Busy Bee

I've been non-stop today! I actually slept until 815 this morning (which is late for me) because I stayed up until after midnight last night watching the Real Housewives OC reunion shows. Quality television. Then today I picked up my bridesmaids dress for Jeanne's wedding, bought some gold strappy shoes to go with the dress and some silver gladiator sandals (by one get one half off), went to Target, Old Navy, LSU store, and then to Roly Poly for lunch. I came home, cleaned the whole house and finally showered. I'm wiped. Now it's rainy and I'm watching Everybody Loves Raymond. Not a super exciting day, but it was productive.

The inlaws are coming in Thursday for the night. They're buying me patio furniture for my birthday, which our house totally needs. Then mine and Cara's b-day crawfish boil is Sunday. Holla!

Work was insane this past week. I've been put in charge of all these Parish projects and it is terrifying. I've never been put in charge of this type of stuff before, so I'm learning as I go. I'm not used to having this much authority at work and it is really freaking me out. I do appreciate that my superiors seem to have confidence in me and my abilities...I just wish I had that much confidence in myself! Sometimes I miss the old days of micro-managing bosses. (Yeah, I said it.) It was annoying, but a lot less stressful. The grass is always greener....

Neal and I picked out some pearl earrings for my birthday. I love them. The ones I've been wearing the past few years were tiny and fake, so I love my new ones.

I guess the only sort-of big news that I have is that I've gotten off of birth control. We'll see what happens!

Our lease is up in May and our landlords want us to stay here as long as we want, so we are going month-to-month from now on with a 60-day move-out notice. I've started looking at houses online, but we haven't started seriously looking yet. I really like that we don't have to sign another year-long lease and that we can also take our time looking for a place to buy. I was worried that we would be rushed trying to buy a house; I didn't want to settle for a place just because we were time limited in our search. Hopefully we can find something in Covington or Abita Springs, within our price range, that we both like.

I think that's all I've got for now. 30 in T-3 days, ya'll.

Just a Few Things

1. Jeanne's bachelorette party was last weekend. Lots of fun and I love my friends. But I'm so very, very tired.

2. I'm old.

3. Going to be in Houston next week Wed - Fri. I'll be at the Doubletree in the Galleria area. Feel free to holla'.

4. If you like reading about celebrity gossip on the web, check out www.laineygossip.com. She has nicknames for some stars (for ex: Carrie Underwood = Country Bitch) and she's hilarious.

5. I DVR'd Oprah yesterday so that I could watch Jessica Simpson talk about the massive pile of douche that is John Mayer. And I must say, I think JS came off great. She finally seems comfortable in her own skin. She was funny, honest, and genuine. I like her again.

6. I have a wedding to go to tomorrow night and I have nothing to wear. I'm thinking about just wearing my highschool reunion outfit (black pants, shiny teal blouse, black strappy heels, big necklace). I really don't feel like having to hunt down a new dress tonight. Blah.

7. I can not even begin to tell you how sad I am that Neal can't come to Pruitt's wedding tomorrow night. Frowny faces all around. I know that Neal is going to be so bummed tomorrow night and it will be very weird to not have him there. I guess it's just part of working in the oil field - you get off every other week so there are no vacation days or random days off. Boooooo.

8. I took a temperament/personality quiz today at work. I took the same quiz 9 months ago when I started my job, and my scores/outcome have changed. I was an "idealist" last June and now I'm a "guardian." I think it's my close proximity to 30.

GRRRRRR

I went to a meeting this afternoon that was supposed to be some sort of 8-person forum where everyone in the group brainstorms and discusses issues. Roughly 55 minutes of the 60 minute meeting were hijacked by two local politicians who talked endlessly about their personal experiences and views. Within the last 5 minutes, I was asked a question about something and I began to answer it. About 25 seconds into my answer, I look over at one of the politicians who is looking at his watch and looking around the room. I SO VERY BADLY wanted to say something along the lines of "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take the spotlight off of your fat-yat fucking face. I apologize for occupying 25 seconds of your time after I have spent the last hour listening to you ramble on endlessly while you name drop and talk about how wonderfully awesome and connected you are. Please, look away and be rude. Since I'm a young female, I probably have nothing of importance to say anyway."

But I would like to keep my job so I didn't say anything. And sweet Lord I would not have a headache right now had I been able to let that out. Time for a cocktail.

I'm Getting Too Old for This

I think I may be getting sick, but I'm not sure yet. It could go either way. I don't feel bad enough to go to the doctor. It's probably just the residual Mardi Gras funk. We had a great weekend, but I'm paying for it now. We managed to make it uptown Sunday and Monday for parades and had a lot of fun both days. While we didn't go down there Tuesday, we did drink it up "Northshore Style" all afternoon. It was Mardi Gras Day and I just couldn't convince myself that it was okay to do anything else but celebrate with drinks.

Wednesday morning I opened the doors of my Jeep to see the following items in the backseat: piles of beads, 2 small bottles of 5-hour Energy (Neal's), empty beer can, beer koozie, Taco Bell receipt, dirty fleece jackets, a rolling ice chest and an Orleans Parish parking ticket.

With every passing year, these hangovers get harder and harder to get over. I'm detoxing this week so that I'll be allllll ready for Jeanne's bachelorette party next weekend.

Like a Champ

After the game -"Yay, we won!"















After, after the game - "Hell Yeah! Who Dat! Shots!"
















After, after, after the game - "Sure, I'll make it to work for 8 tomorrow morning. No problemo. I can totally do that. Wait, am I the oldest person in this bar?"
















So I made it to work for 8, but I only lasted an hour before I had to go home. I was feeling a bit under the weather. They let us off of work today at noon so that we could go to the parade downtown, but I don't think I'm gonna' make it.

What Parade?

So Mom had her hysterectomy Wednesday and I was in the hospital with her from Wednesday morning until Thursday afternoon when they released her. The doctor said it went really well and her recovery seems to be going pretty good. My grandparents came in town from Houma and sat with me for most of the day Wednesday. There was a Saints party going down in the cafeteria at the hospital both days I was there. They were raffling off Saints stuff, giving away king cake and were playing the Saints CD (Stand up and get crunk, the Who Dat song, Do Watcha' Wanna', Ain't Nothin' But a Party, etc) in the cafeteria so loud it was unbelievable (in a hospital!). Every nurse that came in the room to check on my Mom threw out a "Who Dat" or "Geaux Saints" or something and they all had on Saints t-shirts with their scrubs. This city has lost its mind. I did get another Saints t-shirt yesterday at PJ's (yeah, even PJ's Coffee is selling t-shirts)..it's black with a gold fleur de lis and says "Superbeauxl" and I couldn't pass it up.

Last night after work I went to David's Bridal in Slidell and ordered my dress for Jeanne's wedding. After that I wanted to go to the Gap and Banana because I needed to get some more khaki pants for work, so I drove from Slidell to Mandeville where the stores are. I walk up to the Gap and the doors are locked and Banana was closed as well. I was sort of confused until I turned around and saw floats and high school marching bands in the parking lot across the street. Whoops. I have never been to a Northshore parade so I'm not familiar with when they are or what route they take. Well I know now where they ride. I really need to check out the parade schedule before I leave the house today.

Neal's out of town until Wednesday, so I think I'm going to BR tomorrow to watch the game with my sister at Walk On's or something. I wish Neal were here, because we would totally go to the Quarter. Ah well. It is awesome, however, that Neal will be in town this upcoming weekend. He hasn't been to NO for Mardi Gras weekend with me in like 3 years. I know that we will definitely be down there Sunday morning for Thoth b/c Zellers is riding in it, but other than that we don't have plans. I'm off Monday and Tuesday (wahoooooo!) but he has to leave Wednesday morning to go back to work, so I doubt will do the Mardi Gras Day thing.

I watched Whip It last night and now I want to be a roller derby girl. Really badly. I want to have different colored stripes in my hair and wear fishnets with shorts and skate and be awesome. I'm just looking for an excuse to do this. 30th birthday party at the skating rink maybe??? Now I just need a roller derby name. Hmmmm.

Who Dat

I was never nervous about the game Sunday because I knew that we were going to win. I never doubted it; even with 7 seconds left on the clock and the Vikes had the ball, I still knew it. Even though I knew we were going to win, I was still speechless when it was over. Black and Gold Superbowl, baby! Yaaaaahooooooo!

Work is really good. I was given a lot more responsibility today, which is good and bad, I think. In this job, my anal-retentiveness totally pays off. I think I've found my calling. I've also got some good work trips planned out this year. Houston in March (10th - 13th), Seattle in June, and Austin (yay!) at some point this summer.

I've had some taco soup that my step-mom made in the freezer for a few weeks and decided I wanted to eat it the other night. I did not give it time to thaw out and it was in sort of a large rectangular-shaped container, so it would not fit in any of my pots. I thawed it out a little in a pot and then decided it would be a good idea to stab the frozen soup repeatedly with a kitchen knife to try and break it apart. And now the knife is totally jacked; the tip of it is bent backwards. It's incidents like this that explain why Neal always gets a frightened look on his face and says "please don't hurt yourself" every time he sees me pick up a sharp knife. But once it finally thawed out, the soup was pretty good.

My brother gave us an Applebee's gift card for Christmas so we decided to go there a few weeks ago and use the card. A free meal is a free meal. Neal, however, thought it was a great opportunity to act like we were there to celebrate a special occasion. Every time someone would walk by, he would try to act out a different scenario. The first time he asks, "So, where you from?" The second time, "Happy 30th birthday!" The third time, he tells me to take my rings off so that we can get engaged in the Applebee's. I just couldn't do it. It reminded me too much of that time I waited tables for a wedding reception at Bennigans in Baton Rouge. Not kidding.

Neal comes home tomorrow, yay! He's been gone 8 days and it feels like FOR-EV-ER.