Month of October, 2004

Mike & Mindy's Wedding Reception

Mike & Mindy got married Friday. Saturday night they had a costume party for their wedding reception. It was tons of fun! What a wonderful way to celebrate together. Slides are up.

I was really, really impressed by Mike & Mindy's friends. The way they spoke to each other in a respectful, interested, engaged way. I liked that they didn't just talk about sports or work, but politics and relationships. They opened up to me and immediately made me feel comfortable. It's quite obviously a very tight, close group. It was very special for me to share a night with them.

Comments

Costumes

It's the costume time of year again. Tonight I'm going to a wedding reception for Mike and Mindy, which is also a costume party. I didn't know what I was going to wear until last night. Scott came to the rescue and helped me find a costume. You see, his mother runs a theater school and she allowed us to raid the costume department. We had tons of fun looking through everything. Here are a few pictures to prove it.

Pictures of the costume I actually picked for tonight's party are coming later. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

1820 Imports

Thursday night I went to a wine party sponsored by 1820 Imports and Glazer's. 1820 Imports just announced a Chilean wine, Puerto Viejo. It was an excellent evening. I really enjoyed the wine and met a ton of interesting people. I made a ton of great contacts in the Dallas area and even met the vinyard owner, Santiago. It's amazing how small the world actually is.

I was introduced to 1820 Imports a couple months ago through school. One of the founders of 1820 received his MBA at my school and he came back to share his experiences. It's a great company with great wines. Next time you buy wine, be sure to pick up a bottle of Tango Vino or Puerto Viejo.

Comments

Good Links

Marry an American - a website for Canadians to pledge to marry a liberal American if Bush wins again (so the American can be saved from "Bushville")

Be a billionaire for halloween - celebrity halloween masks for Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, etc.

Comments

Incredible Compliment

I got the best complimentary email from a co-worker today.

He wrote, " I continue to be impressed with how customers think you are both incredibly intelligent and kind when they talk to you on the phone, and then light up when they meet you too. I suspect it is something about how your eyes light up when you smile, and customers see how friendly and confident you are, all the while talking seriously about how to solve their problems. It is an amazing great attribute that cannot be taught. It is like you are their friend and trusted advisor all at the same time. And you are sincere about all of it, and they can tell. "

It made me feel really, really good.

Comments

I Voted

I voted today in early voting. Now I just sit back and wait. (And hope.) If you haven't voted yet, make sure you go!

Also, this was my first time voting on a computer! The government has finally joined us in the 21st century. Very exciting!

Comments

MyFi

Yesterday XM Radio & Delphi announced MyFi, the world's first personal satellite radio. Since I bought XM Radio for my car a few months ago, I've been hooked. I love listening to radio that plays what I want to hear - without commercials. Now I can't wait to have XM Radio portably too.

The design looks good (though I can't really tell how big it is) and I especially like the rechargeable lithium-ion battery. But the best part has to be memory mode. You can record 5 hours worth of radio to bring with you. I've been wanting XM at work and now I can have it. I can hardly wait until December when it's released to buy it!

Comments

Grand Rapids and Back

Flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan Monday night. Due to rain in Dallas, my flight was delayed a good hour and half. The only good that came from that was being able to catch up on all the reading for my law class. But getting in late meant getting to the hotel, checking email, and tumbling into bed. Spent Tuesday at the customer site discussing support and what they can expect from us. In addition, I learned a lot about this specific customer - how they operate, what they need us to do, etc. It was an extremely positive meeting. The best part was when I was told that support has improved a lot over the past year and a half (during my watch). It's encouraging to know I've made some improvements, with a lot of help from an incredible team. The day was over too quickly and it was back to the airport.

Now I'm in the air headed home. I'll probably grab some dinner on the way home from the airport then tumble into bed. I'm feeling like it was a really good, productive trip. I'm happy with the relationship with this customer and feel like it's a very positive situation moving forward. I feel good about my role and the team I work with. Now if only I could get some positive feelings from the bad earnings report my company put out.

Comments

Phil's Dream

I saw Phil get online this evening so I said hi. It had been a long time since we talked and I know he's still adjusting to life in San Antonio, where he just moved for a job. As we start chatting, I learned that Phil had a dream about me last night. The conversation went something like this:

phil: yes - vivid long dream early this morning but it was romantic
phil: well sortof romantic - i was being romantic - though some might say in a lame way
phil: i dreamt i picked out an engagement ring online and sent you a link to it via im
me: Wow, that's fantastic! I'm totally giggling, because you're right...romantic for you, but not for a lot of people.
phil: every girl's dream, i'm sure, to be proposed to over im - silly thing to dream! - no wonder you turned me down
me: You even dreamt that I turned you down?
phil: yeah & then i saw your dad
phil: and there was some barbq
phil: i'm not sure why your dad and i were bar b q'ing chicken together after you turned me down
phil: and then your sister was chewing me out
phil: and i woke up
phil: oh but somewhere in there you drove down to san antonio to visit me and we had a nice time
me: Well, I'm glad to hear there was some happiness in there.
phil: you don't strike me as a huge fan of the color pink, or am i wrong?
me: You're wrong. I actually like the color pink a lot.
me: I just try not to be the girl everyone would assume likes the color pink.
phil: o- huh - see - ok, i thought this was strange- in my dream i picked out a pink diamond ring. when i woke up i thought that was an odd choice
me: It's very interesting that you would dream that because I don't want a regular diamond for a ring. I want something different. Though I haven't ever told anyone that.

Dreams are awesome. Aren't they?

Weekends

Knowing that you are loved is the best feeling in the whole world.

I've been so busy lately, I haven't taken the time to write. Yesterday I was wondering how the week went by so quickly and it was another weekend again. Not that I'm complaining, the weekends have been great.

Last weekend
Friday night I went to Screams, a Halloween theme park, with Donald. We had a blast going through the haunted houses as well as standing in line chatting. The weather was perfect not too warm, not too cold. My favorite haunted house was the chain link fence maze (I think it was called "Maze of the Macabre").

Saturday Scott and I spent the day at Lone Star Park, the horse races. Our ten year high school reunion was held at the park. However due to the steep ticket prices, we didn't officially attend the reunion. Instead, we hung out with Cliff & Kelly who did some betting then after the reunion was officially over, we swung by and saw some old friends from high school. Scott and I also had the distinct pleasure of the behind-the-scenes tour. Amy, my friend from school, works at the park and set us up with Greg, who works in security. Greg took us all around the park and even to the roof!

Seeing people from high school was fairly anti-climatic for me. You see, I graduated from high school a year early. So I technically graduated in 1994, but most of my good friends from school graduated in 1995. Most of the people I know from Class of '94, I still see on a fairly regular basis. But the reunion did allow me to see a couple more people like Joel, Regan, and Art. It also meant an excuse for a party at Scott's house that night. Naturally, it was a lot of fun.

Sunday was Mom's birthday, which we celebrated by having tons and tons of shrimp. It was a really nice meal and good to hang out with my parents. It was kinda sad that Kristen wasn't home for it, but it was kinda nice to get my parents all to myself. Kristen finally came back home on Wednesday. It's been really good to have her back.

This Weekend
Friday night Cliff, Mark, and Kevin had the grand opening of their glass shop. There was a huge crowd to welcome the Grapevine Glass Studio and I know everyone had fun.

Saturday night I went to see the Beasty Boys with Scott. Wow, we had a lot of fun! The concert was great, our seats were great, and the crowd was great. The Beasty Boys are getting old, but they can still rock the house. Everyone was having a great time. Scott and I were extremely lucky to have the first song of the encore performed only 10 feet from our seats. It was crazy fun. The whole night was awesome.

Sunday Mom, Dad, Kristen, and I attended Greyfest, a fund raiser for Greyhounds Unlimited, the group I adopted Tiger from. It was so much fun seeing all the greyhounds together and how happy they were. But I think we wore Tiger out. He's been sleeping ever since we got home.

Looking forward to a busy week. Going to Grand Rapids, Michigan Monday night for a Tuesday meeting. Back on Tuesday night. Then into the regular school/work schedule. I'm feeling like Christmas will be here before I can catch my breath. I'm going to try to slow down a bit. Somehow I think that's going to be hard. Oh well, no complaints, life is really good and I'm very happy.

Yahoo! Maps

I was using Yahoo! Maps just now and I found a new feature they've added. SmartView marks useful things on any map you're looking at. You can see ATMs and wireless hot spots, (my favorites) as well as restaurants, shopping, and gas stations. This is incredible! I can think of a billion different times when I could have used this. Now I just need Internet on my cell phone so I can use this while I'm out looking for something like an ATM.

Fortune Cookies

I got two fortunes in my fortune cookie today. They both said, "Others apprciate you more than you think." I suppose someone decided that I really needed to hear that today.

Comments

Presidential Race

Have you been keeping up with the Presidential race? Surely you've seen at least one of the debates. If not, you're reading out it, right? You have no excuse. This only happens once every 4 years. So get off your butt and pay attention! I don't care who you vote for, just make sure you're informed and that you vote!

Now that I'd done lecturing, I'll tell you something. I missed the first debate and the VP debate, but I watched the second. Tivo grabbed Wednesday night's debate while I was at the fair. I just haven't watched it yet.

Bush's Bulge
All the rumors about the bulge on Bush's back during the first debate sure is interesting. Have you heard about it? People think Bush is wired. They think he was wearing a receiver so someone somewhere else prompts his speech. Read about the controversy at isbushwired.com. If you want a more mainstream source, check out the New York Times article, " The Mystery of the Bulge in the Jacket ." I particularly like Ultramicroscopic's take on it.

Complaint About the 2nd Debate
So the second debate, the only one I've watched so far, was structured like a town hall meeting. Normal people from the audience were chosen to ask questions to the candidates. The questions were excellent! I was very, very impressed with all the people. I was very unimpressed with the candidates' responses. Neither candidate answered a question 100% straight-forward. Gentlemen, just answer the f***ing question! Though we might not agree with your answer completely, we'd respect you more for being firm on your answer. This race should not be about smoothing over your answers in order to appeal to the greatest number of people. It should be about telling us what you would really do in office! I imagine this is just the way they've learned to do it by being politicians for so long. Wouldn't it be really nice if we had someone other than a politician running for office?

Comments

Catching Up & Changes

I feel like I'm still catching up from last month. September was crazy. I spent exactly 13 nights at home last month and 17 somewhere else. The part that's killing me is I'm still trying to get caught up on work. (And the lack of motivation to do so.) I looked up from my computer just now and realized the daily Get Fuzzy calendar on my desk shows September 22nd. I'm looking forward to staying in town this whole month.

Changes

It feels like there are a lot of changes going on around me.
• The weather has changed. Today there's a crisp chill in the air.
• Ev quit Google and is moving on.
• Matt is travelling around the U.S. on Greyhound buses.
• AB got a new dog.
• Jecca posted and it was sooooo nice to hear what they're up to.
• Tim J. turns 30 on Tuesday. This is the hardest change to swallow. Tim was the first guy to take me out on a date. I was 15 years old and my parents made an exception to their "no dating before 16" rule. (We got to double date.) Somehow Tim's turning 30 makes me feel really, really old. The awesome part is that it doesn't make Tim feel old at all. He has this incredible outlook on it. He said he was just getting into it in his 20's and now he's reached stride and he's going to rock into his 30's. Heck yeah.

Last night, Amy told me that Jason was approached at a party Friday night about my blog. Someone she recognized him from this picture. Apparently she told him that she reads my site because I have a fascinating love life. Amy didn't find out who the woman was. Do you know? Was it you?

State Fair of Texas

Tonight I went to the State Fair of Texas. Amy called me about 15 minutes before I was going to leave work and asked me to join her. About an hour later, I joined Amy, Greg, and Kader, Amy's coworkers, and we went to the fair. I had more fun tonight than I've had in years. We were kids all night long. We ate corn dogs, ice cream, fried oreos, ice cream, and a fried Twinkie. We played silly games - tossing rings on bottles, bouncing balls in cups, and betting on a multi-colored roulette-type wheel. Then we rode rides! We rode the ferris wheel (my first time on the biggest ferris wheel in North America), went up and down on the pirate ship, slid down a huge slide, and rode the crazy yet amazing spinney thing called Twin Twister (or something like that).

The whole night was just perfect. The company was a ton of fun. Kader and Greg are awesome. They made scratching lottery tickets more fun that I ever realized it could be! The weather was fabulous. It cooled off and felt like fall. The best part of the evening was that I relaxed like I haven't relaxed in a really long time. Maybe all that screaming and laughing was really therapeutic. Yeah, I think so... I still feel incredible. I was really lucky to have a night like this. Thanks, Amy, Greg, and Kader!

Comments

After Germany

So I'm back home. I've been home for the past week but have been distracted by other things (school, cleaning, catching up with friends, laundry, etc.). Here's the final installment from my trip.

Wrote most of this on the plane from Europe back to North America. That part of the trip was uneventful other than the crazy amount of security check points we had to go through at the Brussels airport. I think there was a total of four checks from curbside to boarding. I’m all for good security, but surely there’s something to be said for secure areas and once you get in, you’re still OK.

The rest of our time in Germany was really, really good. I went home feeling relaxed and thankful for the time with my family. Laughing together is such a gift.

Here’s a quick run down of the week in Germany while we stayed with Karen and Jason.
• Monday – Tour of Jason’s work place, some grocery shopping, and driving through the countryside.
• Tuesday – A couple hours in Aachen, most importantly visited the dom (cathedral) in Aachen, which is where the kings used to be crowned. We also had a fabulous Italian meal. Then we spent the afternoon in Monschau, a quaint town with a lot of art, specifically glass, and a river running through it.
• Wednesday – Shopping at IKEA and dinner at an incredible Mediterranean place in Sittard, a village only a few minutes from Karen and Jason.
• Thursday – Slept in late, which meant skipping the morning market, but much needed. It was vacation, afterall. Then I spent the afternoon and evening in Aachen with Mia. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!
• Friday – Drove to the Rhineland, which was about 3 hours away. Started in St. Goar, where we took a ferry down the Rhine River, saw a bunch of castles, walked around Bacharach (which is known for its wine), and took a train back to St. Goar.
• Saturday – Dropped Kristen off at the Cologne (Koln) airport so she could fly to Munich where she was meeting friends for Oktoberfest. The highlight of the day was touring the Koln Cathedral, an incredible example of gothic style cathedral. It was so incredible, it made me want to cry in awe. Later that evening back at Karen and Jason’s, we watched Zoolander and ate Italian food. It was the best pizza I’ve had in a long time or maybe I was just really hungry!
• Sunday – Travel day. Brussels to New York City. We got stuck in NYC overnight and flew out Monday morning.

Visiting with Mia
One of the highlights of the trip for me was getting the opportunity to finally meet http://www.invisible-jet.net/outbound/ “>Mia in person. Mia and I have been reading each other’s blogs for the past two or three years. (She found me after my Greek cruise, when she was looking for information on Turkey.) It was so exciting to finally meet in person and fill in all the cracks of our knowledge of each other. Just like I suspected we would, Mia and I just clicked. It’s like we’ve known each other forever. We strolled around Aachen for a little while then sat in a café and talked for the rest of the afternoon. It was perfect.

Mia is an American (specifically an Italian from New York City). Ahh, I love Italians…it must be in my blood. About three years ago, Mia moved to Germany to be with Chris. This past year they got married. I learned a ton of other interesting things about Mia, but it’s her choice to what extent she shares her life on the Internet.

Mia is absolutely so sweet and a perfect friend for me. I wish she lived closer! (My life’s mantra.) The good news is Mia wants to come visit in March! She wants to attend South by Southwest Interactive with me. So only another six months before I get to see this wonderful woman.

Memorable Moments of the Germany Trip
• ”There’s been an accident.” phrase from the German phrasebook.
• The word ”slaapkamers” in the real estate ads in the Netherlands. (It means bedrooms.)
• Imagining the perfect little European house I could have if I bought everything in IKEA.
• I got to drive from the Rhineland back to Karen and Jason’s house, approximately two hours. I experienced the autobahn! Though I probably scared my family once or twice.
• Lots and lots of Italian ice cream! (Which is better than ice cream in the U.S.)
• We got a free bottle of wine when we ordered more than 30 Euro worth of Italian food at the place near Karen’s house.
• More eating! (Jason, I’ll get working on the map which shows everything/everywhere we ate.)

Comments