5 questions

So I like to read blogs, and I've noticed a few bloggers have been posing these 5 questions to themselves and then "tagging" other bloggers. Well, no one has tagged me (b*tches) so I'm going to go ahead and tag myself.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Hmmm, August 1998... I was about to start my freshman year at Auburn. I hadn't actually started school yet because Auburn was still on quarters back then (yes, I am old) and classes didn't start up until we were into September. I may have been going through Sorority Rush, though. That was about as much fun as doing wasabi snooters non-stop for 7 days.

2. What are 5 items on your to-do list?

• Give Maddie a trim and a bath. The mustache and beard are back.
• Finish a project at work that has been marinating for a while (that's what I call it when I put something off...it's "marinating." Clever, right? It's as though my letting the project sit there is making it better, tastier, and more savory than if I had tackled it right away).
• Vacuum the yellow-fur tumbleweeds out of my house. I feel like I'm living in the Old West.
• Clean out my dresser and closet.
• Register this "Webkinz" chihuahua my mom gave me. It's a stuffed chihuahua that I can register in some online community using a code. Once registered, I can feed her and build her a house and stuff. I named her Condoleezza.

3. Snacks I enjoy

I love this question! I do have to be careful though, because once I get going I will just start listing all the many many foods I like, and there's a diff between "food" and "snacks." For example, pizza is food, pizza-flavored combos are snacks. I like both.

Ok, snacks... chips and salsa, M&Ms, animal crackers, fruit roll-ups, trail mix, reese's peanut butter cups, popcorn, interesting fruits like "passion fruit", berries and grapes, popsicles, fudgesicles, gummy worms, crispy veggies with some sort of dipping condiment, like ranch dressing, nutter butters... the way I feel about food, this list could literally go on forever.

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Make my parents and Gavin's parents retire comfortably, pay off the mortgage, meet Barbra and pay her ahead of time to be nice to me, buy a gameday condo in Auburn, ski in Austria and Switzerland, get a nose job, buy a huge nature preserve and adopt lots of dogs from shelters to live there with the dog-loving people I hire to take care of them, send my nieces and nephews to Auburn, give money to Auburn so they build a few parking decks and then name the stadium after me, and buy a skybox at Auburn and FSU and UF for football games.

5. Six places I would live:

San Diego, San Francisco, New York City, Nashville, Birmingham, or Boston.

These lists are fun.... I tag Lindsey, Meg, Nikki (you can do it in a comment on my blog), Holly, and Emily Chappell.

No Me Gustav!

There's a storm a comin'. There's a storm a brewin'. Ever notice how people like to add the "a+apostrophe" when referring to impending storms? I like it.

I mean really. Really folks? I am pretty sure I just fled a nasty Tropical Storm. This one is supposed to strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane by the time it makes landfall (or a "Cat 3" as we Floridians like to say, because, you know, we knowwww hurricanes and like to use exclusive hurricane lingo). That's actually a decent hurricane. Not usually enough to blow your house away, but enough to really inconvenience you and enough to get your insurance company involved.

I guess I am fortunate to live in Tallahassee, where we are a little further inland, but I still stress out because my fam lives in Pensacola. New Orleans is also on Gustav's potential hit list. Good, because, you know, they could really use the rain.

I realize also that Tallahassee is a little right of the potential strike zone as you see it above. This is even more annoying because the projected storm path is always wrong at this stage of the game. I'd rather be in the middle than just to the right at this point. So let's just "keep an eye on it" as the forecasters always say. Silver lining: maybe we'll get out of town and visit some folks.. maybe drink some Hefeweizen and eat some wienerschnitzel in honor of Gustav. Auf wiedersehen!

A couple more pics....

....from the weekend. I thought it would be appropriate to include some pics from the actual wedding reception and not just pics of bars and beerthrooms at Embassy Suites.

Ham Solo

So this weekend I went to Birmingham for the wedding of two of my besties, Lindsey and Brent. I left Friday morning in an attempt to flee the record rains. Unfortunately, Gavin couldn't go because of work, so I had to go it alone. It worked out ok, because I stayed with Meg, who assumed the role of my guardian and arranged all my rides and activities for the weekend. Thanks Meg! I like being your social ward.

Friday afternoon I got to stop over at Katie's to visit with her and her new baby Thomas, who is soooo cute. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics, but trust me, he's cute and tiny. He's only a couple weeks old. So snuggly. Thanks for letting me hold him, KT! He watched Oprah with us, which was riveting, btw. Something about men who have sex change operations and become women, but continue to stay with their wives and families. Basically they go from living as husband and wife to living as lesbian partners. Good show, but Oprah wasn't asking the tough questions that, let's face it, we all want to know about that situation. That could have been groundbreaking TV, but you blew it, Oprah. Thanks, Oprah. Thanks for nothing.

Friday night we went to a fun place called Pub 261, where the band was so accommodating as to allow the bride to take over and sing "Bobby McGee." I think I've seen Lindsey perform that song onstage about 25 times now - somehow she can always sweet talk the band into letting her up there. She rocked it as usual.

Here are some more pics from Friday night: This first one is me with Leah.

This is a nice group shot, although I think Meg is trying to say something. The "double flash" that reduces the red eye threw her.

This is me with the bride and groom! Lindsey and the Brent. We love the Brent!

Saturday we all went to the wedding, and then had a clockradio dance party at the Embassy Suites. We ordered pizza and filled the bathtub with ice and beer. We even played drinking games - how old are we? FABULOUS!

This is Leah and her Heineken light.

This is where the boys congregated.

The beerthroom.

Meg and Holls.
And finally, I had to give a shout out to Charlotte "the poopsmith" Adams, who kept me company at Meg's house while the bridesmaids did their thing. I love ya baby!

So it was a great weekend! I am exhausted. Congrats again to the happy couple - I wish I were in Jamaica right now. So now we start another work week and look forward to the next big party in October, and then again in November, and of course FOOTBALL IS BACK....

Olympic fever.

So, I love me some Olympics. So do my sisters, Nikki and Maria, and we definitely get this from my mom, who has loved them for as long as I can remember. In fact, she has been known to purchase new and bigger televisions solely in anticipation of the Olympics and all their glory. My dad (Jack) somehow managed to avoid this before the current Olympiad, probably because they have maxed out as far as screen size and HD capability.

Yes, my mom (Ann) is probably the biggest (and by far the most vocal) Olympic fan of all of us. She doesn’t discriminate between the Winter and Summer Games, either. In the Winter her favorite event is of course the figure skating. Men, women, and pairs. In the Summer it’s the gymnastics and the swimming/diving events. It’s not just the sports we love - it's the drama...
Let me share some Olympic mems from my childhood.

1984 - Mary Lou Retton won the Women’s All-Around Gymnastics gold medal! I was only 4, but I remember the excitement around the house. I also remember a Mary Lou poster on the fridge and several boxes of Mary Lou Wheaties on the table. See above. Mary Lou was my hero! Actually, I don’t actually recall Mary Lou being my hero as much as I recall my mom telling me (and others) that Mary Lou was my hero ...... I just realized this morning (Mary Lou was on the Today show) that Mary Lou was probably more my mom’s hero that year, but she liked to tell people that her hero was Mother Theresa, so I inherited Mary Lou as my hero. That’s fine - she’s cool.

1988 - We’re still in the middle of the cold war. All I really remember about this year was my mom rooting against the athletes from the communist countries, hoping they would choke so that the Americans could win the gold and teach the world a lesson about freedom. Poor Katarina Witt from East Germany. It wasn’t her fault. She won gold anyway. I remember because she skated to "Bad" by Michael Jackson, which we thought was sooo cool, and then hated ourselves for liking it.

1992 - Barcelona! This was the year we really got back into gymnastics. It was the year Kim Zmeskal and Shannon Miller and Betty Okino ruled for the US. I remember we thought they were all normal sized until we found out their actual heights. They were all like under 5 feet, except for Betty Okino, who was like 5'2 and towered over everyone else. I remember Maria saying she thought Betty Okino was like 6'1. What are these folks up to, anyway? I need to look them up.

1994 - The 1994 Olympics - more like drama-lympics. This was the year Tanya Harding’s husband hired someone to club Nancy Kerrigan’s knee. Mom thought NK was a brat. I concur.

1996 - Atlanta! I was 16 and sooo excited the Olympics were in Atlanta. As if we were going to get front row tickets or something as Pensacolians. Anyway, the women’s gymnastics team won the gold this year after Kerri Strug stuck the landing on her vault on one leg. Tears! I caught it all for posterity on my VCR. This was my last Olympics at home, too. Sad.

Since then I’ve been watching but never as intently as when I did during the aforementioned years. Anyway, I’m back into it this year bigtime... everyone tune in tonight for the women’s gymnastics all-around. The two Americans are the best and favored to take the Gold and Silver. One of them will grace the Wheaties box for a new generation.

Lifetime movie weather

So today was kind of dreary and rainy. The perfect day to snuggle up on the couch with a steamy hot beverage, assorted chocolate items, a blanky, and ....... a Lifetime movie.

It's a uniquely American female thing, the Lifetime movie. They can be found on two networks now, Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network. While I wouldn't recommend renting them or paying actual money to see them, there is an appropriate time and place for a good LM. Luckily, you can find one at any moment. They are ALWAYS on.

I have fond memories of the Lifetime Movie from my last 2 years in college. My 3 roomies and I had limited funds and therefore limited cable, so Sudan and Holly and I (Kristin used to say "I can't believe y'all watch that sh*t") would snuggle down on the couch together on those lazy hungover Sundays, eat tater tots, and watch the h*ll out of some Lifetime.

Now, a good Lifetime movie must contain the following:

1) A good "Men Are Evil and Will Hurt You Because This is Lifetime" theme. If it's a LM, someone is getting beat up, cheated on, knocked up and abandoned, videotaped without her knowledge, left at the altar, and worse. Drama-licious.

2) A headlining washed up actor or actress who previously enjoyed moderate fame as a sitcom or drama series star. L.A. Law, 90210, and Melrose Place alums are all over this genre. Specific examples include, but are not limited to, Harry Hamlin, Fred Savage, Candice Cameron, Delta Burke, Brooke Shields, the list goes on and on.

3) An overly explanatory title. Examples: "The Babysitter's Seduction," "Another Woman's Husband," "True Life Stories - Baby Snatcher," "Baby for Sale," and "My Stepson, My Lover." They don't exactly make us guess at what the plot may hold.

Speaking of plots, sometimes these can get deliciously out of control. Like the one where Harry Hamlin played Santa's evil miserly corporate CEO son who lives in Manhattan for some reason and tries to take over the North Pole ("Like Father, Like Santa"), or the one where the girl from "Smallville" gets fed up with marriage pressure and decides to marry herself ("I Me Wed"). Well of course.

But let's be honest here. The weirder and more dramatic the better. As a friend of mine said today, "They're so bad they're good."

Yay for the Lifetime Movie!

Mountains!

Well today we ventured into Ogden, Utah for our business meeting. It is a very cool town ... it used to be a mining town in the days of the wild west, and driving down main street you feel like you are in the middle of a western, only there is electricity and nonviolent commerce and stuff. Anyway, on the way back to Salt Lake, we took the scenic route and drove up into the mountains, where I got to take some pics. Check them out!

Tomorrow, bright and early, we head back to Tallahassee. I'm so ready to see my Snookie-bear. This is how sad he is without me on our anniversary....

Awwwwwwww.

Lata!

Utah trip

Hey! Well here I am in Salt Lake City! Very nice place.... I am really enjoying the mountain range scenery. Today we drive up into Ogden to do some business so I should have a chance to take some pics for the blog.

A comment. The beer here in Utah contains only half the alcohol of regular beer. WTF.

For example, if you order a bud light, you get a bottle of beer-like liquid that is modified so that the alcohol content is less than that of a regular bud light. Again, WTF. It can't be said enough. I object.

ALSO - yesterday was Gavin's b-day and today is our 4th Anniversary!!! I hate that we can't be together today, but we have some fun stuff planned for the weekend so I think it will be ok. If you see my man, though, make sure you wish him a belated 29th (!!!) birthday...

U-Ta!

Reunion recap

So I went to the old 10 year reunion and it was fun. I saw some folks I really wanted to see, and also got to visit with Jack and Ann, who were also so kind to doggy sit for the evening. All in all, a good experience. I had posted pic of me with my pals Holly and Michael but my computer wouldn't post it last night - I think it was an internet connection thing. Anyway, Michael and I go wayyyyyy back to pre-school, and he currently lives in Boston, so it was really great to see him and his wife Shannon. Gavin was such a trooper; he got all my drinks and took all the pictures.

What else.... going to Salt Lake City, Utah for work this week! That should be fun and latter day saintastic. Woo hoo! Going to do a little marketing, look at some mountains, drink some half-alcohol beer, turn down some marriage proposals... the usual. It should be fun and interesting to see the mountains in the summer, so I'm looking forward to that. Too bad I have to miss both my husband's birthday AND my four-year anniversary (that is correct) but you know, got to bring home that bacon. Well, better scoot. It's getting late, so I'm going to pack it in - I'll fill you in on the visit to Utah later on this week... Cheers!

Time Warp

So tomorrow I head to Pensacola for my 10 year high school reunion. I have to be honest here… I almost totally bailed on this. In fact, a couple days ago I would have told you that I definitely was not going. This is weird, because I had been pumped about it and had even blogged about it. But as it got closer and closer, I started to lose interest, mostly because work has been so crazy and I’m exhausted, but also because I just felt like it would be awkward. Most things are awkward for me. It’s a problem I have that I didn’t used to have but that’s a whole separate blog post.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking. My general philosophy in life is to err on the side of doing things rather than staying home, because you never know when something significant might happen or when you might make a memory. In 10 or 20 years I won’t remember what I did on a random Saturday night, but I will probably remember the reunion, for better or worse. I might think the whole thing is totally lame, but then again, I might reconnect with some folks I used to hang with 100 years ago, and to miss out just to be lazy would be a shame, and I know me, and I know I’d regret it. And there’s alcohol and I’ll see the fam, so it won’t be a total loss. So off we go. Cheers!

Another pro: blog fodder. Stay tuned!