Hump Day

It's ugly and rainy outside. Blech! So not looking forward to the drive home. When it rains, it's like downtown drivers forget that the pedal to the far right is the gas and they just set their foot on the break and take a nap. It takes me three times as long just to get on the highway. The upside is that Boyfriend's business travels were cut short, so he came home today rather than on Friday. That will be nice to see him when I get home. Maybe if I wish REAL hard, I'll come home to a candlelit, romantic dinner with roses all over the house. Pffft... A girl can always dream, right?

I'm so disappointed that the weather will affect our ability to see the lunar eclipse tonight. They says the best time to see it will be 8:01 pm CST, but with the cloud cover and rain, I'm guessing I'll just have to use my imagination. Maybe I can make a big production of it and cut out a big white circle and a big reddish-orange circle out of construction paper and reenact it myself. Hmmmm.... See this is where my 3-year-old niece would come in handy. She would think it was cool and I wouldn't seem like a freak doing it. I think Boyfriend would just stare at me and run through a number of line items in his head of why he continues to date such a weirdo.

Veni, Vedi, Wii-ci (I came, I saw, I Wii-ed)

So it's not formal Latin. Sue me. Last night, I was a bit down, so I went over the Ghurl's house. His best idea to cheer me up was to play with his new toy. He just purchased the infamous Wii I kept hearing about. I've never played nor have I ever really been a big video game person. Ghurl's friend showed up with his extra guitar and two remotes along with a fourth friend, so we did a four-person Wii-athon. I've decided that I absolutely suck at Guitar Hero. It requires coordination of the likes that his Filipina does not possess. However, I do have some sweet moves on the tennis game. I am actually kind of sore today...

We've decided to have another Wii night this Saturday. Ghurl plans to bring it over to my house so that Boyfriend will get hooked. Mine and Ghurl's plan is to get him addicted to the games so that a Wii of our very own will make it's way into the abode. Maybe I can convince him HE needs one so that I don't have to buy it...hehehe...so manipulative...I know.

Other than that, I got nada. Man...I'm getting boring. I need to step it up!

Sadness

Single Girl informed me last night that there is actually a wake today for a guy I went to high school with. I haven't seen him in about 15 years, and we did kind of have a bit of a falling out about that time. I am sad that he has passed at such a young age, but I'm a rather uncomfortable attending the wake. In addition to how mine and this guy's relationship as friends came to be, there will also be a number of people that I know will be at his viewing that I haven't seen in ages. Sadly, some I can say I prefer not to associate myself with again. Yes, many of them may have changed in over a decade, but sometimes it's best to leave memories distant and not revisit them...especially when they were not very good memories. I'm sure that makes me come across as a bitch that I won't be attending, but I suppose I've been called worse. In my own personal way, I will honor the life of my childhood friend. I shall say a prayer for him and will stop at my church to light a candle for him. I wish him all the peace on his next journey in the after-life.

Weekend wrap-up

Boyfriend and I had seven of our friends over for dinner Saturday night. We love cooking for a whole group! We marinated chicken breasts in a balsamic vinegar marinade and served it topped with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and a lemon butter sauce. The chicken was served with a side of Boyfriend's delicious sour cream mashed potatoes and my roasted red wine vinegar asparagus and shallots. Basically, if you were on a diet, then you'd be out of luck at this dinner with all it's rich, hearty buttery goodness. We even served homemade cinnamon crumb coffee cake for dessert. So tasty!!! It was nice being indoors with friends have great food and wine while it was horribly stormy outside.

I usually have the dishwasher empty and ready for me to load throughout the party. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to run the load already in it. So the dishwasher was running throughout the party while the dishes continued to pile up. Oh, well. I just left everything to deal with in the morning which is what I hate doing. Because this is the monstrosity I awoke to:

Luckily, it only took me about 30 minutes to load everything into the dishwasher, hand-wash all of the serving platters and bowls, and wipe the entire kitchen down. The rest of Sunday was spent being absolutely lazy. Boyfriend had to work a little bit to prepare with his upcoming meetings. He has just left again this morning for a few days in Jamiaca for business followed by more meetings in Puerto Rico. He should be home on Friday *crossing fingers*.

I was also suppose to be on a plane this morning, but decided not to as I'm just not up for it. I was going to squeeze in some time to see Doc, but I'm thinking that has to wait. I'm just too worn out. On my day off, I plan to do a lot of catching up on things. Seeing I that I actually have this whole day to take care of errands, I really should.

YAY! Boyfriend is Home!!!

Boyfriend's flight from Jamaica arrived just in time for him to beat me home from work today. Almost 3 weeks away, and it felt like FOREVER! When I got home, he came down the the stairs from the third floor and peaked around the second floor to see me in the kitchen. After running up to give him a kiss when I noticed his little head pop out of the stairwell, we spent the first five minutes of seeing each other alternating kisses and greetings while sitting on the steps. We were so happy to see each other we just sat where we were and didn't bother moving to the couch or at least somewhere more comfortable than midway up the staircase. It was nice to know that he missed me just as much. After doing our low-rent version of the kissing scene from The Notebook, we finally left the staircase so that I could give him his Valentine's Day gift..that and our asses were starting to fall asleep on the stairs.

Regarding the gift...Everytime Boyfriend and I do something outdoorsy like hiking and running or when we go to the gym or travel to places where we are very active, he does not have a regular watch to wear. He only has one watch that he wears which is a really nice one, so I decided to get him a sports watch. I did a lot of research and found him this:

I decided on the Casio Atomic G-Shock AW-100. The Casio sports watches ranked in the overall Top 10 watches in the consumer rankings. All the others on the list including the Nike ones were just too extensive - mainly for Triatheletes or marathon runners. Boyfriend is neither, so I settled for something less costly and without all the additional features he wouldn't use. There are newer models of this watch, but I noticed that some of the consumer comments mentioned that they were bigger and bulkier, so I ordered the older model that had better compliments. And by the way, I LOVE AMAZON.COM. When I purchased it a couple of weeks ago, I was able to get it $40 cheaper on Amazon versus going directly through the Casio website. It does, however, look like the price has gone up since I bought it. I must have had good timing...yay, me! He also loved the watch, so double YAY, ME!

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He took me to Mark's American Cuisine for dinner which was YUMMY! If you've never gone to Mark's before, you definitely should at least once. I do admit that the price is a bit lofty, but the ambiance can be very romantic and the food has always been excellent the few of times I've gone.

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Now we're at home and Boyfriend is snuggled in bed...probably already snoring away. It's barely 10pm on a Friday night, but poor thing is utterly exhausted. He's been up since 4am Jamaica time (meaning 3am our time) to catch a 6am flight home. I could tell that the long day combined with the inevitable food coma on the rise, Boyfriend was barely going to stay awake for the car ride back to the house. I decided that the last of my belated Valentine's Day gifts to him would be to let him fall asleep in our comfy bed while I play on the computer in the guest room since I'm still relatively wide awake. Sleeping on a rock-hard hotel bed for 2.5 weeks did not make for happy sleep time while he was away. I'm sure he'll be completely out and not even notice when I sneak into bed when I finally turn in. Hopefully, he'll get a good night's sleep because we have all morning to get caught up on other things...*wink, wink*

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Hope you guys have a wonderful Friday and rest of the weekend!

Oh...And Happy Valentine's Day!

Boyfriend is still working away in Jamaica, but since he couldn't be here for this day of amore, I received these at my office:

The bouquet is gorgeous...and HUGE! The arrangement is over 2 feet tall. I have no idea how I'm going to get it home. Regardless, I love them. And I love him. Sucks that he's been gone almost three weeks. Thank goodness he's coming home tomorrow!!!

A Step Closer to Her Own "True Hollywood Story" Segment

You all know that I usually don't use real names to protect the privacy of the people I talk about (which you all now I LOVE talking trash about you) and even more so to protect my own privacy. I started this blog mainly for my close friends who live out of town to keep up with my shenanigans without having to call me or email me regularly for an update. So far, I have friends in New York, Georgia, Denver, California, Japan, and all over Texas who occassionally find their way to my blog to get their dose of Rice Spice. But today, I will go against the grain and for good reason.

My friend Robin Kilgore has written a book. Yes, I know a real published author! Although we aren't close, we found ourselves in the same places a number of times when she still lived in Houston - namely bars, but that's besides the point. Strangely, we have mutual friends in totally different circles - professional, casual, straight, gay... Regardless, you all need to buy her book because this witty woman always has something outrageous and off-the-cuff to share in person, so I can only imagine that her book will be even more entertaining. I'm ordering mine today! So I want everyone to go to the website below and support Robin in her road to literary success, and as the title of this posts suggests, we'd be helping her get one step closer to her own True Hollywood Story episode. Buy yours today!!!

Stop with the weddings already...

Boyfriend emailed me the other day to inform me that he just got word from a childhood friend that his wedding is on May 31st and that he really wants us to attend...in NEW JERSEY!!! This I am not that bothered by so immensely. It is actually the closeness to the date of another wedding I was invited to the weekend before in NEW YORK. So basically, we are looking at flying up north two weekends in a row! Ugh! I guess it's not so bad seeing as neither one of us feels immense obligation to go to the weddings that we should buy an airline ticket, so we can fly stand-by if it's available and stay at Doc's place for free...BUT, wedding gifts aren't cheap, my friend. And we shall be sending gifts whether we attend or not.

So basically, we are looking at the following weddings:

1. April 19th - Key West, FL - My Friends


2. April 26th - Dallas, TX - Both our Friend


3. May 3rd - Houston, TX - Boyfriend's Friend


4. May 24th - New York, NY - My Friend


5. May 31st - Somewhere in New Jersey - Boyfriend's Friend


6. October 4th - Houston, TX - Both our Friend

I'm soooooo not looking forward to May! I have this eerie feeling that I have forgotten one...or two. Granted, I do know of two specifically we declined attending because they were going to be way too expensive to go for people we weren't that close to. I'm just glad that I'm not IN any of them. I think that phase of me being a bridesmaid is over...thank goodness! Eight bridesmaids dresses are enough, don't you think?

Bottom line, none of the rest of my friends are allowed to get married this year. I can accept engagements. Engagements are fine. I would say...one can even get pregnant with a due date in 2009 (which means everyone keep taking your birth control until April, please!). Just NO MORE WEDDINGS! Boyfriend and I were trying to save money this year, but I'm seeing that it will be a challenge with the travel/hotels and gifts we'll be shelling out this year. Not to mention the plethora of birthdays we celebrate between family and friends between mid-March until June. Man oh man!

Entertaining Email Exchange

Today Blondie sent the following email to me and other friends (names modified, of course):

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From: Blondie
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:04 PM
To: Rice Spice (and friends)
Subject: FW: This Will Get You, Guaranteed!

Awe, who doesn’t want one?????


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My Reply was...

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From: Rice Spice
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:56 PM
To: Blondie (and friends)
Subject: RE: This Will Get You, Guaranteed!

You and your baby fever! If you put enough drinks in me… I’ll sit on the floor, topple over face-first, bang my head a few times, tear paper, and giggle relentlessly if it makes you feel better. I’m a good friend like that! :)

And this post makes 3 for the day...

I can't believe I'm actually getting a third post in for the day. I'm finally home and looking over some of the final details of my Costa Rica trip. I'm so anal when it comes to planning trips to international destinations. I always make sure the places we stay confirm all our reservations via email so that I have a paper trail. My neurotic personality of printing all these email exchanges and taking them with me has had two hotels eat their words. Once when I was in the Bahamas, I had a hotel tell me that they did not have any record of my reservation. Another time, I had a hotel in Paris tell me the same thing as well. I plopped out my copies of emails exchanged with one of their employees (or the employee themself who is telling me that my reservations don't exist) specifically replying with the words or some variation of , "Yes, we have reservations for you confirmed on (whatever dates)." Definitely works for making hotel employees look like morons. It's even gotten me upgraded to a bigger suite.

Our trip to Costa Rica is scheduled for 1 night in San Jose and 4 nights in La Fortuna which is in the Arenal Volcano area. I've pretty much determined all of the activities we want to do and also to squeeze in time to relax. Seeing as Boyfriend and I have spent a lot of time apart lately with his business travels, it will be nice to spend a few days away together. Especially since it might be my turn to do some traveling once we get back from our vacation. Our travel/work schedules are really getting crazy lately!

I can't believe I'm still at work!

It's 7:55 p.m. and I'm still at work!!! Jeez! I have an all-day training tomorrow that's via teleconference that requires me to follow along with all these presentations. I figure if I print them out rather than follow along on my computer screen from the link, I can actually get some real work done on my computer while I'm listening to them yap about a software program that our particular location doesn't even use. You heard right...I'm learning a effing program we don't even use and to top it off...the training is 7 hours! I'm waiting on the last two presentations to print out and then I'm outta here. I swear none of these presentations are less than 50 pages long... It was either stay late to print them or come in early. I'd much rather lie in bed the extra couple of hours, wouldn't you? Ok, it's about 8pm. Better check the copier to see if they are all done so I can leave. It's going to be a loooooooog day tomorrow!

Mosaic

I've pretty much putzed on my duties of blogging seeing as I missed over the entire weekend. Oh, well... That means 3 blogs from me today!!! The first will talk about my Saturday. I was extremely busy as you can guess from my lack of a post.

During the day, I spent time with the family. It was my uncle's 72nd birthday. Woot! He's the typical crotchedy old man with never a lack of a complaint about something. It really is one of his endearing qualities. He is an intelligent engineer who worked for years for the navy on spy ships and submarines doing things that none of has have yet to figure out nor could he discuss. Now that he is retired, we still have no clue why he would be unreachable for 3-6 months at a time and randomly get calls from him checking in from all over the world - Spain, Greece, Portugal, Nicaragua, Croatia, Panama - so bizarre. Well, anytime you visit him now, you always know you're about to hear his views on politics, how the world is falling apart, and how he's old and crotchedy. Yes, he is aware of his award-winning disposition and doesn't give a damn...that's probably why I like him so much. Ha! He and my other uncle (both on my mother's side) are who taught me to appreciate the taste scotch, never to underestimate a good bourbon, and that beer is a weekend necessity...oh, and that an 18-pack should be drank in one setting. "Who buys beer if you're not gonna drink it?", they use to say. So funny!

After the birthday festivities, I headed over to a black and white cocktail reception for the grand opening of the first tower at Mosaic on Herman Park. I was invited to a big party the rooftop pool and clubhouse to give people the first-hand glance at some of the residences for sale in one of the two towers. It's some swank new high-rise in the medical center. I believe they are condos for sale rather than rent. I checked out a few show models while there, and let me tell you...they are ridiculous...and UGLY! For a one-bedroom 800-sq-ft apartment (and I say apartment because I do NOT consider these shoeboxes condos), they are selling them in the approximate range of $150K. Ok, I understand that it is great that you get a decent (not great) view of downtown Houston as well as an excellent view of the Med Center skyline, but come on! $150K?!?!? It's very modern, but not worth my dough....that's for sure. It's definitely for someone who wants to be in something stylish and hoity toity, but I guess I feel like if I'm paying that much, it should be bigger than my last apartment and come with a yard...BUT then again, that's just me. My guess is that the condos won't sell very well, and they will open them up as an option to rent rather than strictly buying like most of the high-rises are doing.

Here is a picture of me and Ghurl trying to bring the sexy...although we just look like we're doing a very bad "Blue Steel" pose like in Zoolander. I always think these events are cheesy, but I have to show up to shake hands and say hi to people who are good contacts for future events - party planners, beer and wine vendors, event staffing providers (which is Ghurl's industry), caterers, fashion designers, store owners, etc. All of these people could always come in handy when I want donated services or merchandise for any banquets, galas, auctions, or giveaways for charities I work with or discounts or special treatment for events I plan for my own company. Jeez...what you have to do to maintain solid contacts in this town...

Another Friday night in...

I've been feeling poopy again so I decided to stay in tonight. I turned down a fantastic dinner at RA with a group of friends. Instead, I've been obsessively watching crime dramas. I'm so friggin' addicted to all three Law and Order shows as well as all three CSIs and Without A Trace. With the wonders of cable television, there is always one of these episodes playing every day at any given time. I swear I fall sleep to watching these shows every night. So after watching at least one of these shows for the last five hours straight in addition to watching at least two episodes nightly, I think I may be able to solve my own homicide investigations as well as prosecute those guilty of commiting the crimes...all within one hour. Ha!

So I've been toying with the idea of starting boot camp again. I think I need to jumpstart in my routine again. I love the intensity. We shall see. Boyfriend refuses to do the co-ed course with me, so I guess I'll just do the one closest to where I live which happens to be an all women's boot camp. I think I will attempt to go to the gym on Sunday. I've been avoiding it since I've been so sick lately. I need to get motivated because I'm getting tired of my jeans getting tight again.

Reconnecting with Blondie

Last night, I met Blondie for dinner. I hadn't seen Blondie and actually gotten caught up with her in almost a month...maybe even longer. It's funny that when I think about it, a month of not seeing a friend when you're both so busy isn't all that bad. BUT, when you use to party with her nonstop from Friday until Sunday almost every week, you think it's odd when two weeks have gone by. None of us go out partying anything like we use to so those days are relatively distant memories. However, we are usually still pretty good about meeting for dinner every couple of weeks or so.

We went to the new Japanese-French fusion restaurant Soma located in the Washington Corridor area. It's owned by the sushi restaurant Azuma. After reading reviews, I heard that the non-sushi menu is actually very good. We were in the mood for some raw fish, so I couldn't tell you what the other menu was like. I started off with some La Crema Pinot Noir and a very scrumption chuka salad (seaweed salad for those not familiar with Japanese cuisine). As you can tell by the picture, they have a very nice presentation with their salad. The rest of the sashimi and rolls we ordered were very good, too.

Blondie recapped her weekend with our other friend Grove in Arizona for both the Super Bowl and the FBR Open. Blondie's family are all there and her sister lives in a condo on the golf course the Open was being held. Her sister was was able to get club tickets for the golf tournament for everyone. It sounds like they had a good time overall and enjoyed hitting the local nightspots with the Super Bowl crowds in full partying force. I, on the other hand, recapped my boring couple of weeks of being a puny, coughing, miserable mess and my cleaning/organizing frenzy. Wow, that sounds pretty lame by comparison! Ha! However, I did tell her of mine and Boyfriend's upcoming trip to Costa Rica to redeem myself.

On my way home from the restaurant, Doc called. We talked until almost midnight...sheesh! Needless to say, it was a bit tough getting up this morning. Regardless, it's always nice to get to talk to him.

Politics Schmolitics

So I've been watching the neverending presidential election coverage. It appears that as of right now, McCain is the republican shoe-in and Barack and Hillary are still duking it out on the democrat side. I started really thinking about it last night as I discussed political views with two other men from Job#2. Mind you, the conversation was between a 50-year-old black man, a 34 year-old man from India, and your very own resident 30-year-old female Filipino American. Let's just say that the it was profoundly reassuring that although the candidates we hope to see in office are different, we all agreed on some of the changes we'd like to see as a whole, what we like and don't like about each candidate, and the realistic direction certain of agendas.

I actually like John McCain, but I think he is too old to live through the grueling four years in the White House. You see how much it ages each president in the span of those four years....can you imagine how taxing it will be on McCain who will be 72 years old if he takes office this year? And it's not like he doesn't already have health issues. Although he is such an offbeat Republican that I love how "unconservative" he can be. I liked him so much more for the gig when he ran 8 years ago. Don't even get me started on Huckabee. I can't even fathom how he's made it this far.

As for who I'm throwing my support behind, I'm still at odds. I really like Barack Obama, but I feel like he doesn't have the experience to handle the job. Not yet. Maybe in 2012, but not 2008. His political agendas aren't that far off and are sometimes parallel to Hillary Clinton's but his direction and proposed methods are a little too idealogical and not as realistic. You can talk the talk, but Hillary understands that if you can't walk the walk, it will bite you in the end. So why make promises that you will end the war when you can instead say that you are indeed against it and will "start ending it". Everyone knows that there is no way that you can just pull the plug on something as critical and complicated as the War in Iraq. Barack speaks as if we chose him, he would show us how easy it would be to end the war. Oh, the voice of being wide-eyed and inexperienced. It will be a slow process with a number of hurdles no matter who is in office.

So all in all, I think that Hillary is best suited for the Presidency. Lord help me that Boyfriend gasps every time I say that. Seriously, we do not speak of politics at length because we love each other and want to continue loving each other - him the absolute conservative and me the liberal with some minor conservative tendencies. Ideally, I would like to see Clinton as a one-term president and Obama as her Second In Command. At which point, he will gain the experience and garner the respect to strengthen a presidential bid in 2012....or 2016 if Hillary goes a second term. Only if I had a say in it, but I don't. So I guess I'll just keep watching the madness unfold.

It's funny that I wrote something about both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama just a little over a year ago. Right around the time they were fomally announcing their presidential bids. If I haven't bored you enough as it is with all this politics talk, feel free to see what I wrote here last January.

Ok...I'm done with all my Presidency talk. I promise to go back to nonsense gibberish regarding Hollywood gossip and the goings on in my mundane life.

A Funny Story From The Past (Pre-Boyfriend, of course)

I had a funny memory pop into my head today. One that revisits my mind on occassion just because it was so darn funny. It's the stuff that sitcom scripts are made of. The only reason I have decided to blog about my long-gone single life is because Boyfriend is familiar with this story. Remember, he was my friend for years before we became an item and heard this story the first time around when it was presently happening. Also, it is just too damn funny that even he can't deny it.

Flashback to sometime in the colder months of 2003. Since it was baseball season, I'm guessing it had to be around October. My former roommate that Doc and I simply refer to as Nurse Crazy and I went to Flying Saucer for a drink late night during the week. I couldn't sleep and she...well...she was just an alcoholic. We were the only ones there at 12 a.m. on a Tuesday until two guys came strolling in. Apparently, they had been having drinks at The B.U.S. which is the bar directly across from the ballpark since the game ended and they were slowly bar-hopping their way closer to their apartment.

It was like a match made in heaven. They were roommates. We were roommates. You would think, right? There was a glitch. The cuter one was pretty young and the other one was...let's see...not attractive. At. All. Oh, well. Anyway, I decided to flirt with the young one regardless. I was three years his senior. Nurse Crazy just proceeded to get drunker and drunker in order to enhance the other guy's hotness factor. It was a good attempt on her part, but she just became a drunken mess so it was time to go home. Young Guy and I exchanged numbers upon our good-byes.

Young Guy called at least two or three times for me to meet him up for a drink while he was out and about. I declined with lame excuses until one night he called and I thought, "Eh...why not?" So Nurse Crazy and I met him and his roommate at the bar across the street from our then apartment. While at Front Porch Pub, Young Guy turned from dorky guy I met a couple of weeks ago to the most entertaining guy in the room. I blame that the place was pretty dead and I was pretty drunk...details, details. And so the non-commital quasi-dating began.

Later down the line, Nurse Crazy and I met up with Young Guy and couple of his friends at another downtown bar. As we were sitting side by side sipping our cocktails and bobbing our heads to the music, I looked over at Young Guy and was perplexed. There was something amist! Something was wrong but I couldn't figure it out. Not that he was in a bad mood or anything because he was still head bobbing to the beats and ordering another drink. It took a few minutes of stealing glances at him when it hit me.

I turned to Nurse Crazy and asked, "Does Young Guy have a lazy eye? I think he has a lazy eye."

She looked me straight in the face with her eyes half-opened in her best attempt to look sexy while inebriated and said, "I was thinking the same thing. I thought you must have already noticed and not cared."

WHAT?!?! Noticed and not cared? Ok. I know I'm going to sound shallow, but I am what I am. HELL TO THE NO would I have "noticed and not cared." Although late, I now noticed and I did care! Leave it to me to go out with a guy for over a month and not notice a lazy eye! However, I was already fully vested in at least seeming as if I didn't care because I've already gone out with him a number of times. Oy vey! To prove I wasn't completely superficial, I decided to look passed the eye and continue to see him - (like the vision references? Witty, I know). Because by God, I am a good person, right? Wrong. It was like someone with a booger hanging out of their nose, broccoli in their teeth, or a huge bloody ax protruding from one's skull. I couldn't help thinking about it. I started to feel self-conscious about looking him in the eye because 1) I didn't want him to think I was staring at IT, 2) I didn't want him to feel like I thought less of him just because he couldn't point both eyes at me when we spoke face-to-face, and 3) I wasn't even really sure which eye I should be looking at when I spoke to him. Oh Jeez!

Now on to the more comical part... After having gone out with him one more time after my new-found revelation, I thought that it wasn't so bad. The eye wasn't such a big deal. Maybe we can get it fixed when he gets older and richer or if I win the lottery. I was on my way to taking this relationship to the next level...maybe even going public with it.

In an effort to do something not in a bar and not ending in me passing out after copious amounts of scotch, we decided to do a movie night. I packed an overnight bag and headed to his place. We watched Patch Adams. Ok, tip-off #1 should've been the blatant poor choice of movie. It was already a movie that was a couple years old...and who the heck chooses Patch Adams to watch with a girl you're still trying to impress???? After accepting that I will no longer allow him to choose our movies, we started the film.

His tv was at the foot of his bed so we were both lying on our stomachs watching the movie side by side. I kept looking over at him giving him a look as if to ask him "what?" after catching him looking at me in my peripheral vision. He finally turns his head to look at me and asks me, "What?" I quickly realize that he wasn't staring at me from the corner of his eye to get my attention. HE was watching the movie, but his LAZY EYE was watching ME! Eeks!!! Ok, stay calm. I simply played it off by saying that it was nothing. We continued watching the awful movie. The crazy thing is that as the movie played on, I would forget about his eye and catch him in my peripheral again and turn to him with that same furrowed brow look in a "what?" expression again. And again, he'd turn to me and ask me what I wanted. Jeez! Why couldn't I have layed down on the "good" side so that the damn eye would stop staring at me?!?! Well, leave it to me, but as the movie progressed, we did that what-what routine at least two or three more times. Can you imagine???? Looking back, it would've been hilarious for an outsider to be watching us as I goofed up every time and tried to recover.

I was so thankful when the movie was over. I told him that I wasn't going to spend the night because of an early meeting...even though I had so thoughtfully had a bag packed in my car. That was the last time I saw Lazy Eye (the name Young Guy was later christened). How would our love survive if I couldn't tell whether he was looking at me or not or that I always had to sit/stand/lie down on the "good side" in order to feel like I'm not being stared at constantly? It felt like he was always staring and judging.

Stories like this from my adventures of singlehood make me thankful that I currently have Boyfriend, but I will tell you this... I think my friends are the most disappointed as nothing comes close to the entertaining stories that came out of Rice Spice's dating life between the years of 2002 and 2005.

Two Things

I wasn’t tagged to do this, but I figured I’d do it anyway so that I had something to post about…yeah, I know…cop-out.

(two names you go by) Little Bit and Scrambles McCrazy

(two things you are wearing right now) Gray slacks and a sassy ponytail

(two things you would want (or have) in a relationship) Trust and Laughter

(two of your favorite things to do) Travel and Eat

(two things you want very badly at the moment) Motivation to get back into my crazy workout routine and Boyfriend to come home already

(two pets you had/have) Duchess of Poo Poo (the killer mini-dachshund) and Prada Handbags (the mini-dachshund who is usually mistaken for a potbelly pig)

(two people you think will fill this out) Single Girl and Hmmmm…dunno

(two things that you did last night) Dinner at Carrabba’s Italian Grill with Giant and Had a glass of La Crema Pinot Noir

(two things you ate today) Banana Orange Smoothie and String Cheese Stick

(two people you last talked to) Doc and Mama Spice

(two things you're doing tomorrow) Going to the gym and Working

(two longest car rides) From Houston, TX to Panama City, FL and Houston, TX to Tulsa, OK – I’m not a fan of road trips

(two favorite holidays) Halloween and Christmas

(two favorite beverages) Too many types of wine and Lipton Diet Green Tea w/Citrus

(two people no longer alive who you'd like to talk to) My Grandfather on Mama Spice’s side – I’d be interested in stories from WWII since he was in the U.S. Army. I’m sure he had some tales to tell and Jesus Christ – I’m not really sure what I believe regarding who he truly was, but from a non-religious standpoint, I’m guessing he was a profound motivational speaker and would love to see him in action

A work in progress

I know that I'm absolutely boring you in my closet organizing endeavors, but it was such a pain in the rear to work on yesterday. AND...I'm not even finished! I still have to organize my clothes by "going out wear", casual wear, and professional wear. And within those, I have to organize by color from lightest to darkest. Yes, I'm one of those freaks! I didn't even start on that seeing as I have a hamper-full of drycleaning to pick up today, so Lord help me that I figure out how to squeeze the rest of that in before I start sorting. It looks like I'm pretty bare on that bottom wrung, so I'm guessing all my drycleaning must be skirts and slacks. Anyway, this was my boring Sunday...

No boxes to hurdle in the doorway!

Yes, I use a step ladder to get to the shelves...I'm hobbit-sized.

My coats, jackets, and shoes. I actually have a box of shoes that are in the guest closet.

My very unorganized side of the closet

Boyfriend's relatively organized side of the closet
The only wrung we have to share for his sweaters and my dresses. It's sad when my dresses are the same length as his sweaters...see... I AM a hobbit!
How did he get 5 shelves and I only get 2 on my side of the bathroom?!?! That's poor design if you ask me!

Our now organized vanity drawer...woot! To bad I didn't take a BEFORE picture so that you could see how disasterous it looked.

My middle name is PRODUCTIVE

Yesterday was a good day. I got out of being a tour guide to Boyfriend's friends...woot! In exchange, I got to spend a majority of my day with Mama Spice. I picked her up for a day of pampering and being away from her 24/7 job as a nanny to my 3-year-old niece and my 7-month-old nephew. We got manicures and pedicures followed by lunch at Niko Niko's. I love me some Niko Niko's!!! We each had a small greek salad and shared their lamb kabob plate. YUM! My mother had never had Greek food before and after 60 years of living without trying such delectible food, my mother is now a fan. I'm so glad I was able to give my mother a day of relaxation!

In the evening, we met up with my brother at his fiancee's parents' house for a family get-together. It was a gathering to do a group rosary prayer. I know it sounds strange, but it's this big thing people do when they are very religious. Let me tell ya...Rice has not prayed the rosary in AGES! When I called Boyfriend after the prayer he went into shock wondering what the heck happened. He leaves me for a weekend and I'm praying the rosary on a Saturday night. Hehehe... Come to think of it, it does seem kind of funny. When I told him I had just finished praying, I think he thought I was speaking code for something more sketchy and lurid...ha!

This morning, I woke up and immediately started being productive. Today was focused on organizing and cleaning the master closet and master bathroom. I FINALLY unpacked that box sitting in the middle of the walk-in closet that I had to hurdle every morning to get to my clothes. I finally moved all of Boyfriend's clothes to right side of the closet and mine to the left - it's been all mixed up since I moved in. I spent about $100 on organizing materials just to get our closet and bathroom manageable - why does being organized have to cost so friggin' much? I bought one of those nifty shoe organizers that hang and hold ten pairs of shoes. There was no way that both his and my shoes were going to fit at the bottom of the closet without tripping all over them. In addition to the shoe organizer, I bought a junk drawer organizer for the vanity drawer in the bathroom and about 4 organizing baskets for my side of the bathroom cabinets. Boyfriend has 5 shelves while I only have 2 on my side for my personal bathroom items. 2 to his 5?!?! WTH?!?! At least the baskets help to keep everything organized rather than just thrown in. I'm cheesy, so I took pictures, but unfortunately, I am having trouble downloading them. Maybe I'll post them tomorrow.

Saturday...

Have a ton going on, but I just got home and am thoroughly exhausted. I shall report tomorrow.

Have a good night!

Oh yes it's ladies night...And the feeling's right...

...Oh yes it's ladies night... Oh what a night (oh what a night)!

Sorry. Had that Kool & The Gang song in my head.

Tonight I have a couple of "girlfriends" coming over for movie night. Girlfriends in quotes as those who will be over are who Boyfriend likes to call my "gay entourage." I don't know if I'm really up for a true night of going out since I've been dealing with the cruds all week, but I think I'm ok with a few visitors. I think I'm also going a bit stir crazy having been absolutely worthless the last couple of days - no gym time, no errands have been ran, my drycleaning is about as tall as I am - so visitors should do me some good. I'm thinking a scary movie night. I don't think my brain can handle anything too thought-provoking at this point.

As for the weekend, I'm not sure what I've got going on. I know a couple of my friends are in Arizona for Super Bowl weekend. I opted not to go...although I should have since Boyfriend is out of town. Boyfriend has a childhood friend in town with his girlfriend. They are in Houston only through Monday and the girlfriend sent me a note on MySpace about getting together for dinner. I've only met them once, so I'm hoping they won't want to meet up after I responded that Boyfriend is out of town. I think it's more that I'm still kind of under the weather, and I'm just not up to being Miss Houston Tour Guide Extraordinaire. Seriously, I actually love playing the welcome wagon for people visiting...even if they aren't even MY friends, but I'm just not feeling it right now. Does that make me a bad person?

As for my super cooties, I've apparently gotten Single Girl sick via our web contact. I hope she doesn't get nearly as bad as I have been the last few days. I tried burning it out of me with alcohol and it didn't work out...so take lots of Vitamin C and get some rest!