TGIF?

(this was supposed to go up last night but the internet stopped working as soon as I was done with it!!)

Soo, back to my Memphis trip, which was more action-packed than I give it credit for... and Friday it is!

Friday morning I was supposed to go see Amy (Career Services) to look over my extended resume and pare it down so that I could go see Sandi on Monday and start looking for jobs. Since the lights had come on in my car the night before, I decided to cancel the appointment until I'd talked to Jeremy or Marc about what could have gone wrong. I kinda figured it might be the belts since I knew they were getting worn, and Jeremy confirmed my suspicions so I took the car up to Jiffy Lube where they were shocked and awed that I was able to make it there because apparently it was the belt that connects to the alternator that had been ripped. to. shreds. Now, as much as I like this Jiffy Lube in Southaven, I'm a little irritated that nobody mentioned that I might want to charge up the battery as it had taken a SEVERE draining getting me the last mile home and the five miles up to the Jiffy Lube for reasons that will come up later...

After that, I went back to the house and tried to get organized a little bit, then ended up leaving late for Heather's birthday dinner so I just met them up there. We ended up going to Majestic Grille downtown, and it was really good! I met some girls I hadn't yet, and met one in particular who was... very unique. Melissa, you know who I'm talking about. I sat with Melissa and Allie, I hadn't met Allie except for a couple of Facebook messages about the Strikeout Shirt I ordered-- she rocks my face off. She's SO funny and outgoing! Yay for new AOIIs! Well, she's not a "new" AOII, but I haven't met her so she's new to me ;)

Melissa and I split the calamari, which was a totally new take on it to me. They have a cornmeal breading and fry it up with jalapenos! It furthered my spicy food kick for the weekend, which started with Buffalo Wild Wings and finished with salsa at Los Compadres! But, I'm getting ahead of myself... I had a bacon bleu cheese burger and it. was. aaaaweeesome. Highly recommend it. Everyone else seemed pretty happy with their dinner, and the only complaint I had was that the waitress seemed like she'd never had a big party. She did her best, and the unique girl gave her a little bit of trouble (for which she got put in her place by a waitress who also happens to be someone she needs to respect a little bit more), but things were a little slow and two plates had to be sent back to be re-made which weren't delivered until we were all ready to go. Probably better to go in a smaller group.

Afterwards, I ran Melissa by Joe's in Midtown to pick up a bottle of wine for Heather (they sell McWilliams, our tier 1 wine at work!) and pick up something for myself for going to Ashely's (which proved difficult as Memphis liquor laws say that you can't sell anything under 5% alcohol in the same store, thus nixing my usual search for the elusive 420) and when I got back out to the car.... it wouldn't start!!

Ugh.

So, I'm thinking who I can call at this time of night (as it was after 10p at this point) and I remembered that Ashley (who was going to meet me for a drink and instead had some friends over and invited me to come out) told me that Wayne was at her place, so I called Wayne to come give me a jump and see if we could get it all together. Heather came and picked Melissa up to head back for Rites, and I waited. Wayne showed up, hooked up the jumper cables and everything lit right up! Of course, as soon as we took the jumper cables off... not so much.

There was a minor panic attack.

Oh, and my phone died.

And there was a big theory floating around that it was the alternator. After I'd spent $130 on the starter. And $140 on the belts.

Then there was another minor panic attack.

I managed to have a little fun. And another minor panic attack (regarding our roadside assistance program which, by the way, DOESN'T COVER ME apparently). Ashley's friends were a lot of fun, and even though we have differing political views, we're all very moderate and open to discussion so it didn't turn in to a hate fest which is the whole reason I stay away from political discussions these days in the first place. It evolved in to a trivia contest regarding presidential knowledge and the parallels between the Lincoln and Kennedy assasinations. There are quite a few and they are all pretty creepy, look it up. We stayed up way too late and I fell exhaustedly asleep at Ashley's since I didn't have a way to get back to Southaven. Thankfully, one of her friends had a compatible charger so my phone was sufficiently charged for me to try for a tow, talk to Jeremy, talk to Marc, and get everything set to get the car back down to Southaven.

The good news is that it was just the battery, in case you haven't figured that out yet. Marc charged up my battery and replaced the leads and it worked good as new and just in time for me to hit up the hockey game!

The Kings played a great first period, but after that they totally wussed out. They did, however, beat OKC in the next game and so they're on their way to the semifinals! They actually don't even play until the end of the month, so if it looks like there are two games in a row I may go back. I forgot how much I miss the games, and the other off ice officials-- they're my own crazy little family!

I went right home and talked to Jeremy for a while, then went to bed! I'd intended to get up and go to church with Marc and Jan; while I'm not much on church, I know they'd like me to come meet everyone. However, I was so exhausted from Friday and Saturday that I slept in waaay late.

That's all for Saturday, and in to Sunday-- coming up, I get another hamburger, Sophia and I go to Target, and I practice public speaking.

Feeling Icky

I was feeling ok today and then about 445 my head just totally clogged up. Bleh.

Work was generally uneventful, but I saw Suehyla for the first time in ages which was really nice-- I've missed her so much! I showed her pictures of me and Jeremy, some of Analia, and we caught up on some general stuff.

Hopefully I'll rest well tonight and get up and do my Target errands in the morning, clear out the last of the stuff from the storage unit, aaaaand go to work. Becca's coming to get her cards (which I think turned out really well) tomorrow, so that's a little extra money, and I'm going by Showcase to get my new camera (birthday/Christmas present from dad) since the one I bought from Dill finally died this afternoon. I don't remember how old it was when I got it from her, but it's been two years since I bought it and it was old then-- definitely lasted a while!

Finished Bones this morning so when I watch the one from a couple weeks ago, I will officially have seen every Bones they've made! I watched Death Race with Jason Statham which was a totally awesome action flick, but I made it halfway through the Unrated Version and didn't see anything different from the original... maybe I'll finish it tomorrow, but I'll probably just send it back since there's plenty of other stuff I need to watch on my Netflix queue!!

Anyway, I'm going to go wrap up some stuff before bed, and try to put the Salt Water Taffy Sara sent me from Savannah (I couldn't go so she sent me some-- I got it in the mail today and it totally made my week!) away... I would eat all of it all at once if I could, but I don't want to make myself sick!

Insomnia strikes again!

Well, it's 5a (almost 6) and a multitude of things are keeping me awake. Appropriately enough, the only thing on TV that isn't infomercials or baseball is an old episode of MY personal high school favorite-- Angel! And, even more appropriately enough, Angel can't sleep. Not even during the day... (y'know, since he's a vampire and all) though I totally forgot how cute Charisma Carpenter is.

Anyway, not much to report really but since nobody's on, here I am! Work's been getting slowly better, made enough tonight to make tires feasible tomorrow, which is really awesome! I'll finally have my own transportation again! I think instead of dealing with the changing the tire and jumping the car, I might just get the darn thing towed up there and let Tires Plus charge up the battery for me. Then I can be off to cash my paycheck, and head out for my candlelight and dinner with the AOIIs!

Semi-formal was a lot of fun, more than I thought it would be. The girls were really great, very well behaved, even if their dates weren't for the most part. I ended up having to clean up someone's vomit off a table, but the president is going to be asking him to write me an apology for having to do that. Other than that, things went really well! Here are a few pictures:


Me and India (madam president)

Me and Danielle
(social chair and one
of my advisees)

Becky (another AAC member)
Katie (most recent president)
Me and
Natalie (whose office I can't remember right now!)





(let's see if that spacing works...)


I continue to love and adore all my new sisters, not that I'm terribly surprised, but it's always wonderful to have a group of friends wherever you go who love you so unconditionally!

I'm trying to think about what else has gone on since I last updated (pre-sickness, blech!), but there isn't really too much. This week should be exciting and busy, which will be really nice since I've been getting a little bit of cabin depression (I totally stop functioning without anything to do...) and poor Jeremy's had to listen to it all.

Tuesday: Tires on the car, INAUGURATION DAY!! HURRAY PRESIDENT OBAMA!
Wednesday: Moving and Work
Thursday: Moving and vodka tasting at work, dad and Emmy are coming, possibly lots of other people I haven't seen in entirely too long
Friday: Moving stuff day
Saturday: Dress fittings at David's (pictures to come, I promise!) and then spa afternoon with Emmy, Becky, mom, and possibly Vicki and BC.
Sunday: More moving! Whoo!

I'm excited about getting in to the new house and having my own room and breaking out my old furniture from when I was little. Since the desk is staying in Southaven until we know where we're moving, I'm going to get out my old dresser/vanity to use and my old chest of drawers (the set mom got smells really funky and makes my clothes smell bad...) and if I get particularly motivated this summer, I may even finally strip them down and re-paint them since we'll have a deck and it will take QUITE some time to get off a bajillion layers of 30 year old paint!

Well, that'll do it for now. Probably won't get to update with anything interesting until after the vodka tasting on Thursday-- and will definitely update this weekend with pictures from the dress fittings. I'm going to Morrow and dealing with this David's Bridal crap, I will be trying on several gowns, believe you me! I won't have enough money to buy one this weekend, so I may take my leftovers and split it between getting a webcam for me and one for Jeremy so we can get on Skype and talk to each other and the multiple peoples we know around the world including Valerie and Ana, and Megan in Chile!

Oh, and here's your daily dose of cute-- Feist on Sesame Street:

Gmail is on Crack

In a string of computer issues that have lasted me the better part of the last week, Gmail is being cranky and won't work my chat so I bit the bullet and downloaded the AIM program... blurg.

Last Thu, my computer got assaulted by spyware and malware, which prompted a full wipe and reinstall of everything on it. Then the video wouldn't work, turns out there was something wrong with the formatting and so we had to fully wipe and reinstall everything again. It's such a pain, you forget how much stuff (flash, acrobat, and other plugins) has to be re-installed every time you do it. I'm starting to think maybe Amy's Magneto curse has extended itself to me!

This week's looking much better than last in the sales-and-tips area, so I'll have enough money to get Christmas for Jeremy and Emily and (with any luck) pay my first installment on the next credit card to be paid off. I bought myself a flickr pro account for Christmas since I've been meaning to for years and re-discovered so many wonderful pictures! I really missed the ones from Austin-- they got deleted in the last great computer debacle and I only had them on Flickr. Made me miss Austin all over again. And, of course, my Dill! Hopefully she'll have some free time over her break and we can catch up; she's been so busy with her teaching gig I've hardly talked to her! Also, with any luck, the airlines will keep having great sales and I can go out there this summer and see her and maybe help her move in to her own place. Maybe scout around some Ducati dealerships and see if they'd be interested in hiring Jeremy. The guy at the place in Southaven said he'd be interested, but I don't think either of us want to go back to that city...

Aaaanyway, this week should be good. I'll finally get to meet Emily's friend Aileen, I get to tag along on their wedding dress shopping day and try to start figuring out my own, and I figure if Emily and Joanna like her this much, she's a shoo in for someone I'll get along with. She's got some really amazing designs (she's a fashion designer type, went to SCAD), and seems all around like a chill girl. I also get to continue convincing Jeremy he doesn't need to buy me a Christmas present; it's very sweet he wants to buy me pretty things but he really doesn't need to!

Last night I went up to El Tesoro and had a margarita and some snacks with Bo and the staff up there-- it was a lot of fun and the food is phenomenal-- if you haven't been and you're in the area, you've GOT to try it out. Really authentic, all the food is made from scratch. I haven't done a restaurant review in a while, so I'll put up more tomorrow.

I also have a new bed, which is really kinda nice. I can put pillows up all around it and have kind of a place to sit and be cozy and there's a real mattress so it's not like the old one that killed my back every night! Whew! I actually pretty much slept through the night last night, though I still have the problem of having too dark a room to wake up in. If it's dark, I just want to roll over and go back to sleep!

I think that's almost everything, really-- nothing as exciting as laser tag last week! I'm going to give in and have some Ramen since I'm walking to work tomorrow (that stuff sends your caloric/fat intake through the roof!) and I'm starving and then hit the hay. With any luck, I'll make at least $40 tomorrow and then the YMCA party on Wed won't bomb like the homeowner's one last week and perhaps I'll make a full $200 this week! Whoo!

Hey, Farva, what's that restaurant you like with all the goofy stuff on the walls?

Well, a not-so-busy week has kept me from le blog; mostly sleeping while I fight yet another cycle of horrible sleep schedules thanks to Casey or the dog. Work was alright M-W, but Wednesday was d-e-d dead since the Avondale Charter School deal is off (Jill had an agreement with a charter schools in the area that for every dollar spent at the restaurant by members on Wednesdays in November, she would give a certain amount back) so I only made a few bucks. I also seem to end up staying later on Wednesdays than any other night, so mom's just going to give me the car to take in. Hopefully, I'll make enough over the next couple weeks to put tires on my car and start working on the exhaust-- we're supposed to have a party in this Wed spending a minimum of $300 and one next Wed spending a minimum of $1k!

I'd also like to say hello to my Aunt Linda who found me-- I saw Shallote, NC on my visitor's list and if it weren't for the trip Jeremy and I made, I wouldn't know where on earth that was! I've been meaning to e-mail her, so this afternoon I'll have to do that.

Saturday, I went with Emily, her dad, Sarah (Emily's younger sister; also at Agnes Scott) and two of Sarah's friends to play laser tag for Sarah's birthday and it was a BLAST. Their dad is a West Point grad, so we had a military commander and just whooped up on the little kids-- we took the tower and held them off two of the three games and on the other, went SWAT on them on a sweep and clear mission to take out as many as possible because of this jerk dad with them who made me pull out a can of verbal slap-to-the-face in front of the group of 25 eight year olds he brought for his son's birthday who had just watched him yell at the LaserQuest people because some of the packs weren't working. Like they could control that. I gave up our spots for us (they were going to have to figure out what to do with our activation keys anyway, so we would have only played for like half the time for which we had paid) and we got a free game, but we had to sit out two because they were so booked. No matter, we all chased the guy in to a corner and nailed him at least once each. Sarah's friends, Marly and Esther, were pretty cute and fun to hang out with, so all in all a good day. We also went to Ted's Montana Grill for dinner, which was super yummy-- I had the barbeque bison short ribs, which were amazing. I was so stuffed by the end of it I almost couldn't move!

Yesterday was officer transition workshop for Gamma Sigma, and even though it took allll afternoon (got there at 3, left at 730 and things were actually still wrapping up) it was a lot of fun and Becky and I amused ourselves greatly through the whole thing (since we were really just there in a "make sure they don't burn the place down" capacity). As usual, the girls were really sweet, and India and I are trading hookups on Foundation/Arthritis Foundation hookups which should be a lot of fun. There was also tons of good food, a requirement for any AOII event, including mini-croissants with chicken salad in them. Yum! I went overboard and had two sodas, so I'll have to try and stay away from them tonight. Hopefully I won't be tired when I get to work and it won't be a big deal to stick to water or soda water.

Not much else going on, really, I have to go drop some things at the dry cleaner's and deposit my paycheck this afternoon. I may put my paychecks (since they're generally pretty small-- server hourly is $2.13, which is up from the $2.10 it was when I worked at Birdi's) in my savings and use the rest to pay bills and do "fun things" (aka, put tires on the car lol) and see what happens with that. I have a good start with the $100 paycheck, and anything in my savings is better than the none I have after getting sick and not having a car wiped it all out.

Oh, I have gotten my Christmas list figured out, which is really exciting. Jeremy's parents are the hardest to shop for since his mom gets bored and goes out and buys movies or books and his dad... well, his dad just doesn't really need or want anything! I did, however, find a TV show they both like and figured out something creative for Jan (which means she hasn't gone out and gotten it without either of us realizing it) so I think we should be safe and not have to resort to gift-card-giving. I actually have several things I'd like to get for Jeremy, but the main one is something he's been wanting for a while-- prints of pictures he's taken over the years. I decided while looking through his pictures that between the two of us, we have enough awesome zoo and aquarium pictures that I'm gonna have to have at least one kid because I have the best room decorating idea ever. Rock on. Everyone else is, for the most part, getting some surprise mixture of candies from Greene's (the new hometown candy shoppe) and a something special for special people. I found the most adorable present for Fia, I can't wait to give it to her! I need to find the other small part of Josh and Sarah's present-- Target's a little short on their ornament supply this year, so maybe I'll just have to hit up the Super Target in Buckhead.

More when I think of it, or have something more interesting to say. Ciao!