Welcome to my crazy, busy, fabulous life!

While I realize I need to update this thing more, and I have the best intentions of doing so, it never seems to happen. Although my life is going swimmingly, my marathon to-do list never seems to get down to "update blog."

I miss the days when preparing for vacation meant shopping for swimsuits and stocking up on film. These days I work like a mad woman to get as much done as possible prior to vacation so that I can actually enjoy my time off and not spend it working. The blessing and the curse of technology is that I'm always accessible, so vacation is relative I suppose. I may be two states away, but email gets delivered in Texas just like it does in Arkansas.

This week the fabulous Amanda has been staying with me and commuting to her new job in Rogers. I love it when she's here because she'll eat almost anything, so I get the chance to try out new recipes and dazzle her with my culinary skills when she stays here. Monday night we had three cheese pizza with atomic salad, Tuesday night we had brie pasta with fresh green beans, and Wednesday night we had grilled salmon and asparagus salad. And now my pants are too tight.

Tonight we had a going away party for my friend/sorority sister, Valerie, who's getting ready to leave for a two-year mission trip. We all met at Bonefish for bang bang shrimp and girl time. I never thought when I pledged a sorority that I'd make so many lifelong friends. All for the bargain price of $28 a month.



Tomorrow night I'm meeting my friend D in Tulsa to see Rascal Flatts. I had plans to go to a toga party at my friend Lela's, but when D called and said, "Hey, I have VIP/meet and greet tickets..." I blew off the toga party for the special treatment at the BOK Center. Luckily, Lela is a good enough friend that she's given me a free pass on skipping her party because I had a better offer. I've known D for over 20 years. He has a really cool job and has had the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing people, so my goal tomorrow night is to be as blase as he is about the experience. I swear, he's one of the least pretentious people I know, but when he randomly throws out phrases like, "One time when I was at the White House correspondents' dinner..." I find it hard to retain my dignity.

Did I tell you Usher was on my flight from Atlanta?

Saturday I'm picking up birthday cake for Memaw and Taylor and partying with the fam. Then on Sunday Chance and I are caravanning back to Texas with Lonnie and the boys.

Tuesday it's a tour of Cowboys Stadium, then Jen is taking two days off on Thursday and Friday, so we're all going to the beach.

Whew! I don't know when I'm going to work in a pedicure or a tanning appointment, but this diva is overbooked the next few days. Yes, it's crazy and busy, but very, very, cool.

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.)

Back to reality

Since I ended up working about half of my stay-cation, I made the most of my weekend. My pal Krista came over and we ate a lot and watched a lot of movies. On Friday we watched "Love Happens" (mediocre) and "Mamma Mia!" (so, so fun).

Yesterday, after a quick run (ok, a slow run) in the drizzle, I made breakfast, then we watched "Footloose" (classic), "Saturday Night Fever" (I napped through most of it), "The Time Traveler's Wife" (very weird), "The Blind Side" (awesome) and "Serendipity" (which I'd never seen, and now I really can't wait for NYC).

This morning I made pancakes and bacon, then we watched "The Women" before putting together my treadmill that's been in the box for three months. We finished up the movie marathon with "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

In case you're wondering, there was no date on Friday, blind or otherwise. He allegedly has a golf injury, and didn't come into town, so I was able to forego makeup all weekend and eat my weight in grease.

I've had a sinus headache all day, so I'm getting ready to dope up on Nyquil and hit the hay early. Then it's back to work for real (boo).

Stay-cation

I'm lucky enough to have a job that affords me four weeks' vacation annually. The problem is that there's seldom a good time to take it, and I can't carry it over, so I've found myself losing days the past couple of years.

Yesterday--April 13, 2010--has been circled in red on my calendar for months. Because it was Bon Jovi. In Tulsa. On the 14th row. It's weird how you can look forward to something for months, and then when it finally happens, it's almost surreal. And I worried that it couldn't live up to my expectations, but it totally did. What a great night. What an amazing concert. The reason they've thrived as a band for so long is because they love what they do, they appreciate their fans, and whether they're in NYC or Tulsa, Oklahoma, they give 100% to the entire performance. Even though they've done "Livin' on a Prayer" about 9,000 times, it's like the first time they performed it every time. Sigh. It was such a great time.

So instead of taking two days off this week, I decided to schedule the entire week. But I've been working the whole time. And not just checking my emails, but going to meetings. Because I feel guilty for declining important meetings just so I can hang out in my pajamas.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to chill for a bit, but then I've just canceled my Friday vacation day since I have six meetings. So much for my relaxing stay-cation.

But I got to see Bon Jovi and spend time with some awesome friends. And I'm grateful to have a job I love, even if that means I can't let go.

I must write "get a life" on my to-do list.

Pics from Tulsa are here.

At least I have a Texas trip to look forward to next week. Oh, and Friday's blind date. My life is a constant whirlwind, and I LOVE IT!

Christmas countdown

I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. Luckily I only have 14 more days of work before 9 days off in a row. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I have KISS in Austin this weekend, a party in Mountain Home the weekend after that, graduation, and multiple holiday gatherings. Let's hope I get through it all without a major crash. Today I had to take a 90 minute nap during my extended lunchtime. But I did manage to finish cleaning and decorating my office and am nearly done decking the halls and organizing the garage.

Today I found this pic of Alisa and me in Branson a couple of weeks ago. We had so much fun!

Coming clean

I've got a serious case of apathy these days. I don't know why, but I'm not motivated to finish any project. And while that's bad at home, it's horrible at work.

Since my treadmill bit the dust, I got up early to do yoga and run outside. In the freezing drizzle. I think I have frostbite on my cheeks. Thankfully I had a massage this morning, so not only did I get warm, I got really relaxed. I did manage to stay awake through multiple meetings, but I feel like I accomplished nothing today.

Tonight I started cleaning out my home office. I got about halfway finished before I gave up and quit.

Some much to do. So little motivation.

Three more days of work before nine days of vacation. Hooray!

Oh, and I registered for the big Siloam Turkey Trot 5K at 8 am this Saturday. Yeah, I'm not ready, but I figure there won't be many people around to witness my humiliation. I have no idea what possessed me to do that. But I've got four of the seven pounds off I wanted to lose before next week.

What day is this?

I wasn't meant to be a lady of leisure. It's day seven of my vacation, and all of the days are starting to run together. I haven't showered since Friday, which was the last day I left my house.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Tulsa with my pal Lindsay to eat at Cheesecake Factory and do a bit of shopping. Bring on the pasta!

It's Monday, right?

Good news

Two pieces of good news... (1) the video is done; and (2) I'm on vacation tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Yeah, I'm a lucky little brat who gets 20 days of paid vacation a year, and even prorated from the end of January, I still have four days to take before the end of June. It's hard to find a good time to take a day off, but I had zero meetings scheduled for tomorrow so viola, a day of R&R for Lori. The most energetic thing I plan to do tomorrow is get a pedicure.

I'm sure I'll be awake at 6 a.m. tomorrow like usual. But at least I can nap the rest of the day and watch movies. Oh, and I need to clean my house.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!