Budgets

So, I'm in a little bit of budget hell right now. My brain may have officially stopped working so I asked Lindsay and Annie for some advice on what I should do. Please see Lindsay's instructions below:

Put your thang down flip it and reverse it.
Minus six.
Square root of three.
Don't forget the remainder of four.
This should be planned for the month of April.
Because April showers bring WW flowers.
...Ok?

I think that might go over well with my client.

Conversation of the Day

Jen: That Mika concert was one of the best I've been to.
Linds: That was Valentine's Day last year.
Steph: Hey, do you realize that Valentine's Day two years ago was the first we hung out with you, Jen? ...And for Valentine's Day this year I'll be hanging out with Lindsay and Jen at the Sweet Meet! [Said with fake enthusiasm because, for the record, I don't plan on attending the Sweet Meet.]
Linds: It's nice to know things have changed for us in the last two years.

Highlights

A run-down of the day in highlights...

-Waking up to Missy Higgins' "Warm Whisper". (As I do every morning - it just doesn't get old.)
-Getting a window seat on the bus so I could sleep with ease.
-Mani/pedi's with co-workers in the afternoon. Champagne for them. Cider for me.
-Having a co-worker tell me, "I just can't imagine going through life...sober."
-Getting a ride home from work with Jen. (Even though it was 7pm)
-Prime parking.
-Lindsay and I receiving (what I will call) revelation about who Jen should date at exactly the same time.
-PF Changs.
-McDonald's hot fudge sundae. An added bonus of my very own MickyD's boyfriend.
-American Idol and the cross-eyed beauty.
-Finally crawling into bed.

He's Back!

Internet, my day just got a little brighter. And by day I mean night. So I guess you could say my night just got a little darker. But in a totally good way.

Uh...right.

I was at the gym tonight watching The Real World Brooklyn (Sidenote: Why are the Mormon kids on reality TV always such d-bags? Oh, right. Because they chose to go on a reality TV show.) Anyway, during one of the commercial breaks I saw a large DC t-shirt on a little white boy. My favorite pro-skateboarder. And he's not my favorite just because he's the only pro-skateboarder I know of.

I have three words for you: THE. FANTASY. FACTORY. I would embed that video for your convenience, but it won't let me. So you'll just have to stop being lazy and go to YouTube and watch it. If you can make it long enough you might just be rewarded with a random song. (Does Enrique Iglesias + carwash mean anything to you?)

I really have no idea what the show will actually be about. I just know that I'll be watching. And you should to.

Better Late Than Never

I realized that I never posted about Christmas for a couple of reasons: 1. I added all my pictures to F-Book and called it good and 2. It's overwhelming to go through all the photos and decide which ones to add. So I've decided to take on that task today.

After my travel adventure I finally arrived home late in the evening on the 22nd. I forgot how cold Michigan really is in the winter (see Exhibit A). My boots and hat saved my life.

Exhibit A.
I was so happy to have finally made it! Welcome home!
Here's a list of things I did, somewhat chronologically ordered.

We tested out my new camera. I made my mom take about 10 of these pictures and she was pretty tired of it by the end.
More testing. I think he was making a point about the flash...
We went to the annual Howard Christmas Eve party. It was good to see everyone. Only coming home once a year makes it hard to keep track of everyone's kids - they all grow up so fast!
We played euchre on Christmas Day and Karen and I were partners. She really took one for the team by offering to team up with me because I'm horrible. And playing once a year isn't going to sharpen my skills.
You can tell by the look on my face that I had no idea what do do with those cards. Mom, on the other hand, looks pretty pleased with hers.
It was fun to spend the day with Grandpa and Karen.
I had to work for a couple of days while I was home so I set up shop at the dining room table. It was pretty much torture. I really did not want to be working.I did a lot of reading in my pj's. This was one of the "mornings" where I woke up at Noon and had Cheesecake for breakfast. Pretty much the best way to start off the day.
I saw Josh and his family and was finally able to meet his girlfriend (she's great!). We played some Wii and I was both surprisingly good and surprisingly awful. There was no rhyme or reason to it.
I met up with some high school friends, Kian and Julie, and caught up on their lives from the past year. (I really need to be better at keeping in touch.) Kian is having a baby in February!
And of course we stopped at the local DQ for a Blizzard.
Some events not pictured:

• Shopping (I may have had mom & dad pick out their own Christmas presents.)
• Eating at Beale Street (twice) and meeting Gregory.
• Seeing three movies: Benjamin Button, Seven Pounds and Australia.
• Surviving the snow storm with mom on the way home from Australia.
• Dinner with Karen and Grandpa. Karen and I may have lost at euchre but we dominated at Sequence.
• Family jam session with me on the guitar and dad on the harmonica. It pretty much sounded awful.
• Cinnamon rolls!
• Knowing very few people at church on Sunday and dad teaching a lesson.
• Wish I could have stayed longer because it was such a fun trip!

Conversation of the Day

Co-worker: He's not a phone person. Which makes sense because he's on the phone all day for his job. I mean, when I go home at night the last thing I want to do is get on the internet.

Me: Oh, yeah. Totally.

Follow Through

I send all of my junk-like email (Facebook notifications, for example) to my old school Hotmail account. You know, the very first email account you signed up for when you didn't really know what email was or that a screen name didn't have to be something completely embarrassing like your childhood nickname combined with your current nickname and then that screen name took on a life of it's own and people from high school still call you that to this day?

Yeah. That email account.

So earlier today while I was sifting through the junk, I randomly clicked on a folder just to see what I'd find and I found some hilarious stuff. It was genius of me to save it all. One of the most recent emails in the folder was dated 11/08/01 - my sophomore year of college - and it was from a high school bestie.

A portion of it went like this: "i love you [insert screen name here]! please don't get married and leave us alone!"

I couldn't find my response, but I'm sure it said something along the lines of That's not even close to happening so don't worry about it. PS - I'm only 19.

His next response was: "... you will be married by next year cause you are awesome and hot, don't think differently..."

Apparently I really took his request not to get married to heart because here I am seven-ish years later blogging at 10pm with my cat curled up next to me.

The Biggest Baby

I'm going to try to refrain from posting about The Biggest Loser every Tuesday night, but I can't make any promises. And when I say "try to refrain" I mean starting next week.

I've never watched a full season of the show (even during my New Years Day marathon) but it really should start with a warning that a box of tissues and a side of Prozac are required. At one point I was in the kitchen and Lindsay turned around to tell me something and she totally caught me crying. Not just tears welling up, but tears streaming down my cheeks. I just wanted to see Dan make it up that mountain! Clearly I'm emotionally unstable.

And then of course it had to come down to Dan and Jerry - the two contestants that have a special little place in my heart. I just don't know if my emotions can handle this every week.

Brilliant.

Last week a got a belated Christmas present from my roommate. It's a scrapbook of sorts of all the concerts we attended in 2008. Each show has two pages dedicated to it and includes our traditional self-portrait (I knew those would be good for something!), the artist(s), venue, date and other pictures we took at the show.

36 pages of pictures of myself in a hard cover, professional looking book. Who wouldn't love that?



Those shows are some of my favorite memories of 2008 and I love it. Pretty much genius.

I Like It

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry

This has to be quick because I'm trying to go to bed at 10:30 every night and it's already 11:05. But I had such a weird night at the gym. There was laughing and crying involved. Which resulted in a confirmation that I'm a lunatic.

I laughed - out loud - at two commercials while on the treadmill. I don't usually watch commercials because of a brilliant invention called TIVO but am now beginning to wonder if I'm missing out. Hmm...probably not.

1. The Orville Redenbacher commercial where the two different parties are serving 100 calorie snacks: Chips vs. Orville Redenbacher Popcorn. The chips party gets more and more grumpy as time goes on because they're so hungry (100 calories worth of chips isn't satisfying) and at one point this exchange happens:
Girl #1: "Nice shirt."
Girl #2: "Nice face."
I was instantly transported back to high school were comments like that were made and where I thought they were hilarious. Apparently I still think they're hilarious.

2. The Subway commercial that shows various people eating burgers and fries and each time they take a bite their buttons pop or they break a chair and crash to the ground. There's just something about people falling down that is SO funny to me. And in slow motion!? Forget it. I might be 12 years old.

The crying came as I was watching tonight's episode of The Biggest Loser. I can't help it! When Dan weighed in and lost 30 pounds the tears just came. Thirty pounds in one week! I was so happy for him. And grandpa Jerry losing 25 pounds and the look of shock on his face. More tears.

I'm sure the people around me thought I was insane. But that's fine because I kind of agree with them.

Quirks

In November I was tagged by Chels to list six of my quirks. I'm super weird so it shouldn't have been hard, but it's now January and I'm just getting to it. I would always think of them as I was drifting off to sleep, but not be able to remember them in the morning.

So here are those I can remember, in no particular order.

1. I don't like to purchase any item that was at the front of the row or top of the stack. That's the item that every other shopper has had their grubby hands all over and it's not for me. I put my grubby hands all over the item to see if I want it, decide, and then grab one from further back in the row or down the pile.

2. I hate public restrooms. I try to avoid using them as much as possible, but it's pretty much unavoidable.

3. I don't like edge pieces. If I'm not at home I will just hang back until the first row of [cake, brownies, etc.] have been served and then try to snatch up the middle piece of the next row. If I'm at home I'll just cut out the middle piece without shame.

4. Up until a few months ago I balanced a checkbook. I had online banking, but I still felt the need to keep every receipt and enter it in. Sometimes I would have a month's worth of receipts to go through and it was torture. I recently decided I could let it go and it's been great.

5. I don't like parking in new places. It makes me nervous and I get super stressed. But once I've been there and see how it's done I'm all set.

6. I reset the odometer every time I get gas. I never look to see how many miles I've gone since my last fill-up, but still feel the need to reset it. Maybe it's like that button in the hatch on LOST...

There you have it. I already knew I was strange, but now you do too (as if you didn't already).

Conversation(s) of the Day

For the record, I think that my roommate and I are pretty funny. I just don't know why other people don't think so.

Conversation #1: While bra shopping at Victoria's Secret.

L: What about this one?
S: That's huge! I don't think so.
L: Gee, thanks! I wasn't suggesting it for you...

[A few minutes later.]

S: I think I like this one.
L: But, that's so little.
S: Rude.

Conversation #2: While at the grocery store.

S: Is there something we're forgetting? I feel like there's something else.
[Lindsay glances at what I'm carrying.]
L: Diet Coke. Cereal. Nope, I think we're all set.

And while I'm mentioning conversations I've had today, I'll just say that "Those are really pointy shoes" should not be the way you start a conversation with a girl at a party. Just sayin'.

Conversation of the Day

As my co-worker and I were walking back from lunch I couldn't help but stare up at the clear blue sky.

Co-worker: Oh, he was kinda cute.
Me: Really? I didn't see him.
CW: This might sound bad but...blah, blah, blah.
Me: I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I got distracted by the sun.

Say It Out Loud

I've debated about posting about this, but I just had to.

I saw Twilight tonight for the first time. And WOW.

I may have ruined it for my neighbors because I couldn't stop laughing. I mean, girls in the theater gasped when Edward came on screen. GASPED! And the staring! I don't remember there being so. much. staring. in the books. And I didn't buy the connection between Bella and Edward. I couldn't get passed the abundance of awkward.

I will not deny that I read the books and totally got sucked in, reading the second and third in one weekend. I enjoyed them. I'm an advocate for the cheesy, teen, vampire dramas. The movie just didn't do it for me.

It was Lindsay's second time watching it and said she enjoyed it ten times more than the first time. I think I'll have to give it another go.

An Antisocial Start to 2009

I can't decide whether I kicked off 2009 right or if today was a sad indication of things to come. I spent the entire day on the couch watching The Biggest Loser (season 3) marathon.

The. Entire. Day.

I came downstairs when I was too hungry to continue sleeping, poured a bowl of cereal, sat down on the couch and didn't really get up again. I simply could not stop watching. (For anyone that watched season 3....Erik?!?! Amazing.)

Good thing I only have to work one more day before the weekend because I'm exhausted.

Oh Yeah...

...Happy New Year.

Here's to hoping that 2009 brings as much adventure to this unadventurous girl as 2008.