I only grow my hair simply so I can rip it out

Things have been completely insane lately. Not only do I feel like I'm in a constant mode of PMS and that even Boyfriend's cheery, smiling face saying "Good Morning" makes me what to tear my left arm out of socket and wave it around my head while yelling obscenties (don't worry - lots of closing my eyes and counting to 10 has helped me from losing limbs)...but Job#1 has gotten busier than ever for me. I should have suspected that would happen since Job#2 has gotten significantly easier. Damn ying trying to counter my yang.

Let me start from the beginning. Some of you know that I work for an airline at Job#2. At this job, I was given the opportunity to start working from home. This has saved me the roundtrip drive time between either Job#1 or home to Job#2 (about a 20-30 min commute in rush hour) and gas money. As we all know, gas ain't cheap nowadays! This has been fantastic!

On the downside, the poop has hit the fan at Job#1. At Job#1, I work as an executive assistant for a company downtown that makes some pretty impressive headlines in the energy finance industry. There are only two other assistants to support the people at our office in addition to myself. I support three guys (business and virtually personal assistant) as well as maintain the office's Accounts Receivables/Accounts Payable, office maintenance, supply inventories of all areas, etc. It gets pretty crazy trying to maintain the office when you have an executive standing over you asking a million question and having you book some of the most bizarre trans-international routings for different meetings they have throughout the week. However, I manage. And I'm pretty damn good at what I do....AND I'm compensated nicely for it.

Unfortunately, the assistant who has been there longer than me (essentially our office manager) got into an accident two Fridays ago at which point she slipped, got a concussion, and fractured her skull Yes, fractured her skull!!! She is slowly recovering, but going through some excruciating headaches and nausea caused by the contusions bleeding out to other parts of her head. Sadly there is nothing she can do but to wait until the brusing goes away on its own. Basically, it's just a wait and see. Even worse, she has now lost her sense of smell....hopefully temporarily. We are in constant crossed-fingers for her.

With all this in mind, Coworker was out all last week and will be out this coming week. We hired a temp to answer the phones and deal with basic office work so that the two of us assistants left would have more time to support the four people Coworker assisted. So needless today, I've been slammed. Seeing as I've been there longer than the other assistant, Coworker's bosses come to me for help rather than the other assistant. I finally had to put my foot down on Friday when I almost burst into tears for being overwhelmed that I couldn't support 7 people (my 3 and Coworker's 4). I have designated a couple of them to go to the other assistant for anything they needed effective immediately. I would no longer be assisting them. Period. The downside of it is that the other assistant is not the proactive type of assistant that just does things to get them done. She will only do what she is told and never above and beyond that. I'm still hoping it is because she is relatively new to our company and will learn that is unacceptable because the assistants for our company are normally about 3 steps ahead of what our bosses are thinking... and that's what gets us ahead. I know that is why all of Coworker's bosses preferred me handling their business matters, but supporting 7 people and running an office in the officer manager's absence just about killed me. Now I understand why people become alcoholics!

So tomorrow I start another week of craziness. I'm hoping for a smoother week since a lot of the people in my office will be traveling, but you just never know. Thank goodness it's a short work week!

Bringing the Sexy

We all know one. It's that person who constantly takes pictures of themselves in a mirror trying to be seductive. Seriously? Really? Don't get me wrong. I definitely take pictures of myself trying to bring the sexy when I've had a few too many Dewars and sodas, Jaegar bombs, or Patron Shots...case in point... like HERE:

Avert your eyes - one should never see Rice Spice in this condition

BUT... I never put pictures like this out for the general public to see (except for now to make my point or when I'm trying to be funny). What cracks me up is there are people who put pictures of themselves in this pose out there because they really think they look sexy. Bizarre. I think I look like a cracked out, puffy-lipped Asian hooker trying to see if you could spare a couple bucks for a good time. Wow, I'm sure my parents would be so proud of that self-description.

Back on track to why I started this post... I was on MySpace today and I noticed a girl had updated her page with new photos according to the little feature that lets you see when changes our made to people in your friends list. She has about 10 pictures she took of her reflection in a mirror. No joke...maybe more than 10 pictures! That means she actually changed positions and poses all those times to capture her sexiness from all different angles - smiling sexy, serious sexy, sitting sexy, standing sexy....you name it. All I can say is...wow. I won't post her picture because that would be mean and since Thursday is the only day of the week I can't be mean, I found something similar in this photo:

Why oh why? Oh, well. I guess I will never understand. I just think it's so weird to do an entire photo shoot with yourself in front of a mirror. And I'm a pretty narcissistic person...ha! Maybe it's just me. I just don't get it.

There's a New Kid on the Block...and I'm not talking about the old geezers going on tour!

A big warm and fuzzy welcome to blogdom for WEENIE as she has started a blog all the way from Japan!!! I've been trying to convince her since she moved there to start one not only to allow her a creative outlet for her writing skills, but to chronicle her life as a wife and mother making her way through a new and exciting experience. Plus, I'm nosey in an almost stalker way and want to know what she's doing and with the time difference, it's a bit hard to touch base regularly via phone. I know...selfish. I can live with that.

Go figure that her first few entries are witty and absolutely hilarious. She may just give Dooce a run for her money!

So visit her blog and leave a comment so that she knows she wasn't wrong in taking a step into the blog community. And while you're at it, comment on my page to let me know you love me...hehe. For those without accounts on blogger, you don't have to have one to leave comments. You can just choose the option for "Name" and fill out your own name or "Anonymous" if you want to be mysterious and/or creepy, stalkeresque.

And by the way, this picture that I used reminds me so much of that scene from Grease when Danny is at the drive-in singing "Sandy". Remember that scene? At the very end, the hot dog jumps into the bun on the screen behind Danny Zucko. Nothing like a little sexual innuendo! Ahhhh...memories! Damn!!! Now I have "You're the One That I Want" playing over and over in my head.

DPS aka The fiery pits of Hell

I just walked into the DPS to get the address changed on my driver's license. I know, I know...you should be able change that type of info online, right? Right. That is, unless you are Rice Spice. For some strange reason it wouldn't let me process the change over the website, so here I am. In. Hell.

Not only am I ill-prepared to take a picture (blame lack of sleep and needing to be at work way too early this morning to even remotely try to look cute), but I just got my number. I'm good 'ol customer #60. As I look up at the counter clock to get an idea of my wait time, I see they are on #38. Sheesh! I better get comfy.

There is a girl who looks about 4yrs old who feel the need to repeatedly sing the alpahabet and stopping at the letter "V". She's done it about 6 times now. I'm about to tell her to learn the rest of the damn song or shut the hell up. Hmmmm...could this place be making me even more short-fused? Surely not... Not to mention that the guy to the right of me has halitosis and the girl on the left of me keeps trying to look at what I'm typing on my blackberry.

Seriously, if I didn't have a ticket to try to get out of because of a license without my current address, I'd say "eff this!" Oh well. This really sucks!

The Prairie Dress: Fashion vs. Function - The Big Debate

Ok... I understand that the whole polygamist ranch story is a serious matter. HOWEVER, I'm always about making light of an uncomfortable situation. This video made me giggle simply because I have been so baffled by this same topic since pictures of the women of Yearning For Zion Ranch went public. I keep thinking I'm watching Little House on the Prairie when they show news footage and waiting for Nellie Olsen to pop up on the screen saying something bratty in her whiney voice while Laura Ingalls gets ready to beat her arse.

Why do people leave me to my own devices? Really.

So about 1 margarita from dinner and 4 (teesnsy weensy) glasses into a bottle of white wine at this point. So.... I've decided to log into the computer and be ridiculous. You know, check on my regular peeps. Boyfriend is passed out in the bed while watching the Rockets play the Jazz. Seriously...I need the Rockets to win because I have $10 on the game. That and I'm so ready for us to have a winning franchise...any franchise at this point. Kinda hard to put all my eggs in one basket with the Texans football team. I've tried and repeatedly lost my eggs AND the basket. Anyways... thjsdp (ok...haha...that typo is what happened when I tried to type the word "that's")...What I was trying to say is.... Anyways, that's all for now. I should lie my tipsy ass in bed and dream of sugar plums or sugar cookies or something of the sweet fat ass nature dancing in my effing head. Have a good Friday and GO ROCKETS!!!! I need that damn $10!

What an effing FREAK!

I know by now that you have already heard of that freak of nature Josef Fritzl. He's that psychopath that locked his own daughter in the basement for 24 years along with three of the six kids he fathered with her. The seventh child died right after birth, so he just nonchalantly got rid of the body by incinerating it. Sick bastard!

I'm so fascinated on how a human being can be so evil. Not fascinated in a sense of awe, but fascinated in a sense of absolute disgust bordering on rage. How can a man imprison his own daughter and repeatedly rape her producing several children?!?! Seriously. Was there ever a point that he thought to himself, "Wow, I'm a sick fuck!" Really...I wonder if there was ever a moment of realization that what he was doing was wrong. But then I have to remember...if he did this for 24 years, he probably isn't capable of rationally determining right from wrong. I'm sure he lost that ability to decipher the difference...I don't know, somewhere around year 2 of holding his daughter captive. Sheesh!

My question goes out to his wife. How stupid are you that you don't realize that your husband is keeping an entire family prison in your basement? If Boyfriend told me that he was "working" in the basement for extended periods of time and sometimes overnight, I would definitely think something was amidst. Especially, if he told me under no circumstance may I go down there. Under no circumstance my ass! If he didn't let me down there freely, I sure as hell would demand to be given access to enter the basement or break into it myself to find out what all the Mission Impossible secrecy was about. Did this woman not suspect anything when random babies just started showing up on her doorstep with some lame excuse that their long, lost runaway daughter dropped three kids off every couple of years or so? She's obviously no genius that one! She should be arrested as an accomplice for being an absolute moron!!!

Another major point of interest is the whole concept of these children not knowing what the outside world is like. Never having seen sunlight. This blows the whole theory out of the water that sunlight is a necessity for the human body to sustain life. I wonder if the conditions they were accustomed to have made their senses weaker, stronger, more sensitive, less sensitive, their immune systems stronger or weaker having not been subjected to every day bacterias. So many questions.

All I can say is I feel sorry for the people who lived in the basement. It will be a major adjustment for them to get use to life outside of their prison, and they will be a circus side show act for years to come as people will always be interested in their story. One can only hope for the best and that none of them follow in their grandfather/father's footsteps to sociopathic behavior.

Oh, Danny Lewis, you're so silly!

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.

I'm alive...didn't need to harpoon Ghurl after all!

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!

Busy Bee

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.

Until next time...

I'm going out on a limb to admit this...

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...

Are you sure I can't take a nap on the company clock?

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...

Weekend Review

I survived another busy weekend. Phew!

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!

It's ALIVE!!!

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...

Happy Hump Day!

I think I need another vacation...

<------- Looking at my upcoming events makes me tired. Can I go back to Costa Rica now????

A couple of things...

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...

Get Comfy, folks!

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!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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.

Here are the rest of the picture from Costa Rica.

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.

I suck!

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.

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!