Hodge-Podge… big time!

This is what happens when I take a break from writing for awhile. Everything starts churning in my head, bubbling up to the surface, and next thing I know there’s ten topics that I want to cover. 

First of all, you won’t be hearing from me for awhile. Again. I know, you should probably give up on me altogether. This time is for a very FUN reason though… I’m about to set off on my third European adventure in the past four years! Hooray! This time I’m going with a wonderfully sweet girlfriend of mine, and I already know that God is going to bless us with exciting adventures, good conversations, and fun memories. 
Our cruise ship will have an Internet cafe, so there’s a slight chance I may sneak in a post or two, but it depends on if (a) they charge by the minute to use their WiFi, and (b) if I can tear myself away from all the Mediterranean fun long enough to write. So if not, bear with me, and I promise to post lot’s of pictures very soon!
On to the next thing…
My youngest sister graduated from Baylor yesterday! She, Sarah, and I are all fifth generation Baylor alums… our family has gone to Baylor since 1885. A great great aunt, a great grandmother, my grandfather, both my parents, and now all three of us, plus a future brother-in-law who is a Baylor Bear. And I can’t forget my genius British aunt who taught here for a few years. My family’s blood flows thickly with the green and gold goodness of the Baylor spirit. 

Ick, I look a little creepy in that photo. It was horribly humid, and I was a bit tired, and well, I could come up with many more excuses… but oh well, sometimes a gal just ends up taking a creepy photo… I guess that’s life. But I do love how excited both my parents look in that photo. I’m sure they’re breathing a huge sigh of relief that they finally got all three daughters through school.
Here’s a photo of something I got Lins for graduation… this shirt makes me laugh so hard, I almost want to become a nurse simply so I can wear it. Which reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where the guy converts to Judaism simply for the jokes. But I digress…

Speaking of weddings… I wrote awhile back about Lindsay’s wedding dress debacle. I’m not sure if I ever wrote about the resolution… basically David’s Bridal did in fact do the right thing and fixed her dress (I think it was the fifth alteration) for free. Apparently the curse of the ill-fitting dress must run in the family, because I went to pick up my bridesmaid dress this morning from the tailor, and mine didn’t fit either. My alteration guy was smart though… I could tell he was about to accuse me of gaining weight, preventing my dress from properly zipping up, but I gave him a look that said “Sir, I dare you to even suggest that I would gain enough weight in one week to cause my dress to be about four sizes too small,” and I think he got the point. So instead we’re going to try letting out the part he took in. Hope this dress survives until the big day!
I’ve been on a crazy organizing kick lately. I’ve cleaned out every closet, cabinet and drawer in my house over the past month. It’s what happens when I finish with school and suddenly find myself with a few hours of spare time. But as you can see, the compulsive cleaning was necessary. Check out my before and after pictures:
Before (I promise, this is exactly how it looked when I opened the door… everything falls right on your head):

After:

Now onto the hardest project of all… packing! I’m not sure how a gal packs for such a long get-away, one that includes 4-wheeling across the Greek countryside, formal dinners on a cruise ship, leisurely walks along a Spanish beach and miles of trekking through Rome. I may win the award for most luggage on a trip… I’m off to go see if I can weed anything out.

Today in incomplete sentences

Today…

–Came home sick. Sound like a frog, or a boy in puberty. It’s lovely.
–Took a nice nap. Was so tired/worn-out… stupid, stupid allergies. Had an agreement… don’t have time to be sick. Allergies didn’t keep their end of the bargain.
–Discovered a new sno-cone stand. Love summer. You can go barefoot at a sno-cone stand and nobody looks at you funny.
–On t-shirt at the sno-cone stand: “The only place where it’s okay to eat the yellow snow.” Think I need to buy that. Would that be inappropriately off-color?
–Am still flirting with Twitter. Not sure I see the point. Still. Would rather just call a friend.
–Am about to spend the evening with Beth Moore. Or at least, a DVD of Beth Moore. Still love this Esther series… good for my soul.
Will write in complete sentences when I feel better. Maybe.

Breathe

The price we pay for beauty… 

I wore an adorable new green dress to work today, and didn’t realize until I sat down at my desk that the fabric around my ribcage was so tight I couldn’t breathe! I also couldn’t lift my arms for fear that the thin silk fabric would rip. I spent my day holding my breath, in a constant state of asthma attack. If only men could appreciate the great lengths we go to look presentable.
When I finally stumbled into my house at 9 p.m., my stiletto heels had been replaced by flip flops, my panty-hose was in my purse, my disheveled hair was in a lop-sided pony-tail and my dress was only half-zipped. Classy.

Favorite Song

Just a quick note as I scarf down a quick bowl of cereal for dinner (mom would be so disappointed in me)…

I am absolutely obsessed with the Taylor Swift song “Love Song.” I could listen to it twenty times a day and never get tired of it. I especially love the pop version they play on the radio, but I also have the regular country version at the top of my newest iPod playlist, and I listen to it over and over, just like a teenage girl. There’s something about the melody that just makes me giddy. 
Okay, enough of the rambling. I’m sure all the boys reading this are now rolling their eyes. I promise to write a post on the positive qualities of Metallica sometime soon, so you’ll feel included. Or maybe analyze all the insufficiencies of the Cowboys.
But now I’m off to Wal-Mart to buy last-minute supplies for my New Year’s party tomorrow. I hate Wal-Mart, so this shows you just how committed I am to having a rockin’ New Year’s party, complete with a dance floor and a disco ball. Apparently the only place you can buy colored indoor flood lights is at Wal-Mart, and I need them to reflect off my disco ball, so off I go. I hate that place. HATE. There will probably be one check-out line open for about 1,000 shoppers. Maybe I’ll bring a book. (shiver)
Or maybe I’ll just sing Taylor Swift over and over as I stand in line next to scary men who stare at me and babies who scream and teenagers who wear shirts covered in profanity… yes, that will make it all better.

Who’s getting married???

I got a text message this morning that simply said: “I’m getting married!!!”

Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize the number. So I quickly responded, “Who is this?”  It may be a bit rude for me not to know who it was, but this was big news and I needed to know which of my friends I should be happy for.
I never heard back.
So I texted a few more friends. “Do you know who’s getting married?”  I hit a broad range of folks, figuring somebody would be in the same circle as the unknown friend and solve the mystery.
But nobody knew.
So I went through my mental list of friends who are dating. Crazy enough, I only know one or two people who might be in a position to get engaged, and those had already been covered. So after hours of being curious, I finally just dialed the number.
It was a wrong number. Some chick named Michelle, whom I don’t know, is getting married. Congratulations Michelle. I wish you and your stranger fiance a very happy life together.
But what a disappointment for me! So to all my friends who didn’t get engaged today… I feel sort of let down. I was so happy for you, if only for a short while. Maybe tomorrow will be your day.

License Renewal

I got my driver’s license renewed today. It was a little bittersweet because I’ve been carrying the same license since I was 18… that’s ten years! But alas, next week, on my 28th birthday, my beloved license will expire. And in a rare and unexpected twist of fate, I actually took care of it EARLY. This coming from the girl who was six months late renewing her car registration last year. Don’t tell my dad… I finally took care of it after that nice police officer gave me a ticket.

So you can understand my anxiety when the lady at the DMV took my photo for the new license… and then began laughing. Uncontrollably.  Really? Is it that bad? 
After a lot of begging, she relented and agreed to retake the photo. Twice. This whole thing would be a lot better if we could just provide our own headshots. Everybody looks better with a few PhotoShop touch-ups.

Love a challenge

My good friend David has challenged the blog world to write a post every day for the month of November. Apparently November is National Blogging Month. It also happens to be my birthday month, so if you’re looking for a reason to buy me a present, now you have two! (just kidding… I’ll settle for a funny-but-meaningful-and-heartfelt card and some cash).

I’m sitting here at Starbucks, trying to finish a long research paper due on Friday (I’m on page 18 of 20… almost there), and because I’ve consumed massive amounts of coffee, this blog may be a bit scattered. Which is why I will employ the numbering system… so I don’t confuse you. Or me.
1. I hate it when furniture companies pay homeless people to stand on the street corner with those giant “going out of business” signs. It’s absolutely terrible. First of all, why don’t you just follow your city’s regulations like the rest of us advertising folks and get a sign permit? Or run an ad? Or buy a billboard? But no, you would rather pay a homeless man in cash to stand there and humiliate himself and make me sad as he stands for hours at a time, in extreme weather conditions, holding your sign. It breaks my heart. Really. It makes me hate your store and makes me VERY glad you’re going out of business. If you really ARE going out of business. So tacky.
2. I’ve been asked to serve on an advisory board for my local school district’s school board. I’m so excited about this! We have our first meeting tomorrow night. This one excites me because I’m absolutely fascinated by education, and I love my local school district. Plus, the superintendent is the one who asked me, which was pretty special. So tomorrow night I’ll be putting on my big-girl suit and meeting with the superintendent, the administrator of curriculum, a few teachers, and five other community representatives. Yea! I wonder if these folks know that on the inside I’m really a huge dork who’s only pretending to be a grown-up. Please don’t blow my cover…
3. Today was Tiffany’s baby shower (shout out to Tiff, one of my few faithful readers!). It was a lot of fun, and not to brag, but I think my gift was the best. I made her a few custom-onesies with special sayings on them. My favorite was one that said “I want to be just like Bethe when I grow up.” I’m thinking about mass-producing them and then handing them out for birthday parties, baby showers, wedding presents… this could be the next big fad! Let me know if you’d like your own special version (Joel, I expect you to be first in line!).
Back to that paper… maybe…

I want to be a star

I watched two hours of Dancing with the Stars tonight. Can I just tell you that I want to be famous, simply so I can be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars? Unfortunately, odds are not in my favor… I’m not sure what a 27-year-old girl in suburbia with no unusual talents can do to become a big star. Somehow Kim Kardashian figured it out, but I’m not sure how I would go about getting a reality TV show. I think usually they pick people a bit more scandalous than me.

So I think my best option is to become a ballroom dancing champion. Then I can be one of the professional dancers on the show and get paired with some hunky soap opera star with big muscles and a small mind. And then I can wear the pretty dresses, flashy jewelry, have my hair done, and dance around like a big star while a crowd of admiring fans cheers me on.

Yes, I think I’ll add it to my “to-do” list. Become a ballroom dancing champion. I can see it now… I better get to work.

Some laughs

I’ve had a really long week. Everything about it has been good, but it has been mentally exhausting. I worked until 7:00 for my second night in a row, a third night I had school until 9:00. I’m just plum worn out. Which means it’s time for a good laugh.

I discovered a blog today that may be the best one out there. This site has thousands of awful pictures from real estate listings. Scrolling through this site made me absolutely giddy. Give it a try!

And here’s a video I think you’ll like. When you watch it, please imagine my favorite coworker and I walking around saying “I will CUT you!” in our best King Burger accent.

One last thing. I saw this suspicious guy loitering across the street from my house this morning. He stood out there for almost 10 minutes, looking around, probably staking out the neighborhood, waiting for all of us to go to work so he could break in and steal everything. I was two seconds away from calling the police so they could get this bad guy off my streets…

When the school bus pulled up. And he got on.

Oops. Didn’t realize we had a bus stop there!