Puppies!

A new friend for Skittles--Griffin. He's very playful and loving and a great addition to the family.

Things to Say

There are things to say about the impending move and the plight of Buffalo's economy. I'm having trouble finding the words for 2 things that are related and close to my heart...

Note To Self

Bring Lunch or Leave Office for Lunch.

Eating snacks from the office is detrimental to my health and well-being. The free snacks in our kitchen are pretzels, cheetos, rice krispie treats, popcorn, snickers bars, granola bars, reese peanut butter cups, peanut M&M, cashews, and on and on.

So if I am too lazy to leave for lunch (we go out almost everyday), as I was today, I had cashews and peanut butter cups. Not good, but what happened after was worse. The peanut butter cups tasted delicious (obviously), and my bad angel said, "You have already blown the day from a nutrition standpoint, so you might as well have more." And so I did. Not good.

Crushed

So the cat is out of the bag ... Scott & Leah are moving with my three favorite little boys back to CT. I don't have anything inherently against CT ... I did live there for 2 years and I've got some good friends who are still there. But excuse me while I curse alot about the fact that IT SUCKS!!!!

It sucks that I can't get in my car and go see these three silly, adorable faces whenever I want; it sucks that it'll be weeks in between seeing them; it sucks that I can't surprise them with three fish to replace the ones they lost in the "october surprise storm" when they get up from naptime.

It also sucks that I can't just go and have a glass of wine with my sister, or meet her after a GNO and have a few drinks and just talk. Or that she can't come over one night to help me take down wallpaper, repair my plaster walls and prime. Who's going to take me to the MAC center the next time I fall on a tiny curb and break my ankle and let me crash on her couch for 2 days recovering?

And then there's my favorite brother-in-law ... who's been there for me in more ways than I can even begin to desribe.

All ... leaving. And I'm leaky and sad. I know that it's not "permanent" and forever, but who knows. This city needs alot of help and if they don't pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get their act together ... I can't even think, let alone talk about it.

I love you guys ....

Day 1

So I didn't make it to the gym at 5 am as planned this morning. Why? Because I was up from the hours of 1:30 to 4:45. I have no idea why--just awake. I'm normally a great sleeper, but last night wasn't the best. Going back to sleep at 4:45 wasn't very smart either; I was groggy all day.
However, I did make progress. I went to the gym after work. It's a novel idea. I left the office at 5:45 (yep, you read right--before 7pm is a feat) and went to the gym. The gym almost came crashing down around me when I stepped on the treadmill.

And I blogged 2 days in a row.

Who knew?

Burned Out

My academic career during my MBA has left alot to be desired. I haven't been particularly dedicated to it, and I have been contented with only passing grades (so that my company will pay for the classes). I'm disappointed by my performance because in general, I'm interested in the material, the professors are interesting with relevant experience and the other people in my classes are great.

To say I've been busy at work is true, but it's an excuse. If I really wanted it, I would work hard at it. Instead I'm just checking a box. I feel like I need to compensate for my liberal arts undergraduate degree in order to be taken seriously in the business world. I probably do not need to have the MBA, but I feel like it would give me more confidence.

And now because I have been half-hearted about it, I have been in school for almost 3 years, and I still have 6 classes left (1/3 of the program). But I'm too close to being done to stop now, but I'm really tired of it: I strongly dislike group projects--just give me a damn test; don't grade me on class participation because I'm too tired to string a meaningful thought together at 8:45 pm after arriving at work at 7am; and I don't like core classes (cost accounting is resulting in a slow painful death for me).

So what’s the update you might ask … It’s been a while:

Some good things have happened to me and lots of good things have happened around me:

To me:
-I got promoted: To a full sales position. It will be fun, but lots of pressure.
-I aged another year: I’m relatively indifferent to birthdays, but my husband took me to a GREAT concert to celebrate (see below).
-Mike and I finalized our plans to go to Las Vegas for Unchristmas. Those of you who know me (all of you, given that I don’t have a huge blogger following—maybe in 2007) know that I am not really into the holidays, so Mike and I decided to go to Vegas for Christmas, play some golf, play some cards, and see some shows.
-I finished my Christmas shopping.
-I started watching the Food Network. Love “Everyday Italian.”
-Mike and I went to Florida and spent some time with Mike’s sister and her grandkids—very cute.

To others I love (Congratulations to all the new parents):
-Our first friends in Atlanta (yes, we’ve been here 3 years and just made friends—we are slow) had their first baby, Alex.
-Mandy and Ben had their first baby, Max, and I’m sad that they are so far away.
-Mayuri and James got engaged.
-After too many trips to the dealer for service on Mike's new car, the dealer is going to give him a new car (2007 car for the same price--a bargain in my opinion)--let's hope it works.

General news of interest for me:
-The elections are over and so are the terrible commercials. I'm always interested in elections, but there was nothing big in Georgia, so my interest was not totally peaked. However, the Georgia commercials were horrible--nothing of substance, just "I'm not a crook and the other guy is, so vote for me." I'll get off my soap box now.
-My gym is now opening 30 minutes earlier, so I no longer have the excuse of "I don't really have time for a good workout, so I'll just sleep instead." I'm not promising to go to the gym; it's just one less excuse.

Anyway, the Brooks and Dunn concert with Sugarland as one of opening acts was amazing. I’m no music afficiando (more like, “hey, I like this song on the radio, but I have no idea who sings it and am too lazy to download it on my i-pod, so I will forget about it when it stops being popular"), but I love me some country music.

In a true labor of love, Mike bought the tickets for my aforementioned birthday, even though he is no country music lover (more of an AM radio guy with some AC/DC mixed in there). The venue was an amphitheatre in Atlanta, but Mike bought seats inside (or so we thought), so I got a new shirt and new makeup and made it a big date night for us—“glammed up” as Mike says.

We leave the house at 5:15 for a 7:00 concert but couldn’t find the place in the GPS leading to a relatively heated discussion which ended in a“We are never going to get there” overreaction. Mike saved the day and went all the way back in the house and printed out the directions. Yeah, Mike!

While looking for the address on the tickets, we noticed the indoor seats actually said “covered seats.” Yikes, but I was still too lazy to go into the house (10 feet away) for a jacket and decided to brave it—plus my new shirt was too pretty to cover with an ugly fleece. Let’s live on the edge and chance being cold!!!

By 5:45 we are in dead stopped traffic on the only highway to the amphitheatre, so we were loving that the car with GPS is also a standard. Also my 6 diet pepsis of the day kicked in.

So we arrive at the outdoor stage area at 7:30, and we need to park far away in a dirt field, so my feet were loving the heels I was wearing with my tastefully sparkly shirt when I could’ve worn jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers and fit right in, but I wanted to be pretty, damn it! I left work early to get ready and even curled my hair.

We missed the first opening act, but I didn’t care because I found a bathroom and I was hungry, then I noticed all the people around me with blankets (I totally missed the memo about the amphitheatre being outside!). We walk up to the concession stand, and they are out of food and drinks. It’s the last concert of the year, so they didn’t bother to order anything. I fought an old lady for 2 hot dogs, so we had something but no condiments, but again, I lived with it because we were seeing the biggest act in country music.

We arrive at our seats, chatted with the nice couple next to us and thanked God for the unseasonably warm weather. Mike bought great seats—20 rows back, right in the middle of the stage. Sugarland starts, and they were a great show. They are from Atlanta, and they were so happy to be back and just full of energy and really talented. Their talent was lost slightly on me because there was a large woman next to me who knew the words to every song and screamed all of the words at the top of her lungs, and she happened to be screaming right into my ear. Did I mention that she dropped her coke on my beautiful heels and elbowed me when she danced?

Also, the young couple in front of us stood for every song, even when the people in front of them sat, and the guy had his hat on backward and sidewise, so the brim blocked my view of the stage. Doesn’t everyone have that couple sitting in front of them at a concert?

Mike rescued me and agreed to sit next to the heavy lady for the main act. Again, husband of the year! Before they started we had a little excitement 5 rows in front of us when a 50-year old woman got sick from a few too many Jack Daniels’ coolers and had to be carried out on the stretcher.

But all was forgotten when Brooks and Dunn took stage. The music was awesome; they sounded just like their CDs. The show was unbelievably produced. The music was loud but not too loud; they were playful with the audience. The last song was “Only in America” and they brought Marines out on stage and there was not a dry eye in the audience.

And Mike got sucked in a little; not only is he going to download some of the songs, but he agreed to go see George Strait. I will convert him yet!