Slacker Girl

Well, I made it about six months this time before becoming a complete blog slacker. I think that's a new record. I have no excuse. I just didn't feel like writing. Also, I never write about anything except myself, and I'm starting to get bored with me. I can only imagine how the rest of you must feel.

I do have some exciting news, though. G and I bought a fabulous townhouse in the Alamo Heights area of San Antonio. It's walking distance to several restaurants, Starbucks, and Central Market. After living in the wasteland that is Fuquay-Varina for 3 years, I'm SOOOO happy to be moving to something approximating civilization.

On the downside, we have yet to sell our house in Fuquay-Varina. Anybody interested? I was just kidding when I said it was a wasteland. It's actually 'quaint!', 'rustic!', and 'Convenient to Ft. Bragg, Cary, and the Excellent Shopping and Dining Options of Downtown Raleigh!'. Sounds better, no?

If we don't sell this thing in a few months, we will soon be the proud owners of two houses, one of which we do not want. I'm not worried though. Gregg just won the Australian national lottery. And I won the Canadian lottery. Which is strange, because we didn't enter those, but whatever. Also, there is some chick in Africa who says that if I help her access 4 million dollars from a Swiss bank account, she'll give me half. So I have options, obviously. What I clearly do not have is a working spam filter.

Okay, I'm Not 24. I'm Old. Very Old.

When I was in college the first time around, I very rarely paid attention in class. I doodled my name in large block letters, I daydreamed, I planned what I was going to eat for lunch. I usually managed to not fall asleep, but not always. Still, I was an excellent student, as least as far as my grades were concerned. I knew I would get good grades. I always did. Blessed with a ridiculously good memory, I knew that a good 36-hour cram session before the final would more than make up for my lack of attention in class. And who could blame me? The classes were so LONG, the material was so boring, and frankly, I just couldn't be bothered. Anyway, it seemed a far smarter option to cram all of my misery into the 36 hours before the exam than to deal with it on a daily basis. And that's pretty much how it went.

Interestingly, I'm finding that my current college experience is entirely the opposite. Classes are actually extremely interesting. I'm fascinated by the discussions, and the time flies by. I can't understand why my fellow students seem less than enthused, and I want to smack the stupid 20-year-old next to me who spends at least two thirds of the class doodling/sleeping/text messaging his stupid girlfriend. Furthermore, not only do I dislike the idea of spending 36 consecutive hours cramming for an exam, but I dislike the idea of spending 36 consecutive hours AWAKE. My mom says that this means I'm old, and for once, I think she may be right.

G says he thinks that people should not be able to go to college until they are old enough to appreciate it. We've deemed 'old enough' to be somewhere around the late 20s for most people. Anyway, I'm old enough to appreciate it, and unfortunately, old enough to think that I have already spent too much of my life studying and should not have to do it anymore. So I think that my grades might not be as good this time around, but I will most definitely have learned more. And that's the important thing. The difference between an A and a B really doesn't count for much in the real world. We old people know this.

If Anyone Asks, I'm 24.

Yikes, it has been a frighteningly long time since I have been in college. This fact hit home on Monday, as I was sitting in a classroom full of 20-year olds at NC State. True to form, I did not talk to anyone or attempt to make any friends. I just enjoyed the class (and sat there and felt old). The class is Human Behavior, and I am very excited about it, as we get to conduct some elementary behavioral research projects that sound like great fun. Apparently, these projects will entail working in groups, so I supposed I will be forced to talk to some of my classmates before the semester is over. Should I be forced to tell them anything about myself, I plan to tell them that I am 24 years old and took a few years off after high school to travel around Europe. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, sorry it has been so long since I posted. I worked too much over the holidays, and then I got sick for a while, and then I went to Florida to enjoy some temps in the low 30s. I'm through with Florida, by the way. The last time I went to Florida (to get away from the rain in Tacoma) it was 50 degrees and raining in Orlando. Florida clearly hates me.

So the next few months should be pretty busy for me. I'm working three days at Trader Joe's and taking classes three days a week, and have already been asked to play on 4 tennis teams for the spring USTA season. It should be a pretty busy schedule, but I think I can handle it. I have tons of energy these days. It's probably because I'm so young.

Insomnia, Part 2

Greetings and welcome to 1:46 am. I woke up inexplicably about 15 minutes ago with the certainty that there was absolutely no possibility of my getting back to sleep for the next few hours, so I have (wisely, I think) decided not to fight it.

Fortunately for my blog, I have nothing good DVR'd at the moment, because that has lately been taking priority over updating my site. I realize I've been a slacker about posting for the past few weeks, and I apologize for this. I just haven't been feeling very inspired to write lately. But because the thought of spending the next 6 hours staring at the ceiling trying to get back to sleep is far less appealing than blogging right now, I guess I'll give you a little update on what's been going on.

I'm currently working about four shifts per week at Trader Joe's. It is insanely busy. Yesterday's crowds brought back memories of opening day, with cash register lines half way to the back of the store. On roughly 200 occasions yesterday, I had to break the sad news to distraught customers that yes, we are out of Candy Cane Joe-Joes AND panettone, and no, they are not coming back until next holiday season. Happily, we still have plenty of the sea salt caramels, which in my opinion, are the best thing in the store right now. I'm not telling people this though, because then I will not be able to hog the entire inventory for myself.

In other news, I am playing on a winter World Team Tennis league. World Team Tennis is great fun, although I am not a big fan of the whole 'winter' part. I could actually do without winter entirely, which makes me happy that we are moving to San Antonio in six months. Spring USTA leagues start in March, and I have been recruited to play on two teams, both of which are really strong and have an excellent chance of going to playoffs. I haven't decided which one to pick yet, but it's nice to be popular, even if they only like me for my forehand.

So, two days until Christmas, and G and I have plans to do a whole lot of nothing. We don't have time to go back to PA to visit the relatives, so it is just the two of us. Also, we have made a deal with most of the family that we will not buy each other a bunch of crap that we don't need and will instead do something useful like make donations to charity. This is nice, because we are totally free from the shopping stress and crowds of insane holiday shoppers.

So far this holiday season, the extent of my charitable contributions has been a bag of food donated to the local food pantry. Among my donations were 7 Luna bars, a package of Asian spring roll wrappers and a can of vanilla whey protein powder. G had a good time making fun of me for the whey protein powder, and talking about all of the less fortunate people in our community who will not have to go without protein shakes thanks to me. But I don't care. I had way too many cans of protein powder, thanks to the Protein Shake Phase of March '06, and who knows, maybe the protein will be a welcome change from the 87,000 pounds of canned corn and bagged rice they get every year. I like to think of it as my personal quest to improve the macro nutrient ratios of the food pantry.

Well, I think that's it for now. I have successfully killed about 30 minutes, and I have no idea what I am going to do for the rest of the night, but I don't have much else to say at the moment, so I will now go watch infomercials. I hope you all have a lovely holiday.

Bring on the Margaritas

Well, it looks like we are moving to San Antonio. Although I was kind of thinking we would get DC, I'm happy with Texas. I've lately been thinking about all of the good things about San Antonio, and I don't think we've had a list in a while, so here is my list of reasons why I am glad to be moving to San Antonio.

1) Margaritas on the Riverwalk
2) Everything else on the Riverwalk
3) Sunshine and hot weather
4) It's not Fuquay-Varina
5) I like Mexican food
6) It's 30 minutes from one of the best tennis schools in the country
7) Palm trees (I like to live where there are palm trees. It makes me feel like I am on vacation)
8) I will have another license plate to add to my collection
9) Weekend trips to Santa Fe
10) Central Market

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll keep working on it. Suggestions for list additions welcome.

Tastykakes at the Wawa: A Tribute to My Home State

Now that I have been out of Pennsylvania for about fifteen years, I feel that I have finally gained the perspective necessary to appreciate my mid-atlantic roots, and to celebrate some of the best things that my home state has to offer. Foremost among these offerings are Tastykakes and Wawa.

G and I returned from our Trip to NY and NJ yesterday, and though we only briefly passed through Pennsylvania, we did not pass up the opportunity to sing the Tastykake theme song six times in the taxi on the way to the train station in Philadelphia. We also visited Wawa (now conveniently located in several states throughout the mid-atlantic region) at least twice a day during our three days in New Jersey. I cannot fully express the joy and awe of the experience that is Wawa, but if you've been to one, then you know.

First, there is the coffee - The best $1.08 you will ever spend. It comes in about 15 fabulous flavors, is always hot and consistently wonderful. Then there is the complete selection of that beloved Philadelphia staple, the Tastykake. Truth be told, I don't think I have actually eaten a Tastykake since 1985, but I love the memory of them. Those Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes were good. So good, in fact, that I am willing to overlook the intentional misspellings in the name, which I would normally consider to be stupid and exceedingly annoying. Rounding out the Wawa experience is the cool laser gun video game noise that the checkout scanning machines make when they zap your purchases. Yes, Wawa is a wonderful, happy place, and pretty much the only thing to look forward to on the drive between Philadelphia and Avalon, New Jersey. Although singing the Tastytkake song is fun too.

So I guess I should report on the trip to NYC, and I plan to do so, but that will have to wait for my next post. It was great fun though. Really, really, really cold, but fun. There was lots of good eating and lots of walking, and some purchasing of new shoes because it turns out that none of mine were comfortable enough to walk around in all day. Also, I learned that if I was cool and young and trendy, I would be wearing skinny jeans tucked into Ugg boots. Sadly, it appears that I am none of these things. But more on that later.

I'm Just Here for the Food

G and I are going to NYC on Sunday. I'm very excited about this, as I have not been to a major city in a while (Raleigh doesn't count) and I haven't been to New York since 1998. I have a feeling things have changed a bit since then. This vacation started out as a trip to New Jersey to visit G's grandma, and morphed into a vacation in the city, as we like to take every available opportunity to have a vacation. So we are still going to visit G's grandma. We are just going to spend a few days in New York first.

We're staying at the W in New York. I'm extremely excited about this. I've heard that W hotels are very cool and this will be my first time staying at one. We traded in some of our three billion Starwood hotel points to get the room, which was fun and exciting. It's nice not to have to spend actual money on a hotel room. It's also nice to be rewarded for all of the effort I put into charging things on my Starwood Points American Express card.

So the extremely critical question of the day is - which Bobby Flay restaurant do I go to first? In fact, my only concern about this trip is that four days may not give me the time I need to eat my way through the entire city. I only have a limited amount of stomach space. However, I plan to compensate for this by walking constantly the entire time I am there. That way, I can burn lots of calories so I have room to stuff in more calories.

Other than eating, we don't really have any specific plans for the trip. Specific plans are for type-A obsessive compulsive control freaks, and I'm trying to not be one of those anymore. So we'll probably do some shopping and some people watching and some tourist stuff. I do want to see the World Trade Center Memorial while I'm there. And possibly camp out at Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza so I can get on TV with Al Roker and Matt Lauer. I should bring a big cheesy sign saying hello to all the good folks in Fuquay-Varina, NC. They seem to love to talk to country hicks on vacation in the big city, and sadly, I think living in Fuquay may qualify me as one.

So look out New York - I'll be there on Sunday. You might want to start stocking up on the bagels now.