Um....

It seems that I haven't blogged since last August. I guess my only excuse is that I'm a very busy lady, what with moving across the state in November, followed by an out-of-town wedding in April, a honeymoon shortly thereafter, filming a TV show, and the every day occurrences of being a newlywed and a homeowner. I have zero excuse for not blogging more often. I know. Shame. On. Me.

My plan is to blog about each of the above things because they sooo deserve to be elaborated upon!

Get ready, people. It's about to go down.

That is, after I tackle the next thing on my list. The almost-maybe-sorta-I-hope-please-make-it-happen new job.

p.s. As I re-read the above, I realize how very blessed I am. (Smile)

Welcome to the workforce....again

Well, I start my new job tomorrow. While 75% of me CAN'T WAIT, the other 25% of me is a bit worried. The only reason I don't look forward to it is because of the abnormally long commute. The first few weeks are going to....well....suck. I will have to get up at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. and then won't get home until 7:30 or so. Then I will have a whopping 2 hours of ME time before I must go to bed. Blah.

(All the more reason to consume lots and lots of coffee.)

On a more positive note, once I get past the first few ugly weeks of the drive and training all day, I think I'm really going to like it. When I interviewed, it was for an in-office position doing pretty much the same thing day after day. A friend, and sorority sister from college, was going to be the one training me. Well, my interviewer had other plans for me. He asked if I would be interested in sales because I had a "sales-y" personality. (and no, he didn't mean used car sales, but a relatable and make-you-feel-at-home personality type) (at least that's what I tell myself). I told him that I'd be thrilled to get into sales for their company, if they would have me.

Fast forward a week, and he offers me a job. Not the office job (that doesn't pay great) but the sales job that I didn't even know I wanted until the interview! I gladly accepted! All logic and reason was telling me that he wouldn't offer me a sales job because he said they didn't normally hire someone without a true sales background. Then he mentioned not having any open positions for sales at this time. Then my imagination got away from me and I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, he was creating a new position for a newbie like me. That maybe he liked me enough to find a place for me instead of losing me altogether. But perhaps that was just wishful thinking...

But that's exactly what he did! He found a place for me! A position that was created with me in mind. :) And I figure, if they believe in me so much, there's no reason for me not to. I know that if I work hard, I can really kick butt!

So you are now looking at the newest member of the sales team for a Dallas-based Title company. I get a territory that hasn't been touched yet. They are also gonna give me a blackberry, laptop, car allowance, etc. And when God decides it's the right time, I will plan a move closer to work. I'm thinking that might be around April.

Hoooray!!! God is good. Now I just pray I can do this commute for several weeks until everything falls into place.

I will be tempted to do this on a daily basis...

And on warm days, maybe this will be the ticket....

And if it really does snow in Texas this week, I may get stuck in this unfortunate scenario...

But let's hope that's not the case!!!

A week of hard(ish) conversations

Remember I started that job that didn't pay well, but it was something in a time where I was desperate?

Well, my last day was Friday.

Pros:

No more waking up at 5:30

No more driving an hour in God-knows-what kind of traffic

No more wearing a suit every day

Cons:

No more paycheck (even if it was teensie weensie)

No, I didn't just up and quit. I thought long and hard about the thought of staying there. I also gained information that I wasn't given in my interview. Information that may have swayed my decision in ever starting. I was finally able to ask my questions and I got a highly disappointing answer. The day I found out that the chance of them paying what I needed was very low, I was completely bummed. Then I had to go to work every day pretending to care when, mentally, I had already checked out.

I remembered during my interview, Holly asked me to be totally honest with her. If I ever got bored, or decided it wasn't for me, to tell her and she'd be happy to find me something else. So I called her on a Thursday right at 5:00 and spilled the beans. It would have been MUCH easier to just leave and never come back and assume they understood why. But I owed it to them to tell them it wasn't where I saw myself in a few years down the road, and that it would never pay me what I needed. I have never in my life sat down a boss and told them that it wasn't going to work. That was hard convo #1.

Once the owner got wind of my leaving, he scheduled a time to sit down and talk to me. So I gave him the same info that I gave Holly. And, bless him, he didn't beg me to stay. Sometimes I get caught up or put on the spot, and I'm too nice and I'll agree to almost anything. But thankfully, he could see that I just wasn't passionate about the company. He was very gracious, and so was I. But it was still hard to look him in the eye and tell him that HIS company, his blood, sweat, and tears, wasn't my calling. That was hard convo #2.

Some other night that week, on my long drive home, I was talking to my boyfriend. He is probably almost as stressed as I am about my lengthy and painful job search. So during the conversation, we both got really stressed out and started taking it out on each other. However, we finally decided to act like adults and share our feelings - stuff we've put off saying (because at times, there is no point in bringing it up when there's no solution). He feels very out of control of the whole situation, as do I. The situation being us having been together over a year, and never having lived in the same area code. He lives in Austin and I live in DFW. Does it make us not want to be together? No. We can't imagine not being together. He said if we have to continue doing this long-distance, then he's in it for the long haul. But wouldn't it be great to not have to schedule a week in advance to see each other? Wouldn't it be amazing to just have dinner together after work? Unwind with a glass of wine together? Cuddle up and watch a movie on a rainy day? HELL YES! We want that!!! So that was hard convo #3.

Now I start from square one tomorrow. I have a list of places I want to call/email/apply. Some in Austin, some here in DFW. My boyfriend was up visiting this weekend, and we had a wonderful weekend together. It really made all the craziness fade into the background. :)

I also want to add A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful sister, CJR. She turns the big 3-0 today. I just know that this year is going to be an amazing one for her and her new life with Lobster. Love you guys!

God Works in Mysterious Ways

Guess what folks? I got myself a job.

In a nutshell, I applied for 842 jobs (on average) over a four month span. In that time, I was only called in for 2 interviews. The first interview was explained in this blog, and it was a shady pyramid scheme. The second interview was a decent and legitimate job.

And I got it.

Out of the 842 jobs I applied for, I'd say about 45% of them were in Austin, Texas. I was completely open (and mentally prepared) to move south to be closer to Happy Pants and start over in Austin, seeing as how I feel like I'm stuck in a rut here in the DF Dub.

But, oddly enough, the job I landed is in Fort Worth. On one hand, it's perfect. I abso-freakin-lutely love Fort Worth and have wanted to move to that area for a long time. I had been praying that a door would open where I needed to be, whether that was Austin, Fort Worth, or wherever. I ran into slammed door after slammed door and nothing came as smoothly or incredibly easy as this job.

I went to this particular business's website and found an internal position open, clicked "apply," attached my resume and hit "send." That was it. A whopping 25 minutes later, I get a call from Holly, who schedules me for an interview the following day. I go interview the next morning, and the interview goes so well that she calls the CEO and sees if he has time to meet me. He does. So I go meet with him. I feel that interview #1 went swimmingly. Interview #2 was questionable, as he was not as easy to read. But it was still a pleasant meeting.

On my drive home after a morning full of handshakes, nods, smiles, and politically correct responses, I'm exhausted. I drive home (in the snow, mind you) and I get a wave of depression. It's ugly. I want to shake it off but I keep feeling discouraged. I would never have considered this my dream job by any means. It may not pay enough and I may not even like it. But it's a job and I really need a job. And I realize that the CEO may not have even liked me, so I may have screwed up the only job that's been thrown at me. Too many thoughts running through my head.

Later, I anxiously await a phone call that never comes. I get really nervous because now I kinda want the job...I think. I go to bed that night, not knowing what the hell I want or need anymore. I'm at my wits end. I'm so tired of the hunt, the waiting, the rejections, the unanswered emails. I'm not sure I can do this much longer.

It was around 3 a.m. that I popped awake (BING!) and I remembered a dream I had about three weeks ago.

I dreamed that I was driving around with my boyfriend, looking for a place I was supposed to interview. After I found it, I walked in and spoke to a woman at the front desk of this really neat place. She told me that the CEO was in a meeting and would be out to meet with me, but to beware, because he was a bit intimidating. Once he came out, I realized two things. A) he wasn't intimidating, and B) he had a copy of my resume in his hand. I didn't have my resume on me and so I was relieved when he miraculously had one. He told me that he got it via email. Whew! Then he walked me over to a meeting table and we began a meeting. I felt important already. I really liked this place and this feeling.

So the reason I startled awake at 3 a.m. was because I suddenly realized how this dream paralleled with my real-life interview that day. Why, you ask?

1) The woman who interviewed me made me feel very important.

2) She then called the CEO and asked him to interview with me.

3) When we both realized I was without an extra copy of my resume, she emailed one to him.

4) She warned me that he may be intimidating.

5) When I met him, I decided he didn't intimidate me.

6) He came in with a printed copy of my resume (that I didn't supply him with).

7) I was wearing the same deep pink shirt and blazer that I wore in my dream.

Holy schnikeys! Do you see why I was freaked out?

So this gave me a sense of renewed hope that for whatever reason, whether I understand it or not, God was reassuring me about this job. Maybe telling me not to give up hope yet?

Two days later, I get the call from Holly congratulating me on my new job.

So why here and not Austin? I don't know. Happy Pants and I are both slightly bummed that an Austin job didn't pan out, but it's okay. We will be in the same city when the time is right. And apparently, I'm needed here for a bit longer. I just have to keep an open mind and a faithful heart.

Here's to a happy 2010 and a new job! I hope that you, too, had a new year filled with pleasant and unexpected surprises.

Christmas Shenanigans

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. I just so happened to have a great one. Here are a few tidbits of my fabulous last few days.

- Snow on Christmas Eve in Texas! Yup, that's right. We had a blizzard all day on the 24th. I have never seen snow blow completely horizontally. See below...

- Dreaming of a white Christmas? Snow was still on the ground Christmas morning. :)

- My baby drove up Christmas day to spend the next few days with me. I wish he could have been here for all our Christmas Eve traditions, but he had a family shindig. I am just happy to have him when I could. Compromise is something I'm still getting used to when it comes to holidays and families in three different cities.

- Catchphrase is the world's most AWESOME game. Playing sober is fun, but playing after a few drinks is UBER fun. I think we played for 6 hours. I have video on that too, but I don't want to embarrass/incriminate my loved ones in my blog. ;) I would never do such a thing.

- My biggest surprise gift this year had to be my Keurig K-cup coffee machine. I had a perfectly (cheap) basic Mr. Coffee pot and didn't expect anything coffee-related at all. But now that I have my Keurig, I don't see how I've survived 27 years without it! (Ok, only like 8 years of my coffee-drinking life). You plop in a K cup, press it down firmly, press the shiny blue button and BAM, you've got a perfect cup of coffee. Brilliant.

- My most-used gift was definitely my Flip video camera that my boyfriend bought me. I got snow/blizzard footage, church service footage, silly Catchphrase footage, future brother-in-law screaming like a girl while making a snow angel footage, etc.

- I made the infamous Monkey Bread for the first time. Turned out great! So did my broccoli cheese casserole on Christmas day. Score!

- I got sick on Dec. 23 for the second year in a row. I made my annual trip to the doctor and let him do another strep test. This year, it's not strep! Yay! But it was a bacterial thing. Boo! Not to worry though, I got me some amoxicillin.

- I made myself (and my mom) a deal that I wouldn't completely wig out about being unemployed over the holidays (since there is essentially nothing I can do over Christmas). I continued obsessively applying through the 23rd. Since that time, I have made a concerted effort to just relax. That's not to say that a few Eeyore moments haven't crept up on me, but I'm doing fairly well. I will likely (99% sure) get back on the obsessive-compulsive job hunt tomorrow.

- I thoroughly THOROUGHLY enjoyed having the whole family together. I'm so very blessed to have two amazing parents, my sister and her fiance, and my boyfriend all spend quality time together under one roof. I made sure to take lots of mental pictures (and flip videos).

Now that the company has all gone home and the house is quiet, I realize that New Year's Eve is only a few days away. So I must go rest up (I'm going to sleep like a rock) and recover from my tequila induced Catchphrase over-indulgence that was this weekend.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Let's start with the bad and the ugly, shall we?

I'm STILL unemployed. It has now been a long 2 months and 6 days. I have not only called The Boss Man on an (almost) weekly basis, but I have also applied for jobs on my side of Texas and on my boyfriend's side of Texas. Yes, we have sides. I have yet to receive ONE call or email back from a real job prospect. When I say "real" it's because I have received a crapola response back from a scam artist. (Note: Never do business via e-mail with someone who claims to be in Australia, wants to have a strictly online business relationship, wants you to go purchase goodies for the orphanage he sponsors, and claimed he loved your resume when you never sent him one.)

I'm now at the point of dipping into my savings that I was saving for bigger and better things than just paying my bills, but whatever.

Enough depressing stuff. Time for the good!!

Today is my dad's birthday! Hooray! 'Tis also the month of many birthdays, including mine and my aunt's! November babies ROCK!

Another good thing: We attended another fun Halloween costume party this year, as usual. I dressed as Daisy Duke, my man was (you'll never guess) a banana. Many jokes stemmed from his random costume choice. We also had wolverine, a couple of sexy pirates, a witch, Dr. Acula, a killer bee (a big letter "B" with blood all over him), and a few other costumes I paid no attention to. All and all, it was a good time.

More good news, you say? But of course!

I played golf for my very first time on Sunday. It's quite the accomplishment. You have no idea.

My dad is an avid (and pretty much obsessive) golfer. My boyfriend loves to golf and doesn't get to do it often, so when he's in town, he tries to play golf with my dad. This time, the boys invited my mom and I to join them. "Of course we want to ride along!" I said. But what they meant was that they wanted us to PLAY along. Have they lost their marbles?

"What??!!! Oh no, you don't want that." I say.

Then I ran down a list of excuses as to why that was a huge mistake on their part:

We'll slow you down.

I may injure someone with a bad shot.

I may injure myself with a bad shot.

You guys will laugh at me.

I have nothing to wear.

I may be so talented that I embarrass the two of you.

My resistance was futile, so my mom and I ended up playing the front nine with them. It was a painfully slow front nine. I will say I had a few good shots, and a few hundred terrible shots. I am proud of myself for getting out and playing though, because it's the only way to learn. I have a feeling there will be a lot more golfing in my future and I'd like to be able to play alongside the men in my life.

Ok, time to go try to be productive. Peace out, Bloggies!

Here's Your Time. Spend It Wisely

Last night

11:00 pm - searched Craigslist for part-time/full-time/temp/ANY jobs and emailed all the links to myself. Total of 16 potential/maybe/possible jobs. Good news? Sixteen is actually my lucky number.

Midnight - Tried to go to sleep. And tried.....and tried....

12:30 am - Not tired at all. Neither is puppy. Give up and take Tylenol PM.

Today

9:00 am - Wake up (unwillingly). Realize I'm still very groggy from the Tylenol and pass back out only to have weird dreams.

10:15 am - Wake up (startled). Dreamed I was at some massive festival/event and, apparently, we found a shortcut, (but this shortcut was also considered trespassing) and suddenly a cop was threatening to arrest all of us. Then, just as suddenly, a civilian was pointing a gun at the cop (who was sitting RIGHT next to me) and I feared being shot on accident and also feared being arrested for a really stupid reason.

10:30 am - Make suitable breakfast. Drink not-so-fabulous coffee (need to invest in a good espresso machine so I don't have to drink coffee that either tastes like tar or poo, but that's another task for another day).

11:00 am - Force myself to go for a run. Feel very inspired by good music, thanks to Pandora radio for iPhone. Fight my way through random hurricane-strength winds, and finish off by doing crunches and lifting weights. Woo hoo!

11:50 am - Give myself smiley face sticker on calendar for working out today. Sounds very Kindergarten-ish, I know, but it works for me.

1:00 pm - Watch Cesar Milan work his magic on neurotic dog behavior (I always blame the owner). Practice mad Cesar-like skills on my own dog who barks incessantly at EVERYTHING lately. Go ahead....you can blame me too.

2:15 pm - Apply for 5 of the 16 jobs I discovered last night. Get frustrated because I'm tired of hunting for a job that I only want to keep temporarily anyway. What happened to money growing on trees? Where are these trees and why don't I have one?

2:30 pm - Call a not-so-local YMCA and find out that I can get 3 free passes. I would like to join their spinning classes. Trying to decide if I want to go bright and early tomorrow morning. I'd have to leave my house at 8 am, and since I have now reverted back to being a nocturnal college kid, that might be a challenge. (incase you have forgotten...jobless + sleepless = sleeping too late and dreaming of hooligans with guns).

4:00 pm - Decide to skip watching Oprah today. The topic of Mad Men and the 60's theme don't exactly thrill me. Decide to play on Blogger and find 2 new blogs to follow!

5:20 pm - Boyfriend calls me and I'm surprised it's already "after work" time. Where did the time go? I tell him I'm blogging and he (lovingly) threatens to send me to Bloggers Anonymous, as usual. Hehe.

And now, here I sit. It's 7:55. I haven't heard anything back from any of my jobs. I feel that I got a big, fat NOTHING done today, while I guess in truth, I really did accomplish a few things. Meanwhile, a big storm is blowing in, which explains the hurricane force winds earlier today.

Noteworthy quotes about spending time wisely:

"Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows."

~Pope Paul VI

"All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that."

~Baltasar Gracian

"Now is the only time there is. Make your now wow, your minutes miracles, and your days pay. Your life will have been magnificently lived and invested, and when you die you will have made a difference."

~Mark Victor Hansen

"Time flies. It's up to you to be the navigator."

~Robert Orben

Off to slave away (i.e., pre-heat oven) preparing a vegetable lasagna. Peace out, Bloggers!

My 'Pseudo Vacation' To-Do List

For those of you who don't already know (that would be 80-87% of you), I am once again "on vacation," as my boss likes to call it. Simply put: I've been layed off again.

That's the beauty of oil and gas; work comes and work goes.

During this time, I have learned this about myself:

Week one is a swell time. I basically treat it like vacation (except I must constantly fight the urge to spend money). I scream "woo hoo!" and run to my car and make the 3.5 hour trip to see my boyfriend. Then I stay for a few days, come home, blog, scrapbook, clean stuff, watch TV, play and cuddle with my tiny dog. I stay up late just because I can and I sleep late just because I can. Week one is like my favorite icing on my favorite cupcake. Yummy.

It's week two that freaks me the hell out. Week two makes me lay awake at night and wonder how I'm going to pay for my new car. That's when I spend an hour or more per day on my laptop searching for temporary (usually low paying) jobs. Then after my job hunt, I get slightly depressed because no job ever compares. However, any job will do (for now). Then my staffing lady ignores my emails and I feel like I'm the one doing HER job and I should be making commission off my job finds!

Perhaps they are swarmed in the staffing office due to the economy and sky-high unemployment rates. I should be more understanding, right?

No! She needs to do her job. And now.

Anyhoo, the point of me venting (is that ALL I do lately?) was to make a list of all the things I'd like to get done while "on vacation"because, honestly, I need to just make the best of this time off. (And I WILL continue calling it vacation because it's my fantasy world and I call it what I want.)

Things I want to accomplish while on pseudo-vacation

1) Finish Eclipse (once and for all) and begin Breaking Dawn.

2) Have a movie marathon of some sort, either:

-Disney movie marathon

-Musical movie marathon

-I don't do scary and I don't do westerns, so what else is there? [ideas welcome here]

3) Clean out my medicine cabinet.

Expired medicine + things with no labels = bad news.

4) Run/walk more. Let me rephrase that - run more. I already walk every evening. My rear still jiggles more than I would like, but I've decided I'm not allowed to whine about it if I'm not doing everything I can.

5) Read another book. Which book is yet to be determined. (feel free to chime in with your opinions on the following):

- Time Travelers Wife (synopsis here)

- Homer's Odyssey (here)

- The Host (here)

- The Wolf in the Parlor (here)

- Outliers (here)

- Breaking the Bank (here)

- The Palace of Strange Girls (here)

- The Weight of Silence (here)

- Modoc (here)

- The Hunger Games (here)

6) Try to force myself to love yoga. Or more realistically, give yoga another shot.

7) Quickly earn $20,000 to start my own business. Oh wait...

8) Clean off my desk. I HAVE A DESK!? I thought that was just a mountain of papers, dog treats, and receipts with a computer monitor peeking out from the top. Hmph..

9) Become a Big Sister (with Big Brothers Big Sisters). I'm pretty cool, not even gonna lie about it. I'd be a good role model for a young girl. I love doing kiddy stuff. Plus, I never had a little sister to pick on. What more can you ask for?

10) Finish my scrapbook. I spent a zillion trillion dollars buying supplies for this and only have 8 pages done. Come on, woman! Find your inner Martha Stewart already!

11) I'm seriously contemplating getting my real estate license. Here's the catch: I have boatloads of time to take the courses, yet I can't spend that kind of money right now. Blah! Still, it's something I'd like to do.

Ok, that's all for now. Stay tuned for my September 'Faves and Craves' in the next few days.

Cheers!

The Trouble With Stubble

I should have posted this blog story a week ago, but since I am a bad blogger, I am just now getting around to it. Been trying to reach my inner blogginess. Yup, attempting to harness my "blog chi." You catch my drift.

Anyhoo, I wanted to explain a completely normal (for me) Friday at work. It involves a hint of stupidness, a dash of annoying, a pinch of spontaneity, and a dollop of touchy feeliness.

I started with my usual driving around and getting permits signed. I had an appointment first thing in the morning at a very lovely retirement home. I couldn't help but notice what a nice place this was. Heck, maybe when I'm 80, I'll move in too! After ten minutes (of speaking verrry loudly to a nice old man who could hardly hear me), I got my signed permit and I was off to go take on the rest of the world with a new spring in my step. I'm thinking "Alright, it's Friday, I got a permit, it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining, I love my new car...blah blah blah.."

Then I drive around and have zero luck at any other place until I get a phone call from someone I had been "stalking" for a permit. Hooray! I love when people return my calls.

"How funny, I'm in your area right now, may I swing by?"

"Well I'm leaving the house now, but will be back later this afternoon." [I hate hearing this]

"Oh, okay. What time should I come by then?"

"Oooohhh I guess I'll be back at 4:00"

Crap!! This is what goes through my head when this kind of thing happens:

a) I'm an hour and a half away from the mother ship (my office).

b) I'm ALSO an hour and a half away from home.

c) It is now 11:00 a.m.

d) I could just swing by anyway and have him sign it, but that would be rude because we just made an appointment for 4 and I risk him not being there anyway.

e) I could give up for today, but I need this one for tomorrow morning. There's no way around this....I must wait. Criminy!

Given that I now have 5 hours to blow (sigh!), I weigh my options:

a) Go home, hang out for 1 hour, and drive alllllll the way back?

b) Go shopping? (my inner voice, and financial guru Dave Ramsey's screams "No!")

c) Drive around and find things to do (total waste of gas!)

So I drive across town to the local teen and 20-something resale store (where they'll buy your old designer clothing from you) and sell a pair of my Joe's jeans. (my inner voice says, "Cool! I'll make a little money while I kill time. Then maybe I'll spend a little and not feel so bad. How resourceful am I!!")

They end up giving me a whopping $22 for my $170 jeans. Total gyp.

I get back in my car contemplating my next step. It's 12:00 now. Great. Four hours to go. And I'm $22 richer. Neato.

So I back out of the parking lot to get some lunch and nearly run over a couple of teenagers. Sheesh! What is my problem? I like to think of myself as a good driver. Thank God they were around 15 and had enough (not too much, but enough) common sense to dodge me. A few minutes in a retirement home today and I'm driving like a 90 year old!

After lunch I had a BRILLIANT idea. I will get a massage. There is this local chain of massage places and if you're a first time customer, you get a sweet deal. A full body massage for only $39! Ok, so that will blow one more hour! I mean, the jeans really paid for most of it, right? So I schedule my appointment. I'm excited now. This massage is much needed.

About 15 minutes later as I'm getting gas, a thought crossed my mind. "CRAP!" I suddenly realized how I ran around that morning like a bat out of hell and hardly did my hair let alone anything else. So obviously I didn't shave my legs. If I'm wearing jeans and running late, I don't necessarily consider shaving a priority (yeah yeah, judge away!). So I hike up my jeans and do the feel test. I can definitely tell that I need to shave. Dammit. Now this poor lady who has to massage me will also feel it. She is going to think I'm some kind of amazon woman who doesn't shave. Or a hippie. Or that I'm just gross and she'll probably think I don't shower either. Ew.

What am I supposed to do now? I can't cancel the appointment because she specifically stated over the phone that if I don't show, I still pay the fee.

So I sit in my car and contemplate my options at this point. I could:

a) Get a hotel room and shower and shave? (way too expensive and not worth it)

b) Just be hairy? Eeew.

c) Go buy a razor and find a place to shave? But where? And how?

I'm seriously annoyed by now. As if I didn't already get screwed out of the true value of my awesome jeans and nearly steamroll two teenagers. Ugh.

So I get to Chevron and attempt to purchase a razor blade without looking creepy. You know, just in case I choose option C above.

Of course, being inconspicuous is impossible! The cashier had to scream at me upon my arrival, "Can I help ya find somethin' hun?" Me, being the honest person I am tell her yes, a razor blade. She doesn't need to know why. After I purchase my only option, a three-pack of cheap blue men's razor blades, I ask where her restroom is. She proceeds to scream, "You aren't gonna shave are you?"

Nope. Not anymore. Thanks.

So I leave.

I have now decided I need my toes painted for an upcoming wedding that weekend. So I make my way across town to a nail salon. My master plan was to figure something out in their restroom. After my toes dry, I make my way to the restroom. I decide not to use water, but to just hike up my jeans and dry shave as quickly as possible (a trick I learned 10 years ago in Mexico on a church mission trip. Don't ask). I hurry because I don't want them to think I'm doing anything weird in there. Haha. Right.

So I make it to my massage appointment, and my legs feel semi smooth. Don't think she'll notice. I think I've done all I can do. My massage felt great. And I didn't even think about my burning dry shaven legs. Nope, I got into a zen place and had a very relaxing and wonderful hour-long massage. Plus, I never have to see this girl again, so who cares what she thinks of me?

Finally, 4:00 rolled around and I had my long awaited appointment with a nice man who signed my permit. By that time I was so relaxed that I couldn't hold it against him that I had a long, interesting, somewhat frustrating 5 hours spent solely for his convenience.

As he greeted me, he cheerfully asked, "How has your day been?"

And I simply replied with "Great!"

Enough said.

All you can do on days like this is just keep a sense of humor. I was pretty annoyed, but once I realized how humorous my day kept getting, I just had to laugh. (I was by myself, so I probably looked like a complete fool, but I laughed anyhow).

I haven't cleaned out my purse since that day, so every time I go digging around, I come across a cheap blue gas station razor blade and just giggle.

Who does that? Who carries a razor blade in their purse? I better remove that before I have to go to an airport or something.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I . . . Go?

I realized the other day that I haven't posted a new blog in close to 2 months.  What kind of blogger am I? Not a good one, that's for sure. Certainly you all forgive me.  Right?

Here I sit on my couch, on my comfiest soft chocolate-y brown blankie, chihuahua curled up next to me (of course!), with Beauty and the Beast on in the background. Oh yes, and I'm sipping on hazelnut coffee while my laundry finishes.  And yesterday I went for a nice run, flipped through my People magazine while I layed out (must. get. tan.), showered, made quesadillas, wrapped a birthday gift for my sister, and went to a clogging class (I will explain this later).  I know the excitement must be overwhelming. ;) 

Well, here's the deal.  I have been out of work (I guess you could say that) for a few weeks now.  Since I'm in the oil & gas industry, things go up and down.  Needless to say, this has been a "down" time.  I wasn't worried until about a week ago. Not only was I worried about survival on beans and rice, but about my sanity as well.  I'm one of those people that doesn't like to sit still for too long. I get serious cabin fever. And it's hard not to feel worthless when you aren't working.  AND on top of that, when you have all this (gotta love it) free time, how do you NOT spend money??!!!!  What a predicament!

So this is why I'm a bum, sitting around in my comfy clothes, doing laundry and watching Disney movies.  Whatareyagonnado? (Not to worry, folks. I start back up at work on the 19th. Thank God.)

Now let's talk about this clogging thing. I desperately want to tap or clog or step or SOMETHING! I love rhythm stuff - stepping, stomping, whatever.  I just think it's fantastic!  Ballet isn't really my thing; I've been known to trip over my own feet. Swing dancing looks fun, but I'd 

need a partner. I can't really see my other half taking dance classes with me (although he IS a good sport...hmmmm).  Ballroom dancing in general is too slow for my liking...and what's with the weird head turning thing?  I love dance as a whole, but I don't love ME doing most dances.  

So anyway, I heard of a friend of a friend who takes clogging nearby, so I decided to check it out. Turns out, I think I would really love it.  Still don't have a clue how it's different from tap, but who cares?  And what a fun way to workout?  

In other more exciting news (what!? clogging wasn't exciting enough for you?)...

I'M GOING TO MIAMI IN JUST A FEW DAYS!!!!!  The boyfriend and I have made all the arrangements and we're so very ready to go!  This is why I have been diligent about working out.  I must be in decent bikini shape while I'm there, especially because we're staying in South Beach, and that place is notorious for famous and/or beautiful people. I wouldn't want to offend them with my white-ness or out-of-shape-ness.  Haha!

Ummmkay, don't I have something better to do?  Oh yeah, that's right...