Happy New Year!!

I'm baaaaccckkkk!!!!

Well maybe. We'll see.

Right now I'm too busy playing with my new iPad.

That time of the year again.

Dear You,
I shouldn't be hurt, but I am. It was ok for me to move on but not you. You told me yourself that you had moved on. I should be proud of that admission. But I had loved you.
--Me.

Dear You,
I shouldn't be hurt, but I am. I wish you would have told me that she was sick. But you did apologize for that omission. For that, I loved you.
--Me.

Dear You,
I shouldn't be hurt, but I am. You told me that I was the only one but she told me that I wasn't. And then you lied. And I hated you.
--Me.

Dear Me,
You shouldn't be hurt but you are. You live by a set of mantras and rules that seldom make sense. For as strongly as you are convicted by one means, you remain ambivalent to another. You are a love/hate relationship.
--Me.

Seeking New Relationship

Young Businesswoman seeks constant companionship.

Must be available 365 days per year. Required height to be no more than 9", no less than 7". Width to be no more than 7", no less than 5". Spiral binding and/or elastic enclosure requested; binder styles not desired. Failure to provide one page per date is not acceptable. Pre-printed time slots is discouraged, though perforated corners for ease of use a bonus. Understanding of design and aesthetic persona a plus, although provisions for personalization will be considered.

Failure to fulfill these requirements will result in immediate rejection.

Position to begin January 1, 2010. Vacancy to be reevaluated on an annual basis, although first right of refusal may be extended upon expiration of contract.

Please apply in person.

Survived the Drama. Survived the Panic. Survived the Party.

Eleven years. That's how long two of my friends dated before they got married this past Saturday evening. Eleven years spanning college, a move to New Orleans and another move to San Francisco. Whew! The wedding was gorgeous, and I enjoyed spending time with my fellow INDS/ARCH grads. My best friend was a bridesmaid and was flying in from San Antonio, so I carted her around for five days, joined by three more college friends for the weekend. The festivities were not without mishaps. Here are a few:

The Bride and the Priest got the times confused for the Rehearsal and stood each other up.
We held the Rehearsal Dinner before the Rehearsal.
Rehearsal Dinner last 3.5 hours.
Almost got run off the road by crazy New Orleans drivers.
Checked into our hotel and found two men in our hotel room.
Hotel insisted that the room that they gave us was the one we booked...with only 1 King bed.
Email verification proves us right--Thank you iPhone. Now find me 2 Doubles.
My friend is irate that we never got an apology for the mishap.
My friend complains about the cost of everything for the wedding. There is NO filter.
Got a slow leak in my tire. Must put air.
Meet up with more friends at Pat O's Piano Bar. Our group is dubbed "The Pips" by the lounge singer.
One of our group gets smashed.
Off to the hotel to rest up and get ready for rehearsal attempt #2 then party at Old-Skool Bar.
Rehearsal attempt #2 starts 30 minutes late and runs an hour overtime.
Rock-n-Sake!!!
Blast dancing at the Gold Mine. We are the 4 Old Ladies and 1 Gay Man on the dance floor. I love it!
Remember that we were "The Bitches" in college. Do NOT dance with us. We are not here for YOU.
Random Bachelorette Party arrives. I swear they were all underage.
The Old Ladies get pushed into the corner by the Kids.
The Gay stays out late and brings in a Yucky Dog for his roomie at 4am. Glad I wasn't in that room!
Wedding day arrives and I'm recruited to "do Hair" because the bridesmaid refuses to pay.
She showers, we head down to the pool for a little R&R.
The pool is directly adjacent to the courtyard, separated by a row of holly bushes.
There's a wedding reception going on in the courtyard.
Our pool time was DJed by Big Band Music.
Back up to the room to play hairdresser.
I voted for board straight with the straightening iron, half pulled up, rubber band wrapped with hair.
She voted for cascading curls, half pulled up, rubber band wrapped with hair.
Down to the wire to get the hair did.
Our Detour: Wedding Party from the courtyard "Second Line" under our window.
My turn to get ready, squeezed fat ass into Spanx.
Spanx is the Devil.
The upside: I could have bought a smaller dress.
Roommate college buddy (not in the wedding) fretting over her dress/belt.
Thirty minutes before wedding we call the valet for our car.
The slow leak: Nail. Tire Flat.
Peekaboo on the bride. Why are they still at the hotel 30 minutes before ceremony??!!??
Offer to ride to church in the limo with the bridal party.
Cab ride from French Quarter to Metairie and back: Way too much.
No good...need my vehicle to return bridal party to hotel.
Tip for the valet to put on the spare: Worth it.
Travel from hotel to church on the interstate with a bicycle tire: Scary.
Arrive at the church 20 minutes late.
Wedding is running 25 minutes late. My luck!!
The Hair: Totally fell. Should have done board straight. Yes, I told you so.
Got lost in a pitch black City Park looking for the reception hall.
Bride's parents go MIA just in time for the Father/Daughter dance.
Bride's parents show up--delay? Need for Slippers.
Reception: a BLAST!
Drive members of bridal party back to hotel.
Continue cheesy reception music with my cheesy cd collection.
Return to hotel: hide from everyone else 'cause I'm NOT going to Bourbon Street again.
Wake up to serenade by random guy on the sidewalk just under our window.
Go to PepBoys to get tire patched.
Guy tries to take advantage of three women: at 23K miles, I need 4 new tires. WTF.
No thanks, sir.
Another mini-INDS reunion over brunch while my car gets fixed.
Pick up the car and head down to Magazine Street.
Friend's hubby and baby driving up to meet us.
Walk 7 blocks before we realize how far we are from our intended destination.
No bother, time to drop off at the airport.
Our group parts ways: lil' family stays to enjoy Magazine, the Amandas head to the airport.
I miss my BFF!!

And that is how we do New Orleans.

Busy little bee

House renovations are almost complete! Well, let me rephrase...house redecorating is almost complete! I didn't move any walls or tear out any floors, but I did do a whole lot of painting, building furniture, making artwork, and soon to be refinishing furniture! What lit this fire under my ass? I scheduled a party. Apparently, it works to get your butt in gear to get the house set up properly. I still have an office in my dining room, and that won't change for a few more weeks, but then end of my term as landlord is quickly approaching!! A week after my sister moves out I anticipate the home transformation to be compete. That is, I'm giving myself a week after she moves out to repaint her room, move my office in there from it's current home in the dining room, and reset my dining room for it's proper function. I CAN'T WAIT!! Photos soon.

Grande Skinny Caramel Mo..er, Latte, No Whip

Or...Grande Guilt-Free Caramel Swirl Mocha, No Whip.

It seems that the more words that can be used to describe your preferred Starbucks or CCs beverage equates to some sort of ranking on the totem pole of recreational coffee drinking. The more you say, the more important you must be. Or, the more addicted.

Let's translate that into computer-ese and see how overwhelming it becomes: HP, Asus, NVidea Graphics ???, Integrated Graphics, 64-bit, all of these words fly so far over my head that shorty here can't even jump high enough to catch. Nor do I want to, really. Bring a trusted computer-ese-literate friend and budget and please, just tell me what to buy.

My beloved HP Pavilion (that was almost 2.5 years old) suddenly stopped working last Friday afternoon. Small things had started acting up over the course of the last couple of weeks, but I just overlooked it as normal computer glitches, since they corrected itself by a simple reset of the internet, or restart of the computer. No so much the case on Friday. Rather than spend $85 to have the computer shipped off to tell me what I already knew, we spent nearly 2 hours at Best Buy, hemming and hawing over all the possibilities of a new computer.

Fast forward four days. I've got a new computer, albeit the second new computer in five days, yet I still have no access to all my old files, nor have any programs that I require successfully installed on this new computer with Vista 64. Yes, all of the programs are 64-bit compatible. But error messages abound. The first computer was returned two days after purchasing because of the errors. Five days later, with a different brand computer, the same problems. Thank goodness the weekend is coming soon. Maybe third time's the charm?

Cleaning the Pantry

Lent began today, and like many of my fellow Catholics, I went to church and got my ashes. As the Lenten season begins, I ponder my penance...I am going to follow through Lent with the aid of my "Little Black Book," a daily meditation. This is something new for me, but I'm looking forward to it, especially to see if I can truly read it each day, and not have to play catch up. My usual penance of "giving up" something still applies as well:

No Macaronni and Cheese
No Soft Drinks
No Chocolate
No Fast Food
No Alcohol

Really and truly, most of these should be eliminated from every day life, regardless of the season, but like the sinner, I falter. One year, I broke two of my penances on the same day, so I just went whole hog and ate/did everything on my list. This year, I am going to box up everything forbodden and store it away until Easter. Typically I would not go to such lengths, but after my failed "Candy Marathon" at Christmastime, my pantry is overloaded with chocolate squares, marshmallows, graham crackers, cookies, and the like. I figure if I can't eat it, then it's not going to take up space where there could be food that I CAN eat. :)