15 posts tagged “friends”
I'm sorry for the lack of interesting updates. Let's see, what has happened since I last blogged? There was the annual Halloween dance that I attended last Thursday. That was fun...but not as fun as last year, because only the people who paid for a $45 4-week Thriller choreography course could perform the Thriller dance this year. I think that is pretty crappy, because besides the expense, the whole fun of the performance last year was learning it, half-forgetting the moves, and then having everything turn into a clusterfuck at the end. Oh well. I still had a good time though. I went as a mainstream punk princess. I wore a Green Day shirt, tights, black boots, gloves with the fingertips cut off, and BLUE HAIR. Looky:
This weekend was probably the best one I've had in a long time. My good friend Tap just bought a house, and invited us all to a housewarming to break in the house. I had the hardest time picking out a gift, but I finally got a spice rack as a serious gift. I wanted to get something really tacky for Tap's yard as a gag gift, like a flamingo or yard gnome. My friend Shashank and I found this at Target and chipped in to get it, because it was so perfect:
Once everyone was awake and we cleaned up, we were wondering what to do. I'd never been to the Alamo or the Riverwalk (I know, I've lived in this state for 15 years. But I haven't done a lot of the touristy things). So even though my friends had already been there multiple times, we went to check it out. (It was funny, on the way there, we passed that exit that I missed several years back when driving through with my dad.) I was not disappointed by the Alamo at all. I thought it was really cool. It is very small though, right smack in the middle of downtown San Antonio.
Hola Voxers. I just haven't felt like writing anything. I dunno why. I don't think it's time for me and this blog to take a break just yet; I've had it for three years, so I've grown quite used to writing in it. It's just my 'hood has become rather quiet as of late. I like reading y'all's posts. Update more.
This weekend was a good one. Last weekend, when I was feeling pretty stressed out and antisocial, I was quite content with spending the whole weekend holed up in my apartment. This weekend I would have gone crazy if I did that, so luckily there was a lot to do. I went out to happy hour with some people from my running group on Friday and watched the UT/Tech game with them on Saturday. Yesterday I saw The Informant! with Jared and Conrad, and went out to Souper!Salad! afterward. Remind me never to go out to that place again. It's glorified dorm food and is nowhere worth the money. Ugh.
Yesterday I went for a long run because I'm trying to get my endurance back up. My endurance is in a sad, sad place right now...I think my problem is more mental because I'm sure I have the physical capacity to run longer and faster than I am. I'm pretty embarrassed at how bad my running is now. I ran for an hour, with a water break in the middle. It was a slow run though...my ankle muscles have been hurting me lately because I think I have the wrong form when I run sprints, and I pulled something. It took a good 20-30 minutes for my muscles to stop hurting and for the endorphins to kick in. I skipped my run today. I dunno if that's good or not.
Sigh. Well, I'm going to take a shower. Sometimes I wonder if I have insomnia because I just cannot get to sleep at a normal time...this weekend I went to bed at 4 for no reason.
So this weekend was the party that Tap, Conrad, and I hosted. It ended up being so much fun. Tap and Conrad did a live performance of 80s songs during the party - huge props to them because they were awesome! During several songs the audience was allowed to participate.
It's kinda hard to see but I'm the chick with the wavy hair and bandanna who starts singing the first couple of lyrics. I also take over the camera towards the end, so that's me saying stuff like, "How do you turn this off?" and trying to pass the cameraman duties on to my brother.
So I didn't go to bed until 2 this morning, for no reason, really. I didn't do anything special, just hung out with family and then chilled listening to David Bowie to put off going to bed. Then I woke up at 6:45 this morning because I am AWESOME and can function with little sleep (sometimes). My brother and I went out to eat with my dad's "book club." Afterward my mom and I had a hair appointment. I dyed my hair auburn and then at the last minute decided to cut my bangs. My stylist cut them so they can look kind of punk rock (depending how I style them), so I like them...so far. Except they make me look even younger than I actually am.
Then I went out to eat with Tap and his friend at TGI Friday's. I had a good sandwich to eat off the $5 menu, but the drink was like $2.30. What's up with that? Then we went to the mall to hang out. I bought some t-shirts on sale at The Gap.
Then on the way home, I totally hydroplaned when making a left turn because the roads were still slick and I took off too fast, I guess. I'm glad no one was in the other lane when I did, or else I would have been in trouble. So that was kind of scary. I guess you would think with my hydroplaning, parking ticket, and scratched/dented vehicle, you would think I'm a bad driver. I'm NOT (usually)...just getting EXPERIENCES.
I'm getting sleepy. Which is sad, right? Because it's not even 10 o'clock on a Saturday. But I've had little sleep today, so it's understandable.
I've been bad and haven't updated in the past week or so. Last week was kind of blah, because work was alternately busy and frustrating, and I was bummed out about Jacob. But there were still good moments.
Friday, April 17 - Friday night blues dance was fantastic. They had a really good live band, and the place was packed. Had a great time.
Saturday, April 18 - Had a really fun blues workshop. Lucky Skillen taught it. He was very funny and dynamic. Plus he had a NYC accent, so we Texans couldn't help imitating whatever he said ("Pantha, paht-na.") The workshop was 5 hours total, so I was wiped when I got home. One of the workshops was "Blues and Hip-Hop," and that class reminded me just how white I really am.
Sunday, April 19 - FINALLY went to the Alamo Drafthouse. Went with Katherine, which was a lot of fun. Then I went to a barbeque and hung out with some people from my running group.
Tuesday, April 21 - I was at the downtown office. I walked outside to make a delivery to a building across the street. I noticed a group of people standing outside, along with about four or five cops standing on the edge of the sidewalk. I kept walking but was stopped by one of the cops. "I'm sorry, you need to stay 10 feet away from the sidewalk," the officer said. For a moment, I wondered if there had been a gas explosion. "What's going on?" I asked. The officer replied, "We're doing an escort." I looked up and down the street, with the officers and their motorcycles stationed every ten feet, the streets completely devoid of traffic, and the pedestrians not allowed to walk on the sidewalk. I knew this person must be pretty important. "May I ask who?" The officer paused and then said, "Biden."
So I waited excitedly for a bit. A part of me considered going back inside to work, but then the rational part said, "When's the next time you're going to see something like this?" I was soon rewarded. A motorcade of at least 20-30 vehicles started passing. There were cop cars, cops on motorcycles, even an ambulance. It was hard to tell which car Vice President Biden was in (there were two black, official-looking cars, but the windows were too dark to see anyone). But I waved anyway. It was a really cool moment. It made me wonder what sort of the security the President has, because this seemed pretty hardcore.
Wednesday, April 22 - Hill workout. It was my first time doing the hill workout in months, so it was ROUGH. Did 4.5 of the .75 mile loops. I think next time I should shoot for five, because my legs weren't even sore the next day.
Friday, May 1 - Blues dancing was a little empty tonight (a lot of the regulars were out of town), but still had a good time. I received two compliments on my dancing - one person said I was elegant, and someone said he liked my follow.
Saturday, May 2 - Man, this day was so much fun. Katherine and I went to Macy's to see Clinton Kelly on his Makeover America tour. He was really funny. One of the women from the audience volunteered to have her outfit critiqued (I raised my hand but he didn't pick me), and he totally eviscerated her. In a nice way. But he was really funny and offered really good fashion tips. I really enjoyed myself.
Afterward he said he was signing autographs. So Katherine and I hurriedly went downstairs and got in line, all happy and excited, until some snooty Macy's employee said, "Where are your books?" Apparently we could not stand in line unless we had a copy of Clinton Kelly's newest book, available only with a HUNDRED DOLLAR purchase of Macy's clothes. Naturally, Katherine and I were like, "Eff this," (our decision was also aided by the fact that there was security standing around), so we went next door to Border's to see if they had a copy of the book that we could sneak in with. No such luck - it was sold out. I guess meeting Clinton Kelly was not meant to be. Maybe he would have hated my outfit and it would have scarred my self-esteem forever. This was as close to Clinton Kelly that we got:
Afterward, Katherine and I made ourselves feel better by going into all the fancy shops and trying perfume samples, and going on a shopping spree. Not gonna say all that I bought, except that the Back in Black album was an absolutely essential purchase. We alternated between playing "Good friend/bad friend." Later we went out to eat with Katherine's boyfriend Rob, and Katherine bought us all dinner because she's a sweetie <3
Now I'm just here exhausted after a long day of work. Well, I'm not exhausted anymore, because I'm a vampire and I get this weird energy kick around this time. I have meetings tomorrow downtown...I really hope I don't get to run one of them, because I don't have a grasp on the details that I need. Ah, such is life. We'll see in the morning.
P.S. My parents have vacation until next Thursday due to swine flu scares in their school district. Clearly I am in the wrong profession.
P.P.S. There was ANOTHER hornet in my apartment last week. I'm starting to wonder if I have a nest in the vents or something. I got the little bugger. Jenny 5, Hornets 0. This one was very efficient too. No Swiffers were broken.
When I was seventeen, I would judge how good a day would be by the music I heard in the morning on the radio. If I heard some Pink Floyd or something like "Enter Sandman," then it was going to be a good day (and funny enough, something cool would inevitably happen to MAKE it a good day). I kind of gave up that idea up as I got older, but as I was driving in to work this morning, I heard "Flying High Again," which reminded me of high school (and no, not because I would get high), and "This is a Call." "Man," I thought, "I bet it's going to be a good day."
And so it was. Work is keeping me pretty busy with two projects, but I was able to enjoy myself with it today. I had a meeting downtown today. I ended up making a joke in the meeting...not on purpose, just kind of came out, and everyone started laughing. It really throws me off when people laugh at me because at work, I tend to be rather quiet and keep to myself...I think I'm a lot funnier with people I know really well, or on paper. So anyway, that incident made me laugh. After the meeting I got a chicken sandwich and a milk shake...yum yum.
Tonight I went running. It was an interval workout. I ran six .53 mile laps, with a walk break in between. With the exception of one lap, I was actually getting faster with each progressive lap, so that was an improvement, because I usually run slower. I ran the last one at 3:34, so I was pretty happy with that time. I've been getting myself out of my winter laziness and getting back into my routine of running and dancing...and I'm LOVING IT. I just feel so much happier with it. This next winter, when it's cold and miserable outside, I need to remind myself that it's worth feeling like crap during the run for how great you feel afterward.
This weekend was great. Blues dancing on Friday, watched a bunch of movies on Saturday, 8 mile run on Sunday. Then yesterday, Katherine and I had a girl's night out. We ate at Panda Express with her boyfriend, then we girls headed to watch 17 Again. I really liked it! It was funny. I was remembering all the funny parts today during my meeting. I'm not a Zach Efron fan girl (to be honest, I wanted to see it for Matthew Perry), but he did a good job in it (and come on, I'm not BLIND. He is a good-looking guy). Reno 911 fans, the guy who plays Dangle is in the movie and he basically stole the show. My only complaint is that Matthew Perry deserved way more screen time.
I have a lot of fun things lined up for this weekend, so I can't wait for it. At least tomorrow is Thursday. It's flying by fast!
Man! I never have real updates anymore. So here goes.
Saturday was a lot of fun. I met up with friends at 40 Acre Fest, which is a student-run festival with a live concert at the end. I hung out with one friend from work for the festival, and then caught up with Tap and Conrad for dinner and the concert. There were a lot of funny/random events from that day, so I'll just list them:
- Walking by a guy playing accordion on The Drag
- People from a socialist student organization demanding if I was upset at AIG. Um, yeah, but not enough to become a socialist, thanks.
- A little girl in the restroom singing "Hot N' Cold" as she washed her hands
- Being able to crush a car with a sledgehammer and spray-paint it. Don't worry, I didn't go all thug, it was at a booth. It was very cathartic. That sledgehammer was fucking heavy, and I was made fun of for being weak. :p
- Seeing the turtle pond, and watching the turtles play and fall in the water
- Conrad asking the waiter at Pluckers if he could have fried salad
- "There needs to be more pelvic thrust in ballet" and "PLAY THE HIIIIIIITS!"
The concert itself was okay. It was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The actual band itself was decent, but the singer sucked. Here's one of the songs they sang. The beginning reminds me of that Friends episode where Ross is into his "music." None of my friends took my offer to start a mosh pit seriously. Can't say that the concert made me want to become a CYHSY fan, but I enjoyed being there with my friends, at least.
On Sunday, I went back out to the park and explored more trails. Again, there were a lot of people out, so I felt comfortable. I found more out-of-the-way trails that I'll explore with Pat when he comes visit next month. I walked for about 2.5 hours. It was awesome. Between all the walking I did for 40 Acres fest and the trail exploring, I got a lot of exercise during the weekend.
Man, I did some calisthenics tonight. I think I'm out of shape. Blah! I have a month or so to get into summer shape.
So, Patrick and I are seeing Metallica in September. YEAH! We got the nosebleed balcony seats, but at least we'll be there, right? AND Patrick bought us tickets to see The Offspring next month. I'm really excited. Of course, Pat was a bigger Offspring fan than I was growing up, but I like a lot of their songs. Pat will probably stay that whole week, because the concert is on a random work day, and I can't be driving back and forth. I'm really excited that he'll be able to visit next month. Going to concerts with Pat is kickass. I'm going to round up some of my peeps here in town to attend as well. It's general admission, so we plan on going early to get a good seat!
Well I need to clean up the apartment a bit. I am going on a mini-vacation starting tomorrow afternoon :)
Today, I plan on having a complete "Jen is a bum" day. It's great. I'm going to clean the apartment in a little bit, will probably go work out/go to HEB, and will have to do about an hours' worth of work. But otherwise, I am not going anywhere else. I cannot wait. After this week, I just feel like lounging around, watching TV, and reading.
This week was not terrible, by any means. Just stupid drama I could have done without. Oh well. That is life. I'm getting all these great "learning experiences," I suppose. No updates yet. But I think I have a pretty good chance...and the adjustor reminded me of something: the woman didn't complete a check-in walkaround with me. So I'm thinking, if they didn't do that with me, how would I know if they did that with the person before me? I also told her about the document I signed with my added blurb at the bottom, and how they had signed the document too. I also told her I have no problem going to court over this. I think that surprised her a little, but I just wanted her to be prepared- I am NOT PAYING for something I didn't do.
Yesterday I had to run another meeting. It was alright. The thing I am trying to work on is keeping control. I don't think I'm that bad at it...I always start the meetings on time (well, I started it at 10:01 yesterday, so one minute late), finish when it's supposed to (the guy who was in charge of this position before me used to let them run over, and I can't stand meetings that run over time), and I try to curb the extraneous talking after while. I just feel this strange need to be perfect with it in front of my design manager when she attends. She's attending before passing the responsibility off to me. I guess I'm still new at it, but I want to be completely confident at it. I just want to be more relaxed with things at work than trying to be perfect all the time. I have to work on that. Oh well, I've only been working here for a year...I don't think I'm doing too badly :) It's all a learning experience. Like my miscellaneous car dramas. Haha! (Sigh).
Yesterday after work, I went to go see my friend Anushree. I don't know if she considers me her best friend anymore, but we were best friends in high school and early college. She was in town for the day, but unfortunately I had to work. But we were able to have dinner together. I was really happy to see her! She got engaged, so she showed me her ring. It is really pretty. I'm really happy for her, and can't believe that we're old enough now to be talking about weddings! When we first met, all of our conversations revolved around prom. We ate at a Thai food place across the street from campus and chatted before she had to go back to Houston. I was sad to see her go, but I'm glad I was able to spend a little time with her.
After Anushree left, I headed to Half Price for a little bit and picked up 2 books (cheap books, but I need to stop buying books period.) I didn't feel like dancing last night. But the next two weeks should be full of dancing. I have Jack and Jill contest practice next Friday, and then the competition/workshop the week following that. I am nowhere near competition level, but it'll be a fun experience regardless. I have no expectations, so I think it's better that way, to go out and just have fun with it!
Lol Myspace drama with my brother...so my brother is fond of posting these quizzes (I do too, they are addictive). Usually he puts surprisingly good things about me in those answers, like how I'm one of the people who knows the most about him, and how he considers me and his best friend Steven, who's in the Marines, to have "real life experience" (I happen to think Steven has way more life experience than I do, so I was flattered that Patrick even included me in that category.) But yesterday, he posted this quiz that had the question, "Do you have a close relationship with your sibling?" And the answer there was, "umm not as close as a lot of people's relationships with their siblings but id say yeah its pretty close." :O For someone who considers her brother to be her best friend, I felt a little rejected. Naturally, I commented on the quiz how much I thought he sucked, but then he posted another bulletin afterward in apology, saying that he had missed the last couple of questions on the quiz and that we are indeed very close. Awww.
I am going to watch Arrested Development now. I just started watching it, and it's really funny. Hope you all have a great, stress-free weekend!
I'm so glad it's the weekend. Work went pretty well yesterday, I suppose. I had to scramble in the morning to get some meeting materials ready for Liz. Liz told me once about someone's comment that I'm the girl who "walks fast" at work, and that is true, especially when I'm in a hurry; I basically run. But we got the submittals prepared and Liz brought by some chocolates for us as a treat. Yeah! Lol. Then after work we had a social thing to welcome some new people. It ended up being pretty fun, and I found out that one of the guys there went to school with me. We were both like, "...hey, I know you." We talked a little about the old gang and it made me miss everyone. They are all scattered around Texas.
My good friend Andres and I always email each other funny things, to lighten up the work day. We have this code "SB." It stands for "Sinful Bitch." It came from a insult that one of Andres' acquaintances had told his girlfriend after breaking up with her (!), and we thought it was so hilarious that we use it now. So yesterday we were writing each other dumb poems so that the first letter of each line would spell out "You suck," "Sinful Bitch," or "STFU." I was laughing out loud at some points. The day would be a little more monotonous without those funny emails.
Last night started off as a little disappointing, but you know how that goes. C'est la vie. I ended up having fun anyway when I stopped thinking about it. I went blues dancing at the coffee shop. I am not really into blues dancing like I am with Lindy Hop, mainly because I do not know it as well. But it's something I'm learning. I had fun dancing a little and there were decent guys there who weren't all up in my bizness. I actually have a lot of fun just sitting, talking to my friends, listening to the music, and watching other people dance. I didn't get home too late but I stayed up late for no reason, like I was back in college again. Haha.
I don't know what I want to do today. I want to go running but I think that will be an activity for tomorrow. I think I might go window-shopping at that ridiculous mall where I can't afford anything, just to satisfy my shopping cravings (and check out the Borders). Whatever I do, I do not want it to involve spending money. I got paid yesterday and I think that my relocation reimbursement came in, because when I saw my bank statement, I thought, "Whoa...I don't make that much money." I have to check the pay stub today to make sure. If it is, it would be such a blessing because I can horde that in my savings accounts. I don't care what the economists are saying, I want to save. One difficult decision I made is not going to Lindy Exchange in two weeks. I really, really wanted to go. It's not like I don't have the $90 for the registration, it's just I can't justify the cost when I can be saving that money or using $60 of it to buy more memory for my computer (I'm planning on keeping this baby for awhile, so it's worth the investment. Especially since it's so fucking slow). If there were workshops? Totally worth it. But $90 for a couple of dances is exorbitant, it really is. It was a hard decision, and it's worse because my friends are all, "You're not going?" Oh well.
Tonight should be fun though, my friends and I have a good night of swing/jazz-related activities planned. There is a guy performing at Central Market. Then we're going to the coffee shop for some jazz, and hitting up the dance studio for the Lindy/Blues dance afterward. The dance studio is always hit or miss (it's where I used to dance salsa) and I have already informed everyone that the turnout will likely be lame/involving a lot of old people, but you never know.
I need to stop being a lazy ho and get up from here and clean a little. The sun is out and the day promises to be a good one! And yes, I will start Nanowrimo today. Even though it's already November 8, holy crap.
