Nature

Let me tell you something: Phoenix is LOVELY in October!

I got to go to Phoenix two weekends ago for work. It was sunny and a cool 95. And I was just loving life and that temperature. October in Phoenix is why people move there. They think "Oh my gosh, this is AMAZING! And the cost of living? WOW! I should move here!". And then they move there. And they LOVE LIFE until July, August and September. And they think "Oh my gosh, this is AWFUL AND I WANT TO DIE!" because the heat is so (SO!) terrible. I don't care that everyone goes "it's a dry heat". Yea, yea, yea. My oven is a dry heat and you don't see me hanging out in there - do you?

Either way, I loved being in Phoenix! And, because I had to be there at the end of one week and the beginning of the next, me and friend (and peer) Priyanka stayed through the weekend with three other people that are in our program: Chris, Karina and Dave. Karina is the only one that reads my blog, but I'm going to tell you about all of them.

Chris: Chris is my favorite person in my program. That is all.

Dave: Dave is my least favorite person. That is all.

Karina: Karina is so funny I can't stand it. She's going to be blogging soon and I can't wait to share that post with you. We're also both going to do match.com (more on that later). Anyway, if you're ever in Phoenix (or if you know a tall, dark, single, Trinidad-ian (is that right, Karina?)... send him her way!)

So, we stayed with them and on Saturday we went to Sedona and stayed in Flagstaff on Saturday night. And then on Sunday we went to the Grand Canyon and then on Monday morning me and Priyanka were at work bright and early!

Let's talk trip details:

*The Ford Fiesta: WORST. CAR. EVER. Worst car ever ESPECIALLY for a 4 person (Chris, my favorite, did not come) road trip. I mean, our knees were in our chins. We could not pass other cars. When I accelerated to 45mphs the car hit 5000RPMS!! Stupid Fiesta. Don't ever get one.

*Team Front Seat/Team Back Seat: The majority of the trip was divided into two teams: Front Seat/Back Seat. Me and Karina were team Front Seat and Dave/Priyanka were team Back Seat. Karina and I get along very well and Dave irritates both of us so it was nice to put him out of sight and just laugh and sing and drive the stupid Fiesta.

*Sedona: Beautiful! Really and truly breathaking and I don't say that about too much scenery (I hate nature). We saw the Chapel in the side of the rock mountain thing (I'm no good at details) and we went to some of the touristy shops and we got touristy ice cream - WHICH - they were out of CHOCOLATE AND VANILA! I mean, really? Stupid ice cream store - you should ALWAYS have the basics. Come on.

*Pink Jeep Tour: We did a PJT in Sedona and it was SO. MUCH. FUN! That is the kind of nature I like! We were bouncing around and hitting 25 mphs and going up and down rocks. And our tour guide, Mr. Alan, for the most part put up with us even if he didn't tell us all kinds of stories or find us a rattlesnake. Mr. Alan has no patience and his wife tells him so and he's sorry he didn't wait for us to look at the camera for our picture but it's time to get back in the Jeep! God, Mr. Alan.

*Flagstaff: We stayed in Flagstaff on Saturday night and that was great. We found an Italian BYOB restaurant convienently located next to a wine store and we enjoyed a sampler of a bunch of things at the table. It was a nice dinner with the Adele record (yes! record!) playing in the background and a good wind-down from the day. I was sleeping by 9pm and it was incredible.

*Drive to Grand Canyon: When we woke up the next morning for a 8am departure to the GC, I almost forgot how much I hated the Ford Fiesta. Well, guess what? I still HATED THE FORD FIESTA ON SUNDAY! But, we saw AWESOME roadkill on the drive to the GC including an elk (or maybe a moose? What's the difference)!!! OMG! The roadkill was HUGE! Really, SO big.

*Grand Canyon: We had lovely weather for the GC. I've heard horror stories of people getting there and it being cold and foggy and you can't see anything! Well - we could see everything! There were so many tourists too! And we really enjoyed the view and I was having so much fun!.... for 25 minutes. See, the problem with the GC is that all it is is ROCK. There is only SO MUCH ROCK I CAN LOOK AT! But they said "no, no, you have to see it from another angle". And I said "Ok". But from the other angle it was still rock and by the end of the three hour adventure I was maxxed out on rock. But, I can check it off my list!

And, that my friends, was the Grand Canyon! Next up: a weekend in Pittsburgh and meeting my nephew!

Jambalaya is so good!

I'm blogging from a hotel room in Phoenix. And I had Chinese delivered to me for dinner. I feel really weird about the entire situation, but I don't have a rental and it was the takeout menu on top. Dinner came with a 32 oz DC, and that makes me feel better. I cannot figure out how to work this TV and now I'm stuck on Wheel of Fortune. My life is not what I want it to be. I'll tell you what I SHOULD have done - I should have said hello two the two handsome men in the elevator with me that had some type of foreign accent. I could have said *smile* "Where are y'all from?" *smile*. (That is me being charming.)

BUT! I didn't. The SuperShuttle had me a bit flustered since it took way too long and the man was 90 and drove 25 mph, including turns in front of traffic. He also asked me if I was married, to which I said no, and then he asked me if I wanted to get married. My first proposal. On an Arizona highway. In a big blue van. To a 90 year old. I politley declined.



Anway, so I'm here in this Chinese smelling hotel room and I wanted to blog becuase I realized I haven't told you about my last 2 weekends! And I wanted to tell you now because I have two more exciting weekends coming up!

Two weekends ago me and Erin went to Houston. We visited her Brother Matt and I also visited Matt McCowan and Girlfriend Ashley. The best part of the trip was seeing Estrada who wants to be an umpire when he grows up and was practicing his strike calls at the bar. He might be the funniest person I know. I don't even know what we did all weekend! Erin made pizza, we visted a few establishments, we watched the Steelers LOSE! God. That was sad. It was me and one other lone ranger cheering for the Steelers at brunch and it was a sad, sad loss. The bonus of the day was our waitor did not charge us for our bottomless mimosas which we had a lot of. It's hard to say exactly how many we had because he kept taking the glass away and giving you a new one - even if you weren't done. I had lots of halfsies and only one full one that I was allowed to keep because I was holding on to the stem of the glass. Regardless! Free mimosas taste great!



Last weekend me and Kelly took work off on Friday and went to visit Erin in her hometown of Ethel, outside of Baton Rouge. O-m-g. Her house is beautiful and her family is so fun! They had an unreal amount of food, which included a pizza cookoff between mom and daughter. (There is a lot of pizza in my life lately). I voted Team Mom, most especially because she made tomato basil soup from scratch and it was amazing. Seriously - amazing. I got the recipie and we made plans to make it for my next boyfriend (HA) with a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. Lots of laughing over dinner!



Jambalaya in a cooler - YUM!




The next morning was huge excitement because that was the kickoff of the "Who is more Southern" competition between me and Kelly. The night prior Kelly was pretty confident that I was going to lose because of my sassy tude, but I was confident that my big curls and boots would give me a leg up. We tailgated ALL DAY at LSU and even got tickets to the game!! The day was so fun! I was mostly controlling my sass and was not being assigned any negative points in the Southern competition. I EVEN tried: jambalya, boudin and gator! The jambalaya was SO good and I said this to Erin and her mom. They took one look at the container and said "It's a mix.". Mix or scratch - I enjoyed it big time. We also got these beverages called Rednecks which are 32 oz frozen jack and cokes = amazing tailgating beverage, great for walking and sipping.



Gator - not so yum!



The day was a total success and no one would give me bonus Southern points but they did give me Texan points. Which, apparently, are different. And I guess I should know that now that I live in Texas: Texas is not the South. Texas is not the West. Texas is Texas.



Southern Belles with our Rednecks



I did lose 4,500 points when this guy that was OBSESSED with my height kept talking and talking and talking about how tall I was and did I play volleyball and blah blah blah. Now, don't get me wrong- I love being tall. But I did not (and do not) want to spend 15 minutes talking about it. So, I said to him, "Do people talk to you a lot about how short you are?" To which he responded nothing. So I kept going "Because if you want to talk about my height so much, maybe we should talk about yours?". Then, because I am in the South, he tried to apologize to me instead of calling me a total B like anyone else would have done, That made me feel a little bit bad, but I was over it. I retold the story to Kelly, and that is when we determined the negative 4,500 points which, I think, made me lose the game.

We ended up sleeping at Sister Mollie's place by campus (which, PS, they keep a tiger on campus!). Kelly and I had to sleep in our clothes which included jeggings that were dirty from the day. When we woke up, we decided that Southern girls wear dresses to tailgates so they can sleep out and be comfortable. Next LSU game, I think you'll see both of us in dresses.

So, that was that! Except, the 8 hour car ride back to Dallas with Kelly in which we prayed for a Taco Bueno, but never found one. I think that is how I also know I'm Texan: I crave fast food tacos. We were also sans iPod and iPhone so Kelly had to listen to my unmarked mixed and soundtrack CDs. Things started off promising with Myriah Carey, but quickly went downhill when Love Mix #2 was picked - the worst of all the love mixes. Anyway, lots of laughing occurred the entire way home and I give Kelly 4,500 points for being a great car trip partner!

Now I'm in Phoenix for work. I'm here with Priyanka who is friend AND peer at work so we're staying through the weekend with other friends that live here and plan on making a trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. I am unsure yet if I need to wear tennis shoes to this event, and also, if the 99 degree weather wil be uncomfortable or not. EITHER WAY! I am charging my camera (something I haven't done in years) and effective immediately, I'm going to start taking pictures. And uploading. Prom. (Abbreve for promise.)

Autumn in Dallas

I don't know if I appreciated Autumn in Dallas last year or not. It may have something to do with the nonstop 100 plus degrees days this summer, but I can't be sure. Anyway, this weather is BEAUTIFUL right now. I wake up and it's 65, I enjoy lunch outside and it's 80, I walk to the car after work and it's 90.  I'm in love with Texas in October!

Since it's fall, I'm going to make my first batch of chili sans seasoning packet. All from scratch (except, the canned, diced tomatoes).  I included a splash (or two) of Shiner and I'm simmering all night. I cannot wait! The apartment smells so tasty!

In other news, they are driving me crazy at work. I think they are doing it intentionally because they know next week I will have to have other priorities. So, on top of them squeezing everything out of me, we had a repeat project that I usually have two weeks to complete, but this time around I only have one week. It's a lot, but nothing I can't handle (obviously). However, the rest of them cannot handle this intense pace and have taken to asking me if I've had my rabies shot. THEY SAID THAT TO ME! They also snapped a photo of me while I was bossing one of the ladies around and telling her I was going to throw all of her things away if they were left behind. I was very serious about throwing crap away that they didn't think was important enough to move within 8 hours, but apparently some people thought I should be concerned about the possibilities of "family heirlooms" being thrown away. Whatever. I don't care and I was just doing my thing - getting stuff done! Well, they snapped this picture and then sent it to my manager and peer with the title "Watch out... she's in a mood!". Do I think this is rude? No. My reply "Nothing is safe. Watch your back."

They'll miss me so much. Just wait.

While I was looking for that work picture, I found this gem from a wedding I was in... however many moons ago it was. Are you embarrassed for him? I was wearing flats. Also, there were other groomsmen who were over 6' feet tall. Worst. Matching. Ever. Poor guy. He was a good sport about the entire awkward situation - we even did a slow dance together! Allison: Please note, for your June wedding, that I'm so excited for, I would appreciate a date that was about my height. Within a 3 inch range. Please. Don't make me post another awkward picture next June. Please!!!