When Valets Attack...

I could talk about the Rangers vs. Yankees game I went to Monday. I could talk about how it was probably the highest up I've ever sat at a Rangers game.

I could talk about how exciting it was with every last pitch in the bottom of the 9th wondering who was going to pull out a run to win the tie game. I could even talk about the walk-off GRAND SLAM that ended the game for a Rangers' victory.
But instead of having those things be the main memories I have of that game, I get to tell the story of how the valet lost the keys to my car. Yep, thats right....LOST MY CAR KEYS! After about an hour and a half of waiting for my car then to discover they couldn't find it, the only thing I could do was laugh. It really was an "it could only happen to me" moment. Here is Erin and I in a delirious state at about midnight.
Finally they decided to pay for a cab to take me to my house to get my spare keys and back. A little journey that got me home at 1:45am when I had to go to work the next day. It was really frustrating. They are being great though and paying to get my car rekeyed...since there is a set of car keys with my name, type of car, and license plate number attached to it. And I think I'm going to get some free Rangers tickets out of it too. That is pretty cool - although I would have preferred to just not have my keys lost in the first place!

*Note: I didn't actually pay $30 for parking....Lexus owners get free valet at the ballpark. I htought it was a pretty nice perk until now! Haha!

Not just a pretty face here... :)

I've got the brains too!

In case you haven't heard, it is HOTTTT here in Texas. Like, the high was 106 both yesterday and today and is forecasted at 104 tomorrow. We have parking garages at Sabre and usually its not hard to find a spot; a lot of people would park in the surface lots too. Not right now. I got to work before 9 am and the entire garage was full at my building. So I had to park on the roof level. At the 2 of the roof corners, there are towers where the elevator shaft and stairwells are. One of these had some shade this morning and of course all of the cars up there were right around it, hoping for a bit of the shade. I thought to myself, "What good does it do to have shade now? It will still be an oven when I get OUT of work." So I went and parked at the other tower, all by myself and in full sun exposure just to see (and maybe a little out of bitterness that I hadn't gotten to the shade first...). So when I came out to my car this evening, here is what I found:





The poor suckers who parked in the shade this morning





My Durango in the beautiful, beautiful shade! Haha! I win!

Is that a "yes" or a "no"?

Last semester, I got nominated for the Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholarship, a scholarship for MBA students in Texas (I know, stating the obvious). Two Thursdays ago (June 8), I finally had my interview, the last step in the application process. My interview was really funny in itself...i'll make another post about it right after this one. But for now, I need your help in deciphering the letters that I just got.

Saturday, I checked my mail and had a letter from the TX Bus Hall of Fame. It was a small envelope, so I was pretty certain in was bad news...and I was right. "Dear Ms. Tate....I am sorry to inform you that you have not been chosen as a scholarship recipient this year....." I was a little let down, but okay.

Today, I checked my mail and had another letter from the TX Bus Hall of Fame. Small envelope again, and I thought to myself "What, did you feel the need to rub it in?" I almost throw it away but then decide to open it so I can post on my blog about getting rejected twice....but it says, "Dear Ms. Tate, On behalf of the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, I am pleased to be the first to congratulate you on being chosen as a 2006 Scholarship Award Recipient...."

Both letters are dated June 15, 2006, so I can't even claim that the later date is the real one. Did I get it? Did I not? (I'm assuming I got it until proven otherwise. Ha!) I have included pictures of both as evidence. Can you pull any meaning out of them?















And if you're still with me...keep reading! My interview story is actually really funny.

Twas The Night Before Sabre

Twas the night before Sabre, and all through the room,
The intern was ready, as one might assume.
Her paperwork ready, her shirt pressed with care,
She picked up her suit pants - her favorite pair.

When all of a sudden she jumped in great fright
Realizing something wasn't quite right.
She meant to do it earlier but had messed up again.
She had forgotten to get those pants hemmed!

But rather than panic she came up with a plan:
Safety pins and markers would get her out of this jam.
She pinned up the pant legs and colored pins black
So no one would know her hems weren't intact.

The moral of this story I shared with you today
Take your pants to the tailor when you buy them, right away!

A Letter to My Love

My Dearest McDonalds,

It is with great regret and deepest sorrow that I write you this letter. I feel the time has come for us to go our separate ways. We’ve had some great times over the past few years, but this is just something that I have to do.

I know what you’re thinking – there’s another restaurant. And I promise you, I am not just running into the booths of another burger provider. I know we had the whole Whataburger incident last year, but I told you then, and I’ll tell you again, it meant nothing. It was just lunchtime and you were too busy for me. I had to get food somewhere! But it is your chicken nuggets that I crave; no one else’s can come close!

You say you can change, and I know that you’re not lying. But its not you, it’s me. You have tried your best to offer me grilled chicken sandwiches, asian salads, and other healthy options, but as long as you have those delicious fries on your menu, I will always just fall back into my old habits and we both know its not good for either one of us. I can’t live in this kind of codependent relationship anymore. The best thing for me right now is to make a clean break. Pretend we never met. Believe me, this is harder on me than it is on you. You will find other college girls to share your golden arches with, but me; this is then end of my fast food excursions. I’ll always look back on our times together with fondness, and I hope you’ll think of me in the same way. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

With love,
Emily

The 5 W's of American Idol

Who: the heck does Ryan Seacrest think he is? He is getting really annoying with his incredibly rude behavior towards Simon. It really bugs me that someone can perform horribly, but when Simon says as much, Seacrest attacks him like Simon is the antichrist! Ryan Seacrest - you have no talent whatsoever and need to get over yourself. Bring back that Dunkleman guy!!

What: is the deal with Paula and the puns? I think that she has completely stopped listening to the songs and spends the full 2 minutes trying to figure out what clever phrase to say when its her turn to talk. Heard back to back last night for those of you who missed it: "A new religion has been formed tonight with 40,000 converts and that is the Church of Mandisa." (after Mandisa sang a gospel song) and "Forgive me if I stutter, but what if, what if, what if I'm your biggest fan?" (after Chris sang "What If?")

Where: do the families of the contestants stay? Do they have jobs and just fly in once a week for the show, or are they taking time off too? That wouldn't make sense, because even if their family member wins, they won't be able to just quit their day jobs. Random question I know, but something I've always wondered because the same family members are always there every week.

When: are people going to realize how freaking awesome Katherine McPhee is? Okay, I know most people already do, but I couldn't think of anything for "when".

Why: is it that Randy can say that he thinks a performance was bad, but as soon as Simon says the exact same thing 30 seconds later, all of a sudden Randy disagrees? It really is okay to agree with Simon every now and then - he really doesn't have that bad of an ear.

Things That Make Me Smile Part 1: Old Friends

Recently my life (and blogs) have been filled with stress and annoyances. So I have decided to devote one full week to things that make me smile.
It makes me smile when I can talk to an old friend and its not weird. So many times after someone stops being a part of your daily life and you lose touch, when you talk to each other again it is a little awkward and never goes past small talk about what you are doing in life. Well today I got a message from one of my old friends from ACU, Brad Benham, on myspace. We exchanged IMs and talked for about 2 hours. It was really great. He's in California in Pepperdine Law School now, so we really haven't talked much since graduation, but it was one of those conversations that went beyond "So, how's school?" and into actual dialogue. It made me very nostalgic and although it really made me miss my college friends, it made me happy tonight. It feels great to find another friend that I really think will continue into the next part of my life. It always feels good to end a conversation with the other person saying " i like this, it makes me smile, bye!!!!" And it makes me smile too. :)

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!

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.

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!

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?

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.

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.

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

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!

Lose the hate part of love/hate relationships.

Last night I spent the night in the hospital with my brother, Ben. There is something wrong with him and they can't figure out what it is, but it causes absolutely horrible pain in his body constantly. This is the third time he's been admitted with this same pain - the first time they removed his appendix and the second time they removed his gall bladder. They have run out of extraneous parts to take out and are actually going to have to figure out what is really wrong this time. But all of this is not what I am writing about today. This is just spurring on my thoughts about my relationship with my brother.

Any of you who really know me know that Ben and I have had a pretty rocky past. We are best friends when we are in different cities two hours away, but put us in the same house for more than one week and we want to kill each other. But last night as I watched him lay in pain, his face turning red as he tried to control it, I realized how much time we have wasted hating each other. There have been moments in my life where we have really connected and been sad about times that we have been unnecessarily mean to each other, but none will ever come close to the connection we made last night. In just a matter of 12 short (or in his mind - very, very, long) hours, he had to put his trust wholly in me and I had to honestly assure him I would do everything I could to take away his pain. This is because I was in charge of a button that could be pushed every 15-30 minutes to release some morphine into his blood stream. All I wanted was for him to sleep so he wouldn't feel pain. As I stayed up doing this, I couldn't imagine what it would be like under different circumstances.

I am only his sister. I am not his mother. But when he would cry out in the darkness to me in a voice barely above a whisper because it was all he could get out, "Emily...please...please make it stop..." and grab my hand and look at me with eyes filled with pain, it was all I could do to keep myself together. Just thinking about it again I am crying. I felt so useless because I wanted to take this from him; I would have done ANYTHING to make the pain go away, but I couldn't. Tonight my mom is staying the night, Thursday night was my dad. Ben is their son. I can't even imagine how excruciating it must be for them to watch him like this.

I know this is the stereotypical direction to go at this point, but I can't help it because it is so true. As much pain as Ben is in right now, it is nothing compared to the pain that Jesus went through. And it makes me feel horrible for all of the times that I have failed and will continue to fail in the future. In the same way that Ben looked at me with that pain in his eyes last night, Jesus looks at me when I screw up, and I don't want to see that pain when I get to Heaven.

Finally, my last rambling thought of this whole ordeal is that I want to encourage anyone reading this to think about the people in your life who you have struggles with and try with all your might to get past your problems. I know there are times in my life that I have wished pain on Ben, and as difficult as it is to even think these words, much less type them, I know that at least at one point many years ago, I thought my life would actually be easier if he just weren't around at all. I can't even bring myself to write the real word to end that sentence. But I can guarantee you I will never have these feelings again. Sure, I will be mad at him again and we will argue again, but if I never have to see him feeling like this again, I will be happy. And last night proved to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that I do want him around and in my life. I don't know what I would do without him. So although you may not believe me, if there is someone in your life who you have a love/hate relationship with, lose the hate, because you will only hate yourself when you have to spend a night with them like I did last night.

My name is Emily, and I'm an email-aholic

I am not expecting any important emails - no job offers, letters from long lost friends, or anything more important than my 10% off Barnes and Noble.com coupon that I get about once a week. But yet, I checked my email about 15 times today while I was at work. Last night, my Internet Explorer wasn't working and I nearly had an anxiety attack at the thought of the unread emails just sitting in my inbox because I hadn't checked my email in the 2 1/2 hours it took me to drive from Fort Worth to Abilene. Right now, my internet explorer is working, but my.acu's email system isn't and I have tried it about 10 more times in the one hour I've been home since I left work and checked my email at 5:30. I can't even describe the amount of will power it took me to stay away from an internet cafe while I was in Austria for a full week! I have decided that I have developed a new breed of addiction - email withdrawl.

It is the same feeling that I get when I leave my cell phone at home - feeling of utter disconnection with the outside world. The feeling that someone, somewhere is just dying to get ahold of me and invite me to do something really fun or offer me an amazing opportunity, but I just missed it because I was away from my computer or apart from my cell phone for 10 minutes. Like if it was really important they wouldn't try again or something.

In extreme cases, this addiction translates over into AOL Instant Messager. My friend, Melissa Dean has an away message she puts up every now and then that cracks me up...mainly because I know if I am reading it, the message applies to me. It says: "Today I salute you Mr. Compulsive Away Message Checker. While most people are out actually having a fun college life, you are at home reading about it on your computer screen. Right mouse click, Get Buddy Info, or the little Info box at the bottom of the Buddy List [whichever is faster]. You have people on that list you haven't talked to in years, but you still loyally read their away messages everyday to see what they are up to [borderline stalking]. So, crack open an ice cold Coca Cola, Marauder of the Mousepad and don't wander too far from your computer because you never know when someone's away message may change." No matter how hard you try, if you are sitting at your computer when someone puts up an away message, it is human nature to read it. Whats even funnier is when people tell you that your away messages are too boring and that you need to get some new ones. And it is AIM sacrilege to EVER use the "I am away from my computer" standard message. I just don't understand how I can complain that I don't have enough time to do homework, but I apparently have enough time to memorize that Brandon's messages usually say "Classes, yo" or that Ashley always puts quotes from Elf. I really have a disease.

And I know I'm not alone!! Sure, there are people like my friend, Jen Walsh that don't even HAVE internet at their house and only check their emails once a day at school, but I also know that there are more people like me who feel the constant need to keep in touch with the world, even if the world only consists of Pottery Barn online catalogs at the moment. Because the second an important offer comes in that MUST be responded to in the next 5 minutes, I will be there - way ahead of those who choose to live normal, productive lives.