My Future Sister-in-law

I know we all thought it would never happen, but my brother Ben is engaged!! Okay, so he's been engaged for 2 weeks and I just haven't blogged about it yet. :)

The happy couple
Me and Vanessa
The big day is July 19, 2009! I really like Vanessa and I am so excited she is going to be my sister-in-law. And even more exciting (okay maybe not, but its pretty cool), she is going to be my roommate for the next year! I'm not so worried about living with Vanessa...it's Ben being around all the time that makes me a little scared. :) Just kidding! It will definitely be something to tell the nieces and nephews about some day though!

Happy Memorial Day

I've spent 30 minutes trying to write a fitting tribute for our soldiers (like any of them read my blog, but still...) and can't write anything that even halfway expresses the praise they deserve. So I am just going to say thanks. It is because of them that I can enjoy a day like today - I went to a concert and fireworks show at White Rock Lake in Dallas. It was beautiful and I am thankful that we are able to gather like that with minimal fear here in America. God Bless America!

Upward Part 2

In January, I coached 4th Grade Cheerleaders for Upward Basketball. At the end of the season, they started the recruiting drive for soccer coaches. My brother signed up to coach a 5th-6th grade team and asked me to be his assistant coach. I must have on something that day, because I actually agreed.

Neither one of us knew what we were really getting into...because the 5th-6th teams were all filled by parents, so we got put with a 1st-2nd grade boys team! It has definitely been a challenge. I thought my 4th grade girls had no attention span....these boys have a -5 sec attention span. I can't even get their attention in the first place! They're cute though and it has definitely given me a new appreciation for parents of elementary school boys!

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Okay, after a brief Oliver break, we're back to my life in reverse.

The week before I got Oliver, I was in sunny California for a conference in San Jose. It was really rather uneventful. I was traveling by myself and didn't know of anything to do in San Jose. I went up to San Ramon on Monday night for dinner with my good friend, John who lives out there now, but most of the time, this was about the most exciting that I got.

All of my family and friends warned me that I might be killed if I didn't go to In-N-Out Burger while I was there, so I skipped the conference lunch one day and found one. It was good, but not necessarily anything to write home about in my opinion. My last night there, I had nothing to do. I went to dinner at a chinese restaurant across from my hotel. My plan was to go and gas up my rental car so I wouldn't have to in the morning and then head back to the hotel to watch some TV and such. Then I realized it was only 7pm and that was really lame. I had heard that the drive to San Francisco was awful, but I was bored and had nothing better to do, so I decided to just start driving towards SF and I would turn around if I decided it was to ridiculous. 8 miles later....

But a few miles down the road, I saw that it was an accident causing the traffic and from there it was smooth sailing. I just drove through town to see the Golden Gate Bridge and then came home because I didn't know where anything was, but it was worth it to say I actually did something.

The rest of my trip was spent discussing the merits of Software as a Service and how to sell it, so I'm sure you don't want to hear about that. I found it interesting, but then again, that's my life right now!

Next on the tour of Emily's Life in Reverse: Chicago.

Springtime!

I love springtime. It is the perfect combination of the winter air smell/feel and the summer warmth. I love going to the park and reading and just being able to sit outdoors and enjoy the sun without either getting too cold or immediately sweating like a pig.

The other thing I like about spring is the pretty flowers and trees. Not sure what the big tree in my front yard is, but last Sunday, beautiful white flowers popped up all over it! I had to get some pictures of it. This is when I wish I had a "real" camera instead of a point-and-shoot. I'm sure these pictures would have come out better.

The next day, it was snowing in Texas. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer for my real spring, but this day was a nice teaser!

Snow and Haircut

Couple of random pictures:


First off - Boston! It snowed while we were there. We went into dinner and it had just started to flurry. By the time we came out, there was like an inch of snow on the ground! Definitely not Texas snow! Outside of Quincy Market after dinner.
Second - I got a haircut tonight! Its really short - first time since probably my freshman year of college that I've had it this short.

If you're in Texas, I hope you voted in the primaries today! And now the fun is just beginning. :)

Some Respect for Our Candidates

Tonight I had a very weird experience that really made me think about a different side of the 2008 campaigns and made me have more respect for all of our 2008 Presidential Candidates.

I am taking it easy tonight, watching Saturday Night Live, when Hillary Clinton makes a surprise guest appearance. However, this morning, my family and friends were in the Stockyards in Fort Worth and stumbled upon a Hillary Clinton rally*.

I hear about them being all over the country, but it wasn't until I thought about being here where I live this morning and then being in New York this evening that it made me think about just how EXHAUSTING a campaign must be. I've taken a few day trips and had some times where I am on the road a lot and am always just ready to die after a lot of traveling. But for the past 6 months or more, these candidates have been on the road constantly. AND, they are scrutinized over every word that comes out of their mouth in this exhausted state of mind**. Regardless of who I personally support***, tonight I definitely want to give props to all the candidates for their perserverence in this campaign.

* Not sure where Patty and Wade stand, but my family will kill me if I let it seem like they actually went to the rally and/or support Clinton. They just took a picture with a sign to make me jealous because I really want to attend a political rally before the campaign is over just to be a part of it.

** I still fully plan on scrutinizing every word that comes out of candidates' mouths. I just have more sympathy for them now. :)

*** John McCain for President!

Things That Make Me Smile: Upward Cheerleading

Now that I'm finished with Grad School, I finally have time to do "extracurricular activities" that I enjoy. So this year, I have started coaching a 4th grade cheerleading squad with the Upward Basketball program! I've been pulling from my high school cheerleading days and using some of my old cheers and chants - the girls are really picking up on all of it very well. We had our first game today and my cheerleaders are just precious. I am having so much fun! It really makes me smile. :)

Why would you do that, MTV? Why?

I feel like I'm Cindy Lou Who walking in on the Grinch stealing her Christmas tree. I was flipping through channels to day and MTV was showing "So You Think You Can Dance." I turned to it and it was the Vegas Week episode from my favorite season....the Year of Allison!!

I got really excited and was ready to set my Tivo to record all of them so I could see my favorite dances again. I went hour by hour looking at the next two weeks, and this is the ONLY episode they're showing of it! They're not showing the rest of the season! The mean MTV Grinch gave me a little taste of a fantastic Christmas cookie and then he snatched it way. Why would you tease me like that, MTV?

Instead I'll just have to reflect on my great time at the SYTYCD tour in November. Lindsey and I surprised our friends by renting a mini-van and decorating it for the tour. We are such dorks, but I'm okay with that. :)

The Office

Every Thursday night before the strike, I would get together with a group of friends to watch The Office. We would watch and laugh hysterically at the crazy things that Michael would do....his wacky meetings, fun runs, random parties, etc. Every now and then, people who don't work in Corporate America ask me if The Office is real. Most of the time I say no...until yesterday.

Yesterday we had our Quarterly DFW Employee Meeting. As I looked around at what was going on, I realized that very little of The Office is an exaggeration. The meeting was in a ballroom at the Solana Marriott. It started out with a rock band made of Sabre employees playing a few songs. They are called "The Gross Margins" and even have a logo that is the strings/frets of a guitar acting as a graph like a stock graph. Then they started playing a video of a lit fireplace (for ambiance, ya know!) and a guy in a smoking jacket a la Hugh Hefner was sitting in a chair acting as the MC in the style of Masterpiece Theater. There proceeded to be skits to give us important lessons about our company and strategy....a VP acted as Scrooge falling asleep and "dreaming" via video of the Ghost of Sabre Past, the Ghost of Sabre Present, and the Ghost of Sabre Future. Another VP and a sales guy were the Spartan Cheerleaders cheering on the SVP as he talked about our 2008 strategy (complete with "The Perfect Cheer.") The Gross Margins entertained a little more playing songs like I'm Gonna Be (I Would Walk 500 miles) and Come Together (Beatles). Then we had a dinner and an open bar. And as I was watching these skits, I could TOTALLY see Michael Scott in every one!

But yesterday's meeting (and every quarterly meeting for that matter) isn't the only thing that reminds me of The Office. Remember the "Fun Run" episode? Well we had a "Give Together" month where all of the employees donated time to service projects and money to charities. There were a bunch of events during the week to raise money. One day we had a "County Fair" with wacky relay races, a 1 Mile Fun Run, a Chili/Curry Cookoff, and pig races. Not kidding...pig races. Oh yeah, they also had a mechanical bull that all of the VPs and SVPs rode. At the end of the week there was a company talent show complete with prizes for the top 3 acts. (Yes I was in the talent show....no I didn't win. But people still tell me I should have which makes me feel good. :) )

It just really hit me yesterday how funny this all was because it never seemed that crazy to me but yet we think that The Office is so far out there! Really the only difference between my company and the things that happen at Dunder Mifflin is that our leadership is all VERY competent and not complete idiots like Michael Scott....but other than that, its all pretty much dead on. I dont' have any pictures of The Gross Margins or this week's skits, but here are a couple of pictures from a quarterly meeting last year...this one was themed The Incredibles and all of the skits were about "The Incredibles" (Relia Girl, Value Boy, Collabor Mom, Mr. S.T. (Straight talk....kept saying "I Pity The Fool"), and Captain Undisputed defeating the Dot Commissar's evil plots to take down Sabre Airline Solutions. And remember...these aren't interns being hazed and forced to do these skits. These are the President of Airline Solutions, a VP, a couple of product managers....it's really amusing. As silly as it may seem though, I think I get more out of these meetings than I do from all of the other traditional PowerPoint presentations that I sit through and/or give each week. :)

Things That Make Me Smile Part 5: Extra Cherries

A couple of years ago, I did a short series that I called "Things That Make Me Smile." Lately I've realized that its the little things in life that just make my day happy, so I've decided to start it up again.
Today I was running some errands and decided to stop at Sonic to get a Diet Cherry Coke. This is something I used to do a lot when I lived close to a Sonic and I think its been probably 2 or 3 years since I was able to go there regularly. They are supposed to put a maraschino cherry in it, but they only do about half the time. Days that they don't kind of suck. But days that you get 2 cherries are the best! So today after I had finished most of the drink, I looked inside to see if there was a cherry....and I had hit the motherload! There were FIVE! I didn't know anyone who works there, I didn't ask for extra cherries, someone inside just decided to give a ton of cherries for no reason. And it truly made me smile. :)

Fiesta!!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about going to see the Saginaw High School band play to support my friend Derrick. Well, they did so well in their contests this year that they got to go to State Marching Contest! This is a big deal, so we decided to throw Derrick a party after church last Saturday. And since I was all moved in, I decided to make it a debut for my house too!

My friend Angie was in charge of the cake and decorations, so she decided that it would be a Fiesta party. Nothing like a giant mariachi on your wall to make up for not having anything decorated in my house yet. :)

Suit Up!

If you don't watch How I Met Your Mother...first of all, shame on you. Second of all, you really won't understand or truly appreciate the awesomeness of this post. So start watching it and come back again once you have seen it. I have Seasons 1 and 2 if you need to borrow them.

Now that I live closer to most of my friends, I decided to invite a few people over for dinner and HIMYM on Monday night. I sent out an email talking about how I was about to "open a can of awesome" and it was going to be "legen....wait for it......dary"......all the good stuff. Lindsey asked me to remind her via text message that day, so I did and get the response "I'm suiting up" (to which I responded "Hypothetical high five....Nice.")

So 7:00 rolls around and my doorbell rings. I was really confused because neither Lindsey nor our friend Jason who was on his way ever ring doorbells at friends houses, but I went and opened the door and found this:

They had actually suited up! I was laughing so hard. And of course, the first words out of their mouths were "I told you to SUIT UP!." It was great. We had good food and a lot of fun watching some episodes from season 2 because my DVR screwed up and didn't record the actual show. It was sad. But every time I should be sad, I just turn it around and be awesome instead. :)

Now to people who don't watch the show....don't you want to go and watch the best show on television now so you can get all the jokes? Definitely the best comedy since Friends and if you know how much I love Friends, you know thats saying a lot!

WATCH HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!!!

Halloween Surprise....

My apartment surprised me yesterday and decided to dress up like a new house for Halloween!

The bedrooms aren't worth posting anything on yet - the Master Bedroom is completely undecorated (I don't even have my actual bedding on it yet) and the other two bedrooms are basically just filled with packed boxes. I love my new house! Come visit any time!

Two best stories from giving out candy last night - one precious little princess no older than 6 years old looks at me and says "You BETTER not have given me Hot Tamales!" And soon after was a fun comment - a little skeleton looks inside and says "Hey, great house." That made me happy. :)

P.S. - Remember the TV poll I had up for so long? I went with the majority and bought the fun flat-screen a while ago (as you can see in the living room picture) and now I'm glad I did because I can get HD in my new house. :)

P.P.S. - This also completed an item on THE List:
77. Buy a house or a condo

My Name is J'aime

In one week, I went from Football to Fashion.

My cousin, Allyson, called me with an invitation to a fancy party for Dallas International Fashion Week (same group that puts on New York Fashion Week only totally not as cool). I love dressing up so I said yes. While we were getting ready, I found out what the party was for - it was a fashion show for Jaime Pressly's new line, J'aime (clever, huh?).

You might recognize Jaime Pressly as this:


But that night, she looked like this:


Also in attendance: Jerry Stackhouse from the Mavs, a guy from Project Runway, and a couple of girls from Friday Night Lights. Thats right, I was actually at a party with bona fide celebrities.

Here are some pics of me and Allyson and our other friend, Katy that went with us.

Ever wear a shirt with your friend's face on it?

I have!

I couldn't start out with the post that everyone is looking for or you'd just stop reading. So I'm saving the house for later. (Plus, I haven't taken any pics yet.)

One of my friends, Derrick, is the assistant band director/percussion guru at Saginaw High School. His band is doing extremely well this year - won several contests, beat out schools that they really shouldn't have seeing as the school is only 2 years old and doesn't even have seniors yet, etc. - so a big group of us decided that we would take a Friday night and relive our High School days by going to a Saginaw football game.

Lindsey Holder, our other friend Angie, and I decided that we wanted Saginaw shirts, but couldn't find any. Then we decided it would be even funnier if we made our own. So we did. And here are the results:

The front - very simple, just iron-on letters spelling out the school's name

The back - a picture of Derrick with the caption "We're just here for Mr. Doyle." Couldn't let anyone think we were actually there to support the KIDS, could we? P.S. - people have always thought that Lindsey and I are sisters and its pictures like this that make me realize why! Close up of the back - Luckily we have a friend with a great sense of humor. He thought it was hilarious! And I think he also appreciated that he got louder cheers when they called his name than the entire band did when they finished their show. :)

Coming up next: "My Name is J'aime"

Actual Vegas Pictures

One of our sales guys, Rob, sent me a couple of pics from our Vegas trip today! Nothing real exciting, just us in a place called Rouge in the MGM Grand, but its fun to have some new pics of my work friends. :)

My friend Lauren, Rob, and I. People at work confuse me and Lauren all the time. Its really funny.

Gotta love the pictures taken from 1 foot away. Haha! Me and Lauren.

And before I get the comments about the fact that my glass was empty and Lauren's was full...she had just gotten a new glass and I was finishing mine. (Don't you love the pre-emptive comment stops. Ha!)

State Fair

This Sunday, my brother decided to drag my whole family to the State Fair whether we liked it or not. I think we were all glad he did though - because we had a really good time. We got to eat our annual State Fair corny dog, see Big Tex, hear some bands, and go to the car show. It was a pretty good day.

I bought something this week...

It was next to register so I just couldn't resist. Gotta love those impulse buys!

Okay, I'm sure you're getting tired of looking at my insightful thoughts on vacuums, but I haven't been able to post because I'm scared to. Pretty much the ONLY thing going on for me right now is the fact that I just put a contract on a house. I close on October 11th and I am insanely paranoid that something is going to fall through before then so I haven't wanted to post about it and jinx it. But I got tired of going to my OWN page and seeing that last post, so I figured I'd 'fess up. So here is what could be my new house in a week and a half or so...pray that everything works out! I am in love with this house! :)

Labor Day "Turner Falls" Trip

Last weekend I went with a group of 10 people to Oklahoma for a camping trip. I call it the "Turner Falls" trip because that was what we called it...until we got there and decided not to actually go to Turner Falls. :)

We had a campsite at Buckhorn that was just so great - not too many people and our own private cove of the lake - that we decided to cancel our planned day trip to the falls which was supposedly incredibly crowded. We did go to Arbuckle Wilderness though which was great fun. And I discovered my new favorite sport - Kayaking! Two people brought kayaks and I had so much fun I wish I had an SUV again so I could get one too!

Our weekend consisted of swimming, hiking, kayaking, hanging out around camp, eating, running, and relaxing. We had no schedule and it was fantastic. Here are a couple of pics.

Look at that giraffe tongue!!Dustin decided if the pellets were good enough for the animals....
Our campsite mascot, Bert the Tarantula. He liked to hang out right outside my tent.Group picture on our hike up to some of the springs. It was really a great trip!