One more day until the weekend...

I hate to bore you with more talk of being ill, but it seems to have consumed my life the past couple of days. I'm about 70% better and still working on it. I left work early yesterday at around 1:30pm, and was on the couch asleep by 2:30pm. I think I slept until almost 6pm at which I was too lazy to cook or prepare dinner, so I did the unspeakable...I ordered a pizza. I only had about 2 slices of my thin-crust pizza before I decided it was time to shut it down for the evening. Good old Nyquil kept me asleep all through the night - YAY for cold medicine with sleep aids!!!! I woke up feeling better than I had in the past 3 or 4 days, but I started to decline again around 10am this morning at work. Grrrrr!

I plan to go home right after work and repeat my lazy couch ritual followed by doping myself up on Nyquil again. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. It's going to be Friday for goodness sake! I can't be bed-ridden on a Friday!!!!

Other than sick news, Boyfriend has informed me that his business in Jamaica will be keeping him there through February 18th. We emailed back and forth about me possibly meeting him in Montego Bay during any of the next 3 weekends, but the flights don't look good. Also, I would have to take vacation time of which I would rather save for Costa Rica and any other planned trips rather than just to meet him while he's on business. I already did that with San Juan of which was virtually a relaxing getaway by myself since he worked the whole time. I think I'd actually enjoy his company on my next vacation...what do you think? So I've decided to hold off and not meet him in Jamaica. I think he's more concerned that I might be upset that he is a) gone so long and b) missing Valentine's Day.

Honestly, I do hate the idea that he will be gone almost 3 whole weeks, but it's for work. I know better than to mess with one's livelihood. I think he's very lucky that I'm not one of those whiney girlfriends that demand he comes home. It's best he puts his grunt work in now before we're married and have kids because I sure as hell don't want him gone for 3 weeks at a time while I'm raising little ones. I'll pull out all of my hair...and may daresay eat my young if he's not there to help talk me off the ledge.

As for the Valentine's Day concern, ehhh...that specific date is overrated anyway. Granted, I do love that it is a date that puts Boyfriend on edge to scramble at the last minute to find me something purdy. Boyfriend is one of those "on the day of...picking through the last of the wilting roses at 6:30pm on his way home from work" kind of guys, but he's also thrown me curve balls by showing up with little blue Tiffany boxes to accompany those sad, half-dead roses. I don't mind celebrating V-day until he gets back. I ordered his gift yesterday. I think it should arrive some time next week. Just in case he looks at this blog...which I doubt, I will not say exactly what it is, but it is something he will put to good use. I definitely did not spend the money I did last year, but mainly because we have an upcoming trip to Costa Rica that we should be saving our pennies for.

So if any of you are bored over the next couple of weekends and want to grab a beer...or three ;) give me a shout. I shall be Boyfriend-less and without supervision...(*insert evil laugh here*)

I hate being sick!

That is all.

Day 2...maybe Day 3 of feeling like poo... AND a shoutout to Sublimenigma

I promise to not continue going on and on and on and on and...yeah, you get the drift...about being ill. Yes, I still am. No, I'm not getting any better.

Asides from trying to fight this super bug I seem to be infected with, I wanted to give a delayed shoutout to Sublimenigma for mentioning me on his blog. I've read of a few of his posts here and there and found him to be an entertaining blogger. I found my way to him through our very own Not-Quite-Single Girl-Who-Is-Technically-Still-A-Single Girl-By-Legal Paperwork. Seeing as that name is too long, I will still refer to her as Single Girl...or SG as they call her in the hood.

On to other news, Boyfriend and I are planning a real vacation. Not one where one of us has to work and the other is tagging along and not where we're actually there for something else but just happens to be in a cool city such as for work-related functions like our NYC trip or for the umpteenth weddings we have to attend this year all over the U.S. We're looking into Costa Rica. We figure we should steer clear of European countries since the dollar is so weak right now and we'd be paying almost double for everything with the tragic exchange rate. I've been interested in Costa Rica for years. I think what gets me is all the Zipline tours you can take through the rainforest. We are looking into this particular one. Awesome, huh? We're shooting for early March which is right before rainy season starts in April. Otherwise, rainy season doesn't end until November, and I don't think either of us is patient enough to wait that long. Well, we're just at the early planning stages, so we shall see what happens.

That's it for now, kiddos! Until tomorrow...

My body can't decide how it plans to kill me...

As I posted last night, I've been feeling the inner workings of some sort of cold coming on. Well, today I woke up to less of the sore throat symptoms but more of the allergy stuffiness and plugged up right ear. Don't get me wrong. I still have that pesky cough lurking about and funk in the back of my throat, but now it seems like the sinus pressure in the middle of my forehead to the bridge of my nose is trying to implode pulling my entire face directly into that area. Jeez!

I just took an Allegra-D to loosen any congestion, but now my nose has become a leaky faucet that won't stop dripping. Grrrrr! Would it be unprofessional if I stuck kleenex in my nose and continued to work as if it were normal? Maybe if I put on Prada eyeglasses that I normally only wear for far distances such as driving or at sporting events, it will make me look so intelligent and fashionable that it will distract people from looking at the two white tissues hanging out of my nostrils. What do you think?

My 2nd Post of the Day

As for my second post of the day to make up for the lack of blogging yesterday, I will vent about getting sick. I feel a twinge of a cold coming on. I get my annual flu shot, but I think this is the basic old-fashioned cold with sore throat and the workings of a good cough coming on. I took Nyquil last night after coming home from the movies, but still awoke to that horrible feeling of the tight, dry throat and unable to swallow without it feeling like my saliva is sliding down my throat like razorblades. Graphic...but you get the idea. Lucky for me that it started getting better as the day progressed and after taking a few doses of cough medicine, but I'm still concerned that this could get worse. Cross your fingers for me! I've got Boyfriend taking Airborne every 3-4 hours so that he doesn't catch my cooties. Poor thing will be traveling to Jamaica sometime this week for almost two weeks and can't afford to get sick. That would suck to be away from home working and miserably ill. Now I'm off to lie in bed and hope I don't wake up to the same sore throat I woke up to this morning...

Damn Ninja Midgets...

Ok, ok.... I confess that it wasn't the ninja midgets that kept me from blogging yesterday...it was actually Comcast. We had a cable guy come over to check why our internet was running at a snail's pace somewhat similar to how quickly it would take for me to physically get in my car, go to the library, and look up information. Yes...our internet was so slow that all I would get is the hour glass as if it were thinking and then it would just quit. The little engine that could never did... So we finally broke down and scheduled a guy to come out and for whatever reason, it seemed to get worse yesterday after he worked on it and switched out our modem. So it wasn't until today that we were able to get some sort of service and praise to the internet powers that be that it seems like it's getting faster....woot!

After making Boyfriend sit through another 5 grueling minutes in the Indian salon's waiting area listening to blaring Indian music while I got my eyebrows threaded, we did get to see Rambo yesterday. Why is it fast Indian music always reminds me of a chase scene through some third world country in a James Bond movie? I guess that's a totally different post all together. Back to Rambo...

The movie was AWESOME! No, really... I really enjoyed it! I read a review that a lot of people would be going to see this not so much for the theatrical content but for the campy humor that John Rambo will still be insanely kicking ass at his age as well as that it will be a throwback of the days of truly senseless action movies that require no deep thoughts or messages...just pure violent action...very much the days of Sylvester Stallone and California's now Governor Arnold Swarzenegar. That description was so dead on. Any time Rambo killed someone - be it shooting an arrow into a moving target's face (yes...FACE, I tell ya!) from 50 yards away, ripping someone's throat out with his bare hands, or decapitating a bad guy with a machete - you not only heard people in the theatre say, "Daaaammmmn," you always heard it followed by giggles. Overall, it was a great movie for someone who can appreciate the nostalgia of the older Rambo movies.

After Rambo, we still felt like seeing something else. So we decided to be bad kiddies and sneak into another movie. Our choices of movies that were about to start next to the theater we just exited were either No Country For Old Men or Michael Clayton. Both of which we knew were nominated for academy awards.. Both of which we knew NOTHING about the plots. We decided to go with the first choice. NCFOM was a good movie. Very intense and freaky. Javier Bardem's character is so pyschotic and creepy that he just gives you that nails on a chalkboard feeling. I can see why he won the Golden Globe, won the SAG Award, and nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actor. He portrayed homicidally crazy in a way that is very unsettling.

Anyway....that is it for my recap of yesterday. Hope you all had a fun-filled weekend.

Blah Blah Blah

After work yesterday, I attended a work happy hour with one of our portfolio companies. It was alright...typical work happy hour. I consider it "working after hours." I got to meet a number of new people from the other company which was nice, but I would've much rather been at home vegetating on the couch.

Afterwards, I attended a party for friends who got engaged that night. AK's boyfriend proposed during dinner at Brennan's and then headed over to Reef for drinks where all their friends would be waiting to surprise her in a celebration of champagne toasts! AK was so excited to see everyone and her ring was GORGEOUS! Luckily, I was able to duck out around 9:30pm and was in bed by 10pm...woohoo!

Other than that, I have nothing to report today. I plan to finally unpack that last pesky large box from my move seeing it's been over a month and Boyfriend is pretty tired of maneuvering around an obstacle course in the walk-in closet. Now don't laugh, but Boyfriend and I seriously want to watch the newest Rambo that comes out today. Maybe we'll see it tomorrow. You have to give Stallone some props for being 102 years old and still trying to play John Rambo. I think part of me is going for the nostalgia of seeing Rambo...c'mon everybody loves a non-thought-requiring action movie every once in a while...but partly because the dialogue in that script has got to be priceless. I swear Sly only had 4 lines in the first movie! It was like Cast Away with explosions and killing people...so I guess really nothing like Cast Away...hehe.

An Alcoholic's Mirage

I must be craving a martini... When I was scanning Amazon's Bestsellers book list, this book was #6. I honestly read that this book was by "Marci SMIRNOFF with Carol Kane". I thought to myself, "Wow...that's some serious propaganda by Smirnoff to tell you how to be happy... Step 1. Drink lots of Smirnoff..." I also thought it was a nice touch that Carol Kane contributed to the book since, although I'm not sure if she was a certifiable alcoholic, she was always so ditzy she might as well have been drunk every time I saw her on screen.

After reading the authors' names correctly on my double-take, I decided that it was me who in fact had drinks on the brain and sobriety in question. Well...tahtah for now...I'm off to happy hour.

I'm famous!

Ok...not really. It's actually kind of cheesy, but sometime in early December I went to the unveiling of the newest Bentley that just came out. Don't ask me what it was because I really just showed up for the free food and booze - I'm a classy broad that way. It was some highfalutin thing at the Bentley dealership near The Galleria that was catered and by invitation only. However, I don't want you to think I was formally invited...au contraire, mon amie...I am friends with a girl who does a lot of public relations work, and she invited me. I consider myself not quite six-degrees but maybe three-degrees of separation from being a social mover and shaker in Houston...haha! A few friends and I had our picture taken, and low and behold. I see myself in this January's issue of Icon Magazine - one of the Houston scene magazines. So if you get absolutely bored and want to stalk me, find the magazine and turn to page 87. I like to call that picture "Rice Spice and her gay entourage." I attended with Giant, Ghurl, and one of their friends who, as if you couldn't tell by the photo, are Fred Phelps' worse nightmare. I assure you that I won't let this bit of "stardom" get to my head. Although, Paris and Nicky make it look so easy to be famous for being famous, don't they?

Are you f'ing kidding me?!?!?

I was just pushed to the level of irate! I was reading one of my favorite blogs Dlisted, when he posted about that jackass Fred Phelps and his band of idiots announcing their plans to picket Heath Ledger's funeral because he depicted a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain.

For those of you unfamiliar with Fred Phelps and The Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, KS, they are the relentless, homophobic, hateful people who believe the Iraqi war was punishment by God for our tolerance of homosexuality. And because of that, they picket fallen soldiers' funerals in their disdain of sexual freedom. Mind you, these fallen soldiers' families have to deal with this circus sideshow which is merely nothing more than a ploy for media attention during their time of grief and when their fallen family member is more than likely not even gay. WTF?!?! I can't even begin to scratch the surface on how angry this makes me. It enfuriates me that this group even protests homosexuality and even more so that it blindly attacks anyone just because they can. *Grrrrr....trying my damnedest to keep my cool and not scream right now!!!*

Luckily, there is a motorcycle group called the Patriot Guard Riders who have been appearing at these funerals to pay respects to the fallen servicemen/women and to protect the families from the protesters. I absolutely admire these people for caring enough to stand between these repulsive morons who show up with their hurtful signs that have nothing to do with respecting the loss of life. If I had a motorcycle, I would so volunteer to be a PGR at local funerals! However, seeing as PGR is for people in the service, I wonder if they will still assist in Heath Ledger's funeral or if there will be something similar. If anything, I'm sure the local police will be on-hand seeing as Phelps has already issued his statement that they plan to be at the funeral. So frustrating!

I know it is evil to wish bad things on someone, but I'm definitely not sending warm and fuzzy thoughts Fred Phelps' way!!!

Trying to be all that I can be...no I'm not joining the army

Seeing I've gone weeks and almost a month at a time not blogging, I thought I would try to challenge myself starting today...

I am going to try to post everyday until February 22nd - exactly one month from today. No matter how mundane my life is or how busy I am, I will TRY ("try" being the operative word here) to post something. Let's see how good I am at this. If for whatever reason I do not get to blog...for instance, I was being attacked by a gang of ninja midgets...damn ninja midgets...then I will have to post twice to make up for it the following day. I think there is an official month that is designated as the "Blog Everyday" month or something to that effect, but (1)I'm not sure when it is, (2) I'm almost positive it recently passed, and (3) it's my damn blog and I can do what I want so I'm starting this today.

Hopefully, this will entertain a couple of my friends who don't necessarily need even more distractions from work, but if you're going to be surfing the internet during work hours...why not have it be to read about ME and how wonderful I am?!?! Yes, please contain your excitement...

Long weekend update

Boyfriend and I did nothing of extreme excitement this weekend. We stayed in Friday night which was very nice. We rented the movie 1408 - very freaky! I so love John Cusack, but the rumors are right...he is starting to look a bit like Kevin Spacey...not good. I think we were in bed before 10:30pm - party animals, I say! Although... I had a few friends out at a house party that wouldn't stop calling me to meet up. I think the last call logged in at somewhere after 2am. Poor Boyfriend kept thinking one of our friends were either lying in a ditch using their dying breath to call me, using their one phone call from the clink to ask for bail money, or that if we got one more phone call we would have to get dressed and see why this party was so friggin' awesome. I decided to just click the phone off and sleep through the night after the last call...hopefully I didn't miss any dying breath phone calls or anyone needing me to bail them out of county lock-up.

Saturday, we decided to go to the gym for a quick workout and then meet up with my family to have a quick lunch. I still had belated Christmas gifts from Doc to give to my niece and nephew as well as Mama Spice. Here is a video of my nephew enjoying the wrapping paper more than the Lenox China ornament of Mickey Mouse that Doc got him.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Here is a picture of my sassy niece in her rockin' pink sunglasses pushing around her doll in a stroller. I kept telling her to look at me and smile, but she was perfecting her "I'm famous...don't talk to me" brush-off as if I was some two-bit paparazzi.

On Sunday, Boyfriend and I watched some football and then I worked in the evening...boooo! Very uneventful.

In observance of Dr. MLK, I was off yesterday. Boyfriend was not. I did, however, get a chance to meet up with J and Falkor - two guys I went to high school with and hadn't seen since graduation. That makes almost 13 years...jeez...time flies! For now I will call the one guy "J" as I am still not sure what a good nickname would be and the other is Falkor because J says he is magical like the luck dragon on The Neverending Story - J's too funny.

We met up for a vietnamese lunch and then headed over to the movies to watch Cloverfield. If you are planning to see this movie, save your $$$$. It wasn't horrendous, but it wasn't great. I'm seeing it was a major hit at the box office this weekend, but it was still a disappointment. It was Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla meets SUCK ASS MOVIE! If you really want to watch it, wait for it to be on dvd...or better yet when they show it on cable on the TNT or TBS or USA networks.

That was it. I wish I had done something much more interesting, but that's all this chica's got.

San Juan Update

Let's start by me noting that it took every part of my being not to stay in Puerto Rico through the weekend. Boyfriend and I seriously considered it. Unfortunately, the whole point of the matter was to save money by me meeting up with him for a mini-vacation. More of a vacation for myself rather than for him with the hopes that he'd be able to break away. Poor Boyfriend worked the WHOLE time. He got no beach time or pool time in except for maybe twenty minutes before we had to check out of the hotel. Thus, wanting to extend our stay a bit so that he could relax. Oh, well...maybe next time.

I actually got a lot of chill time in. I arrived on Tuesday early evening in time to grab dinner with Boyfriend, have an evening cocktail, and go to bed. The next day, Boyfriend headed to work around 8:30am and I roamed around the area. I walked around Isla Verde (the area we stayed) and further got my bearings of our hotel, the InterContinental San Juan Resort, Spa & Casino. After that, I headed for this awesome beach to relax and read my new book I picked up at the Newark airport on my way to San Juan.

Isn't it so gorgeous and peaceful???

The low temperatures were in the mid-70's and the highs in the low- to mid-80's...sure beats this chilly weather we've been having in H-town.

I decided to be all kinds of unhealthy and snacked on a fried calamari appetizer. These were my lunchtime essenstials: calamari, water, blackberry, and my new book "The Testament" by Eric Van Lustbader. If you are looking for a new book to read, I highly recommend this one. It was written by the guy who wrote "The Bourne Legacy" which is a follow-up to the three novels written by Robert Ludlum that were made into movies about Jason Bourne - The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. For some reason, this book didn't get the greatest reviews with the Amazon crowd, but I really liked it...

There weren't very many people on the beach right after lunch... I love it when the beaches aren't overcrowded! I just had my toes painted at the hotel salon before lunch, so I thought I would capture them in this lovely beach setting. Note to self: NEVER spend that much money on a pedicure again!!!!

The first night I was there, we ate at a restaurant down the street from our hotel in Isla Verde called Metropol. Fyi-- do NOT eat here. The food was, in Boyfriend's exact words, "God awful." So Wednesday night, we ate in Old San Juan about twenty minutes away at a place called Aguaviva (meaning Jellyfish). Here is a picture of me and my burnt self... I never get a sunburn, but for the first time I got one because I didn't put sunblock on my chest. Weird that I never get sunburned on the mainland U.S. or Hawaii, but here I am in Puerto Rico with one...strange.

Here is Boyfriend drinking Aguaviva's renowned watermelon sangria...which, by the way, was spectacular!

I ordered a grilled salmon with a bacon risotto while Boyfriend ordered a fried whole red snapper with a lobster stuffing. I had to take a picture of it staring at me...haha! Both dishes were excellent. More than made up for the "God awful" dinner the night before.

On Thursday morning, Boyfriend headed to the office with the hopes to get out of there before lunch. Sadly, he got caught up in the office yet again as I mentioned earlier how he only squeezed in a few minutes before our check-out time to head to the airport.

It was extremely hard getting back to Houston's cold, dreary weather but I had to. Boyfriend even tried to think of ways to prolong the business negotiations so that we could stay through the weekend, but to no success. I was greeted this morning at my office with a nice pile of work that I need to complete. Luckily, I'm off on Monday for MLK...woot! All this time off right after the holidays is probably not a good thing as it is making it even that much harder to fully get into the swing of things.

This weekend, I have nothing planned except for watching some football and relaxing. What is everyone else up to????

Heading for some fun in the sun!

It's right after midnight as I'm headed to the east coast. Yes, you guessed it...Miss Spice is on a plane again. So here's the deal. Boyfriend is in San Juan, Puerto Rico until Thursday on business. The idea of him being at a tropical location staying at a hotel on the beach was just not going to do without a side of Rice hitching along, dontcha think? So I decided to take a couple days off to meet him out there. Granted, he will be stuck working the whole time, but I don't mind curling up with good book on the beach all by my lonesome.

The downside of this venture to the Caribbean is that I have to take a slight detour. Seeing as I am flying standby because Job #2 is at an airline, I'm at the mercy of how full the flights are. The nonstop flights from Houston to San Juan are overbooked both Monday and Tuesday, but the flights from Newark (yes, NEW JERSEY) to San Juan are wide open on Tuesday all day...which brings us to me being on a plane to the east coast.

I'm actually heading for NYC to spend the night with Doc. Doc and I plan to have breakfast at Pastis with his new boyfriend German in the morning. German is...well...German. Accent and all. I know, I know...original. After breakfast, I will catch the noon flight that gets me into San Juan the same time the Houston flight would have had it not been so friggin' overbooked. So overall, I'm merely taking a 3.5 hour detour that allows me some time with Doc. In essence, the downside actually has a quite a bit of upside.

Well, we are starting our descent so the flight attendant is about to come around and tell me to shut my blackberry off. I will try to post while I am in PR, BUT no promises!!!

Dear 13-Year-Old Rice Spice

For a while, this tag was going around to write a letter to your 13-year-old self. I thought it was very cool, but never got around to jumping on the band wagon. But, seeing as I was completely useless as work today because my computer crashed and all I could open was the Word Program and the Internet, I decided to start my letter. What do you think?

Dear 13-Year-Old Rice Spice,

You are officially in junior high. Currently, you love New Kids on the Block as well as The Cure, Depeche Mode, Madonna, and Janet Jackson. Let me tell you now, stop spending your parents’ money on all that New Kids shit because it won’t be worth anything when you get older. Yes, yes, I know…you may think they are the next coming of The Beatles, but sadly, they are not. In 17 years, Danny will still look like a monkey, Donnie’s brother will have a more successful singing then later acting career than him, Jon will fall off the face of the Earth, Jordan (the love of your life) will become an asshole and even more so after he unsuccessfully tries to revive his music career, and Joey goes on to star and win on a dancing show of celebrity has-beens. Pretty depressing. On a lighter note, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Madonna, and Janet are still performing.

As I believe that everything happens for a reason and all the decisions and even mistakes we've made are what makes us who we are today, I still feel there are a few things that would’ve made your life easier had you simply had the assistance of your 30-year-old self serving as a guide. However, you are very stubborn (a trait you will never shake), so this may all be for nothing.

1. Your parents are smarter than you think. They WILL catch you sneaking out. It may take a few years to catch you hopping in and out of that window, but they will. So either stop doing it or come up with a better plan than putting your stuffed panda in your place under the covers. Otherwise, come up with a much better excuse when you’re caught than that one of your friends “really needed you because she was crying and depressed.” Honestly, what the hell is a 13-year-old going to do at 1am for another 13-year-old who’s upset. Yea, nothing…so find a better excuse – something with severed body parts, psychotic clown killers, anything is better than that load of crap.
2. When you get to high school, you will have a lot of fun despite your parents’ desire to thwart it. There is definitely a cultural gap to contend with, but just be strong and work through it. It makes you a better person to later understand the adversity your parents were facing in a new country with different views and ideals.
3. When you have your choice to go to college, do not feel guilty by your parents to stay in town nor that the scholarship you receive at University of Houston is the best reason to go there – even though it was the most money offered. You have many other opportunities that surface, think about those longer and harder. You will go into A LOT of debt for school no matter where you go.
4. Should you still decide to go to UH, when you meet a cute guy in your literature class your second semester of freshman year, RUN! Ok, I’m being a bit harsh. Enjoy dating him for a year…maybe two, but when you get the first inkling that you guys are past your prime and you should let it go, do so. Do not drag it on. Do not let him take care of your finances as a couple. Do not get engaged. Do not let him convince you that you are less than you are or that you can’t do any better. Do not let him tell you that you are not a beautiful person because you are! Do not let his inability to handle situations give you any impression it is your fault. FUCK HIM!
5. Probably the most important piece of advice I can give you is in regards to the summer of 2004. Go to your parents and ask for money, go to the bank and get a loan, make your parents get a loan, and beg your friends for spare change. I know this sounds strange and that you will probably shrug me off, but this is by far the best advice you will get from this letter. Buy as many shares of this thing called Google (GOOG) during their IPO on August 19, 2004. This will be the lowest it will ever sell for. I know this is all foreign to you, but TRUST, you will LOVE me for telling you this. Keep it for 3 years and sell it for about 7 times its initial worth. Hell, tell your friends about it, too. Rich people should hang out with other rich people, don't you think?
6. And lastly, when your friend with the big, greenish hazel eyes starts going out with you to dinner by yourself and not with the group and you realize that it could be for ulterior motives, stop fighting it. Go with it, sista! All you’re doing is wasting time and stalling. You still end up with him in the end, so this whole cat and mouse thing and keeping it hush-hush is ridiculous. Your friends figure it out anyway, so why bother? I even think your friends figure it out before you even figure it out for yourself. Yes, he will drive you crazy, but you will love him regardless and more than you’ve ever loved anyone before. Also, he’ll love you even more if you have that GOOG stock I mentioned earlier :)
   

Overall, you learned to take care of yourself early on even if your choices weren’t always the best and sometimes may have even been the worst, but all in all you survived a lot. Actually, I’m surprised you are not dead by 30. You will always make mistakes because, c’mon, you’re Rice Spice… BUT, regardless, you are one kick-ass broad and don’t you ever forget that! You have a great family and wonderful friends that not many can say they are lucky enough to have. So go forth, 13-year-old self, and die your hair purple then red then blonde, keep driving your parents crazy, and continue to let curiosity get the best of you. That’s how you experienced some of your greatest adventures!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

No, I have not died nor have I contracted a phobia of blogging. I see that it has almost been a full month that I have not blogged...EEKS! Sorry about that. The month of December has been a whirlwind for me. In short, here are a few of the things that happened:

• I moved - yea, it sucked!
• Went to NYC for Job #1's holiday party. The company flew everyone and their dates to the Big Apple for two nights. It was a beautiful event and fun visiting and shopping with Doc...but EXTREMELY cold!
• Went to Florida with Boyfriend to visit his family the weekend before Christmas - lots of food and shopping
• Spent Christmas with my family - even more food...I think I ate enough to feed a small third-world country in the last couple of weeks
• Threw a New Year's Eve Party with Boyfriend

I am thoroughly exhausted just thinking about how busy my month was. So glad it's over! Seeing as the last bullet point is the most recent event, I will go into a little more detail about that.

We had about 15 people come over to ring in the new year. I picked up a sandwich platter and meat and cheese tray from Honeybaked Ham, bought a veggie tray, and made my very popular garlic 'n' herb spinach dip (take note to the recipe, Single Girl. It's so easy and people will think you're a culinary whiz). I even set up my nifty new chocolate fountain...

Here are a few pictures of the evening...

Here is the lovely spread of appetizers that we had for the party

Nothing like a chocolate fondue fountain with pretzels, marshmallows, and strawberries...YUM!

The dessert station and more party favors

Getting started with the festivities...

The Gang

Congregating in kitchen...why is it we ALWAYS all end up in the kitchen?!?!

About to start the countdown with champagne in hand...

YAY! Doc was able to ring in the new year with us!!!

Isn't Boyfriend just so cute???? So festive! Note the Gator colors of his leis.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let the dancing begin!

Boyfriend getting the shot chiller ready with fresh lemon drops

All of us still hovering around the kitchen...AGAIN!

Boyfriend and me at the end of the night. Aren't we just so hot? Although...I look like I don't have a neck...strange!

~*~

So that was our evening. Luckily, I pretty much cleaned everything before we went to bed so that I we didn't awake to a disaster zone. New year's day was spent primarily watching football and fading in and out of sleep on the couch. Aaaahhhh!!!! I had the unfortunate luck to have to work last night though at Job #2, so I'm a bit tired today.

I will post more tomorrow about resolutions, but as of right now I am officially spent after finishing this post and all the problems I had with uploading these pics...JEEZ! Hope you all had a fantastic holiday season, and I wish you all a great 2008!

Metamorphosis

Is it just me? Or is a very pregnant J.Lo...

...starting to look a lot like...

...Rachel Ray?

Bizarre!!!

I just hope that baby looks nothing like Marc Anthony...eeks!

Kitchen...done!

Although I wasn't nearly as productive as I wanted to be, I threw out three garbage bags and one box of junk. I also packed up four boxes of my kitchen (minus a couple pieces of glassware), and moved them all over to Boyfriend's townhome. Along with all my Christmas decorations and tree.

I'm starting to think that I'm working towards being a hunchback. Lugging four heavy boxes of kitchenware and two plastic bins full of holiday stuff down my flight of stairs and then up Boyfriend's townhome's stairs, has got me feeling a lot like I did after the six hours of yard work Boyfriend and I did a couple of months ago. I'm popping Advil like candy again.

The good thing is that I got my beautiful little Charlie Brown tree up. Yep, it's only a 4-foot tree, but I prop it up on an end table to raise it off the ground. It's so purty! I will try to post pictures in the next couple of days.

Boyfriend is still traveling for business, and I'm really starting to miss him. This work thing is so overrated, don't you think? Speaking of work, I have to go to Job #2 tonight...ugh! Bad weather at one of our airline's major hubs is going to keep me pretty busy tonight.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I HATE PACKING!

Do I even have to mention how much moving sucks? I have attempted that pre-cleaning prior to packing the last couple of days - the kind of cleaning where you try to throw away as much as possible so that you reduce the amount of stuff you move. Let's just say I haven't been very successful. Tuesday, I fell guilty of becoming one with the couch after only an hour of going through the kitchen throwing things out of the junk drawers and surveying what I can take over to Boyfriend's house. Yesterday, I had a quick dinner with Ghurrrl and then attempted to start the cleaning process again. I quickly realized that I still was not "feeling it." What the hell is wrong with me? Do I really think I will ever feel like packing?!?! I need to get with it!

I think partly I'm unmotivated because I will be doing it all by my lonesome. Boyfriend left directly from Tampa after the Thanksgiving holidays to Jamaica again for a week of working and will head back to Florida for the weekend for upcoming meetings in Sarasota through Wednesday. I won't see him until Thursday when we leave for Job# 1's holiday party in New York next week. Jeez! My mother and sister are suffering from strep throat, so there goes my extra set of packing hands. Grrr!!! Sadly, this is the only actual weekend that I will have between now and the move. We are gone next weekend, and then I move the following weekend. What a hectic month! I plan to take everything that I plan on taking over to Boyfriend's this weekend... if all goes well.

I have to work tonight at Job# 2 so accomplishing anything for the move is so not going to happen today. It looks like I'll be one crazy packing lady all day Saturday and Sunday...ugh!

Anyone bored this weekend and want to help a sista pack some boxes???? I'm sensing I won't be getting any takers on that...

Thanksgiving Recap

I'm guessing that everyone has eaten themselves virtually into a comatose state over the holiday weekend. I certainly did. Boyfriend's family had an overwhelming abundance of baked turkey, fried turkey, and all the (as we say in the South) "fixins". Boyfriend has quite the extended family. He may very well put my family to the test...no, I still think the extended Spice Family can annex its population to become the newest U.S. Territory.

As for the Godiva cookie situation, we decided that there would be way too much food at the party we were attending already that we kept the boxes at Boyfriend's parents' house just for them to enjoy...which is really all I cared about anyway. And as we suspected, there were so many sweet snacks and desserts that good ole Godiva would've been lost in the mix and not fully appreciated. By the time I left, Boyfriend's mom had already "fully appreciated" an entire box of them though.

We decided to stick our heads in Macy's and a couple other stores on Black Friday. Disasterous to find parking at noon - can you tell we aren't devoted Black Friday shoppers like Single Girl and her family (i.e., waking up at 3:30am to get a jumpstart)? At least I was able to find a phenomenal dress to wear to my company holiday party in New York. Granted, I still have to get it altered in length since I'm hair-shy of being a dwarf, but I have a dress! Maybe I can buy those shoes by Chinese Laundry to complete the ensemble *note the gratuitous justification*.

As usual, I'm blogging from the plane on my way home to kill time. I'm sitting next to a woman that just wants to know all my business. Did you visit family in Tampa? Are you from Houston? When did you fly out? That must be something important you're working on because you've been typing away on that thing. Am as annoying as a three-year-old child? Do you want to kick my ass? Ok, I made up those last two. I'm sure she'd die if she knew what I just typed about her on this blackberry. I should leave it in plain view and get up to go to the restroom so her snoopy butt will read it. I know, I'm mean.

I have to work at Job#2 tonight. Seeing as it is for an airline, it was a given that time off would not be in the cards for me on one of, if not, THE busiest travel day for returning home for a holiday. I'm mentally preparing myself for all the unhappy passengers I will have to deal with who have either missed their flights, had delays or cancellations, lost their bags, lost their children (yes, you read that correctly), or just unhappy with the service in general. Wish me luck on my upcoming four hours of torture...

Well that's it. I hope you all had a great holiday!