Thursday, July 31, 2008

Moving Day

Today I am moving out of my apartment and am one step closer to moving out of The Single Life. Liz and I have to officially be out of our apartment by midnight. It is a bittersweet moment. We are each our last girl roommate before we have to go live with a boy. Tear. I am moving everything to our house which will wait for me there until we are married. During the interim of 44 days (who's counting?) I will be a floater. A vagabond. A bum. Ok, more aptly put, a mooch. Thankfully, my friend Carrie has taken me in off the streets and will give me a place to sleep. Thank you, Carrie for keeping me out of the cardboard box waiting for me on Gessner! ;) I'm on my lunch break right now and will have to end it here. Gosh, a chapter about to close. Liz and I have had a lot of great memories! She gets married in 9.5 days by the way! Well, I've got to go say goodbye to the Single Roommate Life as I know it and goodbye to Apartment #2309!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Gymstones



The gym is a great place to people watch. While on the elliptical for thirty minutes, you can observe some classic human behavior as well as the not so normal and practically bizarre. I like to call them Gymstones. Take for instance, my most recent observation regarding male gym behavior. Here's the scenario: I'm in the weight room and I notice this guy staring very intently at this well-toned girl in the free weights area. I mean can you believe this guy? I bet he just comes to the gym to check out girls in work out clothes. Totally disgusting. This is all going on in my head. And then the girl moves, but his focus does not. He is looking at something beyond. Wait a minute, he's totally checking out one of the, wait... a guy? Oh, so maybe he's not into girls. And that's when I noticed it. Guys check out themselves and other guys at the gym. While in the weights area, they are totally oblivious to us. It's quite amusing to watch. You've got these guys, looking out of the corner of their eye at another guy on the bench press and checking out how much weight he's lifting and how his muscles look. And then the automatic next step, they turn back to the mirror and stare intently at their own biceps and start pumping the iron with intensity. Oh yeah, now they're motivated - they're totally gonna look like that guy next semester. And this whole time in order to maintain the chronically flexed look, they are walking around like steel robots and seem to by happenstance be in positions that require flexing. All the while stealing glances in the mirror. It's all very Zoolander-like and totally entertaining. I asked Joey about this and he denied it. He said "No, guys don't do that!" But upon our next trip to the gym, I was totally vindicated. He witnessed it himself. And they say we're complicated...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Saladification Process

So it seems that Joey and I have different salad expectations. This difference became apparent when Joey said he would pick up stuff for a salad for dinner one evening. I opened the refrigerator to get the salad stuff out and I said "Hey, where's all the stuff to make the salad? All I see is the lettuce." His reply: "Oh it's in there." Me: Where? And he pulls out celery and green onions. Ummm...wait, where's the rest of it? Now, this is taking the term "green salad" to it's limit. My dream salad would contain romaine lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, red onions, black olives, and feta cheese. Herein lies the problem: he's a salad minimalist and I'm a salad maximizer. We're currently troubleshooting and working on a salad fusion. Thankfully, due to early detection, we can prevent this conflict from wreaking havoc on our marriage. :)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sometimes Life's Dark Chocolate

The day was full of little surprises. And they really might seem pretty small and uneventful to most, but it's those small occurrences that make up and characterize the day. They give you the day's flavor. If I had to put a flavor on today, it would be dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is at first a little bitter, but then it is totally redeemed by the richness of taste and you realize just how good it is. Whoever coined the term "bittersweet" was just putting things in terms of dark chocolate.

Today's first surprise consisted of sitting on I-10 for an extra 20 minutes. I thought I would make the most of it and eat my breakfast bar. I looked in my bag and guess what? No breakfast bar. So by the time I got to work, I was late, hungry, and 20 minutes past my usual caffeination point. Bitter.

So I took care of the caffeine first and then I received the ultimate blessing for someone in my state. My co-worker had been given an extra breakfast from Chic-fil-A by mistake and God bless her, she gave it to me. Free breakfast. Sweet.

At lunch I went by one of my favorite places to eat that's next to work: Boston Market. I like going to Boston Market because it's relatively healthy fast food. And I have made a friend at the drive thru. Sam. She and I have formed a relationship over the past couple of months. She knows my voice and gives me "the usual": a caesar side salad. She asks how wedding plans are going and I ask how her kids are - it's always a light spot in the day. So I'm ready to say hello to Sam. I pulled into the parking lot and notice that the sign was taken off the front. I guess they're renovating. I get closer and notice there are signs on the doors saying they have closed down. What?! Why didn't Sam tell me? Where was the warning? If I would have known, I would have savored the Caesar salad last Wednesday and even more, my conversation with Sam. Bitter.

So I went to my favorite and not so healthy place: Chipotle. I always add guacamole to my burrito bowl. I wasn't really paying attention and when they put the lid on my bowl the lady wrote a "C" on the top with black magic marker. I think the "C" denotes chicken and anytime you add guacamole you are stamped "CG". I swear you can't go anywhere without getting labeled! Well, this time I was only a C. Oh no! My favorite part - the guacamole - it must have been left out! I was pretty bummed. Oh well. I'll save $1.49. I sat down to eat and pulled the lid off and what was there waiting for me, but none other than my guacamole. Nothing says blessed, like free guacamole! Sweet.

Things don't always go as expected. Even the little things that seem so given. If you're in a low spot, just wait for it. There's always Free Guacamole around the corner! And you realize just how good life is...

Monday, July 21, 2008

Ready to jump on The Marry-Go-Round!

There have been a lot of engagements among our friend group since January, including my own. Love is in the air. No really, I think it might be contagious. Our friends are dropping like flies! And for myself it feels like forever since we have been engaged. Are the days getting longer or is it just me? I'm wondering if it will ever get here. I was beginning to feel like these weddings were mythical. I've seen a lot of planning, but not really any wedding. Do they really happen? Will our wedding ever really be here? Well thankfully, I was encouraged to see one actually come to fruition this weekend! So these things really happen! Thank goodness! People in our Engagement Class are actually beginning to graduate. We have two weddings coming up in the next three weeks. This process is kind of like waiting in line to get on a ferris wheel. You watch all the couples as they get to be seated and go up for their ride and you can't wait until it's your turn. I am thankful that we have so many great friends that are standing in line with us waiting for their turn and some that can tell us how great the ride is! So congratulations to the first Engagement Graduates of the Class of 2008! 54 more days in line to go... :)

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Escape Artist


Meet Gus. Joey likes to refer to him as a "mixed breed", but the rest of us might call him a mutt. For the past two years Gus has been a resident of Ruston, LA. He has only recently become a Houstonian and a permanent member of our soon-to-be family. It seems that Gus is still getting used to the city life. He sees the backyard as his personal Alcatraz and he's determined to crack the system. In fact, he has made The Great Escape four times now. He has dug holes under the fence, pried boards off of the fence, moved cement blocks from the hole he dug under the fence, and most impressive of all, has managed to ram the gate enough to jimmy the latch and open the gate to freedom. And all without the use of opposable thumbs. Houdini would be taking notes. I imagine him in Shawshank Redemption fashion, tediously working away at his holes and cement blocks right under our noses. His first attempt had me in my work suit and heels, in the rain, looking for him around the reservoir. His behavior has led Joey to Plan B and to do what he thought he could never do to another male: get him fixed. It's for his own good. Last weekend he had The Surgery. He is much calmer and it seems that he has no clue that anything is missing. So we are now crossing our fingers that this will do the trick. We have been watching for suspicious behavior, such as fence boards that look a little amiss, small pick axes hidden under his dog bowl and toys, the relocation of shrubs, forming alliances with other freedom-seeking neighborhood dogs, etc. Since he has gone under, around, and through the fence, I'm waiting for the up and over attempt. If he successfully attempts this one, I think we'll just have to applaud. You can't blame him for his creativity. This has without a doubt been the most traumatic summer of his young dog life. I will keep you posted on any further developments of Operation Retain Gus...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Still Jenny...from the blog

Hmmm... so this is my first official blog. You know, the season opener, the first pitch, Act 1, etc. You get the picture. So I feel like I should make a good impression. It's so funny - I feel kind of shy, but I'm just sitting here by myself at the computer. What's up with that? I've got a serious case of First Time Blogger Jitters, colloquially known as The Blitters. Hopefully, it's not a chronic condition. So how do you start this? I mean do I have what it takes to be blog worthy or will I just fall off into unknown blogdom? What do other people write in their blogs? I did a little research in between sentences and I have decided it is mostly intriguing randomness of daily thought put into words. Randomness - now this is something I can do. In fact, if that's the definition, I've been internally blogging for years. The difference in internal blogging and this will be that now I have to translate it from Jenny-speak (which is a very complicated language - ask my fiance) into something that is a little more intelligible - namely English. So, for any of you who have ventured to this first time blogger's post, just keep in mind that I'm a newbie. I haven't got all the in's and out's down yet, but I promise that it might be slightly entertaining to watch me muddle through this.

A sidenote - I just texted Joey to let him know that I am officially "blogging". Thankfully, I looked at the text before sending. It said "I am clogging.". T9 is obviously not a veteran blogger such as myself. I think he would have figured out that I wasn't clogging, but still - yikes, not what you want people to think you're doing at 11pm on Thursday night. Can you say spell check?

Gosh, the end of my first blog. A milestone. It's been fun. Hopefully, there will be lots more to come. And so far, I love clogging! :P