A way for everyone to keep up with their favorite Filipina spitfire through her words of wisdom and tales of misadventure... I'm afraid this will prove that I'm actually more boring than you thought I was....
I checked my Gmail personal email account today as I do every couple of days or so. Gmail is pretty good about filtering most of the junk/spam mail into my Spam folder, of which I simply empty out every so often. I decided to take a look as some of the spam I was getting just for shiggles (yes, I wrote shiggles - short for "shits" and "giggles"). Low and behold, I received a lovely spam email from Danny Lewis. Who IS Danny Lewis you ask? Heck if I know, but somehow I am lucky enough to have been spammed by him.
The email was fantastic! See for yourself...
---------- No test, No class, buy yourself Bacheelor/MasteerMBA/Doctoraate dip1omas, VALID in all countries vckh odd u5
Danny Lewis to me:
We can assist with Diplomas from prestigious universities based on your present knowledge and LifeExperience.
No required examination, tests, classes, books, or interviews.
Bacheelor, MasteerMBA, and Doctoraate diplomas available in the field of your choice - that's right, you can become a Doctor and receive all the benefits that comes with it!
Diploma/Certificate Valid in all countries
No one is turned down Confidentiality assured CALL US 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK
For US: 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX (there were actual phone numbers...I should call and see if Danny sounds sexy!) Outside US: +1-XXX-XXX-XXXX
"Just leave your NAME & PHONE NO. (with CountryCode)" in the voicemail
Please call today!!
----------
I wonder how many more hits my resume would get on Careerbuilder or Monster if I added a MasteerMBA or Doctraate dip1omas to my accolades. Not to be mistaken by the word "diplomas" spelled with the letter "L" versus the number 1. I guess this is more diverse since it uses both alpha and numeric to descibe this type of advanced degree.
Sorry for the delayed blogging. Again, work is killing me so my normal lag time to blog during business hours has been seriously interrupted. Damn this work thing! Also, if you've had a chance to glance at my calendar to the left, every weekend has been filled with weddings and parties. By the time I recover from them, my brain is to mushy too attempt an entertaining blog.
Mexico City was a blast. We visited a couple beautiful churches and cathedrals in the historic Zocalo district and had the most fun partying in the Polanco district. Very fun!
Here is a picture of me in one of the churches...and no, I did not burst into flames crossing the threshold into the church!
Here I am at the Sky Bar in Polanco - I swear I was the only Asian/Pacific Islander in all of Mexico City
Here are me and Ghurl at Sky Bar - again the only Asian girl and only black guy in Mexico City
The following weekend, I was scheduled to go to Ash & The Dude's wedding in Key West. Because of family matters, I did not make it. To make up for it, I did have a few friends over for my birthday...my 2nd Annual 30th Birthday to be exact. I figure I will stay 30 for a couple of years and see how that goes. About 25 of my friends turned out to help celebrate making it through an anotherr year without getting thrown in the click or in a scandal with a politician! Here are just a couple of pictures...
Me serving jello shot syringes. Yes, syringes. I figured, why be messy when we can make sure it all makes it into your mouth! They were the hit of the party!
Here is Boyfriend being a good host and making redbull and flavored vodka shots. Evil in little vials, I tell ya! He looks like he's working in a chemistry class.
And FINALLY...we were in Dallas this past weekend for another wedding! I keep asking why people can't just be happy living in sin?!?! These weddings are killing us! However, we did have a great time. I do wish I had eaten more throughout the day because let's just say, I was in no condition for the after-party.
We clean up pretty nicely when we have to, don't we?
Well...there you have it, folks. Picto-mentary of my crazy couple of weeks. Hope all is well!
The past weekend was spent partying in Austin. I think I'm getting old as it took me virtually all week to recover. I've just been so thoroughly exhausted. Unfortunately, I don't have many great pictures of the weekend because my camera's battery died the night I got there. Drats!
We rented a house on the lake for Blondie and her best friend's 30th birthdays. We had a BLAST! Friday night we stayed in catching up over drinks and eating way too many jello shots. Grove was such a great guy to make about 240 of them for the birthday girl. We probably ate half of them the first night.
Saturday, we all headed to Emerald Point Marina to take a party barge onto Lake Travis. If you've never done one of these, I highly recommend it! With the help of four other friends chipping in, Boyfriend and I had brought about 18 pounds of beef and chicken fajita meat along with all the "fixins" to feed the masses. It was muy delicioso! We all had an absolutely awesome time!
Here is Boyfriend wearing my cowboy. Cute, huh?
Here is Blondie and the other birthday girl's fiancee..who by the way also gets a thanks from Boyfriend and me for his help with the food fund
Special thanks goes to these ladies for helping with putting things together, providing and helping with the food for the partyers, and just be so damn fun to hang out with!
Here are two of my favorite men...I definitely can't go without saying a BIG thanks to Grove for believing that there is ALWAYS room for Jello!
And a super special thanks goes to Boyfriend for doing all the cooking on the boat, dealing with being one of only three men in a house full of women who just happen to ALL be suffering from that hideous monthly torture (no joke...the guys should've been arwarded medals or something), and for just loving me even when I'm pissy :) Wow, I look really dark in this picture!
So now that it's Friday, I'm fully recovered! HOWEVER... I am off to wear myself out again. Ghurl and I are headed to Mexico City tonight for the weekend! Boyfriend is going to Vegas for the weekend to meet up with his parents. They are there for a convention, so we initially planned to meet them there together. The standby flights with my airline got way overbooked because of all the American Airline flights getting cancelled, so that pretty much sealed the deal that we wouldn't be flying standby. Luckily, Boyfriend had enough air miles for him to get a confirmed seat to Gambler's Heaven. Combined we didn't have enough for a second ticket. So as not to be outdone, I decided to drag Ghurl south of the border for some fun of our own. A girls weekend if you will with one of my favorite gay men. Not my MAIN GAY, so don't get up in arms, Doc!
I look forward to partying in the Zona Rosa this evening when we land, doing some street vendor and starving artists shopping in Zocalo then historical sightseeing at the pyramids during the day tomorrow, and then dancing the night away in either Polanco or La Condesa tomorrow night. Not bad plans for a girl who just put the itinerary together this morning! I know... I'm a spontaneous crazy person.... Eh, I've been called worse ;) Boyfriend is a bit nervous that I will be running around Mexico with only a 100 lb., 5'9" gay man to protect. I told him not to worry about it. Ghurl's slender frame makes him a perfect spear/harpoon/javelin to throw if people attack, and I ball up really nicely for Ghurl to knock attackers down like bowling pins. We've practiced this before, therefore, perfecting our marksmanship.
I'm soooooo taping the "Today" show tomorrow! I have to see what they look like not all photoshopped. I L-O-V-E-D these guys when I was in junior high. Supposedly, they are announcing their plans for a reunion tour. So sad that they will crash and burn with this, but a brotha's gotta eat. It's not like they had a sound that could stand the test of time, if you know what I mean. I envisioned myself married to Jordan Knight by now with at least two or three rugrats with matching rat tails like their papa. Jeez! Who would've thought he would turn out to be such a douche?
Here you have NKOTB's first picture in 15 years...
I'm super sleepy right now. I think it has something to do with going on Day 3 of getting up at 5:15am to go to the gym. I'm guessing it wouldn't be so bad if I could just find a way to fall asleep before midnight. To top it all off, I just had a big lunch - just a salad with chicken schwarma on it from Droubi Brothers, but it was big! Now I feel like I'm going into a food coma. So in order to distract myself from staring at the back of my eyelids and sawing logs while sitting upright, I decided to blog. Maybe this will excite me...
Boyfriend and I have plans to meet a group of our friends for sushi tonight for Blondie's birthday. She's turning the Big 30. I remember when people talked about how this is such a milestone birthday. I don't see it. I didn't feel any anxiety about getting older or being disappointed I wasn't where I thought I should be by the time I reached 30. Maybe it's because I'm not depressed about not already being married, not have 2.5 children, and not having the house with the white picket fence nor is it a new thing for me to feel uneasiness about my professional and financial wellbeing.
I feel I've found the one I love and the one who I plan to spend the rest of my life with. And dare I say it, the person I would want to have a mini-Rice Spice or two with - when the biological clock actually starts to tick. However, neither one of us is in a rush to the alter to validate our feelings. With that said, we're just coasting along on the Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn highway until we truly feel like we have to take the on-ramp to legal commitment. I'm sure it will happen eventually. I think that is why I wasn't just slapped in the face on my 30th birthday last year with anxieties as to why I'm not already married and starting a family. I suppose I've addressed those issues long before that milestone birthday, so that part of entering my third decade of life wasn't shocking.
As for the concerns of professional and financial stability, meh... I guess I wonder about "where I am" and "where my life is going" on such a regular basis that entering a new decade of my life didn't trigger anything new. I accept that there were opportunities that I didn't take that I regret, goals that I will never achieve, and mistakes I have made. I think I've dealt with or currently still dealing with those demons. But I'm also optimistic. I believe that those mistakes and regrets have helped shape me to the person I am today. And those poor choices will help me to not repeat them again...I hope.
Regardless...even at 30, I still feel like I have a lot of growing up to do, a lot of things to learn, and a lot of new goals to set - whether I achieve them or not. What can I say? I guess I'll always be that little girl trying to find her way and figuring out how to get by...
Friday night was actually a very fun night with just Boyfriend and myself. Boyfriend's flight arrived a bit later than anticipated and his bags took forever to show up on the carousel, but he was home a little bit before 10pm. We hadn't seen each other all week because he was "working" in San Juan, Puerto Rico - I think that's code for "lying on the beach" although he swears it isn't so. We decided we wanted to grab a margarita so off to Cyclone Anaya on Durham we went. Just one margarita, right? Riiiiiight. Have you seen these monstrous margaritas before? Not only are they virtually lethal, they are also the size of my head. It's such a brilliant idea the Cyclone Anaya owners have. Let's serve small margaritas that are too small or large margaritas that can be mistaken for those little toddler pools they sell in front of Walmart in the summer months. People figure that they'll get the big one to save money versus buying two smaller ones. But by the time you finish the first one, your judgement is impaired just enough to convince yourself you need one more big one for the road. So two mammoth margaritas a piece later and having shut the restaurant's bar down at 11pm, we headed to Dark Horse. Nothing good ever comes out of Dark Horse. After it was all said and done, we ended up closing that bar down at 2am and going home to stuff our faces with anything we could find in the pantry and the fridge simply to satisfy our drunken munchies. That ENTIRE bag of Ruffles I inhaled was like food of the Gods at 3am...
The next day, I was up and active by 9am. Thank the powers that be that I rarely get hangovers and insomnia and I are like THIS *fingers crossed*. As Boyfriend lied in bed wishing that his brain would stop pulsating inside his skull and believed that his body was conspiring to kill itself with every pain known to man, I worked for a couple of hours, went grocery shopping, and stopped by 3 different party supply stores just to find some decent wrapping paper for a wedding shower we were to attend later that evening...Jeez! I can't believe how productive I was while Boyfriend was still dead to the world.
Later that evening, we went to 5:30pm mass at the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in downtown to watch my nephew be baptized. Awwwww! He is now officially Catholic. Bingo and booze for everyone!!! Can't wait until he fully comprehends that he can now sin all he wants, go to confession, and then be absolved of all his wrongdoings. Woot! The event was followed by family and friends getting together for some yummy Filipino food.
Immediately after that, we headed over to Ash and Dude's wedding shower. Boyfriend felt like he was dying, but he was being a trooper and attended both events. Granted, I was the one driving and heartlessly refused to take him home - details, details... Their little party was very nice. They made off like bandits with their gifts. We got them this. Pretty awesome, huh? Should be a nice addition to their pool. After the party, Boyfriend and I went home and almost immediately fell asleep. What a long Saturday!!!
Sunday, consisted of more grocery shopping and watching the NCAA basketball games. I'm not as into it this year only because my bracket is complete crap. I'm like #13 out of 51 people in my pool. Drats! I was hoping for at least 3rd place entitling me to 10% of the $1020 pot. Grrrr! My coworker is currently in 1st giving her a chance at 60% of the pot. Good for her, but damn for me. Later Sunday evening, I went to Job#2 until about 10:30pm. So nothing too exciting.
I'm trying to be a bit more healthy again and get back to my workout routine. Seeing as I have been gym-less for about 4.5 months, I totally see the consequences of sitting on my butt and doing nothing but eating. I guess willing my love handles to go away just isn't a effective as I had hoped. I recently joined a new gym and started going again. I got up this morning at 5:15am to run two miles on the treadmill, do 100 crunches on the big inflated ball, and do a couple of exercies with some handweights. Yep, call me crazy for torturing myself to a sweat and getting home all before Boyfriend even opened his eyes to start the day!
Remember when I said that my camera decided to go swimming with me in the river while I was in Costa Rica? Surely being completely submerged led to my digital camera's untimely demise. But Boyfriend had a theory. Seeing as when our blackberrys get wet, usually the battery shorts out and just needs to be replaced - not the entire blackberry device. He figured that maybe my digital camera could be experiencing the same thing. So over the weekend, we took it to Best Buy and had them test it with a battery. Voila! It worked. Unfortunately, I had taken the memory card out of it, so I didn't get a chance to take a few pictures to see if it could actually still work. But seeing the little thing turn on was enough for me to get my hopes up. Instead of spending $50 on a new battery at the store, I bought the battery online for just $5.95 - I love you, Amazon.com! Figured for that price and the likelihood of me shorting another battery, I might as well get two.
The batteries arrived at my office today, so I decided to test out the goods. It appears that all the functions work - pictures, video, reviewing pics and videos, the auto and manual flash, and even the timer. Woot! I'm sure there is a function that I will need at some point that I can't think of right now that will not work when I want to use it, but overall I'm as happy as a lark (are larks really happy?).
Yay!!! I don't have to buy yet ANOTHER digital camera that I destroyed.
Here's one of my test shots. I think it totally captures how I feel about my day...
First off, I need everyone to send their good thoughts and prayers (if you partake in that kind of religiousness) to my good friend Pocahontas. His younger brother was recently hospitalized but released due to complications with his diabetes. His brother is not out of the woods and is still very sick. So whatever positive mojo you can muster and send to the Denver area, please do.
In other bad news, one of the weddings I am suppose to attend was just recently cancelled. Good on my pocketbook and a break in my travel plans for May, but...extremely sad for my friend. Although she and I were not super close, I've shared quite a few drinks with her amongst several happy hours with mutual friends over the years and have had some good conversations. Come to find out that her fiancee has confessed to cheating on her. What a punch in the gut! And to top it off, it appears the main reason he had to come clean is because "The Other Woman" is now carrying the spawn of their transgression(s). Can you believe he had the audacity to ask her if they could postpone their May wedding until everything gets figured out?!?! What a thoughtful guy! She's better off without him anyway...better he showed his true colors now than after she did the whole shashay down the aisle in ignorant bliss. I'm sure that's not what she wants to hear right now and no one needs to say it out loud, but I know in her heart she knows it's true. What can I say? People suck sometimes.
I hate this post is such a Debbie Downer, but negative energy seems to be the theme of the week.
Tomorrow I get to go shopping for a wedding shower. Stay tuned...
I am back! I know I fell off the face of the Earth, but it really could not be helped. I truly felt like that Nationwide commercial motto that "Life comes at you fast!"...sans Kevin Federline portraying a fry cook daydreaming about his booming rap artist career. To say I've been busy would be an understatement. Prior to work taking over my life, I had gone to Costa Rica. I didn't even get a chance to update you about that so here it is in all it's late glory...
Boyfriend and I left for Costa Rica on Friday, February 29th after taking off a little early from work. We arrived in San Jose late in the evening and spent one night at the cutest bed and breakfast called Posada el Quijote in Escazu overlooking the city of San Jose. Although the bed itself was a tragic square piece of queen-size concrete pretending to be a mattress, the views from the common areas of the house as well as the breakfast were fantastic. We only spent one night there, so I won't dwell too much on the bed. The next day we got up and took the Interbus Shuttle from San Jose to La Fortuna.
The drive to La Fortuna was approximately 3 hours including a stop at the Cloud Forest Cafe midway for photo ops, snacks, and potty breaks. We had two older ladies from the Kansas ride the shuttle with us along with two girls in their late-20's or early-30's who spoke very loud Spanish to each other the ENTIRE way. Boyfriend kept looking at me with that look that only our telepathic minds could read from one another - "Will she ever stop long enough to take a breath?" I suppose it is better than a baby screeching at the top of its lungs the entire way, but my basic Spanish caught enough of the conversation that I think I know just about everything about the one girl who wouldn't stop talking, her boyfriend, her friend that liked a guy that use to date their other friend but the other friend would be upset if they started dating, and cooking a particular dish that the other girl's mom use to make but not as good - Jeez! It really made me wonder if it was worth the $50 difference to have just scheduled a private car to take us rather than the shuttle van. Oh, well...
Once we arrived to La Fortuna, we finally got settled in the place that was to be home for 4 nights - Hotel el Silencio del Campo. This place ranked #1 for La Fortuna according to Tripadvisor.com which is where I get all my insider travel info. The place was beautiful! The grounds were nicely manicured and colorful and our little cabina/bungalow was very cute. They are building a new 2,000 room hotel right next door so it takes a lot away from the very rustic village feel of the hotel we were at, but I suppose you can't stop progress. Tourism is obviouusly booming in Costa Rica that someone would invest in such a large and modern construction amidst all the nature-esque hotels in the area. La Fortuna brings in the most tourists as it is the town at the base of the Arenal Volcano. This volcano is the second most active volcano in the world right after Kilauea in Hawaii. It's amazing to see it constantly billowing smoke, seeing mushroom clouds of black smoke pop out occassionally, and to see rocks repeatedly sliding down the volcano itself from all the activity.
Boyfriend and I did some pretty amazing things while we were there. I've always said one of my biggest dreams was to zipline through the Costa Rican rainforest. I finally can scratch that off my list! Boyfriend has a major fear of heights, but he got over that by the time he latched on to the cable for his third zipline. We did the Sky Trek and could easily say we would do it again in a heartbeat! We did eight lines as high as 60 stories in the air and one being almost half a mile long. We had to be going at speeds of about 40 mph. It was so exhilarating!!! We were lucky enough to have one of the zipline guides take my digital camera with him on the zipline so that you could get a first-hand view of what our experience was like on a video clip. Check it out!
We also did a safari by canoe. That I wasn't as much of a fan, but it was interesting to see the wildlife along the San Carlos River - birds, lizards, monkeys, sloths, and baby crocodiles. Unfortunately, our canoe capsized after hitting a fallen tree that I not only waterlogged my camera, but Boyfriend lost his flip flops. The tour guide had to fish us out of the river and try to salvage our dry bag containing our belongings. Not to mention that the canoe actually flipped and smashed onto Boyfriend's foot. It took over two weeks before the bruising finally went away. Poor Boyfriend! Leave it to us to turn a leisure canoe ride into an action-packed adventure down the river. We shall not be riding in a canoe...EVER...after that.
Our last big adventure was rappeling. OMG! This was one of the most exciting adventures I've ever done in my life. We hiked through the rain forest, jumping into holes filled with running spring water, sliding down rocks, and rappelling off of 5 platforms. Two of which were massive drops. The first drop alone was about 24 stories tall.
Here is a picture of Boyfriend doing the first rappell. If the things I made him do on this trip didn't cure his fear of heights, I don't know what will!
Here is a very bad/dark picture of me rappeling next to a waterfall. Sadly, the lighting is really bad once you are deep into the rainforest. By the end, we were soaking wet and exhausted. Before we left, they fed us a delicious homecooked Costa Rican meal of black beans, rice, something that resembles chicken and dumplings, fresh salsa, chips, and fruit. Yum! By the time we got back to the hotel, we had a couple of cocktails and passed out from exhaustion.
Another interesting thing I should touch upon are the hot springs. They are amazing. We went to a place called Baldi Hot Springs on our first night in La Fortuna. I like to call it Club Baldi only because it would blast all kinds of techno music and they even remixed a Stevie Nicks song...whu?!?! Regardless, it was very cool. There were about 16 pools at this place all heated naturally at various temperatures by the volcano. Some of the pools were over 110 degrees farenheit. You definitely couldn't stay in those too long. We went in the evening when it was cool and breezy and got a bit overheated in some of the pools, so I can't even imagine what it would be like to go during a sunny day...and drinking at that. That's just a recipe for a disaster! I wouldn't suggest Baldi for older adults looking for something quiet and relaxing. It is definitely a 20- and 30-something party crowd. There are other Hot Spring places to choose from but Baldi was walking distance from our hotel. Luckily, our hotel had their own hot spring pool in the back so we ended up utilizing that one the rest of the time we were there...and we didn't have to pay admission.
So that's that for the Costa Rica update. In addition to my trip and work, we've officially entered Birthday Season among our close friends. UGH! Not UGH because I hate it, but just because it's more to plan for. Grove just celebrated his birthday and Curly just hit the big 3-0. Blondie will be hosting her 30th on a party boat in Austin next weekend. I really need to speak to Doc about what he wants this year as well as that my birthday is next month as well. Did I mention there are two out of town weddings next month? Lord help me exercise my time management skills to the full extent. Otherwise, I might be locked in a padded room by May from all the stress.
Basically, I flaked on finishing the last two days of my month-long blogfest. I also hadn't blogged in weeks on top of that! Yes, I got the emails...so I'm on here to give an update. Right about the last time I blogged, my world went into high gear shortly thereafter.
Work (both of them) have been extremely busy. On the days that I get off from Job# 2 in the evening, I'm usually working at Job #1 until about 8pm. Twelve hour days at Job #1 es no muy bueno. In the midst of all that work already on my plate, I had to work even more to get ahead since my vacation to Costa Rica would have me missing 3 days. What a mess! I finally got to leave for Costa Rica knowing I would be coming back to a disaster since work was so hectic before I left, but I pushed it all out of my mind and had fantastic time. It was a good mix of action-filled adventure tours and relaxation. It helped a ton that my blackberry wasn't picking up service there and I wasn't getting emails from work. But of course that meant I came back to my blackberry loading over 100 emails when I touched ground in Houston...and some of them all requiring time-sensitive attention. So I came back to work Thursday of last week and have been nonstop ever since. I even had to come into work over the weekend for Job #1 in addition to my scheduled shift at Job #2 on Sunday evening. Ugh!
Things don't look like they are going to get any easier this week either. Job #1 has our Annual Meeting in Houston this week. That means that starting tomorrow, there are events planned through Thursday night. Luckily, I got off from Job# 2 all week so that I can deal with all these dinners, meetings, etc. But, I'm in for a rough week.
On a lighter note, I will try to post later later this week with a full update on Costa Rica once I'm through with this hellish week from work. Please standby.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!!!
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!!!
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:
April 19th - Key West, FL - My Friends
April 26th - Dallas, TX - Both our Friend
May 3rd - Houston, TX - Boyfriend's Friend
May 24th - New York, NY - My Friend
May 31st - Somewhere in New Jersey - Boyfriend's Friend
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!
Today Blondie sent the following email to me and other friends (names modified, of course):
------------------------------------ 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...
------------------------------------- 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! :)
I checked my Gmail personal email account today as I do every couple of days or so. Gmail is pretty good about filtering most of the junk/spam mail into my Spam folder, of which I simply empty out every so often. I decided to take a look as some of the spam I was getting just for shiggles (yes, I wrote shiggles - short for "shits" and "giggles"). Low and behold, I received a lovely spam email from Danny Lewis. Who IS Danny Lewis you ask? Heck if I know, but somehow I am lucky enough to have been spammed by him.
