Wednesday Wisdom

"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of  a man."

-Winston Churchill

This quote does not apply to me because I hate riding horses and have actually retired from the sport. However, I needed a quote to go with this picture, so there you have it.

And all good cowboys have a good dog.

A True Story

As you may remember, BodyBuilder and Jodus were in town this weekend for some Spring Training fun.

On Saturday night, after a day of baseball, and a heartbreaking basketball game, we headed out for a night on the town. After dinner, BodyBuilder headed back to the hotel with her baby and Jodus and I thought we would spend some time enjoying the nightlife.

So, we headed up to a piano bar to see what was going on there. It was still a little early in the night, but there had been a hockey game in the same area so there were quite a few people out.

When we got to the bar, it seemed that all of the tables were full, but as we were walking by one of the bars, two people got up to leave so we took their seat.

About three minutes after sitting down, a man comes up and sits in his chair next to me. Then turns to me and says, You took my friends seats - that means you have to be my friend.


Not trying to be a jerk, I went ahead and started talking to him. Right away I noticed two things - he had a full sleeve tattoo on his left arm and he had both ears pierced. Things are not looking good.


So he starts talking to me. Tells me I smell good. (That's a nice compliment.)


Then he asks me where I live - I give him the name of my town, about 20 minutes from where we are currently sitting. He says, That's too far for me to drive. 


Excuse me? You aren't driving there - you have not been invited.


Somehow we get around to him telling me that he's a vegetarian.


Now friends, I am willing to excuse a lot of flaws... ASU fan? I can handle that. Democrat? I may be able to live with. 


Vegetarian? Absolutely not. My family will string you up and eat YOU for dinner.


Oh, and to add to the shady he tells me that his profession is an online educator...


...for Kindergarten through 5th grade.


What kindergardener is taking online classes, seriously?


That just sounds like a logistical nightmare to me.


At this point he asks me to come outside with him. He is going to smoke (another non-negotiable) and he wants me to join him. I inform him that I am not a smoker and he goes outside. 


At this point Jodus and I are finishing our drinks and are going to head out and then he comes back. My phone rings with a call from someone who rarely calls, so I step outside to answer it. When I return he is sitting next to Jodus so I sit down in his chair and he turns to me and says, (and I really wish that I was making this up) I am obsessed with your smell. Seriously, I was talking to your friend and you walked up and I could smell you and I just couldn't pay attention to her anymore.


At this point, I'm a little freaked out.


Then it gets worse. 


He tells me that the real reason that he wanted me to come smoke with him earlier is because he wanted to see my body, but since I got up to answer the phone, he saw all he needed too and my body was as hot as my face.


Dude, now I know you're lying.


Then he proceeds to tell me that we need to find Jodus a man - and in order to do so, we are going to have to act like a couple. You know, so I don't pick up all of the men.


Then he tells me that he is going to run to the bathroom and he'll be right back.


As soon as he was out of sight, I grabbed Jodus and we got the heck out of Dodge.


I mean really, does that line really work on anyone? We need to pretend we are a couple in order to find your friend a man? 

Miscellany Monday

one

running behind


I can't believe that it is already 9:44 pm and I haven't posted this blog yet. I sat down this morning to post and then had to get ready and go to work. Then I had internet issues at the office today. Then I had a meeting after work. Then I got to Sissy's house and a friend of mine was here. So...better late than never, right?


two
a little glitter


Glinda and I were shoe shopping for Cribs' wedding last week - our mission: black strappy heels. 


Our find: 

We tried to talk Cribs into letting us get them - gold is one of her accent colors after all...


But - my birthday is coming up and I would love someone forever if they bought these for me!


three
glees


Glinda is obsessed with Glee. I had never seen it, but she needed someone to talk about it with so she gave me the first season to watch on DVD so I could get caught up.


Why have I not been watching this show? It is FABULOUS!


four
progress

If you click on this picture and enlarge it you can see what we're growing in our garden.


Some of it is hard to see, but this morning we noticed that our sweet bell peppers are starting to sprout!! (We were a little worried because the seed packet said that we should start them inside - whoops.)


However, our summer squash is struggling - I'm hoping that it will come up soon!

Wednesday Wisdom

"The journey is the trip."

-Daniel Perez

A friend of mine coined this beautiful phrase. The strange thing is that when he said it, we all laughed. He was hilarious!

Obviously, he meant to say something more like, "It's not the destination, it's the journey."

But really, the journey is the trip! You know? 

Miscellany Monday

one

terrible twos

Tiny turns two on Wednesday of this week and we celebrated yesterday with pizza, salad, and chaos.

I can't believe that little guy is two years old. I remember the day he was born. I was supposed to be on my way to Salt Lake City from Cortez, CO; but due to a total twist of fate, I ended up back in Phoenix for something like 8 hours and despite his stubborn nature, he went ahead and arrived on schedule.

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this kid.

two

you gotta have faith

Lots of talk lately about risks and rewards - and today I took a big leap of faith. I gave my two weeks notice at my job. There are a few things that are pending as far as next steps, but I'm going into this with a little faith and a lot of prayer. 

I decided that few people get what they are truly searching for in life without taking a big leap at some point.

So, coming up on my 30th birthday, I decided it was time that I made a few decisions for me. I'm hoping there will be lots of adventure to share soon!

three

the girls of spring

BodyBuilder and Jodus* are coming into town this weekend for Spring Training. BodyBuilder and I have dedicated a weekend in March to Spring Training since we were seniors in college in 2003. 

It is one of my favorite traditions and I'm really looking forward to it with the addition of Jodus!

four

cardiac cats

Ten years ago I was a sophomore in college and a new member of my sorority. It was March and that means life in Tucson, AZ was all about college basketball.  

The Duke Blue Devils beat my team in the national championship game and my new sorority sisters and I walked down to 4th Avenue to watch the riots break out.

Yesterday afternoon, my team took it down to the wire to beat the Texas Longhorns and earn their way into the Sweet Sixteen to take on Duke. I don't think I'll be rioting in any streets regardless of the outcome, but I am proud of my Cats!

(Oh, and I am still number four in my bracket pool - what now?!?)

FITBF

1.   The best deal I've ever gotten is       ... The truth is, I'm not really a searcher for deals. I mean, I love a good sale, and I rarely buy clothes full price, but as far as true deals - I can't think of any. I wish that I had the patience (and time) for thrift stores  and yard sales {sigh} .

2.  If I were hosting a dinner party and could invite people from my fantasy guest list it would include    I have never really thought about this, so I'll just give you a list of the "celebrities" I would like to hang out with: George W. and Laura Bush, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Hilary Swank, and Marcus Lutrell    .

3.  Something that inspires me is    my nephews. I want to be awesome for them. Whatever that means. I want to be someone they look up to    .

4.  If I could only choose to eat one flavor of food for the rest of eternity (sweet, salty, spicy, bitter....) I would have to go with     a really tough choice to make! But based on what I've been eating lately, I would have to say salty  .

5.  I dream about     finding the job that fulfills me and the love that completes me   .

6.  My weekend will be spent       drinking, dancing, socializing, running, and celebrating Tiny's birthday.

7.  If I could only  watch one movie or TV show for the rest of my life, it would be       either Dirty Dancing or Tombstone    .

Head on over to Lauren's blog and tell us about your blanks!

Erin Go Bragh

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

-Irish Prayer

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm only a little Irish, but you can kiss me anyway!

Today, I broke out my two favorite colors for the celebration:

Yes, I do believe Zebra is a color. Just ask Diddy - he'll tell you it is my favorite!

I hope that all of you are celebrating in whichever way you see fit. Be safe out there!

WHEER Madness!

Welcome to the White House Easter Egg Roll! Known to insiders as WHEER.

A White House tradition since 1878, you can learn more about the history of WHEER here. 

To summarize, the Monday after Easter, the WH grounds are opened up to the public (well, the ticket-holding public) for a general day of entertainment. There is the actual Easter Egg Roll, mazes, face-painting, character appearances, and much more.

In 2006, TGWH and I were invited by some good friends to be on staff for this historic event. We could not turn down the opportunity to spend 10 days in Washington, DC, setting up on the South Lawn of the White House so we each took our vacation days and headed east.

To say that it was uneventful would be a lie, but there aren't real stories to tell so I'll show you some pictures and give you some anecdotal information.

Welcome to the White House! Each morning we were greeted at the gate by heavily armed security personnel. After the first day, they obviously knew us so they would just hand us our visitor badge and off we'd go. It was pretty cool to see the looks people gave us as we strolled through the gate and onto the South Lawn. I'm pretty sure they thought we were important.

As I mentioned, there are characters who drop in at the WHEER event so we had to store their costumes in the garage at the WH - this may have also meant that we played with them...

It is pretty hard to see when you are Charlie Brown.

Also stored in the shed is the WH lawn mower - who can resist a picture with that?!?! TGWH also tripped over it at one point and traveled home with a pretty mean bruise on her thigh.

There are all kinds of secret areas on the grounds and we found one with the hand prints of George P Bush, from back when his Grandpa was the President.

It is not every day that you get to cruise a Gator around on the grass at the White House. As a matter of fact, typically you must stay on the walking paths - we had special privileges. 

I will also tell you that at one point, the President himself came out of that door you see way back behind us. He was taking the dogs out to do their business.

You really don't want to stop taking pictures when you are on the South Lawn of the White House. I will tell you that it was SO hot the week leading up to the event. We were getting sun burnt and sweating and it was a nightmare. But we couldn't complain because it rains almost every year on the Monday after Easter at the White House. So we hoped that the heat would pay off at the end of our stay and we wouldn't be drowning on the day of the event.

No such luck. We each went through at least three hats that day because they would get so wet!

This is not even close to the number of people who would fill these grounds. I swear they just kept coming - I didn't know where they all came from.

There was definitely a little fun mixed in with the work. Sometimes it is tough to control the runaway eggs!

The view standing at the fence by the street. This place is HUGE!

The crew! Of course the sun came out when the event was over!

Miscellany Monday

uno

pen and paper

I know this is going to sound really old-ladyish of me, but I am disappointed that people don't spend more time sending hand-written notes.

I remember being a kid and having pen pals - I LOVED pen pals. I loved getting something in the mail from someone far away and learning about what they were up to. There was summer in high school when a friend and I wrote each other letters, just because.

I miss those days.

So for Lent (I realize I'm a couple days late for the party), I am committing to send some hand-written notes to people. Not thank-yous, just little notes.

dos

tears of joy

I was checking out Facebook this morning and I started crying.

Ok, not full out crying, but I got a little misty-eyed.

You see, a beautiful young woman I used to babysit got engaged on V-day and she posted her engagement pictures on Facebook.

They were so beautiful that I teared up - I'm getting so old!

If you want to check them out you can do so here.

tres

not funny ha ha

I got a call from Glinda today, she said something to the effect of:

I have a funny story for you. Not funny-ha-ha. Funny-this-is-effing-ridiculous.

As you may remember, Glinda and I talked Cribs into running and, in turn, Cribs talked us into running a 5K with her. 

So we found one that worked in our schedule, signed up (through a reputable website, I might add) and commenced training.

Turns out, the race was fictional and does not exist. So goodbye $30 registration fee.

And I hope those people are ready for some serious bad karma!!

Tada!

I'm fairly certain that I have mentioned to all of you in previous posts that I am not a big fan of wearing shoes.

Obviously I do it because it is socially unacceptable not to.

However, I much prefer to be barefoot. Calluses be damned.

The strange part of this (no, I do not think it is strange that I want to walk around like a caveman) is that I LOVE shoes! I love to buy shoes!

Mostly, I love cowboy boots.

And yesterday, I wore a super cute pair that I picked up recently for a smokin' deal!

A couple of month's ago I was introduced to Langston's Western Wear when I entered a blog contest over on Blair's page.

Through that I began following Langston's on Twitter and was introduced to Ag Proud because they were also hosting a contest.

I did not win either of these contests, but I am now two pairs of boots richer...

Here's the thing - the boots pictured above are 50% off right now.

Trust me, you should order them!

I just can't keep a deal like that to myself!

Blankety, Blank, Blank, Blank

Sorry I've been a little MIA this week. I have no good reason, but I'm trying to do better - I swear!

I'm loving the randomness of today's FITBs.

1.   My biggest accomplishment in life thus far is      Funny - I was just talking to PapaBear the other day about "biggest accomplishments" and I was saying that I didn't think that I had many. He corrected me and said that being a staff member on a successful presidential campaign was pretty great - and even more so, being a part of the team that delivered New Mexico (a state that had not been won four years prior) was a pretty great accomplishment. So there you have it folks  .

2.  My favorite place to sit in my house is    probably either the couch or chair in the living room. Although I don't think there is a lot of "sitting room" in my house, so this would really be the only logical place. Though I may be sitting outside on the back porch these next couple of weeks admiring my garden and willing the veggies to grow   .

3.  My fashion philosophy is    wear what looks good on you and makes you feel good. Trends are trendy, but that doesn't mean they look good on you. And Diddy told me once to accentuate my small parts...     .

4.  Something every girl should have is     a sister  .

5.  If you looked in my purse right now you'd find....     A lot of business cards, my wallet, a clutch, a pack of gum, lip gloss, cuticle cream, coins, and much, much more .

6.  My favorite music right now is       Miranda Lambert - I read the article about her in Cowboys & Indians and now I can't stop listening to her music. Such a wide range of music   .

7.  My favorite part of my body is       my legs. Which is why I wear lots of dresses and skirts. Remember - Diddy said accentuate your small parts...    .

Now - head on over to Lauren's blog and fill in your own blanks!!

And have a great weekend!

Wednesday Wisdom

In 2004, I was working on the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign.

As you can imagine, work on a Presidential campaign is stressful. Really - work on any campaign is stressful.

Either way, as we got closer to Election Day in 2004, the stress became unbearable. One day I was talking to one of my friends back at HQ in Arlington, VA - relaying my stresses about whatever was going on at that moment. What he said to me that day has stuck with me.

I wrote it on a note card and it sits on my desk at home now.

"The risks are great, but the rewards infinite."

What a great message.

As it often happens, when the risks are at the highest, the rewards are probably higher. 

They have to be to make it worth it.

When the rewards are infinite - take the risks - I think you'll be happy you did.

Miscellany Monday

one.

Whiskey Tango

SuperFan, Lynsky, JP and I went to a concert on Friday night. Trent Tomlinson did an acoustic show in Flagstaff. It was a small show and we had a blast! 

We had decided to get a hotel room next to the bar where the show was for safety reasons. After checking in, I'm not so sure staying the night at the HoJo was safer than someone driving after drinking.

two.

How Does Your Garden Grow

The garden is planted!

How awesome is it going to be when we have fresh vegetables?

Yes - very awesome!

three.

Technological Age

XouXou won a Kindle at a work conference recently. However, a couple of years ago she got a Sony e-reader for Christmas. Since no one needs two electronic readers, she let me have the Kindle. 

I will admit that I've only tried to use it for about 45 minutes, but I am having a hard time with not having an actual book in my hand. I am sure that I am going to enjoy the convenience of the e-reader and the ability to buy books virtually anywhere, but I'm not done with books forever.

four.

Good Thoughts

I have kind of a big day on Thursday of this week, so if it occurs to you at 11:30 am Mountain time on Thursday, could you please take a moment to think good thoughts for me?

Thanks in advance!

Filling In...

1.   The phrase or punctuation I overuse most is       "in other news" I know there is another one, but since I sit in my office alone most days, I can no longer remember what it is  .

2.  Today I am thankful for    coffee with cream and weekends   .

3.  My best friend is    wonderful! Hilarious! Always there when I need! Nearly a saint for putting up with me     .

4.  A quirky thing about me is     everything. I would say I'm generally pretty quirky. Probably the thing that people comment on the most is my crazy need for a schedule and a color-coded calendar  .

5.  This weekend I     am going to decompress! Head up north for a concert with "The Littles" and then go for a training run with Glinda and Cribs .

6.  Something that worries me is        losing my sanity in this job. I wish I was kidding   .

7.  On my night stand you would find       my cell phone charger, a stack of books, a lamp, probably a remote control, and a lot of hair bands    .


Head over to Lauren's for more FITB fun!