The Cake

Here's the baseball cake...still haven't found the decorator bag. :(

The Case of the Missing Decorator Bag

For those of you who are relatively new readers of my blog, I sell cakes as a (very) small side business. I have a cake that is due tomorrow (a baseball cake - it turned out really great. I'll post pictures tomorrow once I find the battery charger for my digital camera!) so I spent tonight decorating it. Once I was finished and the cake was safely in its box, I started cleaning up. I only used 2 colors on this one, so luckily only had to use 2 bags. I squeezed the big chunks of icing out of the decorator bags into the trash can and then started washing them out with hot water in the sink like I always do. I finished washing out the blue bag and turned to pick up the red bag....and it was gone. I honestly have no clue where it went. Its a decorator bag, for goodness sakes! It can't just get up and walk off! So I think, I'll just clean up the rest of the kitchen and it will turn up. My kitchen is now spotless, and there is still no red bag. I checked the trashcan to make sure I didn't throw it away (I don't care about the bag so much as the tip that was on it!) and it isn't there. I searched in my pantry, checked my refrigerator and freezer, looked in all the cabinets, walked through my apartment which I should mention, is CLEAN right now, even though I never left the kitchen with the bag. I can't find it anywhere. I have finally given up looking. But the best part is, I know that somewhere in my apartment is a decorator bag with a little bit of red icing just sitting somewhere, waiting to be found. It may be found tomorrow, or next week, or even as far away as when I move again. And the longer it goes, the more disgusting that butter-based icing will get. I think I need to call in Nancy Drew before it really starts to rot!

Interesting Experiment

I was talking to my friend John yesterday before he left for his parents' house in Detroit, Michigan. He is connecting through Chicago first because although he can get a direct flight to Detroit from DFW, his sister who lives in Austin can't. So they are connecting together. This is when my mind starts formulating a hypothesis: people who live in major hub cities are at a disadvantage because of the prices of direct flights.

To test my theory, I began looking at fares on American Airlines. I set the date to depart on Dec. 27th and return on Dec. 29th. Here are 3 flights that I looked at:

DFW to Chicago (direct flight): $743

DFW to Detroit connecting in Chicago: $547

DFW to Milwaukee connecting in Chicago: $318

And the now for the REALLY amusing part - the "connecting flight" to chicago is the exact same flight that I chose for the "direct flight."

Moral of the story: If you're flying into a Chicago, save yourself $400 and buy a ticket to Milwaukee and just never get on your connecting flight. Show back up at the airport when your 2nd "connecting flight" is supposed to land. Of course, this would only work if you aren't checking luggage because they tend to check luggage all the way through to your final desination now....

Happy Traveling!

Interview Season has officially begun!

Today I got my first interview for a summer internship. It is with a company that I have been looking at since I was in high school - Alcon. I am really excited to be interviewing with a company that consistently makes Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For (this year it is #42) and that is in my hometown so I wouldn't have to think about relocation. My interview is Monday, so as soon as I finish with IP on Wednesday, I get to start studying for my interview! I only thought I was going to get a break this weekend!

Snow Days

My Situation:

1. As I have mentioned before, most of my friends here are from the midwest or northeast - Chicago, Boston, Gettysburg, Omaha, Detroit, etc.
2. Starting on Thursday afternoon, we had a sleet/ice storm here in DFW. This caused the usual panic....cars flipping on bridges, semis jacknifing on the highway, schools cancelled, everyone urged to lock themselves inside because of the impending doom.
3. All of my friends decide to go on and on and on....and on and on and on...about how stupid Texans are and how "if they shut everything down for weather like this where I'm from, nothing would be open for 2 months" (imagine me saying this in a mocking voice)

My Response:

1. True, everything would have to be shut down for 2 months. I realize that. But just because you don't close things doesn't mean you shouldn't close things. It is just they don't have the luxury of closing down because of the number of days that they have bad weather. Here in Texas, we get maybe 3 or 4 days a year when roads are bad, and schools have snow days built in, so why not close down and be safe rather than sorry?
2. You're in my state now! Nobody forced you to come here. If you think its all so stupid, then go back to your stupid snowy state and leave me and my state's paranoia alone!

And last but not least:

1. I appreciate my friend Bill - AKA Boston Bill. Here is the conversation we had last night over google talk:
2. Bill: hey you didnt tell me it gets this bad out!
   Emily: you wouldn't have believed me
   Bill: it is like a suicide mission right now if you try to drive
   Emily: yep
   people from midwest and north think that we don't know how to drive in snow
   what you don't realize is we don't get snow....we just get pure ice
   you can't use chains in ice
   Bill: yeah and you have nothing to treat it
   i saw 4 cars get stuck on my hill at the end of mccart

Hope everyone stayed safe and warm during our snowy days! I got to battle the weather and come to campus to work on our big project, but on Wednesday, my 1st semester of MBA school will be done! I will be MIA for about a week while I work on this beast 24/7. Have a great week!

Blogger Woes

So, today I read another installment of Trey's Twelve Blogs of Christmas series and was very pleased yet again. Until I tried to comment. I was faced with the necessary evil of word verification asking me to type in the letters "seminex" so I did. It told me I was wrong, which has happened before, but usually it gives a new word to type. This time it had the exact same word. I typed it again, it told me I was wrong again and gave me the same word. So, not that anyone cares, but here is my comment for today's post in the Twelve Blogs of Christmas:

"I was one of the Cabbage Patch lovers and it was my poor grandmother that had to battle people to get me and Allyson each one. I guess it wasn't really my grandmother that we felt sorry for - more like any of those other people who tried to get in her way! She was a feisty one!

Ben has an XBOX 360 that he spent the night outside of Target for. He tried to sell it on Ebay right when he got home and his was one of the few that didn't sell, so he decided to keep it. I think he should try again now that they are sold out.

Yet another solid post. Keep em coming!"

Has anyone else had problems with word verification?

Things I've Learned

I've learned a few very important things this semester in my MBA program. I thought I'd share them with you today.

1. To fit the greatest amount of information on a page (i.e. a 2 page cheat sheet) , expand all margins to .5 pts, make it 2 columns, and change the font to 8 pt. Arial Narrow. This allows for the most information in a readable font.
2. There is no value added in coming to a class that is mathematically/analytically focused (eg. Accounting or Finance). The professors should just hand you a list of subjects you need to know, give you the book, and be available to answer questions in their office hours. All you do in class is zone out and then teach it to yourself before the test anyways, why not put that 3 hours each week into something more useful?
3. You should never even contemplate missing a case class. In direct contrast with analytical classes, there is very little that can be done outside of class in studying for case class tests (short of forming the perfect cheat sheet. See #1). I missed one class this semester in our major case class and when it came time to evaluate the transformational leadership of Iacocca on our test, I was so far behind because I didn't get to discuss the merits of his case in class.
4. There is no point in being in an MBA program in your home city. Don't even entertain the fact that you will get to hang out with your friends that live here. I think Lindsey has spent more time with Katie and Stephen than I have this semester. She lives 2 hours away and I live about 10 minutes away, if that! Ridiculous!
5. Regardless of all of this, I am really enjoying myself and I know, despite the stress now, I am going to be sad when these 2 years are over.

Have a great weekend!

Emily

Finals Week

Or I guess I should say, final week and a half. In the MBA program, we have 10 days of finals - 5 days of tests and study day in between each. Then, after my last final next Wednesday, they hand us our Integrated Project case and 7 days of no sleep begins. But thats another story. Back to finals....

At first I was annoyed. Why not just have them all in 1 week and get them over with? But after having one day off and my first test today, I am so glad! It was nice to be able to leave my Managing People final today and not have to immediately think about my Corporate Finance final I will have on Thursday night. That is what tomorrow is for. And I don't even thinkI need a full day to study, so I'm going to get to sleep in tomorrow, study tomorrow afternoon, sleep in Thursday, and then study a couple hours Thursday afternoon before the test that night. In undergrad, finals week was so stressful. You spent all semester relaxing and then cramming everything in, leaving one exam and immediately stressing about the next one. In grad school, its completely switched! I've spent all semester working myself to death and because of the format of our schedule, I get to actually relax and take my time studying for the tests. I honestly think I'm going to get more sleep this week than I have since I started school in August. I never thought I'd say this, but finals week is going to be the best week ever!

2nd Busiest Travel Day of the Year

This week, I acted as Emily's Airport Shuttle to my friends who live out of state. So I battled airport traffic on Wednesday afternoon - not fun. But even more not fun was yesterday. I picked up my first friend at 8 am at Love field. Traffic wasn't great there. But then I got to go to DFW! The wind was really strong, so all of the flights got delayed, which was nice in one manner because people who weren't supposed to get in at the same time landed within 15 minutes of each other, but the last flight for me was supposed to come in at 9:30 and it came in at 11:04pm. I felt so bad for my friends - one sat boarded on the airplane in Baltimore for an hour before it took off and then had to sit for 35 minutes after they landed before they were taxied to the gate. Having bad traffic at the airport is bad under any circumstance, but on the 2nd busiest travel day of the year....it is absolutley horrific. Cars were lined up in every lane in the passenger pick up areas so no one could move. I was smart and went into the parking garage, so there was no traffic. But in the end, it was all worth it to see my friends again and get them home safely. Happy Monday-After-Thanksgiving!

Christmas Already?

It doesn't feel like Christmas season yet. It obviously is, because I had to wait through 3 left hand turn lights before being able to get into the parking lot of CompUSA when I was trying to buy a new phone today. But it still doesn't feel like it. I love Christmas season. Everything is happy and pretty. So why am I not into it yet? Probably a few reasons:

1. It is currently 70 degrees outside with a high tomorrow of 77. Any weather in which you can wear T-Shirts cannot be Christmas weather. My friends that are home right now in cities like Boston, Gettysburg, and Detroit are cursing snow today, but I am wishing it would at least get cold enough to wear some of the sweaters that I could be buying right now.

2. This semester has gone by so incredibly fast. I cannot believe that I am starting finals in 3 days. To me it still feels like the semester should be in about October, so I can't comprehend the fact that it is almost December.

3. I haven't watched any sappy Christmas romantic comedies yet. Hallmark - you're letting me down!

4. I haven't decorated anything yet. I really don't have a reason to decorate my apartment since no one comes here because there is no parking. This is the first time in 3 years that I haven't been responsible for decorating the COBA building at ACU. I'm not living at home, so I wasn't there to decorate yesterday. Maybe I should get that sad Charlie Brown tree that Ryan had on his blog a few weeks ago...

So hopefully I will quickly get that feeling that comes with Christmas...not the one of frustration surrounding any major shopping area...the one of joy that you can feel when walking around a beautifully decorated Downtown. So if anyone wants to go downtown for dinner tonight, give me a call!

Time Differences

Doing business with someone in Germany totally stinks. There is a 7 hour time difference, so in order to have conference calls, the American has to be up really early. When I was working with a university in Austria last year, I would have to schedule my calls for around 4 am in order to get in touch with the people I needed to. Now I am calling from an office on campus that doesn't open until 8 am, so we have to have many short conference calls because my contact in Germany is about to go home when we call. So now I have to get up early on my only free day this weekend to make a stupid conference call. I know they're paying me so I should do what works for them, but couldn't they be inconvenienced just once or twice and take a call around 6 pm their time? I'd better get a free trip to Germany out of this consulting job or I'm going to be thoroughly annoyed.

Google Talk

TCU requires us to have laptops and put wireless internet in all the classrooms. As a result, we spend a lot of our class time on the internet. So most of my class downloaded Google Talk to use instead of AIM or MSN. On Google talk, you can put up a quote that displays under your name. Some people put up generic feel-good quotes, some put up funny ones, while others make comments about the class we're in right now. Here is a sampling of some of the quotes we've had recently. Which ones do you think are mine? And more importantly, does anyone have any suggestions of new quotes I can use?

- I believe in luck – how else can you explain the success of people you don’t like?
- I think the world would be a much better place if everybody agreed with me.
- I have as much authority as the Pope, just less people that believe it
- Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
- Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."
- Wake me up at 12:20
- Netting my present value
- The NPV of studying for Managing People was higher than the NPV of coming to Finance today, so I accepted the project with the greatest capital gains.
- What’s a balance sheet?
- I tuned Ira out hours ago
- Is it just me or is this case just going in circles?
- Do my good looks count as an asset?
- Segmentation is a pain in my rear
- Matching my principles with my Treasured Stock.
- Yes, I came to marketing today. Consider yourself lucky.

Let the suggestions begin!

I Have Found My Long-Lost Twin!

Okay, obviously not LITERALLY my long lost twin - I'm not 5'3" and phillipino - but this is my friend Christina. She is a 2nd year in the MBA program. We met at the beginning of the year, but really got to know each other last weekend in Boston. And it turns out - we're exactly the same person. We are both marketing concentrations, love musicals, love the arts in general, hate guacamole, love Boston accents, and are reality TV junkies. Those are just a few of the things we learned about each other while we were gone. It is so great because we have both been looking for someone in our programs to share things like that with because no one else in the MBA program shares our affinity for them. She spent last year dragging some of the guys to cultural things that they hated and I have spent the first part of this year trying to talk people in my class into seeing musicals. But now we have each other! We have such limited time between classes and consulting that it is hard to see people that aren't in the MBA program, so to have someone to talk about the things I like with is just incredible! God has really brought me something I really needed to make it through this program with my sanity.

Dream Anger

Have you ever had a dream where someone did something so bad to you that you woke up the next morning mad at them for real? That happened to me last night. I had a dream where one of my friends from school was so mean to me that he made me cry in my dream. If you know me well, you know that it takes a WHOLE lot to make me cry. So this morning, I woke up and I was still angry at him! Even sitting here now, several hours later, I am still actually mad at him even though I know he didn't REALLY do anything mean and it was all just a dream. What is it that makes some dreams so real that their effects are felt for so long? It can happen with good dreams too - waking up from a good dream will leave me feeling good for most of the day. Am I the only one who this happens to?

When I was at ACU, my roommate Nichole spent a day furious with me. I couldn't figure out why. She wouldn't tell me, she just spent the day mad and kept saying "You know what you did!" Finally, right before bed, I said "Please just tell me what I did so I can make up for it. I really have no idea." So she goes into this story about me saying mean things to her and I don't even remember a lot of it, but about halfway through, it started getting so ridiculous that she stopped and realized that it had been a dream. We still laugh about it now. I am at least one step ahead and recognize that my situation was a dream, but for some reason I am still so mad at him! Hopefully when I see him tonight, I can put my dream anger aside and realize that he is my good friend and has never done anything like what he did in my dream.

I'm wishing happy dreams upon all my readers today. :)

Call 911! My Tivo broke!!!

Wednesday night, I was sitting in my apartment, working on some research, with my TV on in the background. I was "watching" (more like listening to) one of the shows that was recorded on my DVR. All of a sudden, there was a loud pop, the screen on my TV started going crazy, and then it went into the fuzzy screen. My first reaction was a little freaked out - it looked straight out of a scene from The Ring. That lasted about 1/2 sec until I realized that this is reality, bringing me to my 2nd reaction - panic! I was so worried that it would erase the shows that I hadn't watched yet or not work again until a repairman came out or something. As a busy student, I have very little in my life right now and no Tivo might just push me over the edge! (I'm not being overly-dramatic, am I?...) After a few minutes, it came back on and I quickly checked the recorded list - everything was still there. My problems were over - or so I thought.

The next day, I get back to my apartment for the first time at 9:30pm after a VERY long day of classes and meetings, looking forward to watching one or two of the shows on my favorite night of television. I couldn't wait to choose between Survivor, Alias, and The Apprentice. I go to the recorded list - and none of them are there! I checked the memory to see if it was full, and it wasn't, nothing recorded! So then I went to the scheduled recordings list and it was completely wiped out. It had not a single item on it. I was annoyed that I didn't get the Thursday shows, but then just went to the task of re-setting up my weekly recordings, thinking that it was kinda nice, I could finally get around to stopping the weekly recordings of shows that I tried out and didn't like. But when I tried to set up a recording, it didn't work! It would take me through the series of menus, but when it finished, it wouldn't add anything to scheduled recordings! I even tried just pushing record on a show that was on right now and it wouldn't record. If you don't have Tivo already, I'm not even going to try to describe how dependent you become on it, so now I am speaking to those of you who's hearts are starting to beat a little faster thinking "Oh my goodness, I'm glad thats not me!" The thought of not having this fabulous little device terrified me to my very core.

So I did what any good DVR customer would - got on Charter's 24 hour live support chat. And the story gets very anticlimactic from there, we spent an hour or so trying different things until he told me to unplug it and replug it in to reboot it, which worked. So now I'm back in business. But what I really wanted to talk about today is this...does anyone have this week's Survivor, Apprentice, and/or Alias that I could borrow??

Anonymous Comments

A while ago, I wrote a post about my pet peeves. Today, I want to add one to the list....rude anonymous commenters. Today I went to read the blog of a friend who was expressing frustration about her current situation. She gave a nice disclaimer in the title, something about "WARNING....bitterness to follow" or something close. You could tell she was writing things in anger. And what were the comments? Anonymous posters berading her, calling her selfish and telling her that she is holding herself in too high of regards! Seriously! Do you think that THAT is what she needed right then?

Blogging makes it really easy to dehumanize the person you are reading about and eventually commenting to - you never see them so you feel invincible. So it becomes really easy to be completely horrible to them through commenting. In my opinion, it is one thing to disagree with someone, its another to be a complete jerk. And most of the time when someone is a complete jerk, they either use a pseudonym with no link to their own blog or just the title anonymous. This irritates me to no end. If you have something to disagree about, be brave enough to sign your name on it. If you are too embarrassed to have your name associated with your nasty comment, then perhaps you should rethink what you are about to say. Would you say it to the person face to face? If not, just bite your tongue. Lets all make blogging FUN, not HATEFUL.

A couple of side notes:
1. I do allow anonymous comments on my blog, not because I want mean anonymous comments, but because some people who leave uplifting comments do not have a blogger ID and I enjoy hearing from them.

2. I don't want 100 anonymous comments on this post flaming me, either serious or in an attempt to be funny. Cause really, its not.

Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy

Because of a consulting job I'm starting this month, I have taken a particular interest in the airline industry recently. In my research, I came across an ad by Bud Light in their "Real Men of Genius" campaign called Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy. That is what I want to talk about today.

I am not a discount airline lover. In fact, I'm pretty close to the opposite end of the spectrum, especially since Southwest has been pushing this whole Wright Amendment stuff trying to seem like the poor abused child on the playground when they are really the big bullies. So this commercial had me laughing so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. 1 week later, I opened the Wall Street Journal to find an article saying that AirTran is threatening to pull all Anheuser-Busch products from their flights because they were offended by this commercial. Other low-cost carriers have followed suit, acting appalled at this commercial. To briefly summarize my feelings about this without boring my readers too much, I will just say GET OVER IT! Humor in advertising has been used for many, many years, particularly in the alcoholic beverage market and companies need to realize that getting upset just makes them look stupid and petty. I mean, are Usher's backup dancers boycotting Bud because of the "Mr. Gangsta Rapper Posse Member" ad in the same campaign (which is also really funny by the way)? It would be like politicians getting mad for being made fun of on SNL - it just comes with the territory.

The saddest thing about all of this is that the commercial has been pulled from every source of media, including the Andy Award Winners site where it won 1st place in the Radio Ad category. You can still find the other 2 ads in the campaign though, and i would recommend checking them out. I finally found a copy of the good ad, along with the text, on this site. Stick it to stupid airlines with me - listen to it and laugh! But hurry, I don't know how long it will last before they completely rid the world of all evidence like Nixon and his shredders. But they can't stop me! To close out this ridiculously long post, I will end with the written transcript of the commercial entitled "Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy."

ANNCR: Bud Light presents…Real Men of Genius.
SINGER: Real Men of Genius.
ANNCR: Today we salute you… Mr Discount Airline Pilot Guy.
SINGER: Mr Discount Airline Pilot Guy.
ANNCR: Your minimal experience flying a plane will never land you at a reputable airline. Luckily, you don’t work for one.
SINGER: Look at me, I’m flying.
ANNCR: Sure, we’re concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving nine bucks on a round trip to Fort Myers.
SINGER: Whoah!
ANNCR: The most direct route to Houston? Through Ft. Lauderdale. With layovers in Detroit, Vancouver and Kalamazoo.
SINGER: I can’t feel my legs.
ANNCR: So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, oh, Skipper of the Skies. You put the ‘fly’ in ‘fly by night operation’.
SINGER: Mr Discount Airline Pilot Guy.
ANNCR: Bud Light Beer. Anheuser Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.

The Royal Tenenbaums

I didn't think it was going to come together - Chas, Ari, and Uzi didn't have their windsuits until 4:00pm yesterday, I didn't have a suit until I cleaned out my grandparents' closet yesterday afternoon, Margot wasn't getting back into town until late, but it happened! A group of us were the Royal Tenenbaums for our MBA Halloween party. Everyone loved it! They thought we were hilarious. It was a fun night too. The party was at a girl's apartment who lives downtown in Sanger Lofts (loft apartments above the Circle Theater for those of you who know downtown Fort Worth). They are absolutely beautiful and there is a rooftop balcony that residents can use for gatherings and such, so we floated between Dana's apartment and the roof, playing games and people watching in Sundance Square. So here is our rendition of The Royal Tenenbaums. We didn't have anyone to be either Danny Glover or Owen Wilson, and our Luke Wilson decided to go pre-shaved head for his costume (he kind of looked like a tennis-playing Jesus when he wasn't in the group...of course I just looked like a librarian with my glasses on my head and a pencil in my hair when I wasnt with the group!) Anyone who's tried to do something serious with me knows how hard it is for me not to laugh, which ultimately resulted in having to take this picture 3 times. So with no further ado, I would like to present to you, the Royal Tenenbaums.

Dudley

Ashley asked who the guy in the yellow shirt is from our Royal Tenenbaums picture. That is Andrew being Dudley - a kid who is in shock therapy with Bill Murray's character and follows him around all the time. I forget that a lot of people haven't seen the movie in a long time...or ever, so I thought you might like to see a picture of the original Dudley too. I also wanted to show you Luke Wilson's character, Richie pre-shave so that the other picture makes more sense too. Here they are!

The Stalker Diaries Part V: Inlow Stalking

For my last edition of The Stalker Diaries, I have chosen a great subject - baby pictures! I know I'm not exactly family of the Inlows, hence the stalking title, but seeing as the thought of children is far off for both me and my brother, I feel like I can claim the Inlow children in some sense. I was so excited to see the pictures Ryan posted today and was amazed at the deja vu feeling I was getting. So I looked back at my old emails (yes, I still have emails from 2 years ago....wanna fight about it?) to see where the source of this feeling came from. I quickly discovered it was because the pictures from 2003 and 2005 are IDENTICAL! So here it is - Weaver vs. Maisy - it can be kinda hard to tell which is which. Weaver will be on the left, Maisy on the right.
Day 1 pictures:














Daddy and New Baby:




















Mommy and New Baby:

Babies In Bed:

A 2 year old girl fawning over baby and a girl who acts like she's 2 fawning over baby (I think they have the same amount of hair too!):

And finally, Maisy in 2005 and Maisy in 2003:

I can't wait to get to see Weaver in person and I'm so happy for the whole Inlow clan! Have a great day!

The Stalker Diaries Part IV: Shopper Stalking

When I moved into my new apartment this August, there was a spot that needed something to fill it. Earlier that day, my mom and I had gone to Hancock's Fabrics and seen a little wooden table and chairs that would fit perfectly in this spot and was on sale for 50% off. So we got back in the car and headed back to Hancocks ready to buy it. Unfortunately, when we got there, a lady was looking at the table and it was the only one. We quickly debated what to do, knowing that if we showed interest while she was around, she would have picked up the table before we could invade "her territory." So we walked around close by, pretending to be interested in the rest of the junk that was around her constantly glancing over our shoulders to see if she was gone. Even when she wasn't specifically looking at the table, we knew we had to wait until she was a safe distance away before we made our move.

Every girl knows this feeling - almost a sense of panic that the one thing that will make your life complete that day will be taken and you won't be able to get another one. Anyone who's read Confessions of a Shopoholic will recall a scene where Becky Bloomwood is working at a store and hides the last pair of a certain style of pants from a customer who wants them, hoping she can buy them after the store closes. This is Shopper Stalking to the extreme, but it illustrates the point quite nicely. So the next time someone is looking at the last one of something you really want, just stalk them - it may pay off in a cute table and chair set that really completes your apartment.

The Stalker Diaries Part III: Frog Stalking

Okay, so this is one that only I can claim. Well, me and a few of my MBA friends. This is a term we've coined for finding the TCU mascot in the stadium and forcing him to take a picture with us. We call it stalking because we literally chase him down and we plan on doing it every game. Our goal is to get a reaction when he sees us coming....preferrably a good reaction, but either will do. Last night we didn't get to Frog Stalk because I was the only one from our stalking group in town and didn't feel like trying to talk anyone else into joining my crazy tradition, but next game, it is totally on. This picture was from the TCU vs. New Mexico game. It is my friends, Erin and Andrew. I don't have any with the whole group because I didn't have my camera and our other friend, Mike just sent this one out. I'll be sure to share my next frog stalking picture with you all...because I KNOW how much you care about it! :)

The Stalker Diaries Part II: Blog Stalking

This is a term that kind of annoys me, but I guess it fairly accurately describes what goes on. You read someone's blog and don't post a comment. I'm sure there are several people doing that right now as I don't expect more than a comment or two on this post. Or maybe I just think I'm more popular than I actually am and no one really reads this at all....hmmm.....

Anyways, I think its funny that people get upset about blog stalking. I do not subscribe to the theory that you have to post a comment on every blog you read every time you read it. If I actually have something to say, I'll post a comment, but I don't feel obligated. The term truly describes the action though, when you consistently read the blog of a person you have no connection with. I found one through the infamous "next blog" button that I now read pretty regularly because this guy is a good blogger, but I have no clue who he is.

So the point of all this is, just because I haven't commented on your blog doesn't mean I don't read it - I may just be stalking that day. So stop talking bad about me on your blog. :)

The Stalker Diaries

Today as I was thinking about life, I realized how much legal stalking normal people do. So for the next few days, I will be giving my insight into some common forms of stalking that I have done recently. Don't judge me - I'm sure you have done at least one of them!

The Stalker Diaries Part I: Parking Lot Stalking

We've all done it - you're in a completely full parking lot and you see someone walking towards their car. So you start driving about 2 mph following them down the row hoping they'll get into one of the cars close by. You then see them cross into another row, so you step on the gas and go about 40 mph, finally making a turn worthy of a scene from Gone in 60 Sec trying to get to the newly opened spot before someone else does.

Since starting at TCU, this activity has moved beyond luxury and into necessity. There are very few spots by the building that I am in, so you either have to get there early, or parking lot stalk someone just leaving class. It is such a norm in our lots that if you get to campus around 10 min. til 9 am, there will be a car in park on both ends of every row, waiting for people to come out. These are what I have come to refer to as "professional stalkers." They have an actual method to their stalking and inevitably, always get a space over someone like me who drives around in circles hoping to cross the paths of a leaving undergrad. I may just have to meet one and make them my mentor before the year is up.

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of The Stalker Diaries.

Wicked

On Friday, my mother and I jumped in the car at about 4pm and battled State Fair traffic to see the musical that I have been dying to see for about a year. And it was totally worth it.

Wicked is basically a musical that is the true story of the Wicked Witch of the West. The musical is incredibly written - the music is fabulous, the dialogue is hilarious, the costumes are great, the sets are beautiful, and everything is overall just amazing. The girl who is playing Elphaba (wicked witch) on the national tour is, in my opinion, better than Idina Menzel who originated the role. The Wizard is played by the guy who was Al Bundy's next door neighbor on Married With Children and Madame Morrible is Carol Kane who I appreciate most for yelling "Humperdink" over and over in the Princess Bride. I think it was the best musical that I have ever seen.

But beyond all of that, there was something else that truly made me appreciate the musical and applaud the producers...I have had the CD for a year now and know every word to every song. I thought I knew the story and what was going to happen. But the producers of the CD purposely hid major points in the story line so that you couldn't get the full effect until you see the musical. I didn't know this until I was watching the show and it made it so much more enjoyable. I have seen musicals that I knew every word to before going and had no surprises and although I enjoyed them, it was nothing compared to this. Even though I knew the songs, every scene was completely new and gave different meaning to the words I have known for so long.

Wicked was absolutely amazing. I just can't say that enough. If you are in DFW and haven't gotten tickets yet, you need to do whatever it takes to see it. If you aren't in DFW, you need to do whatever it takes to get here and see it. You will be sorry if you don't.

Best Day Ever!

It's been a stressful week for me, so its about time I had a good day. It started off with my Marketing class getting our midterms back - I got a 92. Then I did a major presentation in Econ, which doesn't sound good, but is really a relief because it is off my back. Then I found out that I get to be 1 of 2 first-years to get to go to a Women's MBA conference in Boston...for FREE! Thats right, free trip to Boston.

And then....it got even better....


Ben Stein came to TCU to speak tonight. I didn't think I was going to get to go because it was sold out, but one of my friends, Doug, had about 3 extra tickets, so I took one. We went to dinner before at Macaroni Grill and another guy, Mike, called to tell me to get there ASAP because they oversold the event by 400 and he didn't know how long he could hold seats for us. So I left the restaurant to help him with the seats and parked in a lot close by. There was a sign saying "Ed Landreth Hall" which is where the theater is, so I went in the closest door - the wrong door. There was no one inside, so I started walking down a hall.

And then it happened...Ben Stein walked out of a door. I got a deer-in-headlights look and froze! I didn't know what to do...should I pretend I don't know who he is or acknowledge that he's Ben Stein? So I settled for a nervous "Hi!" He said "What's your name?" I said "Emily Tate" and shook his hand and he said "Well hi Emily, my name is Ben Stein." And I responded with an oh-so-intelligent "I know! You're who I'm here to see!" And then I told him I was lost and he helped me find the right direction. It was so cool! I was so stunned that I didn't ask for his autograph OR get a picture with him, and I totally could have because it was about 40 min. before the show so he obviously wasn't in a hurry. But it definitely made my night just to meet him and then see him speak. He is an AMAZING speaker and is just so intelligent. If you haven't read his articles, you need to look them up. He's a great writer too.

So good great on a test, weight off my shoulders in Econ, free trip to Boston, and meeting Ben Stein. Overall, a pretty great day.

The Shoe Store Enigma

I have a lot of shoes. Oh, I only wear a few pairs, but I have a lot of shoes that I never wear because of one word....pain.

I don't go out looking for painful shoes. I try on many pairs in the store, attempting to find the balance between style and comfort. But yet, I never succeed in the comfort part. It is because of this that I have come up with a theory about shoe stores - they have a magic spell that makes shoes feel comfortable so you will be tricked into buying them and keep coming back for more when their true colors come out. A women could put on a pair of black dress shoes inside a shoe store, walk around for an hour, and buy them completely convinced that all the problems of pinched toes and blisters were a thing of the past. But the moment that you walk out of the store, the magic shield lifts. You can put on those same super-comfortable shoes 10 min after buying them, and all of a sudden, someone has driven a spike into the toe and attached a razor blade to the edge to take all the skin off the foot. So after a few times of wearing them, you realize that the pain is unbearable and head back to the shoe store to start the horrible process again. This is why I have a collection of uncomfortable business-appropriate shoes in my closet, and added one more pair yesterday. We'll see how long these ones last.

I Picked Up An Evacuee!!

Don't worry...not some random person off the side of the road.

Thursday afternoon, right after I got out of class, my cell phone rings. I answer it, and it is my college roommate Deborah! She lives in Houston with her family and she called me to tell me she was on I-35W just north of Fossil Ridge and that she would be in town until the hurricane left!

I know, a horrible hurricane shouldn't really be a reason to celebrate, but I don't care. The last day of April, Deborah moved out of our Abilene apartment and into an apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay and has only been back about a month, so this was the first time that I got to see her since her South American adventure. They spent one night at one of her parent's friend's house and then in the Hyatt Regency at DFW Airport. So yesterday, I picked Deb up from the airport and we went and hung out with some of my new friends (we had a Pee Wee Herman party....a whole other topic). Then this morning we went to the Galleria to meet Nichole for lunch before I came back to FW to watch the TCU game. It was a short visit, but was totally wonderful.

All of the news that we've seen about the hurricanes has been bad and telling how upset everyone is, and although I really do feel bad for the people hurt by the storms, Hurricane Rita gave me the best surprise present that I could ever ask for.

Go Frogs!

So as most of you know, I went to ACU for my undergrad degree. Football was not even really on our radars. Most people went to 1 game their freshman year - thats all it took to realize that no one went to games - and then 1 game their sophomore year - because you had to for pledging. I think it goes without saying (although I'm going to say it anyways) that games were not televised.

Now I go to TCU. Football is a big deal! People actually care! Games are on TV and if they're not home games, people get together to watch them on TV! We have pre-tailgate parties, tailgate parties, and post-tailgate parties. And it is so much fun! I know we're not Big 12 or anything, but Mountain West is still pretty cool. It is so weird to actually look forward to football games and go and get excited about what is going on! So if you ever want to know where I am on a game day, look towards the field....or at least the nearest big screen that my friends and I will be gathered around.

New Show Reviews

So I have begun the arduous task of clearing my DVR of all the shows that I have recorded over the past couple of days, so if you are wondering what new shows are good and which are bad, here you go. And if you aren't wondering....well, I just don't know what to tell you.

How I Met Your Mother: Excellent! It is really funny and has great characters. The premise of this show is a man in the year 2030 is telling his kids about how he met their mother in 2005. It is kind of in the style of The Wonder Years only a lot funnier and about twenty-somethings instead of kids.

Kitchen Confidential: May become my new favorite comedy show. It has Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin on Alias) and a lot of funny characters running a restaurant. I don't know what else to say, but you should watch it.

Barely Legal: Turned it off halfway through.

The War At Home: I gave this one 2 episodes to impress me and was sadly disappointed both times. They spend too much time with witty sayings in between action and so the plot development is VERY scarce. You don't really get to know the characters and the show so far is going nowhere. I predict 2 seasons max.

Two and a Half Men: After the Emmy's, I felt bad for ol' Charlie, so I tried to watch his show again....and was reminded why I only watched 1 episode the first time around. Dud.

Supernatural: Surprisingly good. I didn't think I would like this one, but I loved Jared Padalecki on Gilmore Girls so I decided to try it. It really has potential.

Well, class is over, so I've gotta go. More show reviews later.

I'm Sick

So tomorrow I have my first MBA midterm, and today I turn up sick. Isn't life just grand? It always happens to me in the same way too:

Day 1 (yesterday): I sneeze all day long, probably about 30 times over the course of the day. And these sneezes actually hurt the back of my throat.

Day 2 (today): My tonsils and whatever else is in the back of my throat are swollen so it hurts to swallow and is hard to breathe

Day 3 (tomorrow - midterm day): Throat hurts worse AND the fatigue/sore muscles set in.

So as we can all see, I have somehow developed impeccable timing to ensure that I will be in bad shape on the day of my first test. No fun at all. :(

Fall TV Preview

Okay, I have officially received a threat of being removed from a blogroll, so I guess I'll actually have to start posting again! To get it out of the way, grad school is great, friends are great, life is generally pretty great right now...ask me again around November and I may have a different answer.

Last week, I opened my mailbox and pulled out the Entertainment Weekly that I have been waiting for - the Fall TV Preview. This is the issue where they outline every show that will be on the major channels during primetime this season. So since I have decided to start new shows from the beginning this year, I had to sit down and plan out what I will be Tivo-ing. I don't have a ton of time to watch TV, but at least when I do I will only have to watch things I actually want to! Here is my Tivo schedule for the fall, unless some of the shows suck and I stop watching them.

Monday:
How I Met Your Mother (7:30 CBS)
Kitchen Confidential (7:30 Fox)

Tuesday:
Gilmore Girls (7:00 WB)
House (8:00 Fox)
Supernatural (8:00 WB)
Im' boycotting Amazing Race because its family edition
Boston Legal (9:00 ABC)

Wednesday:
America's Next Top Model (7:00 UPN)

Thursday:
Okay, this is the hard time slot...I had to pick only 2 out of Alias, Survivor, OC, and Joey :(
Alias (7:00 ABC, unless Michael Vartan gets killed off, then it is replaced with OC)
Survivor (7:00 CBS)
Reunion (maybe. 8:00 Fox)

Friday/Saturday:
Nothing

Sunday:
The War At Home (7:30 Fox. 1st episode wasn't great, but I'll give it another week)
Desperate Housewives (8:00 ABC)
Family Guy (8:00 Fox)
Grey's Anatomy (9:00 ABC)

So there it is. I'm sure I'll get weary and stop watching half of the shows...especially new ones because several won't be any good. If you ever need an episode of one of these shows, let me know...I'll have them on my DVR.

START Workshop

Well, I moved into my big-girl apartment this weekend and officially began my MBA on Monday with the first day of START workshop. START is an intensive week-long seminar where we meet everyone, get all the administrative stuff finished, and do our first project. Today we had about 35 employers come for our first networking luncheon and it was really overwhelming to have to start thinking about jobs and internships already. I've met a lot of neat people (including prospective employers) and am really having fun, but we are super busy, so I am just exhausted. Tonight is the first time I've been home before 10 pm this entire week. I promise I will post pictures and things eventually - hopefully things will slow down a bit once classes actually start.

Just call me Bob Villa!

I am trying to furnish my new apartment that I'm moving into this Saturday and have been looking for ideas for different pieces for a while. On the night that Lindsey, Ashley, and I had our fun Hip Pocket Theater experience, we stopped by Ashley's house to look up directions and on the way out, I saw it. Ashley has a coffee table that is made out of an old door. I knew it was what I wanted.

So yesterday, my mom and I headed out to this store on Montgomery that has hundreds of old doors for really cheap. We went through all of them and found a door that was fairly narrow and a little shorter than normal. It was really old and had a lot of character, so we bought it. Now in my mind, I'm thinking, "Great! We take the door, scrape off some old paint, put on some new paint, screw on some legs, and we're done!" Little did I know, there were a lot of steps I left out of this thought.

Once we got to Home Depot, we realized that neither one of us knows the first thing about making a table, so we went and got my dad to help us. As soon as he entered Home Depot, or as I like to call it, "Playground for Men," he started piling our basket full of things I didn't even know existed! We got paint stripper, a scraper, a stripping brush, black paint, primer, sand paper, wooden legs, all-thread screws that are half wood screws/half normal threads, special paint rollers, paint pans, the list goes on. My cute, simple table is quickly turning into a project fit for Pottery Barn pricing. But my dad knows what he's talking about, so we get our supplies and head home.

We put on paint stripper and scraped it twice, sanded it, cut off half the door, attached legs, and primed it. Tomorrow I am going to paint it. It took me about 6 hours to get the door into a somewhat workable coffee table, but it was definitely worth it. I can't wait to see it in my new living room hopefully looking as cute as Ashley's next week. I took some before and after pictures, but I have to wait until tomorrow before I can get them on my computer, so I'll post them then.

It feels good to have a really neat piece of furniture and know that I made it. But now I can't get my mind off of the door. I wonder how old it is, what it was a door to, who used it, what kind of drama happened in its presence. I know I'll never know its true back-story, so I'll just have to make one up. So for now, my story is that it was the door to a secret passageway in a Southern plantation house that was used in the underground railroad. Anyone else have a suggestion?

Cake Escapades - Part 2

So Katie and I had another cake class last night. We had to move from our normal night of Monday to Friday because Katie took her M.S. cheerleaders to camp. We were a little sad to not be with our normal group, but we also thought it would be fun to see how the people in the Friday class were.

The Friday class was definitely smaller - each one of us had our own table so it was easier to work and spread out the tools. And Katie and I were still definitely the best. We learned how to make roses last night. I think I was the only one who got an actual rose-looking structure by the end of class, but both of us got the technique quicker than everyone else.




























Then it came time to make the clowns that would go on top of our clown cakes. We practiced a couple on our cake boards and everyone else was doing them sitting up just like the picture in the book. Katie and I both started making ones that were laying down. Mine was laying on its stomach propping its hands under its chin and Katie's was lounging on its side with one hand on the side of its head. Our teacher walked by my table and picked mine up and started taking it around class to show everyone how good it was and how you can do different things. Then, when she brought mine back, she saw Katie's and picked it up to show everyone as well. It made us so happy! So on our cakes, we each made one clown sitting up and I made one on its stomach and Katie made one on its side. Only one other girl attempted the yellow side/white tops like we did and she was pretty good too.

Only one more week of Course I though - I'm a little sad. In course II you only make one cake at the very last lesson. But our bakery is getting closer every day!

I'm Stealing Ryan's By The Numbers Today

8 - Hours it took me to read Harry Potter

3 - Hours I slept on Harry Potter weekend

16 - Days til I move into my apartment

18 - Days til I start my MBA program

1 - Posts I've written in the past week

0 - Posts in the past week that have contained more than a picture

6 - Posts I've started today before realizing I didn't have anything to say

4 - Days since my last post

4 - Days I've felt guilty about "reruns"

All of this to say, I have nothing to say and sorry about that! Oh yeah, and sorry to Ryan for stealing your format.

Where I Will Be Tonight at 11:00pm

Seeing Heath Hyche at the Improv in Addison!

Cake Decorating!!

Katie has always had a dream of owning a bakery. I have always had a dream of owning my own retail business. So we have decided that our long-term goal is to start a bakery/event planning company.

Step 1: Learn how to decorate cakes
Step 2: Get money
Step 3: Open the bakery!

Right now, steps 2 and 3 are pretty much ridiculous thoughts, so we decided to start on step 1 and signed up for a Wilton Cake Decorating class. Tonight was our second lesson and our first cakes. Katie and I are, by far, the best decorators in the class. Katie is a little better than me, but she is good at everything, so I'm really okay with that. Everyone else in the class is really not good. We had to have our cakes iced with the basic layer before class so all we had to do was decorate it. Katie and I were so worried about how ours looked - we spent FOREVER using the techniques we were told the week before trying to get the icing completely smooth and get rid of spatula marks. Our fears were quickly gone, however, when we got to class and saw just how sloppy everyone else's cakes were. There were 2 people, a mother and daughter, who had smoother cakes than us, but they didn't decorate as well. It felt really good when everyone kept telling us that ours were the best and asking if we had done it before! I can't wait until next week to do another cake!

Anyone want to take care of Step 2 for me?

Object: Foot - - - Location: Mouth

Anyone know how many Weight Watcher's points words are? Because I sure am eating a lot of my own tonight!

Not only did Mark Teixiera not do very well (thats okay Tex, you'll get 'em next time!) Pudge, the self proclaimed "non home run hitter" shocked us all to come in 2nd! Awesome job Pudge Rodriguez! You sure made your home field crowd proud. Now make us American League fans proud in the real game too to get us that World Series home field advantage.

Let the flaming on my bad predictions begin...

Sports Talk

I love baseball. I love everything about it - watching it on TV, watching tee ball, little league, high school, college, and professional. But more than anything, I love the Texas Rangers. This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows my father. Ever since I was little, he has taken me to games and told me facts about every player, forced me to watch it on TV and told me facts about every player, and forced me to listen to them on the radio and told me facts about every player. Years of this eventually turned me into an actual fan who cares about the team on my own. But baseball in general isn't really what I wanted to talk about today. The Home Run Derby is on my mind.

I have been so excited this year about the All-Star game because my favorite player, Mark Teixiera, has been doing so well and I just knew he would make it. Last year, he got passed up stupidly and was the only Ranger infielder not to get to go, but this year he came back to actually clinch the starting position for the American League. On top of that, he has been hitting so many homeruns that he was actually leading the AL at one point and is currently in 2nd for the AL and tied for 3rd overall, so I was certain he would get into the Home Run Derby. Until I heard about this year's format. All 8 players have to be from different countries to add an international flair to this year's derby. I think this is extremely stupid. They are passing on good homerun hitters for players who admit freely that they are not sluggers. Prime example: Pudge Rodriguez. My former favorite player and I still love him, but he is not a good homerun hitter. But yet, he will be in the HR Derby over someone like Soriano who has 20 homeruns, just because there are no good Puerto Rican hitters and there are 3 Dominicans. So as the news came out of the invites that had been extended and accepted, I got more and more nervous that Teixiera was going to get the shaft for a bigger name like A-Rod or something.

But today, the news I had been waiting for finally came in...USA had extended an invitation for Mark Teixiera to be our representative and he had accepted! Sure, they offered it to another player first who turned it down, but who cares? My favorite player will be in the homerun derby! He has a good chance of winning in my opinion too because this field plays to left-handed hitters and he is a switch hitter who hits his HRs on the left AND he will be against some mediocre hitters. Not all mediocre of course, but not all great either. So next Monday, I will be TIVOing the Home Run Derby to watch after Katie and I take our first cake decorating class and spending my night watching Teixiera knock a few out of the park! Go Tex!

On another note: I don't know what I'll do if I marry a basketball fan someday!

I'm A Big Girl Now!

So, its been awhile since my last post. Life has been crazy and everyone who reads this knows how much happened last week. In addition to all of that, I went apartment hunting twice and I think I have found THE one! Finding my new apartment has really made me feel like an adult of some sorts and got me thinking about my life in Abilene.

All through life, we have a lot of "training" items. Training wheels on bicycles, training pants for potty training, training bras for preteen girls. I think of my apartment in Abilene as a training apartment. It was a real apartment that goes on my credit report and everything because it isn't actually owned by ACU, but it was on campus and had an RA in each building in case you needed anything. After 2 years of that though, I am ready to move on up to the real thing. My apartment will be on River Park drive off of Bryant Irvin (not the busy Target end, the ridglea end). I will actually have to drive to school instead of walking - okay, thats not great, but thats life. I'm growing up and having to move into the world where there are more bills than electric and my university can't decide which television stations to shelter me from (MTV - here I come!) Look out world! Emily is taking off the training wheels!

"...And he's single!"

I am 22 years old, female, and I'm single. Apparently, this has placed a large sign on my back saying "SET ME UP!!! INTRODUCE ME TO GUYS!!!" I cannot even begin to tell you how many times people have told me that they have a guy I should meet. Even tonight at the Hip Pocket Theatre (read Lindsey's blog for the full story of this event!) we were talking to a guy who worked there about this pirate picnic they are having and he said, "...and 3 of the pirates are single!" Even complete strangers are trying to fix us up!

There is one person that actually goes further than just mentioning people to me - Gary Cooper. It seems that Gary Cooper's sole purpose in life right now is to get me married off because every time I see him, he has a new "special friend" to introduce me to. He seeks me out at church to introduce me to the boy of the week or to tell me how much he wishes I had been at the wedding the night before because he had a guy to introduce me to there. And here's the thing...I don't mind at all! I mean, if you're going to tell me there is a guy that would be good for me, at least do me the courtesy of introducing me! Now someone just needs to go one step further and actually set me up...I like tall guys.

New Book

I love reading. I love going to Barnes and Noble and just wandering around for hours looking at all the books that I hope to eventually read before finally picking the one that I am going to buy. I like finding obscure authors and reading all of their books, sometimes finding good ones and sometimes finding bad ones. The summer is the perfect time for me to exercise this hobby because during the school year I have too much required reading to do. Even though I don't do a lot of the required reading, I just feel guilty reading something else instead. Now that VBS is over, I finally have time to start reading again. So I will be occasionally posting the current book I am reading and my armchair-critics view of it.

The first book in my summer run is Dean Koontz's Velocity. I actually bought this on an impulse at the grocery store yesterday. I really like Dean Koontz and the display consisted of a picture of a note saying, "If you don't take this not to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher somwhere in Napa County. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours." Dean Koontz is really an interesting author because in the middle of his mystery novels, he always inserts a great message about faith and redemption and God. It is really cool the way he does it without making it too corny like a lot of Christian authors. I can't wait to get into this one! See you later!

To Kelly and Anonymous

I just wanted to clarify my intent behind the last post. VBS is 100% for the kids. I understand that and the cast understands that. It doesn't make me upset at the kids when they clap or scream because we want them to have fun. I loved hearing them go nuts tonight during the disco medley when the plagues were flying around everywhere. But what really bothers me is the teenagers who start it because to them, clapping with the music and screaming when the lights go out has nothing to do with enjoying the show, they do it purely because they think its funny when the kids clap off beat and try to see if they can throw the actors off. Their motives are what bug me. And the reason I don't like clapping with the music is the same reason I don't like it when people don't speak loud enough for mics to pick them up - it drowns out the music and as a wise man once said, "If we can't hear you, you might as well have stayed home tonight." So to sum it all up - kids = good ; vbs = for kids ; emily's blog = not meant to upset people ; emily = sorry

Pet Peeves Part 2

A long time ago, I posted a list of my pet peeves. Today I have a couple to add to the list - all being VBS related.

1. Kids screaming when the lights go out in between scenes. This ONLY happens at Altamesa. I have been to the exact same type of VBS at 3 different churches, Richland Hills, Saturn Road, and Sugar Grove in Houston and no one dreams of doing this. Altamesa has tried different things to stop this phenomenon, one year succeeding by turning on a spot light and waving it all over the room to amaze the kids so much they wouldn't scream, but after the first year of that, it lost its allure and the screaming commenced. We've just accepted it as the norm now, but it still bugs me.

2. Clapping along with the music. Last night, the opening number was a medley of One and Boulevard of Broken Dreams. It was supposed to be very mellow and sad because Moses was alone in the desert and sad, until about 4 bars into One, everyone started clapping with the music, making it absolutely impossible for me to hear the background music and keep on beat and totally ruining the mood of this song. I guess we all of a sudden were happy that he was alone or something. On Night 1, they made an announcement at the beginning saying not to clap with the music, but forgot to make that announcement last night. You could make the announcement on nights 1, 2, and 3, and forget on 4 and they would clap on night 4. I'm hoping the video won't show TOO much of an expression change on my face...

3. Youth Groups. Only during VBS is the youth group my pet peeve, but they are always solely responsible for numbers 1 and 2, so they have to make the list. They start the screaming and consider it an honor when they are responsible for the clapping. And the worst part is, if you tell them not to, it only fuels the fire even more and you are assured that the screaming will be louder and the clapping even more off beat than usual. Gilkey - get control of your hoodlums (all of whom I will start loving again on Thursday morning when VBS is over!)

Texas Rangers and Beach Boys

Katie, Stephen, and I went to the Rangers game on Saturday night. We had great seats and the 4 homeruns in the first 2 innings weren't bad either. But the highlight was the Wells Fargo Fireworks show after the game. They played Beach Boys music and timed the fireworks to match the music that was playing. It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen. So we started talking about what songs we thought would be played. Stephen mentioned Kokomo and I really didn't think it would be played because I didn't think it was a Beach Boys song. So I started arguing that it wasn't Beach Boys - it was the band Cocktail. I just KNEW it was Cocktail because I had a tape when I was little with that song on it that I used to listen to every night before I went to sleep. I knew that Cocktail sang Kokomo, until Stephen informed me the the band Beach Boys sang Kokomo on the MOVIE Cocktail! I have spent my entire life thinking that a band named Cocktail sang that song when I actually had the movie soundtrack. It could have been worse, but it certainly wasn't the least embarrassing moment of my life. What are some things you've believed for a long time that turned out not to be true? Lets all share our semi-embarrassing moments and then go get a sno cone to ease the pain.

National Abandon Your Blog Day!

Apparently today is National Abandon Your Blog Day and I was not informed! Going down my daily checklist of blogs usually can take up a good hour or so, especially if I comment, and today it has taken 20 min. flat. The only people who posted today were Lindsey (ol' faithful), Trey (new faithful), MC, and Jonathan Root. So now I'm left sitting at home with the dreaded conjunctivitis (ol' pink eye) that has been going around our group with nothing left to read. I've already exhausted the stash of built up TV shows on our TIVO that I saved for a rainy (or should I say, eye runny) day and have nothing left. What do you people have? Lives? Don't let those get in the way of your blogging duties!! Entertain me!!

Sorry, I'm going a little stir crazy. Little side note though: I can't find my glasses and can't wear contacts right now, so my mom took me to buy new glasses after my eye doctor appointment today! Pink eye has it's upsides. And since there is no such thing as generic brand glasses anymore (if you've bought any recently, you know what I mean) I got to buy a pair of Kate Spade glasses....nearly the cheapest ones in the store next to Dolce and Gabbana, Vera Wang, Versace, and some super-special swedish brand that weighs less than 2 paperclips. Its a designer world out there now and I'm getting my (very) small part of it.

Bridesmaids and Wedding Bouquets

This weekend, I was a bridesmaid at the wedding of my best friend from ACU, Ashley Bruner (now Ashley Lee). I could probably write about 100 different anecdotes about this weekend, including one about the tragedy of having a name changed to Ashley Lee, but for now, I want to talk about the tradition of tossing the bouquet.

Tossing the bouquet has always been a fun part of a wedding reception, all the single girls get in a clump and fight over the flowers in hopes of being "the next to get married." But in the past couple of years, this tradition has become a little bit of a downer. Not because I'm still one of the single girls, that doesn't really bother me, but the fact that I feel like I'm not allowed to catch the bouquet. This is because it has become a part of the tradition that the only person allowed to even TRY to catch the bouquet is the bridesmaid with the most serious relationship. Anyone else diving for the flowers is given the look of death and promptly asked to leave. Not really, but close!

So back to yesterday...I am not in a relationship of any kind, much less a serious one. One of the other bridesmaids, Bethany, has been dating a guy for a few months that she thinks is "the one." So before the toss, Bethany was talking about how she wanted it and Nichole said, "Don't worry, the rest of us will back away from it for you so you can get it." and tried to tell Ashley to throw it to Bethany. I was annoyed because I hate feeling like I can't even try just because I don't have a boyfriend. But when Ashley said, "I'm not throwing it to anyone! Whoever gets it, gets it!" I knew that this was my only chance. So we all get in our little clump, Ashley stands with her back to us, and makes the toss. It is headed right towards Bethany who is standing 2 people over from me, so I, in my freakishly tall glory (our shoes made me 6 ft. tall), reach right over the head of the flower girl and pluck it out of the air right in front of Bethany's face! I broke the mold! I did end up feeling bad though, since I don't have anyone to pressure into proposing, so I said that Bethany and I "tied" and gave it to her. But I know that I caught it and everyone thought it was really funny and an awesome catch! So even though I chickened out on my own version of Custer's last stand against unattached, single girl discrimination by giving Bethany the bouquet, I know in my own heart that I defeated the heinous crime that has happened to the grand tradition of bouquet tossing.

Post 2 for the Night

The trailer for the movie version of Rent was released today! Watch it here. The website for the movie is http://sony.com/rent. I know at least Katie and Stephen will be excited with me...

I see your point...

Today I went to lunch with my dad and saw a guy wearing a shirt that said, "I see your point, but I still think you're stupid." I couldn't stop laughing because it really struck a chord with me. I used to be a debater. Not a technical goes-to-competition debater, but I loved taking politics, religion, anything I had an opinion on and talking it to death until I convinced the other person I was right. I did this any chance I got, so much that I even had my picture on MTV's Choose or Lose website during the presidential elections because I wrote a really well thought out post that caught their attention. A lot of times, convincing people I was right was pretty easy - several of my friends were severely uneducated on current affairs and would basically believe anything I told them. But every now and then, I would meet my match with someone just as opinionated as me, just as stubborn, and on the opposite side of the issue. Even if I knew I was 100% right and could prove it, these people would argue with me on and on because they thought they were 100% right.

In the past year or so, I have discovered that this debating is completely pointless. No matter how many concrete facts I present, no matter how much knowledge I have on the issue, if I am talking to someone who is just like me only opposite, the conversation will go nowhere because neither one of us will change our minds. My life has been a little easier over the last year or two after recognizing this. I have just decided that if it is an issue that I will never sway on, why should I expect someone else to? So from now on, when someone tries to get me into a debate about George Bush by saying he is the worst thing ever to happen to this country and trying to throw quotes from Farenheit 911 in my face (Michael Moore - another topic completely!), I will just smile politely and think to myself, "I see your point, but I still think you're stupid."

***Disclaimer***
Before people jump all over me in comments, I don't think that if you dislike George Bush, you are automatically stupid. People are entitled to their own opinions and I respect that. I just think that a lot of people use flawed reasoning in their dislikes, but I probably use some flawed reasoning in my dislikes of other politicians. The last sentence of the post was merely an example of a very common debate that people have attempted to drag me into.

Out of the Early Majority

As most of you know, I just graduated with a marketing degree. One fundamental concept in marketing is target markets and market segments. People who adopt new products or ideas before most people know about them are innovators, followed by early adopters, early majority, late majority, and finally laggards. I have recently realized that when it comes to good television shows, I tend to stick to the early or late majority while my best friends are all early adopters. They all see a commercial for a new show and immediately start watching it from the first episode. I guess I usually wait a while so I don't waste my time on a show that isn't good, but I find myself dismissing shows that I eventually love and feeling really stupid for mocking the show in the past. Here are a few prime examples:

- America's Next Top Model: I made fun of Lindsey SO much for watching this show until I got the flu and caught the VH1 marathon last february. I now love it so much that I Tivo'd the 1st season marathon that happened yesterday.

- Survivor: Once again, mocked the Weaver's for watching Season 1 until Patty forced me to watch the 1st episode of season 2 after the superbowl. I've been hooked ever since.

- Amazing Race: Never made fun of anyone, but just didn't really desire to watch it. Now I love it.

- Bachelor/Bachelorette: refused to watch the first 2 seasons, then started loving it, now wishing I had stuck with my original evaluation.

- Gilmore Girls: Thought it sounded stupid. Now I know it is one of the best shows on television

- Alias: I know you're probably shocked to see this one on the list, but Patty tried to get me to watch it for a while and it wasn't until last year when my roommates rented the DVDs that I started watching it at all!

- Last Comic Standing: refused to watch season 1, friends got me started on season 2 and now I wish they would keep going with it!

- Grey's Anatomy: I have watched this since the first episode, but I am putting it on the list because there is no way I would have ever watched this on my own if people around me hadn't just turned it on. But I was not excited about watching it.

I think I do this because when just spoken, the premise of ANY show sounds ridiculous and kinda stupid, but when they are actually on screen, they end up being good. The point of all of this is that Entertainment Weekly just listed a line-up of some of the new shows starting next season. Right now not one of them sounds good to me at all. One is about 4400 people that were abducted by aliens coming back to save the world and most of the others follow suit. But I have decided that I am going to start giving new shows a chance to prove themselves (so Lindsey, I will be watching The Cut with you at first....) so that I don't feel so dumb when I end up loving them later. If anyone wants to join me in my new show marathon, give me a call and we'll get together next fall to start my ascent out of the early majority.

Baby Jack

Last night, we "auditioned" a boy for the role of Baby Moses at Richland Hills. His name is Jack Pinson and his mom is Christine Pinson, the girl playing Miriam. He is 10 mths old which is a little older than we were looking for, but we thought we'd try it anyways. So they started running the scene where a guard comes in to search for baby boys. Jack started smiling and laughing at the beginning and then when they put him inside the basket, he just played. It was perfect. But then he kept reaching his hand out of the basket like he was trying to wave or something. Miriam and Jochebed are supposed to be really scared that the guard was going to find Moses, but Jack was so cute they couldn't stop laughing and smiling at him. Then when Miriam took him from Jochebed down at the river and sang a song, he started clapping with the music! Finally, right before she put him in the basket at the end of her song, he grabbed on to Christine's mouth so she couldn't sing. At the end of the run through, we decided that he was just TOO cute and we couldn't use him. What a reason not to use a baby! He was just too cute! He would steal the show completely. Baby Weaver, Jack has set the bar high for you! You are going to have to work very hard to be the cutest baby boy ever after last night!

The Great Schnozzola!

Today Patty, Wade, Katie, Stephen, Lindsey, and I spent the day at Richland making the sphinx out of styrofoam for VBS. But this Sphinx had to have a nose because the slaves knock it off on Night 1 (sorry if I'm spoiling the suspensful plot for anyone!) We spent all morning hitting styrofoam with hammers, sawing chunks off with a wire PVC saw, and carving it with chisels (flat ones, not pointy ones.) I seriously have no skin left on my fingers from the pvc saw. But it looks great! And I had the honor of making the finishing touch, the nose. It looks so funny. Granted, this was the easy part, rounding of a triangle piece of styrofoam, Stephen had the hard job of shaping the face. But mine is the most memorable. Wade and I worked on it right at the end. We had a fun time, playing in the little pieces of styrofoam that looked like snow and crawling in the crevice between the feet. The funniest part is what happened before I got there, but I'll save that for Lindsey's blog - pictures and all. It was really a fun day and now we get to end it with a fun night of eating at The Keg and watching The Longest Yard.

Unhappy Alias Day!

This week was the season finale of Alias. If you have read basically ANY of my posts, you know how near and dear this show is to my heart, but yet, I am sad. It makes me sad when you see the beginning of the end of a show in 5 minutes. JJ Abrams has decided to make Michael Vaughn a double agent (of course! If you can't bring someone back to life, make them a double agent) and he even is saying his name isn't Michael Vaughn. I'm all about the new twists, but this one just doesn't make any sense! Nichole and I sat around and talked about it for an hour today and pointed out all of the flaws in this new twist and how it doesn't match up with events from past seasons. He married a girl who he later found out was a double agent and was mad! How could he be mad if he was a double agent himself? It is just really upsetting. I'll give Alias a chance to explain at the beginning of the next season, but with the whole Rambaldi thing coming to close this season, I'm afraid we're seeing the demise of an otherwise great show. I have never been so mad at a season finale.

Creepy Crawlies Part Deux

I just killed the biggest brown recluse I've ever seen. And where was it you ask? In MY bathroom! Not the downstairs one where most of the others have been. This means I will not sleep at all tonight and there will be about 15 sheet checks during the night. Ugh! I now feel like there are about 20 different brown recluses crawling all over me. I took a picture of it and Ben is trying to tell me its not a brown recluse. Once I figure out how to post pictures, I post it so you can see what I have to live with.

Edited to add:
So Ben wakes me up at 4 am to show me a spider in the computer room in order to make fun of me saying it was a brown recluse. Then he tried to catch it and realized he'd never seen a spider move that fast before. My answer was "THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS A BROWN RECLUSE!!" So then I showed him the picture I took along with a couple of pictures printed off the internet of brown recluses and he said, 'Yup, thats a brown recluse.' Never doubt my eye when it comes to spiders!

Creepy Crawlies!

Last summer, right around this time, my mother and I were sitting on her bed at about midnight waiting for my dad to get home from a marathon elders meeting. I looked over and saw small brown spider crawling across my dad's pillow. We killed it. It just so happened that the day before, I had helped Patty take the children at church to the museum to see an Omni show called BUGS! and a lady out front had different bugs to show us, including a brown recluse. I picked up the block that the brown recluse was in, realizing that it looked just like any normal spider except with longer legs. And the spider we had just killed looked like any normal spider except with longer legs. I looked a picture up on the internet and compared it with the dead bug we had in a plastic bag and it was definitely a brown recluse. We found 8 more in our house that summer. Thus the beginning of my bug paranoia.

Ever since this day, I constantly feel like something is crawling on me. I check under my sheets every night before I go to bed, and sometimes again after I'm already in bed, even when I'm not in my house in Crowley. And even after I've checked, I have to consciously tell myself, "Nothing is crawling on you. You are fine." If you see me randomly brushing something invisible off my skin in public, it is because I feel something crawling on me. I know, its weird. But there have been 2 times when I have been wrong about this feeling. One was over Christmas when I was on the computer, I felt something crawling on my arm and lightly brushed it away to prove to myself it was nothing, and was promptly stung by a wasp. Not a fun day. The other was last night. I checked the sheets like normal, and tried to go to sleep. This morning, woke up to find cricket parts strewn all over my sheets and cricket guts rubbed in quite nicely. Apparently a cricket thought it would be fun to get in bed with me and I rolled over on it and smashed it to pieces. The worst part is, now I know my initial sheet checking is not enough and I'm going to end up looking under my covers several times - just to make sure. All I can say is at least it wasn't a brown recluse or I probably would have been bitten! Does anyone know a good exterminator?

50/50 chance

The last bridal show I worked at was 2 days long. During this time, we got to know some of the other vendors around our booth, particularly the ladies across from us that had a custom wedding dress shop. They would watch our videos while they sat in their empty double booth and sing along with the songs to pass the time. Finally, one lady came and talked to me to tell me how much she liked our stuff. Then she asked a question that really left me speechless...a feat in itself. She asked, "Does it ever make you sad or depressed that 1/2 of the weddings you film will end in divorce?" At first, I thought it was stupid and just brushed it off by saying something about, it didn't depress me because we only see the beginning so in my mind they all live happily ever after. But the more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me that people go into marriage thinking that they only have a 50/50 chance of making it work! I don't really have any profound thoughts on this except that when I get married, I plan on it sticking. Bad thoughts won't do any good from the start. The real reason I wrote this is to tell that little story that was too long for the comments portion of Trey's post, the original thought on this topic. Go read it, it's good. Also check out Ryan's comment. See you tomorrow!

Almost isn't good enough

Everyone has a lot of "almosts" in their life. I almost went to OC instead of ACU. I almost decided to work before going to graduate school. I almost made my first C in Carl Brecheen's Family Relations class (ok, that one's not so good.) But today I had an almost that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I almost got to drive my favorite baseball player on the planet, Mark Teixiera at the Colonial Golf Tournament.

If you don't know already, I am spending this week driving Cadillacs between the Colonial Golf Tournament and the special parking lots that they have for valet parking, club members, VIPs, and caddys. The VIPs aren't really what you think, they are people like the marshalls for the tournament and the head of the transportation committee...nothing especially exciting. Today I was on blue lot duty, which is the valet lot. Instead of us bringing your car to you, we take you to your car about 3 blocks away. There were about 15 cadillac drivers today and to keep things orderly, we line up in our cars along the front of the clubhouse and take people as they come. Then the next person moves forward. It's basically your standard elementary school line format. So I was in line, moving forward, when all of a sudden I see a very tall, really hot guy. Then I realize that it is Mark Teixiera! I start going crazy because all at once I realize that I am about 20 feet from my favorite player ever and I am second - not first - in line! And I am positive that the girl who got to drive him had no appreciation for what she was getting to do! I was absolutely sick all day. And to make matters worse, my boss was standing at the front when the situation occured, so after I made it back around, I said "Do you know who that was?" He didn't. So I told him it was Mark Teixiera, my favorite baseball player and I missed him by one car. His response was, "You should have said something! I would have put him in your car!" So not only did I barely miss him, I could have done something about it. So the moral of this story is, if you ever get within 20 feet of your favorite athlete, forget protocol! Jump in line and stomp on whoever should rightly be in the presence of greatness, or you will be kicking yourself for years to come.

To drain or not to drain

Today I went to the eye doctor (Lindsey, you've already heard this a couple of times, so you can skip down a bit). I found out that there is a reason that I seem to have an unusually large amount of eye problems and why my contacts are always bothering me and my eyes always red. And if you went to Brenham on the Middle School Mission Trip in like, 1996 or so, you certainly can't forget how my eye randomly swelled to about the size of a ping pong ball (I know, great mental image, sorry). Well apparently I have a condition called DES - Dry Eye Syndrome. Original huh? I have the exact opposite problem that Maisy Inlow recently had surgery for - her tear ducts were clogged and wouldn't drain tears...mine are too big and drain tears away too quickly. So now they want to plug up one of my tear ducts in each eye. Does that seem just wrong to anyone else? I mean, when you have had constant annoying pain for over 10 years, any solution seems like something I should jump at and my doctor says it works really well. Even insurance companies must think its okay because they are paying for part of it without any trouble or referral. So depending on how my finances work out, the next time some of you see me, I may only have 1/2 of the working tear ducts that I started with. Anyone else know of any other solution? Because I'm open to suggestions that don't involve sticking silicone into my eyelids....

A Whole Lotta Nothing

I did nothing today. And it was wonderful! At this point in my life, my perfect day would be to do nothing by myself all day (as long as I had an endless supply of entertaining TV shows that I hadn't seen yet...this is where my day fell short). After doing nothing all day, I would join up with some friends for dinner at H3 (pods anyone?) and then eat some of Jennifer Gambill's Harry Potter birthday cake that she made for Katie (obviously I am not on South Beach in this scenario...the second point in which my day fell short of perfect). After a delicious dinner, we would go to someones house and play a game for a while, watch the New Years Video, and laugh at how dumb we all really are. And Ryan and Maggie would be in town, so we would spend a couple of hours watching Maisy and being amazed at her cuteness. That would be my perfect day.

What would be your perfect day? Would it involve the word "pods"? Would I be invited along? Does anyone else catch the blatant style-stealing of Lindsey in this paragraph?

I'm ending my post like Lindsey today,
Emily

Same script, Different show

I just got finished watching the Season Finale of Project Greenlight, a show that gives a new writer a chance to have his script made into a movie and a new director a chance to actually make that movie. The director this year, John Gulager, was kind of a loose cannon in that no one really knew what to expect out of him. I knew he was awesome from the beginning because his audition video was incredible. The movie has (apparently) turned out really well (they don't really show much because they want you to actually have to go see the movie) and everyone is giving all the credit to the director. I started wondering what this movie would have been if one of the other 2 directors had been chosen.

Movies and plays can change so much based on the director. You can take the exact same actors, same script, and have a totally different product based solely on the person directing. I have the priviledge of being involved in the productions of both Altamesa and Richland Hills VBS's this year. I'm actually in Altamesa's and have just been observing Richland Hills as I help them with their music. It is amazing to me how different the two shows are. If I hadn't written the music and read the script about 500 times, I wouldn't even be able to tell that they are even the same at all. And it's all because of the directors. The two directors have very different styles. Neither one is necessarily better, just different. This fact has made it fun for me. If they were the exact same, the 12 hours each week I am spending at rehearsals would be VERY monotonous. Let me conclude with this: although Altamesa and Richland Hills are using the exact same script, they are producing very different shows. And I can't wait to see how they turn out!

==WARNING: Shameless Plug Time==
For the (maybe) 2 or 3 people who aren't directly involved:
Richland Hills Church of Christ presents Moses on June 6-8 at 7:00 pm
Altamesa Church of Christ presents Moses on June 19-22 at 7:00 pm
We'd love to see you there!

A Week of Lasts

- Yesterday was our last night with our roommate Deborah
- Today is my last day of work
- Tomorrow I will take my last final at ACU
- I will finish my last episode of Gilmore Girls Season 3 this evening
- This is the last week that I will be in Abilene wishing I was in Fort Worth
- Tuesday is the last episode of Amazing Race!!
- Today was the last time I'll vote on Ryan's poll saying I pretty much voted every day (okay, maybe I'm lying there!)
- I sold back my last book this morning
- This is the last time I write a post thinking I have lots of items to put in a list when it turns out I really don't. I'm out.

I went to bed at midnight!

Last night, I got really tired. I looked at the clock and it was 11:00pm, so I thought, I can't go to bed yet! So I watched another episode of Gilmore Girls Season 3 (we just bought it on DVD) before going to bed early at midnight. Why is it that in college, midnight is early? I remember in High School going to bed at midnight, walking into school the next day exhausted, and making a huge deal about how I was tired because I went to bed at midnight. Fast forward one year to freshman year of college, going to bed at midnight, walking into class totally refreshed, and making a huge deal about how good I felt because I went to bed at midnight. Fast forward four more years to now when Katie and Stephen go to bed at 10:30. Its like this is really the peak of my life, because it won't be long until midnight is late again. I'd better enjoy it!