There's Nothing Like a Little Self-Medicating

I woke up this morning in the worst mood. The most frustrating thing about days like this is that I usually can't even tell you why I feel the way I do. I seem to lack that insight into my own personality that tells you these things. Consequently, I am left with those close to me asking, "what's wrong?" all day long, and the only response I can give them is, "I don't know."

Was it the comment from my coworker yesterday afternoon? "Geez, Laura, even your hard hat is black!" Or the one from my other coworker this morning? "What are you WEARING?" (Incidentally, coworker #1 is consistently rude and annoying and I pretty much always want to give him a sharp poke in the eye. If he didn't program the thermostats to go down to sub-zero temperatures all day long, I wouldn't have to wear the over sized, librarian-type, black sweater every day that prompted the comment from coworker #2.)

Anyway, I felt completely repulsive by the end of the day. My bad mood seemed to grow bigger and bigger until it consumed everything I did. Even as I was picking a fight with my completely innocent and perfectly sweet husband, I could hear my inner voice in the back of my head yelling "stop!" Only I couldn't stop!

After work, I decided that there was only one thing that was going to make me feel better. I took myself to the mall. Not just one mall, but TWO. And I bought myself three pairs of the exact same pants, only in three different colors. Plus, three of the exact same pique polo shirt in three different colors.

But you know what? Not one of those colors was black.

Miracle Fruit

My cousin has been really into fruit trees for about the past year or so. He and his friends have been riding their bikes around Atlanta, trying to see what types of wild fruits and berries they can collect. They have tried all kinds of wild grapes, figs, blueberries, raspberries, etc. They collected so many apples and varieties of apples that they had a cider party in the fall.

Anyway, he's been talking about this plant that heard about for a month. It's called Miracle Fruit. Apparently, when you eat the berries from the tree, it temporarily causes anything sour you eat to taste sweet.

It took him a long time to find one. He finally bought a plant from Florida and it has just now grown to the point where it has produced berries. He brought one over to my Aunt's house yesterday. He cut it in half, and he and his girlfriend each ate half of it. Then we all watched while they ate a lemon, a lime, and a grapefruit with no problem at all. They said it tasted like it was coated in sugar! They even drank vinegar straight from the bottle. It was the wierdest thing. I looked it up online, and it says that they use this plant in Japan as a sweetner. The food apparently tastes horrible until you give people these berries to eat before they try it. Pretty cool.

I'm a Bee!!

I just found out that I got accepted to the Masters of Building Construction program at Georgia Tech. Yay! Now the work begins. Don't worry, though - I'll always be a Dawg!

Vacay!

It's taken me a week to get these up, but I finally have the pictures from our trip out West uploaded to Flickr.

I added labels to them to tell what/where they are. I hope those show up.

We started in Vegas on Wednesday. We met Carly & Robbie there, which was awesome! If you go to Vegas in the near future, I highly recommend the Bellagio. Not only do they have about 5 swimming pools, but some of them are chilled for your comfort. Wouldn't want the guests to get too hot while laying out, now would we? If you're feeling thirsty, just raise the little flag on the back of your deck chair and the waitress will come right over to take your order. (My favorite bev was the "Pink" - so yummy and refreshing!).

The gym & spa are awesome, but a little expensive ($25 for a day). I will say, though, that it was one of the best workouts I've ever had. I got to run on the treadmill with my own private tv screen. Halfway through, the lady came around with chilled, scented towels. Completely amazing.

We tried very hard to go to Pure because we all wanted to see some celebs. Alas, we weren't able to even get up to the door. They had the strangest line system outside ever. Basically, it looked like only hot girls were getting in and everyone else was swarming around trying to get in. We even saw someone try to bribe a bouncer. After about 20 minutes, we gave up and went to Club Light in the Bellagio. It was way easier to get in, didn't cost anything, and played good music. We totally rocked it until last call.

Another highlight of Vegas was the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. Since we weren't there for very long, this was perfect because it only takes about 4 hours altogether. They land you on the Canyon floor and serve you breakfast or lunch (depending on the time). They also fly you over the strip and the Hoover Dam. We got some of the most amazing pictures.

After Vegas, we rented a Jeep and drove to Sequoia National Forest. It feels like you are in another world. A world in which you are very, very small. The biggest tree on the planet is there (the General Sherman Tree). It's so big that, if you filled it with water, it would have enough water inside to supply an average American household for 3.5 years. It's also bigger than the Statue of Liberty. It was completely awe-inspiring and amazing.

From there, we drove to Santa Cruz. It took awhile to get there, but it was a beautiful drive. California is so different from the South! It was so cool to drive through the desert and the mountains. We pulled into Sant Cruz around 5 pm, just in time to meet the Still Flyin' gang at the hotel. They played that night, and the show was great! They even invited Excalibrah on stage for a version of "Have You Ever Been This Gansta?"

After Santa Cruz, we drove down the PCH and stayed in Montery and Carmel. Both were beautiful. We went whale watching in Montery. It was cold, but it turned out to be a great day to go. We saw humpback whales breaching and slapping their fins on the water.

The last stop was Los Angeles. We stayed with some of D's friends from high school. They took us to some of their favorite places. The first was The Dresden, where I found my other favorite bev of the trip - a Blood and Sand. We also went to a very cool bar called Nic's, and we ate the Tower of Seafood at Mastro's.

All in all, this was one of my favorite trips of all time!

I'm A Steve

Twilight Ocho was completely amazing! As always, all of the bands brought their A game. Hammy's description is perfect. Here are a few pics from the night to go along with it.

(a) - hairy nipple (b) - baby daddy (c) - everybody take a knee (d) - maniac slice

Cali, Here we Come!

D and I have been planning our trip to California/Las Vegas. So far, we have planned to stay the night in the Sequoia National Forest, take a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, and go whale watching in Monterrey. I am so excited! If anyone has any suggestions on good places to go or great things to see and do in Cali, let me know. I think we're going to drive down the scenic coastal highway, but I'm not sure what there is to see and do.

Goodbye, Sophie

Last night, after we got back from the grocery store, I had two missed calls on my cellphone. I didn't recognize the number, and the caller had hit "1" to page me. I called back, and the man, Frank, introduced himself to me. He said that he had some bad news. I immediately got nervous.

He said that he was out very late on Monday night looking for his lost cat. While he was out, he found a dog that had been hit by a car. After seeing our posters, he was sure that it was Sophie. Being a very nice man, and considering that he was looking for a lost pet himself, he said that he couldn't leave here there. So, he picked her up and took her home and put her in a box to bury.

As it turns out, Frank lives just down the street from us. He asked me if I wanted him to bring her to us. He offered to keep her and bury her himself. I said no, that we would take care of it, and he said that he would bring her over.

DJ and I went out and bought a shovel. Then we met Frank and put Sophie in the backyard under a tree. We wanted her there with us - in our backyard, forever a part of our family.

I will never forget yesterday. I will always miss Sophie - "yittle Soph." I will never forget how the kindness of a stranger offered us some peace and comfort on a very difficult day. And I will never forget crying with my husband over the loss of a beloved pet.

Goodbye, Sophie. We will miss you and love you always.

Lost Dog

It was a sad day on Monday. DJ and I came home and let Soph out in the backyard, as we have been doing since the move. The weather has been so nice that we wanted to give her a little fresh air and play time. Needless to say, when I went out about 2 hours later to give her dinner, she was gone. I have no idea how she got out. She did this once before about two months ago, when we first moved into the house. We found her right away, though, and we plugged up what we thought was the hole in the fence through which she escaped. She has outsmarted me again, though! I think she is either small enough to squeeze through the gap between the fence and the gate, or she is outright climbing the fence. Either way, she is being a bad dog!

I'm worried about her, though. I went to Animal Control yesterday and looked to see if they had picked her up, but she wasn't there. DJ and I put signs all around the neighborhood last night, but we haven't gotten any calls yet. He also called the closest vet office to see if anyone has brought her in. We live on such a busy street. I hope that she is okay and that she comes home soon!

"Ghost Rider"

Is terrible. Don't go see it. Sometimes I think my ability to tell a good movie from a bad one has been lost. I was really excited about this movie in a fairly nerdy sort of way. I like Nicholas Cage, and he was pretty good for this part, but everytime the Ghost Rider opened his mouth, it sounded dumb. People were laughing at things that weren't supposed to be funny. Overall, D and I gave it a D+.

Does Anyone Have a Catering License?

This weekend was one of the busiest I have ever had. I was nervous about it being too much, but it turned out to be so, so wonderful.

On Friday, D and I officially bought our first house. I can't believe it! It only took approximately 30 minutes to sign all the paperwork and then we were homeowners! As we were leaving the fancy office of the lawyer who handled the closing, we danced around in the elevator. It HAS to be one of the top 5 moments ever.

Friday night we had a party at our old house for Carly and Robbie. We had so much fun, but it was a sad, sad, sad goodbye. You're not supposed to cry at a party, right? I promised myself that I wouldn't, but then ended up in a honey huddle, swaying back & forth to Pavement and sniffing like a baby. It was such a roller coaster. We went from singing karaoke at the top of our lungs, to crying, to singing again in no time at all.

One of the best parts was that I got to hang out with one of my bestest friends, who was here visiting from her new home in Washington, DC. It was so good to hang out and catch up again!

It's hard to describe all of the changes that happened this month and how I feel about them. One the one hand, I am so sad about my friends moving. I truly am happy for them, and I know that life in their new cities is going to be so amazing. I already miss them so much, though!! I keep asking D, "Will we be lonely? What are we going to do with ourselves?" I keep feeling kindof left behind or something. On the other hand, though, I am so excited about the new house. It really feels like we've opened a new chapter in our lives. The whole house-buying process has made me feel like we're even closer than before. It is so wonderful and special, and I know it's going to be the best thing ever.

Anyway, we spent Saturday and Sunday resting, cleaning, packing, & moving and then on Sunday night we went up to Athens to celebrate New Year's Eve. Some folks had rented out the top floor of Tasty World. I had never been up to the third floor before, and it was so much fun!! It felt like we were dancing in the rafters. We danced and danced until the police came and shut the party down because they said you had to have a catering license. In summary, we were partying so hard, you had to have a license to do it.

I hope that all of my friends and family had an equally as wonderful New Years. I hope they all know that I am thinking about them and love them with all my heart. Only the best in 2007!