Growing older but not up

Had a great trip to Dallas this weekend. Saw Jimmy Buffett in Frisco last night with my friend Krista. The concert was fun--if not a total sea of humanity--but I'm not looking forward to the catalog of tickets I amassed while running through toll booths on the way back and forth to Pizza Hut Park. Seriously, Texas, you should be able to finance a secession from the union with the sheer volume of tolls you collect around Dallas.

This morning we slept in, ate breakfast, then stimulated the economy at the outlet mall in Allen. Believe it or not, I actually wore out a pair of running shoes (file under: sentences you never thought I'd write), so I bought new Shox and a watch today to keep up with my runs. It measures my pace, distance, and time, and then uploads to a website via the USB port in my watch. How seriously cool is that?

It was awesome planning on my part to schedule a vacation day tomorrow. I'm crashing after a super busy week, so I hope I can sleep in tomorrow, then nap excessively. Hello, four-day work week!

Contrary to popular belief, I only had one margarita last night. I was driving, and since they were $14 each, I was one of the more sober people in the audience. The weather is here... wish you were beautiful! (Love that I'm holding some singles here... that doesn't look trashy AT ALL.)

Snug as a slug

It's been a whole week since I've done any sort of physical activity. Granted, a year ago that wouldn't have seemed so strange. But given what a freak I've been about exercise in the past few months, that's unheard of. I refuse to gain back the weight I've lost.

Yesterday I called in sick and slept all day (actually, I emailed in sick... does anyone call in sick anymore?). I'm not sure if I was warding off a sinus infection or just paying for too many nights of not enough sleep, but after two doses of Nyquil and seven hours of napping, I feel as good as new. I was also able to clean off hours of stuff from my DVR, so when the new television season starts, I should be good to go. It's strange how much pressure I feel when that thing begins to fill up and I see "about a day" left on some of the shows I record.

Tonight I brutally cleaned out my closet and got rid of anything I can no longer wear. It always pains me to give up pricey clothes, but I realized last week that having things altered is nearly as expensive as buying new stuff. So now I have two trash bags full of clothes that I'm sending to some friends who have a non-profit organization for young women. At least I feel like my seldom-worn clothes are going to good use. I'm purging them lest I feel the need to gain back into them. Of course, if I continue to lay around like a slug and not exercise, my new clothes may get too tight.

This is all the stuff I took out of my closet.



I've already bought my first pair of boots this season. And football is on TV. Fall can officially begin!

Labels or love

I have a classic Carrie conundrum. Which is more satisfying, dinner with your man friend or shopping with your credit card?

The answer is, of course, both.

Today was the second worst day of my career. Seriously. Oh, in the big scheme of things, it's not the end of the world. But when you're a person who finds their worth in work and someone tells you that you suck at it, that's a bad day right there. So I handled it as any good girl should. I called my crush for sympathy and pulled out my credit card.

I've been told that the measure of a good man is how he reacts in a crisis. This boy passed with flying colors. Not only did he buy me dinner and listen attentively to my horrifying story, but when I told him I dealt with my stress by having a massage and buying a new handbag, he said, "That's okay. You deserved both of those things."

I'm so going to marry that man.

Hello... anyone home?

Girl is full of it. Yeah, I called him back. He was as excited to hear from me as one can be when they're awoken from sleep. In my defense, it was just past 10 and he is not that old.

Last night I had an amazing dinner at Michelangelo's and got to catch up with my friend Joe. The only drawback was that they were out of tiramisu, but my rear end is probably thankful. If only I'd hadn't eaten that three cheese pizza and shrimp brandisi. But oh, it was so yummy.

Now I'm sitting at a job fair in NLR and so far, there are no degree seekers.

Yesterday I subjected myself to searching for a dress at the mall. I don't even own one. But when you wear jeans to church and pants to work, the need to show your knees diminishes. Anyway, it was totally a depressing endeavor. How is it I can lose 30 pounds and still look like a stuffed sausage in this season's cute belted dresses? I may have to wear my housecoat to the wedding next weekend. Memaw would do that, right? (Just kidding, Memaw... love you!)

I'm determined to find a dress this afternoon before heading back northwest. Perhaps a muumuu would be in order. If I put an orchid behind my ear, it would be festive. Aloha!

I so need a Diet Coke...

Love, life and the pursuit of the perfect blouse

I can't believe the weekend's over.

After spanning two states and multiple stores, I finally found the perfect blouse to go with my (size smaller) navy suit to meet the governor on Thursday. It's weird; when I was in high school and ran for state office in FBLA, my mom and I picked out a navy power suit and cream-colored blouse. The new suit is more fitted and pants instead of a skirt, but still... the more things change the more they stay the same. Nothing says powerful like a navy suit and pearls. A Southern lady always has a great set of pearls in her wardrobe.

Yesterday Amanda and I trekked to Tulsa and waited for 2.5 hours to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. That place is great, but geez. And it wasn't just Valentine's Day couples. Old people, young people, families, singles... everyone in the great state of Oklahoma was in that restaurant yesterday afternoon.

We thought it appropriate to celebrate our V-Day singleness with "He's Just Not That Into You," but it was sold out, so we saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic" instead. Today we caught "Into You" in Siloam among a packed house of four other people. I was a bit disappointed in both movies, having loved both books, but I give them both a solid one-thumb up. Passable entertainment, but not stellar. Perhaps my expectations were a bit high. And you know what they say... never judge a great book by its movie.

Only two days in the office this week, then I'm off to Little Rock for a tour of the Presidential Library (I've never been, believe it or not), the Capitol and the Governor's Mansion. And guess who'll be there? The boy.

My name is Lori, and I'm a shopaholic

Just returned from shopping for the perfect outfit for tomorrow. What says "I am over you" to one boy and "Don't you want me to be your wife" to another? Sweater? Pretty scarf?

I'm not quite sure when shopping became my addiction. Granted, there are worse things, but why is it that a new handbag calms my nerves? (Yes, I bought another one today... shame on me!) It gives me a rush. It also calms me. And luckily there was enough money in my checking account to fund my retail fix. One more credit card payment and I'm officially out of debt, save the car payment, student loan, big screen TV, and soon-to-be mortgage.

Perhaps that's why I love Christmas so much. It's a great excuse to shop.

Office style

Those of you who work for organizations that have July 1 fiscal years know about this time of June. After 11.5 months of frugality, of writing on both sides of post-it notes and stealing pens from the bank drive through, you spend the last two weeks of June trying to spend the last dregs of your budget. See, you don't want to leave any money in there since it doesn't get rolled over into next year, and you certainly don't want the bean counters to think that you don't need it and therefore give you less the next year, so you give yourself permission to purchase things that you'd never buy in October.

I've been living in a man's office since January. I inherited a cracked burgundy leather wing-back chair (which was merely on loan) and some navy and tan buffalo-checked curtains. So I've slowly been trying to feminize my office in the past few months. It began with replacing the plain navy lamp with a purple one. One of the empty nails now contains a Kandinsky print. But my office still lacked personality. I felt like I was merely a temporary resident there.

Until today. Today I spent the afternoon shopping for office stuff. And yeah, office furniture isn't too fun, but it was cool to get to pick out chairs that actually match and have some style. Plus I got a brand new desk chair with lumbar support. I also purchased a decent shower curtain to replace the maroon liner that's covering my teal green bathtub.

Hey, I spend more time in my office than I do at my house. It should at least be stylish, right?