can't..keep..eyes..open..must write blog...

why am i so tired you ask, my reader? because for the first time in probably a year, i only got 3 hours of sleep last night. a full return to my college day habits, staying up for no reason in particular except that bed doesn't sound fun. so instead, i stayed up until 2:30am christmas shopping. well, sort of - i just filled my amazon.com cart up and prepared it all to be purchased come pay-day on friday.

why did i get up 2 hours later, at 4:30am? because tim got up. his mom left to return to houston this morning, after a week long thanksgiving visit. normal people can go back to sleep when woken briefly, but me, no, that's asking too much. once i'm up, i'm up. i tried going back to sleep for about 45 minutes, but ended up turning myself into taco innards by wrapping up in the comforter, tossing and turning for a bit, and finally closing my eyes, only to open them 10 minutes later when tim returned. so much for that.

so there i was, at 5:30am, sitting straight up in bed rehashing the past week with tim. and here i sit, 12 hours later, about to rehash it with the internet, in order to keep myself awake:

thanksgiving went well. it was our (tim and my) first thanksgiving in our house together, and my first thanksgiving outside of texas. for those of you wondering, yes, i cooked. and yes, the house is still standing. i took charge of most of the turkey-day side dishes (green beans, twice baked potatoes, & cheesecake). tim and his mom did all of the turkey stuff. i would have done all of that dirty work, but the part of me that leans toward the vegetarian realm doesn't like looking at my food when it still resembles what it was before it was slaughtered. even the thought of that makes me want to throw away my leftovers. (my stomach, of course, overpowers this silly urge.)

friday morning we braved the cold (first frost of winter), and the crowds, and participated in "black friday." like my mom and ebony, our first stop was kohl’s. we arrived around 5:05am and the lines had already dissipated. the store was pretty crazy, but nothing i couldn’t navigate. i think that morning i learned another reason i should appreciate being short/small - i can dodge crowds of people fighting over extreme-sale items. we were out (with a $150 down feather mattress pad for only $35) by 5:45am and headed to target. there i attempted to snag an electronic gadget for somebody in my family, but failed and quickly abandoned all areas within 50 miles of that section in the store. i did however find a few great steals on some movies, and tim's mom bought me an awesome jacket for my birthday. (thank you again ginger, if you're reading this!) after target was bed, bath, & beyond (which i was highly disappointed in as far as sales go) and home depot. following lunch (i.e. more turkey) we ventured to a few other stores, but our energy quickly dwindled and we called it a day.

saturday was by far the best day of my thanksgiving break. a co-worker of mine mentioned a "cut your own tree" place near the coast and we decided to check it out. an hour later we arrived in half moon bay at santa's tree farm. we picked out the perfect tree, shoved it in the car, and took a nice scenic drive home along highway 1. the next day we decorated our first tree. a picture of the final product can be found here (coming soon!), on our house blog.

it was a great 5 day vacation for me, and a much needed one at that. of course, coming back yesterday was worse than a normal monday, but i guess i should have expected that. if we're lucky tim might post a recount of the past few days, but with his recent track record (or lack thereof) when it comes to blogging, i wouldn't get your hopes up. hint hint.

shout out to the WC...

thanks to blithe, my attention was drawn to the link below. it's the casting special for the next season of mtv's "real world: denver." of course it's super cheesy and semi-lame, but as usual, highly addicting as well. looks like i'll be add yet another show to my dvr lis. anyway, the first girl profiled is from a town nearby me. and apparently she frequents crogan's, a bar about 6 blocks from my house. such a small, small world. check it out here if you're interested.

small wonders...

does anyone remember the 80's sitcom "small wonder?" i was watching "who wants to be a millionaire: pop culture week" this morning and it was one of the questions. i had completely forgotten about this show and immediately jumped onto youtube.com and found it. if you've never seen it, it's worth watching a partial episode or two. the next door neighbor was the best, with her bowl-cut bangs and pigtails. do you think she was a fashion trend setter? and the way vicki talks, it's like she's smoked a pack a day for 9 of her 10 years. i also enjoyed the fact that in this episode "dynasty" was referenced as a current t.v. show.

i was also reminded of other 80's sitcoms, like "alf." arby's used to put alf toys in their "happy meals," it was my favorite. one year i think i had 4 or 5 alf ornaments on the christmas tree at my dad's house. and "out of this world." oh how i longed to be able to freeze time by putting my fingertips together. sigh...

and also, having nothing to do with the aforementioned topic of 80's television: this is insane! i can't believe that teachers and school officials would "okay" students to use abbreviated "text speak" during testing! isn't this just rewarding laziness? fine if you only have a few seconds to text your buddy back, but are kids really under this kind of time pressure when taking exams? what's next - the removal of vowels so that it takes less time to grade essays?

homecoming and coming home...

first, i want to mention how excited i am that the new speaker of the house is a woman. i think this is a fantastic step for our country, on top of the change of power. just keep your fingers crossed that montana and virginia pull through.

second, this past weekend was fantastic. tim and i left at 1230am friday morning for texas, and arrived around 9am. i didn't waste any time, and headed straight to campus where i began my volunteering duties for the homecoming festivities. it was really interesting to be on "the other side," and attend as well as help host functions. i got to meet a lot of great older alumni and hear stories i never thought 60 year old men would ever tell.

that night i went to the first half of our school's "talent show," SING. i supported my girls, and left. no offense to the other acts, but i had tons of people i was more anxious to catch up with. and that i did. both friday and saturday nights were filled with lots of conversations with other recent alums about adjusting to the real world, not having homework, what it's like to be on your own, etc. it was kind of like last year, but this time i found myself dispensing advice like an old pro. i didn't realize what a difference the past year has made in my progress into adulthood, but as i started spouting out stories, i realized i've come a long way. i felt like a sophomore reassuring the "freshman of real life" that they will make it through this adjustment phase. as for the people my age, and older - well, we just refused to talk about life and reverted directly back to college. we partied too hard, laughed too loud, and shut out the issues we left at home. and it was wonderful.

southwestern had record breaking numbers attend homecoming this year, which as a member of the group that helped organize it, i am proud of. people flew from california, d.c., florida, colorado, indiana, kansas, and oklahoma - and those are just people in my circle. i think it says a lot that younger generations are willing to spend the time and money to come back to their alma matter one year (or less) after graduation. and i think it means great success for the future reunions. so to any SU alumni reading this that attended - thank you! to those that didn't - i better see you next year! and to those that never attended/don't know where southwestern is - well, yah...

so clearly, i'm back from my trip to the lone star state, but of course, that didn't happen without some airline fiasco. what else should i have expected, i flew continental. i have never flown with them and not had a problem, i'm come to expect it. tim and i left austin about 30 minutes late, which lead to our connecting flight in houston to leave without us. apparently, it's continental’s policy that when a late plan arrives at 8:54pm, and one of the passenger's connecting flight leaves at 8:55pm, they speed off the runway without them. amazing what a difference a minute can make.

thankfully, they were ready for us when we got off the plane and handed us a ticket for the next day and a voucher for a free hotel room. i couldn’t be too angry, especially since it was a marriot and i love their beds. so that night tim and i spent an extra day of vacation in rainy houston. we split a bottle of champaign between dinner and breakfast (can't turn down mimosas) and headed home later monday night, after a few boring hours in the airport.

and now that i'm back, i won't be going anywhere again for a while. i've done a lot of traveling in the past few months, so a break is much needed. texas, i shall return for the holidays.

white rabbit...

am i the only one who did that in elementary school? somebody told me once when i was little that if you say "white rabbit" on the first day of the month you are promised good luck for the rest of it. i'm not sure what exactly it is that leads to the good luck...maybe it's the feet on the rabbit?

also, happy belated halloween. nothing too exciting happened in my life during all hallow's eve, so there's not much to report on in that arena. i did watch "children of the corn" though, just to get a little taste of the spirit. too bad i spent most of it making fun of the dated "special effects" and scenes in which the not-so-frightening crazy-corn tried to take over the town.

in other news though, i'm headed back to texas this weekend for my first official homecoming - it's been over a year, and until then it really doesn't count as a reunion. going back 6 months after graduation is more like a visit in my mind. my level of excitement is beyond words - it couldn't even be measured by one of those games at carnivals that you hit with a hammer and make the bell ding. incidently, before writing this i had no idea what those things were actually called. so, thanks to google (and my curiosity), i learned that their official name is "high striker." you know you're glad i shared that with you. anyway, if i hit the pad at the bottom of the tower with my excitement the bell would ding and then skyrocket into the heavens. yah, i don't know where that analogy came from. maybe my subconscious is telling me i need to go to a carnival soon...or i needed to waste some more time googling random shit.

i'll be spending most of saturday volunteering my time to homecoming festivities and keeping myself busy talking to fellow alumni. in the evenings though, expect me to revert back to my college-self and party it up until the wee hours of the morning. i promise to come back with many, many pictures. and probably a few good stories too.

hopefully this trip back to the lone star state won't return me with a fractured nose and bruises...