Friday, I spent some quality time with my little from Big Brothers & Big Sisters.
Saturday, I got my oil changed, my transmission fluid flushed, my air filter replaced, my car vacuumed, and tires rotated.
I started packing up my apartment. 7 boxes down!
I wanted to share one of my favorite moving tips. You know the little knick knacks around your apartment? I store my shoes in shoe boxes and there’s a lot of dead space in shoe boxes. Great place for the little knick knacks. Observe.
I also collaborated with my friend, Deesh on a new project.
Finally, I made sure to burn off some steam socializing.
If I were to describe my weekend in one word, I’d pick “productive.”
Question: How would you describe your weekend in one word?
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
I’ve been sick since Saturday. Complete with fever and three days of the sweats and shivers. It not only has ruined my weekend but I can’t stop hacking.
I haven’t kissed Alan in about three weeks. First he was sick, and now I’m sick.
I don’t know where I’m living come August. In a week it’ll be a month from move-out date. I’m moving in with Alan. We only started looking last weekend. We can look again this weekend for places, but next weekend I won’t even be in town.
I turn 28 in exactly a month.
I don’t know how much my new bumper will cost me. I’m taking it to a body shop in Houston next weekend.
I haven’t had coffee in 4 days.
A trip to Canada is suddenly a strong possibility and real soon. Not knowing when and when to ask off is throwing me off.
There’s a lot going on in the upcoming weekends that are inherently fun. Hello? A mini girl’s trip to Dallas? Meeting some Totes Awesome Channel vloggers? Going to Canada? Turning 28? Celebrating mom’s birthday? Moving in with a boyfriend for the first time? It’s just the back to back weekends that are overwhelming me. I have to constantly remind myself that the anxiety comes from juggling very good things.
Not having a spending plan in place for the second half of the year. Without knowing what my rent will look like or how much a dog will cost us, I have no idea what the paycheck breakdown will look like. Oh yes, we’re looking at dogs too.
I haven’t been saving for at least 3 months. I’m such an automatic saver but with car troubles this year and a fun trip to Boston, I haven’t been putting anything in the savings account. This makes me feel a little wonky.
It’s that time of year again! I share with you my personal recap of 2010. This year was much better than 2009 (which was much worse than my 2008). It was a year of recovery and regaining balance. I feel very fondly of 2010 but I’m ready to embrace 2011. Bring it!
Moved out of my 2 bedroom apartment which I shared with Brandi and into a 1 bedroom by my lonesome. Meanwhile, Brandi moved to Dallas for culinary school.
My half sister whom I haven’t seen in over ten years found me on Facebook.
Dressed up as a cop for Halloween.
Auditioned for a travel reality TV show after receiving an email from a casting director. I took Neville as possible partner and he totally outshone me.
A close friend’s brother died unexpectedly. Being with her has been a top priority whenever I’m in Houston. I’ve grown deeper in love for and with her.
Attended annual Christmas Party for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America with my little and her cousin. This is our third year in attendance!
Had hot pot on Christmas day twice. Lunch with Mary Ellen and her mom and her brother, and dinner with my own family. I did exactly this last year for Christmas!
Tomorrow’s plan is to party on a rooftop downtown in celebration of a new and fresh year. A stretch Hummer may have been rented.
Annual Christmas Party with my Little
That was my year! I’m happy to have shared it with you and have your support, comments, and readership. It means an awful lot to me. Thank you!
Question: What are five highlights from your 2010?
I was organizing my box of letters today and I stumbled upon a letter from my friend, Cindy. It wasn’t dated so I couldn’t really cross-reference any of my running records to see why she was so encouraging. Regardless, it was such a sweet letter. Recently, I’ve been soul-searching to see if I give back as much as I receive. I was worried that maybe I’m a crummy friend. Re-reading this letter was reassurance that I have done some stuff right. Which means, I just need to keep an eye on who I want to be and continue to reach. Here’s the letter. Shared with permission.
Dearest Linda,
Another year has passed, meaning a full year tacked on to our friendship. In the past year:
- You’ve shown the meaning of a true friendship. Not necessarily with your actions directed towards me, but also with the way you treat your other friends. I know very few people who are as loyal, caring, or genuine as you are. A true gem amongst friends.
- You’ve shown more strength than you will ever know. I know you feel like you’ve regressed, but I’ve never seen someone fight as much as you have for emotional peace of mind. You’re stronger than you think, and I know you’ll make it through. It’ll take time, but I know you’ll make it.
- You’ve shown me how to appreciate the little things in life. You have no idea how much this has changed the way I carry myself in my own little cynical world. In this way, you’ve literally changed my life.
- You’ve taught me to love the people around me, and most of all, to love life itself and all that it can offer for me. For that, there’s no amount of words that I could say to thank you.
Here’s to another year my dear.
Ti voglio bene,
Cindy
My heart was thoroughly warmed today when I read this letter. Sometimes it’s hard to not let the bad things people say about you outweigh the good things people say about you. Having tangible rave reviews around for those days is good for the spirit.
Question: How do you take criticism? Do you fixate on them? Ignore them?
Day 13 of bane of my existence, I mean, National Blog Posting Month. I list my quirks.
Quirks
I drink coffee with straws.
I like doing things at the 0 or 5 mark on the clock. Meaning, if it’s 7:23 and I need to go shower, I would wait til 7:25. If I miss it, I’d wait til 7:30 and so forth.
I like a glass of milk with my ramen.
It bothers me when correspondences are not dated because I feel obligated to keep the envelopes they came in. You know, because the the postmarks will date the pieces of mail.
Dates are so important to me.
When I order photo prints online, I use my journals, chat archives, google calendar, facebook photo albums and text messages to accurately place my photos in the albums in chronological order.
When people repeat a line or word more than 3 times consecutively, it seriously gets me twitchy.
Thank you,Bestie again for letting me piggy-back on your blog topics.
Question: What kind of milk drinker are you? 2 percent? Skim? Whole? Soy? Almond?
I’m killing myself over here. I took on this challenge of blogging everyday in November. So far, 8 or 9 days in, I’m doing okay and haven’t missed a day but only just barely and not without anxiety and developing a twitch. I had mad blog block already on Day 2 and struggled throughout the rest of the first week. My bestie (who I’ve roped into doing this with me and isn’t having a hard time at all) is about to kill me. My first tough day, Day 2, she gave me countless ideas on what to blog about and I nixed them all. I remained infuriatingly disengaged. She told me to blog about voting and I told her no way. I do not have anything to say about voting except to say I was going to vote, therefore I won’t blog about voting. I dillydallied and struggled and held out. What happened late evening on Day 2? I fricking blogged about voting.
Today, Day 9 is also another excruciatingly bad day. I finally gave my neglected food blog some love and blogged a full post (as opposed to just posting pictures) and it left me tapped out for today’s post on this blog. Bestie kept telling me I can just post a note on this blog directing you to my food blog. Seriously, that makes sense right? It IS a blog post written TODAY by ME, only just on a different blog. Right?! But no, that gave me anxiety. I’m no perfectionist and find that perfectionism can creatively block you. However, for some reason this gave me the same frustrations as a 4 year old perfectionist who is crumbling in tears because she colored outside the lines in her coloring book. I did NOT want to deflect today’s blog post to my food blog post because they are MIXING. The challenge was for my personal blog; I cannot deflect to my food blog! Doesn’t this remind you of those people who freak out when their mashed potatoes are touching their meatloaf?
Sigh. So instead having a blog post about how my post for the day will be at my food blog, I decided to make it about how this gives me anxiety. This is my loophole. Go check out my food blog – I blogged about Vince Young Steakhouse.
Embarrassing and shameful confession. I almost bailed on voting this year. However, my best friend reminded me that it was my patriotic duty and pushed and nagged.
Thank goodness for people who push you to be a better person/citizen.
One of my closest friends lost her brother this week. It has me aching for her and her family. She and I lived together for three years, went to high school and college together. Our families ask about each other every time we meet up. My parents think of her as a daughter. He used to visit us in college and take us out for Valentine’s Day. All my memories of him are fond and joyful. Last time I saw him was August 8 and like everyone in his family, he gives great hugs. I wish there was something I can do to alleviate the family’s pain.
Life is fleeting. Live and love hard.
2.
I’m feeling a little tore up. Here’s what my schedule looked like for the past week. It’ll explain why.
Last Friday: Worked 9am – 10pm. We hosted that conference. 5 hours of sleep.
Saturday: Worked/hosted a conference: 7am – 10pm. 4 hours of sleep.
Sunday: Worked /hosted a conference: 7am – 2pm. 5pm-7pm: shopped for Alan’s birthday.
Monday: Worked 9am-5pm.
Tuesday: Worked 9am-5pm. 6pm-8pm: Baked a pretty cake shaped like a big Oreo for birthday boy. 12am: Birthday breakfast/dinner. 5 hours of sleep.
Wednesday: Worked 9am-5pm. 7:30pm: Birthday dinner with Alan and his parents. 10pm: Out for birthday drinks with Alan & his roomies. 1 hour of sleep? If that?
Thursday: Worked 9am-5pm. 8pm: Group birthday dinner for Alan. 10pm-1am out for drinks again.
And here we are. I slept through my alarm but still made it on time for work. I’m feeling tore up.
3.
Some pictures from his birthday:
I must add, I’m so very happy he was born.
4.
Alan’s new place is really close to downtown so we’ve been extra good about taking cabs when we go out instead of recruiting a designated driver. The increase of cab use has widened my experience with cabbies. It used to be just a holiday experience. In the last two months I’ve come across two creepy cabbies. One was a leering creep and the other one was blatantly inappropriate. He went as far as mentioning how women should be so lucky and grateful to sexually service men. In hindsight, we should have grabbed his information but each time we just huffed and puffed (we meaning me and the other girl in both cases) and stormed out.
These newer experiences reminds me of the other pervy creeps running rampant on the dirty side of Sixth St. I don’t frequent the dirty side of Sixth St anymore as it’s a younger crowd and truly just dirty. However, I’ve frequented it often enough to know that when you go out with just girls or if you happen to be separate temporarily, it’s alarming how many gropers will sneak feels and flee.
I’ve newly resolved to throw more scenes and be more vocal and quick to act.
5.
Yesterday, a nice German man thought he could pick me up by telling me he likes Asia and that he knows someone from Bangkok. He was serious, too. And truly, he was a nice guy. Just misguidedly offensive.
6.
I had my first experience with absinthe this week. Tasted like black licorice. It was actually delicious for the first few sips but is too empowering a flavor for me to order regularly. Not that it’s a drink you see on the menu regularly anyhow.
Tuesday morning, a library I spent many many hours in as an undergraduate made national news. A 19 year old student shot a few rounds from an AK-47 on campus, didn’t hit anyone, then ran into the library and shot himself. I work on campus. The university was terrorized the next four hours as SWAT and Texas Rangers searched for a possible second shooter. Everyone on campus had a lot of adrenaline and many unleashed their anxiety onto Twitter and Facebook (An apology to my twitter followers for flooding ya’ll). I remained cooped up in my lab with another lab member as she listened to the radio and I stalked Twitter. The university ceased lockdown when it became clear the shooter acted alone. We were left bewildered and a little emotionally exhausted. I have to say it jarred me and made me grateful for life.
I currently have a bunch of books checked out from that library. Eek.
2.
I finally cooked something after a month of hiatus from my stove. It was so therapeutic to create something delicious. When I make the time to cook something and actually am present through the process and not minding my long to-do list, it relaxes me and pacifies my mind chatter. What did I make? Bucatini All’ Amatriciana with Spicy Smoked Mozzarella Meatballs.
3.
A girlfriend from Houston came up for a night on Wednesday and we had a sleepover. It always goes the same way when girls have sleepovers no matter the age. At 17 I remember having sleepovers with girlfriends and talking late into the next morning. Many declarations of, “Okay, for real, good night!” were followed with, “Oh, and…” At 27, it’s the same. I have a fantasy that when we’re all married and with families, we’ll steal away once a year to do the same til we’re 37, and then 47. And then, and then, and then. Here’s hoping.
4.
Mister Bossman and his colleague and I have spent months organizing a regional conference. D-Day is today! I’m working the entire weekend and am hoping it all goes smoothly. This is the first experience I have planning a this big of an event and it was quite a learning experience. I gots new skills to hone!
5.
Alan’s birthday is next week. I’ve spent a total of 6 hours shopping for him and still no idea what I’m going to get him. IDEAS are welcomed. He’s been really good to me. Least I can do is get him a gift for his birthday. Ha!
6.
I had a very welcomed “couch and veg in front of the TV” date last night with Alan. I really needed it; my brain has been super mushy at the end of every work day. I had to run some work errands after work so it was perfect when I got a text from Alan. “I won’t be home til 8.” Relieved with more time I texted back a quick, “Cool.”
I don’t know if my dear boyfriend was disappointed I didn’t question him on his whereabouts but his next text said, “I’m at the range, not at the whorehouse.”
Dude makes me laugh.
7.
Speaking of dude making me laugh. He called last night while I was girl-talk-ing with the girlfriend mentioned in Take 3. I informed him I wasn’t alone to kind of cue him it couldn’t be a long conversation. When he found out who was staying over, he told me to tell her “be careful sleeping.”
“What? Why?”
“Just tell her.”
And then I remembered what happened the last time this friend of mine stayed over and shared my queen sized bed. In the middle of the night, I saw her back and just assumed it was Alan. I sleepily and very lovingly carressed her back. Oops! We all laughed and later that night just to be safe, girlfriend and I kept a pillow in between us.
It’s been one of those weeks at work. You know, where it’s going by SO slowly and at the same time you can’t believe it’s Friday already and still have a mountain of stuff to do before a weekend work event in exactly 7 days. Panic!!
2.
Dates during the week make the week go by faster. Work’s been supremely busy this week and will continue to be so til after next weekend so it was nice to have a home cooked meal by Deesh and Bing on Monday, a delicious seafood meal on a rainy day with my my man on Wednesday, and a date by my lonesome yesterday. I went to see Easy A on my own. Friend date, boyfriend date, date with myself. Good balance, no?
3.
What’s he thinking about? Football? Fantasy football? Where’s our dessert? Ultimate Fighter episode on the DVR? That he wishes date night was every night? All good guesses. :)
4.
The aforementioned dessert was too pretty not to share.
This week’s small indulgences (aside from the dates) include bubble tea, greasy noodles for lunch, pumpkin spice lattes, breakfast burritos, chocolate croissants, and dancing home alone while I clean.
Question: If you could treat yourself to a luxury under 300 dollars right this instant, what would you choose?
Texas native. Living and working in Austin, TX. Twenty something. In hot pursuit of good food, adventure, and laughter. Dreams of owning her own place with a big giant library.
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