KISS it

I have much to say about my trip to Texas last week, but not enough time to share it at the moment. So I'll leave you with the following things I learned on vacation:

1. Children are expensive and make a lot of laundry
2. They need a new word to describe Cowboys Stadium; "gargantuan" isn't big enough
3. "Schlitterbahn" is German for "total lack of body awareness"
4. The amount of time spent waiting in line is directly proportionate to how unhappy Lonnie will get
5. When men find out you can cook, they invite themselves over for dinner
6. It takes two hours to paint four little boys' faces like KISS, and ten minutes for them to tire of it
7. Twin beds weren't meant for sleeping a deaux
8. "Despicable Me" is a great flick
9. I'm really, really glad I didn't go to medical school
10. It is possible not to check work email for four days

More later. Rest of pics are here, here, and here.

Back in time

The social media scene has been all a-Twitter today with news that Doc Brown set the DeLorean to enter the future on July 5, 2010 in the original "Back to the Future" 25 years ago. Turns out it's all a hoax, and someone had Photoshop and too much time on his hands.

So I guess Marty McFly didn't zip into today all those years ago. But it did get me to thinking about watching that movie 25 years ago. I was in junior high, and I saw it with my aunt Kathy and cousin Lonnie. I thought it was a great flick, if a bit farfetched. And I don't remember wondering what life would be like in 2010, but now I'm thinking that I would have had no idea how life would be right now.

For starters, I never imagined how my life would revolve around technology. That my iPhone would be permanently implanted in my hand. That I would incessantly check Facebook and Twitter for inane news from people I barely or don't even know.

I could not have imagined a life with DVR and satellite radio and iPods. A world full of laptops and iPads and on-demand movies.

Whatta ya know, Marty? The world is an interesting place in 2010. Wonder what gadgets we'll have by 2035?

Beautiful boy

In so many ways this pic seems like just yesterday. Taylor's dreamed of being a Razorback since he was a small child. And this fall he'll realize that dream.

I can't believe our baby boy is graduating from high school! Baccalaureate is tomorrow night, then I'm headed to Little Rock for work. Friday night is commencement. This will be an emotional week, for sure. And while I'm sure some may find my attachment to my nieces and nephews to be a bit odd, they're my babies. I didn't give birth to them. Thankfully I don't have to pay for college. But I changed diapers and wiped tears and rocked 'em to sleep.

So this moment is so bittersweet! What an amazing young man Taylor's turned out to be. He inherited Lonnie's best quality: a great sense of self and of remaining likable but not influenced by what's cool. Rather, he's just himself, and always does the right thing, regardless of what others think. Our sweet, beautiful baby boy has turned into a great young man.

I'm thrilled he'll be close to me this fall. I asked him the other day if he knew how to do laundry, and he responded, "Nah. But I just figured I'd bring it to you." That sounds about right.

5 mph

I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to run five miles in an hour tonight. Outside. And I felt like a million bucks.

I caught myself grinning like a Cheshire cat as I finished. I am amazed that this former fat girl, who was unable to jog a half-mile six months ago, is now able to run for an entire hour.

Proud of myself, I texted Lonnie to tell him the news. His response: "What were you chasing? A donut or a handbag?"

Jerk. But every day he doubts me is one more day of motivation.

And I just agreed to run a 10K on my birthday. I feel absolutely fierce and invincible tonight. I just hope I can get out of bed tomorrow.

Shall we brunch?

While I don't love my job every second of every day, I'm one of the lucky few who loves her job the great majority of the time. I work with a lot of awesome people. I do something that matters. Or, at the very least, I do things to help others do things that matter. So my work is fun, it's rewarding, and on the occasional Thursday afternoon I get to sneak out and get a massage.

One of the major reasons my job rocks is because I have an awesome boss. Seriously. He doesn't read this, so I have no need to suck up. But he is encouraging, supportive, and the nicest man in America. Or any other country.

And since he's celebrating his 25th year on the job, we threw him a little brunch soiree this morning, complete with returning staff and a fun video shot and edited by yours truly. It was more of a roast than a serious tribute, but it was fun, and I think everyone enjoyed it. So all of my basket arranging, pastry making, movie editing skills were on full display. And now I'm tired.

Thankfully tomorrow is Friday. And I'm headed out of town again.

There's another 5K on Saturday, which I will sprint at my lightening 10-minute mile pace. Not that Lon will believe me.

In case you're interested, pics of today are here.

The proof

Official chip time: 30:56.

Race registration: $35
Cute t-shirt: $30
Realizing goal of a 10-minute mile AND beating Lonnie's time: PRICELESS

Wahoo!

You think I can't? Then I will.

For the past five years, I've had a New Year's resolution to run a 5K. And for five years I've failed to accomplish that feat.

Oh, I've started training multiple times. Then I'd get injured or lazy or busy and give up. I like the idea of being a runner, but the application of it is always painful.

And even though I didn't actually make resolutions this year, I still wanted to check a 5K off my bucket list. So I started training in January to run the Komen Race for the Cure in Waco on April 24. As in yesterday.

To backtrack, nearly two years ago I ran in the Cancer Challenge with Jennifer and Lonnie. Jennifer the track star finished in less than 26 minutes (without training). Lonnie finished in just over 33 minutes. I lagged behind at over 44 minutes, being passed by a lady with an oxygen tank, an 85-year-old man, and multiple women pushing strollers. And that's not bad considering I actually ran less than a mile of the race.

Last April Jen and I did the Waco Komen race with plans to run the whole thing. I made it just over a mile before pooping out and walking most of the rest. In November, at the Austin Komen race, we didn't walk a step. And just after that race, Lonnie told me that I'd never be able to run 3 miles.

Game on.

So in January I started training. Using Hal Higdon's workout, I worked my way up to three miles on the treadmill. Then I moved outside, running three or four times a week. I started noticing that my body was reshaping. I was feeling more in condition. I was gaining endurance.

When I was in Temple three weeks ago for Easter, Lonnie and I took all four boys to the trails to run. I made it a mile or so before giving up. Two weeks ago I puked on mile marker #2 during the JBU fun run.

To say I was skeptical of my chances yesterday was an understatement.

But we arrived in Waco yesterday to pick up our chips. The race started 40 minutes late. We started in the back of the pack with the old ladies and a man with a mullet.

Not wanting to start too fast, I begged Jennifer to run off and leave me, but she refused. We slowly jogged for a few seconds, then she said, "You just set the pace." I replied, "This IS the pace."

It took us about 12 minutes to finish the first mile, which is pretty good for me, considering it usually takes me about 40 minutes to do three miles. We jogged on, passing a few recreational runners along the way. We passed the water station and began overtaking the walkers who started 40 minutes before we did. I looked at my watch about 25 minutes in and wondered if we'd ever get to the two-mile marker.

I began to doubt my ability to finish the race without walking. I was feeling okay at that point, but a bit discouraged at the fact that we hadn't finished the second mile.

At just under 30 minutes, Jen finally spotted the mile marker. For mile #3.

We turned onto the bridge to finish the race, looked up at the clock, and realized that we made amazing time. We crossed the finish line simultaneously, me in victory of finally running an entire 5K, and Jennifer being a supportive friend and foregoing her great time to hang out with me in the slow lane.

Final time: 31:06. Granted, that's five minutes slower than Jennifer's last time, but it's a full two minutes faster than Lonnie's. Ha!

But my feeling of victory is tainted due to the fact that Lonnie thinks we're lying. He says I'm incapable of running three miles, so we either: (a) gave my chip to someone else to wear; or (b) took a short cut.

Jen and I know the truth. I finished. I rock. I feel fantastic.

So thanks to Lonnie for the unintended motivation. My jeans fit better. I am in better health. And I proved you wrong, sucka.

Happy Easter!

Just returned from my great trip to Texas. The boys had so much fun, and it was great to get to spend some time with Lonnie and Jen as well.

I hope all of you had time with family yesterday and that you took a moment to remember the reason for Easter: the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. He lives!

The rest of the pics from this weekend are here.

My year of living fabulously

Pointy-toed boots and statement necklace (as seen in "In Style")

It's day 11 of the new year and I finally got off my tush and into the gym. I don't know if it's due to Shannon's confirmation of my 20-year reunion or the fact that I finally had to don pants with a zipper this morning, but today was designated as the first day of my "new year, new me" campaign.

Go away, 14 pounds. I shall be wearing sleeveless by summer.

Tomorrow I begin my novice 5K training (shut up, Lonnie). Last night I threw away the hot dogs, oreos and doritos.

So I'm on my way home from a meeting on campus and I stop by the financial aid office to chit chat with my friend Burney, who's also on a weight loss quest. Here's the conversation:

ME: I've only had two diet cokes today. I actually drank 133 ounces of water today. I read recently that you should take your weight and half it, and that's how many ounces of water you should drink a day.
BURNEY: You weigh 266 pounds?!?

Not quite. But I'm determined not to get there. Go away, muffin top. Say goodbye, cottage cheese thighs. 2010 is my year to be fabulous!

I mean, more than I already am.

NYE, Texas style

Jen and Lon had a great party to ring in the new year last night. I've been accused of crashing all of the S&W radiology parties, but honestly, I don't drive down when there's a party, there's just always a party when I'm here. That's totally different!

We had good food, good times, and a little too much champagne. Now we're being lazy watching football.

I crashed about 11:30 last night after cooking all day, but Lon and Jen made me wake up to toast 2010 and we stayed up 'til about 2:30.

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope the new decade is great for you. My resolution: to stop waiting for the ideal and to start enjoying the interim more. I'm so thought-provoking.

Rest of the NYE pics are here, if you don't have Facebook.

Rock and roll all nite

What a fun weekend! Lon, Jen and I had a great time at the KISS concert in Austin. They put on an awesome show. Lonnie was more excited than a kid on Christmas morning.



These were a couple of random guys who walked by and I asked if they'd have their pic taken with us. They obliged.





Rest of the pics are here.

I did shoot some video before the security guard had a discussion with me. The sound is bad (it was sooo loud) and there's a bit of movement (tip: you can't dance while video taping), but you get the gist.

Happy anniversary, Lon and Jen!

Can't believe it's been 10 years! Here's to many more decades of wedded bliss. Or at least tolerance.

Love you guys! Can't wait to see you next week.

Everything's bigger in... well, you know

What a great weekend! Memaw and I got to Temple around 8 on Thursday night, and I arrived back in Siloam just after 6 last night. In four days we attended two parties, had one of our own, walked a 5K, attended a flag football game, witnessed a dance-off and multiple kid fits.

It's weird how, the closer you get to home, the more work and the daily grind begin to creep back into your life. Thankfully I get to go back to Texas in three weeks for Thanksgiving, and before that I go to Boston, an 80s prom, and have a Branson shopping trip with Alisa.

For now, please enjoy another entry in the Brady and Mini-Me dance-a-thon. And all the pics from this weekend are here, in case you don't have Facebook.



(This makes three family members dancing to this song. Memaw, you and Lon are next!)

Kitchen sink? Perhaps.

I'm currently packing for Temple. I know I've got too much stuff, but I never know what we'll be doing, and since I'm not flying this time, I can take as much as I want. Except Memaw, the garage sale queen, called to ask if there'd be room for her to take a large duffel bag in which to carry back all of her treasures (read: cheap crap no one else wants). If my car smells like old socks on the way home, I will NOT be happy.

Evidently our Friday evening plans have been hijacked by another doctor party. I swear, Lon and I need to invest in some sort of doctor-to-English dictionary before we embark on yet another evening of medical jargon. Perhaps I can find someone to play doctor with me before the evening's over.

Happy, happy day!

So excited about the start of football season! I had nearly given up on the 'Boys last night, but they managed to pull out the win. I'm afraid it's going to be another long season, Dallas fans.

In a few I'm headed south to pick up Chance and Hope (and maybe Taylor, if he's really, really bored) and go hang out with Jen, Lon, and Huey, Dewie and Louie. I'll spend tonight with Peep and Meem, and that's always interesting. Their house is like a zoo when we're all there. It's Beaver's birthday, so we're headed to his party at 2 p.m.

Tomorrow I'll be on Nebo with Scott, Alisa, and Grey. Not sure what we're doing since all our best laid plans got either rescheduled or are tentative due to weather. Nevertheless, I haven't seen them in months and can't wait to just chill and eat.

Have a great Labor Day weekend, everyone!

Dancing with myself

It always astounds me that there are people in this world willing to go out dancing alone. Sure, as a professional who travels, I've forced myself to get a table for one at restaurants. I'll sit in a coffee shop alone and drink a latte. I'll even see a movie by myself. I don't normally feel the need to have others to keep me company in my activities.

But who are these people who boogie by themselves?

Oh sure, society encourages us to dance like no one is watching, but seldom do any of us actually do that. We dance like everyone's watching, and we only dance with the safety of our friends in tandem. Perhaps we need the camaraderie of awkward hip shakes. Or maybe we take comfort in knowing someone else knows the lyrics about apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur.

I guess alcohol is the ultimate weapon for letting down the guard, but I saw so many people this weekend who needed to have theirs lifted back up.

Like the chick at the piano bar in Austin, who valiantly tried to get others to dance with her for several hours. No one did. Not even her embarrassed husband. Or the other husband she tried to dance with, before his wife drug him away. Seriously, when the whole place is making fun of you, don't you give up?

Or the poor guy playing shuffleboard on Saturday, whose wife just left him after 15 years. How do I know that? He told Lonnie, me, Jen, Jen's classmates, the server, some chick walking by, and the one-man band (can't remember his name, but he has a page on MySpace, so I just called him "MySpace" for the rest of the night) who played the obscure country songs. Lonnie has his card. Perhaps they can hang out again soon.

Or the guy wearing the fancy white Hanes t-shirt late Saturday night, who danced to a beat no one else heard, all the while holding a cigarette in one hand and a beer bottle in the other. Song after song after song. After Jen and I openly mocked him.

I suppose you have to give props to someone with that much self-esteem. Or maybe just lack of self-awareness.

Nonetheless, here's to you, solitary dancer. Rock on.

God bless Texas

I'll write more details tomorrow, but suffice it to say that I had a really, really fun weekend. The best in a long time. We stayed out 'til 3 a.m. on Friday and 2:30 a.m. last night, so I'm tired and need to rest up for work. Here are some pics to hold you over until I can write all about our awesome weekend in Texas.

Jen and me on 6th Street in Austin



Lonnie and Jen at Pete's, a dueling piano bar



Jen and I had a great time.. Lonnie even had fun

I'm all out of love

I'm not quite sure why, but I've had Air Supply tunes running through my head all day which means that I'm either (a) a gay ice dancer; or (b) exhausted to the point of delusion.

This little three-day work week has turned out to be quite the roller coaster. What kind of admissions director decides to take two days of vacation the week before four groups start? (A stupid one.) Does she not own a calendar? (Yes, she does. But she also owns a BlackBerry AND a brand-new MacBook Pro that will go through airport security and make her oh-so-accessible on vacation.)

I've discovered that the bad thing about three-day weeks is that you don't have a mere 24 hours worth of work. You still have 40 hours worth of work or more, you just have to cram it in the three days you're technically "working." And even then some of it spills over into your vacation time.

Yesterday my alarm sounded at 5:15 so that I could pack and put on a suit and meet my boss by 7 a.m. to drive to Harrison where I made small talk with strangers. I then drove through McDonalds for a regular cheeseburger with no pickles on my way to the office to frantically work on some files and freak out everyone in my general vicinity before driving to Fort Smith for the evening. Today I awoke at 5 a.m. to attempt creative writing, left the hotel at 7:15 a.m. for a downtown breakfast (more small talk with strangers), had a meeting, drove back to the office, pushed some more files around, ate Doritos and a 3 Muskateers for lunch at my desk, sped to campus for an admissions meeting, frantically searched for a network connection in a random office before I was kicked out at 6 p.m. while working on a "thing for the President if you have time," then finally finished and submitted my writing project that had to be done today at 8:22 p.m. I'm exhausted and still need to unpack and repack.

Lest you feel too sorry for me, I do feel the need to point out that in the past 24 hours I've eaten one of the best steaks of my life with Larry and Ashley, hung out with the very precious twins E and P Diddy, languished in a 30-minute whirlpool bath in a hotel room, talked to my awesome brother on the phone, and opened an unexpected check from my mortgage company. Tomorrow I have to stop by campus for a bit, then it's a day of massages and hair appointments (while my housekeeper cleans), driving to Tulsa, and boarding a jet plane bound for DFW. Can't wait to hang out with Lonnie and Jen this weekend. Woo-hoo! Just hope I can fit in sushi and Pappadeaux.

There is that pesky little conference call on Friday morning, but them's the breaks.

Oh, and in the words of Kat Ellis in "The Wedding Date" (seen 32 times per week on TBS) about Air Supply, "Everyone knows their greatest hits, but some of their ballads are surprisingly poignant."

It's finally Friday

Man, it's been a very long day. And a stressful one. But thankfully I drowned my sorrows in some Chinese food and the 20% off sale at Express. I might have purchased yet another pair of jeans. It's a sickness, really. But it's been years since I've found jeans that actually fit and don't create a muffin top. I now enjoy looking in the three-way mirror a little bit too much.

My self-esteem was too high when I was fat. I'm really full of myself these days.

Sure, I have to go through the entire stack of jeans at Express to get to larger sizes (who's a 0 long, anyway? Giselle doesn't live in Fayetteville), but at least I can finally shop there.

Jennifer is evidently dragging me to some new intern extravaganza at the hospital next weekend, so I'll do my best to land a cute doctor (not one who excessively text messages). She has assured me that I need to wear really tight jeans. I'm not sure if that's sage advice or merely sabotage. I am sure that it will be 900 degrees in central Texas next weekend, so at least my hair will frizz and be higher than usual. 'Cause in Texas, the higher the hair, the closer to God, right?

Speaking of closer to God, my plane lands at DFW, so I'm kind of pumped about seeing the new Cowboys stadium. I think it's out of my way, but I am very curious to see what $900 million buys these days.

Tomorrow I have big plans of sleeping in, yoga, napping, church, then dinner and a movie with my friend Lori (I'm not speaking in third person; I actually have a friend named Lori who is tall, sarcastic, single, and supremely cool.. sound familiar?). This is my last free weekend for awhile, so I'm trying to bank some sleep time. Of course, I do plan to nap all day at Lonnie and Jen's on Friday while they go to work like chumps. I'll need to recover from my 47-minute flight.

Hope everyone had a fabulous week!

Happy birthday to Jen!

In all of my self-absorbed ranting, I totally forgot to wish a very happy birthday to one of my favorite people. Happy belated natal anniversary, Dr. Jen! You are one of the smartest, funniest, sexiest women I've ever known! You can cook. You are crafty. You are a great writer. You are amazing! With the exception of marrying into our family, you've made some great decisions.

Love you, Jen! So glad you married beneath you!

(I'm just kidding, Lon, you know you're my favorite almost brother.)