Queen B

RIP Queen B

2011-09-15T15:27:00.002-05:00

Please find me at http://SAngRiAsmiles.blogspot.com

New commenter name is SAngRiA Smiles

Prayer Request

2011-09-11T14:05:00.001-05:00

I mentioned Thursday that my SIL had to spend her birthday in the hospital. When I posted that, I was thinking it would be a relatively short visit. She was having contractions, and I guess I was just expecting that they'd give her the "stop" meds and at some point they would stop. This was my naive assumption, just based on experiences with other friends going through it.

Thursday afternoon I got a call from my brother that he was basically rushing home from Paris. Not just rushing, but flying from London to Paris, having about 12 hours to pack up/clean their apartment, and catch the flight to leave Paris for good (well, at least as a resident). The contractions were not stopping, and the word was that the babies could be coming at any time. She's at 30 weeks right now. The babies are weighing in a little over 3.5 pounds each.

My SIL is still having contractions and will be in the hospital until the babies are born. Could be today, could be 2 weeks from now, could be 2 months from now (Ine, I'll let you weigh in on that one ;).

Please keep her and the babies in your prayers. Also, prayers for Faith and Isabelle, who are functioning without the center of their universe for awhile. And prayers for my brother, who is juggling settling back in, figuring out work, plus 2 high-energy li'l girls. Love to you all!

God Bless America

2011-09-11T09:11:00.001-05:00

Baby Sale

2011-09-10T22:14:00.000-05:00

I dunno.... I look at this and think they're selling babies.

Friday Night 22

2011-09-09T23:11:00.001-05:00

TWD

2011-09-09T18:22:00.000-05:00

Rick Perry vetoed a bill a few months ago to ban texting while driving in Texas, so it is still legal. I feel like if/when it becomes illegal, this chick is going to have a hard time doing it subtly.

Not surprisingly, she didn't notice when the left turn arrow came on and held up the whole line of cars during rush hour. Good times.

Flashback Friday (76)

2011-09-09T09:09:00.003-05:00

This is a flashback from almost a month ago (8/16/2011)! I originally had a different picture selected for today, BUT.... it's my SIL's birthday. I have been perusing facebook and found very few pictures of us together. This seems to be a recurring theme in my life. I apparently need to get in more pictures.

This pic was taken at my nephew's surprise 21st birthday party. That's him and his lovely wife in the foreground. My birthday SIL (aka his mom) and I are sneaking in :) My nephew and his wife have been just amazing to me during the past few months. They actually spent last weekend at The Palace doing some repairs. My nephew replaced a toilet and fixed my busted sprinkler for material cost only (~$125ish) + lunch at Wendy's (he works for cheap!). I love these guys.

SIL is not a blog-reader, but she's awesome and I'm happy to dedicate this flashback to her.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KARLA!

September 8th

2011-09-08T15:12:00.003-05:00

Today is quite a day.....

It is the anniversary of my father-in-law and sister-in-law's passing.
It is the birthday of my middle school bff, my high school bf and (more importantly) my SIL and nephew-dog.

Big shout-out to my SIL today, since she is spending her birthday in the hospital. The twins have been VERY anxious to come out and meet their favorite Aunt, so she and the doctors have had to fight them on that.

PS: how great is this cake? My favorite part of it is that the filename is normal_cinderella_cake.jpg

Flashback Friday (75)

2011-09-02T09:02:00.002-05:00

I have been feeling very close to my cousin (aka Agent Dragonfly) this week, so it seems fitting to choose a Flashback photo that was taken at her house.

From the Bathroom

2011-09-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

Hey, people! That's where I normally put my blackberry. What's up with that?

No Chihuahua Left Behind

2011-08-31T15:01:00.001-05:00

Well apparently when you are trying to get back to being a regular blogger and yet also trying not to drone on about how sucky your life is, the default topic is: dogs! And I'm fine with that.... I've been working hard to be a good single mama to my 2 li'l ones and to help them adjust to the fact that daddy abandoned us. We don't really say it like that, though.... well, sometimes we do. Oops, I'm not supposed to be droning on!

I came across this article today: Flying Chihuahuas. The short summary is that Virgin Airlines is remediating a supply/demand issue where there are too many Chihuahuas in California and too few in the northeast. They are shuttling the surplus cross-country, each dog with a human escort - how do you volunteer for that job?

I love this! It would make a great Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3

Devil Dogs

2011-08-30T18:23:00.000-05:00

For some reason there are ALWAYS stray/lost dogs in my neighborhood. My neighborhood's facebook page is entirely made up of either lost dogs or people selling their crap. ABBA was the lucky recipient of one of these strays :)

A by-product of this is that when I see a dog wandering around, I immediately jump out of the car and try to rescue it. Memorably, this had a traumatic conclusion last summer (definite warning on clicking that link: IT IS TRAUMATIC), but I still keep at it.

I posted on facebook earlier about seeing a rainbow this morning. In a city that has probably had less than an inch of rain in 3 months, a rainbow is pretty amazing! I was hoping it would be a sign that today would be a better day than yesterday. This week has been rough already - so much so that I have worked from home the past 2 days. My mom has been home as well (still at the parents' house for a few more days), so we have done lunch together both days.

I bet you're wondering about now (1) what my point is and (2) how drama and stray dogs fit together.... I'm getting there ;) Cut me some slack, I'm re-learning how to blog

As we were leaving for lunch today, we kind of got stuck behind a neighbor hedging his yard. Mom was having to inch the car down the alley because I guess he just didn't hear/see that there was a car right on top of him. As we rounded his house, we spotted a stray dog across the street. Mom immediately slowed down, and I hopped out. The dog darted across the street and headed for the neighbor's house that was doing his yard. Their gate was open. It seemed like this might be a fit. I still wanted to stop the dog, though, because obviously he was darting across the street and needed to go back in the yard. The dog wandered up to the front porch. I slowly reached my hand out to offer it for scent. The damn dog bit the sh*t out of my finger!

And I'm not talking like a li'l bite. I rushed into our house to wash it out. I used soap, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and more soap. I was mildly concerned about rabies but more so concerned about it getting infected. There are puncture wounds on either side of my knuckle, and it did bleed for a bit. I have never been so mad at a dog before!

Sip-N-Doodle

2011-08-30T09:07:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, ABBA and I went to an art show to support some great friends. I've known Troy & Jeff (the Artists) since I started working at TGI Friday's when I was a wee girl of 16. Jeff is actually the one I credit with introducing me to The King, but we won't hold that against him ;)

Troy & Jeff do photography, but the art show also displayed some paintings and metal work. I remarked to ABBA that I have always wanted to paint. I don't think I'd be any good at it at all, but it seemed like it would be therapeutic. She was encouraging of me, until I reminded her that I wasn't even artistic enough to give my stick people clothing.

It seemed like fate, though, that yesterday's Dallas Groupon was for Sip-N-Doodle. It is a BYOB teaching center where they give you pre-drawn canvases to hack away at while you get tanked on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night.

ABBA, knowing that all things purchase-related have led to an indecisive Queen lately, gifted me a ticket. I can't wait to report back on what we created!

This Week

2011-08-28T14:39:00.000-05:00

I've been quiet lately. It's been hard to find a voice to blog with... I haven't even really been keeping up with my journal.

4 months into the separation, and just days away from divorce finalization, I have gotten pretty accepting of where we have arrived. Please don't get me wrong, even last night I was talking about how in a million years this is the last path I ever wanted for my life. As much as he has hurt me, I would go back in time and fight kicking and screaming to course-correct.

But apparently I have not figured out time travel or personality modification during this separation period. Shocking, huh? I have managed to survive, stay healthy, keep a job, and learn that I have very little control over events in this life. That's almost equivalent of solving the mystery of time travel, imo!

This past week I deleted my Wedding photo album off facebook, deleted the pics from his surprise 40th birthday party I organized, and untagged myself from countless great memories that he featured prominently in. It hurt so much to relive those memories and "wipe them out" but it hurts more to stumble unexpectedly across them. There were a couple that I contemplated emailing to him to drive him down the reminiscing road that I was on, but I backed off because he quite frankly just doesn't care about those memories anymore.

Any-hoo..... please keep me in your thoughts and prayers this week. He is moving out of The Palace, and I am returning. It's going to be hard on me to be back in "our" house -alone with all the memories- but I'm also hoping there's some therapy to cleaning/cleansing it + to being back on my own (and not living at my parents' house anymore!). I'm hoping to rediscover my voice and to continue to grow stronger.

Wow... I have a "house" label....

Flashback Friday (74)

2011-08-26T08:26:00.004-05:00

America's Next Top Model, 1991

For some reason this picture of me in cow print seemed appropriate to commemorate Kim's first trip to Plano + the first week of school (I'm pretty sure this was a first day of school picture of me in 6th grade).

Missing My Brother

2011-08-25T08:12:00.000-05:00

Ad on the back of a magazine yesterday

Fell out of my book last night

2011: The King is Retired

2011-08-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

I have been living with regret this past month that I never posted this picture from Pamplona...

I took it after the first day we Ran With The Bulls, as we were enjoying the festivities inside the arena. It was just so funny to see a taste from home (literally), blimping through the Spanish skies... and also so appropriate, since our days ended at McDonald's (though if it had been a BK by our hotel, I think it would have been easily interchangeable).

I saw the news today that Burger King has retired The King.

"We won't be seeing The King for a while," Burger King spokesman BJ Monzon said Friday.

It seems fitting that this is a 2011 occurrence.

Flashback Friday (73)

2011-08-19T08:19:00.000-05:00

We'll make this consecutive weeks showing a sibling flashback. I got to spend some good quality time with my brother's girls this past week and was very reminded how much of my brother's daughter Miss Faith is. From her eyes, her facial expressions, and that I feel she might end up with her head glued together at some point... she is a little girl version of him as a kid.

So... this picture... I really have no idea what led up to the photo being snapped (1991-ish?), but I do enjoy the following things about the picture:

The Disney wallpaper from our Jack & Jill bathroom
The slap bracelets wrapped around the towel rack
My Ray Bans on the counter - I think I found those somewhere and did not turn in to Lost & Found
The LA Looks hairspray - oh, how we used to go through that stuff!
Both of our facial expressions - this is such a strange picture ;)

Flashback Friday (72)

2011-08-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

I guess this week I want to revisit my Wonder Woman era. I'm thinking I was around 5 or 6 when this was taken. I love the fact that my brother is holding his Masters of the Universe book so proudly above his head ;)

Also.... the dog featured is the Original Princess

Princess of the Parents' Palace

2011-08-11T15:02:00.002-05:00

She's not spoiled or anything... and I did not carry her on her pillow downstairs and place it on the couch to hang out when I was downstairs....

Eyelid Twitching

2011-08-10T16:19:00.002-05:00

Ok.... this is seriously bizarre. For the past year or so, I sporadically get an eye twitch. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it started with this project I've been working on. I don't think it started when I was working in Marketing with my crazy ridiculous boss. I am kind of sad I can't blame it on that.

It's gotten worse lately. It's becoming like an every day kind of thing, whereas before it was like once a week maybe, max. I was procrastinating going in to work earlier, so I googled causes of eye twitches. I came across a web site where you could take a Quiz to identify what might be causing your eye twitch. I felt SURE mine had to be stress-related.

Apparently not.... Here are my results:

Most likely causes of your eye twitching in order of likeliness;caffeine, screens, eye strain.

Caffeine: This is actually one of the most common causes of eyelid twitching. Many people drink multiple cups of coffee every day, chug sodas, or even take caffeine in pill form or other energy drinks and pills. If that sounds like you consider cutting back your consumption or even eliminating it all together. While it might be unpleasent for awhile you'll save a lot of money and eye twitching by quitting.

TV/Computer Screens: If you find yourself using computers, watching television, or otherwise staring at a screen all day this is a likely cause. Try limiting your use and looking away every 15 minutes (set a timer) for a couple minutes to exercise your eyes to focus on other things. This is a simple problem to fix if this is the cause but a lot of people find it difficult to give up their television or computer for anymore than they have to.

Eye Strain: If you use glasses or contacts you could be suffering some eye strain from an outdated perscription. People who are near sighted or far sighted can be particularly at risk for eye strain when doing a lot of reading, driving, or other visually intense activities and this can be compounded by the previously mentioned incorrect perscription.

Is it just me, or are the "cures" RIDICULOUS? And I like how they misspelled "prescription".... it kind of undermines the validity of their diagnosis, imo.

Weight/Stress Graph

2011-08-10T15:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, so apparently today I feel like blogging J

One of the crazy things that happened to me during the past few months was a total loss of appetite. Now, I know I am a skinny girl to begin with, but y'all who know me KNOW I like to eat. In fact, I have never before in my life dealt with a situation so traumatic or stressful where I wasn't still hungry like clockwork every few hours. In the first week of "separation" I lost 10 pounds.... 10 pounds that I did not have on me to lose (thank you to P90X/Insanity for already having me at a great, kick-ass fighting weight). As a person who is just really conscious about being healthy and taking care of myself, I started tracking calorie intake and weight to keep myself eating and re-gaining some of the weight. I haven't been perfect at it. It's funny, though, because when I logged in this morning to update my weight, I had to laugh at the chart. Even though it's a weight chart, it could interchangeably be a stress chart.

The enormous increase came on my Phoenix/PamPariXI trips. I knew I'd gained weight while away from my "situation" but it was funny to me this morning to notice the rebound effect after I'd gotten back here. There was a dip immediately following, as I shed some of the vacation water weight, but the lingering happiness from my time with friends and family definitely continued.

I'm still not quite back up to where I was when this started -and I might be ok with that!- but I'll get there. The current fall-off is from when I moved again.... getting back to the swing of things in September will be nice. Stay tuned!

A 22 end to a rough day

2011-08-08T19:47:00.002-05:00

Wow. Ok, so now that I've talked about some of the chaos on the blog, I might be entering sharing mode. Which is kind of weird because I've kind of gone internal on talking about everything, so it's interesting that I'm starting to blog about it.

Anyways.... today was one of the toughest days so far. I went over to The Palace this afternoon to walk through the divorce decree with "him" (it feels weird to use his name but the King title is gone) and then to get everything signed and notarized. We had a rough conversation, and it's all just so emotional. We left the bank with me in tears and him mad (hurt/ing, I think is what it was, masked as anger).

I don't know how but when I got back to the parents' house I pulled myself together enough to keep my dinner date with them. I did go flying blind, though, without glasses or contacts. A very wise woman warned me that divorces can cause you to wear glasses - not that they blind you (although blind-siding might be appropriate) but that you will cry so much that you can't wear your contacts. That's where I was at tonight. Rather than have to explain the glasses to my parents, I just went blind. It turned out ok enough ;)

After ordering my salad, they presented me with my number..... I must be doing something right if my day ends in 22. whew

Queen B

2011-08-08T14:10:00.001-05:00

I feel like I promised this picture would be forthcoming, but I cannot find a post referencing it.... maybe it was part of a *gasp* actual conversation with someone?!

While I have been Queen B, Blogger for nearly 5 years now, my Queen B-liness predates the blog. The first branding effort occurred in 2005 when I was working part-time at TGI Friday's J

Routine

2011-08-07T16:40:00.000-05:00

2011 has sucked
2011 is going down as the worst year of my life to-date
2011 at some point will end (on or around 12/31)

Yeah, I guess I'm going to do a venting post. A personal post. A gloss over what a mess the current state of my life is. A pity post. It's probably about time, as I don't think I have really let loose yet.

Just at a high level:
January: my Grandmom passed away
April: my dog of 12 years passed away
May: the King left me

I mean, I feel like I could go on and on with my complaints, but there was some good that happened this year. My mom and I got to see A&M win the women's basketball National Championship, and my brother facilitated the epic PamPariXI trip.

An-y-wayz.... one of the hardest parts of the past few months is the lack of structure my life has had. I have lived at home. I have lived at my parents' house. I have lived at Casa de ABBA. I have stayed at friends' houses in Phoenix, my brother's apartment in Paris, and hotels in Spain and Austin. I have recycled my rotation and lived at home, my parents' and now ABBA's again (for the weekend). For someone whose home is their sanctuary, it has been really hard not having my own space where I can set my own routine and do my own thing.

There is a tremendous amount of chaos going on at work, too. I'm on a sales pursuit, and if we win it means (1) I have a long-term job and (2) I will be moving. If we don't win, then I am fairly exposed on my job security.

I just need some stability.............. please..........

Flashback Friday (71)

2011-08-05T08:05:00.000-05:00

circa 1996

The front door/entry area was a popular backdrop for posed pictures when I was growing up. So... how different do I look now? Super tan, short and super-blonde hair.... ah, to be 16 again

New Sneaks - Ruined

2011-08-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

As I've mentioned, the PamPari trip was not really extensively planned on my part. In fact, the night before I left (during my 24 hours in town between trips), I was mulling over what shoes I was going to take to run in. I have 3 pairs of running shoes: 1 pair has had the shoelaces eaten through (mice in the garage?!), 1 pair is 1/2 size too small, and the last pair is just kinda worn out.

I was shopping online at my parents' house when my mom offered up her new pair of shoes. We normally can't share shoes, but she'd had to buy them 1/2 size larger than normal after her foot surgery. I'm sold!

Um, day 1 in Pamplona "someone" spilled sangria on them.

By the end of the trip, they were beyond disgusting (to the point that I'd like double-bagged them in Ziploc when packing them for the return home).

After a wash with OxyClean, they are still not in "like new" condition, but it's the best I could do....

It seems like my brother's fared better (or he had better lighting), although he had less sangria to dodge...

This post was inspired by Andrea Braun

And then the other toe got it....

2011-08-03T19:11:00.000-05:00

Apparently my depth perception is a bit off these days. Left toe is not nearly as bad as the right one was, but OW! Right toe has healed up pretty nicely. *whew*

Update

2011-08-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

So last Monday I moved out of The Palace. It is not a permanent move at this point but probably until the beginning of September. At that point, I will move back in and facilitate the selling process.

For a variety of reasons, my parents' house is the most attractive temporary base. One of the main reasons is that the dogs are really settled and comfortable there. Next to The Palace, this is the place they have spent the most time. Plus, my mom takes care of them like they're her children, and they kind of feel like it's Six Flags (as far as I can tell). It's been a tough few months on the dogs, and it's nice that they're pretty relaxed in the current environment.

One of the cool things about living at their house is their ongoing picture project. There are thousands of pictures being processed from my childhood through yesterday. I went through an envelope of them last night and pulled out some nuggets to scan/post for Flashback Friday. So.... it's returning! Several of you "knew" that something was going on in my life when the Flashbacks abruptly stopped (4/29/11.... separation bomb was dropped on me 5/1/11). It'll be nice to get back to it.... back to life, back to reality.

Pamplona at Work II

2011-08-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned, one of the great outcomes of The Trip was spending the days after my return re-living it through pictures, videos, memory-piecing-together with my brother.

A few days after I got back, I was walking through the office building. I came across these 2 statues...

...and mentally exclaimed the same thing I'd exclaimed at the 0:07 mark in this (previously unreleased) video from our bullfight experience.

Working on Saturday

2011-08-01T13:16:00.002-05:00

I spent 9am - 3pm on Saturday at.... the.... office. *blech*

This was not really my plan. My plan was to spend 9-12, maybe 9-1 as the worst-case scenario. But some people just could not get onboard with moving quickly through our reviews and getting on the THE WEEKEND.

When it became obvious (1pm-ish) that we were not going to be wrapping up anytime soon, one of the project managers and I offered to go pick up some lunch. We were directed to this Philly Cheesesteak place near the office. As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed that there was also a sign in that shopping center for "Trashy Goods." Now.... we know what that must be, right?!

We were peering in the window, and I was commenting on how enormous the mannequins boobs were. I do not know what prompted me, but I headed around to the front of the store to get a picture. While I was trying to deal with shadows/reflections/lighting issues on the ROD picture, my co-worker pointed out the sign that was right next to her - LMAO!

PLEASE NOTE:
According to the guidelines set forth by the IABCWM (International Association of Big Chested Window Mannequins), the following royalty payments must be imposed:

Staring: no charge
Single picture: $5
Single picture with you in it: $10
Video recording: $20

Please pay in advance inside

I did not pay.... although I did mention the possibility of going inside and offering the (creepy old male) clerk $20 for a video session. It seems like it would be kinda a boring video....

B-I-N-G-O

2011-07-30T10:41:00.002-05:00

Even though I have not quite reached the AARP age, I spent my Friday night at the local Bingo hall. I was planning on it being a fun, boozy, prosperous event. I got 1 out of 3 on that....

Bad sign upon entry (will definitely bring a flask next time....)

First stop was ordering food. I ordered a burger and onion rings, and it took about 30 minutes for them to make it. You might be surprised by that, based on how speedy the li'l old lady counter looks ;)

I totally cracked up at their signage....

Drinks are NOT free, despite what you might expect!

Not only did they have a great menu, they had all kinds of hand-written signs. Fried Zucchini for $2, BLTs for $3, Fruit Bowl $3, etc....

While I was waiting (forever) for my food, I was taking in the view of the Bingo hall.... wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was rather nice (for a place that does not allow alcohol)

I was standing in the dining area, chatting with friends, and this couple behind me kept freaking me out....

Then, it was time to get our dobbers, cards, and settle down to business. Man, some of these hard-core Bingoers had like 100 dobbers + trolls, talismans, and assorted good luck charms.

Obviously, my favorite square...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! My friend won the big pot in the first session ($750). She was eagerly waiting to yell out BINGO when the final square was called... then 5 other people yelled out with her. She still walked away with $140 - jealous!

In the end, we determined that they didn't allow alcohol because it would be totally out of control with drunken idiots shouting BINGO inaccurately ;) My plan next time is to get tore up but manage my game through one of the laptops rather than paper/dobber..... I'm a planner like that!

Pamplona at Work

2011-07-29T14:29:00.000-05:00

My fourth day back at work post-trip, I was wandering around the floor above my current office space and came across this. I immediately emailed it to my brother:

"Thinking of you... Should I hop on? Hit him with newspaper?"

To provide some perspective on its location......

Bull Tattoos

2011-07-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

Despite David making a few waves about popping in, we did not commemorate our trip with bull tattoos

Oscar-Worthy Filmography

2011-07-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

It was ridiculously fun in the days following The Best Trip Ever to re-live, reminisce and LMAO with my brother about memories from Pamplona (some jogged only be the picture/video evidence!).

I got this email from my brother the morning after I got back home: "video MOV01514.MPG from Wednesday is Oscar-worthy, same with 1600 from Thursday."

I freaking fell out of my chair laughing at 1514. When you're expecting some great cinematography... well, give my short (<10 second) video a play....

I have termed it the "Ah Shit" video

For 1600, I was thinking it was the video where I thought I was taking pictures but the camera was on video. However it was created, it's some great footage.

I have termed it the "David enjoying the Overlook from an upright position" video

In Case You Missed It

2011-07-27T22:07:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that I back-dated the daily recaps of my Paris/Pamplona trip. In case you missed them (surely you did? I know they're lengthy, but I can't believe my Running of the Bulls post has ZERO comments L), here are links....

July 1st: Dallas to Paris flight, annoying talking seatmate
July 2nd: first full day in Paris, hanging with the brother, $40 martini
July 3rd: Champs-Élysées, dinner at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
July 4th: Ladurée, long afternoon at the cafe
July 5th: last full day in Paris, drive to Pamplona (2 posts)
July 6th: check-in/free breakfast, Sanfermines (2 posts)
July 7th: Running of the Bulls
July 8th: Run II aka "You Will Die" Day
July 9th: Leaving Pamplona
July 10th: Au Revoir, Paris

"My" French Blackberry

2011-07-27T21:30:00.000-05:00

I still have some "random" thoughts/stories to share from my trip (YES.... I continue to want to re-live it!)

First up is about the blackberry that my sweet SIL loaned me while she was in Texas, and I was at her place in Paris.

Um, how fantastic is it to visit a foreign country and be armed upon arrival with a blackberry that will bbm your brother and select few friends back home + have free international calling?! It's pretty fantastic.

The only challenge was that I had to do a little bit of learning. A few of the keys weren't in the right place. My brother assured me that I would pick it up quickly, but um, not so much. 99% of the time that I was typing a word with an "a" in it, I typed the "q" instead. Likewise with "w" and "z". On the upside, I had no problem readjusting to my US one when I got home ;)

When you have freakishly long toes

2011-07-27T20:01:00.002-05:00

...sometimes the wall leaps out and attacks them... this thing hurts BAD. It looks much better today than it did yesterday (happened Monday night). Do you like how I snapped the pic with my foot on the AC controls in my car on my way home from work?

(more on the history of my freakishly long toes....)

It's not often......

2011-07-16T00:33:00.000-05:00

...that I get to see a sippy cup on the bar. Had to snap a pic!

Today's 22

2011-07-15T15:28:00.002-05:00

Lunch with friends while divorce petition was being filed. Bittersweet.... on the one hand, being out of limbo relieves some stress. On the other, I absolutely f'ing hate that this is happening.

1,000 Word Summary of HCBC Dallas Meeting

2011-07-14T09:14:00.002-05:00

1 hour (I took full advantage of the Applicant-Only parking spot)
Starbucks
Souvenir
Love

PS: this is not my car's most photogenic side :(

PamPariXI

2011-07-11T15:14:00.001-05:00

Just a FYI... I'm going to post daily recaps of my PamPariXI journey and back-dating them to the day they occurred on. This will cause a few to go out of order, intermixed with the mobile uploads I did while in Paris. Best way to keep track is to either (1) see the new ones as they come in through Google Reader (or similar site) or (2) use this link: PamPariXI

Au Revoir, Paris

2011-07-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

Often times during the trip David and I remarked to each other how perfect everything was. Not getting lost on the drive to Pamplona when our exits were closed, being able to snag breakfast and check-in early on our first day, the fact that we made it to the arena together on our first run, finding the 22 meeting spot (and always finding each other there), achieving every goal we’d had for our time in Pamplona, finding the perfect souvenirs that we’d been hunting for, how much FUN we had, and finding the parking spot right out front of his apartment when we returned.

That lucky streak ended on our way to the airport, unfortunately. We needed to fill the rent car up and return it, then drop me off for my flight. We ran into a HUGE traffic jam getting into the airport and got completely lost trying to find a gas station. After searching for about 20 minutes, we just had to abandon that thought and drop me off first. It meant that my goodbye was very rushed, and I had to navigate the insanity of Charles de Gaulle airport by myself.

I can’t think of a time in my life where I have been away from home for basically 2.5 weeks where I was not ready to come back. I was SO not ready to leave Paris – it was definitely the most fun trip I have ever taken, and I did not want to see it end.

I gave my brother a huge hug, grabbed my 5 bags (all of which I packed myself), and trekked inside to figure out check-in, baggage claim, gates, etc., all the while considering how to put up all barriers to potential seatmate talkers.

Once aboard, I took out my book, put in my headphones (though I had nothing playing in them), ordered my pre-flight champagne, got out of my boots, and settled in.

I need not worry about chatty neighbors. The lady sitting next to me quickly armed herself. I don’t know if she was protecting herself from me or protecting me from whatever germs she had. Either way, no talking J I got in several movies: The Lincoln Lawyer, No Strings Attached, and part of Life As We Know It.

After a very exhausting day, I laid my head down on my pillow around midnight Central time (aka 7am Paris time). zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Leaving Pamplona

2011-07-09T19:09:00.007-05:00

Saturday morning we slept in a little later than usual and took the 6:30am shuttle rather than the 6:05. Ah…. 25 more minutes of sleep.

The plan for Saturday was for David to complete his third run and for me to watch the festivities from the arena. This plan was basically the culmination of both of us getting to do exactly what we wanted to do in Pamplona – David wanted 3 runs, and I wanted 2 + a watching.

It SUCKED to split up, though. He told me that waiting for the run to start by himself was not nearly as much fun as having me there (aw J), and I was actually kinda nervous to wing this one on my own. As I said, in the pre-dawn hours the city is buzzing with sangria-soaked-drunkards, and the arena was CROWDED. Plus, I am always nervous in environments where English is not the primary language. Yeah, I know, what an American I am!

I ended up finding out that you actually had to buy a ticket to get into the arena, and I quickly found one for €10. No point in haggling, since face value was like €6. I headed into the arena, found a great seat at the top of the lower level, texted my brother my location, and sat nervously waiting for the run to start and to see my brother’s face.

He had a couple of strategies for the run. Option 1 was to start at the very beginning and try to grab some video of the bulls running after him. This option definitely had me biting my nails as I waited for the bulls to enter the arena!

Time in the arena was fun. People were doing the Wave, there was some festive singing, a guy dressed up as a banana, and interviews with the bulls while they hung out in their pen stretching and stuff. LOL… ok, I jest, but they did show video and give descriptions of all the bulls while they hung out pre-run.

It was a neat experience to be in the arena during the run. They televise the run on the jumbotron, so you don’t miss watching it.

Plus, I found out that a whole bunch of people run out and into the arena before the run even starts. When they enter, they get pelted with soda, sangria, paper… anything that can be hurled into the arena. There is another group that obviously just runs the last leg of it after the rocket goes off (to signal the bulls being released). They probably enter the arena a good 2 minutes before the bulls, so very little danger.

Then it was time to watch the bulls play. After the trauma of the bullfight the night before, I enjoyed getting to watch the bulls play around with the runners. Being a dog person, I took note that they tended to wag their tails, which I take to be the universal animal sign of enjoyment ;)
(My brother is in this picture.... right behind the guy grabbing his balls)

David got some great video of life on the arena floor. Pretty chaotic, huh?

I love this pic of the steer leading the bull back to the pen because it always amazes me to see the size difference. The bull weighs about 1200 pounds…. Holy big ass steer!

Then... there was the naked guy. Not much good about that....

We met up at 22 to grab the acceptable bus, dodged people sleeping in the street, head back to the hotel for free breakfast, pack up, and exit Pamplona. Sad times! When we got down to the lobby to checkout, I was amazed to see if was full of people waiting. I guess they had just arrived and were waiting until the 3pm check-in time? Did they not know you could grab breakfast and check-in at 7am? ;)

We managed to navigate our way out of Pamplona fairly smoothly, avoided the DWI checkpoint, paid ridiculous tolls, had a XXL lunch on the road,

stayed awake on the drive by looking for stupid road signs, safely navigated driving through downtown Paris, found a parking spot right outside David’s apartment, lugged our (stinky) bags upstairs, and popped a bottle of champagne.

David ran down to the bakery to grab a baguette and some dessert and made me a delicious spaghetti bolognese for dinner while I started packing up my stuff.

*sob*

Pamplona to Paris

2011-07-09T10:29:00.000-05:00

We packed up and left Pamplona this morning (post-run). It is only a 10 hour drive back... woohoo. Not that we're tired or anything, although the stupid/silly road signs never get old. Got myself a picnic lunch at the gas station - chicken kebab sandwich, stale pringles, oreos and a lemonade in a giant ziploc bag. I fly back home tomorrow and plan on drafting daily recaps on the flight - provided I dodge my assuredly chatty seatmate (ffd).
---- Envoyé avec BlackBerry® d'Orange ----

Run II aka "You Will Die" Day

2011-07-08T19:08:00.000-05:00

Friday started the same as Thursday – 5:30am wake-up, free express breakfast, shuttle to downtown, trash and stink upon arrival. The big difference was that we knew exactly where we were going to head and position ourselves for the run.

We were in position by probably 6:40am and had over an hour to kill. We were just people-watching and chatting when 2 bizarre events occurred.

The guy behind me decided he had an urgent need to go #2. And by “urgent” I mean that he decided it would be better to just drop his drawers and do it there. Yes, “there” meaning on the sidewalk behind me. Apparently he then stood next to it proudly for a bit. There was a LOT of people talking about it, and I did not feel the need to turn around and observe it. From the descriptions I heard, he must have had some bad chili that just ran right through him. We eventually migrated away from the smell.

Just before the poo incident, we were visited by a prophetess. It was obvious that English was not her first language (I’d guess that to be Spanish). She says to me, “You running?” as she put her finger horns to her head. I nod/reply in the affirmative. She follows up with, “Bulls target women. You will die,” and wanders off. For a variety of reasons, Friday was the day I was targeting to die, if it was going to happen in Pamplona, so it was very odd to have this dropped on me. As soon as she left, my brother and I were discussing how bummed we were not to have gotten it all on video.

The actual run was not as successful as Thursday's had been. The run in general was more chaotic, with the bulls separating more than they had on Thursday. This led to a variety of gates being opened and closed along the route. David and I got separated, and neither of us made it into the arena. We found each other at 22 and caught the acceptable bus back to the hotel for more free breakfast. Sent this pic back home as proof that we had survived Run II.

This is a full video of the day 2 run, culminating in an idiotic Australian getting gored in the arena. He's fine now... I highly suggest watching it to get an idea of what the full run is like.

We headed back downtown a few hours later (fast as bulls down Estafeta) and had a pretty structured agenda: order pictures from our runs from the Kodak shop, procure souvenirs, find tickets to the night’s bull fight… then… enjoy the afternoon.

When we arrived, we were confronted with a parade of big-headed people. One was wandering around, bopping people (mainly kids) on the head with a spongey stick.

After successfully accomplishing all tasks on our agenda, we hit the bars. David decided that we should go for some “good” wine vs. €2 sangria for our last full day there. I watched this guy making eggs while David hunted down a bottle.

We stopped along Estafeta to enjoy some of the locals singing outside of a bar.

We had been disappointed Thursday not to stumble upon The Meat Bar again, and we were so pumped (as evidenced in this video) to find it again on Friday.

While in The Meat Bar, a guy came in selling tiaras. I had to at least get a pic with one before he snatched it off my head ;)

We never had any issue finding QWERTY but were always excited to see it!

We were happy to see that they were IDing people to make sure they were over 18.

Random guys standing in trash cans..... why not....

After a full day of bar exploring, we headed over to the arena for the bull fight. We met some girls from Houston that were sitting next to us, and a guy from Australia sitting in front of us (pictured… in fact, I think I owe him this picture).
He pushed some Green Apple Vodka on us, which we mixed into our wine/sangria mixture. I’m not a huge fan of how that turned out, surprisingly.

The bull fight was awful. So awful, in fact, that my brother actually said, “this makes me reconsider running tomorrow.” We booed a lot and appeared to have been the only ones not happy. Everyone else apparently had no problem accepting this as a sport. Now, I’m a Texas girl. I am not bff with PETA or anything, and it wasn’t really the “animal cruelty” that I had a problem with. It was the lack of sport to the whole thing. Basically, they let the bull out and there are 5 fake matadors in the ring. I call them “fake” because they don’t have swords and their mission appears to be just to get the bull to run around chasing their fruity pink capes. If the bull gets too close to them, they run behind these stop sign posts around the arena. Pussies.
Next, they bring out 2 horses that have a soft shield over them. Naturally, the bull ends up coming at the horse with his horns and roughing the horse up. When this happens, the rider sticks his spear into the bull. So the bull is already tired and bleeding, and the matador is still in the back getting his manicure, sipping his martini, or something. After the horses come three more guys who have some kind of streamer attached to something that will eventually stick into the bull’s hide. When this round is complete the bull is tired, bleeding, and has 6 streamers sticking out of his back. He has already faced 10 different people. Then, the matador comes out. WTF. During one round, the matador got the sword in the bull, but it didn’t seem to bother the bull. GREAT, we’re thinking… bull wins! Nope…. The matador’s assistant brings him a new sword. I did not notice any of the bulls having assistants. Lesson learned – no more bull fights. The only good to come out of the fight was our commentary on the video J I'll work on editing that for a later post.

Post-bull fight we caught the acceptably discounted bus (where we faced some b.o. issues from the passengers behind us) back to McDonald’s and had our final El Macs of the trip. We dominated the service staff there this time by ordering on the kiosk and then helping them discover where our order had gone (since it still wouldn’t process our credit card on the kiosk).

Hardest part of the day: convincing David to part with the sticky plastic bag he'd been lugging our sangria in for the past 3 days. He'd become rather attached to it.

One candidate for funniest moment of the day: We ended up back at that church with the funky clocks where David had climbed the fence. David developed this ability to read braille while we were on this trip, and I had to get it on camera. This wins my funniest video of the trip contest, though I'll post a few more for consideration/voting in my final post (something to look forward to!

Alarm set for 5:45am for Run III

RUNNING OF THE BULLS

2011-07-07T19:07:00.000-05:00

The alarm going off at 5am was not very friendly. In fact, it got snoozed until like 5:30am. Luckily, the Pamplona uniforms had dried from the bathtub washing, so we got to put those back on. Nice. Headed down to free breakfast and then to catch the 6:05 shuttle.

When we arrived downtown…..um….. ugh. Trash everywhere. Apparently, the “normal” routine is to party all night, do the bull run, and sleep during the day in the park. So there was tons of just all night party trash (and stink) going on. The bars were still open, though!

We quickly ducked under the gates and into the area blocked off for the run. I was jealously looking at the people perched on the balconies, sipping mimosas. It really was just an overall surreal experience, prepping for that first run. There were TONS of people, chatting, mostly still drunk, sangria-soaked, sporadically breaking into clapping or singing. There was a lot of nervous energy going on… or maybe that was just me ;)

We moved around a couple of times, as the cops eventually blocked the runners into a consolidated area.

My initial plan was to be near a fence, so that I could run a bit but have a place to duck in if the bulls got “too close.” What we discovered is that the cops are maybe more hard core than the bulls! They were not about to let you get near the fences without a bull’s horn in your side.

We tried a couple of different spots, starting just up from Dead Man’s Corner (so named because the bulls round a 90⁰ corner and if you are standing on the outside edge of it, you’re a dead man….). Once the pandemonium started, we hugged the inside corner and then trotted off for our run. You can see in this video how crowded and chaotic things were in our corner (we're on the wall in the bottom left corner.... if you look closely from about 0:59 to 1:05 you can see us in the bottom center/right - my brother in shades, my blonde hair in a ponytail)

Just to set some expectations, this is a FAST run. The bulls easily outrun people, and certainly when the people are panicking + running on cobblestone. The run is about 850m and was run in 2 min 30 seconds. The current women’s 800m world record is 1 min 53 seconds, and that is not on a jagged, cobblestoned course.

Thursdays run couldn’t have been more amazing. David and I stayed up with each other – they definitely tell you NOT to plan to run with a friend. We didn’t do anything crazy to stay up with each other, but it was so reassuring to have him there basically guiding me along. We ran all the way into the arena – David’s #1 goal going in to the run. This picture came from a US newspaper at the start of the run (the press line was setup directly across from us) - we're circled in yellow :)

The basic overview of the bull’s itinerary on his run day is that he starts out in the pen, runs the 850m to the arena and into the pen there. Then, they cap the bull’s horns with styrofoam and leather and release the bulls one by one to play around with the runners (for about 10 minutes each). At night, the bullfight commences in the arena. Thus ends the bull's itinerary.

The time in the arena was so much fun. In hindsight, it was so much more fun to watch than the actual bullfight, but that will be a story for another day. Eventually I got tired of the adrenaline rush that occurred every time the bull ran to our side of the arena, and I hopped over the 8 foot wall (safely helped to the other side by my hero of the moment, pictured here)

I love these pictures because you can see the complete joy and jubilation at having dominated our first run – and our joy at just surviving!

We went back to the hotel to load up on more free breakfast. We met some really nice people who had (smartly) had a balcony view of the run. They offered to share their pictures with us, which have been AWESOME because obviously we weren’t really taking pictures while running for our lives! The videos featured in this post came from them, as well. (side note: I had proposed often that we watch the first day instead of participate. Partly to develop a better run strategy and partly because the bulls running on Thursday had the highest injury/gore rating of the 3 days)

After some rest and relaxation, we were ready to hit the streets (and bars) of Pamplona again. It was definitely a less crazy vibe going on… more street festival than crazy block party (imo). There were a number of kids being carted around in strollers, which we kind of found to be crazy.

We jumped right back into our sangria/milling around mode and rediscovered some –but not all– of the spots we’d enjoyed the day before.

We revisited the church with the crazy clock, but the fence was open so there was no need to climb it.

We found a different scenic overlook, but there was no lying down for this one. I did discover a super-clean bathroom, which was awesome. Don’t be fooled by the string coming out of the lid that was required to flush it – it was great!

Especially compared with the public bathroom I used later in the day. I knew it was going to be bad when someone handed me 3 squares of toilet paper upon entry.

We hung around and tried to negotiate on tickets to the bullfight but didn’t get anyone to bite on my US dollars. David did manage to get a pic of me trying to talk the Policia into taking a picture with me, and I got this pic of Miss O-something preparing for the fight.

Eventually we called it a day on downtown Pamplona and headed back to the acceptable bus.

We closed the day out with a slightly cheaper visit to McDonald’s, clothes cleaning in the tub, and some rest. I like to think that we drank less on Thursday than on Wednesday, but these pictures don't really support that line of thinking....

Alarm set for 5:20am for Run II

Sanfermines - a great reason to drink

2011-07-06T19:06:00.006-05:00

Have I mentioned that I took this trip with basically no expectations? For the most part, the beauty of the lead-up was how little effort I had needed to put in. Dad booked my flight. David handled hotel/rental car. Like the day before I left the US, I asked David how many days I’d need to pack for in Pamplona (so I knew how much white clothing to buy for my uniform). Our original plan was to get in Wednesday afternoon and do the Thurs/Fri/Sat bull runs. David apparently uncovered the fact that the festival that the bull runs are for (Sanfermines) starts on Wednesday - we definitely have to do that!

We headed down to the lobby to find the bus to take us downtown. We were in “normal” clothes – me in my HCBC shirt. We realized quickly that most people were in their white pants, white shirts, red scarf around the waist, red scarf around the neck. Ok, headed back up to do a costume change…. Do I look tired at all? ;)

Post-costume change, we headed to the bus stop outside our hotel (at the McDonald’s up the street, specifically….. side note: after realizing there was a McD’s right there, we kind of re-evaluated our desperation over free hotel breakfast before we’d checked in).

Anyhoo, we hopped the #11 bus to the town square. We found it to be acceptable, just as the Wikipedia page for the city of Pamplona had described.

We grabbed beers and really arrived just in time to follow the sea of uniformed celebrators to the town square. Soon after our arrival, it all kicked off quickly, champagne and sangria being thrown around the crowd. I did a great job of avoiding the spray, keeping my white outfit WHITE.

Post-festival start, David popped in a bar to find some sangria. That was definitely the plan for my drink of choice for the Pamplona trip. The beers had been like €8 each, so when David discovered the sangria was €4.50, he doubled us up. Luckily, I still had my giant beer cup to consolidate into ;)

We started wandering around – holy huge ass street party. It was incredible. Someone squirted David with sangria from their wine skin, and then like 3 more people tripled up on him. Some ended up on his white shirt – oh, my!

We stumbled into this bar that had huge meat flanks hanging from the ceiling. I saw some giant coca-cola cups and determined that we needed these because I felt we’d have a bigger buffer to avoid spilling sangria on ourselves (hindsight = lol).

At some point David discovered that you could buy the ghetto Sangria jug in the convenience stores for €3.50 (and then eventually for €2). The coca-cola cups were coming in really handy ;) A number of sangrias into the day, I was really enamored with finding 22 addresses on all the streets. We walked up the main street trying to find the 22 building. Despite it not having an address, we labeled it 22. We also labeled it our meet-up spot.

THANK GOD we did that because less than 2 hours later, David vanished on me. It started out innocently enough – he had to pee, and I led him back to the first bar he’d bought the double sangrias in. However, he walked into a different one instead. After waiting for like at least 20 minutes, I decided that I had to freaking pee, too, and I was tired of waiting on him. I went over to where I thought he’d gone and got in line for the bathroom. No David. Bad sign. I had a random conversation with a Spaniard, peed, and headed to 22. Waiting…. David showed up just a few minutes later and promptly laid down. He’d apparently wandered up and down side streets, soaking up the bar scene, and then sprinted off to find me at 22. Whew….. that could have ended badly in a number of ways.

At this point, it became great fun to do posed tourist photos

We then trekked off to discover these sidestreet bars that he’d been popping in on. He actually made it our mission to go into every single bar. There were a lot of them. Like probably at least 5-10 per street times infinite number of streets. It was great fun. We also discovered that it’s quite tasty when you mix free beer with sangria. Likewise, wine and coca-cola.

At some point during the day, David decided to make it his personal mission to make my shirt not white. 98% of the sangria on my shirt came from David tossing his Sangria on me. Fun times… ;)

A great idea seemed to be to trace the route of the bull run, which David had already very thoroughly researched. We made it up to where the bulls are in the pen before the run. David was hopping up to get a picture, and I was strategizing on the posing of my own picture when these 2 guys jumped all over the chance at getting us a picture together. They apparently noticed my hesitation (which was either because I was moving slowly due to intoxication or the fact that they were saying “novio”) and offered me their camera as collateral for me to give them mine. In hindsight, maybe they wanted me to get a picture of them together….

We rounded a corner and came across a huge church that had 2 clocks. One clock was “normal” and the other was pretty weird (imo, or maybe I was drunk). I was rambling on and on about the weirdness of clock 2 when David went sprinting off to the fence. He had apparently decided he should climb the fence. He was doing a decent job (though I’m not totally sure of his end plan here) when someone gave him a boost. That didn’t really work out as either of them had planned, and eventually the fence climbing plan was abandoned.

Continuing in our wandering, we came across a cool scenic overlook. As I was taking note (and pictures) of the gorgeous Olympic sized pools + ferris wheel and other carnival rides, David decided he was tired. Like….really tired… but not so really tired that he would let go of his Sangria bag….

Around this time I decided, um, maybe we should eat something. I had noted a restaurant that served a bunch of different types of paella while I’d been waiting for David to go to the bathroom. I led us back over there, migrated us through three different tables, and eventually ordered some paella. There were SO many different options and either the pictures weren’t very descriptive or my Spanish-under-the-influence isn’t as good as I needed it to be, but the options were overwhelming.

I ended up just asking the waiter what his favorite kind was and ordering that + WATER. Yes, we needed water. He brought over this microscopic bottle of water and a glass. David appeared to be more in need of water than I was, so I poured the majority into the glass and passed it to him. He had apparently tired out while changing tables so many times and waiting on me to order.

When he sat up, he had a sip of his water and then threw it on me. Um, apparently this has turned out to be a habit ;) We polished off our paella and headed for the bus stop back to the hotel. Time to call it a day.

Except, the bus drops us off at McDonald’s. The paella wasn’t that filling. We spent €31.50 at McDonald’s. I will have to vote this to be the worst service McD’s I’ve ever visited. We ordered on the kiosks, but it wouldn’t accept our credit card. We then had to stand in line. They tried to take our order, but apparently things have different names for their sandwiches in Spanish ;) Eventually they found our order from the kiosk and re-rang it. It really took forever to do this. We devoured dinner and headed back to the hotel.

I ran into a guy in the lobby who had some nice commentary on my sangria-soaked outfit. He mentioned, “it does not come out,” which I guess I took to be a personal challenge. Each day pretty much ended like this – soaking our white clothes in the tub. The first time, the sangria turned from pinkish-purple to lavender to like sky blue to a very light brownish. Quite the experiment.

Considering that more than 30% of my Pamplona pictures came from Day 1 and considering the ridiculous amount of fun and culture we experienced that day, it seems impossible to believe that it wasn’t included in our plan from the start. I am SO glad that we roughed driving all night, negotiating a 7am check-in time to grab that nap, and making it to the festival.

Bed time: 10pm. Alarm set for: 5am. Bus leaves: 6:05am. Bull run start time: 8am.

Memorable quotes of the day:
You had breakfast before you checked in?
Um, your cup is kind of sticky

Holiday Inn Breakfast / Check-In

2011-07-06T07:06:00.001-05:00

We parked, wandered in. I looked around the desk area, but did not see a clerk. David scoped out the elevator and found a restaurant level. I feel like we journeyed down to the restaurant (floor -1) first, and then David decided we should do some research to give a room number if asked. We, of course, went to floor 2 to validate there was a 222 and then headed back down to -1. There was NO ONE in the “restaurant” but there was a full setup with cereal, chocolate croissants, croissants, meat and cheese trays, yogurt, breads, some frittata-looking thing, etc. We were super-tentative about our selections, mainly loading up on cereal and croissants, things that wouldn't really show disruption. We ate quickly and hurried out. Such ninjas.

When we got back up to Level 0, there was a guy at the desk. This was the conversation recap…..

Clerk: are you checking in?
Sara & David: *awkward pause* *eye darting back & forth*
David: We have a reservation for today…
Sara: …and decided to drive all night, so we’ve kind of arrived early
Clerk: and you had breakfast before checking in??????!!!!!!!!!
Sara & David: *awkward pause* *eye darting back & forth, back & forth, back & forth*
David (or Sara? Such a stressful moment): y e sssssssssss
Clerk: *huge strange eyebrow raise*
David: is it possible to check-in now?
Clerk: so you had breakfast before checking in…… hmmmmm….. Do you have your passport?
David: it’s in the car. I’ll be right back.
Sara (as David is leaving): I am so sorry. I was really hungry and get really cranky when I’m hungry. Poor guy has had to deal with my tired crankiness for like the last 4 hours. I am so sorry…. Just tired and hungry.
David: *back with passport*
Clerk: so you had breakfast before checking in…… hmmmmm….. I’ll have to charge you for that
Sara & David: um, ok
Clerk: well, never mind, yeah I can check you in now

So…. We caught a 3 hour nap, which was a-freaking-mazing. I think like 10 times during the trip I referred to the clerk as my best friend. Breakfast, early check-in, bed, 3 hour nap… man, life is good at the Pamplona Holiday Inn.

The 10 Hour Drive (Paris to Pamplona)

2011-07-05T19:05:00.001-05:00

Subtitle: Texas Chainsaw Massacre

We had some concern on gas stops between Paris and Pamplona. Mainly whether or not there were a good set of 24x7 stations along the route. We need not worry – there were stops about every 30km and all appeared to be (1) nice and (2) 24x7. The only concern then was…. Um…. Does our car take diesel or unleaded? The owner’s manual was in French (wtf?) and kind of discussed both options, with a lot of foreign words around them. We ended up calling Hertz to ask, and after 10 minutes and them still not being able to figure it out, they got disconnected. Luckily, when we finally pulled over the first time, it was clearly stated on the gas cap.

Whew….. disaster averted. We also managed to discover a freaking Texas Chainsaw Massacre stop around 4am. All the lights were out, but there were like 100 people hanging around. We exited but decided to keep on driving….freaky

The drive was actually pretty fun, despite there being tollbooths that were $50 charges (wtf?). Surprisingly, I didn’t really hit that *yawn* *yawn* *I really want to just fall asleep* point. Rather, we were energized and chatty and then moved straight into the funny delirium stage. Love that stage. Much of it was related to the highway signage. David swears to have seen a sign that had a whale with a musical note over it next to a drunken cowboy. I missed it. Once in Spain, we got the...

...Crappy Parking signs...

...the “What do I do about my lights now?” signs...

....and the OMG I'M ABOUT TO GET HIT BY A TRUCK signs…..

We did a pretty good job with our Google maps, despite 2 of our exits being closed and us having to wing detours (1 with signs, 1 without). Navigating around Pamplona to our hotel was super-hard…. Not sure if it was all the roundabouts, the directions, or the fact that it was 6am and we’d been up all night.

We made it to the Holiday Inn around 6:30am. We had talked at length about our approach to this because our reservation was for that day (aka normal check-in at like 3pm). The one nuance was that they had free breakfast. I felt very strongly that we should check out the breakfast first because once we showed our hand at trying to check-in/not being actual guests, our opportunity for breakfast vanished.

I wonder what we did……… ;)

Last "Full" Day in Paris

2011-07-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

We’d had a tentative plan to meet for lunch, but David called around 11:30 to say they were going to do a team lunch. I asked him for some options, went back to sleep until 1pm, and then headed off in search of a bakery near their apartment where I could get a tasty, cost-effective sandwich (Les Gourmandises d'Eiffel). After wandering around A LOT, I realized it was this place that was definitely being completely stripped down.

I decided on more pizza -from Le Den, the first place we’d tried the night before that was totally full. It was right by the closed bakery and had outdoor tables open. I enjoyed another margherita pizza, glass of wine, read more Hemingway, and people-watched. Afterwards, I headed off to the gelato stand I’d spied while wandering around and had an awesome caramel and café double-scoop cone. Ah….. vacation.

I headed back to the apartment to sip wine, pack for Pamplona, and wait for David’s call that he was ready to pick up the rent car. We had a tentative plan that if he got out of work on the early side, I’d meet him with our luggage, we’d pick up the car, and head to Pamplona. It’s just a 10 hour drive…

He called around 6:45pm to say he was done, so I headed off (in my HCBC shirt) with the luggage. Got just a teensy bit lost, but met up with him near the subway station. We managed to find some dinner at the airport (even though most of the eating options were closing), and got the rent car. We declined the insurance, which was a scary move ;)

We officially hit the road for Pamplona around 9:15pm. Target arrival time: 7am. Festival start time: noon. Sleep plan: TBD

HCBC Shirt Goes to Paris

2011-07-05T12:17:00.000-05:00

Quick/crappy picture because I was jetting the shirt (and myself) to Spain!
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Ladurée

2011-07-04T19:04:00.003-05:00

David headed to work and left me with (1) the keys to the apartment and (2) directions back to the Champs. I vowed to try Ladurée for lunch after seeing it the day before, having had their macarons, and checking out their lunch menu.

I (again) slept until 1, had a lazy wake-up, glass of rosé, and made it to Ladurée around 2:30pm (after passing The White Tourist). It was a wonderful experience. I ordered the Club Ladurée sandwich, which came with pomme frites and a salad + a glass (or two) of rosé.

In preparation for Pamplona, I started reading The Sun Also Rises (again.... 10th grade English does not count at this point in my memory's life).

I finished lunch off with a Rose, Strawberry, and Raspberry sundae. Rose is a terrible ice cream flavor, FYI. It tastes (to me) like a sachet would taste. But, the sundae was good overall. 2 hour lunch outside, sipping wine, eating good food, reading. Totally a wonderful afternoon.

As I walked back to their apartment, I passed a Givenchy boutique. I noted how terrible the outfit in window #1 looked (imo… looked like an Elvis jumpsuit) and then noticed that window #2 had Cate Blanchett’s Oscar dress in it – which I’d also deemed to be terrible… but pretty freaking cool to be staring at it on a street in Paris!

David made it home in time for dinner (I mean, I’d eaten lunch from 2:30-4:30pm, so making it home before I was ready for dinner wasn’t too difficult to accomplish ;). He gave me some options, and I was definitely in the mood for pizza. We wandered around a few options that ended up being full, and settled on Alfio. I ordered the margherita, and it was yum. I feel like I didn’t have dessert that night….. hmmmm…. That surprises me!

We headed back to the apartment (their address is a 22!), had some more wine, and watched Running of the Bulls’ goring videos on You Tube…. strategizing on how not to end up starring in one ourselves ;)

I seriously don’t remember much of Monday night…. I feel like it must have been a relatively early one, since David would have to work the next morning. Plus, we were still mulling over driving all night the next night to get to Pamplona for the start of the Festival of San Fermin.

PS: Happy Fourth of July!

Purses in Paris

2011-07-04T08:51:00.000-05:00

Um... Purse/tourist foul!!!
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L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (Champs-Élysées)

2011-07-03T19:03:00.001-05:00

Um, I might have slept until 1pm. It was wonderful. I definitely needed it. David claims to have not gotten up too much prior, which I hope was true. We sat around the apartment chatting/catching-up/planning for awhile and finally headed out to start the day around 3pm. I feel like more wine was consumed.... I love Paris J

We had 6:30pm dinner reservations at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (um, WAY more coming about that soon), so we were all fancied up as we walked towards the Champs-Élysées to do some sightseeing and shopping before the reservation.

Along the way, I spotted a 22 address - the headquarters for Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, of course.

When we got to the Champs-Élysées, there was a HUGE parade going on. We never really figured out what it was for, but it definitely slowed down our shopping. (UPDATE! After 10 days of searching, I have identified it as Carnaval Tropical de Paris... are you kidding me? Now I found out that you can run to be the Queen of the Carnaval?!) But.... seriously, no better way to experience the full effect of the Champs-Élysées than when a parade is going on!

Funniest thing along the Champs was the Abercrombie store. There was literally a roped off line to get in. Apparently it is because of the high quality of the male models that frolic around inside. Check out the front gates/walkway into the store.... Have you seen an Abercrombie storefront like this before? And with a velvet rope?

After hitting both sides of the street, we treked back up it to the restaurant. Obviously I dedicated a whole Facebook album to it, and I'm going to give it more space here. Joël Robuchon is this amazing chef. I will encourage you to click the link on his name and check out his Wikipedia info. My notable (imo) is that he has the most Michelin stars of any chef in the world. Impressive? yes. This was kind of a make-up present to the anniversary present David and Christine had given Chris and I back in March - a dinner reservation to an amazing restaurant in Ireland. Ireland trip got canceled, so David deemed this the make-up. I love it! He was going for the tasting menu, and I followed suit. We got different entrees, so I think we got the absolute full effect.

Course -1: champagne. how French :)

Course 0: amuse bouche. David put me in charge of "how" to eat it. It was a gazpacho something with a bit of foam on top. I'm a huge fan of shooting these because I feel like that's the best way to get the full flavor combination. When they cleared the glasses, they also cleared the tiny spoons. Oops. We then vowed to utilize all utensils put in front of us each course ;) Though I maintain shooting it is the right approach!

Course 1: caviar soup. cream based (corn maybe?) with some kind of jelly concoction. The caviar was awesome. Very intriguing kickoff.

Course 2: crab salad with crumbled cheeses, hericot verts, and a Ruffles potato chip.... well, something like a Ruffles

Course 3: chanterelles. it even had sliced, toasted chanterelles for garnish

Course 4: foie gras with apricot. Best foie gras ever. I mandate all foie gras to be served with apricots - so yum!

Course 5: sea bass in a pea sauce

Course 6 (Sara): baby lamb chops

Course 6 (David): quail stuffed with foie gras

Course 6 side (both): mashed taters.... O M G

Course 7: mango sorbet on top of mango mousse on top of a baked mango on top of a mango cake. Don't touch the mango! I love their sign.

Course 8: strawberry shelled shortcake with a strawberry filling ON CHOCOLATE with these crazy baby strawberries around it..... then they threw in this hot, delicious madeleine that was fresh outta the oven (still in the tray when offered to us)

Course 9: coffee
(not pictured - it was espresso. I feel like you've seen this before)

After dinner and coffee, we headed back up the Champs. I stopped in a tea shop and fed LisaPie's addiction J

We then went over to the Buddha Bar. It was pretty chill with it being a Sunday night and all. We kicked back, had a drink, and took in the scenery. I was getting sleepy.

On the way home, we stopped off at the bridge to see the 11pm Eiffel Tower light show (this time with illumination lighting) - 2 for 2!

I Have Arrived - where's my wine?

2011-07-02T19:02:00.004-05:00

Landed in Paris at 11am on Saturday. Waited around for awhile for my 1 checked bag -waited pretty much to the point I was getting uncomfortable that it had been lost. Finally got it and headed OUT to see my brother waiting there for me. YAY!!!!! It has been way too long since I'd last had a David Hug. He ushered me off to the subway, and we headed to his house to drop the bags off.

Despite only getting probably 3 hours of sleep Thursday night and 1 hour of sleep on the flight, I was feeling pretty decent (or delirious? are those interchangeable?). I feel like I probably washed my face, put my contacts in, threw on a 5 minute fresh makeup job, downed a glass of rosé, and we headed off to find lunch. The weather was gorgeous, and we had a lovely Parisian lunch outside at Café du Marche with some wine and bread.
Ahhhhhhhh..... I'm in Paris. Chillin'. He showed me his office and Faith's school, and we wandered over to Les Deux Magots for some more wine and relaxation. On the way back, he took me by the store that reminds him of me - Save The Queen J

We had 8pm dinner reservations, and I definitely needed a rejuvenating shower before any more activity. Dinner was at this great pasta place (Il Sorrentino) by his house. I was debating pizza, but he was talking up some of the veal dishes.
Then the lady at the table next to us ordered this pasta that they make for you tableside. It looked AWESOME. David warned me that it was super-rich, so I talked him into ordering a veal dish and us splitting. Perfect. I also splurged on gelato. I'm on vacation!

In reality, that should probably have been the end of my night - it was like 9:30, I was stuffed, jet-lagged, on very little sleep, and we were like 4 doors down from his apartment. But, no. We continued the evening like champs! We walked down to the Four Seasons' bar for a drink - ONE drink because the drinks were.... um.... get ready..... like $40/drink.
I ordered a melon martini, and OMG, it was worth every freaking penny. I must have been very tired by this point (and certainly not at all tipsy) because I was very fascinated by this technology they had to keep the martini floating on ice. Eventually, after my examining it carefully several times, David pointed out that the ice and martini were in separate glasses J That is the difference between A&M degrees and Duke degrees!

We got back to his apartment at 1am - just in time to see the Eiffel Tower turn off the illumination lights and fire up the sparkling lights. It was like a pretty Christmas tree. Could there have been a more perfect ending to my first day in Paris? I think not.

Polly Want a Cracker?

2011-07-02T12:12:00.000-05:00

Post-arrival on Saturday, the brother and I wandered the streets of Paris, cafe to cafe for food and wine. Well, I was wandering, but I imagine he knew where we were going ;)

Last stop was Les Deux Magots, which according to wikipedia (and my brother) "had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual élite of the city." I mean, of course we should be hanging out there!

At the tail-end of our visit there (as you can see by the empty wine glass), a bird landed on our table and made himself right at home, munching on our complimentary crackers. Too weird...

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AA Flight 48: DFW to CDG

2011-07-01T19:01:00.004-05:00

I gotta be honest. The past 8 weeks of my life have been nearly more than I can handle. The emotional toll it has taken has just been off the charts. As my mom drove me to the airport, I was in near tears just saying how hard it was to leave the situation at home. It feels like I'm running away, but in truth I feel there is nothing more i can do at home and getting some space and distance are really the best solutions at this point.

Friday pre-flight consisted of scurrying to Sam Moon's to get scarves for our Pamplona uniforms. Scored 2 long scarves and 2 short scarves for under $10. Perfecto. Then it was off to Cheesecake Factory for a long, wonderful lunch with my mom, SIL, and my 2 Precious Parisian Nieces. I couldn't get over how much they'd grown! I gave Faith Toy Story Ken and Barbie for her birthday, and she was already planning their wedding over lunch. So sweet.

The flight.... sigh.... so we should side-note here, and i don't have tons to say about Friday, since I spent 10 hours on the plane and lost 7 hours in time zone changing. So what i will say about the flight is that it marked my 3rd occasion (out of 3 opportunities) to get totally bamboozled with a chatty neighbor.

(1) Flight to Phoenix the week prior. First time flying in awhile. I was head down in my book, in my middle seat (SIGH) when the lady to my left introduced herself and launched into some chat-starting question. She then engaged the guy to my right. The three of us talked the whole flight, and I feel pretty confident that the people around us were irritated. I actually did not mind it, though. She was a really fascinating lady, and they both had intriguing and fairly relevant life stories to what I've been going through.

(2) Flight home from Phoenix - I was so on-guard against the chatty neighbor. I was in a window seat (YAY) for this flight, and kept my nose in my book during boarding and take-off. The guy in the middle seat made a weak attempt to engage me in conversation, but I was able to brush it off. Once we were able to turn on electronic devices, I was working very hard on a spreadsheet for work. With about 45 minutes left in the flight, he volleys out the, "where do you work?" question. I reply, "I work for Dell." end of discussion. Not really. I have no idea how it happened, but he got me engaged in a conversation. In my defense, I only had one tiny item left to do in the spreadsheet, and I was kinda bored with it. Anyways, with him I ended up basically having to brush off several attempts of him feeling out if I'd be able to kick it with him on his 5 hour layover at DFW and if/when I'd be back to Phoenix (where he lives). Little awkward, but I safely ditched him post-flight.

(3) Flight to Paris. 10 hour flight to Paris. I sit next to a high school French teacher from California. She basically catches me during the boarding process. It was a nightmare. She talked my ear off for 2 hours straight and at one point actually said, "I feel like we've known each other forever." And truly, she treated me that way. I know a lot about her family's health - from her husband's memory loss issues going on to the UTI her daughter got on their last trip to Paris. Thankfully, I eventually shook her off and (a) watched Country Strong and (b) cat-napped a little bit. She re-engaged me for the last hour or so of the flight. Sigh...... I feel like I would have gotten some good Phoenix-related blogs written on that flight had this all not happened.

This pic shows both her hand and my pre-flight champagne.... Paris, here I come!

How To: Running of the Bulls

2011-06-28T16:27:00.001-05:00

I do have some questions for my brother.....

Have we researched which bulls are running on which days and determined which day we should plan to run (based on their injury rating)?
Have we mapped out how we are NOT going to be stationed in one of the more dangerous areas (again, based on injury rating)?
Um, #6.... if you fall, stay down. The bull is likely to just run by you or OVER you. If you stand up, he might decide to gore you instead..... that's not so much a question as a UMMMMMMMM......

I do find it interesting that they say you need Common Sense. Really?!

Happy Birthday, Princess!

2011-06-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

Today my baby girl turns 8! I seriously cannot believe we've had the dogs for over 7 years. It seems like just yesterday that they were tiny puppies. Sadly, I am spending today away from her as part of my extended summer travel plan.

I did send her an eCard (in care of my mom) this morning. She sent me a Thank You eCard reply with the following message:

having a wonderful birthday. Miss you too! But I'm being loved on and cared for so I'm ok. Love, Princess
Doogie is helping me celebrate. And I hear that Gigi brought me a special treat!

Spending your birthday with grandparents is way better (more rewarding) than spending it with your parents ;) And my mom is a saint because Princess has an ear infection and has to get ear drops twice/day. That's high-maintenance baby sitting!

Alley Excitement

2011-06-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

So this will be my most labor-intensive post in the past month. I'm still not back in blogging mode. To be honest, my life is just one big crazy emotional rollercoaster right now, but that's as much as I'm gonna say.

Got a call from Chris last week that included sirens as background noise. He tells me that he was pulling the trash can out for pick-up and ended up having to call 9-1-1. Our neighbor's truck went rolling out of his driveway and crashed into a gas meter. It promptly burst into flames.

To put the picture in perspective, it is taken from our driveway. The truck came from the house next door to the house next door to ours. It killed the fences of the neighbors catty-corner to us and their neighbor.

We have not had rain here in a month now, and the winds have been incredible. We are very lucky that the situation stayed fairly well contained.

I did talk to the neighbor who is catty-corner to us the other day. For anyone who has had to endure me bitching about my annoying neighbors, this is the all-star one. Their kids are always in our driveway, hitting our house with balls, wandering into our garage to retrieve hockey pucks. My latest complaint (and one I nearly reported to the HOA) was that their fence was falling apart. The kids would play with hockey sticks and baseballs in the backyard and had knocked out about 10 slats. Well.... now they're getting a new fence. In addition to the fire, the gas meter was next to an electrical box. It sent 13 surges through their house and fried all their electronics. Needless to say, their life is a little bit difficult right now :(

Happy 4th Birthday, Faith!

2011-06-17T10:59:00.002-05:00

So I don't think I'm very consistent on blogging people birthday wishes. I think the only person I have a perfect record for is Miss Faith. Even in my blogging hiatus, I won't let her down :)

I miss this kid! It's crazy looking at pictures of the Paris Martins on Facebook and thinking about how much they've grown/changed/matured, since I saw the crew in February. Can't wait to see everyone in 2 weeks!

Poll Follow-up

2011-06-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

Man.... so depressing that (1) I have not blogged in over a week and (2) that the Poll post was my last one. *sigh*

The reason I was asking about teeth brushing at work is because I have found that the people who do this in my area are so inconsiderate! They literally make the sink area look like the area around a pool after an overweight 10 year old does a cannonball - water EVERYWHERE. It baffles me... I swear I don't tidal wave my bathroom vanity when I brush my teeth, so I don't understand why this happens to people at work. Just pondering.

I was in the bathroom today, using some of the complimentary lotion, and noticed the toothbrush/toothpaste set sitting next to it. I assume this isn't like a community-use item.......

Poll

2011-06-06T14:20:00.000-05:00

Do you brush your teeth at work?

An Update

2011-06-06T14:15:00.000-05:00

I hate that I have been so MIA lately. As I was mentioning in my weekly Wine & Whine session with ABBA (and was so happy to be joined by Joanne) - I have just not had anything to say. I have been writing a lot in a journal, but QueenBisMe is not about being a drama spot, and that is all my life has been lately. But I do want to give a short update on "my situation"......

The King (I will eventually come up with a new name, but that's where we're at for now) signed an apartment lease on Saturday and will be moving out on June 20th.

Side note: Potential burglars beware! I have a very sensitive alarm system and 5 huge attack dogs! I know karate and have an AK47.

This is really hard. On the one hand, it's what I want right now. He's been living in our house for the past 4 weeks, and it has been such a ridiculously exhausting emotional rollercoaster. On the flip side, all I want is for him to snap to and say he's been completely ridiculous and why on earth would he ever not want to be with me.

So, that's kinda where we're at for now. Knowing that I'm going to be a mess that week, I just booked a flight to Phoenix that week. I'll be back in town for about 24 hours and then off to Paris/Spain. I'm so lucky that in that 24 hour period, I get to spend some time with my SIL and 2 precious nieces. Life is gonna get better - I keep telling myself that.

I Will Not Be Saving 10% on Car Insurance

2011-05-30T16:22:00.000-05:00

When we last left the story, the Gecko was attached to the side of my suitcase. I had -carefully- and -quickly- moved the suitcase off of my bed and set it -gently- on the floor. I checked back a few minutes later to still see it secured to the side of the suitcase, so I -softly- zipped the suitcase closed.

About 30 minutes later I checked back on the situation. Um........ this is what I found.

Yep, dead (on his back) Gecko. And, yes, he was still on his back -sleeping?- when I checked out the following morning.

Mildly Crappy Travel

2011-05-26T22:14:00.000-05:00

ABBA blogged about her truly terrible travel week a few days back. My travel experience this week hasn't been that bad, but I'd also prefer to not be traveling.

Issue 1: the barking dog. My neighbor apparently has brought their dog with them and then proceeded to abandon the pet for the duration of their trip. The dog barks CONSTANTLY while the owner is away. It really doesn't bother me that much.... I just feel really bad for the dog :(

Issue 2: Um, gecko! I was chatting with my friend Margo while packing tonight and realized right as I was tossing something into my suitcase that a gecko had made himself at home on the side of the suitcase. I carefully picked the suitcase up off the bed (where I did NOT want the gecko to wander off to) and set it on the floor. A few minutes later, while he was still securely perched on the side of the suitcase, I zipped it closed. Ugh. How will I sleep tonight without constantly feeling like it is crawling on me???

Brotherly Love

2011-05-23T12:37:00.001-05:00

When I was in one of the lowest points I've been at in my life, my sweet brother called me from Paris with a proposal. He is a consultant, and I told him I expected a PowerPoint presentation with any proposal he might have. He did not have one prepared but made a compelling case nonetheless: I should come see him and go to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. Heck yeah! So I'm currently excitedly planning a 7-day trip to Paris/Spain this summer - can't wait!

This comes just a month or so after I gave him a fantastic birthday present. I'll share it here, since my other blog has kind of fallen by the wayside :( His birthday (April 8th) also happens to be Draw a Picture of a Bird Day. This was my crack at drawing Tweety. Impressive, huh?

New Blog Title: Pictures of 22

2011-05-22T16:22:00.000-05:00

Admittedly I am not feeling so creatively inspired as to blog lately. But I do feel guilty for completely ignoring my blog :( Solution:? pictures of the 22s that appear in my life

Friday night my favorite little boy (uh, am I offending anyone here? hope not...) came over with his mama to survey my house before it goes on the market. He's the dancing boy I posted awhile back. Such a cutie pie. Anyhoo, I had to smile (through my tears) when I saw that he was wearing a 22 shirt.

Today at lunch we were order #122 at Panera. These have to be good signs, right????

Today Was a 22 Day

2011-05-17T23:12:00.000-05:00

Started off with badge #22

Ate lunch at a very chill bbq place off road 2222

Noted the 22 highway exit

How To: Make a Breakup CD

2011-05-17T22:02:00.000-05:00

My recipe:

Survivor - Destiny's Child (Lyrics | Video)
Irreplaceable - Beyonce (Lyrics | Video)
Fighter - Christina Aguilera (Lyrics | Video)
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson (Lyrics | Video)
Behind These Hazel Eyes - Kelly Clarkson (Lyrics | Video)
So What - Pink (Lyrics | Video)
Who Knew - Pink (Lyrics | Video)
There You Go - Pink (Lyrics | Video)
F* It - Eamon (Lyrics | Video)
My Friend Peter - Alkaline Trio (Lyrics | Video)
Whataya Want from Me - Adam Lambert (Lyrics | Video)
Rolling In the Deep - Adele (Lyrics | Video)
My Happy Ending - Avril Lavigne (Lyrics | Video)
Pieces - Sum 41 (Lyrics | Video)
How's It Going to Be? - Third Eye Blind (Lyrics | Video)
Not Gon' Cry - Mary J Blige (Lyrics | Video)
How Do I Live - Trisha Yearwood (Lyrics | Video)
One Last Cry - Brian McKnight (Lyrics | Video)

bonus: A Little Bit Stronger - Sara Evans (Lyrics | Video) - thanks, Joanne :)

It was on constant repeat on the 3 hour drives to and from this week!

I took the approach of going angry to sad, so I could skip through sad ones (dependent on mood). 1-10 I termed "angry", 11-15 I termed "mid" and 16-18 were "sad." I listened to #16 about a trillion times, though, and was more angry than sad. I have only listened to 17 and 18 once each :)

More Nieces (or Nephews?)

2011-05-13T12:14:00.000-05:00

Not sure if y'all saw the news on facebook or on my SIL's blog, but they will be adding 2 new members to our family later this year :)

Here is the full synopsis

Found My Sparkle

2011-05-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

I don't know what shifted yesterday, but I got some of my power back. What he has been putting me through these past few weeks, I have just been a pathetic, crying mess. I really doubted that I would be able to get through this - how can you just stop loving someone you've loved half your life? I literally could only see emptiness and intense sorrow in my eyes when I looked in the mirror.

Something happened last night that just flipped my switch from being pathetic to okay. I think I hardened a little bit and realized that I can't live these next 6 months (or however long it takes for him to make up his mind on if he wants to be married to me or not) as just a shell of myself, just trying to survive to that decision point. I need to take this time for myself to determine if I want to be married to him.

There are a lot of ways that trust can be broken in a marriage. For me, the one with the biggest and longest lasting impact is abandonment. I actually almost used that as one of my insecurities during the 30 Day Photo Challenge. This has really destroyed my trust in that, and I need to figure out if I can forgive him for this.

So... not trying to overshare, just wanted to give everyone who has dealt with my uncontrollably sobbing via phone, bbm, or in-person over the past few weeks some confidence that I won't be doing that again anytime soon :)

A Quick Update

2011-05-10T23:01:00.000-05:00

I gotta be honest - I don't think I'll be blogging much for awhile. This has been the absolute hardest time of my life. I really thought (hoped?) I was all cried out, but tonight proved otherwise. Just to give a high-level update on where we are - the King has asked for a separation and time to figure out what he wants/needs. At first I was 100% against this idea. I had the wheels in motion for divorce and selling the house and everything. Then I realized that I still loved him. I always thought that if I was filing for divorce, I would want to be. I don't. At all. It's the exact opposite of what I want. I want to fight for us, I want to put in effort and work through this. So.... as difficult as the past 10 days have been, I guess I'm signing up to stay in this state until he tells me otherwise. I can't imagine anything harder than just letting him go on a hope, prayer, and doubt that he will come back. It kills me to have no control in the situation, but that is how it must be.

I can't tell whether this is turning me introverted or extroverted. I have been writing in a journal a lot and really in my head a lot, which is a very therapeutic outlet. At the same time, I need to keep busy a lot to keep from completely obsessing about what all of this means. Happily, I also have an appointment with a therapist on Thursday. I know I can't handle this on my own, and as fantastic as all my friends and family have been, I definitely think this is something I need.

Please keep us in your prayers. We really need it. I have loved this man for nearly half my life, and I do not want to learn how to live without him.

Pretty Shitty Eggs

2011-05-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

When the King made the official determination that he was not at all certain that he wanted to be married any longer, packed up his car, and left for good, I was making eggs. They did not turn out very well.

I Have the Best

2011-05-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

My intent is not for the blog to become my daily journal of the emotional rollercoaster I am on. In fact, I initially planned really to take a blog-vacation while dealing with this. So today's post is not really about where I am at with all this, where I am at with handling it, nor about the next steps I'm going to take.

What I have realized over the past 24 hours is how amazing my friends and family and overall support system are. I shudder to think about how many minutes have been burned up on my cell phone over the past 2 days. When the locksmith was at my house the other night (under ABBA's careful supervision), he commented to me while running my credit card that he has never seen anyone on the phone as much as me. I was literally having to make a call-back list because I had so many people supporting me through it.

When we had our first conversation on Sunday, I did not plan to tell anyone what we were going through. It's very personal and private, and my intent was to respect that. However, Monday I realized how badly the King was being influenced by negative people and by people who don't even know me, don't even know us. How could they give him advice on what to do without that knowledge? I started reaching out to people that know the King, that know us, and just trying to inject some positive influences on him. Everyone that I called on was beyond amazing in trying to reach out and help us get through this. Unfortunately, he was not in a place to listen.

My brother and then my parents were some of the last people I officially told. That was mainly because I knew that the King would be even less receptive to feedback from them, since he would (rightfully) assume that they were on "my" side. When I told my parents, that was the final step for me in the decision-making process. If I had thought there was a glimmer of hope at us not divorcing, I would never have told them. I don't want their opinion of him tainted.

I guess the whole point of this is that I am just so completely overwhelmed with all the support you guys have showered on me. This really sucks to go through - all the ups and downs of it - but I am just so completely blessed to have you all. The phone calls, the texts, the offers/demands for me to come stay at amazing places around the world....... I love you guys!

PS: I'm not proofreading this. It's kind of a rambling collection, and probably has some grammatical/punctuational issues. sorry... the first thing that has left me this week has been my ability to type!

I'm Getting Divorced: Sorry if you found out on facebook

2011-05-05T16:13:00.000-05:00

First of all, I have to share this 22 that I got at lunch today. The past 24 hours have been the worst of my life. I think I told someone last night that if I never had to have a day half as bad as this past one for the rest of my life, I would feel blessed. So when I placed my order at Macallister's today and was handed the magic 22, I was thinking that things were looking up.

Sunday afternoon, the King told me that he had been talking to a buddy at work and was thinking we should do a trial separation. *BAM* Um, I'm sorry, what?! Yes, it's apparently just that easy. One minute I think I have such a blessed, happy life, and the next I'm being told that my world is shattering. I have taken this whole week off work and really dedicated myself to being the perfect wife and showing him what he would be throwing away. 13 years together, 6 years of marriage, a pair of the best friends ever. We have had countless really good conversations, but yesterday he made it clear that he did not want to be married anymore.

I'm in an ok place today - much better than yesterday. The previous 4 days were spent in this limbo land - I knew I couldn't take off work indefinitely, and could not keep up the perfect wife routine for the long term ;) Today I have clarity about what is ahead for us. I'm going through the divorce checklist because I can unequivocally say that I have given him every chance, every push, every encouragement that he was making a huge mistake. He was not interested, so at this point I am just giving him what he wants.

It sucks

Sorry for the facebook book *BAM*. I have not slept in the past 5 days, have not really eaten well the past 5 days (ABBA accused me of going scarecrow last night *yikes!*), and I'm just on caffeine, alcohol, and adrenaline rush. I'm not really thinking clearly :(

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 29 & Flashback Friday (70)

2011-04-29T04:29:00.000-05:00

Day 29 - a picture of something that has made a huge impact on my life recently.

GARDENING!

Ok.... "huge" impact might be stretching it a little bit here, but what do I enjoy more than a 30 Day Photo Challenge? A 30 Day Photo Challenge picture plus Flashback Friday :) Ah, heck, "gardening" might also be a stretch at describing my newfound ability to keep plants growing and thriving.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 28

2011-04-28T04:28:00.000-05:00

Day 28 - a picture of something I'm afraid of.

I almost posted a picture of nothing here because I like to fancy myself a fearless bad ass ;) However, spiders is not actually a cop out answer... I actually feel like I have a legitimate reason to fear the little critters. I should specifically say I fear brown recluses, black widows, and other venomous spiders.

I don't fear brown recluses just because they can do this and this (um, beware of clicking those links - brown recluse bites are NASTY shizznit. There is definitely a reason I didn't just confront you with the pictures in this post).

When my aunt (one of my mom's sisters) was 13 she was bitten by a brown recluse while she was asleep. They did not discover it for several hours and also discovered that she was severely allergic to them. The impact of the bite is that she (still) has no ability to create and retain new memories. If you have seen the movie Memento, that is literally how my aunt is... well, minus the scribbling stuff on her arm and hunting down killers. She has lived in an institution-like facility for many years, and I have actually never even met her.

So.... that is the reasoning behind this fear.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 27

2011-04-27T04:27:00.000-05:00

Day 27 - a picture of myself and a family member.

Me and Agent Dragonfly

One of the things I have missed since graduating is not getting to hang out with her on a regular basis. I'm excited to hopefully see her in a week-ish when I head to H-town for a friend's wedding. Maybe I'm starting the Friends & Family Tour :)

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 26

2011-04-26T04:26:00.000-05:00

Day 26 - a picture of something that means a lot to me.

I LOVE my wedding ring - the layers of symbolism in it really do mean a lot to me. First of all, of course, it symbolizes the commitment between the King and I and reminds me of our wonderful wedding day. It has two other components to it, though. The first is that the center stone and the ring I wear on top of it were gifts to me from my great-aunt, who was also a March 22nd baby. Secondly, four of the baguettes in the engagement ring came from my mom's wedding ring. I love the history and tradition to my beautiful ring.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 25

2011-04-25T04:25:00.000-05:00

Day 25 - a picture of something I wish I were better at.

Uggggggggggh. Ok, I'm fessing up. I REALLY wish I were better at being a motorcycle rider. I am not... and am contemplating selling Li'l Tyke. I really should not be surprised that I much prefer being a backseat bike rider - I have ALWAYS been a bigger fan of being a passenger than being the driver.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 24

2011-04-24T16:24:00.000-05:00

Day 24 - a picture of my day.

Ok, this is not exactly a picture of my day.... hoping to see some of the pics people took on facebook at some point this week. But it is the essence of today - a gathering of food and family.

After church this morning, we headed over to my MIL's house for an amazing Easter lunch. Attendees were the King and I, my parents, the King's mom + her wonderful boyfriend, my wonderful SIL, nephews/wives Kenneth & Melissa and Kevin & Jessica, Jessica's parents, and the King's cousin.

The spread: deviled eggs, house salad with homemade Ranch dressing, Asian noodle salad, ham with apricot sauce, scalloped potatoes, corn casserole, some amazing baked pumpkin thing, rolls and angel food cake for dessert. Holy full and a wonderful way to spend Easter. Now we're having naptime :)

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 23

2011-04-23T16:23:00.001-05:00

Day 23 - a picture of my favorite book.

Man, I am an avid reader. I could not even begin to estimate how many books I have read in my lifetime. I'm probably averaging 50ish/year these days, which I would guess to be way down from my younger days. Anyhoo, of all those books, the most compelling has to be the Bible. Where else can you find the path to eternal life?

I grew up in a Christian elementary school and was religious (ha!) about attending Sunday School in my youth. I heard alllllllllllllll the greatest Bible stories and pretty much take for granted my ability to recall them now. The King did not really have a similar path and decided last year to start reading the Bible from Genesis 1:1 onwards. The normal routine was that he'd lie in bed and read it while I was doing all my "getting ready for bed" activities. It was so neat to hear him say things like, "wow! you'll never believe what happened here...." and then launch into like Cain and Abel or something.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

Happy Easter everyone!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 22 & Flashback Friday (69)

2011-04-22T04:22:00.000-05:00

Day 22 - a picture of me with a scary bunny.

Happy Good Friday and Easter weekend, everyone!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 21

2011-04-21T04:21:00.000-05:00

Day 21 - a picture of something I wish I could forget/change

Please note: I combined days 21 and 22 - something I wish I could forget and something I wish I could change. I think these 2 things are really one and the same. Plus, I added something fun for tomorrow's Flashback Friday ;)

I gotta be honest: when I jumped onboard with the 30 Day Photo Challenge, I really did not expect it to get as deep as some of these posts have gotten! Today's is no exception... it's actually something that I have really deep regret over and that really drove a wedge between the King and I. I can't believe I'm sharing this story.

When I left for college, I got this great idea that I should get the King a dog to keep him company. In hindsight, this was a REALLY terrible idea. He was in an efficiency apartment, working lots of hours, and just did not really have the ability to be a pet owner. That said, he fell in love with these two precious red miniature pinscher puppies at a pet store at the mall. They were sisters, so of course we HAD to get both. He named them Dali (black collar) and Lali (tan collar).

He was really not home enough to get them house trained. It was a HUGE issue to me, as his apartment completely reeked. He combated this with a lot of incense. It was so gross.

If there is one thing you can say about the King (and honestly, you can say a lot) it's that he is an animal lover. If I was not allergic to cats, we would have collected a half a dozen strays by this point. He just has a huge soft spot in his heart for animals and their unconditional love.

Anyhoo... cut three years later, and I have graduated from college and moved to Phoenix. I lured the King to follow me to Phoenix with the promise that he could move in with me and focus on culinary school. The one condition I had was that the dogs were not invited. I had just moved in to my first apartment, everything was nice and new, I was a li'l OCD about cleanliness and pristineness, and I just did not want the dogs f-ing everything up. When I think now how I would feel if someone told me to give up Doogie and Princess..... man, I do not know what I was thinking. But after a lot of stress and drama, the King agreed to send them to this nice family in Virginia. It still breaks my heart and makes me tear up to think about.

So.... I am a horrible person. Yep. That is the #1 thing I wish I could go back in time and change.

Final (?) Duchess Update

2011-04-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

As part of the surgery on Friday, the vet took some samples of her intestines to send for pathology. I am so relieved that they continued processing it, even though she is not around to hear the results :(

My dad got the results back from the vet this morning. She had aggressive intestinal cancer that was not treatable. My parents would have had to put her down soon to keep her from suffering. As it is, she passed away in her sleep, on pain meds, wrapped in warming blankets. RIP, sweet puppy.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 20

2011-04-20T04:20:00.000-05:00

Day 20 - a picture of somewhere I would like to travel.

I would LOVE to do a Friends & Family Tour and go visit everyone I love but who are not in north Texas. Love y'all!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 19

2011-04-19T04:19:00.003-05:00

Day 19 - a picture of something you want to do before you die.

Hot air balloon ride over Napa. Who's funding me?

Queenly Stuff

2011-04-18T11:42:00.000-05:00

I always feel proud when I spot Queen stuff. Last week, I noted 2 via picture.

Unfortunately, I am maxed out on travel coffee cups and really don’t want to be the Queen of the Road. I prefer to be a passenger on the road of life (well, really just the passenger) or not on the road at all.

Second Queen-spotting was when I was at the mall Friday. I was shocked to find that the frozen yogurt place that only opened like a year ago was already gone. In its place will be Sugar Queen Cupcakes, coming soon.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 18

2011-04-18T04:18:00.002-05:00

Day 18 - a picture of my biggest insecurity.

Ugh! This one is hard. Revealing insecurities goes completely against my nature. I have the Kanji symbol for Strength tattooed on my ankle, and I hate showing weakness. Insecurities = weakness. Here are a few things I'm insecure about....

Singing. I have a TERRIBLE voice. You will not catch me at a karaoke bar.
Cooking, though I'm getting less and less fearful of that.
Public Speaking. It's just something I'm not comfortable doing.
Compliments. I get SO uncomfortable when people pay me compliments. It's ridiculous.

But #1 insecurity -and I totally can't believe I'm including a picture along with this- are pictures of me from 2nd grade. It was AWFUL. I had just gotten glasses and somehow my mom made me get a perm. It was so terrible.

Holy cow.. I can't believe it, but I have not been able to come up with a pic. I am posting this today but promise to come back with a pic before the end of the month!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 17

2011-04-17T04:17:00.006-05:00

Day 17 - a picture of someone who inspires me.

I actually really struggled with this one. A lot of people inspire me and yet I like to think I'm cutting my own path. The more I thought about that, though, the more I realized that I am just following along in my dad's footsteps. I actually remember putting my feet in his enormous shoes as a kid, and I guess I'm still kind of doing that.

Early on in my life here at Dell, I asked my boss to be my mentor. She replied, "hello. You have your dad. You do not need me - he's the best." I mean, she still filled that role for me for awhile because it's weird to think of your parent as your work-mentor.

Fun things about my dad...

He was the first person to graduate from Baylor undergrad with a 4.0 GPA (and has the trophy to prove it)
He then wised up and got his MBA and PhD from Texas A&M
My dad was apparently a really great baseball pitcher in college (even got asked to tryout for the Yankees), but he quit baseball because it was interfering with his studies.... how different would my life had been had he not quit?!
He met my mom while at A&M. His brother was dating (and would later marry) my mom's roommate. They started out as really good friends, but one football game my dad was sitting a few rows behind my mom and her date. A&M has a tradition that when the team scores on the field, the crowd "scores" in the stands (= makeout with your date). My dad was jealous watching this other dude kiss my mom, so he asked her out to the next game. She cancelled her date, and the rest is history.
He, his brother, and friends would drive from Corpus Christi to San Diego in their VW van during the summers to go surfing
He actually bummed it for a summer in Hawaii, living on the beach, showering at the public library, and putting in time with the Hare Krishnas to get some free grub (lentils....)
Lentils were the one meal that my dad would cook for us growing up. I LOVE them but the King has never really understood how the combination of rice, Velveeta, lentils, tuna can create such a great meal.
My dad was drafted into the Army. He's told the story about how he was lined up in a group of 10. 9 of the guys were sent to Vietnam - he was sent to Hawaii. When his time was up, he asked if he could stay in Hawaii. When he was told "no" and that he'd probably go to 'Nam, he said "thanks but no thanks."
My FAVORITE memory of my dad is of singing The Spirit of Aggieland with him prior to football games. He sings that song so proudly.
I chose this picture because I swear it was the first time I ever saw my dad drink any alcohol!

Duchess Passed, I Did Not Find Out on Facebook

2011-04-16T10:44:00.000-05:00

For the second time in 2011, our family has had to execute the death-in-the-family notification process. I suppose with the January occurrence still so fresh in our minds, my mom easily knew how to execute the process this time.

I'm absolutely heartbroken. On the one hand, I am relieved that Duchess did not suffer a long, drawn-out, suffering demise. On the other, it happened so fast I think I am still in shock.

My parents picked her up from the vet's office last night around 5:30pm to transport her to the emergency animal clinic where there would be around-the-clock care over the weekend. She was up and walking around, though she was really tired. She had been upgraded from "critical" to "serious" condition. They got her settled in at the clinic, and the (sweet) doctor promised to call them this morning around 7am with an update when he got off his rounds. He called at 6am to let them know that she had died in her sleep. She called me, bawling, just after. We closed our conversation with a plan for who would contact my brother. Sad, but perfect execution this round L

Baby puppies are one of my favorite things in the world, and my parents will eventually get a new dog. You know you really miss your dog, though, when you would trade all the cutest baby puppies in the world to get her back with you L

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 16

2011-04-16T04:16:00.001-05:00

Day 16 - a picture that can always make you smile.

Happy Birthday, ABBA!

I love this picture because (1) ABBA is looking so fabu and (2) it was taken on the day where I belted out "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in the middle of a winery. I have no idea why (thankfully, ABBA covered that story). It might have had something to do with this pin (yep, I took the picture all by myself):

ABBA is such a fantastic friend. I am so glad that she has rejoined our company because she infinitely brightens up the daily commute. Life-ing in the morning, bitching in the afternoon.

Duchess Update

2011-04-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

So this is one of my favorite pictures of Duchess. It's not a particularly great, regal picture of her, but it really epitomizes why she is such a great dog. She is so easy going and just really tolerates the new generation of our family. This picture was from Christmas 2007 - aka Faith's First Christmas. Faith was on her back, so Duchess followed suit.

Surgery started around noon today. I got a call from my mom (who was camped out at the vet's office) around 2pm that the doctor had removed the obstruction but had found a blood clot when he was stitching her back up. That led to him deciding to remove some more of her intestine to allow for better blood flow through.

Got a text from my mom about 2:50pm that she was done with surgery but was in critical condition and would need to spend the weekend at the emergency animal hospital (same one that Princess visited a few weeks ago).

Keep her in your prayers!

PS: My mom cancelled her weekend trip to Oklahoma City to see Kay Arthur, Michael W. Smith, and Sarah Palin.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 15 & Flashback Friday (68)

2011-04-15T04:15:00.002-05:00

Day 15 - a picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

I have been wanting to use this picture for a long time now! I so love it. Is this the original shocked snow face?

So.... who could I never imagine my life without? My parents.

Prayers for Puppy

2011-04-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

Hey, everyone. I can use some puppy prayers from everyone for my sweet puppy Duchess (who spends her days protecting and entertaining my parents). Just before my mom and I left for the Final Four trip, she started throwing up constantly. She just could not keep food down. They took her in for x-rays and barium testing and all kinds of stuff. The initial diagnosis was some neurological issue that kept her upper intestine from fully contracting, so it would basically reject food. They prescribed some pills to take before mealtime, changed up her feeding schedule, and changed her food. It has been hit and miss on her keeping the food down and not.

She had a sonogram today, and they have identified 2 blockages plus some leakage. To sum up the impact, she has gone from a healthy weight of 21 pounds down to a very sickly 14. They scheduled her for exploratory surgery tomorrow, but the vet has said she is in critical condition and is not sure she will make it through surgery.

Duchess is the sweetest, smartest puppy you’ll ever meet. She loves to herd her loved ones back into the house, hates the shenanigans that her niece and nephew dogs bring over, and barks at all large vehicles that drive by J

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 14

2011-04-14T04:14:00.002-05:00

Day 14 - a picture that makes you laugh.

This picture always makes me crack up. The little yellow chair probably weighs about 1 pound, but my brother has the toughest look on his face. His legs are taut to support the weight, and he has his body-builder chest jutted out. So tough.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 13

2011-04-13T04:13:00.009-05:00

Day 13 - a picture of your favorite band or artist.

I have a very wide range of music that I like. Favorite artists include Britney Spears, Shakira, Kelly Clarkson, Nickelback, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Metallica, Miranda Lambert, Shania Twain, George Strait, Ne-yo, Ja Rule, Drake, Jack Johnson. There are many others.

All time favorite? I'm going to have to go with Tupac. The King definitely introduced me to him (posthumous), and always expects the credit. I used to listen to his CDs on the repeated drives from College Station to Dallas when I was at A&M. Those were the CDs I could just put in and listen to the whole way through.... no skipping.

I'll leave you with the video of my (current) favorite song in his catalog: Unconditional Love. In listening to this song this morning, it made me sad for how far rap music has fallen off since his day. This is a song with passion, feeling, and truth behind it - and no calling for makin' it rain on the hos!

We must remember that tomorrow comes after the dark
so you will always be in my heart, with unconditional love

The Snake Pit

2011-04-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

Many of you saw on facebook yesterday that I was interrupted in a meeting by the appearance of a snake in the room. Yes, a snake. The room setup was something like this (see pic à). The conversation went something like this....

QueenB: ITIL blah blah blah......
Brad: Hang on one moment, Queen.
QueenB: *hanging*
Brad: *looking at floor by Bruce* Is that a.....
QueenB: cockroach? (since this is the most common next word, followed by spider and then yellow jacket)
Brad: Wow. Is that a....
QueenB: *stands to look* OMG
Brad: Queen, stand back against the wall
QueenB: oh, no. I have to get a picture of this! *snaps pic but not too close up!*
Brad: *gathers materials and removes the snake from the situation*

I named the snake "Sally" and the conference room is now referred to as The Snake Pit.