Good News and Bad News

Well, this morning on the way out to my car I slipped and fell on some ice. It was lotsa fun to see my knee bend in so many interesting directions all at once. It's killing me. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out. Hopefully I just wrenched it pretty good and didn't sprain it or anything. :o( Bummer. Now you know what I'm worrying about...I can't run!! Today was my running day!!!! :o(

Now for the good news...I actually get to go somewhere fun for work! I get to go to Manhattan Beach, CA for a whole week at the end of March! :o) There is a workshop there and I am going to go and learn bunches of stuff and come back even smarter than I am today. :o) I am so excited. I love Manhattan Beach so much. I'm sure it'll bring back memories of when I lived there a couple years ago! AND I get to visit Dorothy because she lives there now! Yay!!

You Suck. Just Kidding. You're Awesome. Just Kidding.

I read an article in USA today this morning that said that college students today are "more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors." Now the head-shrinkers are saying that instead of always telling kids they are the greatest, we should also try to get them to say it to other people. Approximately 16 thousand students through the years 1982-2006 have taken the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. In 2006, 66% of students that took the survey had above average scores.

Knock those chips off of your shoulders, kids.

Then again, some would argue that having an online journal devoted entirely to yourself and your own life could be considered a tad narcissistic...

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Create your own Friend Quiz here

I'm Melting....Meltiiiiiiiiinnnnnng

Well, I'm reading Wicked right now, and it is totally freaking me out. It is a really good book so far. But the reason I was freaked out is because the author keeps talking about Munchkins getting it on. It was just weird. Aside from that one thing, it is really interesting and fun to read. I've started reading books by another author a lot, Jodi Picoult. My sister bought me her book My Sister's Keeper for Christmas and I loved it. It was sooooo good. And then I read The Tenth Circle, and The Pact. They were all really, really good. All three are dramas, and they definitely touch on some heavy subjects. They all made me cry at some point. Ha ha. But they were still excellent.

Today it is finally warm outside. It is wonderful. I almost wore one of my spring coats today, but I didn't want to jump the gun. It is supposed to get up to 54 degress today! All of the snow is melting and I am so happy. I just checked the weather, and I might actually have a birthday that doesn't include a blizzard! For once! I swear, every year there is a blizzard on my birthday. Right now, CNN says it is supposed to rain. I can handle that. :o)

hmm

I decided that I don't like my job. Don't tell anyone, though.

Do you ever think about your job and wonder if you will ever be truly happy and fulfilled doing what you do? I know it doesn't happen for very many people, but is it wrong for me to want to be someone that loves my job? This morning it was so tough to get out of bed. I swear, I am just so sick of the petty b.s. that is always going on at work. I've had it up to my eyebrows, as my mom would say. I think it is partially due to the fact that I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing. It's a good thing that I really like the people in my office, or I would be s.o.l. bigtime.

And now for some good news, it is going to be in the 50s for the rest of the week here. Thank the Lord! Maybe some of the snow will melt and I will actually be able to park without fear of getting my car stuck! :o)

I'm thinking about driving home in a couple of weeks. I am homesick.

Broke as a Joke

That's it! I'm cutting up all of my credit cards except for my major credit card. I have a bunch of store credit cards, and since I rarely ever use them, I always forget when I do. Hence, I got a bill from Express yesterday that I was not expecting. I was really ticked off. I decided I am just going to cut them up so I don't use them. I don't like unexpected bills, even if they are only $20 or something.

I had a pretty fun weekend. Joe and I stayed in on Friday, and Saturday we went out in Arlington for some drinks with some friends. It was fun. I was totally exhausted though. I'm currently trying to narrow down where I want to go and what I want to do next Saturday, because it is my birthday!!! :o) I will be 26, which means I will officially be closer to 30 than I am to 20. Weird.

I went shopping over the weekend and I was so proud of myself because I only spent like $20 of my own money. The rest were gift cards from Christmas that I hadn't gotten around to using, and gift cards from Valentine's Day. Go me. I saw a hand bag in the Coach store that I was absolutely dying to have...but $200 is ridiculous for a purse. I get sick of purses too fast to spend that much money on it. But it was still adorable. Speaking of purses, I really don't understand how people can carry around those HUGE purses that everyone has these days. I would be so annoyed schlepping one of those around all day. Yuck.

So Happy It's Friday!!!

I am so glad today is Friday. I can't wait to just relax all weekend. I don't even think I want to go out at all. I really don't have any money to go out anyway. But then again, today is payday. Ha ha. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what comes up.

It is so cold here, I want to die. I looked at the weather and it is 28 degrees. Then, I decided that I have become weak since I moved here because the temperature today in Ann Arbor is 19 degrees. It's nuts. Everywhere I go, everything is covered in ice. And I almost wiped out in my parking lot this morning when I was leaving for work.

I heard on the news yesterday that a female Air Force sergeant was relieved of active duty and demoted (pending investigation) for posing in Playboy. Click here to read the article on the CNN website. Apparently she was photographed fully dressed in her uniform, and then on subsequent pages she was nude and wearing dog tags. Alright, whether or not posing nude is moral, correct, or whatever is not the issue here. The thing is, I'm pretty sure that if I posed in Playboy and was wearing something that showed association with my company, I would be fired so fast my head would spin. You would have to be a complete idiot to expect otherwise! The question is, was this a deliberate action that she hoped would lead to her being taken off of active duty? Is there now going to be a mad rush of female military personnel posing nude so they can get relieved of active duty? A guy I work with said they won't fire her because then there would tons of people posing nude in order to get out of their commitment. Who knows?

Now That's What I Like to See

A friend from work let me borrow her People magazine today, the special style watch issue (out this month), and I saw something that actually made me feel happy (besides all of the adorable shoes and stuff). Weird, huh? I usually don't look to People magazines for an uplifting experience. There is a two page article entitled "Hot Body How-To: Jessica Biel." The article shows all of the aspects of Jessica's life that allow her to have a gorgeous body. With photographs of each, it documents her workout routine including stretching, cardio, core workout, biometrics, and weight training. Then there is a section that has to do with her diet. I have to say that it was so refreshing to see that, because how often do we honestly read about actresses' healthy habits? I mean, duh, we really don't believe that they are all naturally perfect and born with 6-pack abs. But how often do we really get to hear about how much they have to bust their butts to look like they do? Not very often... It just made me feel better to know that I am not the only one who has to work insanely hard to achieve my goals. You gotta check out this article. This girl works for her body.

Happy Valentine's Day! <3

I got stuck in my parking lot this morning. I swear, do the people that work at my apartments understand the concepts of "plowing" and "salting"? The parking lot was not plowed at all, and there was not one grain of salt to be seen. It was like 9 o'clock when I left my house, too. They had plenty of time that morning to take care of it. I find it humorous that they are more than willing to pay a tow truck to come in every single night to tow people and make more money. So why can't they dole out a couple bucks to clean up the one big snow we have gotten all year? Duh! So, my car ususally does okay in snow, but today she just did not want to go out and play. It wasn't that deep, but it was covered with a sheet of ice. I was walking on top of it without sinking in. So I ended up having to call Joe to come over and get me unstuck, move my car back into the spot, and then I just came to work with him. It was such a waste of time. It's not a big deal for me to work at his building but I don't have any of my stuff here. So I will be spending most of the day doing stuff like company required compliance training. Yay.

Happy Valentine's Day to all! Joe and I are going out to dinner at this Japanese Steak House that we have never tried before. It is not too far from my apartment. I hope it is good. I'm excited. We set a gift limit at $20 this year because we are both totally broke and trying to save money like crazy. Plus, it's really a hallmark holiday so I would rather save the money and spend it on our anniversary or something.

Bachelorette Party Pictures + A Few From New Year's Eve

Cool Slideshows

Frumpy + Dumpy + Lumpy = Grumpy

I wish I had a zipper that went over my lips. Everyday when I walked into work, I would zip it so I wasn't able to say anything stupid. I swear, I feel like I made myself look like a complete idiot today like a million times. Don't you ever just say something, and then after you say it you think to yourself oh man I can't believe I just said that!!! The good news is, I got out a lot of frustration by having to chip and scrape about 3 inches of ice off of my car today when I left work. As I have said before, the second there is any mention of any kind of winter weather, everybody in Virginia freaks out like it is the end of the world and we are all going to die. It took me almost twice as long to get home today. The funny thing is, everyone drives like a freaking snail yet somehow they still manage to cause a million crashes and drive into ditches like crazy. They let everyone go home early and my work might be closed tomorrow as well. I can't believe it. I'm not complaining, I love snow days. But if there were snow days in Michigan because of snow storms like this, we'd never have to go to work all winter!

I feel dumpy, frumpy, and lumpy and it is making me grumpy. I have to go to the gym now. I decided that I am going to start running three times a week again because it is the only way I feel normal. Let's just hope my shins cooperate.

Maid of Honor :o)

Oh geeze, what a week. Last week I had to travel to Dallas again for work. It's alright, I guess. I am sick of traveling though. I despise the smell of airports and airplanes in general. It makes me want to hurl. And I get super airsick during landing. I don't know what it is. I am fine at take off and the whole time during the flight. But as soon as we start landing...it's not pretty. It gets so hot and when the plane starts dipping down over and over...yuck. It seems like it takes a million years.

While I am on business travel I get soooooooooooooo bored. I recently started staying at a new hotel; it is so much better than the other one I used to stay at. The gym is really, really nice. All of the equipment is new, it has a flat screen TV, and it even has free weights, medicine balls, and an exercise ball. In other words, far above and beyond most hotel gyms. Plus there is a pool, jacuzzi, steam room, and sauna. So I usually spend my evenings in the fitness/pool area, which is pretty cool. This time I went to Target and bought a bunch of clothes. I was so bored I just had to get out of the hotel. It was fun, but I pretty much spent all of the money that I would have banked from per diem. Oh well. Have you noticed that Target has some really cute clothes lately!?

Friday, I had Joe and his parents over for dinner. I made spinach feta chicken and broccoli fettuccine alfredo. I made the chicken in my crock pot (you really can't go wrong with crock pots-they are the greatest invention ever). Then we had dairy queen for dessert. I was really nervous because that was the first time I had cooked for Joe's parents. Plus it was a recipe I had never tried before. I was pretty relieved that it turned out good. :o) Saturday, I had some friends over my apartment for drinking and then we went dancing at a bar not too far from my apartment. We had an awesome time.

So now, back to the grind of the week. Things at work seem to be calming down a little, finally. Or maybe I just calmed down. Whatever works. This week I am going to go try on the bridesmaid dress that Jackie picked out for her wedding (see below). I am so excited and feel truly blessed and honored to be her maid of honor. This week, I am going to start getting organized for the shower, bachelorette party, and for the wedding. I am so nervous about giving a speech at the wedding. Mainly because I know I am going to cry like a fool. Also, because I don't really write speeches that often, so I hope it doesn't suck. And the last reason is, I really want the speech to convey to people how much Jackie means to me, and how happy I am to be her maid of honor!

Bridesmaid dress for Jackie's wedding

(we're not getting the sash in that hideous green, though)

Adorable

I think this picture is so adorable, so I had to share it. :o)

Early Spring!! Wahoo!!

Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow! That means we can expect an early spring! That's the best news I've heard all day. :o) Click here to read the article.

Isn't he cute? This poor guy gets yanked out of his warm bed every year on February 2nd.

I found out this morning that my college, George Washington University, is the #1 most expensive college this year. Not that I am very suprised, but let's just say that I am thanking my lucky stars that my job has a tuition reimbursement program. If you want to see the list, click here. I just looked at the GWU website and found out that you can get the mascot to show up at your wedding for $450. Why the heck would you want that?! Ha ha.

He's not as cute as Punxsutawney Phil, but a close second.

This weekend I am throwing a bachelorette party for one of my girlfriends here in D.C. It is going to be so much fun. I will post pics as soon as I get some. I'm sure they will be interesting. :o)