Happy Fry Day

Happy Friday, folks.  Or Fry Day in my world.  I think the picture below is a pretty good representation of how my day is panning out...  Loving every minute of it but being bombarded with so many things that I just end up smushed in the middle of it all.  And brain fried by the end.

Thank goodness it's Beer Cart Friday at work.  I'll be slurping down one of those Shiners come 3:00 PM today.

Random Thoughts

Welcome to my brain.  You should put this baby on "stream of conscience mode."  You'd run screaming from it in about two minutes.  At least the below is numbered and somewhat organized.  Don't be fooled, that's not how it comes out in my head.

1) They should make a "CC" option for text messages. Sometimes I need someone to know I sent something to someone else.  "Forwarding" isn't sufficient because they may mistakenly think that text was originally for them, warranting a correction text or reminder to let Person B know that info as well.  And it's honestly just a waste. of. time. to type out a whole new text to Person B simply explaining I sent "text y" to Person A.  My time is valuable these days, people.  See?  That in and of itself was confusing. A 'CC' option would cure that.

2) Or better yet, a stealthy "BCC" option.  Sneaky.

3) When you buy orange juice with "lots of pulp" (and "added calcium," mom! don't worry.) it takes you until your second or third glass to actually get any pulp because they fill those containers so full you can't adequately shake them, dispersing the pulp.  Annoying.

4) How do I shed so much hair to clog every drain in my apartment and still have a full head of hair.  I swear I have a hairy ghost living in my house.

5) How has this beauty of a song escaped me for ten years?!  It's seductive.  And captivating.  And makes me want to slow dance in a ball gown wrapped up in a "Notebook" type romance:

Rain, Rain Go Away...

...so I can try out my new kicks!  That's right, I broke down and bought some genuine Brooks running shoes:

My goal was to surpass that 10k mark to ensure this was something I was going to a) physically be able to do and b) actually stick with and enjoy (at least a little) and then I would splurge on some good running shoes.  Being that my 10k was last weekend, it was about time these babies were purchased!

I went to Luke's Locker, which is awesome for this sort of thing.  They watched the way I walked bare-footed and had me jog around a bit.  After four of five different shoes, getting closer to a winner each time, I finally found "the ones."  I had two different pairs on and, although they both felt equally as "supportive" and "secure," the one on my left foot felt the most "comfortable."  Literally like I was walking on clouds.  And, I might add, they were surprisingly the more stylish ones.  Although "appearance" was at the very bottom of my priority list as I was seeking comfort, fit, and support, I couldn't help but be a little excited that the ones I had landed on happened to be pretty awesome looking as well!

Now to just get over the price hump.  Ugh.  I went into this ordeal (yes, ordeal) expecting to dish out a fair amount of dough (hence why I didn't purchase any until after I met my 10k goal!) but that doesn't mean I was excited about it.  Here went nothing.  I asked the guy what the price difference was between the one on my right and the one of my left.  He said the one on my right was $115.00 and the one on my left was $89.00.  Excuse me?!  $89.00 as in...under 100 bucks?!  For once in my life, my favorite was the less expensive.  SOLD.  Box those bad boys up, buddy!  I'll take 'em.

Of course it's been raining ever since so TBD on when I'll actually get to try them out.  But I may or may not have tried them on once or twice again last night...just because I could :)  How's that for a little motivation to hit the pavement, again?!

A Very Artsy Weekend

I'm gonna be honest.  My weekend rocked.  I tried to branch out from the norm and do different things.  And it was great.  Me gusta.

Here's a run-down of my weekend adventures:

Friday night I hung out with my best childhood friend, Andrew.  We've been in each other's lives for as long as I can remember - literally, it's been 22 years - so it's always nice to catch up and hang out.  (Fun Fact: I just found both of our desk name plates from Kindergarden in an old box from my parents' house.  Our handwriting was...super.  Remember when they had those dotted lines half way in the middle of two solid lines so you could practice writing 'capital' letters and 'lower-cased' letters?! It was cute).  But I digressed.  I lured him to my Uptown domain on the suggestion of going to dinner/drinks and then the art museum.  The third Friday of every month, the Dallas Museum of Art hosts a 'late night' and stays open until midnight with different exhibits, concerts, documentaries, classes, etc.  Sounds awesome, right?  It was.

We started the night with dinner and a delicious Mohito at Urban Taco before heading downtown to the DMA:

If you squint (and make believe) you can see the DMA in the back ground...

So I might have omitted an essential detail about this particular 'late night' when coaxing Andrew into coming with me.  It happened to be the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit (which was awesome) and completely centered around fashion.  Needless to say, Andrew's first request was to peruse the bar area.  We had gotten there a bit late but ended up watching a fascinating documentary about the "day before a fashion show" and walking through the JPG costume exhibit.  Let me be the first to tell you that that guy has some wacked out ideas.  But it was extremely interesting.  

We unfortunately (for me) missed the hat making class and the shoe presentation ("what do your shoes say about you and your psyche") but in hindsight that was probably good; I might have lost a best friend out of the deal!  You can only push a straight man so far:

I made him take this picture.  I wanted evidence he was there.  I told him to look "really excited about being here with me."  Coulda fooled me ;)

We ended the night with a quick walk-through of one of the DMA's permanent exhibits.  Although I must be honest, I had to read each description to understand why these strange groupings of things were categorized as "art."  The explanation definitely helped but I'm thinking I might go into the art industry if cutting a cat in half, putting a limp string between it, and spray painting the whole thing black gets the big bucks a'flowing:

I capped off the night by grabbing a drink with some friends back in Uptown (here's your shout out Blayne, Colby, and Bryan!) before heading off to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up and went rollerblading with my college roommate, Zach.  We saw entirely too many BCGers while blazing the Katy Trail on our skates and (as I had already fallen once), I just kept crossing my fingers I didn't fall in front of them!  I didn't, for the record.

After an hour or so of rollerblading and enjoying the beautiful Saturday afternoon, we showered and headed across the street to the "best pizza place in Dallas."  I'm not sure I would consider it the best, but it was pretty darn great.  Especially the 'breakfast pizza' we split:

Yeah. Yum. 

Two of my favorites things: breakfast and pizza.  Why haven't I thought of putting those together before?!  Genius.  After lunch we walked downtown to the 'The Sixth Floor Museum.'  I absolutely love history and have a slight obsession with JFK and Jackie O, so how I've escaped visiting this museum before I'm really not sure.  It was $13.50 and 2 hours well spent:

After the official tour we walked down to Elm to see the 'X' on the street, signifying the spot that Kennedy was shot.  It's all so crazy to me that such a catastrophic series of events began to unfold a mere mile from where I live today, in a world much different from the one we're in.  I made Zach take a picture so I'd have photographic evidence of both him and the 'X':

Later that night I met up with some work friends to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Chinatown.  Didn't know Dallas had a "chinatown"?  Neither did I.  And I'm not sure you would consider one strip center with 20 Chinese restaurants, stores, and dessert shops a "chinatown" but I'll roll with it.  Of the nine of us dining, three were Chinese and it was so awesome watching them speak in their natural dialect to the Chinese waitstaff.  It's so much cooler to see someone authentically 'in action' rather than just asking them to recite different words for you in a foreign language.  Authentic > Recreated.  

The food here was to-die for.  And cheap!  I split four amazing dishes with Kellee and Brittany: zucchini and chicken boiled dumplings, sweet and sour sesame chicken, fried rice, and spicy dan dan noodles.  Is your mouth watering, yet?  I should have gotten a picture of our delectable spread, but I was too busy gobbling it up!

I ended the night by grabbing a drink with the usuals at one of my favorite Uptown bars, The Gingerman, and watching a scene right out of COPS during our late-night Whataburger run:

Look at that delicious Stout.  Yum.

My Sunday was pretty typical: hung out with my parents, cleaned up my apartment, dilly dallied around, and went to church.  I did, however, go to the grocery store (which is totally out of the norm) and am proud to say have made two lunches and two dinners with no kitchen mishaps, yet!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my artsy weekend as much as I enjoyed living it!

What I Like About Texas: Vol 1

I got the idea for this series last week from my friend, Kelli.  I've mentioned her in posts before and she writes this awesome little blog, HowdyFromNYC, that you should definitely check out.  She did a post on what she misses about Texas and I decided to copy-cat her post and do one on things that I love about this great state.


Basically?  I'm a die-hard Texan, through and through.  I love traveling and I love visiting other places and I would absolutely love to live in a different state (or country) at some point in my life.  But my roots?  My roots will always be in Texas.  So, hence, my post:

What I Like About Texas: Pride

History was my absolute favorite subject all growing up.  I liked English and I was good at Math, but History was always the class I couldn't wait to be in.  I soaked it up and loved every minute of it.  To me it is like a huge, interesting, forever long story, unraveling before my eyes and hears.  But let's break this down further before my tangent gets out of hand.  Of the segmented History topics to consider, I like...pretty much all of them.  But one of my very favorites is Texas History.  I love hearing about Davy Crockett and Sam Houston; about The Alamo and the fight for Independence.  I get this welling sense of pride knowing I live in a state that worked and fought hard to be the place it is now.  And what I really love?  Is that pretty much everyone who lives here feels the same way.

Did you know we're ::supposedly:: the only state allowed to fly our flag at the same height as the American Flag?  Yeah, we're that awesome.  We used to be our own nation, no big deal.

Did you know that Texas holds three of the top ten most populous cities in the U.S?  And also more farmed land than any other state?  Yeah, we got options.  It's kinda cool.

Did you know we have other cool things like the first domed stadium or King Ranch or a gazillion professional sports teams?  Yeah, we rock.

I'll leave you with a little video clip of one of my favorite George Strait songs, "If it Wasn't for Texas."  You should absolutely listen to it, whether you're from Texas or not, whether you think I'm just another 'too big for my britches Texan' or not.  It gives me the goose bumps:

Reunited.

This week I received some of the best news I've received in a long time.  Twice.  Although I started the week kinda mopey as I said good-bye to my sister who went galavanting back to Boston, I ended it by welcoming two of my very best friends to the great city of Dallas.  That's right, two of my best friends from A&M both got jobs in Dallas this week.  How fantastic is that?  Lauren is from Houston and Carrie is from Maine so it's not like it was a given they were eventually gonna end up here, folks.  But I'm sure glad they did!

Carrie and I were roommates in college.  Lauren and I were practically roommates in college.

Lauren was there to start my first Fish Camp experience with me as counselors in 07.  Carrie was there to round it out with me as directors in 2010.

Together we've celebrated birthdays and graduations, taken spring break trips and dunked our rings together.  We were there when boys dumped us, and there when we dumped them.  We were together through the fun times and the stressful times; through growing up and discovering ourselves.

We've made a point of meeting up once every couple of months, no matter where in the state (or country!) we are.  And although that is great, and I've loved our little trips, nothing can compare to the day-to-day memories I have of us all living within five minutes of each other in College Station.

And now I get that back.  Woo!

Carrie and me: Spring Break 2010

Lauren and me: Ring Dunk

Carrie and me.

Lauren and me.

Now, if we're on the subject of 'relocating to the Big D,' I must mention another new arrival that just got transferred to Dallas last week: Bryan.  He is another college friend and although technically we sat next to each other in high school chemistry, we said about five words to each other the whole year.  So I've safely tucked him away into my "friends from college" pile:

Bryan and me: Freshman Year.

Bryan and me: Senior Year.

Welcome to Dallas, ladies (and gentleman), it's great to be reunited.  I foresee some wonderful times ahead!

Diversity.

I love music.  I've always loved music.  And I think being a dancer for so many years taught me to appreciate the value of well-written music and the emotion it can evoke within you. I am, through and through, a lover of music.

What I am not is a music snob.  I'll take it all.  Well, almost.  I'm not a huge fan of the screaming stuff that you can't understand.  But even some of that I'll tolerate.  To give you a little taste of just how diverse my music selections are, here is a sample of what's hanging out in my "recently added" playlist on iTunes:

"Breakeven" by The Script
"Gettin' You Home" by Chris Young
"Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman
"Groovin'" by The Rascals
"Wish I Didn't Know Now" by Toby Keith
"Jack & Diane" by John Mellencamp
"New Soul" by Yael Naim
"Stereo Hearts" Gym Class Heroes
"Defying Gravity" Wicked Soundtrack
"Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People
"Roll With It" Easton Corbin
"Super Bass" Nicki Minaj
"Not Over You" Gavin Degraw
"Uptight" Stevie Wonder
"Mr. Jones" Counting Crows
"Wobble" V.I.C.

Ok.  So I judged myself a bit when I hit the "buy" button for "Wobble."  And yeah, so maybe I do the Wobble while I'm blow-drying my hair some mornings.  But don't act like you wouldn't do the same thing if you had that jam on your playlist.

But talk about all over the place.  And that's just a glimpse into my library.  My full iTunes list includes everything from classical to rap to blues to oldies.  I have some country in there, and some rock, some R&B and some Broadway pieces.  I'm not quite sure why I popped out loving music, but I can't remember a time when I didn't.

Running: Behind the Scenes

So here's the truth:  I hated running when I started.  In fact, some days I still don't love it.  And there's been once or twice that I didn't even like it.  But I don't absolutely loathe it anymore.  And that's a start.

When I set out to run this half marathon, I did it for a number of reasons.  The big one is that it's on my Life Bucket List.  Everything else on that list seems unobtainable at the moment (read: traveling the world) but this?  This I could set out to conquer right away on a pretty minimal budget ::and lots of hard work::.  I knew I wanted to accomplish something that, in the end, felt like a huge achievement.  Traveling the world will be exciting, it will be exhilarating, and it will be full of loving and learning about myself and the world.  All of that sounds great.  Obviously I want to do that.  Duh.  But waking up at 7:30am on both Saturday and Sunday, rubbing blisters on my feet, and skipping out on trips to the bar or movies with friends to stick to my running schedule?  That is less enticing.  But still I do it.  Because when I cross that finish line after 2 1/2 hours of running 13.1 miles, I'm going to feel damn accomplished.  And extremely proud of myself:

Photo via Pinterest.

I'm the type of person that needs to be working toward something.  There will be things I am constantly striving toward like getting better at my job or strengthening my faith.  But in taking a step back and objectively looking at my life, I felt I needed to push myself to accomplish a measurable goal.  So I am.  And let's not get dramatic here.  I've kinda learned to like running.  It's freeing, it's raw, and it's just you, your music, and your thoughts.  I have time to contemplate things, to work out problems in my head, and just reflect on my life.  And that's great.  Because if any of you know me well, you know the one thing I rarely do is take time to myself, take time to just "be."

Another big reason I've set out to do this is I find it extremely selfish not to.  Here I am, blessed with an able and healthy body when so many people out there are not.  Sure, I have bad knees and a weak ankle, but it's nothing so serious that I can make excuses for being lazy.  Wouldn't it be a huge slap in the face to the Big Guy if I were to spend my days lounging on my couch, eating potato chips, completely wasting the gift He's given me?  He's given me the chance to be fit and healthy and happy and accomplish the goals I've always wanted to.  Why waste that?  Plus, swimsuit season is coming up and I'll feel my purchase is much more justifiable if I actually foresee myself wearing the thing.

So in my weeks of running, I've learned a few things:

Like that it takes me between 1 1/2 - 2 miles to really hit my stride and stop disliking what I'm doing.  Up until that point I feel like I can't fully catch my breath, I'm about to get a stitch in my side, and every step feels like my feet are hitting the pavement like jackhammers.  But once I pass that mark, I'm golden.  I feel like I can run forever.  My body feels lighter, my mind starts to rid itself of negative thoughts on the whole thing, and I start getting this "go me" feeling welling up inside of me.  But then ::sigh:: I start to drop off again at the 5 - 5 1/2 mile point.  This is when running becomes not so fun anymore.  I start feeling the pounding of every step again and start diligently counting down (and re-calculating to be sure) at every 1/4 mile marker.  Hopefully I'll lengthen this curve in the coming weeks the more I run.  If not?  That 15K I've got coming up is gonna be miserable.

I've also learned that I enjoy running in the evening more so than in the morning.  Besides the fact that me + morning = someone you don't want to meet (just ask my mom!), I like having the entire day to hydrate and loosen up.  I'm not, and never have been, a big water drinker while I exercise.  Everything starts swishing around in my stomach and it's literally made me puke before.  Nineteen years of dancing and I learned my lesson: hydrate before.  I've started drinking copious amounts of water throughout the day and have cut out sodas and coffee to one a day (either/or).  It works for me.  I have plenty in my system to last me through the run without feel dehydrated and I don't get that awful, nauseous feeling swirling through my body.  Same with loosening up.  I hit my stride quicker and don't feel quite as sore afterwards if I've had the whole day to stretch and warm up my muscles.

And finally, I've learned what Pandora station is my favorite.  Now, it's a little abnormal so don't judge me.  But my poison of choice is: Summer Hit's of the 90s.  Yeah, I'm a 90's kid and totally owning it.  Maybe it ties in with the whole 'being free' idea that I get from running and love so much.  Or maybe it's because 85% of the songs carry the same beat which happens to fall perfectly in step with my 12 minute mile pace.  But whatever the reason, this stuff keeps me going.  And I need that.

So there it is: my word vomit on running.  On my running.

Tillman's Roadhouse

So my 'trying out new restaurants' initiative got a little side-tracked during the holidays.  That was to be expected.  However, as I come busting into the new year, I am back on track.  Last Friday night I went with some friends to try a place called Tillman's Roadhouse.  This little gem is nestled in the heart of The Bishop Arts District amidst trendy boutiques and other mouth-watering restaurants.  What was the big draw to this place for me?  S'mores.  Yes, graham cracker, chocolate bar, marshmallow'd s'mores.  But they ain't your typical s'mores...

We decided to grab dinner beforehand and just venture to Tillman's for drinks and dessert.  We cooked a chicken and artichoke lasagna at home (read: Taylor and Alan cooked lasagna) to save some mulah and limit our portion size.  I wanted absolutely nothing to stand in my way of enjoying those S'mores.  Especially an already full stomach.

My friend, Carrie, was in town so she and Chris joined the usual group and to Tillman's it was!  We were a little early for our 8:30pm reservation so we perused the streets and took in the ambiance of the area before settling down at our cozy little table.

First up were drinks and popcorn.  Stephen and Alan ordered a beer and Chris a Malbec while the girls decided to spice things up with this diddy:

My "87 Ways"

And this diddy:

Taylor's "Sassy Sara"

I didn't get a picture of Carrie's because she was across the table, but it looked (and apparently tasted!) just as charming.  Next on the to-order list were our s'mores.  We got one order which was large enough (and yummy enough!) to feed us all:

Let me tell you a little bit about what makes these babies so special and tasty.  They are homemade.  Every little bit of them.  Homemade graham crackers, homemade dark chocolate, and homemade flavored marshmallows.  They were currently serving blackberry, peppermint, and maple marshmallows and I might have most definitely had one of all three.  My goodness, folks.  These were awesome.  By the last marshmallow I pretty much had the roasting part down to an art:

Don't even try to tell me that doesn't look delectable.  Besides awesome food, the decor was stunning.  There were antlers and raw wood coupled with chandeliers and ornate drapes.  Talk about my kind of place!  And to top it off, I think each person made out with a $12.00 check.  Not too shabby for a nice cocktail and dessert from a ritzy restaurant.  If you want to scope Tillman's for yourself, check it out here.

After dinner we drove around the corner to The Belmont Hotel for an after-dinner drink.  And what we found was yet another stunning view - this time on the outside.  We made our way to the outdoor patio which sits on a hill overlooking downtown:

This historic boutique hotel also specializes in fancy drinks so I was, of course, convinced to top off the night with this complicated, yummy concoction of a cocktail before heading outside to take our obligatory photo of the night:

The group headed back to Uptown to conquer the night.  I, however, headed to bed to get ample sleep before my 10K the next morning.  Thus, my night ends here.  Until my next food-adventuring post, bon appetit!

Happy Birthday, Cynthia!

Happy 19th Birthday to my super cool sister, Cynthia!!

Sorry 19th is such a lame birthday.  Hopefully your year will be that much more awesome to make up for it!

I love you!!

The Snowman Shuffle

Yesterday morning I headed out into the blistering cold to run the farthest I've run yet: 6.4 miles.  As you know, I'm in the midst of training for my half marathon in March.  Seeing as how I tend to do much better with intermediate goals as a subset to that outstanding long-term goal, I signed up for my very first 10K, The Snowman Shuffle.

I convinced my friend, Gretchen, to run it with me a few weeks ago.  As soon as she committed, I made her log-on and register so there was no turning back!  She's frugal with her money like me.  We pay for it - we do it.  So I knew we were in it for the long-haul.

The farthest I had run in my 'training' was 5 miles so I was a little nervous about this 6.4 mile feat.  I've also gotten accustomed to running primarily at night (after my joints and muscles have had all day to loosen up) so beginning this race at 9:00 AM was a little frightening.

But alas, we trudged through the cold, donned our bibs, swigged our last cup of water, and headed to the starting corral.  Soon enough the horn sounded and we were off!

6.4 miles later with no water and no walking involved, I was so glad it was over.  Truth be told, I hit the 5 mile mark and the running went from fun to not fun very quickly.  Had I not been the entirely stubborn, determined-not-to-stop person I am, I totally would have given in and walked.  But I didn't.  Because I had promised myself I would make it the full 6 1/2 miles running the whole way.  And I did.  Barely:

Let's talk about the positives that came out of this run.  Besides having an awesome running partner who happens to run at the exact same pace (and with the same stubborn motivation I have), we shaved a few seconds off our usual 12 minute mile time and finished the race at 11:12/m.  Yes, I know, we run at a tortoise pace.  But we finished and ran the whole time, ok?  My chip time was 1:09:37 so I'm just gonna give myself a pat on the back for running 70 straight minutes.  Another positive of this race was the absolutely beautiful day and scenery we were privy to.  The picture above should be all the evidence you need.  A background like that makes running for an hour so much more enjoyable!

After the race we headed to the party area for a banana and gatorade.  Oh, and a coke.  I don't keep these in my apartment to avoid the temptation of drinking them regularly, but figured I could treat myself later in the day to a cold glass of coca cola.  And I did.  And it was great.

We decided to cure our hunger pains with a nice brunch at Nick & Sam's.  I ordered the Cinnamon Apple Spiced Pancakes and they were every bit as delicious as they look:

Complete with a side of cheesy hash browns and a green apple/pear drink from the fresh juice bar, I was pretty much in brunch heaven.  Needless to say, I devoured the thing.

So on my running checklist I have:

5K: check, check

10K: check

15K: to be run

Half: to be run

Not a bad scoreboard.  Now I have the 15K to prepare for.  Four weeks and then 9.6 miles here I come!

Dinner and a Movie

My sister's time left in Texas is quickly dwindling and soon she'll be jetting off to Boston again.  This ::of course:: called for some good, old-fashioned sister time.  So Thursday night we decided to throw caution to the wind and party like we used to.  What did this entail?

Well.  My sister met me at my apartment after work with a handful of old movies and most of the ingredients for home-made meatball subs (thanks, mom!).  After a quick survey of the goods, we decided (being the cheese lovers that we are) that we were gonna need some more provolone to do those subs justice.  To the store we went!

We came back with the ingredients for subs, cupcakes, and a few cartons of strawberries for good measure.  My sister slaved away at the dinner while I washed and cut up the strawberries.  We're cute, I know.  And it was delicious:

Soon enough we were plopped down in my living room, food on the coffee table, Matilda in the DVD player.  Remember Matilda?  Yeah, this flick:

Photo found here.

It was all fun and games until disaster numero uno struck.  I got the first stain on my stark white couch.  What was the culprit?  Marinara sauce.  Awesome.  My sister didn't mean to, obviously, and it was just a tiny dot so I wasn't too worried about it.  I set to work trying to soak it out and ::I kid you not:: only five minutes later disaster numero dos struck.  Stain number two.  I was walking by with those yummy strawberries and one of them dripped a spot on my couch.  Seriously?!  I've had my couch for four months and I've made it through three or four dinner parties with red wine and not one spill.  And now there are two in a span of five minutes from some harmless dinner we ate?...how's that for awesome luck?!

We decided to quell my woes by making our cupcakes.  It started out looking great:

But we very quickly discovered something had gone wrong when they wouldn't come out of their sleeves:

It looks like a cookie, right?  It's not.  That's the only part of the cupcake I could tear away.  Kitchen fail.

Cynthia's might have been worse than mine...

So I was simply reminded that I do not belong in the kitchen.  I used to have a knack for baking but I guess that somehow disappeared over the last few months.  Oh well, that's a food group I could stand to cut out of my diet :)

Frequent Flier

You know you can consider yourself a frequent flier when you start recognizing flight attendants and other airport personnel...

Seriously.  I've got this 'traveling Southwest' thing down pat.  Over the past year, I've picked up on a few tidbits, such as:

You typically get honey roasted peanuts OR pretzels but if you're on a flight past 7pm they're usually generous and give you both.  Score.

Flights to Austin or Houston can serve beverages so you know they're just being lazy when they make an announcement that they can't.

I can typically make it apartment door --> departing gate in 25 minutes.  Give or take a few minutes depending if I drive myself or cab it.  And fingers crossed the security check goes quickly.  Holla for living close.

Love Field has no great food selections.  Bergstrom is worse.  And Hobby is just 'OK'.

I could go on but to be quite honest, my alarm going off at 4-something this morning dragging me out of bed for my early flight means that my bedtime passed hours ago.  Until next time, adios!

Happenings

Things I managed to do this weekend:

• Run 5 miles after work on Friday (go me!)
• Go see 'We Bought a Zoo' with my sister Friday night (recommended flick.)
• Visit the Franconia Brewery and go on a beer tasting and tour Saturday morning ($5 bucks for 2 1/2 hours of unlimited beer?  Talk about bang for your buck.)
• Take a nap (my favorite.)
• Hang out and eat dinner with Steph Saturday afternoon (who says DiGiorno's pizza and champagne don't go together?!)
• Go to a New Years/Birthday Party for a work friend (so great catching up with everyone after the holidays!)
• Venture into Deep Ellum to an awesome bar, The Amsterdam, Saturday late night (new favorite spot.)
• Go on our four mile group run early Sunday morning (and see a coyote!)
• Try brunch at Nick and Sam's grill (new love!)
• Nap again (much needed.)
• Go to the 5pm service at church (and learn that apparently 'go to church more diligently' was a popular New Year's resolution.)
• Eat dinner at Cafe Express with my friend, Gretchen, Sunday evening (and have enough left over for Monday's lunch!)

Things I DIDN'T manage to do this weekend:

• Laundry
• Clean my apartment
• Go to the grocery store
• Take down my Christmas decorations

Oops...I'm obviously still in vacation mode.  Next week's work schedule should snap me out of it, though!

Just Call Me Martha Stuart

Ok.  So I'm not the greatest cook.  And I don't prepare gourmet meals all the time.  And I don't have a completely stocked pantry or fridge (evidence).  But I'm not a total idiot in the kitchen.  Or so I thought...

One of my New Years Resolutions is to be more diligent about saving money, about cutting out unnecessary costs.  The week started as me just "trying to cut down on spending" but quickly turned into a self-challenge (because I'm competitive like that): Don't spend a penny.  Not a single cent.


So I've really taken this challenge to heart.  Unfortunately, one of the necessities I probably should have forked over some dough for was food.  Luckily I haven't really been all that hungry because it's been slim pickins around my place.  I had pretzels and M&Ms one night and pita chips and cheese another.  I did have some New Year's Day leftovers my mom sent home with me so that provided for a decent lunch on Monday.  However, tonight's four mile run (holla!) kicked hunger into high gear.

So therein lies tonight's debacle.  Spend money on food?  Or stick it out and eat at home?  If you've been tuned in since August you know I have limited food supplies in my kitchen to work with.  I did, however, find some pasta and noodles (yup! same ones as before) hiding behind my Kcups and holiday booze.  I figured pasta and noodles didn't sound too appetizing (or extremely filling) but I just couldn't bring myself to lose my bet and spend money for a meal out.  So half-hearted spaghetti it was!

I boiled a pot of water, dumped in some noodles, and sprinkled some salt (to alleviate sticking - I told you, not a total idiot!).  I put a smaller pot on the left burner and reach for my Tomato and Basil sauce jar to open.  Not happening.  I get out my sticky, no slip pad thing and try again.  Still not happening.  I dig in my pantry to see if by chance I have another jar.  I do!  My luck has turned.  By this point my left-burner pot is hissing angrily at me for being abandoned.  I try my hand at jar number two.  Not happening.  I try sticky, no slip pad thing and still not happening.  Now slightly frustrated.  I run to my room and dig some old, gripped, hunting gloves out of my 'winter drawer' and put those on.  These always do the trick.  And, of course, they perform like always.  Jar opened.  Last minute I decide I should check the expiration date and, you guessed it, expired in 2011.  Seriously?  Seriously.  I'm not sure what happens when you eat expired spaghetti sauce, but I'm not chancing it.  Back to jar number one which has an expiration date of February 2012.  By now I have the gripped gloves so should be a piece of cake.  Nope, not happening.  Move to sitting on the floor, jar between my legs, twisting with both my hands.  Still not happening.  This goes on for entirely too long and I literally just lose it.  I'm talking tears, a few choice words, and some wallowing about "how this would be the perfect time to have a man around."  I finally succumb to the fact that my dinner is going to be pretzels and noodles and struggle with whether it would make me feel better to throw this sucker against the wall, when I look down and realize I'm an idiot.  Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey.  I was definitely turning to the right.  ID-I-OT.

By this time my noodle water is over-flowing the pot (I have a bad, impatient habit of jacking the heat up too high) so I resolve that issue and pour my sauce in the hissing, angry pot and stomp off into my bathroom to wash my face because my eyes are stinging from my raining mascara.  I come out to find my sauce burping up all over my stove and counter and floor and ceiling (see? jacking it up too high, again).  Seriously not cool.  I turn it down, strain my noodles, say to hell with whether the sauce is done, and slather my vermicelli with it.

The final product was edible which is great, because the rest is totally going in a brown paper sack for my lunch tomorrow:

The cheese biscuit was the last remains of Mom's New Year's leftovers.

So there ya have it.  Just call me Martha freakin' Stuart, folks.  Ha!

Ringing in the New Year

My New Years Eves have notoriously been pretty awful.  I think the reason for this is that everyone spends so much time planning things out to a T weeks in advance, and the nights never really live up to what we've all imagined.  So this year I flew by the seat of my pants and went sans plans.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true.  My original plan was to head down to Houston with some girls from work and spend the weekend there.  However, plans fell through and I was left in Dallas with no concrete plan whatsoever.  So NYE 2011 started as just me, some of my best friends, a free night, and a bottle of champagne.  And this is how it went down....

We split a hotel near downtown Fort Worth for the night so we didn't have to make the trek back to Dallas with all the crazies on the road.  We got to FW early in the evening and spent a few hours eating dinner in the room, getting ready, and finally opening this little gem:

For the background on this treasure, check out this.

I have been saving my bottle of Dom for a special occasion with my best friends.  But I've also been eager to pop it open and see what it tasted like.  So I figured what better time than New Years Eve with three of my favorite people.  I'm absolutely terrified of opening champagne bottles so I made Stephen do the honor:

We poured four glasses and toasted to a great 2012.  In hindsight I should have given a better toast (something to include a prosperous and healthy new year, full of friendship and love, and yada yada) but I get nervous whenever I have to do this sorta thing so my toast was literally "here's to a great 2012!"  Oh well, the champagne spoke for itself:

The champagne was great, as champagne always is!  Did it taste like $150 worth?  Not really.  Did I think about it every time I took a $5 sip?  Absolutely.  You could definitely tell it was a step up (or several staircases up) from a bottle of Andre, but let's just say I won't be splurging on any personal bottles of Dom anytime soon.  Or ever.  But it was a great one-time experience living the lavish life:

After our bottle of champagne was gone and our sweatpants traded for dresses, we took a cab downtown to meet up with these fantastic people at Pete's Piano Bar:

It felt great to have some of my best friends from college all together again.  The last time I got to spend some serious time with Lauren and Matt was in October for her birthday.  However, she'll ::hopefully:: be getting a job in Dallas soon so nights like this will become the norm again.  Here's to hoping:

I absolutely love piano bars because I adore live music.  Pete's really does a great job of mixing up genres and playing the crowd favorites, so a trip to Pete's has never been a disappointment.  The above photos are sincerely the only normal pictures we were able to take throughout the whole night.  As is typical with our group, one or more of us decides to spice things up a bit.  Like this:

Or this:

Or this:

We left shortly after midnight (which I believe was a responsible decision made by the boys) and ran into these friends right outside:

Seriously?  Aggies are everywhere...

So the night was filled with great friends, good drinks, and ringing in the New Year at one of my very favorite venues.  Sounds like things are already on track for this to be a fantastic 2012!!  Cheers to a new year and new beginnings!