close to just going for it! I mean...it's only hair!!!!!!!!!! (*nervous*) hahah!

Thursday Random.

You know those days when you wake up and think "it CANT already be morning" after a series of semi-messed up, I-might-be-in-Inception-the-movie dreams, and/or being awakened like a bazillion times by neighbor/dog/whatever?

Yeah, today was one of those mornings.

I think I'm just tired this week, though. (I also think my dog has an obsession with licking the comforter in some plan to keep me awake, but whatever). I worked our United W*y Campaign employee block party on Tuesday night and it messed up my whole concept of what day of the week it is... b/c my brain is telling me a block party should have happened on a Thursday or something.. Anyway, it was a fun event! Buuuuuut, I was the "dunk tank operator" for 3 hours in 100 degree weather on asphalt! haha! And I didn't realize I'd be also CHASING after the balls people threw! That said, it was quite comical. They got really into it and would say "I NEED ANOTHER BALL" in the most determined"I'm gonna dunk him/her this time" voice and I'd think "really? REALLY?" as I chased after the little round object in a sundress trying to bend in a ladylike way and not show my ladyparts to the people who pay my salary... hahahaha..

Admittedly, I'm glad to be involved b/c I kinda miss events and stuff and being on a committee for things (at my former job). But, it kinda wore me out and messed up my weekdays... I'm officially old. *le sigh* ;)

I always laugh at myself over stuff like this b/c I remember being *cough... younger..cough cough* and being out til gawd knows when every single night. (What was I thinking?!)

And do you remember the days of not even going OUT until 11:00 p.m.?! I remember getting in the shower at like 9:30 to get READY for the night. Mind you, I'm still social.. but if I'm not already out and about by like 8:30, it ain't happenin'... ;)

I laugh at myself getting tired from a block party on a Tuesday....(mind you, I also had a dinner party that went late last night, too, though. So I'm prolly not giving myself enough credit. But whatever).

Anyway....

Some randomness..

I've recently started cyber stalking http://www.lulus.com/. LOVE their little dresses and want to buy some! Have you ever? Reviews? Run big? Run small? Some look a little short, but whatever. Curious!

Along those lines of "some look a little short," I'm not only getting tired from block parties in my old age (hahaha), I've also become SUPER aware of dressing for your age.

Why?

Well.. there's someone in my life..one of my friends...who CONSISTENTLY dresses like a college girl going to a frat party from clothes to jewelry to shoes. (no, she doesn't read this. I'm not THAT rude. Goodness). ;) She's super sweet and adorable.. but...is almost 30 with a professional job. I see her sometimes and think "Oh no.. no no no!" So, now I'm probably worrying too much. (not probably; I am worrying too much). I don't want to ever be perceived like that! AGH! I see her and think "wow.. she's trying really hard..." Unattractive, right?! Do you know anyone like that?

I'm not saying I'm signing up for turtlenecks with ankle-brushing skirts. I mean.. hello.. We've met. I like little dresses. But, I've just gotten this weird heightened awareness lately that I'm likely over-obsessing about...

So this whole post is basically making me sound like an oldie and I dont know how that happened. I might as well complain about the youngsters blasting that loud music or something. Good grief. Anyway, hope you're having a fantastic Thursday, lovelies!

Colorado 2010! (Post Two)

Okay, so we crammed UH.LOT. into one weekend in Colorado, sooooo I have a lot of photos. (I know you're all so shocked by the amount of photos I probably have... hah.. right.) Anyway, I don't want to bore you to tears any more than I need to in a single post, so I'm going to upload pics into two posts. :)

So, last weekend, Eric and I headed up to Colorado! Why? Well, it all started with getting tix to see Michael Fr@nti! Who's that? He's Eric's fav reggae type singer (you might know him from this song)...and was supposed to come to Tulsa last year. I'd gotten tickets (felt very proud of my little surprise) and then the guy had a freaking appendicitis. Lame. (Glad he was okay). Anyhoo, concert was canceled. :( So, when Eric found tickets to see Michael... at RED ROCKS aka somewhere we'd both really wanted to go...and on a WEEKEND, we couldnt pass it up. We found a good deal on SouthBest (hehe) and started to make a little weekend out of it! The rest, my friends, is in photos! :)

These pics start with the concert. I'll upload everything that came before the concert tomorrow.

We'd heard you need to get to Red Rocks super early to get good parking. We followed orders and arrived to find a pretty rocking little tailgate going on. Being out of towners and not knowing about said tailgate, we had our little to-go sandwiches we rocked in the back of our rental car whilst people set up grills, coolers, etc... :)

Gorgeous...
We were in row 29 aka quite close! I opted to stairmaster my way up to the top for some photos... :)

I officially love (1) Colorado and (2) reggae concerts b/c everyone is so.freaking.chill. Lots of hemp, hippies, and happiness. (And more mary jane than I've ever seen! haha!)

Below: my favorite concert-goers..who I called Dancing Hairy Man and Shirtless Hairy Man.

Love the below pic. I loved it before I played with the settings in my new-found photo editing obsession, Picn!k, but love it more now. :)
PACKED!
Love our friend behind us. He was kinda awesome. Just sayin. He was definitely more awesome than the underage girl who'd had too much of something and passed out cold, hitting her head on the cement, causing paramedics to come over. Her friends kept saying "She's sober! This is so weird." Note: Teenagers are really bad liars. hah.. (She was fine btw..and ended up leaving our area)

Came up and sang on the rocks and in the crowd right by us! I took like 45 shots trying to get a good one as he moved around and people swarmed him...

He invited kids up to sing his last song (the one I linked at the top of the post), Say Hey. :)

Absolutely, hands down one of my favorite concerts I've ever been to in the most gorgeous setting... We danced, I took a ridiculous amount of photos and videos, the weather was perfect... *happy sigh*

Here's actually some footage from Fr@nti's site from our concert! And an interview with him! (See video)

The next day and after tons of activities, we were still pretty wiped out. We opted to check out the city and the museum a little...

But first, a photo of Eric on the orange sofa in our hotel room. Why? Do you remember this post when Eric bought his orangeish leather sofas?(link here) (They're admittedly awesome despite my teasing him). He was like "LOOK! This place has orange sofas, too. They must have great taste. Obviously." Photo ensued. We're easily entertained. It is what it is.

I'm pretty sure I wanted a photo with this bear ever since we passed it driving in. And Sunday morning, I think Eric thought he'd pressed the repeat button on something b/c I kept saying "I want a bear photo. Can we go to the bear?"

He humored me and we got to see it. Denver has lots of fun, random art stuff all over the city. The bear is peering into the convention center. :) (I'm pretending to try to touch it's rear. Whatever. I thought it was funny).

After a couple other stops, headed to the DAM (Denver @rt Museum, but I like saying DAM. They had cool shirts that said "The best DAM art" or something. Anyway, fun). Saw the King Tut exhibit that's there til January and um.. if it comes to your area, see it b/c it's awesome.

They don't allow photos, so you should stop by the gift shop afterwards and take a creepy one like I did. *nervous*
The museum was pretty cool and I kept my photo taking to a min since they really aren't allowed most places, I dont think. But, no one stopped me in the contemporary area...*excited face*

This is probably the scariest thing I've seen in um.. a very long time. It makes me have a facial reaction of nervousness.
Upset baby doll in crib needed a friend to mock her. I had to oblige.
Despite some randomness, there were some cool contemporary pieces. Eric's standing in one, meant to be a representation of the country's actual highways intersecting... Cool.
Hello, random ladies, will you take our photo? Thanks, you did a great job. :)
Headed to the airport to fly, fly away back to T-town after a fantabulous weekend getaway! :) Thanks for sticking with me this long, peeps...

Things that happened yesterday

1. I couldnt upload my photos b/c I'm fairly certain my mac, flickr, and my thumb drive all hate me. I wanted to share them with Eric before I uploaded them to the blog/facebook. But that just might not happen... haha..Do you flickr? I've never done it, but I paid for the upgrade and am now having issues uploading photos. *grrrr* I have to upload them like 10 at a time...which is hard for me...since I have 200 pics from Denver.

2. I was driving when an adorable golden retriever walked in front of my car in my neighborhood. Well, you know I can't resist that. *sigh* So, I got out and it came to me. I opened the back door and in she jumped. Sheesh. We drove around for awhile, but no one was out looking that I could see... so she came home with me. The rest of the evening was filled with poster making, etc. Good news though...her owner called me! Family and 12 year old Gretel the dog were reunited around 9pm last night! :) I think I like dogs more than a lot of people sometimes. Just sayin. And I also think I'd almost convinced myself to keep her if I never found her owners. This, my friends, is why I cannot ever volunteer for animal shelters. I would have a zoo at home. 100% sure.

3. Oh yeah.. and um.. Eric's house was broken into. Yeah, you read that right. :( They didn't take a ton of stuff (thankfully), but he's got to make some serious repairs today. I took a photo of where they broke in. Bananas! I won't go into details b/c this is the public internet...and talking about a crime where suspects are still missing is weird...but blah. I feel so badly for him. He's dealing with it much better than I would. But, he deals with a lot of things better than I would.. haha.. (He's way more even-keeled than my sometimes-over-emotional self). I'm so over this crime wave that seems to be happening in our city lately. I know crime heats up in summer, but if you're in the area, don't you feel like it's been so much worse this year?! :(

Happy Monday!

Heeeeelllo and welcome to Monday! How was the weekend?

Mine=fabulous! But, we got in from Colorado LATE last night, so the pics and the bloggage will have to wait.

So, this is random, but while in flight yesterday, I was thinking something... I was thinking how I wasn't really looking forward to coming back to work today.

And that bummed me out a little...

I mean.. who wants to come back from vacation? Duh. But it was just kinda different.

I really like my coworkers.

I totally dig my job.

But I genuinely looked forward to a lot of things about my last job.

And to seeing my work family. B/c that's what they were...

I realize that sounds lame.

And I was definitely ready to move on, past my role at my previous company. 100% certain on that.

Recently, I've just been getting weird lately b/c some of the stuff I was promised isn't exactly coming to fruition and I'm putting a lot of bandaids on things instead of actually fixing the system like I want to...

...which is alright and I don't mind

I think I'm just getting a little frustrated or something...

...and starting to wonder what my next step will be for my long term career path if this is all just bandaids after a few years, ya know...

Ahhh...always going with an eye on the future, huh... Ambitious Jax.. *laughing at self*

So, that's that.. :) Moving on....

Even as tired as I am, guess what came with me to work today----my gym bag! I'm so impressed with myself, people. Getting started is definitely the hardest part, but once I get on a roll, NOT working out feels...well...odd. (And it didn't hurt that Eric mentioned he'd noticed. I mean.. I think I noticed but that could have also been in my head...haha.. But, his confirmation made me want to work out MORE!)

Now that we've gone to Colorado (and had a blast!), I'm switching gears to get pumped for MAUI! It's so weird to start getting excited for something in October. I love summer, so I'm conflicted about getting excited for anything involving colder months! It's kinda comical. I'm like "YAY Maui..wait.. no..I'm not ready for winter...but YAY MAUI!"

Yes, it's lunchtime, but my waterproof camera is practically burning a hole in my handbag b/c I'm so ready to develop my rafting pics! Ah, gotta love the old school waterproof cameras... Planning to blog during the season finale of Bachelorette tonight! Are you watching?! Who do you want her to pick?!

Thursday Things

Happy Thursday..and it's kinda my Friday!!!! (since Eric and I will be in Colorado this weekend! YAY!)

So, I'm blogging randomness I'm excited about and feel the compulsion to share. First thing.. I just realized next week is... wait for it...wait for it... JUST THE MOST EXCITING TV WEEK OF ALL TIME... better known as SHARK WEEK! Okay, maybe I'm being a leetle overdramatic, but I love Shark Week. A lot. Bucket list item: cage shark dive. and not with wussy sharks. with tigers or hammerheads or great whites. Yes, I'm serious.

*imagine me pretending to be a shark at my desk...b/c it just happened*

And Jen blogged about this yesterday... I'd had NO idea. I'm so excited about this! Did you read Sweet Valley High when you were younger?! I read it, I watched the tv show, I was a junkie for those stories! Anyway, the writer is coming out with a "10 years later" book! Love.it.

Do you need hours of entertainment...or at least a few minutes? My friend at work sent me this blog and um.. it's silent-laugh-mode hilarious. It makes fun of all the catalog scenes in things like p!ttery barn, etc. Here: Catalog Living.

Finally, my friend just joined the bloggy world! If you have a moment, pop over and say hello and welcome her to the blogtastic community! (I like saying things like "bloggy" and "blogtastic" and pretty much any other random made up word involving 'blog') :) Heather's blog.

Hope everyone is gearing up for a fabulous weekend! If anyone has suggestions of things to see, do, eat, shop, whatever in Denver, please let me know! We have some things planned, but will still have plenty of free time to check stuff out!