Just a smidge overwhelmed

And when I say a smidge, I mean more like a lot. After a fun weekend driving all over CA, (well, up near the stockton area, then to Monterey, then finally, home), It was nice to sleep in my own bed again. Friday morning J & I headed up north to go to a college friend's wedding. It was so pretty, but had 300 HUNDRED people (well, probably more than that, but definately hit the 300 mark). I couldn't believe it! There was some funny parts, some teary parts, catching-up time and college reminiscing. On the way home (well, slight detour) we went to Monterey, grabbed some sandwiches from this delicious deli, and ate lunch on the beach. It was odd though...there was actually construction being done on the beach. Apparently they're building a sea wall to help stop eroding.

I also saw a seal there. And it was weird becuase it wasn't far out in the distance. It as pretty damn close. How close? Enough to scare the shit out of a surfer girl. The thing went right past her and she almost fell off the board. It was actually a little bit funny. But it was nice driving around the place I called home for 2 years. It's changed - a lot, but I still love going there. Hopefully one of these times J and I can go for longer than just a brief lunch. He keeps wanting to stay at this one hotel right on the water. Maybe next year! Right now we have way too much going on. Which brings me to why I'm so overwhelmed.

My first set of classes ends in 2 weeks, but unfortunately the 2nd set starts this week. So for the next two weeks, I'll be heading to school 3 times a week, having more homework, still have to finish my term paper (blech) and not go insane. J's working his 2nd job almost every night during the week, so now we only really hang out on the weekends...and we live together. It was nice the first week this happened - gave me time to catch up on my homework. But that wore off, and now it basically sucks. But, we're sacrificing now to work on the next year so we can enjoy our time after that.

I'm starting to work on my little arts & crafts project for my bridesmaids. No one knows who I picked, just my mom and J. Oh, and my maid-of-honor. She knows. But I'm having difficulties working on these projects since I have zero free time. I hope to get them done by the 20th, but that might be hard. But my dad is having a small dinner that night, and I'd like to have them finished up and sent out to everyone by then. Luckily I HAVE to turn in my term paper on the 17th, so I'm planning on working my ass off that Friday night and Saturday to get it done. I hope they turn out good!!!!

Where's the cortisone?

J and I got the itch again - to visit Colorado. So, we both searched our calendars for the perfect weekend, well, LONG weekend......We settled upon mid August to go visit our friends in Colorado. C&J moved there last August. We ventured there with some other friends during the holiday season (celebrated New Year's there) and really enjoyed it. Of course it snowed, and it was cold, but even that didn't bother us. Bizarre, huh?

So, we decided that we need to see them during the summer, when it's warm. I hope to get outside a lot (maybe even con my cousin who lives there to take us out on her boat) and just enjoy a lovely summer get-away. It is much different than my sister's get-away, but I know we'll have just as much fun. We miss C&J very much, and I know they're just as excited!

Watch out Europe!

So, my sister and long time family friend left yesterday for Europe for about 3 weeks. They're splitting their time between Greece and Italy. Today, she sent an email out while at the airport (didn't fly directly to Greece) and wow. Just wow. Europe sure is in for a trip with these two girls. So far the friend, N, has been yelled at for being on the wrong side of the escalator, almost got hit by a taxi, and both almost missed both flights to get to London in the first place. And they've only been in Europe for about a day. lol.

These two...they're going to give my mother a heart attack. But hopefully they'll start assimilating themselves a bit more and become more careful!

Just quick thoughts..

It's almost lunch time, so here's the quick list of this past weekend, and what's going on....more later when I have caught up from being out of the office on Friday....

• Small towns have their advantages. IE - cheap, but good, food. Case in point - on Saturday E$ and I went to have breakfast at the local airport...It's only really for those people with lil 2 seater planes. Both of us ate for 10 bucks (and it was goooooood).
• Watch out in Indianapolis - While eating dinner, we saw this guy across the street grab his face as a huge group of people walked past him. Turns out one of them hit him in the face and just kept walking....I later found out this happened to another guy (friend of a friend) - but he was driving in his car! Watch out!
• Shopping to kill time is dangerous. E$ and I spent some time on Sunday at the Indianapolis mall...more specifically - Nordstroms. Luckily it all fit in my suitcase & carry-on!
• LAX - even busy at 10pm on Sunday! When our plane (finally) landed last night, we got stuck circling around on the tarmac because there were no available gates for us to pull into. Finally around 11 we were able to off-load by the Delta planes (we were flying Continental).

The major thing that I have to report is that I did decide to go ahead and apply for that job in HR. I worked with E$ on revising and updating my resume. I think I'll either apply tonight or tomorrow. I sincerely doubt I'll even get a call back, but it never hurts to try!

Survived the flight(s)

Well, I boarded the plane last night at 10:45, slept about 2 hours (and not good sleep, I'll explain in a bit). Landed in Cleveland, and boarded a "puddle hopper" plane that seats about 25 people...That was a bit scary. I've never been in a plane so small. It was a bit intimidating, but I made it through. It's 8pm Central time, and I'm still awake. I think we're even going to make it to a movie.

So, on the first flight, I was sitting next to this annowing Tawaiinese (sp?) lady. She spoke very broken english, and didn't sleep at all. She mosturized her face, put on makeup, ruffled with a plastic bag (for what seemed like 30 minutes), she kept hitting my foot. It was a bit unnerving. She didn't even seem to care that I was sleeping.

But so far, this place is gorgeous. Experienced some pretty bad humidity today. When we landed, it was all overcast, and so I thought that meant it was cold too. Nope! It was humid, and gross. We ate at Cracker Barrel and that was a cute place. Delicious bacon. I don't know how they cooked it, but it was awesome! We walked around her college (literally a half a block away) and they have a castle there! It's incredible. It's covered in ivy and there's even little white christmas lights that they turn on during the winter. It's very nostalgic. All of the places I've ever gone to school don't have this sort of charisma. Can't wait to see some of the downtown area tomorrow and then Indianapolis!

The final countdown....

I leave for my flight to Illinois in about 8 hours. I haven't been on a flight longer than 1-2 hours in over 7 years. Scary. And I picked a seat right by an emergency exit. There was this whole thing I was supposed to read about my "responsibilities" should we need to use me. Um, ya, I just clicked "next" real fast. I hope the flight attendants know what to do!

I'm flying out of LAX tonight. It's probably one of the worst airports in America. I usually try to avoid this at all costs. But the air fares are usally cheaper if you're travelling long distances. But, I'll get there about 2 1/2 hours early. Should be plenty of time to get myself through security and situated somewhere. I hopefully can find the gate pretty easily!

But, before I fly out, I have to make a call. It's my second call like this of the week. The dreaded "your job is over" call. The one earlier this week went ok. But the guy's a pretty nice guy, and he's getting some notice and we're helping him find a local job. But this girl, she was the one who didn't show up to work for a few days, is being let go. It's hard because I spoke with her in depth back then about what was going on. And I feel for her. I mean, my mom went through much a similar life. But, sometimes you have to work hard to keep both your work life and your family life going smooth, and not let one affect the other so much.

On a much happier note, yesterday I went on a search for one of those "traveler" pillows - the U shaped ones that you wear so you can fall asleep on planes. E$ recommended it. I didn't find that, but I did find some Reef flip flops. I bought these, but all white. Very comfy. I enjoyed my purchase. And, my mom found the pillow for me, so I'll be sleeping like a baby (hopefully!). Have a great weekend!

Just one more night....

Finally after tonight I'll be able to not sleep or be alone again! It seriously sucks. J is having the same sort of luck. He said he doesn't like sitting by himself in the room, with no one to talk to, no guitar to play, no music to listen to. He's decided he can never be a travelling salesman. lol. That is so beyond his normal nature anyways - but it's cute that he came to that conclusion.

Today he was up at the Capitol Clear Speak 2007 - Each year Sacramento welcomes up all the radio stations from across the state to meet with assemblymen, media, even the Governator himself. J was able to get a minute with him this afternoon - which he's extremely excited about. I was too. It's cool he got to meet with the guy who signed our diplomas from college, and who was in one of our fave movies - Kindergarten Cop. That movie cracks me up.

Last night I avoided going to sleep until after 11. I got stuck watching Sex and the City. I never watch that with J around. Before we started dating, I had just gone through a break-up and was watching the whole series on dvd. I think that this is a regular thing women go through. Break up, watch Carrie and the girls. It's therapy - and much easier on the wallet than Retail Therapy. Anyways, he swore (before we even thought about dating) that he'd never watch that with me. I laughed, because I had no clue that the scenario could even possibly ever arise. Anyways, so last night, I put it on. I tried resorting back to the college days when I fell asleep with the tv on (Shortie taught me this bad habit). But I couldn't do it. It was distracting me. Part of the problem was that when I would hear something funny (Friends was on after), I would look at the screen and start watching. See, before I had Lasik, I would go to sleep with the tv on, and I couldn't watch it because that would involve reaching over, getting my glasses, putting them on, and watching. By that time, the joke was over and the scene also. So now that there are no more glasses, it's easier to get hooked into watching it for 2 minutes, or 5 or 10 or 30. So, I had to turn it off.

It's so funny how habits that we thought we'd always have just end up disappearing, or you "get over it." Like, before I'd always leave the laundry for the last possible chance. I could have gone for 3 weeks without it. Usually I had to end up doing it because I had no more room for my dirty clothes. Never thought I'd be turned on to doing the ritual weekly. Also, I'd always eat ice cream. I always had some in the freezer. Now, we barely eat it. I'll have a container in the freezer forever, and by time I remember about it, it's all freezer burned. What else. Oh, I used to always be online - AIM. Now, it's only when I'm at work. Why? Because when I'm at home, I'm with J. I don't chat online. I used to, and it would piss him off. He'd wonder why I'd sit online when we could be hanging out. I get the point now. I'd sneak off into the cyber world instead of just laying around, flipping channels. Now we do that all the time. One channel we love - the travel channel. And learning about cruises. Seems like now that we've gone on one, we want to know all the inner-workings. It's pretty cool actually. How many tons of trash they have, and recycling, and how they have constant power for all the rooms. I am a geek for that kind of stuff.

Hawaii? Yes please!

Today we met one of our employees that works in Hawaii. Well, she lives there. She lived in CA practically her whole life. For the past 20 some years, she'd go out to Hawaii almost every year for vacation - or tried to schedule it with work for trainings. 2 years ago, she bit the bullet and decided to move there. She was telling us of the small house she has, but it's worth it because of where she gets to call "home."

I'm jealous of this bravery. J and I talk all the time about moving to Colorado. But that's still only a 16 hour drive or a 3 1/2 hour plane ride. You can't drive to/from Hawaii. Kiss family good bye. It's not like travelling to a state where it's not necessarily a vacation spot so the fares are cheaper. But Hawaii? Everyone wants to go there! I do. I still have never been. I hope to be there sometime soon within the next few years. We have a wedding to plan/save for!

Start of a long weekend. Sort of.

Last night E$ and I headed up north. We arrived around 11 and were excited to finally get to sleep. She had been up since 4am EST with her flight and only was able to score a 1 hour nap. And she drove. But it was a rental - a brand new Mazda 3. Very sporty. We had the Ipod's going and she kept battling me with controlling the volume from the steering wheel. I think that's the coolest thing. I wish my car had that. Oh well!

Before we headed out, we stopped at 7-Eleven for some slurpees and waters. Outside there was this kid and he just kept looking at us when we pulled up. And when we got out, he slowly started walking towards us. I told E$ "Um, do you get the heeby jeebies from him?" She said he's probly looking for someone to score him cigs or beer. I guess. But it was still weird.

As we left, he's like "cool car". I'm like LET'S GET THE F OUT OF HERE!

So, our drive up was uneventful, and got in around 11. Now I'm alone in their house with their dog. She keeps roaming around the house. I wonder if this is what she does every day. I wonder if she is wondering who I am. And why I'm sitting at her parents kitchen counter? Oh well, She keeps wanting to play, but she's not good at it. I throw her stuffed animal, and she comes back with it, but won't let it go to let me throw it again. She'll learn some day!

I love weddings!

Well, today I got confirmation that I'm venturing up the coast a bit this weekend for a wedding with a friend. One of my best friends - E. Well, we'll call her E$ because she's cool like that. Anyways, it's one of her college roommate's wedding. I went to her other roommate's wedding last year and now it's time for the other one. I'm actually the "plus one" for the roomie that got married last year. I'm taking the place of her husband. But I don't mind! I love little quick trips. Plus San Luis Obispo (that's where we're going) has this great little yogurt place called Bali's. You can serve your own soft-serve and your own topings. They charge by the ounce, but it's pretty inexpensive compared to ColdStone or Golden Spoon. I'm excited!

Now I just need to find something to wear......

1 Vegas trip down....1 to go

Well, I can't wait for the day when I can finally sit at home on a Saturday and just veg. Last weekend we went to Vegas for my cousin's 21st bday. He brought a group of hilarious friends. We went out to a bar/club/lounge on Friday night at Cesar's Palace called the Shadow bar. Quite interesting. Great music, no cover, sort of strong drinks. They (for some reason) had a Michael Jackson impersonator show up and just dance a bit during an MJ song...Then he left. Weird!

Some funny parts of the weekend:

• My 40-something uncle hitting on girls WAAAY too young for him...And dancing like he's 20... (ewwww).
• Loudly yelling "MYSPAAACE" and watching the reaction from our group (one guy starts posing like vogue style, but with more alcohol in his system - fricken hilarious).
• Giving "high 5's" to your neighbor at the BlackJack table - because you get in trouble if you reach across it to give everyone high 5's.
• Finding random pics you took the night before but you don't really remember cuz you were drunk.

I really enjoyed everything we did, even though J and I didn't get there till about 10pm and stuff. But we still made the most of it. I'm just glad this weekend we're staying at a hotel actually ON the strip - NY NY. I love that place! Especially the Nine Fine Irishmen bar. Car Bomb anyone???

No place like home?

J and I (along with our other 11 people) are back home from our cruise. It was an incredible vacation that I'll never forget. I enjoyed having food available 24 hours a day, maid service all the time, laying out whenever I chose, just fabulous. The meals each night were incredible. Since all of that was gratis, I decided to try almost everything they had on the menu. I had escargot and frog legs, tons of steak and seafood. What was great is that you could order as much as you wanted. J ordered about 2 entrees each night and devoured them. One of the other guys on the cruise - E - tried every single chilled soup. He had the cucumber soup, strawberry cream soup, and even a melon soup. He said that most of these should have been dessert items, but it was great to have the opportunity to try all these items.

7 days is a long time to be on vacation for me. I don't think I've been on a trip that long since I was in grade school. Being on such a large cruise ship, and porting in 3 Mexican cities was also a great experience. Puerto Vallarta was by far my favorite. I think it was a mix of the city, but also what we did as a group. We all ventured off together, found a small bar called the Cheeky Monkey, and enjoyed dollar beers all day long. It had an awesome view of the ocean, and J & E decided to go for a quick swim in there. All of the shops were so similar, but also so different. The second day in was at Mazatlan. For that we kept it chill, since the day before was a HUGE drinking day. We took a taxi to a small resort and parked it on the beach all day. Most of the group played beach volleyball, swam in the pool, also enjoyed the huge water slide. The ocean was gorgeous and quite warm.

The last day for porting was in Cabo. I was a bit dissapointed with the town, mainly because we weren't near the huge resorts and I didn't bring the map to know where the fun restaurants were. Shortie and I walked around the marina, saw some really cute baby lions. They looked like Simba and Nala from the lion king. There were also a lot of pedlars with silver jewelry (not sure if it was real) and dressed up iguanas. They all had little hats on, and some had a jacket too. Hilarious.

One of the most exciting things of the cruise was the formal nights. I really enjoy getting dressed up and taking pictures. J looked great in his suit, as did Shortie and her man. Shortie wore dresses, not suits. lol.

It's a shame being back to reality. My land legs aren't back yet, so it still feels like the boat's moving. I'm back to being a normal housewife with the laundry going and mental lists for the grocery store. Back to the work grind tomorrow, which J is extremely upset about. He wants to leave on another vacation tomorrow. We do have 2 more vegas weekends to look forward to. This weekend we're going for my cousin's 21st bday that was last month on the 22nd. Then the week after that we're going to meet up with our friends from Colorado and have the whole group back together. So, back to the daily grind!!!!

Vacation time count-down

Vacation starts officially in 2 1/2 days. Even though I'm not leaving till Saturday - I'm heading out of work on Friday at noon, and that's when my vacation begins. I'm getting a massage, and facial, and I'm wondering if they'd object to me drinking a cocktail while they do that? lol. Ya know, like in the movies, when they have a glass of chilled champagne waiting for you? I doubt it though, I don't live in Beverly Hills or the ritzy parts of LA.

I've started writing my lists of things to bring for the cruise. And, because I'm so organized (read - anal) I've got separate lists going for different categories. There's the toiletries list, the accessories list, clothing must-haves list and of course J's list (becuase, well, he's a man and requires my help to remind him things). Items on the accessories list includes a wine opener (I'm bringing 5 bottles. lol), ipod speakers and also Febreeze. Yes, that's right. Not the fabric cleaner kind, but the air cleaner. I think it might be the most valued item I'm bringing. Anything to help my sanity and comfort with sharing the world's smallest bathroom with a boy. Boys stink, let's face it, and the bathroom is not excluded.

I missed half of Idol last night, but watched the half that featured Sanjaya. Man, that kid needs to leave. He screeched like a girl and still made a girl cry (out of joy???). His hair looked better (since that's always mentioned from the judges, the blogs, the critics) but he still is trying way too hard. I read also, that someone's apparently someone's starving themself till Sanjaya gets the boot. That's a little extreme for me....

I need a break

Well, I've been working pretty steadily all day and worked through lunch (but had subway. SOOO yum). I just need a tiny distraction to make it through the last hour. The cruise is approaching and I just can't wait! Yesterday I printed J's and my boarding pass. Not sure why, but just felt like it. On Sunday we went to the beach with some friends. One of the guy's grandpa owns a house right on the beach. The guys drank, the girls hung out. I got a little bit of a tan, and only a slight redness to my shoulder. J got burned on his chest, but it's fading away. Just proves we are in need of a sunny vacation! I can't believe it's in a week and a half! I hope I have enough money to survive the whole week. I mean, it's a big chunk I'm bringing. But I always get nervous about not having enough.

The work load is slowly growing. One of my jobs is to check in all the timecards for our contractors and send them off to our corporate. Well, normally they're due on Fridays. But, normally that gets pushed to Mondays. This week, Monday was too busy, so it got pushed on the "to do" list to Tuesday. Then, after a 5 hour conference call, and lots of little "fires" to put out, 5pm came and I left. Today that left me with the timecards...I didn't get to work on them till after 2. Which means our corporate is already closed for the day (they're on the east coast) and they won't get them till tomorrow. I'm actually kind of surprised no one's bitched at me from there. I mean, I sent over about 100 or so each week. Kinda weird, but I'm glad I didn't get any moody emails! I have received enough of those lately! Normally, when my workload was pretty minimal, I found lots of things to do instead of actually DOING work. Well, that luxury has become a thing of the past. Now I'm rushing to get through the easiest of things to move on to the more time-consuming ones. I still find some moments to keep sanity and distract myself, but it's only temporary. Over the past 2 weeks I've put in about 4 hours of OT. Which is RARE. I think over the course of my 2 1/2 year career here, I've only put in MAYBE 2 hours. But 4 in so short? I know, but I don't mind. But, when you do the math and see what it actually breaks down to, it's kinda pitiful. But, 40 bucks is 40 bucks! That's like 3 drinks on the cruise! (or, if you watch the wendy's commercials ~ 40 jr. bacon cheeseburgers!).

Ok, my 5 minute break is up. Time to get back to work!