Like riding a bike? Really?

Whenever people are talking about something that you never forget how to do, they always say "It's like riding a bike," implying that once you've learned how to ride a bike, you can just hop back on one at any time. Today, I proved them wrong.

That's right. I discovered tonight that I don't know how to ride a bike.

With Vanessa moving in she also brought a set of bikes that she and Ben bought a while ago (and have never really ridden). They told me I could use them, so tonight I went and bought a helmet, put on my ipod, and got on the bike. And immediately realized I had no idea what to do! Every time I tried to pedal it would veer random ways and I could get about 2 rotations in before I'd start to fall. Then trying to figure out the whole gears thing...forget it!

I was really happy when I realized it had a flat tire, so I HAD to stop riding. And I'm going to pretend the tire was why I was having so much trouble....and then try to find some time to re-learn how to ride a bike!

Pet Peeve: Parents who let their kids run wild in public

Yesterday I went to get my car washed at the dealership and witnessed the most ridiculous parenting I have ever seen. I understand that kids are kids, and I try to give parents the benefit of the doubt, but give me your opinion parents, because I think this goes beyond "She doesn't understand because she doesn't have kids."

Mom walks in with her two kids - probably 4 and 6 years old. The kids immediately proceed to begin playing tag...indoors....in a busy waiting room. Complete with yelling "Base!! Base!! This is base! You can't tag me here!!" Every now and then, the mom would say "Shhh" which would last about 1.2 secs before they were yelling again. And running, full speed throughout the waiting room which is also the Lexus dealership showroom.

So right in between the waiting area and where you pick up your car, they always have a Lexus Preowned Vehicle on display...car of the month or whatever. This time is was an RX (the small SUV). The kids run and get inside of it (at which point normal parents would have been up and over there in a second getting them out, but not this mom!). You see them climbing over the seats, jumping around, hear them yelling, opening and slamming the doors several times....mom still just sits like nothing is going on. Finally the service manager comes over and says "Hey guys, you really need to get out of this car." They say okay, and on the way out, one decides it would be fun to honk the horn twice. SUV car horn, honked indoors....ridiculously loud! NOW super-mom decides to come over and I hear her saying "which one of you honked the horn. I need to know, who honked it?" That's the only thing she's upset about??? Not that her kids have been disturbing every person in a busy waiting room and possible causing damage to a very expensive car? And here's a thought: maybe if they weren't playing tag in the lobby, they wouldn't have had the CHANCE to honk the horn!

Am I the only one out there who thinks this goes beyond the reasonable limits for children in public places? Okay, I know I'm not the only one because the other 15 people that were waiting were all as shocked as I was, but am I the only one in the blogosphere?

Thanksgiving already?

This morning, I was driving into work as usual. As I was about to pull onto our campus, I had to stop under the bridge at 114 to avoid an animal in the road. You're probably thinking dog, cat, maybe at weirdest some kind of livestock.....wrong. The animal that I had to avoid was a WILD TURKEY! There was a wild turkey just walking along, hanging out under the highway like it was totally normal. It didn't seem freaked out or anything. By far the oddest thing I've ever experienced in my morning commute!
I didn't have a camera with me, but this is almost exactly what it looked like.

1004 Words

Worst. Spades. Hand. Ever.

Fruit Chillers

I love Del Monte Fruit Chillers. They make a great snack - especially for someone with a sweet tooth. Theres a couple of things I don't like about them though: 1) I'm sure they're full of sugar, 2) They always leave my teeth feeling really gritty (see #1).

So today I decided to make my own. I bought some fresh strawberries, blueberries, and bananas (apparently raspberries are out of season? I couldn't find any), put it in a blender with a little orange juice, then stuck it the freezer for several hours. It was great! I think next time I might try adding a little honey or splenda, but even without it tasted great and I know exactly what went in it, so I feel good about eating it. Hopefully it will help me increase my fruit intake as well - that part of the food pyramid is a little weak with me.

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!

Out of evil (the writer's strike) comes some good....

Thanks to Holly, I now have something to majorly look forward to! You MUST click on this banner. Watch the preview, then read the master plan (there is a button underneath the preview if you scroll down a bit.) And yes, that is Neil Patrick Harris.

NY in 24hrs. Part Deux

After I bought my ticket to see Spring Awakening, I was walking down 8th St. trying to find something quick to eat before the show. All of a sudden, I hear someone call my name....on a street in New York City. It was one of my friends from Grad School, Justin! I didn't even know he lived in NY! He has been there for about 6 months and lives right in the middle of the theatre district! He was on his way to the grocery store and saw me. How weird is that?? We talked for a little bit, and then went our separate ways. It really is a freakishly small world.

Another fun thing was crossing an item off THE List.* #27 on THE List was "Stand outside the Today Show window and try to get on TV." Ever since I first bought my ticket, I was planning on doing this. Unfortunately, Lindsey beat me to the punch one week earlier and there is really nothing I could do to match her stunt. So I changed #27 before I went and luckily was able to do it before I got sick. So unveiling the new #27:

27. Eat a cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City

I ate the red velvet cake one first. It was totally different than anything else I've ever had in my life. One bite I would think "I really don't like this", but then the next bite I'd think "This is the most amazing thing ever!" and back and forth until I finished. The icing wasn't very sweet and basically tasted like pure whipped cream, so it was like having cake and milk together at the same time. The next day before I left for the airport, I tasted the other one. I was sick so I didn't feel like eating the whole thing, but what I tasted....WOW. It totally lived up to everything I've heard and I can't wait to get another next time I go.

*Confession: I kind of cheated a bit on this item, but I'm totally okay with it. I went to the 2nd Magnolia Bakery location, which is right around the corner from ABC Studios. So it was close to where I was and didn't have a 20 minute line at that time of day. Some people might say it shouldn't count, but hey, its my List. :)

Last sort of stereotypical thing I did there - I had a hot dog from a street vendor. Actually I had 2. The first was because I got to my hotel at 2pm and I was STARVING and it was right outside; the second was right before I went to the airport because I needed to eat something and didn't feel well enough to venture any further than the CVS across the street from my hotel where I bought medicine and then the same hot dog stand. That's right, 2 of my 3 NY meals were hot dogs. Kind of pathetic.

And with that, my New York trip comes to a close....and with it all of my scheduled trips for awhile. It makes me sad to look at my AA account online and see the sad words "You do not have any reservations to view." I need to schedule a flight, pronto! :)

New York and back in 24 hours

Well, my New York trip turned out not at all like I expected! I got really sick my first night there and had to change my flight and come home the next morning. So basically I got to do none of the things that I had planned! But I did accomplish a couple of things.

We'll start with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: I went to the audition. It starts out with probably 100 people in a room taking a 30 question multiple choice test. You have 10 minutes to take the test on a scantron, then they score them and announce the people who pass. Most of the questions were really easy, but some were just so random! My favorite was "Which of these events occurred earliest in the calendar year: A) O.J. Simpson Verdict; B) D-Day; C) JFK Assassination....I can't remember the last choice, but you get the point. Crazy! Well, I didn't pass. From what I could remember and look up later, I think I missed 4 maximum, maybe only 3. So they're looking for near perfection.

After the test I talked to Holly Root. We were originally going to meet up that night, but she wasn't feeling well so I decided to see a Broadway show and then we were going to figure something out on Friday. So I succeeded in crossing #8 off the THE List

8. See a Broadway Show

It was even more special to me because my first Broadway show happened to have one of my best friends from High School, Phoebe Strole in it. The show was great, and seeing her on stage made me so happy. I started crying during the first number that she's in and I'm sure the people next to me thought I was crazy because it wasn't a particularly sad number! I regained my composure for the rest of the show though. :)

That was pretty much the end of my New York trip. My sickness started to kick in during the second act and by the time I got back to my hotel, I was just dying. I was so sad! I was planning on doing some sightseeing, Phoebe and I had plans to meet up for lunch, I was going to see Holly and Jonathan and hopefully see Jonathan in Avenue Q that night...instead I got to fly back early. Blah.

I did get to do one other thing that has recently been added to THE List, but I'll blog about that tomorrow because this is getting really long! To sum it all up - I had a great time in New York for the ~24 hours that I was there. Didn't get to do much, but I did enough to know that I really liked it and will definitely be going back!

Calling All Bloggers!

Thursday I was looking through blogs, and for some reason decided to go to Lindsey's blog even though I know she doesn't update it anymore. Then I noticed that her old posts were still there, so I started reading from the beginning. After a while I went and read some of my old posts. It really made me miss the "Golden Age of Blogging" amongst our friends - when everyone had blogs and updated them frequently.

My excuse for being a bad blogger is basically that I don't think I'm interesting right now. I don't have kids to blog about and for some reason I don't think my life post-school is nearly as interesting as it was when I was in school. This is kind of ridiculous, because I still do a lot of the same things that I did before. So I'm making a declaration now that I'm going to be a better blogger. And I'm going to make a plea to Lindsey to start blogging again (though I'm pretty sure she won't!) And to everyone else, I miss hearing what's going on in your life! Leave me a comment if you have a blog so that I can update my blogroll and start reading them. :)

LinkedIn - you have officially blown my mind

I love magicians. I love trying to figure out how they do an illusion, and then when I can't figure it out it makes me even happier. Today, a website did something that a lot of magicians can't....it performed a trick that I seriously cannot figure out how it did it!

I use LinkedIn as a way to keep track of my professional network and reconnect with some people outside of the Facebook world. Today I opened up Linked In and as always, it had a couple of suggestions of "People You May Know." Usually, these are people who have something in their profile that matches mine: Schools, companies, a lot of the same connections, etc. But today the first suggestion was Jeff Cameron. Turns out, I do know Jeff Cameron...but not in any way that would be visible to LinkedIn. He is the husband of the Children's Minister I interned with about 6 years ago (and that is not on my profile). He lives in Houston and owns his own company, we have no similar companies, no shared connections....there is absolutely nothing in our profiles that match in any way. But somehow LinkedIn decided I might know him. I'm stumped. I'm glad I found him, but I am definitely stumped.

How has this not been invented sooner???

Every now and then, I see a new product that ellicts a reaction of "That is such genius, and so simple.....how has that not been invented already??" A good example of this is the pasta pot with the holes in the lid for draining without requiring a strainer. Another happened tonight...I actually said it out loud when I saw the commercial. Introducing....the Black and Decker Gecko Grip Level! It is a level that has movable "accu mark targets" so you can measure how far apart holes need to be in a wall, and then mark and level them at the same time. How in the world has this not been invented already?

And no, I'm not getting any royalties for pushing a product....unless someone out there wants to pay me for it! :)


What products have you seen that make you think, "How has this not been invented sooner?"

What is the world coming to?

I decided that the best way to "practice" for my Millionaire audition would be to get Trivial Pursuit and just go through the cards. Have you tried to find Trivial Pursuit lately? It is impossible!!! What is the world coming to when you can find 65 special editions of Monopoly and 20 versions of Scene It in the stores, but not one single version of Trivial Pursuit??

Oh well. How about another question to help me on....

If you could vote yourself as best-_____ or most-likely-to_____, what would be your vote?

I Want to Be a Millionaire!

In less than one month, I am going to do probably the most random thing I've ever done in my entire life (and I've done some pretty random things). I will be flying to New York City to audition for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire!!

No seriously. I really am.

I am really excited! Hopefully they will think I am smart and/or interesting enough to actually be on the show! Then I can cross another item off THE List, and maybe even have a little extra money to do a few other items on it too! :)

So now I need your help. Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to be posting a few questions from the application that I have to bring with me and will be looking for your input! Even if you don't know me all that well, make something up and I'll see if it fits me at all. :)

Todays Question: What is one thing you (I) do that makes people laugh?

Ready...and....go!

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!

RIP Samsung Blackjack

First of all, is it sad that I have enough cell phone stories for it to have its own tag?

Today, my Samsung Blackjack met a sad demise. It was set on the back of my car while I put on sunscreen before a soccer game. In a tragic twist of fate, it was left there and was found in the street later this afternoon, having been run over multiple times. It was pronounced dead on the scene.

The Blackjack has been a fine companion for the past year and half - keeping me up to date on my email, alerting me when I had appointments coming up, and even being useful for the occasional phone call. Its ease of use was beyond compare and will be truly missed.

The Blackjack is survived by its SIM card, which has gone on to live with Blackjack's successor, the Blackberry Curve.

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!

Goodbye Rodney!

This Monday, we celebrated the retirement of my former boss, Rodney. In two years at Sabre (next Monday! Can't believe I've already been there two years!) I have had three bosses. Rodney was the second; he was my boss from Jan - Nov 2007. Even after I stopped reporting to him, we have still worked very closely as he is the operations manager for my product.

Rodney was really great. I learned a lot about technology from him...and I think I was even able to pull him into Marketing-Land once or twice! :) One other thing I've always appreciated was the random life advice he'd throw out every now and then - thoughts on career, investments, taking vacation, blocking lunch time to get out the office, etc. Rodney, I know you'll probably never read this, but I wish you well in the future!

Noise Pollution

This morning as I was driving to work, I spent most of my commute next to a guy on a motorcycle that he had souped up to be really loud. And not just when it was moving - when it was idling too! Being stuck next to that extremely annoying noise while I was driving combined with the fact that I had to sit next to him at 6 different lights literally put me in a bad mood by the time that I got to work. Apparently the world is on a big "green" kick right now....can we lump noise pollution into those initiatives too? If I have to deal with that too many more times, it will be come necessary for ensuring the continued safety of our motorcycle drivers....

Welcome to the 70's, Emily!

My high school government teacher had a theory: most of the world's problems can be traced back to the microwave. She said the microwave made us impatient and feel like we were entitled to what we want, when we want it. Most of the problems stem off of this impatience and entitlement. So for the past 6 months, I have been combating this phenomenon by not having a microwave in my new house. Okay, not really....I was really just too lazy to go get one!

For my birthday, my parents decided to buy me the appliance that now has my house up to the level that most households reached in the 1970's....a new microwave! They not only bought me a microwave - they bought me a really nice GE microwave/vent combo. And today my dad installed it!

Before (you can see the ventihood above the stove):
After (the microwave isn't crooked...the picture is.):
Thanks Mom and Dad!! I can now be a modern woman...no more waiting for food for me!