Today....

Today I...

Wrote a column for next month, paid a library fine from when Shadow ATE MY BOOK, transferred utility payments to our new place, shut off utility payments for our old place, checked my bank account, ordered new checks, got keys made, bought lunch for Thomas and Boyfriend, and moved a few boxes to my new place.

I am unstoppable! And tired.

Hope your Friday was more relaxing than mine but honestly, there's nothing like a productive day!

Packing and Moving

I should be packing up my purses and some of my picture frames.

I should be cleaning and doing laundry.

I should be heading to the new house to unpack some of our dozens of boxes...

But instead, I'm watching old episodes of The City on Netflix and blogging. I'm obviously a really big help to Boyfriend and Thomas as we attempt to move into our new place!

That's right, this weekend Boyfriend and I will be packing up and moving across town to our new house with Thomas, where Shadow will have a yard and we can save money and life will be great. I'm excited about all of it... except the packing.

I hate packing and moving. It's awful. It combines my least favorite things: lifting heavy things and carrying heavy things. I'm an awful packer/mover... thank goodness Boyfriend is a beast and has packed most of our stuff. I, on the other hand, get to pack up little things like my purses and picture frames. What would I do without Boyfriend to handle... everything else?

I might not blog for a bit, while we are getting our internet set up. Bear with me, people (that always looks weird to me. Is it bare with me? Bear with me?) while we make this move. I will be back with (hopefully!) pictures of a new puppy for Thomas!

Have a great weekend!

Yay, getting to know me

Question #1: Are you a morning or night person?

Morning! I get sleepy after 11 becuase of my work schedule

Question #2: Which do you prefer, sweet or salty foods?

salty for sure! I'd choose chips over chocolate any day

Question #3: Ninjas or pirates?

Piratas!

Question #4: Ninjas vs pirates, discuss.

Nah.

Question #5: Autobots or Decepticons?

Whatever Bumblebee is.

Question #6: What was your favorite childhood television program?

Power Rangers! Especially the Pink one.

Question #7: Are you a collector of anything?

Hearts of cute boys! Just kidding. I love boxes so I collect those... nerd, right?

Question #8: If you could be any animal, what would you be?

a Fox!

Question #9: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

stop time whenever I want so I can sleep in :o) or to know all languages ever. How fun would that be?

Question #10: What is usually your first thought when you wake up?

What time is it? Can't be late for work! :o)

Question #11: What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?

How much I love Boyfriend

Question #12: What's your favorite color?

Maroon or pink

Question #13: What's your favorite animal?

foxes!

Question #14: Do you believe in extraterrestrials or life on other planets?

Jury's out on this one

Question #15: Do you believe in ghosts?

In spiritual influences

Question #16: Ever been addicted to a video/computer game? Which one(s)?

Nah.

Question #17: You're given 1 million dollars, what do you spend it on?

A house for us, a house for my parents/Boyfriend's mom, cars for all of us, then college funds for our kids. Boring, right?

Question #18: Have any bad habits?

Playing with my hair, chewing my nails, an over-analyzing.

Question #19: Which bad habits, if any, drive you crazy?

People who pop their joints often. It makes my skin crawl.

Question #20: List 3 of your best personality traits:

I'm loyal, passionate, and empathetic

Question #21: List 3 of your worst personality traits:

I'm unlikely to back down, I over-plan, and I like to be right to the point that I will argue over something stupid.

Question #22: Have any celebrity crushes?

Paul Walker. Will Smith.

Question #23: List 1 thing you wish you could change about yourself:

I wish I could stop playing with my hair!

Question #24: Any tattoos or piercings?

Just ear piercings right now.

Question #25: What's the first thing you notice in the opposite sex?

Their smile and confidence level.

Question #26: What personality traits do you look for in a partner?

How kind they are, how they treat kids, animals, and waiters, their sense of humor, and their passion about something (anything)

Question #27: What personality traits do you dislike in other people?

Ruthlessness, selfishness, and meanness.

Question #28: Are you mostly a clean or messy person?Do you see yourself getting married in the next 5 years?

I do :o)

Question #29: Are you mostly a clean or messy person?

mostly clean! A little cluttery, but not dirty.

Question #30: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Boston, Mass, or Phoenix, Az

Question #31: If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Italy. Japan. Paris.

Question #32: List 5 goals on your life's to-do list:

ride in a hot air balloon, get a master's degree, marry Boyfriend, have babies, and visit Europe

Question #33: Name 1 regret you have:

Nothing yet!

Question #34: Name 1 thing you miss about being a kid:

Not having to worry about bills!

Question #35: Name 1 thing you love about being an adult:

Having money to spend however I like.

Question #36: What's your favorite song of the moment?

I'm really digging Super Bass.

Question #37: What's your favorite song of all time?

I'm partial to "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles, and "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis

Question #38: What's your favorite thing to do on a Saturday night?

Movie night with the crew, then time with Shadow and Boyfriend.

Question #39: What's your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?

Nap with Boyfriend!

Question #40: Have any hidden talents?

I can mimic a cat's meow almost perfectly.

Question #41: You're about to walk the green mile, what do you have as your last meal?

Green chile pepperoni pizza, watermelon, french fries, and diet coke.

Question #42: What would be your dream job?

Syndicated columnist :o)

Question #43: Which would you rather have, 100 million dollars or true love?

True love, of course!

Question #44: If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?

1) enough money to set up my family for life 2) A cure for Alzheimer's 3) A ton of money for animal protective services

Question #45: Ever wish you were born the opposite sex? If so, why?

Not really... I like having doors opened for me, wearing pretty clothes, and not having to be brave all the time.

Question #46: Name 1 thing not many people know about you:

I'm not as pulled together as people think I am.

Question #47: If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

Annabelle. I love that name.

Question #48: Do you believe in the afterlife?

Absolutely.

Question #49: On the topic of abortion, how do you feel about cookies?

I'm totally pro-cookies. I like chocolate chip and oatmeal.

Diet Cherry 7up

Oh, Diet Cherry 7Up. How I love you. I should write a poem about how sweet and calorie free you are.

Geez louise. My article came out today, which means that if any people are looking for my blog from the Sun-News website, this is the blog they will read. Me talking about a calorie free soda (an AWESOME calorie free soda...). I apologize. Give me a minute and I'll segue into talking about cleaning, trashy reality TV, and Boyfriend's cute face.

Way better, right? :o)

After a long week (and a couple of hours working on an at-home project), I'm more than ready to veg out here on my sofa with a diet cherry 7up in my hand and Apollo 13 on Netflix Instant to give me some motivation. Nothing is as motivational as seeing the crew of Apollo 13 fight fiercely to bring those guys home.

In a couple of weeks, Boyfriend and I move out of this apartment and head into a house with our friend, Thomas. I'm very excited for several reasons:

1) Rent is cheap. Like, ridiculoulsy cheap, because his dad owns the house and is renting it out to us for $400. Total. Like, $133 a person for the three of us.

2) I love Thomas! He's clean and considerate and hilarious. Plus, he's Boyfriend's best friend. I think we'll really enjoy living with him.

3) Due to his work schedule (3 pm- midnight), my evenings will be pretty much exactly how they are now... dinner with Boyfriend, then working out and watching movies while he's at work. I'll be showered and in bed long before Thomas gets home. We will get to see him on the weekend, but I don't think we'll get sick of each other... we just don't have time to!

4) There's a huuuuge yaaaard for Shadow! I'm so excited for this! Plus, Thomas will get a puppy so Shadow has a friend. He will love it.

5) We get to save a lot of money and still live on our own. Best of both worlds, right?

What else is going on? While I'm still in love with summer, I am kind of jonesing for some fallish weather. I'm ready for the holiday season to kick in, starting with Halloween, straight into my birthday, then Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. I love the holiday season... but I do love summer. I guess it's a good thing I have another month or so of warm weather before we head into fall so I can get it all out of my system. By the end of September, I'm sure I'll REALLY be ready for fall! :o)

Tomorrow, Boyfriend, Shadow and I will be going out to the desert for a nice long hike. I'm really excited to let the puppy off his leash and just enjoy some time walking in the hot sun, working our muscles, and enjoying the fresh air!

Enjoy your weekend!

Weird Day

Today, at work, one of my older male coworkers started a battle.

What kind of battle, you may ask? A cooking battle? A dance battle?

Oh, how I wish it were a dance battle. I would have dominated (not that I didn't dominate this battle, either).

No, my coworker started a battle based on politics.

Now, I'm fine with discussing my politics because I consider myself pretty up to date. Plus, I honestly don't care if someone is Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, etc., especially if they are educated. If they are educated and have reasons for supporting their political party, all the power to you. Everyone has different priorities that can change this (teaching, abortion, etc.). I do, however, get annoyed when two things happen:

1) People are uninformed and are just part of a party due to family/celebrity influence. My dad is more conservative, my mom is more liberal. They are respectful of each other because they are well informed of their positions and have reasons for their stances. Fine. But if you're just being dumb and basically contradicting yourself with your stances, or are spouting off "facts" that aren't really facts, that annoys the HELL out of me.

2) Extremists start slandering. According to some extremists, Obama's education was paid for by Saudi Arabia (when if any presidential family was close to the Saudis, it would be the BUSH FAMILY! Do people not follow oil and all of their dealings in the 1990s?) and Bush was in on 9/11 (WHAT?! Why would this even make sense? It wasn't close to an election year and did you see photos? Homeboy was pissed. Also... I don't think he's a good enough actor to pretend to be so surprised and shocked). One extremist (either far left or Tea Party) can say something and then people start spreading it around like it's fact when it's really just one person's opinion.

I don't particularly want to discuss politics on my blog because it's a touchy subject. But today, an extremist attacked my RIGHT AS AN AMERICAN to support any party I want. He kept telling me my opinion was "wrong". When I said, "well, again, that's your opinion. I think I'm right.", he told me I was part of the reason America has had issues. Then he offered to send me some stuff online to prove that he is right.... to which I replied, "I can send you stuff, too. It's the INTERNET. There are thousands of documents supporting each side... it doesn't mean any of them have any sort of truth to them."

Then...he tried to lie to me about the media.

And that's when I had a real argument. See, as a journalism major, I've seen a lot of the inside of the media industry. He tried to tell me that ALL media is being silenced about a particular topic because one branch of Government has stopped it.

Uh. Hello? Free speech? Free media?

The great thing about America is that we have free media. Our journalists don't get killed or threatened for posting less than positive articles on politicians. And there are media outlets on both sides of the fence: NY Times is pretty liberal while Fox News is definitely conservative. Why would BOTH be quiet on purpose if it's a hot-button issue that the Government is "Covering up"? They wouldn't. It would be a big story and as citizens, we would have a right to know. And media outlets understand that. They are the watch dogs of power, they don't cower under a threat from the Government.

I honestly don't care that this man supports the party he does, but what I do care about is his aggressiveness regarding my stance. I have that right. We all do, no thanks to his crazy views.

Thinking About Jewelry

On Saturday night, we celebrated Boyfriend's birthday with bowling (which I rocked), fish tacos, and backyard volleyball at his aunt and uncle's house. I had a great time trash talking about my bowling game (which was awful- I was in last place both games!), trash talking with Thomas and Jeremy (Boyfriend's cousin), who are both cowboy fans, about football (go Ravens!), and eating lots and lots of cake.

Yum!

But in the midst of the party, I somehow found myself talking to Boyfriend's cousin about a wedding. She is itching to help us plan a future wedding (whenever that will be!) and we got stuck on the topic of destination weddings.

I go through periods of time when I'm excited about a wedding and, mostly, big periods of time when I feel like I'm not ready to completely change my life and my name, all when we're so young (Boyfriend just turned 22... though we've been together 2 years and have no plans to ever change that, I just want us to have some time to be young and careless!).

But tonight... tonight is a time when I want a big, pretty ring and a big, pretty dress.

With a rock like this, I think I would make myself be ready!

Cartier



http://zalesengagementrings.net/top-7-engagement-rings/

Tiffany's (the one in the middle is my favorite!)

In the morning (or maybe in about an hour...), I know I'll come back to my senses and realize that while I can't wait to make Boyfriend my Husband, I love our life now. And that's enough for me!

Busy Day!

Boyfriend and I have been busy all day, which is a nice change, I'm sure, from all my previous blog posts that talk about sleeping in, playing Mario Wii, and generally not doing anything.

But not today. Sure, we slept in (it's my off Friday from work), but then I got up and cleaned the oven really well while Boyfriend cleaned the shower. Then we washed dishes and did some laundry before heading to the grocery store and then to a tire store to get my tires rotated for the first time since I bought my car in 2009 (whoops...).

Now... I'm watching Teen Mom while Boyfriend plays Tekken (some fighting game he's obsessed with). We deserve it after our long day! lol :o)

Tomorrow is Boyfriend's birthday celebration so in honor of his 22nd, here's a little slideshow of all my favorite pictures of him! (PS- He just read this idea and went, "WHAT?!")

Have a great day! :o)

BooksBooksBooks

Just like I go through periods of shopping (like Tuesday!) and cleaning (like... I should today) and exercising (ditto), I also go through long periods wherein I devour books like candy. However, this can be more expensive than almost all of my other cycles because:

1) I ALWAYS re-read my books, which means I can never trade books permanently with friends without feeling "trader's remorse." This is mainly because I read books really fast so I almost always miss something the first time. In fact, I commonly read a book in a few days, take about a day off, then start it again from the beginning. You might be thinking, "Hey, why don't you just read slowly the first time?". The answer is that I can't. I just can't. Sometimes I'm literally hungry for books and when I'm reading, my eyes are drinking in the words and I'm like an alcoholic in front of a handle of vodka. I just can't stop myself. (What kind of nerd is addicted to books? Answer:

This girl... with the boa and tiara!)

2) Unlike shopping for clothes, which can be solved with just one new dress or a new shirt... my book buying periods last for a much longer period of time and take a lot more books to fulfill my craving.

So today, I bought the first of the new series that I'm in love with:

suzannecollinsbooks.com

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Have you guys read it yet? It's amazing and I can't wait for the movie. One of the perks of having a movie-fanatic for a boyfriend is this exact conversation that happened a few minutes ago when I gushed to Boyfriend about how much I love the book.

Boyfriend: The Hunger Games?
Me: Yes. It's amazing!
Boyfriend: Well, I hope the movie's good. I like Jennifer Lawrence, so it should be a good movie.
Me: *pause*... movie?
Boyfriend: Oh. Yeah. In 2012.
Me: How do you know that?
Then Boyfriend gave me an adorable smile and said, kind of shyly: I know about most upcoming movies, love. I read a lot of movie news online.

He's so adorable.

There are lots of other books I want to read, though, such as:

The Jaycee Dugard story "A Stolen Life" (the girl who was kidnapped and raised in a house with her tormentors for years and years),

audioeditions.com

The Help (I know! I'm so behind!)

amazon.com

Bossypants by Tina Fey, one of my favorite women ever

The Island by Elin Hilderbrand!

Ahhh... Books. Is there anything better?

What are you reading?

Therapy

There are lots of forms of therapy I utilize when I get stressed from work and home life. Aromatherapy... food-therapy... retail therapy... and of course, writing therapy.

Today, I'm utilizing both retail therapy and writing therapy: a surefire way to decompress after a big day at the office!

I'm an overwhelming type of person. When something important pops into my head, it's nearly impossible for me to forget it without obsessing over it. I'll be heading to work and start thinking about how my alignment is off and how I probably need to get my tires rotated. At that point... all I think about is getting my car fixed. When I forget to send out a document or respond to an email, all I think about that evening is how the next morning, I have to get to work ASAP to send out that document or email.

The easiest way for me to relax is to come home and write for a couple of hours. It doesn't matter what I write: in my journal, in a blog, on a novel, a short story, or a couple of upcoming columns... just writing has always calmed me down.

However...

This dress? Helps a lot.

Slowing Down

Today, I'm going to take some time to snuggle with Boyfriend and Shadow. Have a great weekend, everybody!

:o)

Back from Vegas!

Hello! I'm back from Vegas and I had the BEST time. Boyfriend and I stayed at Caesar's Palace and got a free room upgrade from a really nice front desk lady. We came back (exhausted) on Saturday night and then went straight into family mode: Boyfriend's mom and aunt's birthday party was held Sunday and I had a my cousins and godparents from Florida come in for a visit!

Vegas was exhausting but awesome! The first night there, we checked in, ate a little something, then went straight to Excalibur to pick up our Tournament of Kings tickets. We gambled for a while and checked out the chapel, where a family friend Christina will be getting married this New Year's. Then it was time for the  show!

We had such a good time eating with our hands (which is what Boyfriend was most excited about!). We had soup, chicken, potatoes, and some broccoli, followed by an apple tart. It was great and the show was amazing. The performers really knew how to get the crowd involved and I have to admit, I loved seeing the cute horses!

Thursday was our designated gambling day. We gambled in the Bellagio, New York New York, Excalibur, and the Mirage. We had the best time at New York New York... I played for about three hours on three dollars on a penny slot machine while Boyfriend won about 30 after starting with five. Not too bad! We aren't big gamblers so we only brought about 100 bucks for gambling. I was proud of my three hours on three dollars... particularly because I got a little tipsy on the free drinks (Absolut and Seven). I kept laughing and pointing at the machine and making comments to Boyfriend. Even with the tipping on the drinks, it was plenty of entertainment for just a few dollars!

We did the best gambling on the Lord of the Rings slot machine. It was so much fun! It was a big jump from paying 5 cents a spin to paying 40 cents a spin (big spenders, huh? lol), but Boyfriend turned two dollars into 15, and I turned one into 40! Then on Saturday while we were killing time, I put another 10 into the Lord of the Rings machine... and won another 40. Then I won another 20 off five. Then we used the money to go to Serendipity 3 for some frrrrozen hot chocolate. :o)

Thursday night, we went to dinner at Tender, a great restaurant in the Luxor. We loved it! I had the filet and Boyfriend had the ribeye. We started with some surf n turf sliders (amazing) and paired our steaks with some truffle mashed potatoes and some asparagus... everything was amazing, especially our streaks! One of the best I've ever had. Plus, a professional photographer came by and took our photos... Boyfriend always blinks in the flash of a camera, but she got six great shots of him! I now have complete faith in our future wedding... I had been a little worried. :o)

(I'll scan in the photos later for you to see! He looks great!)

Friday, we went shopping, but my feet were really hurting in the flats that I brought... so I spent an hour and a half in Sephora :o)! I love that store... I got Philosophy eye cream, Dior waterproof mascara, and some Urban Decay setting spray for big nights out. Boyfriend found some shirts that he loved, then we got some pizza and a banana split and called it an afternoon!

Then we got ready to go out to see LOVE, the Cirque du Solei show!

It was AMAZING! We saw O last year and I never thought anything could compare, but this was great in a different way. I so admire those performers. They are so talented and confident... they'are artists.

Saturday, as I mentioned, we hung out in our hotel room and then gambled a little, winning the majority of our money before coming home. Here are some random photos from the trip!

 Our hotel room... you can see the handles to the jacuzzi into the corner!

Our view from the hotel!

It was a great, great trip. Next time, Boyfriend gets to choose the show and the hotel... can't wait!