Friiiidaaaay!

Things I learned/remembered from having to dig out my A&M transcript:

1) I tested out of freshman English and Math. I don't recall taking the exams.

2) I took 18 hours at San Jacinto College over two summers at home. How did I ever squeeze in all that beach time?!

3) In Physics 208, I got the first C of my entire life. "Electricity and Optics." Just a taste of the epic fail I would experience in Electrical Engineering 214 (Circuit Theory) the following semester. I did, however, manage a B in EE-331 (Theory and Application of Electronic Devices) my junior year. *shakes fist at electricity*

4) That summer '88 class where the prof assigned us to go to the Chicken and get margaritas and observe the condensation as a lesson relevant to the chapter we were studying was "Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer," NOT Thermodynamics, which I had taken in spring. I've been telling that story incorrectly for 20 years.

5) I have 28 hours credit and 6 incomplete research hours towards my master's degree. I know, you're thinking, "Why didn't you just do it?" It sounds like a little thing, but those 6 hours do not include hundreds of hours of thesis writing. I know. You and I are both still thinking it. :)

I had a total gigglefit yesterday on LinkedIn, when I searched for "Make-A-Wish" and it came up with "Make-A-Sockmonkey." I'm giggling all over again just typing it! Make. A. SOCKMONKEY. *wipes tear*


Song Lyrics du Jour (Actually this entire song is a stream of brilliant visuals, and even better now, than when I thought he was saying "...snow in our pants...")

When the streetlights come on and the fireflies flicker
I am walking her home, making plans
With her shoes in her hands, I am watching her dance
As the hem of her dress gently kisses the grass
It suddenly rains on us
She is laughing and turns up her hands

Like autumn turns leaves, winter will breathe cold on our necks, snow in our paths
Wherever she goes, all that I know about us is that beautiful things never last
That's why fireflies flash...

Ron Pope "Fireflies"

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Interview!

Well, I'm all revved up and ready to roll on the job front. I got an interview, which will be sometime late next week. Woohoo!

I had to fill out an application online yesterday, which was about as long a process as rewriting my resume. Holy cow. I just wasn't prepared with short notice. I also had a chat with a colleague from my old company, to ask her to be the contact for my old job, since I have no idea where my former boss is now. That friend encouraged me to get on LinkedIn, where my old boss is one of her contacts. So then I had to figure all that out. Whew! Now I think I'm set. For the moment, anyway!

I keep forgetting to mention Bret Michaels and how shocked and saddened I am that he had a brain hemorrhage. I honestly didn't think much of him before I watched him on 'Celebrity Apprentice.' The guy has a really good heart. A bit manic at times, but he just comes across as a very unpretentious, super-nice guy. I hope he comes through this ok. :(

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Stalkarazzi

When Donna and I were at the band's/our hotel during concert weekend, JBJ's chiropractor and the chiro's significant other were at the pool just below our balcony. (No, I had no idea who the guy was. D is the fangirl and has the lowdown on all that stuff.) Well, next to the chiro was a guy who looked an awful lot like JBJ, with a woman who looked exactly like Mrs. BJ. (*cough* And no, I don't know the Mrs. either...)

So I was assigned to nonchalantly lean on the railing while D got her fancy camera and ducked behind me to zoom in to see if it was him. She couldn't tell for certain. Later he put on a baseball cap, which was evidently a sign that it might be him. Still, she couldn't decide.

Then last week D directed me to some photos that turned up of him wearing those same shorts and a ball cap. From the pics, we knew it was him at the pool that day. Too bad, because I think she deleted her pix. Oops.

Speaking of D, she got me on Twitter and now she's not even following me. As my little kindergarten friend would say... "WHAT THE...?!" That's alright, because I do way more reading than writing over there.

And a cardio kickboxing lesson for your Tuesday morning: When I started a while back, I hit myself in the chin a couple of times doing upper cuts- a common hazard for beginners. I haven't made any painful mistakes since then, until yesterday. I was doing a punch/cross combo, and on the "cross" portion, I accidentally grabbed some of my hair in my fist and then punched my arm out about two feet at breakneck speed. I'm thinking ponytail from here on out.

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Boobquake Day

Boobquake. Too funny.

So on Saturday...

Jeff: JeffC could come over to watch a movie... but he doesn't want to watch Avatar.
Me: So watch something else. Avatar isn't the be all and end all of movies.
Lauren: Actually... it is.
Jeff (to me): (agreeing shrug)

Come on now. Lord of the Rings beats Avatar any day of the week.  :p

Annoyance this morning: people who walk in the street when there is a perfectly good sidewalk. I understand the joggers, because they don't want to strain something going over the slanted driveways every two seconds. Same for moms with strollers. But anyone walking a dog, just walking to the mailbox, etc... Please. They're always taking up half a lane, too. At least stay next to the curb. A public service announcement from your friendly neighbor, who manages to walk on the sidewalk at all times.

Will be working on the Foundation website today, getting everything finalized for the big event this weekend. After this weekend, we start ramping up for the second event which is in San Antonio in August.

Just found out they are opening a Kerbey Lane location at Arbor Trails at William Cannon and Mopac this summer. Yay! Pancakes!

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Gorgeous Sunday!

Another beautiful day in the ATX. Yesterday afternoon Lauren and I went up to St. Ed's to catch Spotlight on Opera's production of Suor Angelica. The campus is so pretty. I just love walking around there. They have a fantastic view of downtown, too. The Mary Moody Northen Theater sits on a perfect hill for reenacting the opening scene from The Sound of Music. Ummmm, not that we did that... Anyhoo... The show featured many amazing voices, and we enjoyed it, despite the fact that we hadn't done any research on the story and missed a major plot point until after the show when it was explained to us. Ahhhh!!

At the theater, Lauren and some of her friends were trying to decide what an Italian word posted on a sign meant. I can't recall the word, but we collectively decided it meant "cupcakes," because they were selling cupcakes at that table. We were pretty proud of ourselves, until after the show when we found out it was the word for the printed English translation of the opera... which would have been very helpful when we were all desperately trying to figure out why Angelica was killing herself.

Then last night Kathy, Alex and I saw the Broadway musical In the Heights. I had never heard of the show, even though it's won many Tony Awards in the past couple of years and is still playing in NYC. Fast-paced, great music, lots of hip-hop and rap thrown in. The dancing rocked. There are two very funny characters who kept us laughing throughout. It was a really good time!

Song Lyrics of the Day (Nina teaches Benny some Spanish...)

...Nina: Llámame
Benny: Call me
Nina: Azul
Benny: Blue
Nina: Amame
Benny: Love me
Nina: Perhaps I do
Benny: Well, how do you say kiss me?
Nina: Bésame
Benny: And how do you say hold me?
Nina: Abrázame... al amanecer... at sunrise
Nina/Benny: Anything at all can happen
Just before the sunrise...

"Sunrise" from In the Heights

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Job

I have a line on the perfect job for me. It's something I would really enjoy doing, plus it's half-time, so I'd still be available for all my mommy activities, and also to get things done around the house and on my websites. Two friends in the biz have been keeping an eye out for open positions for me. One of them even has some influence in the matter, and I'm grateful for her recommendation.

At very short notice yesterday, I had to update my 16 year old resume. My computer skills included dBase III+ and Lotus 1-2-3. Yeah. You know you want to hire me. Now it's all current, and includes my volunteer experience over the years, and it's in the hands of the person who asked for it. She said my resume is going straight to the top of the stack. Now we wait. I hope I get it!

Seeing In the Heights at Bass Concert Hall with Kathy tonight. It's my birthday present!


Song Lyrics o' the Day

...You're right,
I must be crazy.
You're out getting high, I'm here pretending I'm in love.
The sound of your heart,
my head on your chest,
dropped your hands to your sides and gave up.
I'd rather be crazy than right tonight...

Pat Monahan "Always Midnight"

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Random Friday

* Demetri LIVES!!!1!!!1!!! Oh man, I love "FlashForward." I haven't been that close to the edge of my seat  in a long time.

* The Four Seasons in Dallas serves this splendid summery concoction they call Texas Cider. It's Shiner Bock, lemonade and a splash of Sprite. Yummo. I need to find out the ratio of Shiner to lemonade. I guess I'll have to call.

* As a favor to Donna, I am publicizing the links to get Bon Jovi to play the Superbowl in Dallas next year:
Petition
Facebook Page
Although, Jerry Jones probably has a band all picked out already.

* I am seeing that Twitter really serves a different purpose than a Facebook status. Facebook statuses are expected to be interesting, helpful, funny or thought-provoking. Tweets can be any random thought that pops into your head or whatever you're doing at the moment.... Right? :D

* I saw the CoCo photo where she's getting a Brazilian wax. Jeff was amused that she is covering her chest but exposing everything else. In the unedited photo she does have a one-inch wax strip covering her stuff. Really, she's been out at clubs wearing about that much. Why the hubbub?

* Note today's helpful starred format for the randomness. Have a good one, y'all.

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Earth Day

Remember to hug a tree today! :)

Well, I had forgotten what a thrill-ride it is to drive and park downtown during a weekday. Yesterday the Foundation needed a bunch of things dropped off and picked up for the upcoming soiree. Three of the items were in various downtown locations, and nowhere near each other. Cue me driving around countless blocks searching for a parking spot for each. And to make things worse, we have major construction downtown at the moment.

The first spot I took was in a lot for a building I thought housed the business I needed to visit. I felt like I had hit the lottery finding an actual parking lot space. When I got out of my car, I immediately saw the business across the street, but first walked through the building in whose lot I had parked, because all sorts of folks were watching me. Vultures. Eying my spot. (I just made sure it wasn't a handicapped space- I've made that mistake before. Most expensive ticket ever.) And I made it through the first pickup without a ticket or towing.

Next stop was on Congress. Good grief. No spots anywhere, until one opened up at a meter. COOL. But, I had no coins. Three minutes remained on the meter, so I ran two blocks to this place and high-tailed it back. The process took fifteen minutes. No ticket there either. Whew!

The last downtown business happened to have a customer parking space open right in front. Lucky! Yeah people who are collecting charitable donations are customers, too... I think...

They may need more errands done today. If so, I'm bringing a friend with me to run into these places, and I'll just drive around the block and pick them up.

I scored some very underground, demo-ish, unfinished Chasez songery from my fairy godsister. Shhhh. Most are... well... demo-ish and unfinished, which is not only totally okay with me, but also übercool in and of itself. And a couple were pretty good. It's nice to know he's still singing. Such a voice. It's a shame we're not hearing it on radio. Heck, even an intimate Austin bar would do.

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Quote Me on This

Some of the quotes from me that Lauren keeps on her Facebook page:

"i'm a walking aggie joke!" -mommy
Unfortunately, I say that a lot.

me: "i wonder whos in that charter bus over there."
mom: "mexicanos."
LOL. That was when we were driving to Dallas once, and a bus was driving past. It said "Americanos" on the side, in ginormous letters. With a glance, I thought it said "Mexicanos" and I thought I was being funny, as the bus was clearly labeled. "You mean, AMERICANOS?" Lauren asked. You had to see the size of the logo to fully appreciate the "duh" factor. (Although Americanos is a Mexican bus line, so there were probably Mexicanos aboard. Just saying.)

"yeah i once dated a guy named marlin. he was a rebound guy and i only dated him for a month so its okay." -mom
This was something she misheard. I dated a guy FROM Marlin. Never dated anyone NAMED Marlin. Let's make sure we have that straight. :p Although maybe better to have dated a guy named Marlin than one from Marlin. Ahhhhh, just kidding!

me: "its 11:11, make a wish." 
mom: "WHAT"
I had never heard that one is supposed to make a wish at 11:11. Much akin to the fact that I never knew 4/20 was Weed Day. Thank you Lauren and Google.

"lets go, mofos"- mom
Yeah, I said it. Get a move on, people.

(Ya' know something? Lauren types her quotes much like I type on Yahoo Messenger. Sometimes we don't have time to mess around with caps and punctuation.)

I am going to do something I've never done before and give a shout out to Janera and her brand new meme Wednesday Wickedness- first because she's a forty-something mom (yay!), second because I love quotes and her meme questions are based on them, and third because her first official meme is Gorgeous George quotes. Awesome!

Wednesday Wickedness: George Clooney Quotes

1. "I grew up in the world of bad television, on my dad's sets and then as a young schmuck on dating shows and so on." What is your all time worst TV show and why?
Flavor of Love. I never have seen it, I've just seen others making fun of it. It was a sad combo of Flavor Flav and everything that is wrong with "The Bachelor." Girls fighting over some yutz they don't even know.

2. "I'm certainly the last person to give advice on, well, anything." Where do you get advice?
from friends

3. "Run for office? No. I've slept with too many women, I've done too many drugs, and I've been to too many parties." What celebrity do you think could make a run for office?
George Clooney. :) Most people in office now have done all those things.

4. "The only failure is not to try." Tell us about a recent failure.
Most recently I've been trying to do high impact workouts on my knee, but it's not quite ready for that. I've had to go back to low impact on the right side. Now I'll be all unbalanced. HEY. No comments.

5. "After doing One Fine Day and playing a pediatrician on ER, I'll never have kids. I'm going to have a vasectomy." If you have kids, tell us about them. If not, would you want them?
My brilliant, talented and gorgeous daughter is 16 and looking forward to summer right now, when she will volunteer at the hospital between trips and camps.

6. "You have only a short period of time in your life to make your mark, and I'm there now." Have you made your mark yet?
I think I've made my mark as a wife and mother. I plan to continue making an impact in those and other ways.

7. "I don't believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately, you die at a very young age, or you live long enough to watch your friends die. It's a mean thing, life." Do you believe in happy endings?
Yes I do.

8. "I was in a bar and I said to a friend, 'You know, we've become those 40-year-old guys we used to look at and say, 'Isn't it sad?'" Have you ever felt that way?
Yep! But we all have the last laugh, because being 40 isn't sad after all.

9. "I'd think, 'In a relationship, we should never have this kind of fight.' Then, instead of figuring out how to make it work, I looked for a way to get out of it. The truth is, you shouldn't be married if you're that kind of person." Have you ever left a relationship that you later regretted?
No. The times when I was the one who ended a relationship, it was the right thing to do.

10. "I'm the flavor of the month." What celebrity is your flavor of the month?
George is not my flavor of the month. He's been a steady crush for years and years. Bradley Cooper is my flavor of the month!

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No Clooney on the Web

Those who are looking for George on social networks, here's a quote from him. "I would rather have a prostate exam on live television by a guy with very cold hands than have a Facebook page." (How about a woman with very warm hands? heh.) No Twitter. No Facebook. Sad day! (I wonder if he has a fake Twitter account for stalking his buddies...)

In the news... There is increasing concern about various websites collecting more in-depth demographic data about site visitors. I really couldn't care less. Matter-of-fact, I like that the ads that do make it past my ad blocker are tailored to me by geographic area and interests. Better than some Viagra or Axe ad or some other garbage I'll never buy. We are talking about data unassigned to our actual identities- not our names, drivers license or social security numbers, addresses, etc. This is the collection of gender, region, search terms and other things that are not mapped directly to me as an individual. To internet advertisers, I am Person A, the generic, Dairy-Queen-headed silhouette-of-doom profile photo with some descriptive data attached. Who cares? And I'm cautious on the net!

I'm curious... is anyone out there watching Leno at this point?

And finally, a hair tip... Curly-haired girls, here is the secret to perfect curls. Wet/wash your hair. Towel dry. Apply Curly Sexy Hair curling creme  (thank you Cathykins) all over, tousle and let air dry. Run your fingers through or use a pick to separate curls here and there. Finish with a spray of John Frieda Frizz-Ease Glossing Mist, kind of "scrunching" it in with your hands, which will rid you of any flyaways and put a fabulous shine on everything. PERFECT.

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