update from the OC

This week has been crazy fun and there are so many stories I've been wanting to blog, but I've been busy with work and Ashley and Harry Potter (no spoilers please!- I'm still only 1/3 way through!) that I haven't been spending much time on ye olde blog. Thus, this post will be a little random.

First, this story reinforces my belief that cats are agents of the devil.

Second, Krysten's powers over Photoshop color me astounded, though not as much as the now-cemented knowledge that clearly, David Tennant and I belong together:

Third, Ashley and I have been having a blast here, man, I love that girl, and working with a friend makes work a whole different experience~ but the best evening was last night when we went to the OC County Fair to see Toad the Wet Sprocket and Guster. Both bands were awesome and we were on the 4th row in the pit! Also, Glen Phillips looked directly at me and smiled. For real. Ashley saw it too. His wedding ring made me cry a little bit. I was always a big fan of Toad back in the day- I have all 7 of their albums, and Guster is from Boston so Ashley's been seeing them in seedy bars for years. It was perfect show for us. Uncle Al, you might say it was our "life concert."

Our drive there involved my favorite line of the week. So, we're in our rental car in Southern California, and we're sitting at an intersection where the entry to I-5 ("the 5") South is to our left, and and the entry to the 5 North is to our right. There's not a cloud in the sky and we're staring directly into the setting sun. Ashley was driving and I was navigating us onto a street that runs parallel to the 5. I told her we needed to go "this way" on Harbor. "No," she said. "We need to go south!" I was like, well, the Convention Center is behind us, and Harbor dead-ends into it, so we have to be going the right way. She insists we're not going the right way. I turn the map around and around and stare at it, and finally say, "let's just take the 5 because I can't figure out which way is south." She stares into the setting sun, and looks left onto the 5 south, and says "I'm pretty sure south is left. Who's in &*%-ing Mensa now???" I laughed all the way to the fair.

We came home after the show and turned Ashley's bathroom sink into a bar/chemistry lab, where we concocted the perfect drink, which is a marriage of my favorite drink: vodka-grapefruit and Ashley's favorite drink: vodka-soda-splash of cranberry. We're calling it "the full circle" (inside joke) and it's vodka-soda-cranberry-grapefruit. It's pretty awesome. It's our life drink!

So, I got my September-October schedule and it's frightening. Basically, I fly to Dallas tomorrow, have to drive to Nacogdoches on Saturday, back to Dallas on Sunday, then have Monday-Thursday to start packing my apartment, then to DC, Phoenix for my birthday with Krysten and Chanelle, back to Dallas for 5 more days of packing (thank you, Krysten!), and then I have a show in town. The day after that show, the movers are showing up to collect my apartment and take it 1700 miles northwest.

On the 28th or 29th of August, I'll fly out myself, and have about a week to unpack and settle myself in before I start work again (Chanelle, wanna come?). September and October bring me 6 shows, each with exactly 3 days between them. The lucky part is that in my new home town I get to work at home more often. I'll be hitting San Francisco (home!), Iowa for T's wedding, Santa Clara, Las Vegas, San Francisco (home!), Orlando, and Garden Grove, CA. Eeee!

OK, reading that paragraph just made me tired. I should sign off- this post has taken me about 3 hours to write because I have lots of needy (and stupid) exhibitors bothering me.

Two more things. A) I will never understand people who talk on their cell phones in the stall of a public restroom (or private bathroom either, but that's a whole 'nother therapy session) and B) Apple giftcards make great birthday presents for girls who need new iPods.

Oh, and C) sorry about the length of this post.

a lunch option at the Anaheim CC

And this place is across the street from Disneyland!!

perchance to dream

Remember when I had that dream about my carpet being like grass? We saw this rug when we were furniture shopping on Saturday and Uncle Al pointed it out to me. Awesome!



Last night I dreamed that my hair was falling out. Well, not really falling out as much as everytime I ran my hands through it, big handfuls came out in my hand. Creepy. According to the internet it means I'm experiencing an insidious loss of energy and/or am feeling out of control about a situation. Which is funny, because before I moved to New York in 2003, I had a recurring dream about being on an escalator that was going too fast, and not being able to get off without hurting myself.

In other news, I sold my car (yay!) and I can't believe how fast it happened or I would have waited. I posted it on Craigslist at midnight on Monday and had sold it by Tuesday evening. The whole thing took less than 24 hours. A huge load off my shoulders.

Moving is stressing me out. I've been making index card lists for each day of the week, so I can cross things off of it at the end of the day and actually feel like I accomplished something. That way I feel stressed in the morning (like right now) because there's 10 things on my list and I haven't even showered yet, but by the time I sit down at night at least 8 of them are crossed off and I don't feel bad about rolling the additional 2 over to tomorrow. Buuut, I can't do that tonight because I'm leaving at 5:45am tomorrow for Anaheim. And when I get back I have to drive to Nacogdoches to see my dad before I leave. And then 5 days after that I leave for DC, then straight to Phoenix. Ack!

No rest for the weary. Although there are, apparently, dreams.

doot-doo-doot-doo-doo-doo-doo

My surgery went OK on Friday. I got three moles removed: one on my forehead (goodbye, blue freckle!), one on my sternum, and one on my upper thigh. I got to watch the one on my thigh and it was pretty gross. She used a little tool that looked like an tiny apple corer, and pulled a plug of my body out. I could see it, but I couldn't feel it, and it was really, really weird.

For some reason, I'm having a lot of pain in the incision on my sternum. I'm not sure if that spot has more nerve endings, or something is wrong with it, but it's really hurting. I can't sleep on my side or my stomach because of where the incision is, and I hate sleeping on my back, so I slept fitfully last night. Hopefully I'm so tired now that I'll get a few hours in tonight.

Bill took me to the doctor and then we went to see Harry Potter. It was a little jumbled but I loved it.

I rode with my cousin Julia to Austin today to have lunch with her parents (Uncle Al, the kiddies' pal, and my Auntie Sandy) and her brother Justin. We had brunch and went furniture shopping (for the J-Man's birthday) and then had some ice cream before we drove back. It was a quick trip but I'm glad I got to see them all before I left town. They're my favorite; I'm still convinced I was born to the wrong Barclay.



This is going to be a crazy week- I have a lot going on with the move before I leave for Southern California on Friday. I'll hopefully have a firm move date and some boxes in my hands before I leave.

be sure and wear flowers in your hair

Sooooo, here goes: I'm moving to San Francisco to pursue my Nursing degree at UCSF. There were many, many factors that went into my decision-making process, and the hardest part- nay, the ONLY hard part, was knowing I will have to leave friends behind, but I know I won't lose them.

Most likely I will be moving August 28th. If this changes I will let you know ASAP.

The program is a Masters program for people who have non-nursing bachelors. I'll be in school for the same amount of time but come out with a better degree. Nurses in California are the highest paid in the country, so it will be a great place to start work, and I'll have my RN after only 1 year. The biggest positive with this program is that I'm already done with my prerequisites, so I can keep my job up until the second I start school. If I had gone with the Texas program I would have to quit my job to take a few more classes (American government to be an RN? Thank you, Texas public university!) before I even applied, and then potentially be out of work if for some reason I didn't make it into the program. Last time I was without a job it took me almost a year to find one, so I need to protect my employment as a back-up.

The reason I'm moving so quickly is that my best friend from high school, Brad, who currently lives there, has a "west coast Jamie" named Susie who recently took a post with my company. She is looking for a roommate come September 1st. She will be an ideal roommate for me as we will more than likely have overlapping travel schedules so I will have all the benefits of a roommate splitting the bills while still getting plenty of time to myself. With the competitive and expensive housing situation in San Francisco, it is more beneficial for me to move now and have a roommate and an apartment lined up than wait a few months and have neither. Plus, this gives me an opportunity to establish residency in California so I don't have to pay out-of-state tuition.

I'm home the rest of this week and next. July 20-27 I will be in Anaheim, CA, home from the 27th to August 3. August 3-10 I will be in DC, and 10-14 in Phoenix. I'll be here in Dallas the rest of the August, but will be working downtown 20-28th. I will more than likely be throwing a little going-away party Friday August 25th, so please mark that date down. I want to see you all before I go!

This might come as a shock to some of you, but rest assured I have been thinking about it, praying about it, and weighing my pros/cons for at least a month. This seems to be a really great step for me personally and professionally. I hope you will all come visit me on the West Coast!!

child's play

This photograph makes me ill:


It's from the MSNBC Week in Pictures and the tag line says: A 4-year old Iraqi cries as older boys stage a mock execution in Baghdad on Monday, July 2. Children's games are heavily influenced by ongoing violence in the country, and one of the more popular activities is staging clashes between militias and police.

I know this post is kind of a downer, but I honestly can't believe we live in a world where children see this so often it becomes part of their make-believe. I often turn a blind eye to the news; it was a jolt to me to remember how lucky I am.

Happy Birthday, America!!

It's been a crazy week. Lots of things are going on and possible big news coming soon- sounds cryptic I know. More to come.

Things that have gone on: Madison's birthday, 4th of July, school-related stress, 2nd dates, work scheduling, bridesmaids dresses, the great apartment clean-out of 2007- including the successful (though time-consuming) transferring of approximately 120 cds to hard drive. Things to come: Adam's surgery, the Big Yard Sale of 2007, my little skin cancer procedure, Harry Potter (!), Phoenix.

So, sorry this is dashed off but there will be a more thorough update soon. Kisses!!