Things I am excited about in the New Year

Wow, folks. Time is a mysterious dimension. I can’t believe it’s already almost 2009. John Lennon was way right when he said that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. We've got to make every moment count.

Gavin and I are looking at our 5th wedding anniversary this year, and our 30 birthdays. I’m going to cry about that one, because I’m still so young and hip at heart. Ok, not really, because even when I was genuinely young, I never was hip, but I tried. I feel like I’ve always been kind of hip in a geeky, pun-loving way. Right friends? Right. Well, 30th birthday or not, here are some things I’m really looking forward to in ’09.

1) Erin and Adam’s wedding in Tampa in a couple weeks. FUN! Gavin and I go to an absurd number of weddings, and we love every single one we go to.

This one will be great because we will see all our old law school friends again. I am also especially excited about this wedding because Adam and Erin first got to know each other at our wedding. So basically this wedding is happening all because of me.

In light of that, I’m pretty sure this one has serious “I’m going to get out of control with my old cohorts knowing that I’ll wake up feeling like the cat I ran over last month but not caring because alcohol and nostalgia are involved” potential. So, definitely check back for pictures.

2) Las Vegas in February. The team is in training, getting ready for the big trip.

Imagine a musical montage if you will, (a la “Rocky” or “Team America”). The song is “Eye of the Tiger” and each member of Team Vegas is engaged in various preparatory activities:

• Leah is practicing blackjack (she’s a high stakes player, which intrigues me);
• I am bringing the pain at the gym, trying to get my stamina up for the late nights, sweating on the elliptical, lifting weights, drinking beer instead of Gatorade between reps;
• April is assiduously browsing, purchasing, and reading Las Vegas travel books, taking notes while listening to Elton on the ipod;
• Meg is doing tai chi or yoga;
• Holly is hitting a large punching bag.

3) Vacation with Gavin. We are thinking about doing something low key this year, meaning that we are not going to Europe like we have the past two years. We will prob do a beachy-type relaxing vacation in the spring. Can’t wait!

4) Football season. I’m tentatively adding this as something I’m looking forward to, but let’s face it. It’s going to be difficult for Auburn to show absolutely no improvement over last year. And even if they crash and burn again, I still have tailgating activities to enjoy for FSU and Florida.

5) Visits with friends and family throughout the year. I'm pretty sure the rest of my crazy college pals that aren't making the Vegas trip will plan a get-together at some point this year, and we will make trips to visit family on weekends, as we always do.

I’m sure there are many more things that will happen in 2009 to make the year a great one. I am going to start thinking about resolutions to make the year even better. I will post them when I come up with a healthy list.

Back!

Wow - sorry I was away for so long... the holidays hit me like a blitzing linebacker, along with all the parties and social engagements, then things at work turned to pandemonium at an inconvenient juncture, and then we had to hurry and pack it up and head down to central FL for Christmas, so I haven't had time to blog, but I am back in business.

Ok, first of all, we had a great Christmas in Deland with the rest of the Burgi. Here are some highlights:

1) Going to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Folks, I love roller coasters. Love them love them, and the more extreme the better. So while we were in the neighborhood, I convinced Gavin, my cousin-in-law Giffin, and Giffin's wife Mari to take me to this awesome theme park. We purchased express passes (worth every penny) that enabled us to skip all the super long lines and I rode all the big rides twice. Here are some pics!


Here's me with Giffin and Mari in front of the Hulk ride. I rode it thrice.

Here's me in Cartoon-land. I often use the fist-in-air move to convey frustration when my own plots are foiled, so this text bubble seemed to be designed just for me.



Here's some pics of me and my Chinchilla; both of us were drenched from the Jurassic Park ride.

2) Playing the Wii with the fam. One of my other cousins-in-law, Erin, was awesome enough to bring over her Wii to share with the rest of us. I love this thing! I got so into the tennis and bowling. It is just a matter of time before I own one. Just a matter of time.

3) The Chia pet. A few weeks ago, Gavin's brother Garrick had a Christmas party complete with Dirty Santa. Everyone had to bring a $20 gift, so I purchased a Chia Pet as our gift (hilarious!) and Gavin's dad ended up with it. My father-in-law joked about how he was going to re-gift it, which prompted me to present him with a challenge: I want to see some serious chia fur by the time I get there for Christmas. Well, this is what awaited me when I arrived. Glorious! I want one now... one of my very own.


4) Hanging with friends and family. Friday night we got to hang out with our old friends Gareth and Vanessa, along with their families, and a bunch of Gavin's other old friends from high school. We also got to visit with family and just relax and have fun. It was such a great week.

So tomorrow it's back to the old grind, but at least we have the new year to look forward to. I am thinking about New Years Resolutions, so check back!

Completely random thoughts

I'm going to be all over the place with this post.

1) First things first: my third round of rabies shots is Wednesday, thanks everyone for your support. Still no symptoms, so I daresay I did not CATch rabies, at least not this this go-round. My dogs have been clingier lately, like they sense we have more in common these days. I can also confirm that I have no supercatpowers. That dream is officially over. Probably for the best, as it would be annoying to be allergic to myself.

2) Auburn made a head-scratching decision for coach, but he's cute and fiery and I'm getting behind him. Nothing else to do. I've agonized over the firesignation of Tommy Tuberville enough and it's time to move on. Go get 'em Mean Gene!

3) With all the cat murder and rabies scare drama going on, I failed to blog about my one-year bloggiversary. It was last Wednesday! Shout-out to all my muses, including but not limited to: Taco, Stinky, Maddie and Sugs, my crazy college friends, my family members, and of course, my sweet chinchilla Gavin.

I've blogged 128 times over a year, so that's about one post every 2.8 days. I'm proud of myself for staying with it. A lot of bloggers bail by now. I look at it as a nice little hobby. Looking back over the past year, so much has happened on this blog: Maddie's snout tumor, agility class pupdates, brilliant political analysis, my obsession with Taco, trips, weddings, catricide... I've compiled a list of some highlights.

Young, eager med student, at your cervix.
Springsteen and Streisand
Posts about Taco and my obsession with him
I could bearly believe it
Team Vegas
Chicago Review
Posts about Stinky
Posts about Maddie's agility classes

Anyway, lots going on this week: book club meeting, Gavin's office Christmas party, and hopefully some weekend relaxation is just around the corner. Ta for now, be seeing you.

Third day post-bite, and I'm feline pretty good.

Total number of rabies shots endured so far: 4 (3 Wednesday, 1 today)

Total number of rabies shots to go: 3

Superpower cat characteristics exhibited: 0 (I woke up Thursday morning desiring milk which made me hopeful, but that took me nowhere except cerealtown.)

Regular cat characteristics exhibited: 1. Irritation with humans (particularly those running Auburn) check.

I'm not kitten around.

So listen to what happened to me today. I moseyed on out to my car at lunch to go run some errands. I got in, cranked her up, pulled forward, and... bump. I turned around. There was DEFINITELY a little tiny furry kitten writhing around on the ground where my tire was just an instant before. I was horrified.

So I pulled into a nearby space and ran over to the scene of the accident. Kitten breathing. Kitten moving around. Kitten in distress. What do I do??!! The kitten wasn't bleeding, so I picked it up, cradled it, and ran inside the building to ask someone else what to do and of course make my problem all of a sudden everyone else’s too. Do I take it to the vet? Does someone know cat CPR? Is it too late?

I was lucky to encounter the downstairs receptionist, Lisa, who grew up on a farm. She took the cat from me, took a look, and let me down easy that the kitten was definitely dying and there was probably nothing the vet could do. A few seconds later the kitten stopped moving. No pulse. Lisa wrapped it up and gave it to a runner to put in the dumpster.

At this point, tears were flowing, but I went to the bathroom to wash up and got back in my car. I was feeling terrible at this point, thinking, not only am I a cat murderer, but I also had to involve practically the whole law firm and disrupt commerce.

So as I’m driving away, I remember that the kitten bit me on the arm as I was taking him inside. I barely noticed at the time, because, you know, tiny teeth, adrenaline. But I started thinking about it and decided to call the doctor because, you never know. Fast forward 10 minutes and I’m in the special vaccination clinic waiting for a rabies vaccine, thinking, wow... things sure got out of control fast. Three shots and a prescription for stiff antibiotics later, (and four more periodically administered shots to go) here I sit, recounting my tale of catricide.

It’s pretty funny when you think about it, provided I’m not rabid and minus the dead kitten part. But there’s a bright side no matter what. Maybe rabies will make me cooler and more popular, kind of like Michael J. Fox in TeenWolf. Maybe I’ll take on cat qualities. You know.... sleep under cars, become cold and aloof, appear on Broadway for nine years straight. Perhaps some good will come of all this.

In the meantime, I’ll keep you all posted on my condition.

"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and ...... I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing"

No, it's not Britney Spears talking about her virginity circa 1998. I thought that at first, too. No no, it's an actual quote (alleged I should say, from an FBI wiretap) from the governor of Illinois, talking about how best to go about profiting financially from his responsibility to appoint Obama's successor in the U.S. Senate.

This is really staggering news, folks. WOW. There's so much to say about this. How about I offer my commentary and a little Monday-morning quarterbacking advice for the gov.

Dear Bad News Blagojevich:

1. What is up with the hair? I can't tell if you live at the governor's mansion or down at the Pike house. How about a biyearly trim? You could learn a thing or two from another wayward politician in your party, John Edwards. He always looks fizzzine.

No.

Hey there.... what's your name...

2. What's with the language? I mean, it's one thing to flagrantly pimp out a U.S. Senate seat for your own personal financial and political gain, but all the bleepity bleeping.... that's just poor form.

3. How did you think you could plot and scheme like this so openly with people and not get busted? I mean, reading these quotes makes it clear to me that you are a total a-hole, and guess what, people aren't always rarin' to go down with the a-hole ship. No one likes you. You have a 13% approval rating in a completely blue state! This was out-and-out, full-blown, unmitigated narcissism. Fascinating!

4. Let me take another look at you. Yes. You look a little like Rudy to me. That's weird. Well, you will be riding the bench for awhile.....
























Anyway, if you haven't read up on this character, please check out the articles. It's astounding to me that someone could be so arrogant as to think he has ownership of a United States Senate seat, rather than the people of Illinois, and can sell it to the highest bidder! Make fun of him on your blogs - consider it your civic duty.

Team Vegas Recruitment Update

Friends, I am happy to report that our recruitment efforts have yielded an exciting addition to Team Vegas. Meet the new recruit!


Holly:
Age: 27
Occupation: Executive Assistant
Interests: Auburn football, Atlanta, reality television, dogs, reading, office supplies shaped like animals, pumpkin spice lattes
Activities: Wine consumption, boot camp, physical altercations with strangers who pick on her friends, blogging, being a Republican, mooning (sure to be lots of fun in Vegas - we are excited about this recruit - quite the coup.)

We also want to give a shout out to the husbands who gave us the green light to head to Vegas to have fun with the girls and spend the hard-earned family money while they each stay home with two dogs apiece. Thanks guys!!

Gavin!
Brett!
Matt!

Thanks guys! There is definitely a t-shirt in it for each of you.

Team Vegas

Well, since I don’t have enough going on, and I really don't feel like I do enough traveling, a few of my peeps and I have decided to cast caution to the wind and go to Las Vegas!

We are heading out there in February and I am pumped. We are going to see Elton John at Caesar’s Palace and otherwise just engage in various forms of tomfoolery, diablerie, high jinx, roguery, balderdash, nonsense, piffle… whatever comes our way.

Meet the team!

Me
Age: 29
Occupation: Attorney
Interests: Auburn football, books, internet, husband, beer, NY, dogs.
Activities: Schadenfreude, being sarcastic, whatever, you people know this.

Meg:
Age: 29
Occupation: Regional property manager
Interests: Auburn football, the proper care, feeding, and fashion trends of Dachshunds, pop culture literature, Netflix, Showtime programming, margaritas, decks and/or porches.
Activities: Blogging, reading, movie viewing, margarita consumption, avoiding pickles, cantaloupe, and grapefruit.

April:
Age: 27
Occupation: Psychologist
Interests: Auburn football, psychology, the art of sleeping comfortably, cable, beer, wine, communism.
Activities: Shopping, avoiding other people’s pets, acrimonious political debate, tripping over things, being hilarious.

Leah:
Age: 28 (but soooo close to being 29)
Occupation: Attorney
Interests: Auburn football, German engineering, beer, red wine, stuffed horses, Europe stuff.
Activities: People watching, beer/wine consumption, gardening, blog stalking, general smart-person stuff, being sophisticated and cultural.

You might note some glaring holes in the roster (Kristin, Lindsey, Holly, Sudan, Katherine, Katie). Indeed, we are in the process of recruiting more team members. However, in the meantime, I leave you with the words of Gene Hackman from one of my all time favorite movies, Hoosiers (with some adjustments as appropriate):

“I would hope you’d support who we are, not who we are not. These six (four) individuals have made the choice to work (party), the choice to sacrifice (buy plane tickets), to put themselves on the line twenty three nights (three nights) for the next four months (in the next two months) to represent you, this high school (themselves, for fun). This is your team.”

Amen.

Stinky strikes again.

I mean really. Yet another nemesis I cannot defeat.

Friends, just the other night, I once again found myself fighting the olfactory battle I thought I had lost for the last time, with Stinky, pouncing on the machine right next to mine in gym Siberia. Like a rat on a cheeto.

Stinks, I know not your reasons for eschewing artificial (and/or natural) body odor control altogether. The truth is, I respect that life decision, and I try to live with it. I try to locate you upon entering the gym so I can isolate you, but sometimes you get to the gym after me. I feel like maybe in another, more fragrant life we could be friends. As it stands, we need time apart. Far apart.

There is no solution. I take that back. Deodorant is the solution. Oh well.


Later.