there's a will, there's a way, and then sometimes there's just a lot of people who make you smile.

I know everyone probably says this or thinks it, but in this case it's true. I have the best friends and family on the planet. For realsies.

After many long, sometimes painful, years, I finally gradated from a university in December. Yet, despite my diploma hanging on the wall it didn't feel "real" until yesterday when I actually heard my name called and walked across the stage to shake my dean's hand. Weird, right? And I have proof! (Well, at least that I purchased a cap and gown, eh?)

Best part of the whole actual graduation day? My biggest fan came :)

And then today we had a party and my kick ass friends and family showed up en mass to not only wish me well but spend their entire Saturday afternoon with me. For those of you who read this I am incredibly grateful and only sorry that I couldn't spend quality one on one time with all of you today. I am honestly surrounded by some of the most caring and generous people in the world and there are not enough words to describe how awesome y'all are.

And after two days of excitement I am completely exhausted. It's time for some wine and some z's, and possibly some hair ball medicine because my cat is shedding so bad that I know there is no way to avoid the thought that I am ingesting more than I'd like to imagine. Barf.

merriam webster can't get everything right i guess.

It may be strange to say that a fortune cookie prompted me to write this little schpeal today, but it's true. I'll tell you that fortune later.

There's a word that sometimes lays heavy on everyone, and it's one that has been plaguing me lately.

Expectations. 

People's expectations for you, your expectations for yourself, and round and round.  They can be a glorious thing that lifts you to the highest heights of your dreams and they can be a dark cloud that weigh down your soul.  Lately, I have been dealing with the later of these definitions.  Not rationally of course.

It's true, I have high expectations for myself.  But it's also true that I feel like other people in my life have even higher expectations for me based on previous "performance". Whether or not that's true or just something I feel, it's a hard thing to deal with and leads to another ugly word. Regret.  I've been feeling a lot of that lately.  Regret for some of the decisions I made 7 years ago. Regret for some of the decisions I've made in even more recent years.  These two go hand in hand like a dirty, filthy virus and I'm starting to feel like patient X.

But you know what's even worse than these two words slowly chipping away at your sanity? Is that they overshadow all the good things.  They block out the sunshine on a breezy warm day.  They obscure the joy of the impending birth of a baby.  They weed into inter-personal relations and plant seeds of dis-rest. They make you forget who you are and why you do everything that you do to keep putting one foot in front of the other each and every day.

So today, I opened an ordinary fortune cookie not knowing how wise of a cookie I held in my hands.  It told me that "nothing  can keep you from reaching your goals..Do it!"

It might seem strange to you that 10 words printed on a tiny piece of paper and stuffed inside a cookie could spark me to think so "deeply", but it's true, they did.  A few hours after reading that little piece of paper, I sat in a room in a doctor's office and heard the tiny heartbeat belonging to my nephew still in my sisters belly. I marveled at that little sound knowing that in just a few weeks time I'll get to meet the owner of that steady heart beat.  I walked in the sun to a friend's house, listening to the sounds of Spring. I hung out with friends and laughed. I realized that despite expectations and regrets, love and persistence still exist right along side them in the dictionary.

I may not be where I want, and things might not be going my way, my loans might be calling soon and I might feel stuck in a place I'm not going to get out of but the truth of the matter is, that if you refuse to give in and push yourself farther than you think you can, mountains can move. I'm not there yet, I'm not even close to the summit of the hill I put my ass on with past decisions, but hell if I'm giving up now.

Now, someone bring me some aspirin and take out stock in diet pepsi, because this is going to be one fucking long journey.

at least i'm owning up to it, eh?

I told lies.

I fully intended to prepare this post complete with some lovely photos and splashes of vacation awesomeness and yet.... it didn't happen.

Instead I went grocery shopping, did my laundry, and only got as far as uploading the photos from my camera before I passed out last night. I did manage to get up and go to the gym this morning but after a 2 weeks hiatus I looked much more like a lumbering hippo on the treadmill than the half-wit runner that I am and didn't last quite as long as I could have before returning home to get ready for work.

So, yet again I'm kind of a grumpy-gus today, even after a cup of coffee this morning, but maybe the day will turn around?

In hope's for that I bring you this image, supplied by the ever amazing Nads back in 2003 I think, and to this day it makes me laugh until I wee a little tiny bit.

if you don't think this is funny, then you should be stabbed.

My friend Dee finds pearls of wisdom out on the Internet and I think that this one should be shared. Poor sad cloud. No more dancing and singing in his pee, ok folks? No happy swinging on light poles and tossing of the umbrellas, you're hurting his feelings!

That being said, I need me some sunshine soon or I'm going to go even more bat shit crazy. I love me some chilly weather, I just love it when it comes with a fat side of sun to go with it. I need to wear my cute pink sunglasses. And I mean neeeeeeeed! And when it's cold and dreary I have no motivation to go to the gym, which is what I need to be doing. And by need I mean neeeeeeeeeeed. Because guess who is signing up for the Disney Half Marathon again? Yup. It's become abundantly clear that I like to torture myself. But honestly, I had a great time last year and I'd like to improve my time. So I'm registering, but the only problem is that I might not be able to run it if I happen to have moved to school by then. The moving is not so much a bad thing because then it means I got in somewhere, and I can postpone until the next year for the run if I need to. But either way, I need to be getting in running shape, and any shape actually, because this circle I'm turning into is no bueno.

I'm feeling the need for change these days. I keep fighting the urge to change my house, my hair, my bedding, my tattoos, my life. Everything. I guess I'm getting restless since it's been over 6 months since I traveled anywhere and I must be getting that urge again. Guess it's time to scour the internets for some cheap air fare. Or sell a kidney. I did mortgage one already for graduate apps though. Hmm...I've got two ovaries...maybe I can sell one of those...

You know that old song "This is the song that never ends" that repeats and drives you bonkers. Just replace song with day.

I have left the motherland to return to htown. It's such a bittersweet event. I soaked up my last views of the city as I arrived at the airport in style via the red mercedes cab that picked me up. Good ol Londontown, you never really leave it though.

I thoroughly enjoyed being lazy and reading tons of books and riding trains and laying in parks and doing all the nature things I did AND most importantly, hanging out with the lovely Mel. You rock Mel! It's kind of ridiculous when her and I get together, but always entertaining. Like the 80's dance disco club we went to on Friday night. Woah and woah. Like woah. A total freakfestathon to watch and it was amazing.

I'm currently hanging out in the Vegas airport, watching skeevy men from the valley try and get that last minute hook up in the airport with some other real "classy" ladies on the flight. At this point, I'm incredibly happy that this airport has booze everywhere, as they have left in search of some. Ok, so maybe I'm a little cranky, but considering I've been up for almost 24 hours, I think I'm a little entitled. Today's travel has taught me several things. Firstly, when you plan ahead and arrive uber early, sometimes things can fall into place so smoothly you find yourself with oodles of time to wait for your flight. Secondly, for international flights, direct is the way to go because transfers? far too stressful. Thirdly, I will never EVER never ever ever fly into JFK again if I can avoid it. That place is a mad house with absolutely no organization.....or A/C. Thumbs down JFK. And lastly, if it's ever possible that I pop out a rug rat, said rug rat will not be allowed to kick and whack their head against and jab with their tiny elbows the strange adult that is sitting next to them on the plane like the kid next to me for 7 hours. Or bang on the seat in front of him. Or beat on his sister next to him. If that's the case, he'd be checked in cargo in a crate and I'd pick him up at the oversize baggage carousel when we landed.

All that said, I'd chalk this up to a successful vacation indeed!

One more flight to go, 40 minute car ride and I will be comatose in my own bed (yesssssss) for about 12 hours.

It's kind of early, I'm pretty hungry and not sure what's going on with this stupid software

This was intended to be a long post chalk full of pictures and such.

But then my computer and blogger started being an asshole, so we'll see how far I get.

I've been out of NY for almost a week now and while I had a rough start, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself now and back to the swing of things in London. Getting here was a doozy though. After much wasted time standing in lines at JFK, I finally boarded my plane and we pushed off and headed down the tarmac....only to stop and be told they were shutting the engines off and we weren't leaving for at least 2 hours. What has been left out of this story is that I was sitting next to quite possibly the craziest bitch on the planet, who had to be hopped up on meth or crack or something, so those extra few hours were not pleasant. We finally get airborne and they serve us the fabulous airline cuisine for dinner but by the time they reach me...no more vegetarian meals left, no biggie, ate the salad and roll, good to go. Arrive in London finally, get away from miss crazy, get grilled for 5 minutes by passport control and finally grab my luggage and head for the tube at the airport, which is forever and a day away. Get on the train, done. Get to where I need to change tube lines, good to go. Get to Victoria station to catch the overground train to Melissa's and of course there are no elevators here. Cut to me going slowly up the stairs, banging my suitcase and an old man wanting to be helpful and me reassuring him I am fine fine fine but he'll have none of it so he grabs my suitcase....and breaks the handle. Then runs away saying sorry. Now I'm stuck with a broke ass suitcase and have to manage the rest of the journey. By the time I finally reached the flat I was dehydrated, starving and exhausted. I thought "some food, some water, maybe a nap, you'll be good to go."

I was wrong.

So very wrong.

The food I ate, came right back up....twice. Along with the water I drank. My nap turned into having to sleep my entire first day here because every time I went vertical, my stomach clenched and threatened to send me heaving again. The girls here were great and took fantastic care of me, but worry struck because we were leaving for Dublin the next day! Thank the heavens when I woke up all was well, though my stomach was still a little iffy, and Mel and I made our way to Dublin just fine.

Dublin was great, except for all the Americans there. Don't get me wrong I've got lots of pride and love my country, but dammit I didn't go to Dublin to look at and listen to my countrymen. But, even with that, we had a great time there and made it safely back to London. Where the next day I met up with Mo Coppoletta at The Family Business Tattoo shop and got some new ink done, which is gorgeous and I love it. He has a book coming out, which is kind of exciting, and honestly he's one of the most fun tattoo artists I've ever had work done by. An incredibly enjoyable experience both times I've gone to him.

Now my time of leisure truly begins. I have no plans to speak of, which is awesome. Mel and I tried to go to our favorite Friday night hotspot in Angel, for I Love the 90's, only to be horrified to find that it has been replaced with some indie music night and the skankalicious girls were stankin' the area up so we just had dinner and came back to the flat to chill for a bit. A sad let down but I guess all good things can't last. What's up for today? Who knows, the zoo maybe? Reading in the park? Walking the city?

Until next time....

The end is nigh

The time of fabulous pizza, drag queens and ball sweat inducing humidity is coming to an end. Today is my last day in the big apple and then tonight I am London bound. I'm sad to be leaving NYC but also incredibly excited to be back in London!

What have I done while I've been here you ask? Well, you read about my day with Alli D right? That means on Friday I was on my own in the city for most of the day. But, because I'm a total dumb dumb, I wore horrible shoes on Thursday and have now been battling the biggest blisters EVER on the bottom, yes, bottom of my feet. Specifically the pads of my feet which make walking oh so much fun. Riiiiight. But that hasn't stopped me! This is all that I saw on Friday, in list form of course:

Strawberry Fields in Central Park
The John Lennon Memorial Mosaic
More of Central Park
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rockefeller Center
Radio city Musical Hall
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Chrysler Building
Empire State Building
Union Station
Union Square
World Trade Center

Plus, lady Kate and I went to a NY must, the Shake Shack, for dinner. Where I am apparently a failure. Not only did I have their "shroom burger" for vegetarians (fail 1: best burgers in town not consumed, though that shroom burger was mighty tasty!) but I had just a plain milkshake (fail 2: they have these things called concretes that are crazy concoctions with toppings in them). It was incredibly yummy though.

Saturday was kind of a lazy day. Lady Kate and I wandered around Williamsburg in Brooklyn, had a late brunch, went into the city, walked around a bit then met up with some of her friends at a bar to watch the world cup game....and get completely smashed before 5 o'clock. Kind of awesome. After that was a slightly drunken subway ride back to Brooklyn where we stood in line for about an hour for Grimaldi's pizza, pretty much the BEST pizza I've ever eaten. And Lady Kate and I may have polished off a pie and a half (my new friend Gabby had 1 piece, so I don't think that counts as help :).

What's up for today? Packing up my suitcase that has exploded and potentially checking out the Pride parade going on before taking my 1 hour cab ride to the airport (because I don't want to deal with luggage and 2 hours on the subway/air train, yes I'm lazy).

So Ciao NYC! Thanks for proving to me I am completely out of tourist shape. I've got the sore legs and the battle scarred feet to prove it. Until next time big apple.

First bite of the big Apple

I would consider today a success.

After a day full of travel yesterday and my first yellow cab ride into the city with the fabulous Lady Kate, a late night dinner at a quaint NY restaurant superbly called Kitchenette (I think), today was my first full day in the Big Apple. My impression? NYC is kind of great. Yes, it is similar to many other big cities in the world that I've been to and yet, it has it's own way of standing out. Like offering 1000% humidity and making me a sweaty beast all day, while still being able to enjoy myself. That is a fate I never thought possible.

I spent the day wandering all over the Manhattan and surrounding boroughs, and literally, ALL over, with the lovely Alli D. She is a fantastic hostess and city tour guide, so thanks lady! We were in all kinds of fabulous places that I should probably know the name of but they completely escape me at this moment in time. We took the Staten Island ferry,which hello!, is completely free and gives amazing views of the city and the statue of liberty which you can see below. (these are all cell phone photos, regular camera with some zoom action will be providing much more detailed ones at a later date...obviously).


We also buzzed through Times Square (tourist NIGHTMARE), sat in Central Park for a bit (which I will be revisiting again tomorrow for an extended tour) and ate at some fabulous places including a little mid-afternoon-post-ferry-fro-yo from Pinkberry. Again, I can't say thanks enough to Alli D for showing me around the city. It was great to spend some quality time with a friend in the big city :)

I did have an adventure on the subway my first time out. Of course the service going in the direction I needed was down so I had to go uptown then downtown past the stop needed so I hoofed it only about 6 blocks to where I needed to be. Always a journey.

More tomorrow, tonight calls for sleep.

Live from FAT: Part Duex

I may have accidentally typed Live from FART. No joke. And then died with laughter causing the 5 other people in here to look at me like I'm the crazy girl in the pink dress. :)

You read right, live from FAT again. I'm waiting for my little plane to take me to a bigger plane which will take me to NYC where I will get to see the fabulous Lady Kate and amazing Alli D. It's going to be kind of awesome. Although I have just realized I have forgotten one very important item.....Butch. Poor Butch. He never made it into my carry on. I guess he just couldn't leave California behind, even for a couple weeks. Can't say I blame him, but he's a bit crazy. I think he's just too excited about Fresno State Football starting in a couple months that he completely forgot about coming back to London to visit with his long lost brother Stetson.

In preparation for leaving I've had my suitcases out for awhile and of course Heimy was not a happy camper. He kept sniffing them and giving me dirty looks. Then last night it's like he KNEW I was leaving. He went outside and didn't come back in until I was up and moving around this morning, which is like unheard of because that fool wakes me up at least 2 times a night crying in my face to let me know he's inside. I was starting to think he'd finally had enough of me and then he walked inside. He was none-too-pleased when I wouldn't let him back outside and proceeded to curl up on the bed and ignore me even as I was leaving. Jerk. His girlfriend, Miss Dee, is coming to stay with him though, so he better shape UP.

I'm kind of in awe that this trip is here already. It seems like I just served up one of my kidneys to pay for these plane tickets a few weeks ago when it's really been like 6 months (recovery is going well, the scar will just serve as a reminder of my dedication to visit friends and travel). Of course I've had to also pre-sale my first born in order to afford checking my one bag to NY and for other travel expenses, but hey, who can't live without one kidney and any kids? I think I'll sell my spleen to go to Australia.

I limited myself to only bringing 5 books with me, and I hope it's enough. While I don't mind going book shopping ANYWHERE or anytime, I then have to manage to get them home. My brother in law looked at me kind of squirrely when I told him that, and then I had to explain that my plans for LDN are to walk in parks and in the city and read. That is a small slice of heaven if you ask me. Oh who am I kidding, I'm sure I'll come home with at least 2 new books. Tune back in 3 weeks from now to find out.

Look out Big Apple, here comes this pink clad small town girl. Please don't go all Coyote Ugly on me.

Updated: Tigers and tigers and...tigers? Oh my!

Many a person has asked me "What do you want to be when you grow up?" or "And what will you use that degree for?" and such. And when I try to explain sometimes their eyes glaze over or they look at me like I'm nuts or they could care less. But for those who don't understand, I'd like to direct your attention HERE, because if you can look at that and still not understand how I want to work with these amazing creatures and make sure that they don't disappear from this planet even if it means raising them in captivity and not in the wild, then frankly, that discussion is over. On that note, meet who I've been spending some quality time with lately. Ladies and gents, I'd like to introduce you to Ubon, a male 9 year old Malaysian tiger.

How cute is he?! And then there is Kiri, a female 9 year old Malaysian tiger!

A lady has to look her best!

Last weekend the Megster and I went down to Costa Mesa for the weekend and let's just say our first roadtrip together = success. Good food, good company, a gorgeous day spent at the beach and, not to mention, we popped my IKEA cherry. First visit to IKEA equaled spending a pretty penny, but I finally found the gem I've been looking for to go in my living room. It's kind of amazing and I might be a little bit in love. It's the perfect piece to finish off my living room aside from getting a chair to go with my couch and it wasn't that expensive which is DOUBLY awesome. This, would in fact, be the table I referred to earlier that had a ridiculous price for shipping and I think the megster and I learned that it's because you'd have to pay UPS that ridiculous amount since the box was slightly heavy and the worlds most awkward thing to carry. But we rocked it and I put it together in record time and then sat back to admire my handiwork. Those swedish man, they know something about furniture.

First road trip!

Gorgeous beach in Laguna that we sat and read on :)

My birthday has come and gone and I'm another year older. Now I don't know about you but to me the best birthday gift ever has be going to get an xray on your hip. Right? I know, I know. So Monday we find out how badly I jacked myself up. Keep your fingers crossed it's nothing major so I can keep training for September!
I'm so close to heading off to NYC and Dublin and London that I can taste it! Bring on the vacation.
Update: Hip is jacked, and by jacked, I mean I have tendonitis, which means my 1/2 marathon dreams are up in the air. Awesome.

Live and learn - and then carry about 10 spare tires in the trunk.

The sweetest thing ever has to be googling your first name and finding out there is a town named after you! (Yes, after me, shhh.....ok maybe not but it's still kind of awesome!) Texas, you officially RULE.

I've been back for a little over a week from my adventure into the PNW and life has settled into a pace of work, go to the gym, work, should go to the gym but don't, work, really should go to the gym buuuutt.... work, gym, sleep. :) The PNW was a blast. I got to go to Spokane for well, less than 24 hours, but it was pretty awesome to catch up with the lovely Addie and Lori. And to road trip with Nicole. However, it has been determined that I? am tire kryptonite for my friends. Do you remember last time I was in the PNW and Katie's poor car fell victim to my hidden powers (skip past all the gratuitous photos to the meat of the story)? On our way back from Spokane on the day of the wedding we *dun dun DUNNNNN* got a nail in one of the tires. So, her mom was gracious enough to drive her spare set to us, but unfortunately, despite our best efforts and leaving 7 hours before the wedding started, we missed the ceremony. We were able to make it for the reception at least, and I got to see little Bwenticus all married off, which was kind of crazy.

While at the fabulous Katie's, I got this random text message at 1:40 in the morning. Luckily, I was awake, otherwise I probably would have lost my shit with crankiness. Well, somehow I managed to get myself a text message stalker. The kid has been texting me non-stop since I've been back with very little encouragement from me. However, he crossed the line of desperation and neediness when he kept pestering me to text him back, and why hadn't I texted him back and blah blah BLAH! Sooo, I might have told him that I was busy, I didn't know him or owe him anything and he needed to chill. Annnd then he texted me AGAIN that night to see if I was busy...and I ignored it per usual. And I haven't heard from him since. Ahhh, blissful silence. :) I know that may have been a little harsh but seriously? We were way past the city limits sign to creeperville so I feel it was justified.

Now we're just a mere 3ish weeks away from my departure to my big summer adventure and I am getting so EXCITED. Prepare yourself for even more gratuitous photos of myself, Caitlin, Melissa, Emily, and all the other fabulous people I shall meet along the way. (Dear photo gods, please send me a hot irishman in Dublin, thanks, love me.)

In other news, I've got a minor bone to pick with IKEA. Thanks to the help of Megan, I think I've found the perfect sofa table for my place and it's a reasonable price at $149, which is pretty good compared to others I've seen. But of course it's not available in any of the California stores so I say "Let's order this bitch online!". Add it to the cart. Plug in my address. Get to the page for credit info and order reviewing and WOAHOHHOLYSHITTHATCANNOTBETHESHIPPINGCHARGE! Those bastards wanted to charge $299.00 for shipping!?!? That's twice the cost of the table?! What the deuce IKEA, what. the. deuce. Epic fail. So the search continues.

Sharing the love via post-it notes :)

This is why I love my friends. Love notes when you get to work are
instant day brighteners.

Spring has sprung a leak

TADA! And I reappear like a bad case of the clap...or herpes.

My internet has been shit-tastic this past month, and basically didn't work at all. After many a star filled night sitting by my modem resetting it, beating it, pleading with it to work for just a mere 5 minutes, I made the switch to comcast cable internet and so far am pleased. And by that I mean, he hooked it up at noon today and it's worked like a charm since. Farwell AT&T I will miss you and the ease of paying only 1 bill for internet and my cell phone, but I'd rather pay someone who is actually going to provide me access to all the important things in life. Like facebook, and youtube, and blogs to read, and dangerous online shopping. Lack of internet would be the main reason I haven't been around here lately, telling amazing tales about my lack of intelligence at times, but also I've been busy. I have a life you know. That DVR isn't going to watch itself.

But seriously, I can tell it's spring. Not just by my allergies or the fact that I was sick with some weird cold for 3 weeks, or by the crazy weather that's 80 degrees one day and rains the next. Nope, I can tell it's spring by the fact that life is picking up pace again. It's stretching and shaking itself off after a long winter's nap and as the flowers open their petals to the sunshine, things to do start rolling in from all directions. Mostly it means that school is steadily picking up speed as it heads downhill towards finals so that's basically taking over. Only a couple more weeks and I'll be free for summer. But I'll be doing research over the summer, so not totally free, but it'll be more like pleasure than work since I'm doing a behavior study on tigers, which lets face it, watching tigers for a couple hours a week is pretty awesome. :)

Other than trying to stay on top of normal life things I've been busy getting lots of trips in order. There's a trip to the coast coming up which I'm STOKED about. I haven't been to the beach in while and ready for some sand and sun. I'm PNW bound again at the end of May for Brent's wedding and just as exciting is I'm going back to Spokane for a couple of days and I haven't been back there since 2005, so that'll be pretty awesome. And lastly, I'm New York City and London bound at the end of June. Mel and I are planning on going to Dublin too, so this is pretty much going to be a busy couple months!!

Nothing to crazy has happened these days. But I'll wrap this up with a ridiculous photo of me with new bangs.

It's true, you can have it all. No wait, they lied.

Oh life, how funny you can be. One weekend I'll have nothing to do but enjoy being lazy around the house, catching up on my DVR and Netflix. And the next..... everyone and their mother will want to make plans for those exact days.

I always want to do it ALL! I want to play and hang out and do everything that people invite me to do, but this weekend, that was just not going to happen. I thoroughly enjoyed the things I did, I merely wish instead of getting 3 invites for Saturday night and 2 for Sunday, that I could have spread them across 3 weekends. My weekend started great though, with this little surprise on my desk when I got to work on Friday!


Who doesn't like to get surprise love notes while they're gone! Thanks Meg :) We had a bit of a weird day on Friday as well, concerning a mystery shipment. A delivery guy arrives with some paperwork for something he wants to deliver, so I check it out. It's for our office, no specific name but there is a PO number. AHA! I tell the gentleman to bring it on in and run over to our Accounts Payable department to look up the PO. We find a name and I feel smug and satisfied that another delivery crises has been diverted.

And then he brings in the delivery.

As you can see by this photo, this does NOT look like something someone in my office would order.

YIKES! So I rip open the packing slip attached to the thing and I'm reading over the contents of the package and oh holy shit there is tear gas and flash grenades in these suckers!! One thing about being next to the Sheriff's department, and having a similar address, you sometimes get the wrong package. We debated on having our own war game, but opted to call them to pick up their supplies instead.

Needless to say, the weekend passed by far too quickly as it often does when it's full of excitement, but despite all the coming and going, I have little to tell. Except that last night at dinner at PF Changs (yum and YUM and can I say that I have some of the best friends ever who totally embraced getting a bunch of vegetarian dishes, complete with being excited about it! Love you ladies!) and our waiter starts asking questions about who's the vegetarian and asking me why (which is just kind of an awkward question for me to begin with, I don't know why) so I attempt to explain and in doing so reveal my major in school, to which he says he's an animal science major as well and that's probably where he recognized me from and then I was all "Oh wow, hold the phone bucko, you didn't say anything about recognizing me and now this conversation just got a whole lot more awkward considering I can't say I've ever seen you before in my life", which of course was in my head, out loud I just stammered an "Oh really....Uh...." and then when we left he gave a hearty "See you on campus!" and I just kind of nodded and ran.

Totally. Awkward.

Not that it's his fault, I'm generally the awkward kid in the bunch, but then I suppose some one's got to do it!

I am ridiculously cute and love playing with my feathers. Why am I halfway under the bed? Who knows, I'm just that kind of crazy cool.

Whooooooooo are yoooooooouu?

Another Manic Monday is upon me and I'm feeling slightly maniacal. I might have spent the better part of about 25 minutes of my last class today reading My Life Is Average on my phone. I know, it's a fantastic way to put my higher education experience to good use. But, I did find this gem:

"Today, I was in my car about to leave a parking lot. I got scared because my car started rolling forward unexpectedly, but then I realized it was just the car next to me backing up. MLIA"

That happens to me ALL the time! I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

I was antsy and pacing all afternoon at work waiting for the FedEx guy to arrive so that I could mug him and grab my photoshop software that was being delivered. He finally got here, I tore open the box and reveled at the beauty of the new software...until I read the fine print on the side....for systems requirements... requiring Microsoft Windows XP or higher and wait, what? Microsoft. Son of a bitch. I totally ordered the wrong platform. So I'll be spending the next year and a half of my life on hold waiting for a customer service person so I can arrange an exchange and wait for me to mail this sucker back and them to send a new one. Utter. Disappointment. and I am dumb. What the deuce.

Yesterday was sissy-pant's first softball tourney of the season and while they may not have done awesome, they still did good and we had a great day. Beautiful weather, sun, sunblock, snacks. Good times. Then I went and saw Alice in Wonderland and I must say Tim Burton, you do not disappoint. I wasn't really sure what to expect going in and was totally satisfied with my movie experience. Especially since AinW is my favorite Disney movie, my standards were exceptionally high that they not ruin it for me, and alas, they did not. Bravo.

After I got home from the movie I took a shower and went to blowdry my hair and ...nothing. Push the little buttons. Nothing. Try the top plug. Nothing. Push the buttons some more. Nothing. Try a different outlet in a different bathroom. Nothing. Throw the damn thing on the ground and try it again. Nothing. Needless to say, I was at Target on Saturday and then on Sunday my stupid blowdryer kicked the circuit breaker. So scary hair was my friend and I'll be hitting Target at some point in the very VERY near future considering my hair is not long enough to comfortably wear in ponytails for any extended amount of days. Blowdryer: 1 Anna: 0

In other news, I was on the phone with Megan this afternoon who gets excited and says she's off work in 3 minutes! While I still had an hour to go. She texts me with "FREEDOM!" shortly after 4. My response?

"Bitch. I'm going to sharpen my pen into a shive and come find you when I get on the outside."

Needless to say, I earned a snort which makes anyday, a good day.

"T" is for "Tittynope"

I know we all learn our ABC's when we're in kindergarten or pre-school, but apparently? I still need help with mine.


In other news......wait, I have no other news. My life is dull. This week I was consumed with watching season 2 of VMars (oh how I LoVe thee!), studying for a couple exams (ok really? only a couple days of that.....cause I'm a huge slacker, ahem.), and having a Partylite Party at my house. The party? Was great. Lots of folks showed up, we laughed, we ate, we smelt some shit and drank mimosas. The tests? Well, they're done at least. VMars? Never disappoints.

Today I got asked to go house hunting with a friend of mine. Totally honored that she thinks I've got a good eye for things like that. Then she follows up by telling me I'm like an old, worn-out horse. Que? Thanks Megan, I'm sure there's a compliment in there somewhere ;)

I've got a question? Why is it that an ipod, when placed on shuffle, simply repeats the same 30 or so songs over and over. Shouldn't it shuffle though all 900 or so songs or however many are on there before repeating? I do not understand this shuffle mechanism. As much as I love "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus (shut. up.) I don't want to hear it 4 times on my way back from F town. Ipod? you're so on notice. Also on notice: Panera. After picking up a delicious veggie sandwich and apple, I hurried home to consume my food. Inhaled the sandwich and reached in for my golden, delicious Fuji apple and almost cried when what did my wondering eyes see? A fucking red. delicious. I was so crest fallen and traumatized that I asked the girl today what kind of apples they had because last time it was a red delicious and those, my friends, are grody. Lucky for me, it was business as usual in the apple department so way to be Panera, way. to. be.

It's Friday ya'll, and payday, which means it's time for a hot-damn, exciting night out on the town. Meaning, I'll be hanging out with Megan, in my pj's, watching movies and playing mario kart on the wii. I love my life.

I think someone spiked my frappuccino with Ambien.

I can't believe this month is almost over already. I mean, I know it's a shorter month and all but hot damn, next week it's March. Ca-razy. Last week flew by because it was consumed with frantic studying for first exams, as will this week.

I'm super excited because my friend Lindsey decided to start blogging this week. She's an awesome writer (you are Lyns, don't argue with me!) and has an amazing voice in her writing. Also? I'm ready for lots and lots of pictures of baby Julia :) Her beautiful daughter and my psuedo niece. I can't wait to start reading all about their day to day lives.

My tickets have been purchased for New York and London this summer. Needless to say, I'm peeing my pants I'm so excited! I'm ready for a visit back to L-town and I've never been to NYC, so it should be equally amazing. Depsite this expense I'm contemplating 2 expensive purchases. I'm ready for a new Mac. I've had my lappy for about 5 years now and it's time to upgrade. And the other one is a new camera. I love my point and shoot and am not getting rid of that beauty, but I want a more professional-esque one where I can have more control over the images I'm taking. Little did I know what a complicated world photography land would be! There are so many types of cameras and then there's the software debate: Photoshop or Aperture and if photoshop which one? My brain hurts. And so will my wallet when all is said and done.

I've also been researching for a credit card that earns frequent flyer miles and holy freaking crap on a stick is that a complicated search as well. There are SO many and I'm having a hard time finding one that's right for me. I need to get on it though because I've already booked 3 flights this year with a minimum of one more to go and those are all things I could be earning miles on for the future. I'm ready for that 2.5 week vacation this summer too, SO ready it's ridiculous. I love being able to travel. Because these feet, these ones right here:

Were made to go places.

Domesticity is the name but it should be called "work your ass off for the 2 days you aren't being paid to work your ass off else where."

I have never felt more domestic in all my life. Seriously. I think I covered ALL my bases this weekend. The check list included:
Laundry including bedding and towels - check
Cleaning up leaves and pulling weeds in the back yard - check
Cleaning the apartment top to bottom - check
Getting needed household items from Target - check
Grocery shopping - check
Home cooked meal with leftovers for the week - check
Taxes done - check
Homework done - half a check :)

Oi! Too much for me really. All I need to add is baking cupcakes and I'd be on overload (which is why I plan on making them tomorrow night, I mean, I've got a reputation to uphold after all.)

On Friday night I went to Brewbakers with Meg and Dee and Bryan and Matty. Super fun. Ate some uber spicey pizza that is pretty much one of the hottest things I've ever eaten. The name should have given it away, Diablo. Note to self- pay attention to play on words from now on.

While cleaning up my sorely neglected back yard I made a gruesome discovery. I was sitting on my behind pulling weeds and reached towards the back of the flowerbed and what did my wondering eyes see.....but a freaking HUGE ass rat carcass. Yeah. Sick. So I used my new shovel and scooped it into the garbage bag. Then I promptly walked in the house and gave Heimy a generous helping of treats. Goooood kitty. :) Not that I advocate the killing of any animals, but I really don't like the idea of a 1.5 foot rat from head to tail scampering about and getting in my apartment. Sorry Mr. Rat, sometimes it pays to be at the top of the food chain.

Saturday night I went out again (I know, 2 nights in a row, unheard of for this old lady) to watch Bryan play with a band called Lit Up. They were pretty freaking awesome and had a great turn out. Now if only going out in this town didn't involve seeing people I'd rather not run in to, it'd be even better. Stupid small towns.

Lastly, I've been thinking long and hard lately about the idea of consuming meat. Weird you might think, but not really. I'm exposed every day at school to the world of Food Animals and meat consumption and don't get me wrong, I've been an avid carnivore since my teeth sprouted and I could wield a fork. But lately it's just been getting to me. I see these sentient beings everyday and while I know they're here for many reasons, including to promote the continuation of life through their death, I'm finding it harder and harder to be ok with eating them. Do I think I can completely go vegetarian? I don't know. But I'm going to give it a shot. Will I never eat meat again? I don't know, the thought of never having a steak or hamburger again or turkey during the holidays makes my stomach punch me from the inside to tell me no fucking way is it not going to enjoy that again. But I'm going to actively try to consume little to no meat. So, in lieu of that at the grocery store today I bought a meat substitute or vegetarian meat, and used it to make stuffed bell peppers and DAMN they were tastier than when I used ground turkey. See for yourselves.

MMmmmm Mmmmm good.

Sunday funday? or just the day before Manic Monday?

Ah, Sundays. How I love, I mean hate... I mean love....or.. wait. I can't decide how I feel about you Sunday! My goals for today included: going to the gym, cleaning my apartment, reading for Animal Physiology and hanging out with Dee and Meg. I accomplished one of those things, can you guess which one? Yup, yup. It was totally reading for animal phys. JUST KIDDING! har, har, no brainer, I hung out with Dee and Meg. Which was super-duper fun, and chill, and great and included lots of laughing and making fun of Dee.... I mean.... love you Dee!!

I do enjoy the laziness that Sundays usually bring. Most Sundays I sleep in late, catch up on my DVR shows, which is check and done for this week, and then dread going to work, and now since the semester started, school just hours out. Boo, boo, BOO!

My favorite part of Sundays however, is this:


Snuggling with my old man is the best part of any day, but particularly on the weekends. We sleep in late, we wander to the kitchen to get breakfast, and then lay in bed watching TV most of the morning. :)

Now, I know when I told you all about my fabulous trip to Tacoma, I mentioned my recent love for the show Weeds. Well, I should also mention my recently found love for Chuck as well. This show is awesome! It was basically cancelled but was saved by another network and is back. on. You, right there, yes you, need to watch it because it's so ridiculously fantastic.

*sigh* I am now going to watch a bit of a movie before admitting defeat that Monday will surely arrive tomorrow and pass out to save my energy to survive another week.

Fork you, Fork you very much.

Hey'ya! As promised, here are the photos from Seattle. Not that most of you care since you've seen them on Facebook likely already, but for those who haven't, TA DA! I'm amazing, I know, it's ok, you can say it. There, don't you feel better? *ahem* Onward. ***Ignore the wacked out formatting at the bottom, I don't know what happened and I don't really care enough to spend the hours it would take to fix it, so enjoy!***

Getting ready to head into Pike's Place Market

Rawr. This shop had AMAZING finger puppets, I may have been a little too excited.

Lovely view of Seattle from Kerry Park.
I need to stop being friends with super models, they're bad for my self-esteem.

It's space. It's a needle. It's the space needle.

I want a wall like THIS!

Look, I'm being that guy from that drawing by that famous dude. You know, that one.

Road trip day! First stop: Port Townsend (PT). Read: Cold, windy but beautiful port city.

We finally made it all the way to Forks. It was kind of ghetto, let's just be honest. But still nifty.

PT

Road trip day continued through Olympic National Park. Jaw dropping beauty!

Say Cheese!

Bella's ride ya'll!

Final stop on road trip day was La Push. Gorgeous beach and cliffs but as you can see here from my "Oh my fucking god this beach is freezing and this California girl is not used to this on a beach" face, it was a tad chilly.

La Push Beach is COVERED in drift wood. It was such a spectacular site. I had another picture uploaded on here that was a great view up the beach, but my dumb ass just deleted it and I'm not taking the time to upload it again. Get over it.

And yes, the treaty line is posted. Legit.

Last day in Tacoma was spent hanging out with my bestie and enjoying some sunshine outdoors. We checked out Stadium High School, which is featured in the 10 Things I Hate About you movie, walked around a bit, then finished up with some frozen cokes. The life.


And last, but certainly not least, we had dinner with Nicole, the best college roommate a girl could ask for. This face, right there, with the blond hair? I haven't seen since my 21st birthday. RIDICULOUS. Such a good dinner. Not good? Is what happened after dinner...

Unfortunately after dinner we discovered Katie's poor car Bonnie had a flat. No problem right? We coast to the nearest gas station, a mere 5 blocks from her place, and roll on up to the air thinking we'd air that bitch up and deal with it in the morning. HA. Fucking air machine was out of order. Right, we can change a tire. Jack it up, take the lug nuts off. Wait, damn lug nuts are on so freaking tight we can't get them off. So the nice gas station attendant takes loosens them for us. We try pulling the tire off, it won't budge, and by trying to get it off the car falls of the jack. Seriously, I almost crapped myself and felt so bad about the situation. So a nice (COMPLETELY HOT!) stranger stopped to help us, got his jack since ours was mangled, jacked up the car and it rolls backwards. This is like the tire changing story from hell! Finally the tire is almost off but in a precarious position and the jack is wobbling so I told Katie to call a tow truck so her car didn't die a painful, sad death in a gas station parking lot. 30 minutes later, I've never been so happy to see a large tow truck in my life! Note to self: No matter how nice the weather is in the day, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT wear cute little flats out in Tacoma at night or your feet will freeze when standing on pavement for an hour and a half or more.
Needless to say our last night was a little stressful, and definitely lacked the chill vibe we had all weekend, but it was still a bloody fantastic trip and I can't wait to repeat it again in May!
Now, can someone find me an inflatable boat, I need a ride to my car, these heels aren't ment for wading in parking lot sized puddles.