In the past two weeks I have laid down my head in:
Independence, MO (Alpha Phi Omega NVC)
Dexter, MO (Jiggity Jig)
St. Louis, MO (Work)
Tampa, FL (Work)
Monett, MO (Boyfriend)
Denver, CO (Work)
Cape Girardeau, MO (Friend)
It's been a bit wild and exhausting, but I've really enjoyed it.  Back to the quiet life now, though.

Life is pretty good.
I've been accumulating good times with good folks, with a few eye-opening, life-altering experiences sprinkled in here and there.  I miss people and I suck at communication.  I'm trying to learn to drink beer.  I've become obsessed with Sephora.  The Killers are my favorite band right now.  My two dogs, Spatula and Daisy, are completely adorable.

Ha, maybe in a couple months I'll work my way up to making a real post.  In the meantime, I wish every last one of you days filled with awesome.

Tags: awesomeness, travel, work
The Bottomline: hungry
Background Noise ♫: The Killers - Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf

2005 Toyota Prius

Tags: awesomeness, car stuff, pictures
The Bottomline: thankful

I melted Josh and Laura's toaster. When I say melted I don't mean it heated up a bit and the sleek form got droopy, I mean rivers of plastic ran down while flames licked it's body. I mean the apartment was filled with black smoke and all the fire alarms were blaring (on a side note, I really don't think we need one every 5 feet). Fortunately I have a humongous stock pot, which I employed to damn near flood the kitchen with fire-extinguishing water (and make everything else soggy).
We have a cool new toaster oven now.

I got season 3 of House on DVD last week. <3<3<3

Tyler goes to Daylight Donuts most Sunday mornings and I join him around 75% of the time. Good times, good donuts, really bad toupee.
On my way back to my apartment around 10:30am I got a flat tire. Tyler and Zack came to the rescue like the heroes of old. Needless to say, it was hot and sweaty and extremely unpleasant to be doing manual labor.
When I got to my spare (no small task considering how full my trunk was), we found that the tread was completely shredded and scary looking. Awesome.
When they got the tire off, the tear in the side of the tire was a bit too large to risk fix-a-flat to get to Wal-Mart. Sweet.
Neither Tyler's nor Zack's spare would fit my car, although I kind of think it was way above and beyond of them to offer. We ended up just taking the dingity dangity tire to Wal-Mart and went to Popeye's Chicken with some fine folks while we waited (while un-showered, sweaty and slightly covered in car grease - yikes!).
Around 2:30 the (amazingly, incredibly awesome) guys finally got my car squared away. I drove the rest of the way down the street to my lovely shower while listening to Petty's Free Falling. It took the edge off.

I missed sannask's birthday lunch in the midst of this drama. I haven't gotten to see her since her wedding and was really looking forward to it!. Boo.

Tags: awesomeness, birthdays, car stuff, friends, movies/plays/television, roommate/apartment, tyler
The Bottomline: yes.
Background Noise ♫: Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

I haven't been home much lately, still catching up on my journal reading...uf, I'm so behind.

Amazing weekend. I did have a few surreal moments where I realized that I don't actually have to go any where or do anything for two whole days. Now that I'm done with Red Lobster, I have real weekends, I have a semi-normal schedule that actually allows me to be more social than I have been able to be in a while. It's a good feeling.

( Piano Bar )

( Beaver Lake )

In a little under two weeks, I will be attending a Weird Al concert with my dad and step mom on the 13th followed by attending Daniel's wedding on the 14th with Tyler. Woo!
Looking forward to seeing more of people soon!

Tags: awesomeness, booze, friends, music, shenanigans, tyler
The Bottomline: cheerful
Background Noise ♫: Black Betty Bam-Ba-Lam

Daddy bought me worms for my upcoming birthday. A full pound of red worms. I am the happiest little princess ever!
He also got me a worm bin to put them (outside on our front deck). In a few days, I'll be a-compostin'. Until I get around to getting a proper kitchen compost pail , I'm collecting food scraps in an old ice bucket I picked up at the Peace At Home Thrift Shop.

I recently started a mini herb garden on our front deck.

It's all planted in organic potting soil (Miracle-Gro and Expert Gardener brands) and recycled plastic containers (that help regulate the watering for novice gardeners like myself).

( blah blah blah )

Next on my hit list is some durable containers to start collecting recyclables, because the apartment building ain't doing it for us.

I made mostly raw "ice cream" for a treat after my last final. Two frozen bananas (note to self: peel the bananas before freezing...doh), 2 tablespoons vanilla (calls for teaspoons...), fresh mint to taste (optional), and a blender. It was pretty good, I may experiment with it (and other fruits) more. I can't wait until my lavender blooms.
I have 4 peeled bananas in my freezer right now.

To commemorate Paris's upcoming jail sentence, I downloaded her CD. HOTT. Favorite line: "Everytime I turn around the boys fighting over me...Maybe cuz I'm hot to death and I'm so so so sexy." Classic.

Tags: awesomeness, birthdays, consumerism, earthy, music, recipes, roommate/apartment
Current Location: garden
The Bottomline: verde
Background Noise ♫: Paris Hilton - Fighting Over Me

( walmart soliciter )

Despite crazy-walmart-dude, the bread pudding came out DELICIOUS. I made if for Tyler this summer and he specially requested it again for his birthday. I fiddled with the recipe this time (made it mostly organic and added rum!) around and I think it came out even better than before. I also made a vanilla rum sauce to go with it, in honor of the big 2-1. This time around, I used like 80% organic ingredients. So even if this dessert can give you diabetes just by looking at it (6.5 all butter croissants, 5 cups half and half, entire carton of eggs...) and can be in no way justified as healthy for your body, it's still slightly more healthy for the environment than your average treat (shut up, let me rationalize).
I want to cook more now. Ha, like I'll find the time.

Tyler's birthday went really well and he didn't even get sick. He did, however, get a really attractive hair cut. For serious, the boy looked GOOD.
Also, booze.

They're having a $10 "Spring Broke" sale at Threadless...so I finally got around to ordering some of the shirts I've been resisting (99 Luftballons and I Know An Old Lady Who Swalled a Fly). I ordered three shirts (A Caged Bird Dreams, Cookie Loves Milk, and Facial Hair Club For Men) and a hoodie (Yeah Attitude...best. hoodie. ever.) during their winter sale. Eventually I'll get around to taking pictures (because for every picture you post wearing a threadless shirt, you get $1.50 off your next purchase...it's pretty awesome). Threadless is such a cool site...I wish I wasn't totally tapped of artisitc ambition right now, or I'd totally submit stuff.

Work and class, man...what a life, eh?

Tags: awesomeness, birthdays, booze, consumerism, interesting links, strange, tyler
The Bottomline: toasty in my hoodie
Background Noise ♫: Muse - Starlight

So, I have tendonitis. Mildly.
I have a sexy new wrist brace that I am a bit fond of. As my dad pointed out, I will probably be in and out of some sort of brace for the rest of my life. There are certainly worse fates and the doctor isn't worried about permanent nerve damage just yet.
It's a little hard to type and do stuff with the brace, but I'm getting used to it. All in all it's not so bad and I can always tell strangers that I injured my wrist saving a baby from a Jaguar or something. Punched it in its damned mouth, is what.

Dad is recovering remarkable well from his heart surgery and while it's too soon to tell because his heart is still so irritated, I really hoped the ablation worked (he's a fib-ey much less often now). He was doing well enough to be bored and his doctors say he's a week ahead of the recovery schedule (I guess having 23 odd invasive surgeries in your life helps prepare you).
Unfortunately he's back in the hospital right now because one of his stitches in his femur got badly infected and burst (he says the emergency nurses got all sorts of excited about that one). When I went to visit him (and bring him tasty sugar-free treats from Starbucks) he was pretty miserable being back in the hospital right now, but hopefully it won't be for long.

It's been a pretty good break and I'm not terribly looking forward to going back to school. I only got to spend a couple days with my family for Christmas, but it was still nice. All the relatives from mom's side came in for Christmas here, including the California side who can only afford to travel to Arkansas every two years. We had an amazing Christmas lunch/dinner spread all the way down the two banquet tables we had stuck together to accommodate all twelve of us. My dad and Natalia came as well and it was just a really pleasant gathering. We had turkey and ham and countless different kinds of mashed potatoes and cranberry dressings and stuffings and casseroles and other side dishes. Afterwards, Natalia got out her Harp (the 4 ft, not the 7) and played beautifully. She even took requests (and, yes, she can play Free Bird on the harp, thankyouverymuch). It was so luxurious.

I had to leave in the wee hours on the 27th to catch a plane to APO National Convention. It was a really great experience and I think Louisville put on a really great event. I think the authentic engraved miniature Louisville Slugger bat we got at the first banquet was pretty much the best APO Trinket I've ever gotten.
( More on Convention )

After convention was over, there was the debauchery. Well, technically there had been plenty of debauchery during the convention, but I was finally able to join it. It was such a good night that Jenni, Kevin, Josh, Laura and myself all slept to 2pm the next day (well Jenni and Kevin until 3pm...the bums). It was such a good night that we all celebrated the next night, New Years rather conservatively (read: with little to no alcohol) in Fred's huge larger-than-my-apartment suite. Not that Fred's party was particularly tame - it wasn't - we just happened to be. It also turns out that downtown Louisville all but completely shuts down the before and after New Years and it was kinda boring after that. I did manage to get Tyler a full-sized and personalized Louisville Slugger bat right before we left for the airport. It's pretty sweet looking.
Speaking of that Tyler guy...yeah, he's pretty much the best guy ever. I don't think you could persuade me otherwise.

On a final note, my USB hub isn't working and it's really annoying. My mouse is hard to use in the brace and I'd really like to switch to my wacom tablet. Oh well.

Tags: apo/service, awesomeness, booze, family, health/medical, travel
The Bottomline: pretty alright
Background Noise ♫: Ok Go

The whole set isn't up yet, but the portfolio pics are up for Jenni's wedding!! Prepare to be amazed!

Have you ever had a weekend that felt a couple weeks long? That's kind of what the wedding. It was just fantastic.
I mean I wasn't Alex the Woman this last week, I was Alex the Maid of Honor and that was a beautiful thing. This really was one of those occasions where everything is just bigger than regular life, where you're compelled to put all those petty and self-centered things we worry (like how ugly my toes are) about on a shelf for a while. I sure do love being Alex the Woman, but I wouldn't trade anything in the world for my chance to get to be with Jenni on this once-in-a-lifetime kind of day.
Joy is a "big" word that I don't use that often, but for this occasion it is perfect.
Needless to say, the day was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, the couple is a beautiful fit.

And now with the rest of life:
varnea is in town and staying with us in the apartment, it's been good times. She's so fun, I can't wait until she's back in Fayetteville for good.
We went to Terra Studios and Bead It with seerofthethread on Monday and that night hit Dickson St. in a scandalous fashion with peggy_the_angel.
Tomorrow I leave for Pennsylvania for a week and a half to run Steve's shop at Pennsic (this ain't you're average vacation). Getting ready to leave has been taking up a lot of my time. I'm a little sad to be away for so long, but it will also be nice to "get away from it all," too.
Lastly, I BOUGHT A LAPTOP!! It's a smaller/cheaper model to serve as kind of a mobile accessory to my totally awesome desktop, but I'm pretty pumped. I've been wanting a wee lap top for a couple years now, so I could do website-type stuff on the go. It has an AMD type processor like my desktop (okay, so my baby is Athalon and the laptop is Semperon)...maybe I'll have to spray paint it silver and add blue lights so they match. Unfortunately it's due in on Friday, the day after I leave, so I won't get to play with it just yet.

Tags: awesomeness, consumerism, friends, nerdiness, pictures, shenanigans, wedding related

This morning dad, Natalia and I went biking on the 3 mile trail next to the mall then grabbed some lunch at Panera.
Dad and saw Monster House and I really enjoyed it. It was surprisingly scary. Steve Buscemi's voice made me happy.
I'm definitely looking forward to some of the upcoming movies like Zoom (I enjoyed both Galaxy Quest and Sky High, and that's probably a good indicator).

After the movie we hit another bike trail next to Dickson St. and rode all the way to the National Cemetery. On the way back we stopped at Common Grounds for some frozen delights and baked brie (the brown sugar really added a lot!).
Back at dad's we watched Big Trouble (which I had never seen and was a lot of fun), ate dinner with Natalia (boiled cabbage and cheese with meat on the side...one of our favorite "bonding" meals), and ended the night with True Lies.

Mom and Steve are back in town and I'm going to get an espresso maker (sent from Steve's mom) and a check for my bridesmaid dress and shoes (from my lovely grandma) when I see them tomorrow. Yesterday I got to hang out a lot with Jenni...because she's awesome. We had ice cream and talked about her wedding (less than a fortnight now, folks).

Basically, what I'm trying to say here is, it was a dandy day.
Life always seems better when I get out of the house.

There are still a few things getting me down, but - darn it - I just had a good day and some chocolate cake and I'm positively not going to risk putting myself full-force in that kind of mood by venting right now.

Tags: awesomeness, family, friends, movies/plays/television

Well, my birthday was this Monday. Memorial Day. I had to work and that kind of sucked, especially since it was ridiculously mind-numbingly slow and I earned significantly less than any other day I've worked there. After work 8 of us went ou to Shoguns, Shakey's, and Xmen 3 and it was a fantastic time. Everyone who was there or wished me happy birthday, made my day...so huggles!
I'll spare ya'll the mushy details, but Tyler really made the day special for me and I really appreciate him and I'm very happy. He got me THE BEST BIRTHDAY CARD EVER complete with a monkey in a tutu and one of his famous poems (it seriously rocked my socks off). He makes me feel like a very lucky girl. The end.
In the days to follow I also got two fantastic birthday dinners with my immediate family peoples. On Tuesday I went to Ella's with Mom and Steve and gorged myself on delicious foods (including the best escargot I've ever had and a lick-the-plate-good dessert with rich chocolate cake and white chocolate mouse). On Thursday Dad and Natalia took me to Mermaid's with Mom and Steve and I had tasty creme brulle and seafood delights. I don't usually get two dinners with my family, but Steve thought he was going out of town and would miss the one on Thursday, so we went out early on Tuesday. Anyways, I love my family.

Today I got two "pretty girl"s, three "you look very nice today"s, one "you're hot" and one apiece of "you look like Jennifer Love Hewitt" and "you look like Alyson Hannigan" (that's the second time I've gotten that last one in a week...), and at least one foolish (and failed) attempt to sow seeds of doubt in my boyfriend. There's a difference between silly harmless flirting and flirting with a purpose. I could go into my feelings on that, but long story short: sometimes I enjoy those kinds of compliments and sometimes I really don't so much.
Tonight I went shopping with my mommy all night. It was good times and I brought home some fine loot (and spent some of my fine tip $). Yah!

There's a blood drive next Wednesday! I'm totally donating!

Tags: awesomeness, birthdays, consumerism, family, friends, strange, tyler, work
Current Location: 23 year old fogeys
The Bottomline: chipper
Background Noise ♫: 6th floor old Washington Regional during a lightening storm