Curious Notions

I got back last night from Houston. I stayed a good 5 days! I slept a lot, ate a lot, met up with a lot of Houston friends I haven’t seen in a long time and I’m kind of sad to go back into work tomorrow. I’m sure it’s still crazy. I am happy to see the bf though.

I’m doing laundry and I was looking forward to uploading the pictures from my week in Houston only to find out I left my battery charger for my camera at home. Boo. I did take two single photos with my cell phone so I leave you with two cellular photos.

Kim, Chris and I went to Uptown Park to see the tree lighting and watch the fireworks. Poor Chris couldn’t find parking in time so he saw the fireworks from his car. Alone. Hee. Something about fireworks makes you want to hold someone’s hand, right? The best I could do was take a cell phone picture to send to Alan but apparently his phone doesn’t receive pictures. It wasn’t all in vain though, now I have a pic to blog :).

Another picture text that never made it to his phone. I hung out with Thomas my first night back and he introduced me to this sweet pug. He took a liking to me and relaxed on my lap most of the night. Look it that tongue!

I’m leaving for Houston as soon as I post this and will not have internet til I get back which will be Saturday. Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. It’s a great holiday.

This past Saturday my brother made us a turkey and hosted dinner. We came bearing sides. Here’s a photo dump to last til next time.

Green bean casserole

corn bread dressing

Britney’s cheese biscuits

The before. Bourbon and Honey.

Mmm!! Creme Brulee

One of my brother’s lego creations

This picture makes me laugh out loud.

Little rascal and me.

The after.

At least I still find time to eat.

Here’s from dinner on Tuesday with Nisreen after our workout and before I went back into work. Deesh and Bing joined us even though they didn’t really eat. It’s not a new place but it’s a place we go to often. Sea Dragon. Vietnamese Restaurant. I usually get the Ca Kho (catfish simmered in fish sauce and sugar) because it reminds me of my childhood but that night I settled on the fried tofu in coconut milk curry. Which is a’ite. I’m partial to my mommy’s. I like the restaurant. Over 100 dishes you can choose from.

Crab puffs.

Steamed dumplings. These taste SO much better left over.

Nisreen’s vermicelli bowl.

The curry. It was pretty good but in terms of why I ordered it (I miss my mom), it doesn’t hold a candle.

Dave just wished me a happy world philosophy day.

Happy World Philosophy Day!

They’re all so pretty. I just noticed youtube has google ads on the videos now.

Chris Brown’s Forever:

Lil Wayne’s Lollipop:

Shop Boyz’ Party like a Rock Star:

Yesterday, I took my little to see a performance by the Mermaid Theatre from Canada. Should really click on this link to see images from the show. Those images are exactly what you see during the show. It kills me that they’re puppets! The puppeteers dress like ninjas so you can’t see them in front of the black backdrop and a black light to make the puppets that are painted with fluorescent paint pop. After the show, you get to meet the puppets in lighting. They’re mostly carved from foam and covered in fabric, then painted. It didn’t look like a puppet show at all but rather a digital projection. Pretty cool. It’s too bad you can’t take pictures in the Paramount.

Kate took her little to the same show. She’s in Houston for a while for work and she brought up another Houston high school friend of mine. After the show, we both dropped off our littles and then met at her place with Alex and her roommate, also a high school friend Brooke. We all picked up foods from different places, plopped down at her kitchen table, and had a impromptu high school reunion perfect for busy girls. ALL of us except for the two Houston girls have not seen each other for MONTHS and we could just sit down and quickly catch up in an hour and a half’s time.

I took a picture of our 4 different meals. I’m not very tall and this was the best I could do before we devoured our meals.

Kate

Brooke

Alex

me

So funny thing about this song. Bing shared it with me today. I shared it with Mary Ellen because I could see it as an overlap in our taste. She told me she sent me this song a bazillion years ago and I told her I didn’t like it. We searched out gmail history and sure enough.

12:27 pm on July 25,2008 she sent me an email linking that song.

1:30 pm I sent her an IM telling her “I’m not a BIG fan of that song.”

:) Oops.

Lyrics:

And it starts…
sometime around midnight
or at least that’s when
you lose yourself
for a minute or two

As you stand…
under the barlights
and the band plays some song
about forgetting yourself for a while
and the piano’s this melancholy soundcheck
to her smile
And that white dress she’s wearing
you haven’t seen her
for a while

But you know…
that she’s watching
She’s laughing, she’s turning
she’s holding her tonic like a crux
The room suddenly spinning
she walks up and asks how you are
so you can smell her perfume
you can see her lying naked in your arms

And so there’s a change…
in your emotions
and all of these memories come rushing
like feral waves to your mind
of the curl of your bodies
like two perfect circles entwined
and you feel hopeless, and homelss
and lost in the haze
of the wine

And she leaves…
with someone you don’t know
but she makes sure you saw her
she looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
your blood boiling
your stomach in ropes
and when your friends say what is it
you look like you’ve seen a ghost

And you walk…
under the streetlights
and you’re too drunk to notice
that everyone is staring at you
and you so care what you look like
the world is falling
around you

You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her

and you know that she’ll break you
in two

So Quantum of Solace is good but if you could wait til after you refresh on what happened in Casino Royale, then I’d wait. It’s closely tied to the previous movie and I felt lost for a good portion of the movie. I also saw the porn movie, Thursday night. Cute.

I went into work earlier today to get some work done before the movie. I ended up not working at all! Got caught up with the never ending distractions the internet provides. Which means I sabotaged my Sunday. After I get up early to babysit, I’m taking my little to see a performance of The Hungry Caterpillar at the Paramount which puts me into the evening before I’m free and able to finish all the paperwork I need done by Monday. Ugg.

I still need to shower before bed. I hate getting naked in the winter :(

I had a lovely night with the bf last night. We had a late dinner downtown of udon noodles and sushi and then he took me to Cork & Co. I’d never been before. I tried out a Riesling wine flight. I like that they’re called flights. I’ve never been that taken by wine before. I’ve enjoyed a few glasses but never have they been so smooth for me and so delicious. I think I found a new favorite kind of wine. Alan also treated me to truffles. Truffles! Talk about wining and dining a girl. Anyway, I liked the place. It’s a more quaint and quiet version of The Tasting Room in Houston.

They brought me 3 to sample. Mmm.

The aftermath.

When we got home, he watched Desperate Housewives with me.

:) Awww.

Work’s been kicking my ass lately and will continue to do so til maybe end of December. It comes in waves, the craziness at work. I have a weight loss study at work that is currently enrolling and anytime that’s happening I’m usually feeling overwhelmed and stretched.

I wasn’t able to have even a few minutes to run to the mail room to drop off my Netflix envelopes. I’m hooked on Heroes season 1 and want my DVDs earlier. So when I finally finished with patients (lunch time), I drove to the nearest mailbox which was down the street. It was when I came back and was going back up to work from the parking garage when I noticed my back bumper is popped off. I tried to push it back in but it wouldn’t budge. Then It came back to me. This weekend. We were out and someone else was parallel parking my car when we heard a crunch. We all looked at the back of my car but in the dark I guess we missed it. That and didn’t know the SIDE of the bumper would be the main victim.

So I went to check out the back of my car and sure enough, there’s evidence of a lost battle with a curb? Maybe? Lots of white paint on the bottom of my bumper and I guess the crunch was from the bumper snapping off at the side and being pushed in. I was feeling overwhelmed at work so this bit just made the day worse for me. I went upstairs to call my dad to set an appointment for the body shop when I get back to Houston for Thanksgiving. He’s a little hard of hearing… so the last of our conversation was seriously, verbatim, just as follows.

Then my brother IMed me:

Jesse: i think u’ve battered ur car in a shorter period of time than i did
well, gotten ur car battered
me: how is this helping?
Jesse: oh, sorry, didnt know