Author / Bethe

by Bethe

Helper

My friend Tiffany, who inspired me to buy this silly sewing machine in the first place, has graciously offered to come help me figure out how to fix it. I mean, it’s the least she can do, seeing as she single-handedly caused this whole mess. It’s all her fault. Right Tiffany? (chuckle chuckle)

Actually, assuming she can get the darn thing working, I’m looking forward to a fun girls’ night tonight. I’m also going to enjoy eating and drinking everything that’s bad for me… tonight I’m eating fried chicken, french fries, a diet coke, and a milk shake for dinner. Because tomorrow night I’m running seven miles… so it will be nothing but light, bland foods and water all day tomorrow. I need to fit in as much fun as possible tonight, just in case I collapse on the trail or something tomorrow. I think I deserve to go out happy.

by Bethe

Stream of Consciousness

Here’s my thought process behind my new hobby.

(While doing my hair on Saturday morning, getting ready to go speak to a community group for work…)

Hmmm… my good friend Tiffany is having a baby next year. I need to think of the perfect gift for her baby shower… in November.

Tiffany always thinks of the best gifts.

I should make her something.

It’ll take too long to knit a baby blanket.

I wish I could make her a quilt. Except I don’t know how to quilt. Or sew.

I should learn how to quilt!

I’ll go buy a sewing machine!

And a few hours later, there I was in Wal-Mart, buying a Singer sewing machine. I spent my next four hours trying to get the stupid thing to work. After a few sighs of exasperation, I finally called my friend Melanie, a master quilter, who agreed to come teach me. And a few hours later, I had a quilt pieced together!

Last night, as I lay in bed, I thought of all of the awesome quilts I could make this year. I could make them for birthday gifts, wedding gifts, baby gifts… maybe I could quit my job and be a full-time quilter!

The only problem… today, when I went to work on it again (without Melanie), I couldn’t get that silly sewing machine to work. Again. I spent two hours, and finally just quit.

I hate quilting.

by Bethe

150

In honor of my 150th blog post, here’s a photo of my family, which is absolutely precious. It was taken at my dad’s birthday. Dad’s holding the card I gave him which used illegal drugs as the punchline. Because after all, who doesn’t love a birthday card about drugs?

I’m asking you, my faithful blog stalkers, to leave me a comment so I know you’re out there. It’s either this, or you have to send me a gift. I figure a comment is cheaper!

by Bethe

The Sisterhood

Sister Sarah and I are going to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants tonight. I know that I’m 27, which makes me about 15 years too old to go see a movie like this, but frankly, I don’t care. I’m going to sneak in my diet coke and my purse full of candy and enjoy myself some good, immature girly humor… and I’m going to love it!

Oh, and completely unrelated… but I found out today that my neighbor is a movie star! He’s a character on Prison Break. I’m not sure why he’s living in my neighborhood, we’re not exactly the Beverly Hills of the South. I guess it’s time to rent Season 1…

by Bethe

Feeling old

I think I’ve come full circle! Today one of my friends from grad school, who has since finished (lucky her!), emailed to say that she’s gotten a job as a professor at UT-Arlington. She wants me to come serve as a guest speaker to her undergrad advertising/IMC class. Crazy, because just five years ago, I was sitting in one of those classes! Of course I said yes… I figure her students will be a lot easier to talk to than the last student group I spoke to.

I also found out today that my childhood best friend’s dad is going to join one of the boards I serve on. This is the same guy who used to drive us around town, let us have slumber parties at their house, and had all the neighborhood kids over for dances in his garage. And now, we’ll be serving side-by-side together. I’m not sure if it makes me feel old, or like a 12-year-old. But either way, it will be fun!

by Bethe

Vote Rocker

I feel like such the activist today.

First, I designed an internal ad campaign to promote my hospital’s “go green” initiative. I’m actually really excited about it, because I’m an avid recycler, and since I work in marketing, I generate a lot of junk that needs to be recycled!

Next, I registered to vote. If you haven’t done so yet, you can do it here. You just fill out the form, print it and mail it. It’s that easy.

Then, because I was so pumped about registering to vote, I talked to my boss about organizing a voters’ registration drive, so that my fellow employees can also exercise their American right to vote. In my opinion, if you don’t vote, you’re lazy and good-for-nothing, and we just can’t be friends.

So that was my activist-granola day. I celebrated all of these accomplishments by cleaning out my office and throwing away six large boxes of stuff, which will go straight to the landfill.

I think tomorrow I will skip my shower (and deodorant), wear my hair in dreads, put on a long, billowy floral skirt and flip flops, burn my bra, and celebrate my natural, crunchy self.

by Bethe

Olympics Fun

I really don’t care about the Olympics. Yawn. They’re so boring. In fact, some years I hate the Olympics–mostly in the winter when it interferes with my television watching.

But right now I’m so excited about Michael Phelps and his gold medals! It makes me proud to be an American. And it doesn’t hurt that he has great muscles. I just can’t stop watching (for the competition of course, not the muscles).

Go Team USA!

by Bethe

Clearing my head

Well, my flight is now booked. I’ll be flying DFW to Brussels to Venice, and coming home Barcelona to New York to DFW. Between the flight and the cruise, I bet I see 20 cities on my trip. That part is exciting.

Unfortunately, I may have to sell a kidney to pay for it. Because of the mix-up with my frequent flier miles, I had to pay FULL PRICE. Gulp. Maybe I should get a part-time job. Or find a rich, unsuspecting man to marry between now and then. Nah, maybe I’ll just stop eating out so much. (this reminds me of my favorite first line of any book… the first line of Pride & Prejudice… you should look it up, and you’ll love it too).

Spending $1500 very unexpectedly kind of stressed me out (let’s just say I was very close to hugging the toilet), so I went for a long run at the park tonight with a friend. We ran for a little over an hour–we’re not sure how far we went, but I’m estimating it was about six miles. I’m still planning on running that half-marathon in December, so this was a good step in the right direction!

All of that running made the expensive ticket seem a lot less important. I think I’m just too tired to care!

by Bethe

Truth in advertising

I really hate misleading advertising. I feel qualified to criticize the advertising industry, seeing as that’s what I do for a living. And I will proudly tell you that everything I put out is true.

My credit card, on the other hand… not so much.

It’s time for me to purchase my ticket to Europe, and this one is mucho expensive. Going over there we’re flying DFW to Chicago to Madrid to Venice. I’m not sure how we’re getting home, but I do know we’re leaving form Barcelona. It’s going to be nutty. This ticket may be worth more than my car.

I thought my points on my special VISA card could be used for anything. After all, this is the “World Points” card that can be used for anything… miles, cash, merchandise, maybe even buying a first-born child. Anyway, I thought my 30,000 miles could combine with my 15,000 AA miles, which would leave me only 15,000 miles short of a flight… to the tune of about $500. Except my “no black-out dates, any flight works” card doesn’t work on anything. And it doesn’t translate to any miles. So now I’m left paying cash for a super-expensive ticket. Blah blah blah.

Shame on you VISA. If I had known it was this difficult, I would have ended our relationship a long time ago!