it's a hard knock life

Tabs, this post is for you!

2009-01-23T16:36:00.004-06:00

Tabitha what would I do without you? Obviously I wouldn't stay up-to-date on my blogging. haha. It's been almost 2 months since my last post and since you were kind (or mean) enough to leave a comment and let me know I have finally gotten myself into gear.

As many of you know, I'm getting married!! Now, I am not a typical girl. I never dreamed of what my wedding day would be like. I never envisioned the perfect dress or thought about the friends I would ask to be in my wedding. So, as you can imagine, after we got engaged I didn't have the first clue where to start.

The past few months have been a whirlwind but I'm happy to say that we've done pretty well with wedding plans. Here's a quick update: got the dress, the veil, the photographer, the cakes, and asked a few of my friends to be in the wedding as well. I also have ideas for the flowers, suits and decorations but those are not yet finalized. Not all things have gone smoothly though and, with me, nothing ever goes off without a hitch. I found the PERFECT dress but there's a slight possibility that this isn't going to work out my way as the designer has unwisely chosen to discontinue that style. So I'm trying to prepare myself for the fact that I may need to fall back on the first runner up dress (I'm not exactly sure what dress that is yet). So keep your fingers crossed and I will let you know what happens.

We also got our engagement photos taken. I'm having a hard time deciding which ones I like the best but here's a preview...

The big day is June 13th so mark your calendars!

Vienna

2008-12-06T20:43:00.008-06:00

I think Vienna was my favorite part of the whole trip! This is where things started to slow down a bit. We were on power tours of Paris and Warsaw since we didn't have much time there but we had several days in Vienna so we were able to slow our pace down and relax a bit. The city is beautiful, I understood the public transportation system (which is way more than I can say about Paris), and the Christmas markets were open...just a few reasons why I enjoyed my time in Vienna.

This is one of the Christmas markets we went to. The castle in the background has been turned into an advent calendar. It was cool!

There were Christmas lights and decorations everywhere. I loved walking around because every street was lined with a different type of decoration.

This is Schonbrunn Palace where Jason proposed. Yes, if you haven't heard already, we're getting married!

Last Saturday we went to an SK Rapid Wien soccer game. It was so much fun...way more exciting than any soccer game I've ever been to here!

Vienna was the last stop on our trip and we were not ready to come back home. We had a great time and I can't wait to travel overseas again!

Warsaw

2008-11-25T15:17:00.010-06:00

We had a lot of fun in Warsaw! It was snowing when our plane landed and was really cold the whole time we were there. The snow was beautiful though and we just layered a lot to stay warm. I got to try some traditional Polish food during our stay but we mostly ate out at American restaurants. Yes, I actually went all the way to Poland and then ate at McDonald's and KFC both of which are places I don't even like to eat at when I'm home in Oklahoma. The Polish food I tried was delicious and the McD's and KFC...well, those two weren't my ideas. Here are a few pictures we took in Warsaw...

Old Towne

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Palace of Culture

This is a park that we walked through while doing some site seeing. I thought the snow was pretty. The ground was a little slick but I made it all the way through without falling (if you know me at all you should be very impressed by that. haha)

Jason and I at the train station getting ready to head to Vienna

We took a lot more pictures than this but I'm having trouble uploading any more of them to blogger. We had a lot of fun site seeing and visiting with the people at the church. They were kind enough to prepare a turkey dinner for us on Sunday in honor of our Thanksgiving holiday.

We also bought some souvenirs (some of which we had to ship home). Going to the post office in Warsaw was an adventure in and of itself. Nobody there spoke English so we had some trouble purchasing things like bubble wrap. I'm hoping our packages make it to their destination...but there's really no way to know if we even filled out the forms correctly. So, Mom & Laura...if your Christmas presents don't make it to you that's probably why.

PARIS

2008-11-23T03:10:00.007-06:00

Well, it's been an exciting trip so far! The fun started in Oklahoma City...we saw Barry Switzer at the airport and BJ Novak was on our flight to Atlanta. Okay so I didn't walk up to him and ask if that's who he was but he looked way to much like him for it to be a coincidence. I couldn't stop watching him in the airport because he was sitting at our gate. I wanted to take a picture of him from where I was sitting but that may have come across as a little weird and creepy. haha. But how often do you see celebrities in the OKC airport?

As you can imagine, I already have lots of stories to share about the things we've done and seen in Europe so far. But I don't have a ton of time to sit and write them down right now (the trip is only half over so I have more exciting things to do than sit on the internet) so I will just share a few pictures with you.

The Louvre

Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower

Moulin Rouge

(They were doing some kind of renovation on it so we couldn't get a great picture)

We walked all over Paris the first day we were there. Seriously, we walked from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower. As if we weren't tired enough by that time, we walked up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower too. We actually thought we bought tickets to take the elevator thing to the top. But once we got inside the gate we realized that we had just purchased tickets to walk up. I can't believe you have to pay to walk up the stairs!! They should have paid us to do that since we had to do all the work...haha. We took a ton of pictures and saw as much as we could in the time we were there.

We still have a lot more walking to do around Warsaw & Vienna.

umbrella

2008-11-10T21:34:00.003-06:00

Is there such thing as an umbrella engineer? Or have there been studies done on how to make umbrellas in order to most effectively keep the user dry? How about a study on the best materials to use in making an umbrella?

I’m not a collector of umbrellas nor have I ever spent much time thinking about them or analyzing the way they are made. However, I will have to admit that my umbrella was on my mind this morning. It was pouring outside on my way to work today and my windshield wipers were moving at warp speed. When I pulled into the parking lot at work I gathered my things and grabbed my umbrella before getting out of the car. It was raining so hard that I knew I would get wet but I wanted to make an effort to keep my hair dry. As I stepped out of the car there was a huge boom of thunder and flash of lighting. I knew the lightning was close and the umbrella I was holding in my hand had a metal pole. So I had to quickly decide whether I wanted to be soaked by the time I got inside my office or risk getting struck by lightning. I risked it!! I managed to make it inside without being struck by lightning although I was still soaked…all except for my hair which made me happy. One of my coworkers was not as lucky as me. Her umbrella flipped inside out in the wind and she ended up getting wet…hair and all.

So I got to thinking…why do they make umbrellas out of metal? I mean, there’s a good chance that when it’s raining outside it’s also storming. Why not make the umbrella out of plastic or wood? When there’s lighting the last thing you want to have in your hand is something metal, right? Also, is there some material that would stand up to the wind better? Or at least something that wouldn’t be permanently bent or broken if the wind flipped it inside out? Perhaps someone else has already pondered all of this and come up with a solution. In that case, I am way behind the times and unnecessarily exposing myself to the risk of being struck by lightning by carrying around a metal umbrella.

PUMPKINS!!!

2008-10-27T18:14:00.006-05:00

October has been a CRAZY month. But it's about to come to an end...which means it's almost time for Halloween. This past weekend was our 3rd annual Halloween girls night (we haven't come up with a better name for it yet). My favorite part of this particular girls night is carving pumpkins. I like to get my hands dirty!

Here is a look at our masterpieces. Mine is the one in the middle that looks like a witch in a Marilyn Monroe pose. That's talent! Well...talent combined with a good pattern and carving kit. haha.

November is going to bring about several changes for me. First, I'm switching to a new job at work. I will still work in accounting for the same company...just in a different area. This is something I've been wanting for awhile now so I'm pretty excited.

Second, I'm moving. I'll just be a mile or two away from where I am now so it's not a huge move. But moving day is coming up on Nov 1st. If anyone enjoys loading and unloading moving trucks let me know. haha.

Third, I'm going to Europe for the very first time!!! This is the part of November I'm looking forward to the most. I'm sure I will have tons of pictures and stories by the time I get back. I'm so excited about the trip that I've almost forgotten how terrified I am of flying.

I think November is going to be the highlight of 2008 for me. I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and then finishes out the last few months of the year in style!

Hope Now

2008-09-25T22:15:00.004-05:00

Does anyone else feel like life has just been busy and insane lately? Maybe it's just me. haha. I'm ready for a vacation and a short break from reality. In fact, I have one of those coming up in only a month and a half that I'm really looking forward to!!

Anyway, I heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites. This afternoon it came on the radio as I was driving. I was in the midst of a stressful day and it seemed to be just what I needed to hear. So since I have nothing blogworthy to write about right now I thought I'd share these lyrics with you.

Hope Now by Addison Road

If everything comes down to love
Then just what am I afraid of?
When I call out your name
Something inside awakes in my soul
How quickly I forget I'm yours

I'm not my own
I've been carried by you
All my life

Chorus:
Everything rides on hope now
Everything rides on faith somehow
When the world has broken me down
Your love sets me free

When my life is like a storm
Rising waters all I want is the shore
You say I'll be ok
And make it through the rain
You are my shelter from the storm

I'm not my own
I've been carried by you
All my life

Chorus:

You've become my heart's desire
And I will sing your praises higher
Cause your love sets me free
Your love sets me free
Your love sets me free

Please pray for Hadley

2008-09-18T00:39:00.005-05:00

Hadley Fox is the 8-year old daughter of my friend Angela and she has been fighting a brain tumor for a long time now. You can get more information about her at http://www.caringbridge.org/ca/hadleyfox/. Also, please read the below about project brain child. It doesn't cost anything to participate but you do have to be an American Express cardholder to vote.

Thank you for your prayers!

vote for Project Brain Child

2008-09-18T00:38:00.001-05:00

Project Brain Child is an iniative of the Pediatric Low Grade Glioma Association.

Members Project is a program sponsored by American Express where cardmembers submit innovative ideas for projects that make a difference. Cardmembers vote on the projects, and the winning 5 projects will receive up to $1.5 million in funding from American Express, awarded as follows:

$1,500,000 for the winning project
$500,000 for the 2nd place project
$300,000 for the 3rd place project
$100,000 each for the two remaining finalist projects
The Pediatric Low Grade Glioma Association (PLGA) submitted their project idea to American Express in August. They will use the funds to conduct a feasibility study to create a National Pediatric Genomic Brain Tumor Registry. The information collected in this registry would allow scientific researchers and medical experts to target specific genetic abnormalities with existing drugs most effectively.

The registry will embody all brain tumor types, not just low grade gliomas.

Project Brain Child was selected from over 1190 other projects to be in the top 25. As of today, September 17, they are in 9th place.

They need to be one in fifth place or better to receive an award. Votes must be cast by September 28.

Any American Express cardholder may vote. If you don't have an American Express card, you can still help by spreading the word to your friends.

Brain tumors kill more children every year than all other diseases combined. Please help this effort.

scooter dreams

2008-09-06T23:59:00.004-05:00

One of my dreams has always been to have my own driver due to the fact that I hate driving. That's driver as in chauffeur...not driver as in the golf thingy. However, in light of my recent car troubles I may be reconsidering the dream.

I'm now thinking that a more practical and less expensive dream would be to live in a city where owning a car will not be necessary. Okay...so maybe that won't technically be less expensive. But it would be a big savings on gas and maintenance so that's something. I would also get way more exercise which would be a benefit as well. So this is sounding pretty good so far.

Even after the big move to this city (wherever it may be), it would still be nice to have some kind of personal mode of transportation just for the occasional drive in the fresh air or a quick errand. Today we discovered the perfect solution....

As we drove past a scooter shop in Oklahoma City we saw a white Stella scooter with a side car. It was so perfect that we had to stop and check it out. The side car is for Jason if you're wondering. Can't you just picture us cruising down a city street, helmets on our head, just enjoying the drive? Jason's pretty tall so, of course, he'd probably be sitting in the side car with his hands around his knees. haha. I think this would be a great look for us. I hope we can see this dream through to fruition!

It’s a love/hate relationship

2008-08-30T02:12:00.003-05:00

I’ve blogged about my car before. This time, however, my car has really pushed me over the edge. I used to love it…but now I’m reconsidering my feelings toward it. This weekend the feeling has been more along the lines of hate.

My car recently reached 100,000 miles which I’ve learned is a big point in a cars life where things start wearing out and needing to be replaced. I’ve spent much more money on my car in the past year than I had planned on and I hope this trend is coming toward an end. Let me just share with you some of the things I’ve had done to my car in the past year:

Replaced the battery (which I thought was an alternator problem at first) - got one with an 8-year warranty so I better not need to do this again any time soon
Replaced the rear rotors – it took some convincing to get me to do this but I finally gave in once I was shown how thin and dangerous those babies were
Replaced two a/c hoses and charged up the coolant – this was quite necessary as summers in Oklahoma tend to get hot, humid and generally miserable and uncomfortable
Replaced two tires – I had several nails in the tires thanks to all the construction areas I have to drive through every day
Replaced a CV axle – I didn’t even know what that part was until it almost broke off and caused even more problems
AND NOW…I have to replace a wheel bearing. Ugh!

This isn't all the issues I've had with my car but just the ones that ended up costing me money. Ever since I got the cv axle thing fixed a few weeks ago my car has been making this weird noise. It sounds like something is shifting and knocking around every time I turn a corner or go over a big bump. I took my car in right away after the first time I heard a noise. The mechanic pretty much thought I was hearing things and said that nothing was wrong except the radiator was a little loose. He screwed it tight and sent me on my way. That was good for about a day and then the noise started again. So finally after two weeks of it I gave in and took it in yet again.

After a whole day at the shop and many test drives this past Thursday, they determined that one of the wheel bearings was loose and that the noise was coming from the wheel. Yesterday I took it back in to have the bearing replaced. They kept my car all stinkin’ day! At the end of the day they called to notify me that they ordered a few different bearings and none of them seemed to fit. They finally found a match in Kansas City and would have it overnighted to OKC. So today I will be taking my car back…FOR THE THIRD DAY IN A ROW…to get that stupid bearing replaced. This better fix that noise for good. If anything else happens to my car I may not be responsible for what I do to it.

At least none of the problems thus far have been major ones but a new car is sounding like a better and better idea. I really don’t want car payments again though. I hope OKC gets some good public transportation soon!

class of 2009

2008-08-21T18:58:00.008-05:00

My baby brother is about to start his senior year of high school. I can't believe it! He's 10 years younger than me and was only in 3rd grade when I moved away to college. So, in my mind, he's still a kid...even though he now towers over me. I remember the day my parents brought him home from the hospital and I remember his first day of kindergarten. ahh...I'm starting to sound like my mother. haha.

Look who else is growing up! My niece and nephew are the cutest, aren't they?

I put on my walking shoes

2008-08-16T17:14:00.004-05:00

The title of this post is the name of a song. In fact, this song was a favorite of my youngest brother Matthew when he was a toddler. I still know all the words to it…this song and most of the Barney songs are seared into my memory from hours and hours and hours of listening when he was a kid. I don’t think he reads my blog so hopefully he won’t know that I just announced to the world that he used to like Barney.

On to the real topic…

Today I decided to tackle shoe shopping. You’d think that, being a girl, I would love shoe shopping. But the fact is I hate it. I can’t think of anything I dislike more. I would rather go get stuck with a needle and give blood than shop for shoes. This is probably because I have huge feet. Quick side story…in college I went bowling one evening with friends. The guy behind the counter laughed and called me a behemoth when I told him what size I needed…no joke. Anyway, I’m going to Europe in just three months and I need some good shoes for all the walking that we’ll be doing. I have no idea what to look for but I do know that I want something a little cuter than just a plain pair of tennis shoes.

My friend directed me to this cute little shoe store down in OKC that I’ve driven past a million times but never noticed before this. I finally decided to go check it out today. It wasn’t too bad. They had a lot of good shoes and quality brands. It was more pricey than I anticipated but I actually found a pair of shoes I wouldn’t mind having. What do you think of these? They’re Birkenstocks which I know are good but I’m still not 100% sure if these will be the best for walking around Europe in November.
Now, if I wasn’t already self-conscious about the size of my feet this store may have given me a complex I’ll never get over. In the world of shoes I suddenly went from a size 11 to a size 42!!! What in the world? I do not like this sizing system. I didn’t end up buying the shoes. Perhaps when I recover from the shock I’ll return. I just hope the size isn’t imprinted on any visible part of the shoe.

hot pockets

2008-07-14T19:16:00.006-05:00

Saturday night we went to see Jim Gaffigan live in Midwest City, OK. Woo hoo! It was hilarious and I never stopped laughing. The theater was packed full of what looked mostly like college students and there was a lady behind us whose laugh was so awful that I couldn't tell if it was someone laughing or someone randomly yelling things out during the show. I kept expecting Jim to get caught off guard by it or make fun of the lady. But aside from that it was very enjoyable show. I believe this might be the one time I can think of when nothing out of the ordinary happened to me and I didn't have any freak encounters with weird people. Sorry for the lack of story but here's a clip for those of you who may not know who Jim Gaffigan is...

Happy Birthday America!

2008-07-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

As many of you may know, the 4th of July is my all time favorite holiday! I think I enjoy it because there's no pressure to buy everyone great gifts and there's not much of the usual holiday stress. It's a relaxing time to kick back, grill out and watch some fireworks.

This year I will be celebrating our nation's independence in Dallas. We will be watching FC Dallas play a great game of soccer against...well, I'm not actually sure who they're playing. But soccer is pretty fun to watch no matter what so I'm excited. The festivities will be starting in the afternoon with an FC Dallas experience (whatever that is) and tailgating party followed by a concert featuring Freddy from the Kidd Kraddick in the morning show. Can anyone fill me on who this is? I've never heard of him or listened to the show.

After the game we get to watch the north Texas largest and most spectacular fireworks display choreographed in stadium with music and video. That is taken directly from the online schedule. The "largest and most spectacular" show is a pretty big promise so I hope it lives up to the hype. The fireworks are my favorite part so I don't want to be disappointed. Then we'll end the evening with The Temptations review featuring Dennis Edwards.

I hope your 4th is just as exciting!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!!!!!!

a case of the Mondays

2008-06-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

It is Monday morning at 8:01 am precisely. Yes, I should be at work. In fact, I should have been at work 30 minutes ago. I actually got out of bed on time this morning. I took a shower and got ready for work without any problems. I didn't even have trouble picking out what I was going to wear. So what's the problem? Well...let me tell you...

I got a promotion last week at work (woo hoo!) and, naturally, I planned to be an exceptional employee this week so as to reinforce to my boss that promoting me was a good move. As I mentioned before I got ready for work with no problems this morning and, consequently, left the house a little earlier than usual. I decided that I needed a smoothie for breakfast to help me start my day (and to reward myself for doing so good this morning). So I got the smoothie and then stopped at the gas station to fill up before heading to work. This is when it starts to get bad. I SPILLED MY SMOOTHIE!!!! It was sitting in the cup holder and, as I turned a corner, it tipped and fell onto the floor on the passenger side. I tried to catch it while turning but in the process got it all over myself. Ugh! So I stopped at the nearest place to grab some napkins and do a quick clean up job. Well, I picked up the cup hoping to scoop up some of the mess into it and then the bottom fell out. What kind of flimsy cup is this! By the way, this smoothie had lots of blueberries and strawberries in it so it was not a subtle color that was staining the carpet of my car.

At this point I felt I had no choice but to head home and clean myself and my car. I called my boss and left an amusing message. I was laughing as I explained what happened but the laughter was only so I wouldn't cry. I stopped at wal-greens to pick up a bottle of carpet cleaner and headed home. The directions on the bottle said to spray and let sit for 5 minutes before wiping with a damp cloth. Repeat as necessary. I followed the directions and repeated. Then I repeated again and again and again. I've lost count on the repeats at this point so I decided to let it soak in for a bit longer. I think it's been sitting for long enough so I'm going to close this blog post and go see if the carpet looks any better yet. I hope this isn't an indication of how the rest of the day is going to go....

always, always, always a bridesmaid

2008-06-21T09:06:00.001-05:00

Ok...not really. This was only my second time to be a bridesmaid and I was honored to be a part of this wedding. My good friend (and roommate senior year of college) got married in Colorado a few weeks ago. It was a great excuse to take a few days off work, go visit a more scenic place than Oklahoma (it's not hard to get more scenic than that) and see some friends that I haven't seen in years. Now I definitely wasn't the perfect bridesmaid...at least I was nothing like the girl in 27 Dresses. I came from out of town so my bridesmaid duties basically consisted of just showing up and being in a few pictures. And Brandie...I just want you to know that during your outdoor wedding there was a huge bug on my shoulder. It took everything I had in me not to scream and jump around to get that thing off me. So I may not remember everything about the ceremony as I was concentrating quite hard on the bug but it was a beautiful wedding and I'm so excited that it didn't get rained out. I'm still waiting to see the pictures by the way...

So since I don't have a pic of the wedding to share with you this one will have to do. This was taken years ago just after we all graduated from college.

There's no better way to celebrate your birthday...than at the Oklahoma Opry??

2008-06-01T23:19:00.000-05:00

My birthday was this past weekend...I'm another year older and another year closer to 30. That doesn't bother me so much. Ask me again next year and I'll see how I feel about that...

I had a great birthday though and got to celebrate all weekend long starting on Friday night. I was taken out for a special birthday dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and had a fantastic evening! On saturday night the excitement grew even more as I headed to the Oklahoma Opry. That's right folks...this girl from Oregon that has resisted becoming an Oklahoman every step of the way actually step foot inside the Oklahoma Opry! Aside from having to listen to country music all night it was highly entertaining and an enjoyable way to spend the evening. I never thought I would be telling people that I went to the Opry. But there you have it...this is what living in Oklahoma for several years will do to you. I wonder what surprising things I will be participating in next year? That is if I'm not sitting at home depressed at how close I'm getting to the big 3-0...

say it with flowers...

2008-05-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

My alarm went off around 5:45 on Friday morning just a few weeks ago. After hitting snooze a few times I finally rolled out of bed, hopped in the shower and got ready for work. I was hoping that this day was going to be better than the day before. Thursday had been one of those days when nothing could go right and when things went wrong they really went wrong!

As I walked out to my car on this Friday morning I noticed something pink on my windshield. When I got closer I discovered a long stemmed pink rose neatly tucked underneath one of the windshield wipers. Wow…what a great way to start out the day! I picked up the rose and thought to myself how sweet it was of my boyfriend to do that for me. He must have really listened on the phone the night before as I told him about how badly Thursday had been for me. I had a huge smile on my face as I drove to work and I took the rose into my office and proudly displayed it in a vase on my desk.

Later I emailed Jason to inquire about the rose but, to my surprise, he informed me that the rose was not from him. What? That’s weird! Who could it possibly be from then?? I called my grandparents who live down the street from me but it wasn’t from them either. I asked the roommates and a few other friends as I quickly compiled a list of suspects in my mind. No, no, no…this is the answer I kept getting from people!

I’m sure most of you are thinking that I’m really ungrateful. People just don’t find flowers on their car every morning and I should just be happy there’s someone out there who would do something like that for me. If you’re one of these people then you must not know how weird things happen to me all the time and freaks come out of the wood work around me. If you ask me later I’ll tell you about the guy who smelled my hair, the guy who hit on me at the grocery store using the line, “Is it true what they say about red heads?”, or the guy who invited himself to come to dinner with me as I was pumping gas one night. Haha! So what do you think about this random rose now??

If anyone has information about this rose or the person who placed in on my windshield please let me know. It would help to put my mind at ease about this...haha.

obscure sports

2008-03-27T20:06:00.000-05:00

Okay...so maybe rugby doesn't technically fall under the "obscure" category. But the sport is a little vague and mysterious to me. Last weekend I went to watch a Rugby game (or is it called a match?) here in OKC. I didn't completely understand what was going on but I got some good pictures!

Does anyone else see where these guys are putting their hands? I mean, they're picking each other up by their shorts. That's gotta hurt!

cutest baby contest

2008-03-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

1. Go to http://charliefm.com/
2. Click on the cutest baby contest link
3. Vote for my nephew Benjamin

my weekend in P-town

2008-03-17T18:44:00.000-05:00

Two weekends ago I flew to Portland to visit the family. I hadn't had a chance to meet my new niece yet and thought that was way past due. So I hopped on a plane (two to be exact) and was in Portland in no time (actually, it was more like 8 hours with the flights and the delays and the layovers).

Here I am holding my niece Penny. You'll notice a long line of slober down my left arm. What you can't see is a spot of baby puke on my shoulder. She wasted no time introducing Aunt Krista to the gross side of babies.

I also spent a lot of time with my nephew Benjamin. We had lots of fun playing games like hoops and where's the hand. He also learned that he is scared of me when I don't have make-up on (as a lot of people are) and he really likes smoothies (or moothies, as he calls them).

It was a busy weekened....a few uncomfortable moments on the airplane, a lot of time with family, a little bit of tax-free shopping and naps whenever I could squeeze one in. Hopefully I can do that again soon!

at random

2008-02-18T21:28:00.000-06:00

I have the cutest nephew and niece ever...

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Tomorrow evening we are going to see Movin' Out. I don't really know much about the storyline but I always enjoy these types of things so I'm really excited about it.

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A few weeks ago my roommate Jamie and I attended Chocolate Decadence here in OKC. It was a lot of fun. If you've never been I highly recommend going next year. It's already on my calendar! We got to sample a HUGE variety of chocolate dishes from several local restaurants and pair it with some great wine. There was a silent auction, live auction, live music and a lot of people to meet. I have a great picture of us to show you but I never installed my scanner after I wiped my computer so you'll just have to imagine how great we looked at the party. haha.

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Is there anyone out there with a green thumb who can give me some pointers on keeping plants alive? I've killed a few different ones recently and the only thing that's survived is some ivy that's growing like crazy in my office.

You've Got Mail

2008-02-10T11:54:00.000-06:00

When I checked the mailbox yesterday I got two surprises. How exciting that they both came on the same day! The first surprise was my new iPod. I ordered it on Wednesday and was not expecting to receive it so quickly. Yes, that's right! I have finally broken down and decided to join the millions of others who can't live without their music, tv shows, movies and pictures in the palm of their hand. I'm rather excited about my new toy and have already gotten some great music and movies for it. I decided to go with the 30GB iPod classic. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to use up all that space but thought it would be nice to have enough room to hold all my music and never have to worry about switching stuff in and out. Let's all cross our fingers that this is not one of the electronic items that will fall victim to my magnetic aura.

The second surprise came in the form of a passport. I turned in all my paperwork only two weeks ago and I already received it back in the mail. That's amazing considering the process was taking months only a short while ago. Jason and I are planning a trip to Europe in the fall. It will be my first overseas trip and I can hardly contain my excitement. Everyone knows how nervous I am of flying so the flight over the ocean should be interesting to say the least. I'm sure I'll have a good story or two upon my return but for now I'm only thinking about how much fun the trip is going to be. ...and I'll have my new iPod along to help distract me on the flights.

I wonder what will come in the mail tomorrow...

100,000

2008-02-07T21:06:00.001-06:00

My car reached 100,000 miles as I was driving to work yesterday morning. That is such a huge milestone that I had to pull out my camera and take a picture while I was driving...

This first picture reads 99,999 and the second one reads 100,000. The pictures are low quality and blurry but I had to have something to remember this moment by.

busy...

2008-01-26T12:16:00.000-06:00

This has been a busy week and I haven't had time to sit down at my computer until now. All of you will be happy to know that my computer is now up and running much faster than ever before. The wipe and reload was a little more difficult than anticipated but I'm back in business!

Last Saturday we went down to Dallas for a fun-filled day of shopping and basketball. Can it get any better than that? We went to IKEA, Sam Moon (Where I got myself a new purse!!! Purses are my weakness), and the Galleria. We were so busy going places that we forgot to eat. So we had to stop at the little pizza place inside the Galleria and grab a slice. It wasn't our favorite but we thought we might be sick if we didn't get some food in our stomachs right away. After that we headed down to the American Airlines Arena to watch the Dallas Mavericks take on the Seattle Supersonics. I was interested to see the game since there's a chance the supersonics could be coming to OKC. But...I discovered that the supersonics super suck! It was kind of a boring game and of course the Mavericks won but we had a lot of fun. I took some pics of the arena and never thought to turn the camera around and get a picture of us as well. haha. These were taken well before the game started as we got there early. The place was packed during the game.

This past thursday I was lucky enough to attend a cooking demonstration featuring celebrity chef Curtis Stone. If you don't know who he is watch TLC's Take Home Chef. He was really funny and made a pot of Zuppa Ribolata which is lentil soup with vegetables. It was fantastic! This was definitely the highlight of my day.

Technological Idiot

2008-01-10T17:59:00.000-06:00

I’m not stupid. I like to learn new things and I catch on quickly. I also like to enjoy the luxuries and conveniences that are made available to us today. This is why I decided to start looking into getting myself an iPod or something similar to it. I informed Jason of this before Christmas and he started looking around online at all my options. I happily let him do that for me as I wasn’t really interested in the research process.

Well, Christmas came around and to my surprise Jason gave me an MP3 player. I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to use it. It did everything I wanted it to and actually seemed easy to use. He showed me exactly how it worked and I spent an evening filling it with music. The next day I decided to put some more cd’s on there and did it exactly as I had learned how.

Have I told you about my theory that I have a magnetic aura surrounding my body that makes computers and other electronics stop working? Well I believe I have now proven this theory to be true. Somehow the files I loaded on the second day became corrupted and can’t be used or deleted. I broke it!!! It was my favorite gift and now it doesn’t work. I feel horrible.

One of my other Christmas gifts was a webcam. My brother and sister-in-law gave it to me so I can send video emails to my nephew and niece. It’s a great idea and I’m very excited since I only get up there to visit about once a year. So I had Jason come over to install it on my computer the other day. Well, we ran into a problem. My computer is running so slowly that a webcam wouldn’t work so well. He looked around and tried to make it run faster but apparently there’s a bunch of crap that I don’t even know where it came from. We deleted a ton of stuff and still not much progress. I believe his exact words were, “Krista, I have no idea what you’ve done to this computer.” So our fun project for the weekend we will be wiping my computer and starting over.

Ugh! I don’t know how these things happen to me. From now on please keep all computers and electronics out of my reach!

say hello to Penny!

2008-01-07T18:34:00.001-06:00

She is the newest addition to my family. How cute is my new niece? She's super chubby and adorable! She didn't come last week when I was in Portland like I asked so I'll have to settle for seeing her through pictures. But I'm glad she's here and I can't wait to meet her.

Here's to old friends!

2008-01-02T17:33:00.000-06:00

My good friend Tabitha emailed me some pictures of our adventures in Portland this past weekend so I thought I'd share a few of them. Last friday evening Stephanie, Rachel, Tabitha, Lisa and I went down to Hawthorne street and ate at this great little place called Bread and Ink Cafe. Then we walked around a bit and eventually made it to Ben & Jerry's for dessert before heading back to Steph's house and chatting all night. Who doesn't love ice cream in the middle of winter when you're bundled up in a scarf, hat and gloves?? It's the best!

These girls are my good friends from high school. We were inseparable then and, amazingly enough, we still keep in touch and get together whenever I'm back in town. I'm the only one of us who doesn't live up in that area. It was great to get together with everyone sans husbands/boyfriends and children. Not that I don't love seeing them too but there's just nothing like hanging out with the girls. I couldn't ask for better friends!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

2007-12-30T22:00:00.000-06:00

I've been fairly busy up here in Portland with the family so there's been little time for blogging. It's been a fun week but I'm happy to be heading back home to Oklahoma tomorrow. Home...Oklahoma...those are two words I never thought I'd use in the same sentence. But there it is. Oklahoma is my home and I've finally come to terms with that fact. After many years of complaining about it I actually like living there now. Go figure.

This blog is supposed to be about Christmas so let me get back on track. I had a great Christmas! I got some wonderful gifts and was able to see my family. I was most excited about seeing my one-year old nephew. He calls me Krita. This is my attempt to get a picture of the two of us but it didn't turn out so well.

I was also hoping to see my new niece-to-be while in Portland. My very pregnant sister-in-law is about to pop any minute now and I've been encouraging her to move things along and have the baby before I leave. You still have a few more hours Laura....

Round Two...

2007-12-23T13:20:00.000-06:00

Well, we've started to recover from the ice storm here in Oklahoma. Most everyone has their power back on with the exception of a few. The broken tree branches have all been cut away and are stacked neatly by the curb waiting to be picked up and disposed of. It's a little depressing to drive down the road and see trees fallen over and broken apart. But the recovery effort has been going well and things are looking up. I survived the ice storm and made it through the whole ordeal with only two days of lost power. No trees fell on my car, I was not involved in any traffic accidents and I didn't even slip and fall on the ice.

Yesterday snow fell in OKC. It came down pretty hard and was preceded by a lot of rain. It's pretty cold here so all the rain froze on the ground and made for some pretty icy roads. The meteorologists were warning people of black ice and asking everyone stay inside. I wasn't worried and figured the Nissan could handle a little snow after making it through all the ice last week. Well, I was wrong. I was driving home last night and turning left onto my street. I was doing everything right...both hands on the wheel, driving slow, pumping the brakes. But as I turned, my car started to slide and it wouldn't quite turn enough to make it to the street I was aiming for. Instead I slid head first into a curb. Luckily, the curb was there because on the other side of the curb was a big ditch. It didn't do much to car except scratch up the front a little bit. I tried to put the car in reverse but couldn't move because of the incline. I sat there a few minutes on the verge of tears and called Jason to come help me. As soon as I got off the phone I noticed someone had pulled over. I got out of the car to speak to the gentleman and when I turned around there were about 15 or 20 people there ready to help. They appeared out of nowhere! So I got in my car and they all pushed it back up the incline so I could get straightened out and go home. I have no idea who any of those people were but I'm very thankful they were there.

Now it's time to head up to the Great Northwest to visit the family for christmas. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe travels!

State of Emergency

2007-12-11T19:18:00.000-06:00

It's official...a state of emergency has been declared in all 77 counties in Oklahoma. A winter storm has blown through and ice has made a thick layer on top of everything in sight. Trees, houses, cars, roads, you name it...there's ice on it. I just heard on the news that there are over 200,000 customers without power in the OKC metro area alone. Until just a few hours ago, my household was part of that awful number. I was late for work monday morning for various reasons including no power at my house. But the biggest obstacle for me that morning was that my car had such a thick layer of ice on it that I couldn't get the door open. I wish I had a picture of it to show you but I was too frustrated to think about grabbing the camera. This picture, however, was taken by someone at work that day. The parking lots at work were so icy that the cars just slid together. I'm glad my car wasn't involved in this...

So as much as I love winter let's hope that this storm is almost through and we can all stay warm inside our houses with working electricity.

Holiday Etiquette

2007-12-06T19:06:00.000-06:00

Okay…it’s December. The shopping malls are crazy. The roads and highways are packed with people trying to get to the shopping malls. The babies are all crying, little kids are running all over the place, store employees are tired and customers are rude. AAHHH! When did going out of the house this time of year get to be such a pain in the butt! Seriously! I’ve done my fair share of Christmas shopping so far this season and I still have more to do. Every time I get in my car or walk into a store its instant frustration. So I think we need to establish a set of rules for everyone to follow and make all our lives easier this time of year. Anybody with me on this?

I was listening to the radio a few days ago and listeners were calling in on this very topic. I only caught a few minutes of the show but the rules I heard people suggest, although funny, weren't such a bad idea. For example…

• The malls and stores are just like roads. Stick to your side of the road! Don’t cut people off or stop in the middle of the aisle and block everyone else. Be aware of those around you!

• Don’t expect the store employees to be at your beck and call if there are a line of customers they are trying to wait on.

• If you’re writing a check use your time in line to start writing it out so you don’t hold up everyone by searching for your checkbook in your purse, then filling it out, then putting the amount in your checkbook register...

• At the post office, make sure your packages are ready to go by the time you get to the counter. You’ll most likely have to wait in line for awhile so use that time to finish addressing your mail. Don’t get to the counter with a pile of boxes and no zip codes on any of them and make the clerk look up every one for you!!! (This is actually happened to me the other day and it took everything inside of me not to say something to that lady).

So if you have any other suggestions on rules for holiday shopping etiquette please let me know. And let’s be courteous out there people! This is supposed to be a happy time of year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2007-12-01T12:01:00.000-06:00

Christmas lights!!! It's my favorite part of the holiday season. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us we can start listening to Christmas music, decorating the Christmas tree and looking at all the pretty lights.

Last night we drove an hour and half down to Chickasha to walk through the Festival of Light. I would have taken more pictures but the screen on my camera broke and I wasn't even sure that this one would come out.

Here are my top 10 favorite things about this time of year...

10. Snow!!! (although it looks like we won't be enjoying that in Oklahoma any time soon)

9. Parties. It's always fun to get together with friends, family and coworkers at this time of year.

8. Paid holidays. I always look forward to a few extra days off work. And the overtime I'll end up working to be able to complete the month's work before the Christmas break is definitely worth the few days off.

7. Fireworks on New Years! I love fireworks almost as much as I love Christmas lights. However, this year I'll probably be ringing in the new year as I wait for my luggage at the airport.

6. Christmas shopping. I don't really enjoy fighting the crowds at the stores but I do love buying presents for those on my list...even the few people that are hard to buy for.

5. Christmas music. I have a strict rule about not listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving but once that holiday is behind bring on the Christmas music!

4. Christmas movies. Some of my favorites include White Christmas, A Christmas Story and Love Actually.

3. Santa! I have to say that I still believe in Santa or I don't get any presents from him on Christmas morning.

2. Family. This is typically the one time of year that I get to go visit my family since I don't live so close to them anymore.

1. Christmas lights! duh...you already knew I was going to say that.

eavesdropping

2007-11-18T19:05:00.000-06:00

Don’t you just love overhearing random conversations? Sometimes you just happen to be in the right place at the right time and overhear something priceless. Yesterday I spent the day at the mall trying to put a dent in my Christmas shopping list. I bought a few presents and got some ideas for the rest of the people on my list.

I had just decided it was time to head home and was making my way toward the exit when two guys turned a corner and happened to be walking next to me. One of the guys was carrying a little bag from Kay Jewelers. He had a huge smile on his face that he couldn’t get rid of if he tried and he was practically skipping. As he walked he swung the little bag back and forth. So much so that I was convinced the contents were about to fall out. I could tell that he’d probably just bought an engagement ring for his girlfriend. Right after I came to this conclusion I noticed his friend. He was trailing behind a bit and had a scowl on his face. He then spoke up and said, “Dude! I just watched you sign your life away in there. This is not cool!”

HAHA…it was the most amusing thing that happened all weekend.

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-10-29T12:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm home sick today so I have a little spare time to update my blog. I'm having some inner ear problems and am a little off balance and nauseated today. Driving to work seems out of the question and simply walking around the office could prove hazardous to myself and my coworkers. haha.

The past few days have been packed full of Halloween activities. Thursday night was girls night. We decided that pumpkin carving was a good girls night activity and would still give us the opportunity to chat and catch up with each other lives. Here are Laura, Mandy and I cleaning out the guts...my favorite part!!

Here is my final product. It's a goblin in case you can't tell. I wasn't feeling too ambitious so I chose an easy carving pattern.

Saturday night my roommates hosted a Halloween costume party at our house. They really know how to throw a party. We had great food and great costumes....

I have one more Halloween party to attend at work this week. And, although this is no cruise to Mexico like Halloween last year, it's shaping up to be a great one here in OKC. Maybe I'm having inner ear and balance problems as a reminder of the cruise and the seasickness last year...

weekend highlights

2007-10-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

My roommate Lindsy always does weekend update as she leads a very exciting life. So I’m stealing this from her and doing a weekend update for myself this week.

I like to keep busy but lately the week’s have come and gone and have been wearing me out completely. By the time Friday rolls around I’m ready to stay in, cook dinner and pop in a movie. That was not possible this past Friday…or Saturday…or Sunday.

FRIDAY

We headed out to Stillwater to meet up with friends and go to the very exciting Oklahoma State University homecoming walkaround. Apparently, OSU’s homecoming is the nation’s largest. How exciting for us that it takes place right here in Oklahoma. As a non-alumnus of this university I had no idea what to expect and whatever idea I had in my head was not what I encountered in Stillwater. Nevertheless, it was a fun time. We walked around in the chilly night air pushing our way through crowds of people and looked at all the displays set up by each of the Greek houses. I forgot to take pictures but here are some highlights courtesy of the web…

SATURDAY

Bright and early Saturday morning I headed downtown with Anastasia and Anne to participate in Race for the Cure. This was yet another event in which I pushed my way through crowds of people. We were shoulder-to-shoulder the whole way and couldn’t really run much less walk at a brisk pace. It was more like a leisurely stroll for the cure. I came to the conclusion that participants were there mainly for the cause than the actual act of running. I was amazed by the number of people that participated. It was a lot of fun and I was proud to be a part of it.

My favorite part was the bagpipe players along the race route. I love bagpipe music!!

My least favorite part…when a bird pooped on me. Gross! I didn’t get a picture of that. But how lucky am I that of all the thousands of people downtown the bird had to poop on me.

Saturday afternoon we headed to Dallas for the last FC Dallas home game before the playoffs. It was not that exciting of a game as our team lost. They didn’t even score! But it was a fun afternoon/evening. By the time we got back to OKC at 1:30 am I was exhausted and waking up on Sunday morning was quite a chore. Here is Anne and I at the game. I was very excited that she decided to come with us so I wasn't the only girl.

you're doin' fine Oklahoma...

2007-10-15T17:36:00.000-05:00

November 16th is statehood day here in Oklahoma. We are in the midst of celebrating our centennial year and are just a month away from the big 100!

Yesterday Lindsy, Tracy, Jason and I went to the centennial parade. Here we are enjoying the sunny & warm October day. And, yes, I'm wearing two pairs of glasses.

We had high hopes and were expecting nothing less than Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade quality balloons and floats. Well...this is OKC, not NYC. We had a few of those balloons but they were the reject balloons that were difficult to keep afloat. Some of the floats were cool and we even had a few celebrities...James Garner and Miss America! All in all, it was a fun afternoon. Here are a few of the highlights:

I would have taken more pictures but we were stuck behind a couple ladies with big hair. I could only get pictures of the really high balloons. haha.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OKLAHOMA!!!

This was not my favorite thing that happened today...

2007-09-18T21:57:00.000-05:00

I tend to be a skeptical person…especially when it comes to situations involving my car. Today I had yet another car problem. Yes, it’s true…not much time passes before something else happens. I’m convinced that I have a magnetic aura surrounding me that causes electronic equipment and machinery to break down. My problem today was my rear brake pads. I’ve known for a few weeks they needed to be replaced. It was obvious from the high pitched squeal that I heard every time I pressed on the brakes. My steering wheel wasn’t moving from side to side when I hit the brakes and I seemed to be stopping smoothly other than the ear piercing noise. So I concluded that the pads were bad but the rotors were still good. I am smart enough to know what rotors are and when they need to be turned.

I took my car in expecting to pay around $90 for rear brake pad replacement. The waiting room was amazing. It was decorated better than my house and had a flat screen HDTV. I even had full control of the buttons (which is my term for the remote control). I was very involved in an episode of The Fabulous Life on VH1 when I was rudely interrupted by the man who was supposed to be fixing my car. He handed me the results of the brake system inspection and summed it all up by saying I needed two new rotors. WHAT? I wasn’t planning on that. I didn’t believe him and was certain it was one of those things they just tell ignorant girls to try and get them to spend more money. So I asked him to show me. He took me out to the car and showed me how they measure the width and said they were worn down so much that they were unable to work on my car without new rotors. Ugh! What’s a girl to do?

I considered going to Auto Zone, buying rotors, going home and googling “rotor replacement” and doing it myself. But, somehow, I thought that could have fatal consequences. In the end I decided to let them do the work and drove away having paid more than double the cost I had anticipated.

There are some things I don’t like about being an adult and car ownership and maintenance are two of those things.

Dating Committee

2007-09-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

If you are a loyal reader of “This is My World” then you are already aware that I am the head of Lindsy’s dating committee. Some of you are probably laughing and wondering what my qualifications are. Well…I don’t have many. I am dating someone, yes, but can’t really claim to know much about the process of getting a date or setting someone up. From what Lindsy has told me, she had a thing or two to do with my current dating life (which I was clueless about so I can’t fill you in on what occurred). Nevertheless, it’s time to return the favor.

So I propose (is it okay to use that word around a dating committee??) to make this an official committee and plan to begin recruiting others to serve on the committee. As committee chair, I have appointed Lindsy’s sister Jamie as Vice-Chair. I also have one male committee member and am looking for just a few more. Please let me know if you are interested. You must know Lindsy and have some kind of idea or opinion regarding the type of man she should date. You cannot expect her to lower her expectations but you can encourage her to open her mind.

I will also be accepting submissions for date prospects. If any non-committee member has someone they deem worthy of consideration please let me know and the committee will review and advise Lindsy as necessary.

I will keep you informed of our progress and I’m hoping to have some good stories to share. I’m no Carrie Bradshaw but perhaps this will be my own clean, appropriate-for-all-ages version of Sex and the City. Or…no sex but fabulous dates and the city. If this is successful maybe the dating committee thing will catch on. I don’t know why this approach to dating hasn’t been widely used already. Perhaps I’m about to find out…

The Prodigal Roommate

2007-09-04T21:25:00.000-05:00

Yes, I haven’t blogged in awhile. Yes, I’ve been pretty busy recently. Yes, I just moved back to Edmond.

That’s right. You heard it here first. Well, not really…I’ve been talking about it for awhile. I moved back in with the old roommates over Labor Day weekend. My eight-month stint in OKC is now over and I’ve returned back to the safer regions of Edmond. I didn’t intend for the move to OKC to be such a temporary situation but a series of events occurred and I am happy to be back. The old roommates are really excited too. They ran to me with open arms and showered me with gifts. Okay…that’s an exaggeration…unless you call a house key and garage door opener a “gift.”

Here are a few reasons why it’s good to be back in Edmond:

- The roommates, despite both being in school right now, are actually pretty fun people.
- I’ll get to start taking evening walks again…something I wasn’t so comfortable doing in the other neighborhood.
- Less driving since the people I like to see on a daily basis live in Edmond.
- My grandparents live across the street so I can keep an eye out and know when they forget to invite me to family functions (I’ve been forgotten before…no joke).
- Less of a chance that a stupid middle-aged burglar will break into my house at 5pm on a weekday and then talk to me when I catch him trying to steal my stuff.

So here’s to living in Edmond, being closer to friends, and hopefully being safe from burglars!

Random Game

2007-08-13T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (if you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
_________________________

1. I’m getting ready to move once again…back into the house I lived in for three years before I moved into my current place of residence. I like to tell people that my old roommates and I were “on a break” and we’re getting back together again.

2. I don’t like the color purple. I don’t wear it, decorate with it or use anything of that color (pens, paper, cd’s, etc).

3. I’m scared of heights. I won’t ride ferris wheels or walk too close to the edge of a bridge. I can, however, ride roller coasters because they go so fast I don’t have time to realize how high up I actually am.

4. My boyfriend and I have the same middle name but it’s spelled differently.

5. I’m scared to be alone in my house at night. My imagination runs away with me and I think I can hear all sorts of things going on outside the house (even though I usually sleep on my good ear and can’t actually hear anything). Part of my bedtime routine is walking through the house and making sure all windows and doors are locked.

6. I can’t stand the word moist. It’s gross! Don’t use it around me.

7. I don’t like driving because 1) I have the worst sense of direction of anyone I’ve ever met and 2) I suffer from a mild form of road rage. If I were rich the thing I would most want to spend my money on is a personal driver.

8. I have no organizational skills when it comes to filing bills, arranging my closet/kitchen cabinets/office drawers. But I’m extremely anal about keeping the house clean and vacuumed and making my bed every morning.

And the 8 winners who I choose to tag are…

(drum roll please)

…Elaina, Ryan & Katie, Kira, Sara, Tabitha, Mr.T, Ashley and Katie

So you thought you could pull a fast one on me, huh?

2007-07-24T23:19:00.000-05:00

It has been brought to my attention that the timing belt on a car needs to be replaced every 90,000 miles. Did anyone else know this? Lucky for me I was enlightened with this information because my car mileage is currently at 94,738 miles. Time for a new timing belt!

I decided to deal with this today before the belt actually breaks and then I have more to fix and am out a lot more money. Since I know nothing about this sort of thing I thought it would be wise to get a few quotes and see what the damage to my bank account would be. I was expecting it to cost around a few hundred dollars.

I called car shop #1 (who will remain unnamed as they are about to get a bad review from me). I told them make, model and year of my car and asked them for a quote. Ten minutes later they called me back and quoted a cost of $883.45 for a timing belt and water pump. First of all, ouch! I was not expecting that. Second of all, that is not what I asked for. I wanted a quote on a timing belt and alternator. The guy told me that I should be more interested in getting the water pump taken care of than the alternator since I have a foreign car. He went on to explain a few things and made it sound like the alternator wasn’t even near the timing belt anyway. I don’t know anything about this so I chose not to argue and risk sounding stupid and ignorant.

I was hesitant to call for a second quote. Surely it couldn’t be worse than the first one though. I kindly explained what I wanted done, gave the appropriate information and asked for a quote. It did not take this place 10 minutes to get back to me. The gentleman informed me right away that my car doesn’t even have a timing belt. WHAT??? How could this be? Am I missing car parts? Did it fall out somewhere? He explained that my car has a timing chain instead and that it wasn’t necessary to have it replaced right away. I definitely liked this answer better as it doesn’t end up costing me $883.45.

I really wanted to believe the 2nd guy and just stop right there. But, with my luck, I would believe the wrong person and then my car would end up breaking down and costing me a whole heck of a lot more money. So I called the dealership. I felt incredibly stupid talking to the service center employee and explaining to him that I was just investigating as to whether my car has a timing belt or chain. He chuckled and agreed that it was a chain. I felt the need to explain further and ended up telling him my whole story. He just laughed at me and assured me there is no belt and no need to spend $883.45.

Maybe I should write a letter to the corporate offices of the car shop #1 and let them know how uneducated their employees are. That thought has crossed my mind once or twice today. Perhaps I should brush up on my car knowledge too. Hmmm...where could I enroll in car shop 101?

ath·let·ic (adjective) physically active and strong; good at athletics or sports

2007-07-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

Many laugh at my attempts to be athletic. Go ahead…I deserve it. It seems that God did not bless me with much athletic ability. But I try and it ALWAYS proves to be entertaining (at least for the people watching).

I played basketball in high school. That was fun but I would get confused by all the running back and forth and forget which basket was mine. It was lucky for me that I was a bad shot or else I may have scored several points for the wrong team. Haha. I played intramurals in college and was even MVP for C league volleyball. But you can probably gather that C league was not the league that the athletic people played in. I once signed up for a 5-mile race with one of my roommates but it turns out running is not my thing either (and 5 miles is whole heck of a lot longer than the 5k that I thought it was gonna be!) Now that I’m out of school and a “professional” I find myself working for a company that provides type leagues for its employees and I definitely take advantage of it.

Last year I played dodgeball but came to the realization that I suck at dodging. Then I tried rowing. Rowing I enjoy! It’s a great team sport, an excellent workout and very relaxing at the same time. I think it’s the new up and coming sport in OKC. A few coworkers and I go downtown to the boathouse every Thursday evening to practice. I’m hoping to be a little more prepared this year. Last years race turned out to be pretty entertaining when my teams boat started rowing across the lanes rather than down toward the finish line. We came in dead last but got a lot of cheers from the fans on the river bank.

The next regatta is August 18th. If you’re looking for some entertainment or just want to bet on whether or not I’ll fall out of the boat you should come check it out.

Plague of the Frogs

2007-07-08T14:33:00.000-05:00

I don’t know much about frogs. I used to try and catch them at summer camp every year as a child but other than that I haven’t encountered them very often. This year, however, Oklahoma City seems to be overrun with frogs. Maybe it’s just my neighborhood…or my house. Several weeks ago I pulled into my driveway on a rainy day (one of many we’ve had this summer). It had been one of those days where the rain came down so hard that you could barely see in front of you. By the time I got home the rain had stopped but water was still flooding down my driveway like a waterfall. As I pulled in I noticed a frog hopping across the driveway just in time for me to run over it with my left front tire. I’m not a frog killer…I just didn’t have time to react before the frog’s life was ended so suddenly by my car. Not your typical type of road kill. It was sad but I got over it.

Since that day, my roommate and I have noticed several frogs hanging out around our house. One particular frog lived in the backyard. He didn’t seem to have any frog friends so he had the whole backyard to himself. Notice how I’m using past tense when talking about the frog. Here’s what happened…

Yesterday I decided to mow the lawn. I was almost finished with the backyard and just had one small line of grass to mow near the fence. As I was pushing the lawn mower our little frog friend jumped out of the tall grass right into the path of my mower. He practically jumped underneath it…I barely realized what happened before I had already run it over. I was devastated and too scared to look back. I’m crossing my fingers that the frog made it out alive but he’s probably looking down on me from Froggy heaven right now.

Once I calmed myself down and finished the yard I noticed that my neighbor had come outside to do some yard work as well. It seemed odd that he was running straight toward my yard with the weed whacker in hand. Just before he got to my fence I saw a frog jump through the chain links and out of the way of the weed whacker. My neighbor was chasing it out of his yard. It’s possible that he’s a little crazy but we now have a new frog in our back yard.

the return of the missing blogger

2007-06-25T18:49:00.000-05:00

SURPRISE! I’m back! I know…it’s been awhile…at least since I fractured my arm by falling off a chair. I hope you haven’t been too worried about me though. My arm has healed nicely and, aside from the occasional aching in damp weather, it’s good as new!

I could waste your time with excuse after excuse about how I’ve been SO busy. Too busy, in fact, to keep my blog updated. Or how I don’t have Internet access at work like most of my friends so I’ve fallen out of touch with the blogger world. Or how I don’t spend much time at home these days to sit down and write about my life adventures. Let’s just skip all that and get right to the point…

I recently had a friend ask me why chose to live in Oklahoma over Portland and why I no longer have a desire to move back up there (at least for now). It’s a hard question to answer really. I love the northwest and will always consider it my home. I like the weather, the range of outdoor activities, and the cool areas of town to shop and try out new restaurants. The list could go on and on. I do not like the weather in Oklahoma, there is not a wide range of outdoor activities available, and there are not as many cool areas of town with unique shops and restaurants. However, this is where I have made my home the last several years. As much as I’ve complained about it, it really has grown on me. I am always on the lookout though for new and exciting things to do here. And I think I may have stumbled upon an unexpectedly entertaining new activity here in OKC. What is it you ask…ROLLER DERBY!

I cannot begin to describe to you everything I experienced at the roller derby. It was a completely entertaining and humorous evening. We decided to go not really knowing what to expect. We weren’t that thrilled about the price of admission but it ended up being worth it. The fans were probably the most enjoyable part of it all. It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a sporting activity with such excitable fans. I mean, these people were dressed up. Not just in team t-shirts but actually dressed up in costume almost. The team members themselves were dressed up as well. The roller derby, I found out, can be quite physical…there was always someone falling or being pushed or tripped. It was actually exciting to watch the teams skate around in a circle (almost as exciting as watching NASCAR cars drive around in circles). We found ourselves choosing a favorite team, cheering them on, and buying a team shirt before the night was over. Everyone mark your calendars for July 28th…the championship! Haha.

I should just have a standing reservation at the ER!

2007-03-01T11:10:00.000-06:00

I’ve blogged about this before but I always get injured doing stupid and/or embarrassing things. I’m never doing anything cool when I get hurt. For once I’d just like to have a good story to share when someone walks up and asks, “Hey…what happened to you?”

You might remember stories of past injuries. For example, my “sports injury” that resulted in a dislocated knee cap. Or the time I broke two of my toes when simply trying to walk to the bathroom shower. Or perhaps you heard about the time I was bitten by a poisonous spider in my sleep and I thought my arm was going to fall off. Oh…and I could never forget about the time that I slipped and fell in the rain and couldn’t get back up.

So to add to my ever-growing list, I have a new injury to tell you about. Tuesday night my roommate and I were working on getting our office set up at the house. I put together my new desk from IKEA (incidentally, I went to IKEA this past weekend and it turned out to be a very eventful and slightly dramatic trip. But I’ll save that for another blog post). After rearranging some furniture we decided to hang up some pictures. Earlier in the evening I noticed that one of the office chairs had a bent leg and I warned my roommate to be careful while using it. I did not heed my own warning, however, when I grabbed that same chair to stand on while I hung a picture. Suddenly I felt the leg of the chair buckle and I fell over backwards to the floor. I wish there was a video camera to capture my fall as I’m sure it was quite amusing. I don’t remember exactly how I landed but I ended up spraining both my elbow and wrist, bruising my leg badly and hitting my head on something leaving a huge knot.

Despite the fact that I could not move my arm without feeling excruciating pain AND having my fingers go numb and turn blue, I opted to take some ibuprofen, go to bed and see how it felt in the morning, Of course I was still in pain when I woke up. I also discovered that my morning routine was somewhat challenging and took a lot longer with only one arm. When I finally got in to see the doctor at 3pm the next day I was sent to the lab. I cried in the x-ray room because they made me move my arm and rotate my wrist a lot. They apparently didn’t appreciate the amount of pain I was in. Luckily, nothing was broken. The doctor gave me some pain meds and a very fashionable arm sling to wear for the next few days. Oh…and I traded cars with a friend of mine because my one-armed attempt at driving a stick shift didn’t turn out too well.

And these are the days of my life…

I'm glad this wasn't me...

2007-02-28T12:54:00.000-06:00

This happened yesterday near the intersection of 63rd & Western here in OKC. Someone who works at my company was stuck in this traffic and took pictures as he passed the car causing the problems. My favorite part is that the dude just seems to be sitting back and relaxing in his car. This just supports my theory about Oklahoma having all the bad drivers.

me vs. the mountain

2007-02-06T20:48:00.000-06:00

I like to keep life interesting. So this past weekend I tried something new…I went skiing. Now, I will admit to you that I grew up in Denver very near the mountains AND I lived in Portland, OR for several years just miles away from Mount Hood. In spite of these things I somehow went through life never learning to ski. I never knew what I was missing. Now I know.

Let me tell you about my weekend. We traveled to Monarch in southern Colorado. It was very cold. The high on Friday was something crazy like -6 or -8. It was freezing. Literally.

The first day I went to ski school with three other people from my group. It went well and I came out of it skiing with my toes pointed in. I couldn’t seem to break that habit all weekend. I practiced a bit more that afternoon and, after successfully making it down the easiest runs on the mountain, I was talked into going to the top and trying a blue run. The ride up on the ski lift was beautiful. I’m scared of heights so I was too afraid to dig in my pocket for my camera…I didn’t feel completely stable hanging from the wire and sitting with no seat belt on. So I just enjoyed the view while tightly gripping the bar next to me.

As we neared the top, I prepared myself to get off the lift. I had done this successfully several times on the bunny slope so I wasn’t too worried. This time was slightly different. I was getting off the lift and recognized the need to veer off to the side fairly quickly in order to avoid going over the edge and into a bunch of trees. I didn’t seem to be stopping so I tried to just sit down and stop myself that way. Somehow in the process of sitting I ended up face planting in the snow with my legs sprawled out behind me. It was like something that happens in cartoons. Pretty funny stuff!

The first part of the run was okay. I was a little nervous but seemed to be doing pretty well for a first timer. Then things got worse. All of the sudden it was really steep and narrow. I was scared and afraid of going too fast and losing control. Everything I did ended with me falling down in the snow. I was getting more and more frustrated and all I wanted to do was get off the mountain and rest in the safety of the lodge while sipping hot chai. It must have taken me an hour to get down to the lodge and I had snow in my pants by the time I made it there. I was done for the day…there was no way anybody would convince me to get back out there.

In all the excitement I must have managed to rip my ski pants because when I put them on the next morning there was rip down the seam…right in the crotch. Great! I couldn’t ski like that! It was cold and wet and I was bound to fall if I put ski’s on. That is not a place I wanted to risk getting frost bite. So I spent the better part of the day searching for a way to fix my pants. In all of the mountain, there was no needle and thread to be found! The next best thing…duct tape. It fixes everything, right? Well, the unfortunate location of the rip is not a place to have a strip of bright silver duct tape, especially when the pants are black. I felt this would be very inappropriate. I did, however, manage to get the duct tape in place and out of sight. Thanks to the duct tape, I was able to get back out there and ski on day three. For my own safety and the safety of all others on the mountain, I opted for a second round of lessons.

Skiing was quite the experience for me. It was a lot of fun and I made it back home in one piece. For now, I’m happy to be back to my normal daily activities in OKC. We’ll see what ski trip holds for me next year…

Bad boys, bad boys, Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

2007-01-19T23:52:00.000-06:00

I was robbed! No joke. My house was burglarized on Thursday evening. My roommate and I are victims of theft.

I got home around 5pm on Thursday after having picked up my car from the tire store. It’s crazy winter weather here and my tires were just not doing as well as they should so I treated my car to some new ones. I was already on edge when I got home because of having to deal with the people at the car place.

I went to stick my key in the door on the side of the house but noticed that it was ajar. My first thought was that maybe my roommate didn’t pull the door all the way shut and the wind had blown it open. As I stepped inside I could hear someone rummaging through stuff in the living room. So I yelled out and asked who was in my house. To my surprise, an unfamiliar male voice answered back. A few seconds later I could hear him grabbing some stuff and walking out the front door. So I stepped back outside through the side door and walked to the front of the house. I wanted to get a good look at him so I could call the police.

He was standing in my front yard with a laundry basket full of CD’s, DVD’s and some electronics. He also had a gym bag slung across his shoulder. He approached me and began to tell me that he thought this was his buddies house. He had come over to beat him up and steal his stuff. I immediately informed him that this was not his buddies house and it was, in fact, my stuff that he was stealing. He looked startled that I would say that and he set the laundry basket down on the ground and began to walk away. I yelled after him and asked if his gym bag was full of my stuff too. He quickly turned around and said he didn’t have anything else of mine and I could just call the cops if I didn’t believe him.

So I dialed 911 and had two cops at my house in a matter of minutes. The cops were very nice and stayed at the house for a few hours dusting for fingerprints and filling out reports. I don't think I would typically be that bold as to approach a burglar. Now that I think back on it he could have been armed and giving him attitude was probably not the smartest thing. But I got most of my stuff back and my roommate and I are both okay. This is one of my worst fears realized and I was really shaken up. It wasn’t quite the evening I had planned but I ended up with a good story to share. That’s how my life goes…dramatic and full of stories.

Ice storm hits the Midwest!

2007-01-14T13:24:00.000-06:00

The meteorologists predicted a big one and, for once, they were right. We have ice!! It started Friday afternoon and is still going strong. I left work around 1pm on Friday and hit the grocery store in anticipation of being stuck in my house all weekend. Apparently everyone else in the OKC metro area was doing the same thing. The check out lines were ridiculously long and there was barely anything left on the shelves. Shoppers looked like they were stocking up to be stuck in their house for a year. In my opinion everyone was going a little overboard. All I wanted was to get a few things so I could make a pot of chicken noodle soup. But, lo and behold, the grocery store was out of chicken broth. Ugh!

So it’s now Sunday afternoon and I’ve been in my house all weekend. Well, not really…I did leave the house last night and braved the icy roads. It wasn’t too bad. But I woke up this morning to thunder and more freezing rain so I’m sure the roads are much worse now. I’ve tried to keep myself busy with cleaning the house and tackling a few other projects. My biggest accomplishment this weekend has been building an armoire. I bought one to go in the living room and hold our TV. It was one of those do-it-yourself purchases. I’m pretty handy so I thought I could handle it. I did pretty well too but, after working on it, I’ve decided that I should purchase some power tools. I now have blisters on my right hand from the screwdriver. There were about 50 million screws on this thing and I had to turn every one of them by hand. I’m such a trooper!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Portland or bust!

2007-01-03T11:46:00.000-06:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to go home to Portland for a week over the holidays. I was able to spend Christmas and New Years with my family and I FINALLY got to meet my nephew Benjamin! It was a great vacation. Here are some pictures.

As you know I love NASCAR. I get made fun of for it all the time…especially from my family. When I got to my parents house on Christmas Eve what was there waiting for me? A NASCAR stocking for Santa to come and fill full of goodies.

Christmas day was spent with my family…

I also caught up with some old friends while I was home...

Happy New Year 2007!!!

"M" Day

2006-12-14T21:45:00.000-06:00

That stands for “moving” day. This weekend my agenda has only one task. MOVE! The time has come for me to leave the great city of Edmond, Oklahoma and move a few miles south to Oklahoma City.

I have lived in a house in Edmond for three years now. I have also lived with the roommates for that same amount of time. Contrary to rumors I have heard, nothing bad happened to make me decide to move. There was no falling out between the roommates and I. It’s simply time for a change. So this post is dedicated to the roommates: Jamie & Lindsy. I know you won’t miss me too much…just try and remember to lock the doors at night and turn off the oven and the stove before you leave the house. I won’t be there to double check that for you anymore. Haha.

Here are a few of my favorite memories…

- The time when Lindsy was making fun of us for being stupid and then she fell backwards off her chair.

- The time when we all three signed up to run a 5-mile race and Jamie promised to walk with me but dropped out at the last minute. I did my best to run it with Lindsy. Then she and I went to a movie later that day and I couldn’t move my legs after the movie was over.

- Roommate sushi night!

- Cooking classes at Francis Tuttle. The instructors little daughter sat next to us and Lindsy had to entertain her the whole time. I won’t even tell you what subject the two of them got on but it was really funny…and informative.

- The Olympic Wine Party. When Jamie and I heard Lindsy would be out of town we planned a big party. Haha. She missed out. But she was in Italy so I’m sure she got the better end of the deal.

- Watching three hours of crime drama TV shows with Lindsy and then being too scared to go to sleep that night.

So here’s to the roommates. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.

the pity cookies

2006-11-30T05:00:00.000-06:00

It’s been crazy around here and I seem to have taken an unscheduled blog hiatus. At this point, most everyone has heard about my trip so I’m going to skip over the rest and move on to something else. If you haven’t heard all my stories here’s a few of the activities you could have found me doing on the rest of my vacation…eating the best homemade tortillas ever in Progresso and then touring some Mayan ruins, snorkeling & kayaking in Cozumel, getting a hat made by a man who looked exactly like Johnny Depp (no joke), visiting a little establishment known as Senor Frogs, getting a body massage in the spa on the ship, playing dominoes on lido deck with my friends and nearly convincing another group of people to play “will it float” with us.

So now I find myself at the end of November. The holidays always bring some good stories because, somehow, it’s impossible for life to be normal this time of year. I stayed in OKC for Thanksgiving this year. I was ecstatic about the four day weekend and having the house to myself so I could relax and catch up on sleep. My grandparents live in town so I didn’t spend the holiday alone. Everything went smoothly all weekend and I made it through the holiday without incident.

As I was getting ready for dinner on Saturday the doorbell rang. I thought this was odd because most of my friends were out of town. For this reason I thought it would be okay to pretend that no one was home. BUT then I realized that my garage door was wide open so that wouldn’t work. When I answered the door I recognized my next door neighbors’ son. These are the neighbors to the east of us…the ones who planted ugly bushes in the grass to keep us from accidentally mowing the edge of their “fragile” grass. (That’s a good story if you haven’t heard it already). This boy likes my roommate Jamie or at least he used to. I can’t even tell you how many times he’s asked her out and been rejected. When I saw him I immediately smiled and said, “Sorry but Jamie’s not here.” But he stopped me as I was closing the door in his face and said he was here to see me. Ugh! He shoved a Tupperware full of cookies at me and said he and his family had noticed that my roommates’ cars were gone all weekend and I was home alone. They felt sorry for me so they brought me cookies to make me feel better. I thanked him for the thoughtful gift and explained that I did not spend Thanksgiving alone. He didn’t believe me and kept saying how sad it was that my roommates had abandoned me at this time of year. I felt so pathetic by the time he finished talking. I just laughed to myself after he left and gave the gift the official title of “pity cookies.”

Happy Halloween America! …and Mexico.

2006-11-09T00:21:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was our first full day at sea. I was beginning to get used to the swaying of the ship and the seasickness feeling was long gone. There were things to do and events to participate in all day. The casino was buzzing with people, there was live music and dancing on Lido deck, the art gallery was open and whatever was being served at the grill smelled delicious. In spite of all these great activities I chose to lay out in the sun. This is my view while sunbathing on the top deck…no land in sight. Does it get any better than this??

Since it was Halloween the dining room was casual attire. For dinner I had stuffed mushrooms, Caesar salad, grilled Salmon and some black forest cake thing for dessert. I could really get used to eating
this way! Once all the food was served the Maitre D’ grabbed the microphone, “It’s Ssssssshhhhowtime!” The music started, the lights flickered and all the dining room staff stopped working and started dancing. As you can see, Elaina got right up there and danced with our waiter Vladimir.

After dinner it was time to get ready for the Halloween party. We all dressed up as magnetic poetry. Now, that may sound like a dumb idea to you. But, let me assure you, our costumes were a hit. The words were velcro'd on to our shirts and people were coming up to us all night and moving the words around. We didn’t win best costume but there was some pretty tough competition. Later there was live music on the deck and we danced the night away under the stars. No Halloween is ever going to live up to this one.

p.s. We also discovered that you can’t do “I’m king of the world” like Leo DiCaprio on Titanic because that deck is for staff only. I was really disappointed as that was one picture I’d been planning to take ever since I booked the cruise months ago.

The “FUN” ship

2006-11-05T22:13:00.000-06:00

I’m sure everyone is wondering how the cruise went. Let me start by saying that, yes, the vacation only got better after our eventful day driving down to Galveston last Sunday. There are way too many stories to share in one post so I’m going to have to break it down by day.

Monday Oct. 30, 2006

Monday was a fairly uneventful day. The first thing we did once we boarded the ship was head straight to the diner for lunch. I’ll probably be talking a lot about the food because it was so amazing. We couldn’t go to our room for a few hours so we walked around and gave ourselves a little tour of the ship. Here’s a great view from one of the top decks at night…

Before we set sail all the passengers were required to participate in an emergency drill. We put on our life jackets and walked in a single file line to one of the outside decks. When the alarm sounded I yelled out, “WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!” That got a few chuckles from the other passengers and some annoyed looks from the staff. I’m sure they hear that a lot.

After the land was out of view I started with the Dramamine. The waters seemed turbulent and seasickness was imminent. At dinner that night I was introduced to some of the most amazing food I have ever eaten. After my fabulous appetizer and salad I ate Snapper as my entrée. For dessert…warm chocolate melting cake. Meal time will never be the same. Also at dinner we met Vladimir our waiter. He was one of my favorite people on the cruise and came to be known as Vlady Daddy, Vlado or V-Dawg.

Stay tuned for the next post...Tuesday - the Halloween party!

Light up and drive!

2006-10-29T22:18:00.000-06:00

I’m writing this post as a way to release some pent up aggression I’m feeling toward the city of Houston, Texas. As you may our may not know I am about to embark upon a 5-day cruise to Mexico with a group of friends. We’ve been on the road most of the day driving down to Galveston which is were our ship leaves from. This is how our trip has gone so far…

Day 1
• Leave OKC at 10am.
• Arrive at Winstar Casino on the Oklahoma/Texas border at noon (just a quick bathroom break and maybe a few dollars in the slot machines).
• Two hours later and three times richer we hit the road again.

The rest of our trip requires more explanation than bullet points can provide. Once in Dallas we made what was supposed to be a quick stop at Wal-mart. We called in an allergy prescription from the road and were told our wait would be about 20 minutes. TWO HOURS LATER and stressed out beyond belief we finally left Wal-mart. (FYI…do not use the Wal-mart pharmacy in Lewisville).

The next leg of the trip took us into Houston. I HATE HOUSTON!!!! I didn’t know I hated Houston until I drove there. Everybody in Houston is crazy! You’re either driving 90 mph or slamming on your brakes. The signs on the side of the road that say “left lane for passing only” mean nothing to people in this city. And for the girl in the red Ford Mustang…it’s illegal to smoke pot and drive! I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. Maybe being high takes some of the edge of driving on the same road as Houstonians. I was sure that my life was going to end on the Houston freeway.

We made it safely through Houston only by the grace of God and then headed toward Galveston. It took just as long to find our hotel as it did to calm my nerves down. I was looking forward to a nice bed and a place to relax. Little did I know that relaxation was not in the cards for me. There are six of us (3 guys, 3 girls) and we reserved two rooms. The rooms we reserved were supposed to have two beds each. The guys got what they requested but the girls did not. So tonight I will be sharing one bed with two other girls.

Our ship leaves the port tomorrow. I hope this vacation can go nowhere but up from here.

these are a few of my favorite things...

2006-10-27T00:56:00.000-05:00

There are two things that make me love this time of year: Candy Corn & Pumpkin carving!

I am addicted to candy corn. There I said it. I love it and I can’t stop myself from eating it. As much as I try to hide from it I just can’t ignore it during this time of year. Luckily this is a problem that only rears its ugly head one month out of the year. During this month of temptation I have a support system of friends who try to keep it away from me.

I also love carving pumpkins. My inner child needs to be entertained around Halloween. I recently spent an evening carving pumpkins and drinking hot apple cider out on the front porch with a group of friend. Can you think of anything better to do in the fall?

These are our creations…

How many college graduates does it take to assemble a computer desk?

2006-10-16T21:31:00.000-05:00

Three…the answer is three. It took my two friends and I three hours to put together one of those ready-to-assemble desks with the pre-drilled holes.

I should be embarrassed about this. I should be too ashamed to share this story with you. But instead I’m amused at the fact that three people, all possessing bachelor’s degrees, can exceed the approximate assembly time by a few hours.

We were in Branson, MO and staying with my friends grandparents. In an effort to be helpful we offered to assemble a new desk for Grandpa’s office. The box was unpacked and the pieces were laid out on the floor. With the 18-page instruction booklet in hand we began to piece together the desk. A project we thought would maybe take an hour.

Now some of the blame should fall on the shoulders of the person who wrote the instruction manual. A few of the steps were in a very illogical order and required us to attach a piece only to take it off later and then re-attach. Most of the blame, however, falls on us.

Over the course of our three hour ordeal we had many distractions. Of course we had to take time to tell jokes and laugh at ourselves. We had to play with the pieces and make fun of the instructions. We also had several visitors pop in to see how we were doing and take pictures of our creation in its various stages.

We were so proud of the finished product. Our blood, sweat and tears went into that desk and we called everyone into the room to look in awe at our accomplishment. All they could see, however, was the door that was on crooked, the desk drawers that didn’t shut correctly and the keyboard tray that had been screwed on backwards. No matter how hard you try you just can’t please everyone. Haha. So it took a few more minutes to make adjustments and fix our errors.

After we sat down and evaluated our work we all decided not to quit our day jobs. We’ll leave future desk assembly for the professionals.

Rowing. It's the next big thing.

2006-10-01T23:18:00.000-05:00

I have the greatest friends in the world! Over the weekend I participated in a rowing competition downtown. Everyone at the competition could hear my cheering section. It was like I had my own little following. Who knew the sport of rowing could be so exciting?

This is how the race went down…

I bragged and bragged about how good my team was. In my mind, we were going to win the competition and I was going to leave with a gold medal around my neck. Oh how wrong I was.

I completely blame our humiliating loss on whoever was in charge. The night of the race the boathouse was short one CoxBox. The Coxswain is the person who sits at the stern, steers the boat and directs the rowers. The CoxBox is an amplifier they use so that the team can hear the instructions. Without that, we could hear nothing including the “attention, go!” signaling the start of the race. We were all paddling at different rates and our boat was rocking from side to side. Half way through the race, two people on my team caught a crab…meaning their oars dug deep into the water and wouldn’t come out. At this point, the boat rocked dramatically to the right side and I braced myself to be thrown into the nasty, fishy water. As I pulled up on my oar to try and help with balance my seat popped out! That can happen? I had no idea. I couldn’t get my seat back in place and keep a good grip on my oar at the same time and I could hear the girl behind me laughing hysterically. So instead, I left the seat out and sat flat on the bottom of the boat. That’s when our boat turned and started rowing sideways across the lanes instead of heading toward the finish line. I could hear the announcer tell our team to get back in the lane. Duh! Do you think we were rowing the wrong direction just for the fun of it all?? Once we finally got things together and pointed our boat in the right direction we were dead last. It was embarrassing to row across the finish line so far behind the other teams. But I could hear my cheering section yelling, “Go Krista!” So I just waved and hollered back at them.

Well, I promised my friends some entertainment and that is what I provided. The race wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting if my team would have just rowed in a straight line and won the race. Better luck next time…

“Hey! Let’s not turn this into a midway or carnival!”

2006-09-25T08:21:00.000-05:00

Oh…the state fair. It’s hard to put into the words the awesomeness (is that even a word??) of the state fair so I’m going to give you some pictures to look at instead. The title of this post comes from a sales guy at the chair massage booth. I guess he was not happy with the fact that I used the massager on my friends head instead of his back. So he grabbed it from my hands and, right before he kicked me out of his booth, he exclaimed, “Hey, let’s not turn this into a midway or carnival!” I really fought back the urge to fill him in on the fact that he was at the state fair so it was already a carnival.

This year I went to the fair with two of my favorite people and our first stop was the Bowling for Soup concert. I’m sure you’ve heard of them…they’re great. I’m probably their oldest fan as they seem to mostly appeal to junior high kids. This is me at the concert and, as you can see, I really got into it.

Our next stop was to see the world’s smallest woman. Mr. T and I went to check it out. I thought it would be a hoax but, yes, she was real. It was kind of sad to see someone on display like that…I didn’t know they still did that at the fair.

Next, we hit the rides. I’m terrified of heights so I wouldn’t let the boys drag me on the high rides. We were standing in line for one called Fire Ball but as soon as I saw what it did I was out. I’ll admit that my fear of heights is a little out of hand but I’d much rather stay on the ground. So we rode the Polar Express. I’ve always known the ride to be called the Matterhorn but whatever…

We closed out the night with some good ole fried dessert. It's the State Fair so you have to eat fried food. It's a rule. mmm....fried oreos. They look gross but actually weren’t that bad. However, I don’t plan on making them a regular part of my diet.

In between all of these activities we put in a lot of good people watching. I saw a lot of big hair, mullets, cut-off shorts and several other fashion faux pas. Gotta love the fair!

row, row, row your boat

2006-09-20T22:51:00.000-05:00

This will be me next weekend at the Head of the Oklahoma Regatta. My position is in the middle of the boat…seat 5 to be exact.

I’ve had several opportunities to participate in various things through my job. You may remember that I played on a dodge ball team earlier in the year. I’m always willing to give things a try so when I got an email about the rowing team I did not hesitate to sign up. It’s actually been a lot of fun and a great source of exercise.

The skill level required for rowing is not very high (which is probably why I’ve taken to the sport). It’s very relaxing and only requires a certain amount of coordination and flexibility. Sometimes, however, the coordination is a little lacking on my part. During practice a few weeks ago I almost fell out of the boat. My oar dug deep into the water and swung around so fast that I thought for sure I was going in. And let me tell you…the Oklahoma River is not the cleanest so falling in is something I’m trying hard to avoid.

So if you’re around next weekend you should come out and watch me race. I have a feeling that my team will do pretty well. That or I’ll fall out of the boat. Either way…it promises to be entertaining.

Fish Wedding

2006-09-17T22:44:00.000-05:00

It’s funny to think about the things I have done to keep myself entertained. My college years are full of odd stories involving events that happened while I tried to entertain myself on an extremely limited budget and a small amount of sleep. The fish wedding is one such story.

I was the proud of owner of two fish. Russell was a goldfish I bought my junior year. I named him after the Wal-mart employee who got him out of the fish tank for me. Shenequah was a goldfish I bought my senior year to keep Russell company. I named her after…well, I don’t think there was reason behind the name. Russell & Shenequah lived together in their bowl. During the first few months things seemed to be going well in their relationship. However, because of my conservative views on living together and marriage, I decided that the fish needed to get married. It was probably one of those silly things that I came up with late one night when talking to my friends. Little did I know that this event would actually take place.

I shared my silly idea with my roommates and three of my good guy friends. It was 2am one weekday morning and I was in my apartment with my roommates. (Note the time of day…no good decisions are made after 2 o’clock in the morning). Three of us were up studying and one was already in bed. This was the night the guys decided that my wedding dreams would come true. I answered a knock on the door and there stood Nick with his guitar, Corey with his bible, and Matt in his graduation gown. It was wedding time! We got out the laptop and downloaded some wedding music. One of my roommates was put in charge of videography (and, yes, I still have the video and watch it whenever I need a good laugh). One of my roommates was the flower girl and another roommate was the photographer. She wasn’t too happy because she had been woken up for this impromptu wedding.

The ceremony started. I was the father of the bride so I walked down the hallway of my apartment (step…pause…step…pause) with my fishbowl in hand. We had the scripture reading and the vows and then ended with a song played on the guitar. I believe it was He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (which was the only song Nick knew how to play at the time). Throughout the whole event we were laughing so hard that there were practically tears. After the ceremony we sent the two love birds…or love fish…off on their honeymoon. They left to the tune of Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye. The two of them lived happily ever after until they were taken from this world and given a proper burial and funeral ceremony around the toilet.

I should probably be embarrassed to admit to this. If I would have put half the energy into studying that I put into doing silly things with my friends I would have flown right through college.

playing mommy

2006-09-09T20:10:00.000-05:00

For the most part, I can handle kids. I have a brother who’s ten years younger than me. Between him and other kids, I’ve done my fair share of babysitting. However, the day I turned 16 I started applying for jobs. My babysitting days were over. Now that I’m in my twenties it seems that many of my friends are having kids. So, although I’ve only officially been an aunt for a few weeks, I became Aunt Krista several years ago.

A good friend of mine here has two kids ages one and three. One day last week she called me for a favor. Her husband was out of town and something had come up with work. She needed me to pick her kids up from daycare and hang out with them for the evening. Sure…no problem. Her kids love me so this would be a piece of cake!

Not so much.

First of all, picking up someone else’s kids from daycare is harder than getting through security at an airport. I’ve never had to show my identification so many times. I am one of the emergency contacts on their paperwork so I was allowed to take them. However, I had to go through several people in order to do so. That’s good news to parents with kids in daycare…but it was a pain in the butt for me.

Second of all, you almost have to be a rocket scientist these days to figure out how to properly buckle in a car seat. Good grief. It was like a puzzle that took forever to solve.

Third of all, cooking dinner with two kids under foot and nobody else to help is quite a challenge. I had a one year old in my arms and a three year old right next to me dying to help out. I had to keep one eye on the kids to make sure they stayed away from the hot stove and one eye on the food. I could have used a few more eyes but I was all out. Macaroni & cheese and green beans…a staple in almost every kids diet.

After dinner was play time and then bed time. I had to rock the baby and read a bedtime story to the other one. I had a blast with the kids but by the end of the night I was wiped out. I don’t think I’m ready for kids any time soon. For now, I’ll just stick with my role as Aunt Krista.

Automotive Personality

2006-09-04T22:55:00.000-05:00

I’ve always thought that naming your car was just something guys did. One of those weird things I never really understood or even cared that much about. I only know of one, maybe two, girls who have taken it upon themselves to assign a name to their vehicle. So I recently decided to change that.

My roommate Jamie is one of the rare females with a name for her car. She calls it Betty. Betty the Buick. I honestly don’t know the story behind the name but I think it’s funny nonetheless.

I own a black Nissan Sentra. The Nissan drove around nameless until a little less than a year ago. I was on my way home from work when a small dog ran out into the middle of the road. The speed limit was 50 mph so stopping was almost impossible since I had a car following me very closely. There was also a car next to me so swerving was out of the question. Sadly, I hit the dog. From that day on my car has been known as Killer. Despite the name, the dog did not die. He was only injured and will probably remain handicapped for the rest of his life. It was a sad day for me. I cried.

I have also taken it upon myself to assign names to the cars of three of my friends. My friend Mandy owns a purple Beretta. I call it The Purple Wonder. As in, I “wonder” why this thing is still running. Terra owns a Crown Victoria that looks just like an old police car so I call it Sergeant. My friend Mel’s car was only named last weekend. It was the car that took us to Dallas for our wild weekend of shopping (and the agonizing baseball game). We were part of a caravan most of the weekend and ended up following a car with a butterfly decal on the back. Therefore, I named Mel’s car Aurelia.

So, even though I still think it’s slightly strange, I have named my car. Sometimes cars just show personality or character and have to be named.

It may be America’s favorite pastime but it’s not mine!

2006-08-27T20:16:00.000-05:00

I learned something about myself this weekend. I learned that I hate baseball. I always knew that I disliked baseball, however, this past weekend dislike turned to hate.

It may have been the 105 degree temperatures. It could have been the 2 miles I walked in that heat before the game. It’s possible that it was the gross food I ate beforehand at a restaurant with not enough a/c. Or it could have been the fact that I was sitting on a metal bench surrounded by hundreds of people so far away from the diamond that I couldn’t even see which team was at bat. Whatever the reason, I will never again tell myself that I want to go watch a baseball game.

I drove down to Dallas with a group of friends on Saturday to go to a Rangers game. It wasn’t the baseball game that enticed me to go to Dallas but rather the shopping. I had big plans to hit up IKEA, Sam Moon, Crate & Barrel and wherever else I thought I could do some damage. I viewed the game as a small sacrifice to make for my weekend of shopping fun.

Small sacrifice….ha! What was I thinking? First, we decided to park near the field before dinner and then eat somewhere close by. So we parked. Then we realized the nearest restaurant was more far than near. And we walked. Did I mention how hot it was?? Once we got to the restaurant it seemed as though the a/c was struggling. I had a menu in each hand fanning myself. I almost started crying when they sat me at a table right in the sun. After dinner we headed back to the ballpark only to sit on a metal bench for the next few hours. I really didn’t pay attention to the game much at all. Mostly I talked to the people around me. At one point I had to excuse myself and go to the gift shop so I could cool down. Toward the end it looked like our team had a chance to win. However, the game was almost over and if they scored another run we’d have to go into a 10th inning. So I started cheering for the other team. I was willing to see our team lose in order to end the game so I could go back the motel. Sadly (or happily…whichever way you view it) they did lose and I was able to leave.

The shopping was great though and, for the most part, made up for the misery of the game. I also had a blast with the group of people that I went down with. I laughed a lot and came back with some great stories.

Where do you mingle when you’re single?

2006-08-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

I’ve always heard “dating experts” say that the grocery store is a great place to meet people. When I hear this, my usual response is to scoff at their advice and continue on with my day. I hate grocery shopping! I loathe grocery stores and cringe at the thought of going there. When I decide to make that dreaded trip to the store I make sure I know exactly what I want so I can get in and out as quickly as possible. Why would I want to meet someone at a grocery store? There’s always parents there with whiny children, people pushing shopping carts around in the same careless manner that they drive their cars, and pre-teen employees that are more into flirting with their coworkers than doing their jobs. That sounds like an awful place to meet someone new.

Well, my friends, I’m here to tell you that meeting someone at a grocery store is entirely possible. Before you jump to conclusions, my experience was not that great and I’m not falling head over heels for some random person I met while buying milk. But it wasn’t for lack of trying…on his part.

I was at a local grocery store buying a few staple items on my way home from work. As I was mulling over which brand of milk to buy I was approached by Larry. He seemed like a nice enough guy so I humored him by answering his questions as I continued shopping. I guess Larry wanted to move the conversation along when he asked me, “Is it true what they say about redheads?” Well, Larry, I don’t know. What do they say about redheads? At this point he started rambling off a list of things. I only caught a few of them. But one of the phrases he threw out there caught me by surprise. I just laughed, said it was nice to meet him and walked away. The conversation was not going in a direction I wanted to take it. He didn’t let me walk away that easily but eventually gave up. I walked out with a smirk on my face feeling good that I had an interesting story to share about going to the grocery store.

I’m still convinced that there’s got to be better places to meet people than the grocery store.

The Sisters I Never Had

2006-08-13T22:26:00.000-05:00

I grew up with brothers. I don’t think I would have survived growing up with sisters. I’m pretty sure that my mother and I were all the females our household could handle. This worried me a bit when I went off to college because I’d never had to share a room or deal with living under the same roof as other girls. So I prayed for patience and understanding. And, as an answer to my prayer (and proof that God has a sense of humor), I ended up living with these girls.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But these girls ended up becoming like the sisters I never had. We graduated from college a little over three years ago and this past weekend we all came back together in OKC for a little roommate reunion. It was fun reminiscing about old times. They weren’t always fun times though. Like the time that Brandie decided to call a “roommate meeting.” That didn’t go over too well and ended with all of us yelling at each other. Or the times when we all needed to be in the bathroom getting ready at the same time. Mornings were not good in our apartment.

We had fun too. Like the time we had a water gun fight in our living room. Yep…our couch was wet for a few days after that. Or the time that I taped saran wrap across the doorway of the other bedroom and Ashley walked right into it when she woke up the next morning. We played a lot of practical jokes! Oh…and I can’t forget the time we had the fish wedding. That’s a story in itself though and I will save that one for another blog.

I’m sure glad that I’m not in college anymore. But it’s always fun to get together and talk about the things that happened back then.

just call me Auntie Krista

2006-08-07T17:33:00.000-05:00

So...finally after a few weeks of "any day now!" he has finally arrived. My nephew Benjamin James was born this morning! This is the only picture I have so far and it was sent to me via camera phone. I have to keep reminding myself that I live half way across the country so an immediate mailbox full of pictures is out of the question. haha. Congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law!

The Family that Runs Together, Stays Together

2006-08-02T00:13:00.000-05:00

My family has a unique tradition. Once a year we get together and run a 5k race. It’s our form of a family reunion and a fun way for us all to get together and do something active. Then, afterwards, we sit around and complain about how tired and out of shape we are. The tradition was started by my grandparents back in 1981 and has been carried on ever since.

This year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our run. It was a big deal. We had people in town from all over the country. Our story even made it into two newspapers. I spent the entire weekend with my extended family and I’m exhausted. There were some points when I was a little worried about the fact that I’m related to some of these people…but it was fun nonetheless. Haha.

My brother won the race! I ran and finished in good time….I cheated just slightly. I guess it’s hard to take a short cut and not get caught when you’re wearing the same bright lime green shirt that everyone else is wearing. I’m sure I’ll be hearing about it for years to come.

101 days and counting…

2006-07-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

I’m going on 5-day cruise to Mexico. We depart at the end of October and have been promised a great Halloween party on board. I love having something like this to look forward to! Everything seems to be falling into place and some of my favorite people are coming with me. It’s going to be so much fun. I’m giddy with excitement just thinking about it.

Earlier this week I was thinking that it’s about time for a vacation. I have worked the last 10 days in a row and put in over 80 hours of my time. That may not sound like much compared to some of your work schedules but I’m burnt out. Mexico is just what the doctor ordered.

The pressure is on to find a great Halloween costume so please let me know if you have any ideas.

Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years

2006-07-15T23:45:00.000-05:00

In the second show of the season, the roommate and I went and saw Fiddler on the Roof. I’m pretty sure that every high school, college and community theater group has performed this musical at some point. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen it. But I love the story and I love the music even more!

This excursion downtown was not quite as eventful as last time. Nobody yelled at us during intermission or tried to scam us out of five bucks on the street. However, I can’t seem to do anything without coming back with some sort of story. It keeps life interesting.

We parked across the street from the police station this time so there would be no chance of someone trying to scam us. If you live in this part of the country then you know how hot it’s been lately. It’s been about 500 degrees here with 1000% humidity. That’s a slight exaggeration but I’m not far off. So our short walk to the theater was actually a little excruciating and walking into an air conditioned building never felt so good.

During the middle of the first half of the show Lindsy fell asleep. She’ll deny this but it has to be true. One second she was leaning back in the seat looking relaxed and the next second she jumped forward and kicked her leg out. Hmm…doesn’t that sound like she was sleeping and had one of those falling dreams? It was hard not to laugh. Then, during intermission, the couple on my right threw an M&M at me. Who throws M&M’s at a musical? Classy people…real classy!

The second half of the show seemed to be going well and I thought we would make it through without incident. Have you ever been in an audience and found something particularly funny only to realize you’re the only person laughing? That’s me. I vividly remember the exact line from the show that set me off. I’ve been told that when I’m struck by something funny my laugh can be somewhat loud. I, however, like to refer to it as a big, appreciative laugh. And there I was…the only one laughing. Laughing really loud. Good thing the show was almost over.

Next up…Godspell. I’ve heard that the show will be like Cirque and have been promised aerial acrobatics.

MISSING: GREEN PLANT

2006-07-11T00:05:00.000-05:00

You may remember my theory about a conspiracy against me at work. If not, you may need to click here to go back and read about it.

(not actual picture of my plant but very close likeness)

I had finally gotten over my paranoia that someone at the office was out to get me. I had come to terms with the fact that I was simply going crazy and nobody was trying to set my office on fire or kill my plant. But now, I realize that I was right all along...

I had a long weekend over this past 4th of July holiday and I wanted to make sure that my plant didn't die while I was gone. It's special to me because I got it at my uncles’ funeral several months ago. My office does not have an outside window (I'm still a few promotions away from that). So I decided to move my plant to another office to be near a window for the weekend. It needed some sunlight while I was gone. A coworker of mine also did this so our plants could keep each other company. Great idea! I'm so starting to get my green thumb!

Well, I had a great weekend and reluctantly went back to work the following Wednesday. As I walked in, I was only looking forward to checking in on my plant and bringing it back to its rightful place in my office. I walked straight to the office where I had left it...and it was gone! SOMEONE STOLE MY PLANT! My coworkers’ plant was still there but not mine. Of all the things someone could have taken, why my plant? There's a huge stack of cd's in the office down the hall from mine. Surely those are more valuable.

I guess I should just suck it up and get over it. It’s a plant. It’s replaceable. But still, it’s the principle of the thing.

Happy Birthday America!!

2006-07-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. It tops my list...even above my birthday and Christmas. I cram as much fun and excitement into this holiday as possible. This year, our country's 230th birthday, was no exception. It was off to the lake for the weekend and then back into town for a big 4th of July bash.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Let's see how much these pictures are worth...

the party...

2006-07-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

Tale as old as time…

2006-06-30T00:19:00.000-05:00

My roommate and I bought season tickets the civic center. Our first show was last night: Beauty and the Beast. It was a great show and far exceeded my expectations. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the almost 3-hour duration of the show.

As exciting as it was, most of the evenings’ excitement was not contained within the stage production. It all started when we were trying to park. In order to avoid paying $10 for parking we chose a spot along one of the nearby streets. After Lindsy parallel parked (which was quite a challenge for her) we noticed a random guy walking toward the vehicle. Lindsy locked the doors but I rolled down my window to see what he wanted. He proceeded to inform us that it would be $5 to park on the street and we could just pay him. I stared him down and, with attitude that we all know I can give; I looked at him and said, “You’re trying to charge us to park on the street?” He replied, “Well…uh…maybe this spot is free.” Then he turned around and walked away. I give him credit for coming up with a creative idea to scam people out of their money but these girls were not falling for it!

Once inside we asked directions to our seats and sat down. We were very involved in reading actor bios and pointing out all the cute guys in the show when an usher came and asked to see our tickets. Apparently we had been directed to the wrong seats and needed to move to the other side of the auditorium. No problem. As we were exiting the row I looked at the ladies whose seats we had stolen and apologized. One of them gave me a dirty look and exclaimed, “You tried to steal our seats!” How rude!

Wow…the night was off to a great start so far! During intermission I looked at my cell phone and noticed I had received a text message. I opened up my phone to respond to the message when I heard one of the ushers start to yell at me. “Excuse me miss! You didn’t have that phone turned on during the show did you?” At this point, everyone was staring at Lindsy and me. I took a deep breath and gave myself a quick little pep talk in being polite and responded by simply saying, “No, ma’am.” Then she gave me one of those looks that says I think you’re lying to me and I’m going to watch you like a hawk from now on. Sheesh! Since when is it not okay to check your phone during intermission?

I can’t wait to see what the next show holds for us. And just think…the weird people sitting next to us had season tickets also. We get to sit next to them every time!

The armpit of Oklahoma

2006-06-28T22:29:00.000-05:00

I have come to the conclusion that Tahlequah is the armpit of Oklahoma. The city stinks…literally. I went floating down the Illinois River this weekend with a group from church and camped out at one of the resorts nearby. And by resort I mean stinky, dirty cabin infested by June bugs. I apologize if I’ve just offended anyone by my comments but seriously! There is sulfur in the water that stunk so bad I couldn’t bear to take a shower or brush my teeth.

Don’t get me wrong…I had a blast. But every redneck in this part of the country seemed to be on that river this weekend. I came back with a few stories that I’d like to share with you….

• I was the navigator in a van full of people and we managed to get lost on our way to the resort…twice! Sorry guys.

• I had a run in with a tree sticking out of the river. I thought I was going under but my friends saved me.

• There were a few rafts full of people smoking pot. It’s still illegal on the river people!

• A rather large man wearing women’s bikini bottoms was standing on the bank of the river. He felt it appropriate to hoot and holler at us and then moon us. I’ve never rowed as hard as I did trying to get away from him!

• The topless lady. I don’t have much to say about her except gross! I hope she used sunscreen because that sunburn would really suck.

• A random guy with a huge beer bong jumped on my friends raft. He even grabbed a paddle and helped them row a bit. It was very amusing to witness because nobody quite new what to do about him. He eventually jumped off the raft after one of the girls asked him to please stop swearing.

I’m happy to be back in OKC where people are “normal.” I never thought that sentence would come out of my mouth.

Disconnected

2006-06-25T16:34:00.000-05:00

Our internet has been down for a week now. You never know how much you rely on something until you no longer have it. I’m going crazy not having access to my email or blogger. Normally, in a situation like this, I would just get online at the office whenever I have some downtime at work. However, my company gives their employees very strict and limited access to the internet. I can get on the local news site and that’s about it. So I’m sitting here with my roommates’ laptop using the wireless network of the University down the road.

I have had to call the customer service department of our internet service provider several times in the past week. Each time I call I’m a little more irritated with them by the end of the conversation. After several phone calls, headaches and one service call to our house it has been decided that my modem is to blame. Apparently it has reached the end of its short two-year life span and I have to purchase a new one.

The other night I was on hold for an hour and was getting more and more upset as the time passed. I knew that if I had to listen to the awful elevator music for much longer I was going to lose it. When the gentleman finally picked up the line again and gave me news I didn’t want to hear I was very short and rude to him and instantly regretted it. This person did nothing wrong to me. The only thing he is guilty of is working for a company that I am no longer fond of. I started thinking about my attitude towards customer service employees. It must be very hard to go to work everyday and sit on the phone with upset customers. I know I’m not the only customer who gets upset when dealing with issues like this. For now, I will have to work on my attitude and patience in situations like this. Hopefully the next time I have deal with this will be a long, long time from now.

self-evaluation

2006-06-21T23:56:00.000-05:00

Recently, I have found myself in several different situations that have made me sit back and think. Think about life. Think about the person I am. Think about the person I want to be. This is out of character for me. I am not usually one to take the time to step back and reflect on things.

This evening I found myself in a conversation with a friend regarding this very subject. He brought up a few interesting points that I hadn’t thought of and it made me think some more. Lately I have been feeling out of my element and even a little homesick. The last time I was homesick was when I left home for my freshman year of college. I cried and my parents threw a party because they finally had their first kid out of the house. That was awhile ago.

Tonight, however, I had the most refreshing evening. I was almost home when a friend called me out of the blue to just hang out and talk. I haven’t seen or talked to this person in quite some time so I accepted the invitation. I didn’t know it at the time but that was something I really needed. I was able to sit down and relax with a person who knows me really well and just be myself. We laughed at old memories…we discussed serious topics…we caught up on each others lives. It got me to thinking that maybe I’ve just been trying too hard. I will be the first to admit that I’m a high strung person. Getting caught up in the excitement of things is not unusual for me and, as a result, I’ve done and/or said a few things that were probably not the best.

It’s at time like this when it’s great to have good friends. Friends to bring you down a few notches and help you see your mistakes. Friends who will call you out of the blue just to chat. Friends to laugh and cry with you. And friends who make you sit back and evaluate your life.

Dragon boat racing champions!!

2006-06-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

This weekend was the first annual Riverfest here in OKC. I volunteered to work for a little while but then I hung out and enjoyed the festival with friends. A few of us decided to join in on the dragon boat races. We learned the proper way to row and had a race with another team. We won! After several hours in the blazing Oklahoma sun I came out a dragon boat racing champion and a sunburn victim. I was stupid and failed to apply an adequate amount of sunscreen to my skin. I’ll have to lay low this week and let it heal. This weekend was just the first of three weekends in a row that I will be spending large amounts of time outside in the sun.

On the left is me and the girls getting ready to push of the dock and join the races. The picture on the right is the front of one of the dragon boats. Dragon boat racing is one of the fastest growing team water sports. Anyone can do it…it seems to require little skill and it is almost impossible to tip the boat.

The art of relaxation

2006-06-11T16:48:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was almost more than I could handle. That makes me feel old. I volunteered at the deadCENTER film festival and was able to participate in the parties and film viewings all weekend. I met tons of people and even got a picture with and autograph from one of the directors who came to OKC to show his film. I had so much fun and was busy doing something all weekend.

When it was all over I went home and crashed. After doing my best to catch up on my sleep I felt compelled to get a massage. I didn’t do it but it really sounded like a good idea. I’ve never experienced the pleasure of a body massage before. I’m almost afraid to get one because I know I’ll love it and become addicted. As a substitute, I decided to give my head a massage instead. I have the most wonderful head massaging tool. It’s not really mine…I borrowed (or stole) it from a friend and it’s made itself at home with me. It’s the most amazing thing and I highly recommend that you try it. It's a great, inexpensive way to relax after a long weekend.

manliness

2006-06-08T01:02:00.000-05:00

Several years ago I was having a discussion with a friend. I don’t remember the subject matter of the conversation but, after making a comment that may have been slightly out of character for a girl, my friend said, “You’re kind of manly, aren’t you?” He said it jokingly and it’s been an inside joke ever since. I have a small complex as a result of that conversation but it doesn’t really bother me. I’m not sure if this friend would say that same thing about me now as my "girliness" has increased quite a bit over the years. More than anything though, I just think it’s funny. I, myself, even bring it up from time to time for a good laugh.

Yesterday something happened that made me go back to that conversation. I got an email invitation to a Bachelor party. As a woman, there are a few things I never expected to experience. Going to a bachelor party is one of them. Maybe my lot in life is to just be “one of the guys.” The groom-to-be is a good friend of mine and I'm not the only female that received an invitation. However, I'm not sure I want to find out what goes on at Bachelor parties (though I'm fairly certain I already know). I may just sit this one out.

fun house

2006-06-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

My roommates were gone last week. I enjoy having the house to myself but I hate being home alone at night. My imagination gets the best of me and I get spooked and can’t sleep. This last week, however, I did really well. I was able to talk myself into going to sleep every night without any problems. There was only one weird thing that happened while they were gone…

I never answer our house phone when it rings. The only people that ever call the house are my roommates’ parents. Since I know the phone isn’t for me I simply don’t answer it. I know that sounds rude but if the roommates aren’t at the house they can be reached on their cell so I don’t worry about it. While they were gone on vacation our phone rang off the hook. I thought it was weird since they were on vacation with their family. Surely they wouldn’t be calling to check up on me. So I decided to answer the phone. The caller on the other end said, “Yes, hello. Is this Frontier City?” Uh…I know our house is fun but it’s no amusement park! I hung up on the caller. But the phone kept ringing and every time it was someone calling Frontier City. I decided to investigate and looked the number up in the phone book. It does have a striking similarity to our phone number. I really hope people start to dial correctly. If I get many more phone calls I may just start pretending that they have, in fact, called Frontier City and have a little fun with it.

guilty pleasures

2006-05-30T06:33:00.000-05:00

I love pedicures! This time of year I just can't get enough of them. I believe that everyone should indulge themselves and pamper their feet from time to time. For me, it’s not about getting my toenails painted a pretty color. It’s about soaking my feet in a tub of warm water with jets, the exfoliating foot scrub and the foot and leg massage. And the best part…sitting in the huge massage chair and feeling so relaxed that I could fall asleep. After an hour at the salon my feet (and the rest of my body) feel rejuvenated. Last summer I would get a pedicure at least once every two weeks. A coworker and I would take a long lunch and go to the salon. This summer, so far, I’m doing better. Monday I had my first pedicure of the summer and it’s already the end of May!

I would also like to point out the fact that there were two men at the salon getting a pedicure while I was there. I have never been able to convince a guy to go get a pedicure. What is this strange fear that men have of going to the salon for a pedicure? Everyone should try it at least once. But beware…you may become addicted.

Cleaning crew

2006-05-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

I have apparently done something to offend one or more members of the janitorial staff at work. I cannot figure out what I did as I have actually never met any of them before. But they seem to have it out for me.

My office is cold. I mean, freezing cold. I have two space heaters and one is on at all times during the work day. The less effective one is a big, ugly radiant heater and it stands on the floor near my feet. I don’t use this one very often and haven’t turned it on in weeks. On Tuesday morning I walked into my office and smelled something. I couldn’t quite figure out what I smelled but it was almost as if something was burning. I looked around for several minutes before I noticed the radiant heater lying on floor. Not only was it knocked over but it had stuff piled on top of it. And if that weren’t bad enough…the heater was on! I gasped and took a dramatic dive toward the floor to clear everything off the heater. I would have brushed this off as an accident had the heater merely been knocked over. But the fact that the heater was turned on and things were sitting on top of it leads me to believe that foul play was involved. The building could have burned down and the fire would have been traced back to my office. I could have been framed!

The next day when I walked into my office my plant was sickly looking. It is a very special plant that I took from my uncle’s funeral in January. It has been big and green and healthy and never looked sick a day in its life. I take good care to give it plenty of water and sunshine. After the heater incident I’m convinced that the cleaning crew is now murdering my plant. I’m working on nursing it back to health right now.

I don’t know what to do about this. If I leave them some kind of note I’m afraid it’ll give them more motivation to mess with my stuff. I wish I had a hidden camera. Although, I’m not sure I want to know what happens after hours. One morning when I walked in to work there were hand prints all over the glass desktop. Hand prints AND prints of other body parts. Ewww!

Maintenance Issues

2006-05-21T08:42:00.000-05:00

I watched the series finale of Will & Grace last week and heard a quote from the show that I absolutely loved. In reference to Will, someone said, “He’s the worst kind…he’s high maintenance but thinks he’s low maintenance.”

For the past several years I have been having an ongoing argument with a friend of mine. Not a serious argument but one of those arguments where you're kind of serious but you’re still just joking around because it doesn’t matter and it’s all in fun. Anyway, I think he’s high maintenance and he tells me he thinks I am as well (which I’m not). When I heard that line from the show I laughed and thought of him...apparently he thought of me as well. We just can’t come to an agreement on this issue.

So what really constitutes being high maintenance or low maintenance? What qualities and characteristics are maintenance issues and which ones are just personality traits? Those are tough (and sort of silly) questions and I don’t have all the answers. But I stand firm in my belief that this friend is high maintenance…and I’m not!

it could happen to you...

2006-05-16T06:37:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had one of those embarrassing moments that you wish you could take back? Ever walked into a room with your pants unzipped or your skirt tucked into your pantyhose? It’s a times like this that it would be nice if life had a rewind button and you could just go back and fix it.

Yesterday afternoon I went to lunch with a few of my coworkers. As we were sitting at our booth talking, I noticed a group of patrons get up to leave. One of the ladies in the group was wearing a dress that zipped all the way up the back. The problem: her dress was unzipped…all the way unzipped. The whole restaurant saw her. I was embarrassed for her…but still slightly amused.

My junior year of college I went out to dinner with a group of friends. We had decided to try something new and headed down to a Thai restaurant that none of us had ever been to. We were sitting at a large table in the middle of the restaurant. Behind me, a middle-aged woman walked past our table toward the front of the restaurant. As she was walking her slip fell to the ground. I turned to look at her. I was completely mortified that something like this could even happen. She just shrugged, stepped out of her slip, picked it up and walked away. I was trying to conceal my laughter but it was impossible. I made a mental note to check the elastic on all my slips when I got home that evening.

Moments like these seem to be inevitable. I only hope that when they happen to me they are not very memorable. However, most of mine seem to be very dramatic and are not quickly forgotten.

Good Samaritan

2006-05-11T21:56:00.000-05:00

Over her lunch hour, an employee at one of the neighboring businesses changed into shorts and running shoes and went for a nice, relaxing run. At least that’s what it was supposed to be. It rained in OKC last night and there was still some water on the roads today. As she was running, she slipped in a puddle on the road and took a hard fall. When she stood up and brushed the dirt off herself she examined her arm. The bone was trying to poke through the skin and the pain was excruciating. She could hardly stand let alone finish her run so she sat down on the nearest curb doubled over in pain.

My coworker drove right past this woman on the road but then decided to go back and help her. She had been sitting on the side of the road for awhile but nobody had stopped to see if she was okay until now. Her arm was broken and she needed to go to the hospital. My coworker used her lunch hour to help a woman she had never met before.

Once when I lived in Portland I had car problems and ended up stranded on the side of the road. I was driving down I-205 with my brother and my friend Tabitha. The car started making a weird noise and when smoke started coming out of the tires I decided to stop. The tires were ruined and the rims were damaged a bit. Traffic on the interstate backed up as drivers slowed down to look at us. We caused a traffic jam but nobody stopped to help. As we started walking toward the exit a minivan pulled off to the side. There was a middle-aged couple up front and several children in the back. Clearly, there was not enough room for three stranded motorists. But they offered us a ride anyway and made room in their vehicle for people they had never met.

Sometimes I am very impressed by the kindness of others.

Car Repair for Dummies

2006-05-08T06:31:00.000-05:00

I bought my car a few years ago. This was the first big purchase I made after graduating from college. I remember feeling sick as I was signing the papers and I actually had to excuse myself to run to the bathroom. Money stresses me out and committing to making car payments for five years was a big deal to me.

These days my biggest car worries are about the repairs. I am smart and independent and am usually able to handle things. But when it comes to cars I lack all knowledge, skill and ambition. A few weeks ago my brakes started to make an awful grinding noise and, after asking around, I came to the conclusion that I needed new brake pads. I called several places to get estimates and was quoted a price per axle. I was unsure about the number of axles I had but I still knew this was going to cost a lot more money than I wanted to pay. So I decided to do it myself. A friend was kind enough to help me out with this venture and he tried his best to put my car problem into layman's terms for me. After talking to him I felt like I knew enough to go buy the brake pads from the auto parts store all by myself.

I walked in and said things to the salesperson like, “I need front disc brake pads.” and “Do you turn rotors here?” I thought I had tricked him into believing I was going to work on my car all by myself. But then he started to ask me questions like, “Is your car a 1.8 or 2.0?” I was stumped. So we went out to my car to check it out. We were having a great car conversation and I was so proud of my newfound car knowledge. Then he asked me to pop the hood. Sure, no problem. I opened the driver side door and started looking around for the button that does that. I couldn’t find it and I blame the car manufacturer for not marking it more clearly. After searching the inside of my car high and low, the guy came over to me and said, “You really don’t know anything about cars, do you?” He then reached inside and found the button to pop the hood without even having to look for it. I’m pretty sure that he and his coworkers laughed at me after I left.

I’m happy to report that my car now has new brake pads and I helped with their installation. My help was more along the lines of keeping my friend company and handing over a screwdriver or wrench every now and then. But I helped nonetheless.

Pride goes before the fall

2006-05-03T06:48:00.000-05:00

I love seeing people fall! Of course, I always make sure the person is okay before I start laughing at them. I’m always intrigued by how people choose handle it; whether they laugh it off or try to play it cool. I learned a long time ago that you can’t really recover from something like that. You end up looking more like a dork if you try to play it cool so you may as well just laugh at yourself…everybody else probably is.

This past weekend I took a bad fall. I volunteered to work at the Tom & Jerry’s tent at the OKC Arts Festival. I was signed up for a shift on Friday evening along with a friend of mine. I met him at his house after work and changed into jeans and flip flops before heading out. As we were driving downtown it started to rain. This was not just ordinary rain…it was like the sky opened up and tried to wash away the state of Oklahoma. We parked the car at a meter downtown and sat for a few minutes hoping the rain would ease up. No such luck. It was almost time for our shift to start so we decided to make a run for it. As we started running down the sidewalk a gentleman stopped to ask us for change. We had none as we had put the last of our change in the parking meter. We kept running. Then it happened. We ran past an old building with marble on the ground in front where the sidewalk would normally be.

Just to recap…I was wearing flip flops with absolutely no traction and was about to run on top of marble in the rain. Not a good combination! I slipped and fell flat on my butt. I was sitting on the soaking wet ground with jeans on! It took a minute for my friend to stop laughing enough to help me up. He grabbed my arm and began to pull me up. But, seeing as I had no traction on my feet, I couldn’t stand up. He kept pulling and I just kept sliding on the ground closer toward him. I couldn’t stand up and I didn’t know what to do. So I wrapped my arms around his legs and sat on his shoes. I was obviously not thinking clearly. We were on a busy street corner in downtown OKC and I was on the ground with my arms wrapped around his legs! I sat there trying to decide whether to laugh or cry. In between bursts of laughter I could hear my friend saying, “Krista, please get up there are people watching us!”

Somehow I managed to get up and we continued on to the arts festival. I walked down the street with a wet behind and he walked behind me…laughing!

OKC Memorial Marathon

2006-04-30T22:52:00.000-05:00

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.
May all who leave here know the impact of violence.
May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon began to commemorate the tragedy of April 19, 1995 and has been called one of the 12 “most run” marathons by Runners World Magazine.

I don’t want to lead you on and make you believe that I ran the marathon. I did not do such a thing. I didn’t even do the half marathon. These legs don’t run that far. I did, however, participate in the 5K. Hey…it’s better than nothing! I was downtown Sunday morning at 6:30 for the start of the race.
I didn’t sign up as a competitive participant as evidenced by this picture of myself and Terra with coffee in our hands at the starting line. But I was proud to be a part of it. The race started with 168 seconds of silence for those killed in the bombing followed by the singing of the national anthem. Then the race was on. I crossed the starting line to the tune of Eye of the Tiger.

Here is a picture of Katie and myself running. We were registered as walkers but had to run to make up for the time when we stopped to take pictures. We ran/walked, crossed the finish line, got our medals and then headed to breakfast at IHOP. All this before 8AM. Definitely a day for a nap!

Oh...I almost forgot about the firefighters! They all ran together. I had to walk backwards to get this picture and almost tripped in the process. But a fall would have been well worth it! haha.

Making a difference or just ditching work?

2006-04-28T06:37:00.000-05:00

Every Wednesday afternoon I leave the office and drive myself over to the local middle school. I am a mentor to a 7th grade student. Typically, we work on homework in Algebra 1 or Geometry. The first few times were a real challenge for me but once I refreshed my brain a little bit it all came flooding back. My old math teachers would be so proud!

Last Wednesday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the temperature was up there in the 80’s. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck inside. I practically skipped out to my car when it was mentoring time because I was so happy to get out of the office. My student obviously felt the same way. When I met up with her she told me she had no work to do and wanted to go outside and chat. I knew better than to believe she had nothing to do but everyone needs a break every once in awhile, right? We found a picnic table to sit at with the sun shining down on us. I got a sunburn. Fair skin is just not meant to sit out in the sun.

Once we sat down my student pulled a teen magazine out of her backpack. We started reading through it and looking at all the hot guy celebrities (the ones in her magazine were all really young and most I’d never heard of…it made me feel old but I did my best to keep her from catching on to that). We turned the pages and happened upon some quizzes. You know how those magazine quizzes are…very girly and highly unscientific. We spent the rest of the mentoring hour taking quizzes. Does that make me a bad mentor? I tried to tell myself that I spent some quality time with my student and that’s just as important as helping out with homework. BUT finals are coming up and homework help probably would have done some good.

I’m sure my boss would love to know that I left work and sat outside in the sun taking quizzes. How productive!

I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore

2006-04-25T19:45:00.000-05:00

I hate tornadoes. This is a funny statement seeing as how I’m currently living in Oklahoma in the midst of tornado season. I didn’t grow up around this part of the country and even though I’ve been here for several years I’ve just never gotten used to them.

Monday night we had tornadoes. I was actually handling things well. My eyes were glued to the TV as I watched a tornado hit an airport hanger in El Reno. The footage from the news chopper was amazing. But then it happened…the tornado sirens in my neighborhood starting sounding. I freaked out! If the tornado was close enough to my home for the sirens to go off then it was close enough for me to seriously think about taking cover. I tried to have a discussion with the roommates about the safest place in the house to be at a time like this. It’s probably the hallway. Although, my first thought was to go lay in the bathtub with a mattress over me. But my mattress is too big for the bathroom. Besides there’s not enough room in the bathtub for all three of us to fit with a mattress over us. I like my roommates but I have no desire to be in that close of quarters with them.

Having grown up in Oklahoma, my roommates are used to this type of weather and actually seem to enjoy it. Even more enjoyable for them was making fun of me for being scared. They offered no sympathy or support in my time of crisis. So I called Grandmother. She assured me that everything was okay but invited me over to her house anyway. It’s at times like this that it’s nice to have your grandparents living on the same street as you. I gathered my things and was out the door. I left my car in parked in the garage just in case it decided to hail and ran down the street as fast as I could. I spent the rest of the night sitting on Grandmothers couch with my knees pulled tightly to my chest. I could hear the rain and see the sky light up outside. I found myself counting the seconds between the lightning and thunder hoping the storm was on its way out of the city.

Whew...What a night! I don’t know how much more of this I can handle.

complaint letter

2006-04-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

Dear TV Guide,

I am an avid reader of your weekly television listings. In my book, you are the ultimate authority on television viewing. Each week I look to you for guidance as I decide what to watch and what to not waste my time on. Recently, however, your leadership has failed me. You led me to believe that one of my favorite shows was going to be airing a new episode when, in fact, it was not. I set aside a significant amount of time that ended up being wasted on a re-run. This is time that I will never get back.

I realize that re-runs happen. It is a nuisance that I have learned to live with. Prior warning from you when a re-run is planned to air would be greatly appreciated. After all, this is your job. You are no use to me if you do not report accurate information. Frankly, I expected more from you.

Your disappointed reader,

Krista

Does the Easter bunny really exist?

2006-04-17T21:53:00.000-05:00

Last weekend the Easter bunny came to our house. For real. He was just hanging out in our garage. He did not come bearing any gifts or chocolate, but it was him…I know it.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and my roommate Jamie and I decided to go for a walk. After walking miles and miles (slight exaggeration) we were parched and returned home. We walked up the driveway, opened the garage door and started inside. Suddenly Jamie stopped. I looked over at her trying to figure out what was wrong. She had a horrified look on her face and slowly started to back out of the garage. I was freaked out. What was in the garage? A python? A rabid squirrel? I quickly scanned the inside of the garage and there it was. Behind the trash can. A bunny! I don’t know how he got in the there but he was scared and cowering in the corner. Before we could do anything else I whipped out my camera phone for a quick photo shoot. Now we just had to figure out how to get the bunny back outside. We cleverly thought to leave a trail of spinach leaves toward the door. I guess the bunny wasn’t hungry. A broom did the trick. Just a gentle pat on the behind and the bunny scooted out the door. He hung out next to our air conditioning unit for awhile before disappearing somewhere in the back yard. Maybe I’ll see him again next year.

Blondes are wild, brunettes are true, but you never know just what a redhead will do!

2006-04-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

It's taken many years for me to come to terms with my red hair. I used to hate that I was so different from everyone else. As a child I was called "carrots" a lot by the kids at school. I should probably consider myself lucky as that's the only name I ever remember being called. I've never been one to let teasing from other people get to me. Now I love my red hair!

A few days ago I had some extra time on my hands and decided to type my name into google and see what came up. I found myself reading the blog of a fellow redhead who had just read the book The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair. I found the brief synopsis of the book very interesting and decided to do a little online research of my own. Who knew that redheads were such a phenomenon?

Wikipedia gives quite a bit of information on this subject. There are also several other websites dedicated to redheads. Here are some fun facts that I stumbled across. Well most of these are not fun but they are ones that I found most interesting....

• Red hair is one of the most rare types of hair color in humans, if not the rarest
• In Greek mythology, redheads become vampires after they die
• Hitler banned intermarriage with redheads for fear of producing "deviant offspring"
• Women with red hair were burned as witches during the Inquisition
• Redheads are more susceptible to thermal pain
• Researchers have found that redheads require greater amounts of anesthesia
• Redheads are often characterized as being more passionate, feisty or adventurous than non-redheads. This also extends to the stereotype that redheads have particularly "fiery" tempers, and are more easily angered than others.
• Redheads were the subjects of the 19th-century's most romantic paintings

"It is a very interesting experience to go through life with hair the color of stop signs, traffic signals, ambulance lights, bullfighter's capes, strawberries, blood oranges, ruby grapefruit, apples, wildfires, or copper pennies; having skin the color of neon milk and liquid paper when all of your friends are tanned; and wearing hats, long sleeves and mounds of sunscreen to fend off the evil advances of the freckle-manufacturing, cancer-provoking, burn-generating sunshine." --Quote from "A Bit More Red" website

Shopping therapy

2006-04-08T15:36:00.000-05:00

Shopping is my break from the real world. It’s the one activity that I like to do alone. I thoroughly enjoy walking around by myself and not having to think about anything other than which store window I like the most. I find it very relaxing. I’ve been told more than once that I am an "emotional shopper." As much as I’d like to disagree with that statement I just can’t. Now I don’t necessarily spend money during my shopping excursions but sometimes doing so makes me feel that much better.

I had a few long and hard days last week. I needed to relax. So one evening as I was driving home I found myself heading to the mall instead. Usually when I go to the mall by myself I park in the same general vicinity. I have trouble remembering where I park so having a usual spot is pretty important. This time, however, I stupidly parked elsewhere. Can you tell where this story is heading?

I was on my cell phone with a friend I haven’t talked to in ages as I pulled into the parking spot. I wasn’t paying attention to much and barely remembered to lock my car before walking away from it. It was dusk so there was still some light outside. After window shopping for awhile (no money exchanged hands during this trip) I decided I had relaxed enough to go home. Where did I park? I couldn’t remember. I retraced my steps in my mind and finally figured out which mall entrance I had entered in just an hour and a half before. That was only half the battle. I had no idea where my car was! It was dark outside by this point and things look a lot different in the dark. I walked up and down every aisle. No luck. I started to panic and look around for mall security. Surely they could help me! I racked my brain for a description of my car. I wasn’t sure if “black with four doors” would be enough for them to successfully locate my vehicle. Questions were running through my head…make, model and year? License plate number? I should really have this information written down somewhere.

Clearly I was going to look like an idiot asking mall security for help with this matter. They were nowhere to be found anyway. What good are they if they’re not around when you need them? Needless to say I eventually found my car. I spent as much time in the parking lot as I had spent inside the mall. Any relaxing that took place during my shopping excursion had been useless. Losing my car made me tense up all over again. I may have to find another happy place to go when I need to de-stress. Somewhere with a smaller parking lot perhaps.

What? Speak into my good ear!

2006-04-04T06:18:00.000-05:00

Humor is very important to me. I love to laugh. I think most people would agree that you need to be able to laugh at yourself, right? This applies especially to me. I frequently find myself in humorous situations and if I couldn’t laugh at myself I’m not sure what I would do. I was going through some old pictures the other night and was reminded of some funny things that have happened to me in the past. One such picture made me think of this…

If you know me very well then you know that I am deaf in my right ear. If you’re finding this out for the first time…don’t feel sorry for me. This is how God made me. Having only one good ear has its pros and cons:
Pros
• I can sleep on my good ear at night and block out all other sounds so I sleep better
• If I need to plug my ears for any reason I only have to plug one and I still have a free hand to do other things
• I can ignore people I don’t want to talk to and just blame it on not being able to hear them

Cons
• Sometimes I don't notice when someone is standing on my bad side and trying to talk to me - if they don’t know that I have a slight hearing impairment they may just assume I’m stuck up
• I have slept through the smoke alarm going off in my house at night
• I can’t tell where sounds are coming from - since I can only hear out of my left ear I always think sounds are coming from my left

This last “con” is very humorous to my friends. I can’t tell you how many times my friends have tried hiding from me and yelling my name. They know I can’t tell where their voice is coming from so I just turn in circles until I find them. Haha. See…I can laugh at myself! I remember when I was little we lived in a tri-level house. My mom would call me from some part of the house and I’d have no idea where she was. This wasn’t really a big deal unless I was in trouble. You know how it is when you’re in trouble and being summoned by your parents…the longer it takes you to reach them, the madder they get. That was unfortunate for me as a child.

My junior year of college I got really sick. I was diagnosed as having hay fever by the doctor on campus. Although he diagnosed everyone with hay fever so I’m not sure how credible his diagnosis was. Anyway, while I was sick I got an ear infection in my good ear. If you’ve ever had an ear infection you may have noticed that you lose most, if not all, of the hearing in that ear until the infection is gone. For those of you keeping track…
One good ear + ear infection in good ear = no hearing
A few of my friends took pity on me and made me a get well sign. It was a sweet gesture. Although I think they were just reveling in the fact that I couldn’t hear and they could say anything they wanted to me. Gotta love friends!

Just a quick reminder to my roommates…If the house alarm, smoke alarm or tornado siren goes off in the middle of the night please make sure I wake up!!

"You Can't Stop the Beat"

2006-04-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

I love musicals! This weekend I went and saw Hairspray downtown at the Civic Center. It is a very entertaining story about a girl, Tracy Turnblad, who dreams of dancing on the Corny Collins show. She doesn’t let anything get in the way of her dreams. Along the way she falls in love with the cutest male cast member of the show, wins the Miss Teenage Hairspray competition and takes some courageous steps in the fight against segregation. There’s nothing that singing, dancing, big hair and lots of hairspray can’t solve!

I wish real life could be more like how it is on stage. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just break out into song when you’re feeling happy or sad? On stage it looks so easy. When someone has something to say they just start singing about it. The other person or people around join in. They harmonize and dance and everyone lives happily ever after. If only life were that easy…

Krista, will you accept this rose?

2006-03-29T06:31:00.000-06:00

I don’t have a claim to fame. The only thing I can boast about is that I have met 3 of the men from The Bachelor as well as a few other celebrities. It's not much but it's something. I know this seems silly but how often does a girl living in OKC get to meet someone famous?

The first Bachelor I met was Aaron Buerge. I went to his restaurant in Springfield, MO. He was there and so graciously came to my table and took a picture with me.

The second Bachelor I met was Bob Guiney. His band came to OKC and played downtown. My friends and I went to the concert and met him. The third was John Paul Merritt. He was actually a contestant on The Bachelorette. He hails from right here in Oklahoma City so meeting him wasn’t so hard. He has a restaurant in town and I see him at Hornets’ games every once in awhile.

The only other two celebrities that I have met are Mark Harmon and Hilary Swank. Mark Harmon was in OKC for a celebrity charity something or other. He and his entourage just happened to be at a swanky place that my friends I were hanging out at. He came over to our table, talked to us for a bit, shook our hands and bought us a drink. I happened to meet Hilary Swank when I was living in Portland. I worked at Old Navy while I was in high school and she came through my check-out line. How random. I recognized her from her stint on Beverly Hills 90210. Yes I watched that show…and loved it!

Meeting celebrities is not something I aspire to do with my life. I don’t really seek them out…I have just happened to run into them. It’s really kind of dumb when you think about it. They’re just regular people. Regular people who happen to be extremely famous and make a lot of money! I don’t even really know what to say when I meet them. But it’s sure fun to brag about later. Maybe I can step it up a notch and run into an A-list celebrity. Brad Pitt perhaps? I think he’s from the Midwest somewhere.