When in Rome....

Okay, I know I've been home for 2 weeks now, so its time to stop procrastinating and post some pictures! Here are a few shots from my adventures in Rome.

Let's start with some ruins....these are two pictures of the ruins of the Forum. Broken pieces of marble columns everywhere!

I'm pretty sure they probably didn't appreciate us climbing on the ruins, but since when do MBA's care what anyone else thinks? :)

Cool Roman architecture and a perfectly blue sky can make ANYONE feel like an artist!

The Circus Maximus....thats where they used to have Chariot races!
We didn't have any chariots, so Shelly and I decided that skipping would have to do for our race!
Ben and I decided that this statue needed his foot tickled....
The Trevi Fountain. Yes I threw in the coins to make a wish, to ensure my return to Rome someday, and to give me a safe journey home and no I won't tell you what my wish was!

You know how you always see the Trevi Fountain in movies with just a couple of people milling around leaving plenty of room for the main characters to have their private romantic moment? Yeah right! This was the crowd at about 4:30 pm on a random Wednesday afternoon!

In front of the Vatican. Of course, the only picture I took with me in it there has my eyes closed! Inside the Vatican is absolutely beautiful, but most of my pictures were taken vertically because the ceilings are so tall, so I can't post them here! It was really cool to see.

View from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica
The ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica. I would have taken a picture of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but then I'd still be in Rome stuck in jail cause its illegal. Didn't stop other people in our group from taking pictures of it though! Ha!
The main thing I learned in Rome was that everything that has even the SLIGHTEST bit of interesting Roman history (as in from the era of the Caesars) was taken over by the Catholics and either destroyed to make the Vatican or turned into a Catholic church. Case in point - the Panthenon. I was so excited to see the temple of the Roman gods, but when I got inside, found out its been turned into some Catholic altar! Booooo!
The Colosseum. Nuff said.
Cool Roman architecture and a perfectly blue sky can make ANYONE feel like an artist!
Inside the Colosseum. It apparently used to be REALLY pretty inside with all sorts of marble structures, but then the Popes took all the the marble and destroyed everything to build the Vatican. :)

You can see the tunnels where the gladiators used to be before they would come out for the "bloody bloody horrible games" (thats what our tour guide kept saying over and over!)
On Palatine Hill - the hill were Romulus founded Rome and where Domitian's palace was. It was the biggest palace ever built by a Roman emperor and now bits and pieces of it are left.
Domitian had his own arena INSIDE his palace! He would have chariot races there and every now and then would divert the aquaduct, flood the arena, and hold mock naval battles with real ships! Kinda makes Patty and Wade's theater room seem a bit unimpressive, huh?
And of course, what trip to Italy would be complete with some gelato? Any country where eating ice cream in January is considered normal is alright with me!
Well, that's all for now! I have several pictures that I need to get from other peoples' cameras, so there may be another Rome post or two. Hope you enjoyed some pictures....I know I enjoyed taking them!!

Absolut Emily Tate

So I promise I'm going to post pictures of Rome, but I took about 300 pictures on my trip and only 70 were from Florence. So I have a LOT to go through and frankly, just haven't had the motivation to do anything productive over the past couple of days.

But in the interest of not keeping the exact same thing on my blog....in my full on recluse mode that I've been in today (Ice storm in North Texas for those of you not here...), I got extremely bored and googled myself. To my surprise, I found out that I am a drink! No kidding! There is a drink called Absolut Emily Tate. Wonder who decided on that name....and now I kinda want to try it! It doesn't sound great though. Couldn't my drink at least have involved cranberry juice and be pink? This is from the Absolut website:

Buongiorno!!

Buona Sera! Hello from Italy! I am sitting in the lobby of my hotel in Florence and have an hour before I go to the train station to leave for Rome, so I thought I'd take a bit of time and post a few pictures. :)


This is the Piazza de la Repubblica (I think thats how it is spelled...) - The Republic Square. The carousel in the corner is really pretty and the architecture around the square is beautiful.This is a statue of a boar (I'm guessing you could've figured that one out on your own). It is a fountain and people put a coin in its mouth, let it fall out with the water, and then pet the nose for good luck. Me and my friend Ed in front of the Ponte Vecchio - the bridge in the background that goes over the river. There are a ton of gold shops and other little shops on the bridge and it has a great view once you're in the center.Buon Anno (Happy New Year)! New Years Eve riding the carousel just before midnight. New Years in Florence was like nothing I have ever experienced. Starting around lunchtime, people were lighting firecrackers in the streets...soooooo loud! It got more and more loud as the night went on. Then at midnight, the square went CRAZY!! People were lining the streets surrounding it and when midnight hit, everyone started spraying champagne all over everyone and there were so many fireworks lit that the piazza looked like it was on fire! A few little old men were brave enough (or maybe just drunk enough) to go into the center of the square and dance around while fireworks were going off all around them and people were throwing their champagne bottles in the center to make more noise I guess. This is a really bad picture from New Years, but this is a guy from Houston that I had to go all the way to Florence to meet! We've been hanging out a lot this week and on the second or third day, I found out that he's actually kinda famous...he's a NASCAR and Indy car driver named Larry Foyt. He's been out of racing for about a year because he broke his back in the Indy 500, so he's managing a team out of Houston and is hoping to get back into driving soon. Looks like I may have to become a NASCAR fan now.... ;)

Well, there's the Reader's Digest version of my trip to Florence. In about 2 hours I'll be in Rome! I get home on the 8th, so I'll post more then. Ciao!

Merry Christmalicious!!!

The Eternal Conundrum...

Its 3:15pm and I'm sitting in my office. I've tied up all of the loose ends that I needed to before I leave for two weeks , but I still have a meeting at 4:30pm that I have to stick around for. What do I do for the next hour and fifteen minutes? :(

Update: I decided to take this time to switch my blog to New Blogger. And with a new blog should come a new background, so I changed that too. This took all of 15 minutes. Only one hour to go. sigh....

At this time next week....

At this time next week, I will be here: :)























Arrivederci!

The top 10 things that elves do at night

While I was sitting in a parking lot, waiting for my Knight in a Giant Truck to come change my tire, I saw a piece of paper blowing across the pavement. I thought it was probably something that had fallen out of my car while I was looking for my spare tire, so I picked it up. It wasn't anything of mine, but it definitely made my day a little bit better...it was the paper of an elementary school student titled "The top 10 things that elves do at night." So with no further ado, here it is!

The top 10 things that elves do at night

1. Make toys for the childeren

2. Drink hot chocolate with candy canes in it

3. Tell a story with Santa Claus to the elves

4. Go sledding and make a igloo

5. Go to the ice casel

6. Go check if the raindeer are low on magic

7. Suck on their candy canes

8. Watch Santa fly away in the sky

9. Make candy cane cookees with Mrs. Claus

10. Fall to sleep. Just kiding but just remember, elves never sleep.

I love the smell of rubber in the morning....

This morning I had to be at work at 7:30, so I get up extra early so I won't have to battle traffic on my way. As I get off the freeway and go through my first light, my car starts shaking a little bit. As I go through my next light, it all of a sudden feels like I hit a giant log or something and then just goes nuts. I smell burning rubber and see white smoke everywhere, so I pull over and find this:
Needless to say, I was not at work at 7:30. Apparently no one in North Richland Hills knows how to change a tire (including me!) so I had to wait and hour for a guy my dad knew to come and help me and got to work at 9am. Oh yeah, and I wore white pants to work today. Perfect for digging around greasy tire-changing stuff. What a great start to a day...

Question of the Day

Should I be offended or flattered when I get friend requests from guys on myspace who only have hot female "friends"?

On one hand, they are disgusting. I mean seriously, what girl with an ounce of self-respect would ever want to be associated with a jerk whose only "friends" are girls with their boobs hanging out in every picture? (Don't worry - I always reject the request...and I don't have my boobs hanging out in any pictures!)

But on the other hand...are they saying they think I'm hot? :) Everyone needs a little self-esteem boost every now and then...

Name That Tune!

No cheating!!!

"Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb."

I'll even give you a hint....Merry Christmas and stone cold tombs and stuff!

Things That Make Me Smile - Holiday Edition

Just so that everyone doesn't think that I am immune to the Christmas spirit after my last post...I thought I'd list a few things about the Holidays that make me smile. :)

1. Sappy Hallmark Christmas movies

2. When its cold outside (possibly even snowing...contrary to #5 from yesterday) but I'm inside and warm with a fire in the fireplace and #1 on television.

3. Christmas trees!! And Christmas lights!! And anything shiny that involves Christmas!!

4 & 5. The following video includes two of my very favorites: SNL Christmas songs and The Muppet Christmas Carol! Best. Sketch. Ever.



Happy Holidays!! Only 16 Amazon.com shopping days left to have your online orders in time for Christmas!! :)

Pet Peeves - Holiday Edition

1. People who get in their cars in a crowded parking lot and then take their dear sweet time before backing up, even though they can CLEARLY see that people are waiting for their spot

2. When there is a tiny patch of ice on the shoulders of the road, not even in the lanes, and people slam on their brakes before going over the bridge, blocking traffic and making my commute 1 1/2 hours

3. Having a stupid winter cold for 3 weeks that I just can't shake

4. Paper cuts from "Holiday Cards" (not Christmas Cards!)

5. The fact that whenever it snows in Texas, everyone has to pretend they're excited about it and go out and play in it. Its just cold and wet people! (I think I probably mentioned that in a post sometime last year too....but I really hate it!)

My Guilty Pleasure

I am such a sap, but I totally love this show. Every season it comes on, I tell myself its stupid and say I'm not going to watch it, but then I somehow always get sucked in. Tonight was the finale, and although he didn't pick the girl I really wanted him to, it was really a great season. This show and sappy Hallmark Christmas movies are the two things that make me wish I wasn't single. Then I watch Dr. Phil and feel better. Just kidding! (about the Dr. Phil thing.)

P.S.
They showed the next bachelor and WOW. Usually I don't think the guys on the Bachelor are all that good looking (except Firestone. He was cute.), but this guy is HOT. Makes me wish I was skinny so I could apply! Just kidding again! Or am I....

Customer Service is Key

Yesterday I was sick and stuck sitting at home watching all of the awful TV that goes on on Saturday afternoons. I found a show called "Airline" that is a series of mini-documentaries about issues at airports with Southwest Airlines. I watched three episodes and it cracked me up the whole time because each incident showed one of two things: either an idiot passenger or Southwest Airlines being idiots.

One incident in particular involved a flight that from Ft. Lauderdale that was landing in Buffalo with passengers connecting to Cleveland. The flight from Ft. Lauderdale was delayed and the passengers missed their connecting flight. Not the worst thing to happen, but Southwest REFUSED to do ANYTHING to accomodate the passengers to get them home. It was Sunday and the next flight that had seats available was Tuesday. They wouldn't put them on another airline, get them a rental car to drive home, or even pay for a hotel! They wanted these people to sit in the airport for 2 days, and when the people got upset, they called security on them!! It was ridiculous!

The thing that killed me about this situation is that reaccomodation is a HUGE opportunity for airlines to gain customer loyalty. You can gain a customer for life simply by showing that you are making every effort to help them out. But yet, these workers chose to actually say the words "Its not our problem" and when the customers offered suggestions of very reasonable things that would make them okay (hotel room, rental car, refunds so they could rent a car themselves), the airline refused. And the airline industry wonders why the public thinks they have poor customer service....

There were some good incidents on the show too. A lady's bag fell off a cart and was drug 100 ft, shredding nearly everything inside of it on her way home from a trip. That customer service agent called another agent in Vegas where she came from and replaced all of the souveniers that the customer had, plus some extras. Good job Southwest. I guarantee that that lady will always fly Southwest when she can. Just a little bit of customer service will go a long way.

Apparently I'm Suicidal....

It's 1:45pm on the day after Thanksgiving. I'm bored. So I am going to venture out and battle crowds at the Best Buy down the street. If no one hears from me in the next couple of days....send out the search party. Wish me luck!

Mini-Clicked

Ryan hasn't posted his weekly clicks yet, and I'm getting impatient. So here is my mini-version for the day:

• I'd like to introduce you to the dumbest. person. ever.
• Tired of hearing about the "destroyed" or "fictitious" Ancient Wonders of the World? Now you can name your own wonders!
• I'm glad they got this guy off the road!

In other news - I officially accepted a full-time offer today! In the spirit of a "this is what I clicked" post, I'll give you a quick rundown of my interview experience this semester.

• I had interviews here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. (McKinsey, Dell, American Express, Kelloggs, FedEx, GM, MGM Mirage, American Airlines)
• Got rejected by 2 companies officially (McKinsey and FedEx)
• Pretty sure that one was a rejection by never hearing from them again... (American Express)
• Think I'm about to get a rejection from this one (American Airlines)
• Am still getting calls from two companies (Kellogg's and Dell)
• And after all of that, decided that I really like where I am and accepted my full-time offer with Sabre! Ha! (I love the gnome...)

So thats all I have for today! Tune in tomorrow or Saturday for tales of an unusual camping trip!

P.S. - If you don't actually want to click on all those job links, I put cheats in white font so you can just highlight it. :)

"It's only 2 years..."

Brandon Kennedy wrote a post about success and for some reason wanted to know what I thought about success and what makes people "successful". I started a comment, and realized it was turning into a blog. So now it is! :)

Disclaimer: I am only talking about professional success in this blog...I know that personal success can be measured in so many different ways.

First of all, if I knew what success was, I probably wouldn't be on "interviews, interviews, interviews" as Brandon mentioned! But as I think back on things, I basically find I've been viewing my life in 2 year chunks....After college I said "Maybe I should just go to grad school. Its only 2 years, and then I can do what I really want." Then I decided I want to work in strategy and discovered to get into strategy, they want me to be in consulting for 2 years. So I apply with consulting firms thinking "Its a hard lifestyle, but I can do anything for 2 years..." Then I decide that I really want to be a consultant, and now I find that consulting firms want MBAs with 2 years of work experience. So if my last consulting interview comes up short, I'll stay where I am (which I would be very happy with by the way....Sabre is a GREAT company) and then try the consulting thing again in another 2 years. After all....it's only 2 years. I can do anything for 2 years...

In a lot of ways, this scares me. Although I'm not planning on doing something for 2 years that I absolutely despise, I can see how it could be easy to fall into a trap, always just looking for something a little bit better and never being content where I am. But I really do believe there will be a point where I will get into a job that I don't feel is a step trying to get somewhere else. I'm not saying that I'm going to stay in that job forever - I get bored too easily and would want a new challenge - but at that point my next move would just be to do something that I think is interesting and not simply a means to an end.

So I guess to sum up Brandon's question - I will consider myself successful when I reach a 2 year chunk where I can't see an "and then" afterwards....when my next 2 years is simply for another challenge, and not another step to get where I'm trying to go, that is when I'll be successful.

Gotta go for now....have to finish studying for another interview tomorrow morning! :)

Meet Me In St. Louis....

For the past month, I don't think I've spent one weekend at home.....Atlanta, Houston, Austin, and this weekend on Emily's National Tour....St. Louis! I went for the National Association of Women MBAs conference (the one that was in Boston last year). To make a long weekend's story short, went to some speakers/panels, saw the arch, feared for my life driving down the most dangerous street in the most dangerous city in the USA, and flew first class on the way home. :) Here are some pictures from the weekend.....thanks to Vineeta for actually carrying a camera!

The Mandatory Arch Picture:

The Mandatory "Us in Front of the Arch" Picture:

What happens when you tell people walking in suits to turn around? You get a picture that looks like a cheesey ad for the new Law & Order coming on.
Waiting for a session to start:
Eating at a really fancy Italian restaurant. We wouldn't have gotten in the restaurant except that a lady at the airport recommended it and told us to drop her name with the hostess because she's a VIP there. They made an exception and seated us as a favor to her.....but only after a 1-1/2 hour wait and if we sat in a back room away from the other guests! We felt special and insulted all at the same time....

And that was my weekend! If I ever get pictures from the Houston trip (Ashley, it was less than 24 hours! I flew in at 10 am Thursday morning, had meals and ceremonies all day long, and flew out Friday at 6 am! Don't hate me for not calling!!) I'll post those too.

A Dream Has Died!!

Its official....I will never get to do this:

I'm sure this will make Ryan's "Things I Could Blog About, But Won't" list sometime soon, but I can't believe that Bob Barker is retiring! I mean, I can believe he's retiring, but I'm so sad! Unless we do it soon, Lindsey and I will never get to make our random LA trip to go on The Price is Right. :(

Once a procrastinator....

When I moved into my apartment, I was pretty much dead broke. Therefore, I took any furniture that I could get from anyone who would give it to me. My grandparents graciously gave me one of their beds....unfortunately this mattress was older that I was! It was incredibly uncomfortable. So much so that beginning in May, I started sleeping on my couch because it didn't hurt my back as much.

Needless to say, one of my major purchases that I planned for the summer was a new mattress. So in July, I went to Sleep Experts, talked to mattress salesmen who I think were trained on used car lots, and bought a new mattress. Sleep Experts has a 100 day comfort guarantee, but I was certain I wouldn't need it....until about 3 weeks later. It was seriously just as hard as my grandparents mattress!

But of course, I can't ever do anything immediately; I have to wait until the last possible moment. I was convinced that my 100 days had already passed, but on Saturday, I decided to check. Turns out, my 100 days would be up the very next day! So Sunday afternoon after my morning group project meetings (ugh), I went back to Sleep Experts and said I wanted to trade in my mattress. About 20 minutes later, I had a new mattress picked out and scheduled for delivery today! So now I have another new mattress and can't wait to go to sleep tonight to see if it really is more comfortable than my last two! Better late than never! :)

Today I had the...

worst. interview. ever.

Apparently I checked my brain at the door or something. I'm sure the guy was thinking "Why did we agree to interview this girl??" It was a case interview where I had to analyze a company that makes Cognac. I've never had cognac, but after this interview, I'm certain I would hate it. In fact, I'm glad I'm over 21 so I can go buy a bottle of the stuff and smash it against the wall. Sounds like a fun Friday night activity....

Project Runway

Geoffrey did NOT just win! Everything that came down the runway of his collection I thought was just awful....even from a new york, edgy-type style. I guess this just confirms my lack of fashion sense. But if THAT's fashion, then I retract my point number 3 on my last post.

Uli or Michael should've won.

Sometimes I wish...

• I had kids just so I could post cute pictures on my blog. It gets a little boring over here, I know.
• I was a person who was always on time rather than always running about 5 minutes late.
• I had more fashion sense.
• I was better at keeping up with old friends (enter: blogs and myspace)
• I had really gotten into Scrubs when it first came out rather than being a casual watcher until last year
• I had a roommate (and then the moment passes!)
• I could remember all the really good blog topics that I come up with and then can't remember when it comes time to actually write them.

Interview Weekend

Dell certainly knows how to treat their candidates! They put me up at the Round Rock Marriott on the Concierge Level - the top floor where you have to slide your room key before the elevator will work. The concierge took me on a tour of the hotel when I first got there, my room had a king size bed with down comforters and pillows, (actually, it was probably that synthetic down stuff b/c of people with allergies, but insanely comfortable nonetheless) and every time I needed anything, the front desk knew exactly who I was and why I was there.

The interview day was long, but great. I had to be in the hotel lobby at 6:30am, and the day was full of different presentations, meet and greet receptions, and of course, interviews. And the BEST (read sarcasm here) part of the day was when I ventured into Austin in the evening and had my first experience with the fun traffic in the city. I guess I'm just going to have to accept the fact that Fort Worth has exceptionally good traffic and if I end up moving, I'm going to have to deal with bad traffic.

All in all, it was a good time. Not my last interview of the year, but definitely a good one.

I'M LEEEEAVING...ON A JET PLANE...

Okay, I do know when I'll be coming back again, but I'm flying down to Austin tomorrow for an interview. Wish me luck!

And while I'm gone, I leave one question to ponder.....Where has Jennifer Meacham's blog gone???

It's time for another....

Good Idea:
Putting Mentholatum under your nose before bed when you have a sinus infection and can't breathe.

Bad Idea:
Assuming that because Icy/Hot has menthol, it will work the same as Mentholatum and won't burn so badly that it feels like someone is running a lit match up and down your face.

I don't even know what to title this one!

On Wednesdays, I am in class from 12:30 - 2pm and then again from 4pm until 10pm. So today I decided to spend my 2 hour break in Panera close to campus where I could eat my lunch/dinner and use their wireless internet. Its a nice atmosphere, not too busy, comfortable seating, and great food.

So while I am here, I got an email from a company that wants to bring me in for second rounds asking me to call their admin to make the travel arrangements. I call her and she asks if she can put me on hold. As with a lot of holds, it had some nice classical music playing in the background, but I noticed that I was hearing it in both ears.....the music on the hold was the EXACT SAME music that was playing over the speakers in Panera, synchronized and everything! Two completely different companies in two cities playing the same music at the same time. How weird is that??

A Couple of Cakes

I forgot that I had pictures of these until tonight and decided to post a blog about something other than job searching. Those posts will resume this week. :)

This was for a baby shower. I spent several hours making fondant buttons, baking a cake that was 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 white cake, making the top in different colored blocks....and when I picked it up the cake board folded in half and I nearly smashed the whole thing!! Luckily it wasn't too awfully ruined and I was able to fix it for the most part - it just looked a little messier than I hoped.

After the smashing:

All fixed! Well, almost:

The buttons:


I also made this cake for a birthday party. I think she was turning 4 and it was a Purse Party. What purse party would be complete without a purple purse cake?


Thats all for now!

I'm Famous Again!

Its not every day that you open up an email and see your own face in the pretty header at the top, but thats exactly what happened to me today. Fun times in the Neeley School of Business!

Anyone Remember?

Can anyone (more specifically the Altamesa crowd) name where this song came from? I seriously spent my half my drive home singing it to myself - probably the first time I've even thought of it in over 10 years...

I'll cast all my cares upon you
I'll lay all of my burdens down at your feet
And anytime I don't know what to do
I will cast all my cares upon you

My guess is Maggie will name it first. :)

Life's too short to live in Lubbock...

That was my favorite t-shirt slogan that I saw yesterday at the TCU v Tech. I'm sure we all know that I'm happy right now, so I'll keep this short today with a quick recap.

The Good
We won. Duh!

The Bad
No touchdowns! How boring of a game is that? (Although I'd still like to interject here that we won. :) )

The Stupid
While driving to the game (it took me 1 hour to get to campus when it usually takes 15 minutes, by the way), I saw a guy scalping tickets at a gas station. He had the standard "I NEED TICKETS" sign that supposedly lets people know he has tickets without saying it, but then was standing in the back of his truck waving 4 tickets in the air. Way to be discreet, buddy!

And finally, one of the fun pictures floating around right now. Have a happy Sunday!

Early to Bed....Never to Sleep

I discovered something in undergrad that I had forgotten until tonight: there is no point whatsoever in going to bed early.

Every now and then, I would be really exhausted during the day. I would get home and around 9pm realize that I have nothing left to do. So, I'd decide to go to bed. I'd lay down, thinking about how great it was going to be when I woke up the next day so refreshed. One hour, two hours, three hours go by....and I'm still laying awake, cursing the world because now I'm just rested enough that I'm not going to sleep any time soon. I chalked it up to the noise of having 3 roommates that kept me awake.

So tonight, I was tired all day, decided to go to bed at 9:30pm. Apparently I wasn't tired enough because its now approaching midnight and I am wide awake. No roommates to blame now, just the cruel tricks of nature keeping me up. I have truly learned my lesson now - no going to bed before 11pm. Anyone got any Tylenol PM handy?

My Next Science Fair Experiment

Football Season!!

Football season officially kicked off this weekend with both of my teams winning their first games (OU beat UAB and TCU beat Baylor!) This weekend is the first home game for TCU which means the first tailgate of the year!

This year football season takes on a new element for me...I'm doing some consulting work for the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, so it will be really fun to keep track of the players on our pre-season watch list while trying to get us some recognition in mainstream American football. Happy Football Season!

I'm Famous!!

That's right....the Emily who made a comment that Ausiello (a TV Guide television critic) responded to is ME! I feel almost as famous as Maggie.

You know you're jealous!

Yesterday, just as I was leaving work, I get a text message from my friend, Chris. No text, just this picture:


It looks like he is having a HORRIBLE time, so I decided to make him jealous by sending a picture of where I was right then:

********

What is the deal with passwords these days? It used to be make up a name, make up whatever password you wanted. I think the only restriction used to be that it couldn't be the same as your username. Now every website makes up different rules for their passwords, making it nearly impossible to remember which password goes with which site. There are seriously some sites that I have to use the "forgot password" link every single time I try to log in. 6-8 letters, must have 1 capital letter, 1 number, 1 special character, no special characters, can't reuse your last 500 passwords, must change password every 60 days, cannot be similar to former passwords, the list of restrictions goes on and on. The more difficult the sites try to make it for other people to guess your password, the more likely they are to make me NOT remember it. All I want is to use my old standard password and go on my merry way. Anything else is really frustrating. DOWN WITH STUPID PASSWORD REGULATIONS!!!!

Smart People on Reality TV

Two posts in one day, but I couldn't resist this one!

On a commercial for the new season of The Amazing Race, one lady says "This has given me the opportunity to travel around the world....money can't buy that."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think traveling around the world is one thing money actually CAN buy... :) Just a thought.

My Rangers Experience

Several times yesterday, I would start writing a post and realize, "This is no where near as good a story as Maggie's post!" and would stop. Until now. Last night was the second most fun baseball game I've ever been to (#1 being when Katie, Lindsey, and I got a ball from Greg). Lets replay my experience by the numbers:

8 runs scored by the Rangers in the 3rd inning

7 people ejected from the game

6 of my friends that I got to stand up and sing when they played "Deep in the Heart of Texas"

5 dollars for a large Dr. Pepper :(

4 times in a row that I have chosen the losing color in the dot race

3 batters hit purposely by pitchers

2 homeruns by the Rangers in the 3rd inning

1 dollar to get a hot dog last night :)

0 people left on the bench/in the bullpen once Kennedy charged the mound
Definitely an exciting game!

Healthy = Disgusting

I have a confession to make. I hired a personal trainer. I had a trial membership at 24 hour fitness for a couple of weeks and upgraded yesterday to a full membership with a personal trainer for 5 sessions. I wasn't planning on telling anyone because a) chances are I'll probably flake out on it like i usually do and b) with Stephen's new blog format and Lindsey chiming in and saying that she joined a gym, it would look like I was just jumping on the bandwagon when it is actually just that two weeks ago I saw an old friend who is built like me that was all skinny and cute and it took away my "I'll never be able to look that good because she's not my body type" excuse that I usually use when coveting someone else's figure. The next day I started my free trial. But thats not what I'm here to blog about today. I just had to admit to that fact because otherwise you'd think that I bought the bars that i'm about to talk about on my own accord, and joining a gym is much less embarrassing than buying horrible health bars in free will.

So with my personal training package, they gave me a big box full of Apex Quick Energy bars and cookies and shakes, etc. I've never been much for the health bars, but I brought one to work with me today thinking it might be a good snack at the end of the day before I go work out. And they were free! So 3:30pm hits, my afternoon tiredness sets in, and I think "Hmm...time for some Quick Energy." I pulled out the bar that had the most promising name - Oatmeal Raisin. The picture on the outside shows actual oats and actual raisins, so I'm thinking granola bar. They were thinking fake-icing covered powerbar. If there are 2 things that I hate, they are fake icing and powerbars. I've been sitting here trying to eat this thing, I've eaten about 2 bites and can't take anymore. It is absolutely disgusting. It says "an excellent meal replacement bar" on the side....it'll replace a meal cause after 1/2 bite you lose your appetite! This is just affirming my theory that people who buy health food, shakes, bars, etc. are insane.