Photo Finish

Hi, friends... Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pics from Dallas.  I wish I was still there, and I really wish it was still spring break!  Hope y'all are having a great week!

Becca jamming to My Humps

Welcome to Dallas!

Out at The Quarter

Black Eyed Peas!

Becca and I at the Peas

The big finish... Fergie Ferg + confetti = AWESOME

The whole crew at the Peas

Snow in Dallas

Lone Star State of Mind

Dallas was awesome.  I loved every minute of the trip, and I had the best time with some crazy fun people.  I have lots of pics (of course) which I hope will be up very soon, but for now I'll just share with you a few of my favorite things about the trip.

The Top 10 Things that Made Dallas Awesome

10.  Yogurt.  I don't remember the last time I ate so much frozen yogurt, and I know for a fact I've never had any like this.  It was seriously the freshest, most amazing thing I've ever put in my mouth.  OrangeCup and Yogalicious are divine establishments.

9.  Solving all the world's problems.  Becca and I solved the majority of them on the drive to Dallas and, with some help from Kathleen and Anna, had them all solved by the time the weekend drew to a close.  If the world would just give us fifteen minutes and a bull horn, we could have it all set straight.  Easy enough, right?

8.  Becca's numerous traffic-related anxiety attacks.  You haven't lived until you've seen Becca have a freak-out meltdown in the middle of traffic.  It's classic, really.  There were several throughout the course of this weekend, and one or two even took place while Becca wasn't even the driver.  Oh, yeah, and there was the time she made us park in the next-to-last spot of a huge lot just because "driving around the whole place just isn't worth it."  Um, speak for yourself, Bec.

7.  Living through a visit to Sam Moon and the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster ride from hell it took to get us there.  I thought on numerous occasions that I was going to see my lunch reappear, yet no one else in the car took me at all seriously.  (Probably because most of the attention was going to Becca... see #8.)  I risked my life and rolled down my window in a particularly seedy part of the ghetto just to gasp in the cool air.  And don't even get me started on Sam Moon, this mega-store jam-packed with discount purses, jewelry, etc and about a zillion people scrounging around for the most sought-after bargain.  I wanted to start pushing people down and run for the exit more than one time while I was there.

6.  Liar's Den.  This bar had it all.  A dance floor where Kathleen could cut a rug, a rooftop bar with an amazing view of the skyline where Becca and I could make new friends, and a staircase connecting the two that Anna could run up and down eight million times. 

5.  Four inches of snow on the ground and not one article of appropriate clothing.  Friday when a lady told us it was supposed to snow the next day, we walked out in the 75 degree sunshine and immediately proclaimed her insane.  The next day, however, when running through the fattest snowflakes I've ever seen dressed in the heaviest pieces of clothing we brought (mere cardigans), we thought perhaps we should have paid her a little more attention.  Saturday night I slept under four blankets (one of which was a bedspread), and Anna's dog was dressed more warmly than me.

4.  Meeting a sweet boy who reminded me that all men are not, in fact, neanderthals.  My faith in the male race has been marginally restored, at least temporarily.

3.  Problematic sleeping arrangements.  One night I slept upright like Abraham Lincoln.  Becca spent a night on the hardwood floor, waking up saying it felt like "a bed of nails on concrete."  Anna curled up in the tiniest ball ever imagined and perched on the end of the couch.  I could feel the cold air of the snow coming in through the window even underneath my scores of heavy blankets.  Kathleen, however, somehow managed to end up in the warm, comfortable bed every night... how did that happen, Kat?

2.  The most awesome concert ever.  I was beyond pumped to see the Peas, but I was just pretty pumped to see Ludacris.  Let me tell you, Luda blew it out of the park.  He was unbelievable, and his back-up dancers shaking their moneymakers would blow your mind.  The Peas were just as off-the-charts amazing as I had hoped they would be, and I never wanted the concert to end.  I've never really understood watching a concert on DVD, but I wish I had a recording of this one I could watch over and over and over again.

1.  Laughing my head off.  Whether it was the car that smelled like a frat house, the inappropriate things we seemed to constantly be saying, the recaps of the night before, or Becca's outfit on the ride home, we were constantly in stitches.  I know the people around us wished we would pipe down and chill out, but we just couldn't do it.  We were just having too much fun.  I can't wait to go back to Dallas again soon and laugh until I can't breathe all over again.
 

One Week of Life

This past week has been a really great one.  I was planning to write this post over the weekend (yes, I sometimes often plan my posts...), but I was too busy doing fun stuff to stop and compose my thoughts.

I'll start with last Tuesday, when Lindsey and I headed to Birmingham to see John Mayer.  We started off with an amazing sushi dinner at Sekisuri Pacific Rim in 5 Points.  I love that neighborhood, and our sushi was delicious.

After dinner, we headed to the concert, which was so, so good--just as I expected.  I saw John Mayer in Memphis my freshman year, and he was just as fabulous as I remember him being.  Yes, he makes a lot of weird faces while he sings, and, yes, he has lots of tats, but I don't care.  I think he's gorgeous and super sexy.  I think he has mad, mad guitar skills.  I think his concert is the perfect chill concert.  In addition, he was super sweet to this couldn't-have-been-more-than-twelve-year-old girl who was front row center.  He kept talking about how cute she was and how she was singing along with all the songs; he gave her his pick, and he edited one song a little bit, saying, "I'm not gonna curse in front of you, cutie."  Although he didn't sing a few of my favorites, I found a fell in love with a few new favorites, namely Half of My Heart.

At the concert, however, I saw some funny stuff.  High school girls are funny to me.  First off, they were everywhere.  They practically ran over Lindsey and I walking into the coliseum, and I truly thought they were going to push us down getting inside.  Also, they were wearing the most fantastic clothes and taking millions of pictures with their Nikon/Canon super-nice cameras.  Seriously, when did this happen?  When did high school girls turn into sophisticated, self-assured, polished grown-up women?  My inner high school girl, complete with frizzy hair, ill-applied make-up, uncoordinated outfits, and nonexistent self-esteem, still cowers at the sight of them.
After the concert we had a little snafu finding the way home, for Bernice--my GPS--was determined to send us awry.  We outsmarted her, however, and finally got started in the right direction.  After stopping at a super scary, super ghetto gas station, we finally arrived home about 2:30 in the morning.
Wednesday morning I was blasted out of bed by the upstairs neighbor playing Pretty Fly for a White Guy at earsplitting decibels.  He becomes the bane of my existence more and more everyday.  The day was quickly saved, however, when I watched the most amazing episode of Criminal Minds, where Hotch pretends to beat the snot out of Reid so that they can distract an un-sub and Reid can shoot him between the eyes.  Wednesday night I finished the most amazing book, Garlic and Sapphires, and finally watched a true classic of American cinema, Rear Window.  Both were seriously awesome.
Thursday the talk was all about the weather.  Snow was expected for Friday, possibly ice, as well.  Of course, Friday morning dawned with no snow, which further solidifies my belief that meteorology is more a game of chance than a profession.  There was a little bit of snow midmorning Friday, but hardly even enough to make a proper dusting.  I did, however, manage to snap a few quick snow pics, just to document that we got anything at all.

Friday afternoon, I went to see Valentine's Day, which, for the most part, I really enjoyed.  After the movie, I was pretty much glued to the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which I simply couldn't get enough of.  I am not too proud to admit that I might have sobbed cried a little while watching it...

Saturday morning I headed to Columbus for the night.  I started off my visit with a manicure at Eden, which I thoroughly enjoyed because it was almost completely silent.  I am not one of those people who wants to chat with their manicurist, I just want to relax in silence.  Is that weird?  I followed that up with a fun lunch with some of my favorite hometown ladies, solving all the worlds problems and causing a scene in the restaurant, of course.  Saturday night Lindsey, Hope, and I went to an unbelievably fun engagement party for Florence and Mark.  The food and drinks were fabulous; the house and flowers were gorgeous; the company was spectacular.  I had an absolute blast.

Sunday mom and I went to a very nice shower for Florence, and I enjoyed a quiet Valentine's Day glued to the Olympics--my newest obsession.  I don't really understand myself, for I hate sports and have never really been immersed in the Olympics like this.  I just can't turn it off, though.  I have major crushes on Apolo Ohno and Graham Watanabe, and I'm sure I'll find a few more Olympians that catch me eye, as well.  I don't really understand why there are so many soul patches, though?  In addition, I wonder if there could be a more unflattering, unattractive costume outfit uniform for a woman to wear than thecomplete-with-hood unitard worn by speed skaters?  It is truly unfortunate.

Dude, what a random post.  

Happy Monday; hope you all have a great week!

Virtual Insanity

I feel sorry for people who have to be around my high school friends and I when we get together. I mean, we are seriously crazy.
Last night we had Bailey and Sage's Stock-the-Bar party in Columbus, and we acted like the biggest morons. Somehow we ended up with our yearbook from senior year of high school out, and we were going through it looking up underclassmen we used to have these crazy nicknames for. I told you: we're crazy.

We really did have the greatest time, though. I don't think I have laughed as hard as I did last night in a really long time. I know Sage's brother and cousin thought we were absolutely nuts; let's be honest, I'm sure they're not the first or the last "outsiders" we'll manage to creep out with our neverending "Do y'all remember"'s and our pointless inside jokes.

This morning I woke up to a sort of winter wonderland outside my window, which is something we don't see too often in the Golden Triangle. For some reason, it seems we are almost always in this pocket (I like to refer to it as "The Dead Zone") that never gets any snow or ice. We're always either too far north or too far south; either way it always misses us. Not this time, though. I awoke at 6:30 this morning to see a blanket of white outside my window and a steady snowfall. I stared out the window for a minute, thought about grabbing my camera and going outside, realized I hadn't brought home the sufficient clothing for frolicking in the snow, and lackadaisically laid back down and pulled the covers over my head.

It's possible I have become disillusioned; I hope not.

Anyway, by the time I woke up again at about 10:00, the snow had stopped falling, the sun was blinding, and the melting process had already begun. I did manage to get one pretty good picture; it's on my photography blog, if you're interested. By the time I got back to Starkville this afternoon, all that was left of the wonderland were a few patchy remnants tucked into the shadows.

Alas, that didn't stop my mother from nagging me about calling the Highway Patrol just to "make sure" the roads between Columbus and Starkville were safe and ice-free...

Nice life.