Surprise! I'm Blogging!

Well e-friends, it's another riveting day here at the office, so what better to do with my time than to blog! Hooray!

My life recently (outside of work) has been pretty busy, which is what I will use to excuse my absence from blogging.  A few weeks ago, Tyler and I went to New Braunfels to visit his family for the weekend.  That was fun.  They were really sweet and threw a little birthday party for me on Friday night, so I got lots of great things.

As soon as we got home from that trip, Tyler had to leave for some work-related travel.  He's training in the small town of Indiana, PA for a month.  I miss him so much!  He's been gone this long before, but usually only to places within driving distance to home.  Not being able to see him on the weekends is NO FUN.  The nice thing is that he's within driving distance, albeit 6 hours, of my family's house in Virginia, so he's able to go there each weekend and spend time with them.  He's played golf and gone fishing and explored the forest. I'm jealous!

So, my nights have been pretty quiet all by my lonesome, but at least I've come up with fun things to do on the weekends.  The weekend of my birthday, I got to fly home to Virginia and spend some much-needed time with my family.  Tyler was also able to come down and meet us for most of it.  It was great!  My family is awesome.  My birthday was the day after the series finale of LOST, which we happen to all love.  I'm probably definitely the most obsessed in my family, so it was only fitting that the majority of the birthday celebrations and the weekend be LOST themed.  On Friday evening, I arrived in Blacksburg after the weather caused some close calls with my flights (although, thanks to the weather, I got bumped up to first class for free, so I'm not complaining!).  Tyler was supposed to arrive at around 11pm, but surprised me big time by getting there at around 7 or 8. 

On Saturday, we all woke up early-ish and packed a lunch and went hiking.  We went on a hike called Falls Ridge.  Within the first 5 minutes of the hike, you arrive at a beautiful waterfall.  It's really different because the water is rich in minerals and over time there's been a huge build up of calcium carbonate, leading to one of the largest-known exposed travertine deposits.  There are really cool caves on the trail that you can explore.  We even got my mom to go inside one, which was a huge feat!

Then we drove up the road to another hike called Wind Rock.  That road takes your right through the resort which was used in the filming of Dirty Dancing.  It's pretty cool to see all of that-- the barn where everybody dances, the resort itself, the cabins, the lake and gazebo.  Pretty neato!  It was raining pretty strongly by the time we made it up to the top of the mountain, so we had a picnic in our car.  Kyle, Tyler and Kate went mudding in Kyle's jeep, which caused something in the engine to flood and the jeep to later be reeaaally sassy about starting.  Once the rain stopped, the hike itself was a short walk, but the destination is totally worth it.  There are huge rock faces jutting out over a huge valley overlooking the Jefferson National Forest. 

We sat out there for a while and climbed around on some rocks before heading back into town.  On the way home, we stopped at a place called Pandapas Pond and walked around the trail there.  It was really neat because there are beavers that live there and you can clearly see where they have just chomped clear through a tree and are about to haul it off into the water.  There were also squillions (real number) of baby geese that we chased and loved.  Nature is neat!

That evening, I got to open my birthday presents!  WOO!  My family again brought the awesome and made my birthday amazing.  If you're a fan of LOST, you will recognize and appreciate everything herein just as much as I did!  We were all down in the basement and my little brother brought me something wrapped in newspaper-- specifically the section of the newspaper that had a huge photo and story on LOST.  Inside the newspaper, there was a walkie-talkie.  I tried to turn that on, but the battery appeared to be dead.  So I opened the battery hatch and instead of a battery, I found a typed message on a little piece of paper.  It was in French.  I don't speak French, but I used my resources and asked my little sister (who's in French classes) to help me decode.  The messages said something like "Find the hatch. On the door to the hatch you'll find 4 8 15 16 23 42.  Your presents are inside the hatch."  So now I'm on a crazy search for something in my parents huge house (which I've never lived in, so I'm unfamiliar with the in's and out's of) for something that could be considered a hatch.  Somehow, I relatively quickly located it.  On the door to the air filter in the sunroom, I saw the numbers.  I opened the door to the hatch, and there they were!

I was very lucky and must have been very good this year, because I came away with a new Nikon DSLR (YAY!), a huge memory stick, a spare rechargeable battery, all the manuals and DVDs I need to learn my new camera, an awesome carrying case, a fancy tripod, the 3rd season of LOST on DVD to add to my collection, $20 and a cool thing to keep my hair out of my face and off my neck while I do things around the house.

That night, we went out to dinner at the River Company Restaurant and Brewery, where we had some great food beer and wine.  Then we went home and ate some delicious birthday ice cream cake.  What a great end to the best day!

On Sunday, my parents and Tyler and I left and went to Chateau Morissette, a winery on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It's nestled in the woods up on top of a mountain and the views were amazing.  We went on a tour of the winery and then had a tasting of 10 different wines.  It was really fun and relaxing.  After that we stopped and ate at a yummy Mexican food restaurant on the way home.

That evening, Tyler left to go back to Pennsylvania and we started preparing for the Lost series finale event.  Dad and Kyle and I assembled some awesome torches out of materials that the Losties would have had.  Dad went out into the wilderness and cut up some limbs.  Then we wrapped one end with shredded towels and some wire.  Then we soaked those in 1 part tiki torch liquid and 2 parts motor oil.  They worked amazingly well.  Like, they would not go out until completely submerged in a bucket of water and they put off a ton of light and heat.  SUPER COOL.  The plan was to dress up like various characters from Lost and go on a torch walk through the woods behind my parents house.  There are trails and creeks and it looks a heck of a lot like the island back there.

While we were making torches, Mom was setting up the viewing area in the basement.  We had a giant tiki man poster, some netting, some inflatable palm trees and a string of paper pineapples.  For dinner, we had a giant spread of delicious food.  There was tropical chicken kabobs with onion and bell pepper, boiled shrimp, barbequed ribs, mango, kiwi, strawberries and some chocolate/peanut butter treats.  The girls also had flowers to wear in our hair.  It was great. 

We watched the series finale event, but by the time it ended we were kind of all at the end of our emotional ropes, so we postponed the torch walk to the next night.  We stayed up trying to digest what we'd just seen, Mom and I watched Jimmy Kimmel's Aloha to Lost special and then we hit the sack.

On Monday, my actual birthday, we took it pretty easy.  We went shopping a little bit and talked a lot about Lost.  That night we went out to dinner at an Italian place called Sal's.  Deliciouso! 

I had to leave on Tuesday, so it was another day of taking it easy.  My mom and Kyle and I went to Kyle's girlfriend's house for breakfast and coffee.  Her family just put in a beautiful new pool and guest house, so we got to see all of that.  It looks so nice!  I would spend all of my summer out there if I could.  From there, we just kind of sat around the house and talked about our upcoming trip to Montreal.  Then I had to get on the plane and fly back home.  Sad.

And that was my birthday weekend!  This post is really long already, and I'm about to leave work, so I do believe I will just have to tell you about this past weekend another time!  Maybe I'll even blog some more when I get home!  Makin' up for lost time!  :)

Huh, Look at That...

I'm still the worst blogger in the world.  It's nice to know that some things never change.

Also never changing: the amount of boredom I'm feeling at work lately.  I'm told that it's our slow season and I'm believeing it.  I've never worked anywhere that had a "slow time/slow season", so this is a big change for me.  It's TERRIBLE.  I can't really do distracting things like play games or Facebook, because so many websites are blocked by corporate.  And, the things that I can do to distract myself, I feel guilty doing.  It's like I'm worried they're going to realize that they don't need me and shouldn't be paying me to be here and I'll get fired or something.  But, I guess it's good to know that things will be picking up in a big way once we get closer to Fall.

So, what have I done since my last post?  Well, I went to Austin for the weekend!  That was super fun.  I got to see a lot of friend that I haven't seen in a while, including my friend Courtney who has been in the Peace Corps in Fiji for a year.  Tyler and I drove in on Friday night and met everyone at our friends' apartment. They'd made dinner so we ate and had some cake and had a grand old time catching up. Then we went out to this super cool bar that's in a really old house. The backyard was huge and filled with picnic tables and lights in trees and a bunch of hula hoops and ping pong tables. We played a LOT of ping pong and hula hooped and laughed a lot.
On Saturday we got free bagels for breakfast from this cool place and then walked to a super cool coffee shop along a creek and sat and talked and drank coffee. We were going to then go lay out and swim at Barton Creek, but it was really cold and overcast so we went and bought a volleyball and went to Zilker Park. We made a huge pallet with beach towels and played sand volleyball and other silly games and laid around once the sun came out. it was really fun and relaxed. Then like 10 more of our friends came in town and met us at the park so we played more games. Then we went to this yummy burger place and sat outside together and ate, then we went dancing at a country-western place. There was a pool table and a shuffleboard thing in the front room and the dance floor in the back, so we played games and dance the night away. We all drank some beer and tried to build towers out of cups and beer bottles that would reach the (incredibly low) ceiling, and that turned out to be really funny. After the dance hall, we went to Gourdough's, which is an airstream trailer out of which gourmet donuts are sold.  I don't even like donuts, but that place was heaven.
Sunday we slept late and watched a movie and then went to lunch with some other friends who were just driving though from Dallas. So that was really fun. I also had the best macaroni and cheese of my life there. YUM.

That weekend was fun.  Since then I just been working though.  I've also been working out some, but I think I've decided to take a little break from that.  I just don't think I'll ever be one of those people who likes running.  Plus it was making me knees hurt really badly. 

Tonight, Tyler and I are going to New Braunfels to visit his family.  I'll get to see my sister-in-law for the first time in a long time and I'm really excited about that. That should be really fun!  And then on Sunday, Tyler leaves for a month of work-related travel.  Boo. 

Anyway, I'm at work right now and I might get slammed with tasks soon (yeah right), so I'm going to go!  Hope everyone's doing well!

I Am The World's WORST Blogger!!!

Holy crap.  This mission of blogging consistently is taking a downward turn.  It has been so long since I've posted! 

Let's see if I can recall what's happened since my last post.  I'm sure it's riveting!  :)

April 23: Worked.
April 24: I think I was mostly lazy this day, at least until evening arrived.  Then it was party time.  It was Tyler's aunt Meg's 50th birthday party and her friends and family all met in the party room at a Mexican food restaurant and had a blast.  Fajitas, chips and salsa, beer, margaritas-- fun was had by all!  Everyone got good and buzzed off the free margs and beer and it was really, really fun to hang out with my new family in such a fun environment.  Then we all went back to Meg's house after dinner and visited a little more with just the family and that was fun too.  I hope I'm as cute and fun as Meg is when I'm 50.
April 25: Tyler and I went to lunch with his parents at a really cool Asian bistro in the Galleria.  They have cheap all-you-can-eat Dim Sum on the weekends, so we went to check that out.  It was really good and we ate a lot and had a great time.  Then we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science (love!) and meandered there a little before going to see the Hubble 3D IMAX.  Um, if you have an IMAX near you, you must must must go see the Hubble 3D IMAX.  It was phenomenal.  I would watch it every day if I could.  I literally cried. Leonardo DiCaprio narrated it and he was great.  It was all so amazing and beautiful.  I love space.  When I die, I hope my heaven is made up of nothing but limitless space exploration; filled with stars.
April 26: Worked and started my super new work-out routine.  More on that later.
April 27: Worked, worked out, fought with Tyler about some travel plans.
April 28: Worked, worked out, and then went to an Astros game!!  It was so fun!  I had no idea I liked baseball.  I mean, I don't think I really like baseball; I just like the baseball atmosphere.  The weather was perfect, our seats were awesome (8th row right behind 1st base-- Thanks for the free tickets, Michael!), and we ate lots of yummy food and drank beer.  The Astros lost big time, but I got a loaded baked potato and some Cracker Jacks out of the deal.  Plus, the tickets were free.  YAY!
April 29: Worked, worked out, caught up on the Modern Family and Cougar Town that we'd missed the night before.
April 30: Worked, worked out, stayed in and reveled in my laziness.
May 1: Went to the pool and got a little sunburned (which is now peeling, but only between my boobs, so that's fun), went shoe shopping, at dinner with a friend (holler Ashlea!), went to the grocery store.
May 2: Tyler and I went to lunch at Cafe Express with some great friends, including our pal Russo who just got back from some a stint living in Australia and being awesome.  He still is awesome, FYI.  It was great to hug him and catch up.  He did some amazing things during his travels and I've decided I have to go to Australia/New Zealand soon or I might die.  After lunch, Tyler and I drove around doing some "where are we going to try to buy a house when we magically have money to buy a house one day" research.  Oh, and of course then I worked out.
May 3: Tyler left for a few days of work-related travel.  I worked and worked out.
May 4: Worked, worked out, watched LOST.

Today:  Worked, shopped (don't tell Tyler), ate dinner and watched Modern Family and Cougar Town, worked out, and now as I type I'm waiting for Tyler to get home from his travels and contemplating making muffins. 

Now, if you know me at all, you're probably thinking "What's this?  Ashley must have mistyped "worked out" like 11 times up there. She doesn't work out!"  Well friends, I do now.  I've found a cool 6-week work out routine in Women's Health magazine.  I'm trying it out because...well...some of my pants don't fit so well anymore.  I've been doing it for 10 days now, and I'm really proud that I'm keeping it up so well.  I hate it while I'm doing it, but as soon as I'm done I'm so glad that I've done it.  It involves running, which I'm so not good at, but I'm getting better I think.  Hopefully I'll make it the whole 6 weeks and by the end of it I'll be able to fit into my clothes again! 

Tomorrow, we have an event at work and this weekend I'm going to Austin to see some great friends, so hopefully I'll be able to blog during all that.  I will remain faithful, dear readers!

For the First Time...

For the first time in probably 12 years, I am wearing my hair completely down. 

This may not seem like a big deal to anyone, but believe me, it's a big deal to me.  I have been battling something called Trichotillomania since I was 13 years old.  It's an obsessive compulsive disorder that causes people to pull out their hair at the root, most of the time without realizing their doing it. 

It sounds really scary and gross, but for me, it was mostly just embarrassing and frustrating.  For years, it's taken me longer to get ready than normal because taking a quick shower and leaving the house without drying and strategically styling my hair hasn't been an option.  I constantly worry about whether the short hairs that are growing back in are sticking out or whether my small patches of thin hair were showing.  I simultaneously love and hate swimming.  It's something I really enjoy, but I hate having my hair wet because it gets tougher and tougher to hide my problem hair.  I can only wear my hair in basically two styles.  If I was wearing a hat, that was my chosen look for the day and I wouldn't be taking the hat off unless I was semi-alone and in front of a mirror so I could quickly put my hair up into a ponytail.  I have an abundance of bobby-pins so I can control any pesky hairs that try to break free.  I can't wear my hair down in a headband, and I love headbands!  I had to give a lot of thought to this problem when I was choosing a hairstyle for my wedding, and I hate that.  It's FRUSTRATING.

Not very many people know that I've been dealing with this, so this is a strangely big confession for me.  I've always been and probably always will be really embarrassed by it. Going to get a haircut is on par with the nerves you'd feel going into a job interview or on a first date. I'm always so envious of people who can get a real haircut, who can do a real style, who can do whatever they want with their hair.  It complicates things so much when your hair is a million different lengths.

Luckily for me, and maybe unbelievably, my Trichotillomania was much more manageable than most.  I only pulled the hair from my head, and for whatever reason, my focus was always on the crown of my head.  That made it easier to hide.  Some people pull hair from all over their head, others cause complete bald spots that are sometimes permanent.  Other people pull their eyebrows and eyelashes out. 

It's also one of those terrible habits that is almost impossible to quit.  On more than one occasion, I've commented that trying to quit pulling would be like trying to quit breathing or blinking.  I would be doing it without noticing, but even if I did notice, I couldn't stop because it felt "good" or something.  I've tried EVERYTHING to quit.  I've played with stress balls while doing things that I thought I might pull during (watching tv, reading books, etc.).  I've worn gloves while just hanging out at home (that SUCKED and that attempt ended quickly).  I've made a million promises to myself, created a million deadlines; made a million New Year's resolutions.  I've tried sheer will power; I've worn hats.  I've even taken pills that my mom and I found on the internet.  I've done practically everything except hypnotism, and believe me, that was next on the list.

But for some amazing reason, this year I made a New Year's resolution that stuck.  It has been almost 4 months since I've pulled a single hair.  That is the longest I have ever gone without.  And I do not even feel like I need/want to pull.  It's not even a struggle.  I don't think I'll ever pull again.  I don't know what happened...what clicked in my mind that made me be able to give this up.  I just know I am so thankful and happy.  My hair is still different lengths, but now it's growing back in.  I can actually part my hair!  You wouldn't believe that something so small could bring such excitement, but I haven't had hair to part, and if I have it's been much too short to stay in place for any amount of time. 

Today, I went to a new salon for the very first time and met an adorable girl and introduced her to my troublesome hair.  Cue the nerves.  Her skill with the scissors combined with the fact that my hair is growing and filling in so amazingly lead to me leaving the salon completely and totally giddy.  I told Tyler it's the most confident I've ever felt leaving a hair salon.  And on top of that, my hair was totally down.  No clips, no bobby-pins, no ponytail holders.  Granted, she blow-dried it straight (and did a stellar job at that), but it's really blending so well!  You can hardly tell!  She said it looks like I just looked like a had a cool layered cut that gave me more volume in the back.  That may be a stretch, but I do know that I walked around in public with my hair completely down and uncovered.  I haven't done that in 12 years.

So, we'll see what it does when it's curly.  I'm sure I'm not totally out of the woods and I'll still be sporting my half-up/half-down look for at least a few more months.  But keeping the rest of my hair cut short will really help as far as how long it will take for the previously-pulled hair to catch up.  I can't wait for that day.

I'm sorry this is such a long post.  If you read all of this, know that it means a lot to me that you know what I've been through now.  So many people have such bigger struggles, so I'm sure I might sound silly or dramatic to some, but this has really been my own personal demon for so long.  And I'm glad I'm writing all of this down.  If I ever think I might slip and start pulling again, I'm sure it will really help me to read this and know that it can all be so different.

Awesome Things

First, there is a man who lives next to us in our apartment complex who is an AMAZING opera singer.  Like, it's got to be his profession.  He practices sometimes and we can hear it faintly through the walls.  He's so good!  Tyler mentioned tonight that he suspects that it might be a recording we're hearing.  I choose not to believe that, though.  For one thing, I've heard the man doing scales over and over, and no recording would have that.  Also, tonight (while I had my ear pressed to the wall in our office so I could hear better), I heard him stop singing and start whistling at one point.  He's totally real and totally awesome.

Second awesome thing:  Lately, I've been getting randomly murderously bored and to remedy that, I've been re-reading some old emails in my oldest email account inbox.  It's been HILARIOUS.  I have a bad memory and this has allowed me to get some good laughs and remember the drama I've survived.  But the awesome thing is this-- I found a photo I'd taken in high school that I thought I'd lost forever!!!!  I took a trip to Paris with my dad before college and while there I took a really awesome photo of the Eiffel Tower.  I'd loved that picture so much; it was the background on my desktop.  Then, my laptop crashed and I lost my Paris pictures forever.  I was sad about all of them, but mostly about that one photo that I was so proud of.  And tonight, I found it in an email I sent to a friend from high school!  She'd asked about my trip and I attached it to the message!  HOORAY!!!!

Oh, and here's the photo!

This Day is Full of FAIL

Ugh.  I'm such a bad blogger!!  I can't believe I let so long go by again.  When I'm old and gray and wonder what I did in April of 2010 (which, naturally, I won't remember because I have the worst memory known to man) there will all of these big gaping holes in my bloggy-diary.

Anyway, on to today's post.  As the title says, this day is full of fail.  I totally love my job, and let's remember that, but this workday might cut my life short.  TGIF.  Here's what's going on (or not going on, as it were):

1. I burnt my finger on the toaster.  Trying to retrieve a bagel.  Lame.

2. It's the most boring day ever.  There are technically 5 people in my department, including me, and today 3 of them are off.  Granted, there are other people in my office, so it's not awkward and lonely, but it is definitely SLOW and QUIET.  Hence me blogging while at work.

3. A wheelchair tried to kill me.  I had to help a coworker roll some new wheelchairs down to Guest Services (I do the most random things at work...) and on the way, one of them fell over and hit my left hand in a weird way that's making me pout.

4. I'm having trouble finding a magical solution to the problem entitled "Ashley & Tyler Want to Go to Montreal With Family, But Are Poor". 

5. I tried to do a Sudoku puzzle and a Crossword puzzle that I found and they were both too hard. 

6. Three of the ladies in the office and I ordered lunch from Jimmy John's at 12:15pm to be delivered to our office.  It's something we've done many times bc Jimmy John's is closeby.  This time though: FAIL.  The delivery man with our food got into a small car accident on the way here.  Someone had to come get the food from the bad driver and bring it to us.  Apparently, this transaction took a VERY long time, because our food was just delivered at 1:45pm.  We were all starving to death and two of the ladies had to stay late at the office (they normally leave at 1:15-1:30 on Fridays) just to get their food. 

7. I had to carry three heavy bags of mall directorys to the opposite end of the mall and they were hurting my hands and threatening to break the whole time.

8. Our office computers were made sometime very shortly after the Jurassic Period and are slower than molasses.  The server that we have to log into in order to do anything work related is even slower.  I'm trying to upload about 5,000+ photos from this past weekend's fashion shows, and it's going so slow I could probably draw an amateur sketch of each photo by hand before the files finally transferred.  It's. So. Slow. Today, that slowness came to a halt when the server crashed. 

9. I did a post to our website, but because of our computers' lovely lack of function or ease, it posted 4 times instead of just once and then proved nearly impossible to delete.  It's not user error.  I know how to do these things.  It's the fact that you can click something, the computer will sit still and appear to have no knowledge of the fact that you've requested any action, so you'll do it again like 7 minutes later and all of the sudden that triggers the computer to go into super-action mode and do what you've asked, only a million times.

10. The mall manager (aka the big boss) asked me to do him a favor and make a survey for all of the tenants to fill out.  He wants it to be "fancy", incorporate photos and words and boxes and blah blah blah.  Problems: I am not a graphic designer. I can't get Paint to open and/or function on my computer.  I don't really know what questions he wants included on the survey.  I'm limited to one page.  I can't get the fonts to function in a manner which will make selection easy for me.  Mall manager is at a seemingly-unending lunch meeting and I can't run anything by him.

Anyway, I think that's all I can come up with to complain about.  It's really not that terrible, I just think this day definitely has an air of FAIL about it.  Despite all of that, I'm still having a good day.  I got to blog!  It's almost the weekend! And, for some reason today I decided to dress cute, wear heels and straigthen my hair, which has garnered me some compliments.  Most of the compliments are because of my shoes, which I find AWESOME because they are from Payless.  Take that, you rich, Galleria-shopping, designer-label-wearing ladies! Muahaha!

Sorry It's Been a While!

I have been a very, very bad blogger.  It's been too long since my last post!  I'm failing miserably at posting every weekday, but I think that's okay.

Since my last post, I've had a SUPER crazy few days of work.  Simon Fashion Now, our big weekend of fashion shows and events, was last week and it was awesome.  It was my first one, but I have to say I think everything went really smoothly and successfully.  My only complaint is that my feet hurt so bad by the end of it all, just from the overwhelming amount of walking I was doing, that I could not imagine a reason strong enough to make me ever walk again.  Which could be why today (which I had off from work) I did not change out of my pajamas and I did not get off the couch.  My feet looooooove me for the time off, I can tell.

One Year Down, A Lifetime To Go

This past weekend, Tyler and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary!  I cannot believe it has been a year already.  I love being married to my best friend and I can't wait for all of the years to come.

We went to New Orleans.  We arrived on Friday, late afternoon, and checked into our hotel on St. Charles Avenue.  It was a great location-- we valeted our car and left it there all weekend.  To get around we either walked or used the streetcar. 

On Friday, we walked down to the Mississippi River and explored the riverwalk area, Jackson Square and the French Quarter.  

We got some beers and oysters at the Crescent City Brewery and then walked around some more.

Eventually we made our way to Mother's Restaurant, a famous local favorite, known for their great poboys, baked ham and Bloody Marys.  We shared a huge roast beef poboy and I enjoyed a Bloody Mary.

It felt so strange to be allowed to take my unfinished drink with me out onto the streets of the city, but that's New Orleans for you!

Then we met some friends for dessert at a little place called Sucre, an emporium of "artisan" sweets owned by a chef who has won some Food Network Challenges.  It was awesome!  I got a little lime cake of deliciousness.

  The food was great and the company was better.  I got to catch up with a friend of mine from high school and meet her new husband and baby.  Their son is precious.

Spending time with Laura, George and Aidan reaffirms my belief that you can still be fun, social and cool after you have a baby.  Thanks for the visit, guys!

On Saturday, we woke up early and went to a fine establishment (read: shady, but recommended to us by the concierge at our fancy hotel) and had some breakfast.  Then we hoped on the streetcar and headed towards the Audobon Zoo!!!  We had the streetcar drop us off at the Audubon Park, which we walked through to get to the zoo.  Tyler was in a great mood and kept doing heel-clicks, which was hilarious.

Then we made it to the zoo!  I had been a zillion times as a kid, and despite the fact that it's definitely starting to show some wear and tear and did quite live up to my memories, it was still really fun.

The giant tree I remember climbing as a kid and the awesome Roman Candy (sort of like homemade, pulled taffy) were still there and as great as I recalled, so that was good.

That night, we got all fancied up and went out to a nice dinner at NOLA, one of Emril Lagasse's restaurants.  The food was GREAT.  Here's what we had (just to make everyone sufficiently jealous):  We started with a beer for Tyler and a watermelon martini for me, which tasted EXACTLY like a watermelon Jolly Rancher.  Then we moved on to some delicious and spicy concoction of shrimp, whole boiled crawfish, corn salsa and grilled bread followed by a salad of Baby Greens tossed in Raspberry Vinaigrette with Duck Confit, Fried Quail Egg, Spiced Walnuts and Goat Cheese. For dinner, Tyler had the Grilled Amber Jack with Risotto, Fennel Herb Salad, Toasted Almonds and Citrus-Herb Vinaigrette.  I had the Filet Mignon with Thyme Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes, House Cured Bacon, Maytag Blue Cheese, Toasted Walnuts, Port Wine-Veal Glacé and Shallot Crisps.  Then for dessert, we enjoyed the NOLA Crème Brûlée Trio which consisted of a
Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée with Fresh Berries, a Coconut Crème Brûlée with a Coconut Truffle and a Mocha Crème Brûlée with Chocolate-Almond Biscotti (pictured below).

Also included in our dessert (at the bottom center in the photo) was a sampling of something they garnish another dessert with that I just had to try:  Brown Sugar Bacon.  All was delicious and devoured. 

On Sunday, we had beignets at Cafe du Monde.  If you've never had beignets...umm...I'm sorry for you.  They are little powdered sugar-covered gifts from heaven, best enjoyed with coffee or chocolate milk.  Enjoy the before and after pictures of our table below.

Then we decided to explore the always amazing Audobon Aquarium before hitting the road. I'm really glad we did.  Tyler loves fish so much and I love seeing him passionate and excited about something.  Plus, the fish are just really cool.  Here are some photos from the visit, including one of me in the tunnel that I have been unnaturally afraid of since I was a kid.

At the end of all of those adventures, we hit the road and headed home.  It was nice to get back to Houston, to our nice home together.  We were kind of random and lazy for the rest of the evening while the top layer of our wedding cake thawed.  Then it was time to try the year-old cake.  It was surprisingly delicious!!!

I was skeptical of a cake that had been in our freezer for a year and had made two moves in an ice chest.  But it was seriously so good!  I even took some with me to lunch with a friend today and shared in the greatness.

Overall, it was an AMAZING first anniversary.  I couldn't have asked for anything more.

On the Eve of a Great Weekend

Tomorrow, Tyler and I are leaving for New Orleans to spend the weekend celebrating our one year wedding anniversary!!!

I have a lot of stuff to do (finish laundry, pack, figure out how to pack and transport the top layer of our wedding cake, etc.), so naturally, I'm blogging.  Why not.

I am so excited for this weekend!  We are going to go to the zoo and walk around the French Quarter and go to eat at Emril Lagasse's restaurant NOLA.  I'm planning on taking approximately 1-squillion photos, and hopefully I'm right.

That being said, I know I've missed some blogging this week, but that's okay.  It's been a long and busy week at work.  But still so fun!  We had the blogger preview and since then everyone has been spending some quality time stressing out over what to wear to the Thursday runway show for Simon Fashion Now.  I can't believe that SFN is next weekend.  That was like "the big looming event in the future" that was talked about like a legend in my job interview, and now it's almost here!  Good news: I finally found an outfit!  It's a strapless dress with escalating horizontal ruffles, it's a light pink (like a ballet slipper) and it's pretty girly.  But, surprise, I'm pairing it with a wide black belt that has some small metal elements.  So it's like super girly meets biker chic.  Ha! It's also exactly what the store has on one of the mannequins: dress, belt, color, everything.  I'm original like that. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures from the event, so stay tuned!

Speaking of posting photos, I'm sure I'll do that after this weekend's adventures, so check back soon!

Blogging About Bloggers

Tonight at work, we had an event called "Blogger Preview".  It was a really cool opportunity for a group of the fashion bloggers in Houston to come to the Galleria and get a sneak peek of some of the looks that will be shown at Simon Fashion Now, our huge fashion show event coming up. 

We had about 8 retailers show up with mannequins/models dressed in a look from their store.  They got to talk to all of the bloggers about how their fashions will fit into the spring wardrobe landscape.  There was food provided by Daily Grill, a great restaurant in the Galleria and the champagne was flowing freely. 

The event set up was basically my responsibility and it got a lot of praise, which made me so happy.  I was proud of how everything looked and how the event went.  I got to make some good contacts with a lot of the retailers and restaurateurs, too.  Marketing might really be for me after all!  Who knew?!

Better Photos!

The other marketing intern just emailed me a MUCH better group photo (with the exception of the fact that Page Parkes is licking her lips...) than the professionally taken one.  This one was taken on our company camera (which, shockingly, is a Sony) and it's SO much clearer and I don't look as crazy!!  HOORAY!!!!

Here's the group shot, and then because I'm rude like this, I'm posting a photo I cropped so it's just me and Tim.  Sorry people I cropped out!  It's because of you guys that I have this job and am able to have a photo like this in the first place!!!

PS.  If you click on them, I think they get bigger.  Enjoy!!!

Please, Please, Please Somebody...

...cut off my feet.  O.M.G.  They hurt so bad.  I wore a new pair of heels to work today, and I'm definitely paying for it now.  Magically, they didn't leave any blisters, but the balls of my feet are KILLING me.  It was a long day full of lots of walking and standing and I really thought I might just weep by the end of it.

But enough of the bad!  Let's move on to the good!  And I mean GOOD!  Today was the day I've been waiting/working for all week!  Tim Gunn Day!  For those who don't know, today at the Galleria, we had an event with Liz Claiborne.  Tim is the chief creative officer for Liz Claiborne, so he hosted the event.  It was a runway show, with commentary from Tim and another member of the LC team, followed by a cocktail hour during which time certain people got to wait in line for a chance to meet Tim and have a photo taken.  It was neat being on the behind-the-scenes team, because I got to go backstage and see the space where the models would be getting ready, I got to see Tim being walked over to the runway before any of the shoppers realized he was there and I got to be inside velvet ropes right by the runway and Tim while all the commoners (ha!) waited in line to meet him. 

Another perk we were all anticipating was meeting Tim ourselves.  We did get to, and in my opinion it was awesome!  But, a little bummer was the fact that we had to wait until all of the paying customers finished meeting him before we got our turn, and by that time, Tim's team was apparently ready to go.  So instead of getting an individual photo and some precious 1-on-1 time with him, we had to take a quick group photo.  But like I said, it was still awesome.  I was the first person in line with our group, so while the rest of our people joined me and Tim on the runway, I did get to shake his hand and talk to him.  Basically I said it's nice to meet you and thanked him for being there, but he spoke back to me, so I'm going to count that as valuable conversation.  And then, the way the group filed on stage, I ended up standing right next to Tim in the photo!  His fashion-geniusy hand was on my shoulder!!!

It was all great.  Here are a few photos of the magic.  Excuse the fact that I look moderately crazy in some of them...I was pretty excited and I daresay it shows.

After Tim Gunn, as if that wasn't enough, I also passed right by Chris Brown and his posse/security.  He was there "shopping".  Really, I'm sure he was just walking around soaking up the attention, but still: AWESOME!  I was literally two feet from Chris Brown!  We made eye contact, so I'm going to go ahead and consider that as us meeting.  Ha!  And look, I know he hit Rihanna, and no.  That's not okay.  BUT, he's still famous and talented and I'm still going to listen to and love his music and be amazed by his dancing, so I was really excited and had I not been a) alone and b) without a camera I would have DEFINITELY asked if I could take a picture with him. 

And just to put the cherry on top of the already awesome day, I also got to meet Page Parkes, of the Page Parkes Corporation, which is an amazing national modeling agency known for discovering/representing the likes of some very famous people (Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Channing Tatum, Hilary & Hailey Duff, Tyson Beckford, Alexis Bledel and Josh Holloway of LOST fame, just to name a few...).  It was exciting to know that maybe I'm now one degree of separation from some mega-stars.  I wish I could have read her mind while I was talking to her, because I'm sure she sizes people up in her head.  Then again, maybe I'm glad I couldn't!  (Oh, she's the one on the far left in the group shot with Tim Gunn, if anyone's curious.)

I know this is a long post, and thanks for reading all of it if you did.  It was just a really fun day!  Everything (from a work perspective) went really smoothly and it was an overall success! 

Except for my aching feet...  Ha!

Busy Little Bee

Oops!  I forgot to blog yesterday!  It's all because, for once, I had a busy evening of fun.

First, Tyler and I went on a walk at a really cool park.  There's a big track around the whole area and some ponds, lots of playground and exercise equipment.  Here's the park, called Arthur Storey Park, for any Houstonians.

Last night, the weather was really nice and apparently we weren't the only people who had the park idea.  There was a TON of people there.  We just walked along and talked to each other.  Tyler didn't even pull out his blackberry!  It was great.  Definitely worth it to get outside and spend some quality, technology/entertainment-free time together.  

After the park, Tyler and I came home and made dinner together.  Steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus and salad.  It was YUMMY.

And lastly, we watched the greatest show on television, aka LOST.  It was such a great episode.  Some very powerful acting and lots of "Whaaat?!?!!!" moments.  Good times.

Overall, it was a very couple-y kind of night and I really liked it.  I love just spending time with Tyler.  And I love going to bed with a sense of "Ahh, this was a productive (or at least satisfyingly busy) and fun evening."  Therefore, I hereby deem yesterday a success!

Weekend Fun

This weekend, Tyler and I went up to College Station to meet some friends for a good old-fashioned crawfish boil.  It was really fun!  There were about 20-25 of us there, and we all devoured about 100 pounds of crawfish.  YUM.

It was also great to spend time with friends that we haven't seen in a little while.  We all ate, drank and were merry.... until the Aggies lost their basketball game.  Then we ate, drank and were un-merry.  But it was still great fun!

Today, it was back to the grind.  Still loving the job.  I can't believe the Tim Gunn event is this weekend!  It's so soon!  I need to pick out an outfit ASAP.  And hopefully this time next week, I'll have an impressive picture with the one and only Tim Gunn himself to share!

TGIF

Phew, thank goodness it's Friday!  I'm loving work and I'm having a surprisingly easier time waking up in the morning than I thought I would, but I'm still getting used to having something to do all day, every day.  I'm tired when I get home from work!  Luckily, it's March Madness, so I can veg out on the couch and watch the Aggies play for a couple of hours. 

This weekend, Tyler and I were going to go to New Braunfels and go out on Canyon Lake on the boat, but the weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow so we're having to postpone.  I'm bummed, but at the same time, this is my last free weekend until April 17th and I'm looking forward to taking it easy.  I have a ton of work events coming up and I'm gonna fit in as much relaxing as I can. 

Again, nothing too riveting to blog about, but we are going to College Station on Sunday for a crawfish boil, so maybe something fun will come of that!  What about you, dear readers?  Doing anything fun?  Hope so! Have a great weekend!

Lunch Breaks for Bookworms

I'm so excited! 

Where I work, I have a really flexible schedule, including breaks for lunch.  The only restriction is that I'm not supposed to work over 32 hours a week (it's technically a part-time internship).  That leaves me a lot of wiggle room. I want to be working as much of a normal schedule as possible, so in order to clock in and out at normal times (i.e. 9:30ish in the mornings and 4:30ish in the afternoons), I'm encouraged to clock out for long, luxurious lunch breaks. 

Since I can't exactly spend an hour and half eating the little lunch I bring, I have devised a brilliant plan.  I'm going to go downstairs to the Borders bookstore and read!  I know that is super nerdy, but I don't care.  Our offices are a floor above Borders, so I'll meet a friend of mine who works nearby for lunch and then spend some quality time in the comfortable Borders chairs with a good book.

This brings me to my plea for suggestions.  If you have read any great books recently, let me know!  I have an entire bookstore to peruse.  I know it's probably cheating they system somehow, but I'm planning on finding a good book on the shelves and reading it in the store, remembering my stopping place and picking up where I left off the next day.  So leave me a comment with as many book suggestions as you'd like-- money is no object!

Random Ramblings

I don't really have anything riveting to blog about today, but things are definitely still going well.

Still loving work and getting more confident in the things that I can do by myself.  I had a meeting today with a couple other girls to go over all of the events that we have coming up and WOW.  We are going to be crazy busy for the next month or so.

Other exciting things: Tyler and I have finally concreted our plans for our anniversary.  We'll be going to New Orleans for a long weekend, so I'll be munching on beneigts and exploring the Audubon zoo in just over two weeks!  We've also decided that we're going to Canyon Lake this weekend, so that should be fun.  We're apparently all about racking up the miles on our cars.  And lastly, I'm still keeping up with all of my Daily 7!  The photo-taking is sadly the most difficult for me to do, but I've at least been reading at night if I haven't snapped a picture all day.  With all the fun things coming up at work though, I'm sure I'll be taking lots of pictures soon!

Tuesday, or As I Like to Call It: LOST-Day

Does everyone know what day it is?  LOST-DAY!!!

Just like it were a holiday, every Tuesday when I wake up, I get pumped because it's the day I get to watch the best show that's ever graced the television screen, LOST.  I love this show and I know WAY too much about it.  If anyone ever has any LOST trivia or questions, come see me and we'll forever be best friends. 

Today at work, though, I learned some sad news.  No one in my office watches LOST.  So tomorrow, when the crazy happenings of the Island are rattling around in my brain, I'll have no one to discuss them with!!  BUMMER!

Also sad and work-related (though a complete deviation from LOST), today I remembered that a dress I almost bought about a month ago would have been PERFECT for an event we have coming up.  Last month I found this Nanette Lapore dress at TJ Maxx, which means it was hugely reduced in price.  It was so so so cute and fit me like it was made for me, but it was definitely a cocktail dress and despite the price cut, it was still out pricey, so since I didn't have a job yet I left it hanging on the rack.  Now, I'm kicking myself.  The upcoming event is a fashion show of our high-end, luxury brands and the attire is "Dress to Turn Heads" so all the girls are going to look great and I would have loved to have worn that darn dress.

Mute Monday

Hello all! 

A couple of things.  I've decided that I'm going to try to blog every day M-F, and only on the weekends if something blog-worthy happens.  Trying to cut down on the boring-factor.

Also to reduce the snooze, I'm going to do something called Mute Monday, where instead of posting just another plain old blog, I'll only post a picture that I've taken on Monday, with little or no description (hence the "mute").  Hopefully this will help me to actually take pictures and to give you guys a more interesting peek into my day.

Here's today's:

This one might need a little explanation to be sufficiently hilarious.  See, our little mail man, bless his heart, wrote "Put names in boxes please" above the mass of mail boxes at our apartment complex.  He was only trying to ease his troubles.  But some people are just SO literal.

I actually laughed out loud by myself in the mail station when I saw this.  I love my neighbors Rob, Jill and Dave.  Never met 'em, but they seem like swell folks.

The Daily 7

This is an idea that I found on another blog and I really like it.  I feel like it will help me along the way to becoming more of a domestic goddess.  All it is is a list of 7 things that I'll make sure to do everyday. Some of the items are simple little things that will help keep our home cleaner, some will help us stay more organized, and others are on the list because they're things I love and wish I'd make time to do more of.  So here's my Daily 7:

1. Make the bed, first thing in the morning.  I have always been TERRIBLE at this (sorry, Mom!) but I've been doing it for the past 3 days and I actually really like it.  It takes such little time and it just makes everything seem so much neater.
2. Do a quick bathroom wipe-down after uses.  The white sinks in our master bath are like magnets for toothpaste and I can't stand the sight of them sometimes, but I hate having to bust out some major elbow grease to clean them.  So instead, I'm going to keep a small, old dish towel nearby and wipe down the sink and counter top after brushing my teeth or doing things that leave watermarks or other gunk.
3. Do a 5 minute pre-bed clean up.  Before bed each night, I'd love to do a fast cleaning of the apartment.  Nothing big, just folding up blankets, straightening up pillows and putting things away anything that we've used during the day. 
4. Keep the kitchen sink empty.  This one's easy.  Just making sure that all the dirty dishes are rinsed and loaded in the dishwasher at the end of every day.  Nothing's worse than a sink filled to the brim with dirty dishes.
5. Get and sort the mail.  We are surprisingly bad about getting the mail.  It's at a little mail station that's just a short distance from our front door, but still we'll go 2-3 days without checking it.  So I'm adding it to my routine.  When I get home, I'll walk from the car to the mailbox and then to the apartment.  The next challenge will be opening and sorting the mail immediately.  That'll be hard, but it will simplify things so much if we can address necessary mail right away instead of adding it to a pile.
6. Balance the checkbook, in a manner of speaking.  We don't keep physical checkbook registers, but Tyler has made a super-sophisticated Excel document with all of our financial information and he made it really easy for us to just enter our spending and keep track of how much $$$ we have to play with.  I need to get into the habit of balancing things at the end of each day.
7. Take a photo or read a book.  These are things I love to do, but so often I'll forget to do them for extended periods of time.  So I'm making a rule for myself that I need to take a photo a day, or else I'll be "punished" by "sentencing" myself to read some of a book before I go to sleep.  FUN!

So, those are the 7 things that I'm going to be trying my hardest to incorporate into my daily routine.  I think I can do it, and if I do I think it will really make a difference.  You should try making a list of your own!  It really makes you think about your little goals.

First Day at a New Job

Well, my first day at my new job was a grand success!!

I'm working in the marketing department at The Galleria, which is the HUGE premiere retailer/mall in Houston. I'm technically an one of two interns, but the program has no set end date (meaning I can stay as long as I want/as they'll have me) and there is room for eventual promotion to a full-time gig.

Time for visual aids.  Here's what I wore on my first day.  It looks kind of school marmy in this photo, but it wasn't:

And here's my new desk space, including ancient computer:

Here are some of the highlights:

• Everyone is freaking amazing. Seriously, they all seem like so much fun and really seem to know how to get their work done AND have a great time while doing it.
• The other intern, who has been there for 6 months, and I are going to be super compatible. She had even set up my desk for me and stocked it with all kinds of goodies. See the picture on the right? So sweet! I already like her!
• The office is really nice and I got a fun new badge that I swipe to get into a special reserved part of the parking garage, which is right across from the stealthy keyed-door entrance to our offices.
• I packed a lunch today but didn't get to eat it because it was the General Manager's birthday and they surprised him with a fully-catered (and fully-delicious) lunch, complete with cupcakes and a giant cheesecake. Everyone stopped their day, came into the conference room, yelled surprise and chowed down while talking about tv shows, movies and the party they'd had a few nights before. LOVE.
• Everyone dresses really stylishly (naturally) and I'm pumped about getting to dress up. Being a news producer is kind of a jeans & t-shirt type job, so this will be a nice change.
• I was told by one of my coworkers that I need to make sure I know the words to "Fancy" by Reba McEntire, because that's one of the 2 other girls' favorite song to sing back and forth from their offices. And I'm told I'll need to be ready for anything, especially fun. Ummm, I think I can handle that. Score.
  

Anyway, I just can hardly believe how excited I am about this job! People are professional and efficient, but not stuffy at all. The next couple of months will be crazy busy because we have a HUGE fashion show-filled weekend, the Easter Bunny is arriving (ha!) and there is a Tim Gunn event coming up, but I am so glad I'll be involved in all of that!

Eeek! Okay, I hope everyone is having a great day! Tomorrow is "Demin Day" so I get to wear jeans to work-- gotta go pick out an outfit!

Fascinating New Thing

I'm going to attempt to have a blog!

Lately, I've been filling my abundance of spare time with random blog-reading. I'll stumble across a great blog, on which the writer will recommend another great blog, which will lead to another great blog and so on. A lot of the ones that have caught my interest lately have been about creative and domestic things and I'm ready to start having some creative and domestic adventures of my own!

I feel like now's the perfect time for this new quest, because there's a lot of "newness" going on in my life right now. Tyler and I have been married for almost a year (time has passed at a speed that I can hardly believe!); we've moved to a new city and into a great new apartment that feels so much like home already. Tyler has started a great new job. I got to experience a full-blown job search for the first time (not the most fun a girl can have...), but out of it came an exciting new job, which I start tomorrow!

On this blog, I hope to keep people updated on what's going on in my new and semi-exciting life, and to tackle the to do list in my "About Me" section. Enjoy the ride, one and all!