Items on last night's menu

We ate at a cute little Italian place last night. Typically, the waiter will bring English menus to those of us that need them. I am fascinated by the translations on these, however, since the Portuguese to English isn't always right on the money.

For example, here are a few of the items featured on last night's English menu. All items appear as they were on the menu:

• Unwaved chicken
• Rotten cheese
• Friend cashew (a cocktail)
• Pizza: ham, eggs, peas, palm tree, olive
• Tenant roast beef
• Packages stuffed with ham
• Turkey chest
• Triturated nuts
• Fresh tomato without skin sauce
• Solid of leaves
• Little buck leg (in pieces)
• Splints of funghi
• Pasta: milk cream, gem, bacon

It was actually one of my favorite restaurants thus far :)

I'll be home for Christmas

Yep, I'm leaving South America tomorrow and will be back in Texas on Friday morning. Overall, Brazil has been fun. Good food, nice people, good weather (aside from the heat!). The parts of the country I've seen so far have been really pretty. Lots of bright green trees and dark red soil.

This trip has also given me the opportunity to meet a few more of my co-workers that until now, have been a continent away. Though I will say this, I don't think I could travel full time for work. Some folks travel every week, flying out on Monday and back on Friday. That is not my kind of gig, but the occasional trip now and then is ok for brief amounts of time :)

Anyhow, it's a little strange seeing Christmas trees everywhere, Santas on every window sill, and garland on all the doors down here. Since it's in the high 80s, it is just hard for my mind to comprehend that it really is Christmas. I had no idea that the holiday was so widely celebrated in South America. Yeah, I'm a pretty insulated American :)

Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of my trip when I'm back in the states. Connectivity is patchy down here, so I think that's why my previous attempts failed. I know, I know. You're all dying to see what Brazil is like. But patience, people, patience...

See you soon! Feliz Natal!

Oi!

Yep, I'm still down in Brazil. Sorry I've been remiss in posting as of late. Our days are pretty long, and honestly, I've been too tired by the time I get back to the hotel to do much more than lay back, watch Harry Potter and do some Su Doku.

This is indeed the life.

We got Sunday off from work, which was nice. Some of us headed a few blocks down from the hotel to a local park for a bit. There are a ton of local merchants and craftsmen that come to the park, setup a tent and sell their goods. Most of us are looking for good Christmas gifts, but honestly, a lot of this stuff you could find in the US. I have, however, found a few things that I'm bringing back with me.

As we trekked back to the hotel, we started to realize why this part of Brazil enjoys a siesta during the afternoon. It was crazy hot. I was literally a puddle in front of the hotel by the time we made it back. We rested for the afternoon and then a few of us went out to one of the local malls that night. It was super crowded, but we had a good time.

Today, we're back "in the office" if you can call it that. Only 4 more days until I get to come home. Yippee!

Feliz Natal!

(I really hope I spelled that right!)

Brazil, the first few days

Brazil is good so far, I guess. Aside from the 10 hour works days, I don't have too many complaints :)

Seriously, though, it's been ok so far if I don't count being away from friends and family. The food has been great so far - lots of tasty beef and strong coffee served in tiny cups. I'm here for about another week, and I'm really hoping that the building will have indoor plumbing by then!

Due to the somewhat shady nature of the areas we're in while we're here, we have a security team that stays with us as we go about town. They are supremely cool. And I can tell you this, you haven't been shopping at a mall until you've been shopping at the biggest mall in Latin America with security guards tailing you. It was super fun! I'm going to try to get some pictures with them, and will post those when I do.

In the mean time, hopefully these will tide you over...enjoy! One is a picture of the mall we went to, one is a picture of the construction site, and one is a picture from the plane. You guess which is which :)

Out of the office

Hey folks,
Sorry I've been a little incommunicado lately. I have been in the air heading down to Brazil. I got in on Tuesday at noon, and we're 4 hours ahead of CST. So, it's all glamorous and all, working down here, wearing hard hats, steel-toed sneakers, and safety glasses.

Overall, I'll primarily be working a lot. Not a whole bunch of excess time to spend being an obnoxious tourist. Wish me luck! I'll try to pull together a better post later, complete with pictures and everything...

Here's a link to where I am: Campinas, Brazil

The first step

Admitting you have a problem.

1) I have a problem. I'm an email addict.

That's what I learned at a training class this week for work. Sure, it was voluntary. But I think that it should be mandatory the way email zips around this place. Basically, I was in a class that was supposed to help you become more organized and use Microsoft Outlook more efficiently.

And boy were my socks knocked off.

I realized, during the class, that for some sick, twisted reason, I was taking pride in the amount of email that I had managed to fit in my inbox. Why was I happy to have more than 2,000 emails? It made me feel important, I guess.

But you know what feels better? Having 0. Yep, not one thing.

Sure, I'm not 100% organized. I probably never will be. But I know that I'm on my way to becoming less of an email packrat, and that can only be good.

Yay!

More Mexico pics

Here are some links to more Mexico pictures. The other folks on the team did a much better job of capturing the trip on film than I did. Yay team!

This first picture gives a good feel of the overall area we were in. Dirt roads and all that jazz.



This second picture is Amar and little boy walking up the road towards one of the houses under construction. I'm guessing that this kid just got out of school, but I'm not sure.

Picture links:
The Austin's pictures
The Mayen's pictures
The Hochstratter's pictures

Oh, Mexico

For our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, Amar and I decided to head down to Reynosa, Mexico on a mission trip with our church. We left on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. The SUV was loaded to the brim with supplies, friends, and snacks, and we descended into Austin pre-Thanksgiving traffic. Fun. It really wasn't that bad, and we made it through town and down to the border fairly quickly.

We stayed at an orphanage in Reynosa, and let me just tell you, it was posh. It was nicer than some hotels I've stayed at before. Plus, there was home cooking for breakfast and dinner each day. Yeah, it was pretty sweet.

Thursday recap:
Thursday we set out to the colonia to do some canvassing. Basically, the colonia is a settlement of creatively constructed structures perched near the border crossing bridge on a strip of land between an irrigation canal and sewage canal. Families settle there for weeks or months, sometimes years, somehow surviving is a seemingly unsurvivable manner. There is little food, poor shelter, and tons and tons of dust and gravel. We spent our first day there meeting as many people as possible, talking with them and telling them about the various activities we were going to do over the next few days.

Friday recap:
The guys set out that day to start building the first of 2 houses planned for the trip. They got the foundation setup, the floor done, the walls put up and the windows installed. The rest of us ladies set up for the kids activities and women's ministry for the day. Needless to say, things with the kids didn't quite go as expected, but the team flexed and made it work somehow.


Saturday recap:
Saturday was much the same as Friday, but with more building and more sports. Our time with the kids and the women was much more productive! By this time, the guys had almost finished both houses. Quite impressive, if you ask me!

Sunday recap:
We attended church with the staff at the orphanage, and it was quite a new experience for most of us. The corporate worship time was really active, lots of songs and dancing, and it was so neat! The pastor who spoke also had a translator, which made the service just a smidge longer :) After church, we packed back into the car, and proceeded to wait in line to cross the border for about 2 1/2 hours. Uh, yeah. No so much fun. Here's a picture of the Rio Grande. Yeah - no so grande in this picture…

Anyhow, we made it back safe and sound. We're now praying about possibly going again in December...keep you posted!

Still alive, I think :)

Hey folks, sorry for the lack of posting as of late. We went to Mexico over the holidays and I'm working on summarizing the trip in a different post. I'm still getting caught up here and there, so that's the story.

And just to see how many countries I can go to in the shortest amount of time, I'm off to Brazil in about 2 weeks with work.

Before you get any ideas, this will not be the most glamorous trip in the world. I'll have to (get to?) wear a hard hat, safety glasses and steel-toed shoes while I'm at work. And when you add on the fact that there is no indoor plumbing yet at the office, well, you start to get the picture.

So, more updates coming soon. I promise.

In the mean time, here are the various things in the works in the Rama household:

• Finish up Thank You notes from the wedding!!! Oy!
• Decorate for Christmas - yay!
• Unpack from Mexico
• Pack for Brazil
• Figure out what the heck we're doing for the holidays
• Shop for Christmas presents
• Briefly entertain the idea of sending out Christmas cards
• Learn basic Portuguese
• And on, and on, and on :)

Doh!

Every now and then, I arrive at work to see that I've been visited in the night by the cubicle elves. Those little guys sometimes leave trinkets and PR garb on our desks when new processes or new HR policies come out.

Well, the latest gadget was a little alien desk clock. He kind of looks like a little space alien guy and has a paper-holder built into his space helmet. Yeah, he's classy.

So anyways, I wanted to set the clock, naturally. I took out the instructions that were placed in his helmet and started perusing them. I did a double take at first, making sure that I could still read properly.


Behold the power of grammar check.

P.S. And yes, I'm a big enough dork to have taken a picture of it.

Gig 'em?

This weekend, the soon-to-be Kuceras joined us for a trip down to Aggieland. Amar had never been to A&M before, so this was a great opportunity to see the campus and take in a good ol' fashioned college football game.

Well, at least that was our hope.

The campus tour went off without a hitch, as the Aggies showed the non-Aggies around. We saw old dorms, old friends, and lots of really, really young-looking freshmen. We even saw some kids in Aggie shirts that read "Class of 2013." Talk about an age check. That really made all of us feel old.


We had lunch at Hullabaloo, downstairs in the MSC. Then we made it outside in time to see the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band march into Kyle Field. Everyone got the A&M garb that they needed, and after a few brief photo-ops, we headed up, up, up to our seats.

We climbed up to the tip top of The Zone and settled in, hoping that the Aggies would not disappoint...especially since this was Amar's inaugural college football game. Right before the game, there was a flyover by 4 planes in honor of Veteran's Day. It was pretty cool (I'll post a video on YouTube later...), but since we were already at a relatively high altitude, for the first few seconds of the flyover, our section was bracing for a possible direct hit.

Well, if you watched it on t.v. or read the recap, it wasn't the best game that's even been played at Kyle Field. We endured the first half, as the Aggies struggled to make a first down. After a great performance by the band, the second half was underway. After we took the lead, our whole section was optimistic about us being able to pull it off.

And then, with 2 minutes left to go, we flushed ourselves down the toilet yet again. Before the game started, I mentioned that I didn't trust our team. And I was right. What business do we have calling a timeout in a situation like that? What business do we have making plays that put the other team in scoring range? What business do we have running out of bounds when we're trying to run out the clock? Ugh!

I think our post-game picture tells the whole story.

Friday?

This week has gone by very slowly. Someone said that Monday felt like it should be Thursday, and I couldn't have agreed more.

Today began with much that same sentiment.

I tried something different with my hair.

I put my makeup on while driving to work.

I got to work, bought a muffin and some coffee and headed up to my desk.

I turned the corner to my aisle and a guy that I work with exclaimed, "Wow! You look miserable!"

"I look miserable?" I replied, and continued on to my desk.

I redid my hair and double-checked my makeup.

I proceeded to work at my desk and in meetings for the next few hours.

I then decided to leave for lunch, so I started to walk to my car.

I met up with some girls I work with and we all headed to the parking lot together.

"Do I look miserable?" I asked, hoping they would emphatically deny that I did.

"Well, I wouldn't say miserable exactly..." said one girl.

The other chimed in, "More like beat down."







Yeah. I'm glad it's Friday.

Fun for free!

For our date night this week, Amar and I went to a book reading. Prior to that, I had never been to a book reading before. But let me just tell you, my friends, it was really worth the time. And it was free, so it was definitely worth the money ;)

We went to hear John Hodgman. Three weeks ago I had no idea who this guy was. I think his book was linked to in some article I was reading, so I looked into what he was working on. Once I saw a picture of him, I instantly recognized him from the Apple ads. He's the PC guy.

So I read about his book, about his sense of humor, and I also started reading his blog. He seemed to have a dry, nerdy sense of humor (I mean that in a good way, John, if you're reading this). And honestly, that was somewhat appealing to me. I was hoping he'd be the same in person.

Well, he was. And it was a riot.

The second floor of Book People was filled with eager fans. We got there early and got pretty good seats. He and his troubadour, Jonathan Coulton, put on quite a nice show. Jonathan even performed his original piece titled "Code Monkey" which seemed to be quite a hit with the crowd.

Last night we caught him on the Daily Show, as he is their Resident Expert. Not bad at all, my friends...

Here's a link to his book: The Areas of My Expertise. If you're the kind of person that's into fake trivia, then you should really check it out. Or, if you're the kind of person that gets a kick out of reading 700 hobo names, then this book is also for you. You will not be disappointed.

Ode to winter shoes

Now that winter is upon us here in Central Texas, and we've officially turned the heater on in our apartment, it's time to start pulling out the winter gear.

Every year I seem to have the same problem: I have nothing to wear for winter. Sure, winter here only means 45 degrees for more than 5 days in a row, but still, I am a person in need of quality insulation. But somehow, every winter I survive, albeit with chattering teeth and permanent goosebumps. But I do survive.

This winter will be no different, as I have recruited some much needed footwear assistance. I give you my new favorite shoes:

Exhibit A: The Privo

• The Privo could not be more comfortable
• The Privo goes with pretty much anything you could throw at it
• The Privo is all terrain
• The Privo is also warm
• The Privo is a trooper

Exhibit B: The Merrell

• The Merrell is a fun shoe
• The Merrell will not embarass you at holiday office parties
• The Merrell likes to keep a low profile
• The Merrell always uses its blinkers
• The Merrell has a zipper that makes a fun sound when you walk
• The Merrell has a fun pull-on loop at the back for easy handling

So, that's the scoop, my friends. Check 'em out if you don't believe me.

A rose by any other name...

Would probably have a different occupation.

I stumbled upon this article on Slate today while catching up on office email.

It's about people who have names that are aptronyms. Names which inadvertently describe their occupations. Interesting.

The list is amusing, especially the section on dentists. Ouch!

But I then realized that I knew someone with an aptronym name. Well, sort of.

Back in high school, the Men's Athletic Director was a man named Coach Sports. Ha! Yes, his name was indeed Sports and he was most certainly a football coach and AD. Honestly, I didn't really think much of it back in high school. It just seemed a bit random.

But then a rumor broke out that he changed his name to Sports when he started coaching. What is that about? Seems a little extreme to me, but whatever works.

How does "Kim Typesalot" sound? Catchy, eh?

I finally did it

I finished The Chronicles of Narnia.

As I was reading the last page yesterday over breakfast, Amar stopped me to give me a pep talk. He was kind of kidding, but kind of serious. One thing he mentioned was the post-reading feeling. I guess the same could be said for any big goal, in a sense. Once you're done, you don't really know what the next step is. Where do you go from there?

I have been wanting to read this book since last summer, when I first borrowed it from Amar. It flew across the Pacific with me, and sat untouched in my backpack for the duration of my trip. It then sat, untouched, on my bookshelf for months on end. Since then, in what I can only imagine to be an elaborate plot to get the book back, Amar married me and the book then sat on our collective bookshelf for a few weeks.

FINALLY

I picked it up and began reading.

Sometimes it was hard to put down. But I am really glad that I finished it. All 700+ pages of it.

But what now? More fiction? More epics? Or do I completely switch genres and go for history, or autobiography, or flashcards?

Suggestions?

Pure T.V. post

Yes, I'm sorry. But I have to write about this.

Preface
I was a t.v. kid. Partly my own doing, partly that of my parents. So weaning myself off of the thing has taken some time. I'm getting better, in that I actually read for fun now. Crazy, yes, I know. It's a whole new world out there, people.

Actual Post
But I still have a few shows that I watch each week. Lucky for me, Amar watches (most of) them with me.

This big one for this week was the finale of Project Runway. I've watched that show from the beginning, and I really enjoy it.

But last night was just insane. I mean, come on...Jeffrey?!?!?!

Ugh.

I'll just say this - that would not have been my pick. But what do I know about fashion. Heck, I'm wearing corduroy shoes that I bought at Old Navy 3 years ago.

How to pass the time

Friday afternoon going by too slowly for you?

Try this on for size: a list (with commentary) of awful baby names.

And it's got a fun name, to boot: Baby's Named a Bad Bad Thing

Yeah. I'm loving it a bit too much.

And no, we are not trying to come up with baby names for any particular reason whatsoever. Despite the fact that it was inadvertently stated at Bible study this week that one of the favorite Bible verses of the Ramas was indeed Psalm 127:3. We blame a slight typo on that bit of misinformation. Uh, whoops!

Enjoy the weekend (and the cooler weather?)!

Makes me smile...

I've been trying to bring in CDs to my office for about a month now, so listen to at my desk. But everyday, I leave them in my car. And let's face it, folks, I'm way too lazy to walk back down to the parking lot once I've settled into my cubicle for the morning.

But today I finally remembered to bring them in, and I'm so glad that I did. I found some old random mix CDs (yes, how very Jr. High of me, I know! Gah!), some CDs I bought years ago, and some CDs that I borrowed awhile back and have failed to return to their rightful owners.

Whatever the case may be, I'm thoroughly enjoying them today.

And I'm reminded that there are just some songs that will always bring a smile to my face. One such song, as random as it might be, is "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John (snippet here). There is just something about it that gets me. Maybe it's the lyrics, or the music, or the vocals, or the memory of that scene from Almost Famous....

Whatever it is, I like it.

Anyhow, just wanted to share that with you. There are probably hundreds of songs that fall into this category for me, but this one just popped on through the ol' headphones this morning.

What songs are in that category for you?

One more for the reading list

In summarizing my reading accomplishments for the year, I forgot one of the more significant. We're currently going through The Lies We Believe in our weekly Bible study. I cannot say enough about this book. I think this should also be filed under my "resolutions" - in that I should have a resolution to quit believing such filth.

The author goes to our church and frequently teaches in the Young Couples class. Chris is great. He is honest, funny, genuine, and caring to everyone he comes into contact with.

In this book of his, he takes you through the various traps that we start to believe when we go through daily life. The thing is, it seems like on every page there is something I can identify with.

He talks about self lies, like perfectionism (hello!), people-pleasing, and worth being determined by our performance.

He talks about marital lies, like everything is my spouse's fault, marriage should be easy, and the idea that your spouse owes you.

He talks about distortion lies, like making mountains out of molehills, missing the forest for the trees, and black and white thinking (oh brother!).

He talks about religions lies, like trying to earn God's love, God hating the sin and the sinner, and things like "good Christians" not feeling angry, anxious and/or depressed.

But he doesn't just take you through the icky things and leave you hanging. He does a great job of telling you the truth. Everyone suffers from wrong thinking. Heck, Jesus describes Satan as the father of lies (see John 8:42-47), so would it not make sense for him to invade our way of thinking, tainting it with lies that keep us from seeing (and living) God's truth?

All in all, it's a great read. Not because of eloquent writing or fantastic storytelling. It's great because it challenges you to think differently. It reminds you of who God is and who He made you to be. Good stuff, my friends.

I < heart > DVR

Tonight is big, people.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but tonight is the season premiere of Lost. Tonight is also the reunion show for Project Runway. And last, but most certainly not least, tonight is Bible study (obviously, not a link to the Bible, but to the book we're going through...more on that tomorrow).

This is the perfect storm of goodness, my friends.

Now, if you have to know, we'll be making the regular appearance at Bible study. Wouldn't miss it for the world (though now that I think about it, we're missing it next week for a birthday party for a friend...but who's counting?).

But I can tell you this, when we get home, that DVR is going to earn its keep. I'm planning to load up on coffee, pop some popcorn, and settle in. Sure, I have to be at work at 8AM tomorrow for a *thrilling* 2 hour weekly meeting. But that will not stop me from getting my fix.

Amar, thank you for loving me through these hard times.

*Luckily, House is a re-run....that would be a little over the top if I would actually have to miss something. Gah!

The Last Kiss: A review

Monday night is "date night" for us, so last night we did dinner and a movie, conveniently at the same time, via the Alamo Drafthouse. Since there's not much out, I decided (based on some very minimal reviews) that we should see The Last Kiss with Zach Braff.*

Mis-take.

Well, not totally. But this was not the movie that I was expecting to see. Granted, I hadn't read much about it. I think I read that it was a "predictable romantic movie" so I thought, "Hey - that sounds great for date night." I purposefully didn't read too many reviews because I didn't want to spoil the movie. I saw a critic write that if one was expecting another "Garden State" this was not the movie for them. Great! I wasn't a huge fan of Garden State...so off we went.**

Sure - there were some good moments. Some good insight on relationships. Some good one-liners.

But at one point of the movie, I was actually almost cheering for this girl to stab her boyfriend. What? Yeah, messed up.

The movie was very much set in an "anything goes" lifestyle, so I had a hard time really seeing the logic/sense that people were basing their decisions on. There were times during the movie that I really cringed, wanting to slap these people and knock some sense into them. I'm typically a little low on the mercy-meter, so I didn't really feel sorry for them when they kept on making choices that basically destroyed their lives...

Anyhow, if you see it, let me know what you think of it.

*Now don't get me wrong here about Zach. I do like me some Scrubs...

**Yes, I do realize I'm probably in the minority here on Garden State. Maybe I should watch it again? I don't love Natalie Portman, so I spent half the movie just getting over that...oh well.

Update on my "resolutions"

I did a lot of reading this weekend, and it got me to thinking about the "resolutions" I set out to work on during this year. If you will recall this post, you'll remember that I tried to keep things simple. Four categories: reading more, sorting my mail, getting into shape, and taking care of myself.

So after about 10 months of trying, I figure I should see how I've been doing.

Read more
To date, I've read about 1000 times more this year than I did last year. If you knew how much I read last year, however, this would not impress you very much. But in the spirit of optimism, I will say that I am proud of myself. Here are some books I've read so far this year:

• Don't waste your life: so, I kind of gave up on this one. I've tried starting it twice and have failed both times. Third time is a charm?
• One night at the call center: I read it on the tail end of our trip to India. Quick read, but it made me a little sad.
• Life of Pi: I really liked this one. I'm not always a huge fan of stories about boats, but this one kept me going page after page.
• Ella Minnow Pea: I really liked this book, too. Very creative take on things...I love language anyways, so this was really interesting to see the various twists and turns the autor took as the story progressed.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Wow. I've had this on my "to read" list for over a year. We read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" back in third grade, but I had never read the whole series. I'm loving it. I think it deserves a re-read if it's been awhile since you've read it. I'm about 2/3 through it, and hope to finish "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" either today or tomorrow. Our pastor mentioned "The Silver Chair" in his sermon yesterday, and I'll likely start that later this week. Seriously - check it out. More info here: Wikipedia

Sorting my mail:
Note - getting married and moving do not alleviate this problem in any way. The problem has multiplied, and is only made worse by the idea of attempting to change my name. So, that being said, we're better off today than we were last week at this time. At least we have piles that actually mean something. Before, they were just random stacks. Now, it's a sign that the idea of "being organized" is actually taking root. We have seedlings of organization throughout the house. Yes, that's what they are. Not stacks. Not piles. Not scary boxes we're afraid to open. Seedlings.

Getting into shape:
I will say this - my legs were so sore this week from "leg day at the gym" that it was difficult to walk. At times, after "arm day" it is challenging to brush my teeth. However, I am in better shape today than I was in January. And I'm all the better for it. I have a tricep, people. In fact, I have two!! Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Oh, and we're eating much better now than we used to be. At least, we're making the effort to do so...

Taking care of myself:
I'd say overall, things are going well on this front. This is tightly coupled with the idea of getting into shape. But in accordance with a previous post, I measured how my compulsive nail biting is going. I would say I'm still at about a 90% success rate. Even though work was stressful as of late, my fingers did not take a beating. Yippee!

P.S. Blogger spell check isn't working for me now, so I apologize in advance for any blunders...

Hey there, remember me?

Sorry I've been a little light on the blogging lately. Work is picking up, as is usual this time of year, and I just haven't been able to spend a lot of time on the blog. So here's an update for you of recent happenings. Enjoy!

• Amar had a birthday!
• I got a raise
• ...and a promotion
• We only have 1 more membership class until we're official
• We unpacked/decorated some more
• We took our first trip to Costco as a married couple. Exciting!?
• We saw The Illusionist
• Amar chopped his hair off
• We had two dinners with two different sets of friends. Yay!
• I finally signed the lease
• I got my new drivers license
• We sorted the mail....is this really list-worthy?
• We celebrated an engagement!
• I'm still making my way through The Chronicles...I'm all the way to "Prince Caspian"
• We used our new waffle maker...sort of
• We got tickets to the A&M/Nebraska game - whoop
• We each drove to and from work several times
• I ordered a new cell phone!

So yes. Now you're all caught up. What list-worthy things have you been up to?

The big 3-0

I'm married to a thirty-year-old ;) Happy birthday, sweetie!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 1 month anniversary to us!

Yes, we've made it this far. Why not celebrate?

Sufjan: A review, of sorts

As promised, here is my review of the Sufjan Stevens concert from Friday night.

Incredible.

Before the concert, I had only heard the little iTunes snippet of a few Sufjan songs, so I didn't really know what to expect. I only knew that a few of my friends were really excited about seeing him live. That was enough for us to sign up for the show.

The opening act: My Brightest Diamond
I had a hard time with it. I really thought the lead singer had a great voice. Crisp, clear, sweet. But the lyrics and general feel of the music were not for me at all. I think someone in the group described it as "musical torture" but I won't go that far. I'm just glad I kept my dinner down (ok, maybe I will go that far...)

The big show: Sufjan Stevens
The show began with several instrumentalists filing onto stage wearing scrubs/military jackets and big butterfly wings. The back curtains parted to reveal shiny silver decorations from floor to ceiling, parting in the middle for a projector screen.

The music started, along with a psychedelic kaleidoscope-type visual on the screen, matching the tone of the instruments. It was a bright sound, if that makes sense, which was a great contrast to what we had just sat through with the opening act.

Then Sufjan entered, wearing a similar uniform, but with much bigger wings. The crowd cheered. It was shaping up to be magical.

If you're not familiar with some of his more recent music, it'll be hard for me to describe. You've got violins, trumpets, pianos, guitars, trombones, drums and a xylophone all going at once. But rather than sounding like a train wreck, it all comes together and soothes you.

He sung with a light, almost falsetto, but it was great. The lead singer of My Brightest Diamond sung backup for most of the show, and it was a great pairing. The videos changed to match the various songs, and it was a great touch.

Personally, I love instruments. I love music. I love sitting there in the audience soaking it all in. And this was a great chance to do just that. Trina reported that the band occasionally donned sunglasses, but apparently that was only for the Saturday night show. Bummer. But to echo her review, this was definitely one of the best live shows I've seen.

All in all, it was a great show. Pleasing to the ears and the eye. If you get the chance, go check it out. Odds are that you won't be disappointed.

The hot (and cold?) topic

Well, it seems like everyone is talking about the office AC:

Things you should know

I'm easily entertained, and am currently really enjoying these. Really, enjoying anything to give my cubicle some spunk. What's more fun than turning your stapler into a whale? Awesome.

After fighting a bit with my Outlook spell check, I've decided that there are just a few words that I need to add to my dictionary:

• Muwhahahahahahaha
• Yay!
• My new last name...it's apparently not recognized by Microsoft. Boy are they are missing out.
• asap
• Eh?
• Thnaks. I always seem to have a typo when typing "thanks" so I'm just inventing the word "thnaks" - spread the word.
• Yo
• Blog. Can someone please tell my why Blogger doesn't recognize "blog" as a word? Right.

And yes, all of these are used frequently in an office setting in which I'm a valuable member. Or at least that's what the tell me :)

Oh, that reminds me. My mid-year review is coming up next week. Wish me luck. I < heart > corporate America ;)

Tonight we're off to the Sufjan Stevens concert via the ACL festival. I'm not incredibly familiar with his music, but I'm excited nonetheless. Should be a good show. I'll give a review next week. Other than that, you kids have a great weekend! What are your plans?

**Updated to add:
I think I just found a solution to the previously described issue with the office AC unit: USB-heated gloves. Are these the coolest things you've ever seen or what? And yes, before you say it, I am fully aware that I am a complete DORK! What would be even cooler of them, in my opinion, is to actually put the "home row" keys on the fingers, instead of "ABCD." That, my friends, is what I offer you: Nerdery at it's finest.

First round of pictures :)

I promise that this blog will not inundate you with wedding stuff for much longer. Please, will you hang in there? Dear, sweet, lovely readers that you are?

Seriously though, we got our "official" pictures back from our photographer Stephanie on Tuesday night. It took us awhile to get through them all, but we really liked them! They should be available on-line in a few days, but in the mean time, we wanted to treat you to some other pictures that our friend Krista took.

Krista is good people. If you don't know her yet, you should. Enough said.

We got together with Krista a few months ago to do some engagement pictures. Here are some of the fabulous results.




Then, she kindly agreed to be the unofficial photographer for our rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception. Here is some of her handiwork:





The rest of Krista's pictures are viewable on our SmugMug page.

Fast-forward catching up

I've recently been a little wary of blogging. It's not that life isn't happening, it's just that after a 2 week break, it almost seems a little intimidating to have to catch up on life that I've already experienced.

I know I have pictures to post.

But I want them to be perfectly edited before I post them.

I know I have stories to write.

But I just can't bring my hands to type it all out.

So here it is, short and sweet.

Honeymoon: Aspen
Was great! Pampering like crazy in a 5 star hotel. Hanging out at the top of Mt. Aspen every day. Countless cute eateries. Countless cute houses. Countless cute dogs. Beautiful scenery. Perfect weather. Some great hikes and some great relaxing. Highly recommend it.


First week back at work: Challenging
It's great the first 10-20 times that people come by and shout "Mrs. Rama!!" I turn around and do a slight little wave and smile, and then make small talk. The inbox wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be. Motivation is hard to come by.

Mini-vacation: San Francisco

So neat. Really short trip, but really neat. Flew over the Grand Canyon - very pretty. Scenery was foggy, but beautiful. We stayed in San Jose, drove around Stanford and super-nifty Palo Alto. We trekked the bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Golden Gate park. We took a scenic drive up Hwy 1. All in all, a lovely little getaway...

Let's see...what else?

Amar and I are settling into our apartment. Unpacking, organizing, decorating...all that good stuff. We're staying in town for awhile, which we're both thankful for. We both love traveling, but it's nice to stay put as well.

We got our official wedding pictures back last night and enjoyed looking through them, remembering the big day. Once they're on-line, I'll post a link.

Now that I'm mostly caught up, I can start posting on more timely events. But don't get your hopes up :)

My story

Today, as you know, is the 5 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Folks around the internet are sharing their stories of where they were that day, so I thought I'd share mine. Find out more from rocksinmydryer.typepad.com. That's where I got the note about it all...

So here's my story:

I was a senior at Texas A&M University during that fall semester in 2001. I woke up that Tuesday in time to bike to campus for my 8AM class. It was Anthropology (or something like that), and we were watching a documentary about a tribe in the Amazon.

Once class was over, I headed to the business school for my next class, on the other side of campus. I made it over there with time to spare, so I stopped by the computer lab to check my email before class started. The lab was packed, but I managed to find an open computer next to a guy from Puerto Rico.

I logged on and tried to get to my email, but the computer was really slow. After waiting for a bit for the page to load, I gave up and then tried to get to CNNs page. That gave me errors. I glanced at the computer screen next to me, and the Puerto Rican guy pointed at the screen and just said "fire." I couldn't tell what he was pointing at, but we really weren't able to communicate with each other very well. Turns out he was trying to tell me what was happening in New York. It was just before 9AM CST.

It was about time for class, so I excused myself and left the lab. I walked over to the building in which my next class was supposed to be, and found that the hallways were jammed with people, at lease more so than usual. There were TVs on in the building, and people seemed to be crowding around them. I still had no idea what was going on, but I was starting to suspect something strange was happening.

I found my friend Kristi, and she asked if I had heard. "Heard what?" I said, really having no idea what was going on. She told me that planes had flown into the Trade Center towers, and then pointed to the TV screens. All I could see was billowing smoke from the two buildings. We all just stood there, mouths hanging open in disbelief, staring up at the screen, hoping that it wasn't true.

I think at this point, the first tower had collapsed.

I don't think any of us processed it all right then.

After watching for a few more minutes, I noticed that people were slowly going to their respective classrooms, so I did the same, hoping that the prof could shed some light on the situation. She just sat there. Out of a 500 person class, there were about 100 people there. We were all dumbfounded, not really knowing if we should stay glued to the TV, try to go about normal life, panic, pray, or what. She thanked us for coming, and then said that she couldn't go on. She dismissed us and we all went back to watching the TVs in the hallway.

The second tower collapsed shortly after that.

We watched for about an hour, shocked and horrified.

My next class started and I went down the hall. My prof was a Christian, and there were about 50 people there, out of 150. We had a time of prayer. Everyone was talking about what had happened and what they thought might happen next. I thought I was going to throw up.

I stayed around for a few more minutes and watched TV. Then, I think I went home and watched for the rest of the day. My roommates and I couldn't do anything else.

What's your story?

Updates, as promised: Part 1

As I alluded to the other day, I owe you, my much beloved audience, some updates. So much has happened over the past few weeks, and you, patient readers, deserve to know :)

So Amar and I got married about 3 weeks ago, August 19 to be exact. All in all, everything went so well. From friends helping out, providing support and extra hands, to family coming into town to attend...everything seemed to fall into place quite nicely. To be honest, I thought it would be crazier than it was. I thought it would be more stressful than it turned out to be. That's a surprise I'll take any day. To give credit where credit is due, we are surrounded by some incredibly amazing friends. You know who you are, and we are so thankful to have you in our lives.

Play-by-play
We had the rehearsal (pretty much) on time, and everyone was in attendance. Things went smoothly, and Amar and I really enjoyed it. The building anticipation was fun, but it was a little surreal. It went by quickly, as Noell got people where they needed to be and informed them of their various responsibilities.

Then we were off to the Clay Pit for the rehearsal dinner. A few more friends joined us and we ate some tasty Indian food. It was a bit overwhelming to hear the various toasts from friends and family. Amar and I had to keep wiping tears from our eyes, but all in all, it was great.

Afterwards, the girls then headed out for the lingerie shower at my house, which was fun. You really can't go wrong with ice cream and cupcakes as snacks, ya know? After some games and gifts, we all headed to bed at a reasonable hour. I didn't have much trouble sleeping, so that was nice.

The wedding day started early, as the girls headed to the bridesmaids brunch. It was great to have a fancy breakfast with everyone, but it still all felt like it wasn't entirely real. After a quick bite to eat, Karen and I headed down to do hair and makeup. Both of the ladies that worked on me did a fabulous job.*

Karen and I were a bit late coming out of the appointment and then we hit traffic on the way to chapel, so I started to stress out a bit. Once we arrived at the church, I wound up injuring myself with the car door, and Julie had to put makeup on my shoulder to cover it up. Nice :)

After a few pictures, a word with the pastor, and a time of prayer, we were ready. I could hear the piano and harp music, so I knew it was time to get on with the show. Everything turned out so wonderfully, and went by so quickly. Amar and I were expecting the ceremony to take 45 minutes, and it wound up taking 20. I guess that's a good thing? People thanked us for it afterwards :)

The families and wedding party stuck around for a few more pictures, and then Amar and I loaded ourselves into Tollie's car to head to the reception. I had a total blood sugar crash on the way out there and thought I might toss the few cookies that I'd eaten that day, but was able to avoid doing so...

We arrived at the reception, took some pictures, had a snack, and then joined our guests and had our first dance. We had been practicing our dance quite a bit before the wedding, but when we stepped on the dance floor, the DJ had a different version of the song than we were used to. No one seemed to notice, though, and we had a great time.

It was a great day, all in all, and we are so thankful for those who were able to be there and celebrate with us. Thanks so much for your love and support!

Coming up next: the honeymoon update :)

*The woman who did my hair was about 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time. I found out that she had her baby 4 days after the wedding. Crazy!

Updates are coming, I promise

Hey folks,
I know I 'owe' you a smattering of updates, and I do promise that they're coming. But it's like this, folks...there's almost too much to write. So I'm taking the procrastinating approach to it, apparently. It's a bit daunting, but I'm trying to set some goals :)

So I will write, hopefully within the next week, updates about the wedding, the honeymoon, the trip to San Francisco, the adjustment back to cubicle land, and other stuff that I feel like tossing in.

Until then, I must say that I was a bit shocked to hear the news about the Crocodile Hunter's passing. It made me sad. Am I alone in that? For some reason, when celebrities pass on, depending on who they are and what their work was, it kind of hits close to home for some reason.

Anyhow, Amar and I were watching the news last night and it showed footage of the barb that killed him. That thing must have been almost a foot long. I can't quite believe that, but it's real nonetheless. Thoughts?

What have you been up to lately?

Return of the Rama!!

I'm back. I'm alive (barely). And I have many a story to tell you. So, I'll probably start blogging for real come Monday, as the husband and I are jetsetting (any PR fans?) to San Jose this weekend.

Have a fantastic Labor Day weekend!!

What a let down

Aaahhhhrrrgghhh!!

Why is this not in English!

Actually, I was kind of looking forward to reading it, mainly because I wanted to crawl inside the head of a complete deranged person every now and then. But alas, my own head will have to suffice for now.

Close call

You know, there really isn't anything better than stepping out of the shower, hearing the garbage men coming down the road, scrambling to put clothes on and wrap a towel around your head, grab all of the random trash in the house, snatch up the recycling bin, sprint outside to the curb and then discover that they were one street over from yours.

Smooth.

Blog forecast: 10 day look-ahead

Hey folks,
Just wanted to give you a heads up that my blogging may lighten up until the end of August. Yes, I know you're all wondering how you will waste countless minutes of your internet-surfing days if I go on a hiatus.

Well, check out these other fine blogs in case you get bored, in list format, of course:

• Bread and Circuses
• Jim's blog
• Katie's blog
• Trina's blog
• Malita's blog
• Alexia's blog
• Heather W's blog
• John's blog
• Krista's blog
• Noell's blog
• Heather L's blog
• Amanda's blog
• Tiffany's blog
• Adriel's blog
• Jonathan's blog

If I didn't list your link here, don't panic (because I know you're panicking...). I probably didn't have your URL handy, or I just don't like you. Except for you, Amar. I figured you would also be a bit too busy to blog for the next few days/weeks.

*Blogs are listed in no particular order*

Happy reading!

Open letter to the fine folks over at Bear Naked

Dear Bear Naked,
I love you. I really love you. Amar introduced me to you through some weird connections via Trilogy, and I'm so glad that he did.

You make some fine, healthy products, my friend. I'm currently munching on the Peak Protein granola, and yes, I'm loving it. Does a more perfect post-workout snack exist? I think not.

Thanks for making my day. I love the food. I love the site. I love the name. I love the concept.

Keep it up.

Open letter to the office AC unit

Hi there,
It's me. You know, the skinny white girl who can never feel her feet because of how cold you keep it around here. Yeah, me. How are you? You seem to be having a great day today, as usual.

I wanted to confront you about something. You seem to be a bit of a workaholic. I know, I know. It's 105 degrees outside so you feel obligated to keep us nice and cool while we're inside. You want to create for us a bit of an oasis. A refuge from the heat.

Well, I think you accomplished that awhile back. Pace yourself. Slow it down a bit. We work in cubicles, not meat lockers. We have refrigerators on each floor to store our food. You don't have to keep it cold enough at our desks to actually keep our lunches from going bad.

Please understand me here, I think you're great. But you can seriously take a break every now and then. Honestly, it's August and I'm wearing two sweaters at my desk. Something just isn't right about that.

An open letter to my chin

I see what you are trying to pull here, and you will not get away with it.

You very well know that the wedding is less than 3 weeks away. And yet you have the audacity to behave like a collection of pores that just took a week of work and headed to Vegas.

Well, what happens on the chin does not say on the chin.

You need to get your act together and start behaving more like the cheek, or the forehead. Get with the program here!

Open letter to my computer

This week I'll be posting a series of open letters to various entities/people in my life. Let's begin with an open letter to my computer.

Computer,
We've been together for quite some time now, going on about two years. It seems that in your old age, you have gotten a little moody. Know this, computer, that behavior will not be tolerated over the next four weeks.

It's crunch time, baby. I will have none of your random blue screens of death. There will be no poor performance. There will be a zero tolerance policy for data loss and/or hard drive crashes.

And that new motherboard of yours? You better get to know it really well, because that's all you're getting. I get you a spiffy new hard drive last month, and then you have the audacity to start complaining about your motherboard? I've had it! You, my friend, will make due with what you have.

You will open spreadsheets when I ask you to, especially if they are work or wedding related. You will display web pages promptly when asked. You will dock/undock when asked. You will recognize that you have a touchpad mouse, and it will function properly at all times. You will not lock up. Period. And you will clean your room!

If you fail to comply with any of these, your health and well-being are at stake. This is war, my friend, and you're either with me or against me.

Sincerely,
The person on whom your existence is totally dependent

It is Monday

Thanks for joining us.

First, let me start off by saying that I never expected to generate such high volumes expectation around this here blog. This all started out with a random idea I had last week, and I wanted to make sure I 1) didn't forget to write about it and 2) generated at least some interest in reading the post.

So, here goes.

I'm formally declaring that this day be officially known as "De-lurking Day."

Lurking, according to me, is scanning and/or reading blogs without formally participating in the discussion via comments. I lurk on about 80 or so blogs, via the wonderful world of Bloglines. I keep up with tons of people through their blogs. People I don't know, nor have I ever met. They don't even know I exist.

And I'm guessing that many of you do the same.

Now, there may be other folks out there that consider lurking to be different from what I have described above. But for now, let's just agree that if you're reading this blog, or any other blog for that matter, and you're just consuming information without the author knowing that you are out there, you are lurking. It's not a good or bad thing. It's just lurking.

So out of the closet with you! And with me! Make your presence known!

I'm challenging myself to de-lurk on 5-10 blogs today. I'm going to make my presence known to the authors, not for my notoriety, but for their information. You should do the same. Comment on 5-10 blogs you've never commented on before. And suggest that your readers do the same. It's a movement that's sweeping this corner of the internet, so you should be a part of it.

For example, I had no idea that the good doctor read my blog until he commented last week. Voila! A new reader! Yipee! Welcome to the club, doctor!

For those of you who write blogs, don't you want to know who's out there? Encourage your audience to speak up. Threaten them with a nasty note...wait, no. I take that back. Just stick with the encouragement. That'll probably work better :)

Are you in?

Don't hate me because I'm anticlimactic

I've never been so afraid of potentially being hated than I am now.

Please, when Monday comes, promise me, dear sweet Internet, that you will not hate me.

In other news, I'm currently addicted to the following things (in list form, of course):

• Life Savers Wint-o-green mints
• Project Runway
• Checking Evite for RSVPs
• Checking mailbox for other RSVPs
• Snooze button
• Chapstick
• Plucking my eyebrows
• Picking at my fingers (PLEASE STOP ME!!! [<-Shameless cry for help])
• Puppies

Monday is the big day people

Oh yes, you heard me right. Monday will be hoppin'

:)

Big news....coming soon

Big news coming soon, folks. Stay tuned. You won't want to miss this.

Pilates 101

Yesterday, I tried my first Pilates class. Let's just say, it was interesting and I laughed. Then I doubled over in pain. Then I laughed again.

Have you ever taken Pilates? Yeah, good for you. Me? Not so much. I can barely even touch my toes, let alone roll around in a ball and focus on my "core" and "scooping in my tailbone." Needless to say, it was fun.

At one point, we were sitting on the mat, facing the folks on the other side of the room and clapping our feet together like a bunch of seals. I thought to myself, "this has got to be the most bizarre thing I have ever done" but hey, who doesn't like seals?

I strongly recommend going with a buddy. My buddy happened to be my friend/ex-roommate/personal trainer Lindsay. I basically just copied what she did when I had no idea what the instructor was talking about...which was pretty much every instruction she gave.

One thing to note: don't do Pilates right after you do a leg workout. You will hurt. A lot. And then part of your body will die later that day. That part would be the part south of your belly button.

Another thing to note: your feet cramp. Like a mother! With the flexing and the pointing and the lifting. I had to take a break and go uncramp my feet several times. I could flex my feet with no problem. It was the pointing I couldn't do. Bummer. But it happened to someone else in the class too, so I didn't feel alone.

If you're interested in Pilates, or just want to see the various ways in which I tortured myself yesterday, check out learningpilates.com

Here's the exercises that we did yesterday:

• Crisscross
• Modified hundred
• Open leg rocker
• Rolling like a ball
• Single leg kick
• Single leg stretch

And many, many more.

The cure-all

Yesterday I said that I was in a funk. A funk which required me to administer several "comfort foods" to myself during the afternoon. A computer-induced funk.

Well, last night I was in the presence of something great. Something which, without fail, will pull anyone out of any funk, no matter how bad said funk is.

Puppies.

PUPPIES!!

Yay for puppies!

A couple in our Bible study brought their 3 week old puppies to the group last night. They were literally the cutest things I'd seen in awhile. They were tiny, soft, black, and sleepy. They were just learning to walk, but basically, they sat on you for extended periods of time and slept.

Oh happy day!

Who doesn't like puppies? Seriously, they were so fun. Several of the girls shared puppy duty last night, taking turns passing them around and remarking about their cuteness. Distracting? A little, especially when they would make adorable little puppy noises. But other than that, a warm welcome to Bible study.

I ask you, my dear friends, if we can clone a sheep, why can we not come up with something that makes puppies stay like puppies for a long time? That would just be the best thing since sliced bread, in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong here - I'm no fan of small dogs. Can't stand 'em. I love big dogs, and really want one whenever Amar and I have the means with which to take care of one (i.e. house + yard). Medium-sized dogs are ok, depending on the breed. But dogs that fit in your purse? Creepy.

Unless!

Unless they were puppies!

Puppies in your purse would be fantastic!

Well, maybe not fantastic, but more fun than a little rat-dog in your purse.

So I started thinking last night...if we really could prolong the puppy stage, you'd have to have some way to take them around with you. Preferrably, not in your handbag. And then it hit me (like many of my other life-changing ideas that I'll share with you later): cuppies*!!



*This idea is patented, trademarked, and is offically creative property of the author. How sad would it be if someone actually tried to steal the idea of cuppies...

For more cuteness, check out cuteoverload.com

List! List! Get your list!

So apparently there's a "list-off" among several of my friends. I had a recent entry in list form here, and then a few other folks joined the list world as well.

Why not continue the fun?

I was a bit grumpy earlier today, so I decided to opt for some "comfort food" which got me thinking about food in general. I'm not normally a person who eats when stressed. I kind of do the opposite. In fact, during the first year in my "real" job after college, I lost 15 pounds. No bueno.

But there's the occasional craving that I have. Thus, a list of foods which I often crave:

• Ice cream, all sorts
• BLT sandwiches*
• Chocolate milk
• Orange juice
• Diet Dr. Pepper*
• Coffee
• Dark chocolate (see previous entries about Dove)
• Big Wint-o-green Lifesavers**
• Fortune cookies

*These foods happen to be on today's "Get me out of my funk" menu for lunch.
**I can go through a big bag of these in an afternoon. Easy.

I'm noticing that a majority of these are liquids. Interesting.

What's on your list?



Note: Honorable mention to Krista for her list of questions.

Two posts in one day

Call me crazy - call me bored. But yes, two posts in one day. And for this, the second installment, I'll spare you the strikeouts.

Anderson Cooper, famed CNN correspondent, keeps a blog. I subscribe to it, and occasionally, it catches my eye. Especially when he (and/or his co-authors) brings to light the same debate that I had 24 hours previously.

Amar and I were talking yesterday about the situation Middle East. I've virtually been captivated by it since it started intensifying a few days back. I'm not sure why, but if there's a website with an article about it, I'm reading. If there's a news update on tv, I'm watching.

I'm not going to go into the whole Biblical dynamic at work here. A different post for a different time. But I do have thoughts on that which I'm sure will make for a great discussion in the comments :)

What Amar and I were discussing the other day was the idea about evacuating Americans from Lebanon. Who pays for it? The evacuees? The US government? To be honest with you, I'm not sure what side I'm on. It originally struck me as quite odd that the evacuees were required to pay in the end. But Amar pointed out that they chose to go to a risky area. Tourists are very different from government employees. Employees have to be there. Tourists do not.

The blog explores this a bit as well in the article here. I have a few thoughts about the points that the author makes. He states that this debate is similar to, or even the same one, that crops up when hikers are rescued from mountains, or when boats are pulled from rough seas.

I don't know that I'd say it's the same debate. Am I uninformed? Likely. What happens when someone leaves a candle lit at their house, and then needs to be rescued after flames engulf the structure? Does that home owner get a bill from the fire department? Honestly, I have no idea if they do get a bill or not. If you know, please leave a comment.

Or what happens when people are rescued from a hostage situation? Do they have to pay in full for their safe return? Maybe?

All this to say, I really don't know who pays for getting Americans out of harms way. But honestly, why are we bickering about finances when there are far more important things to be done (in my humble opinion)?

And please, don't get me started on this Bush/Blair expletive story. How in the world is that a headline when people are literally tossing rockets at each other for weeks at a time?

P.S. For some reason, my gut feel is that the US should care for its citizens no matter where they are. But I really have no grounds for that stance. Just an opinion.

And now for something completely different

I consider myself to be a rather decent speller. Nonetheless, I still use spell check. I even have people proof read things for me occasionally. But I got to thinking what a blog post would look like if I avoided the "ABC" button that I so frequently use. What would it look like if I just let the typos speak for themselves?

So here goes - for the remainder of this post, I will not use spell check. I will not correct typos. I will try my best to let the post prove to you just how easily my mind gets ahead of my fingers :) and just what a moron I might be.

The rules:
1) I will not use spell check
2) I will not use the backspace or delete button if at all possible
3) I will only correct typos that may hinder site functionality
4) I will type at normal speed
5) I will make liberal use of the "del" tag, most likely
6) Wish me luck!

*******Line of Spelling Demarcation*********

I wanted to write about the Middle East, but I started to do ta= that and realized f that for such an a lighthearted expirement that probably was not the best topoi topic to try this out on.

So I'll talk abotu food. I'll embarass myself infront of the blog-reading world and just let it be oknown that I cannot cook NOR can I type well. I can beake, yeas. (Woah, carried away with the ea's there for a bit). But for the lif of me, I cannot cook. No matter what I try to prepare, I typically wind up with some sort of plain, bakedn chicken, and some side side dish like rice or souscous couscous.

Something magically happens in my kicthen. I could quite literally have a pot fulll of noodles and an oven full of fish, and wind up with chicken and rice. This is much to the dissapointment of my dear fiance, Amar. He is quite a patient mad man, but we wind up eating out a lot!

Lat year, I was in a Bible study going through Titus 2 with a group of girls. We got a to a certain point in the study where it stated started to discuss the "fi "gifts of mai marriage" an dI laughed out loud. I was more than a little critical of the author at this point in the study. He started listing home-making tasks: cooing cooking, cleaning, swe sewing, etc. Based on the author's assessment, I was doomed to be a spinster.

Apparently, I'm provid proving him/her wrong, in that I'm gettting married in 30 days, figted or no.

BUT

We still have a problem, my friends. My future mother-in-law arrives in the ares area Sunday, and she is a fabulous cook. Shell She'll likely take one look at my kitchen and forbit Amar from marryingme. On the other hand, the more optimistic hand, the happier hand, she may just take me under her wing and teach me how to cook some mean Indian food.

Oh yes, my friends, home cooked Indian food. If you're interested, please let em me. Whoops, I dont' eve know how to correct tat sentence. Let's try again, shall we? If you are interested in home cooked Indian food, and you redise reside r nearby, please let m eknow. We'd love to have you over so that you can partake in the feast.

So, in conclusion, not only have I given you evidence of my pook ungiftedness in the cooking department, I have also given you evidence that I am completely incabable of typing coherent thoughts without using the backspace key.

In my defense, I really think that it's not a problemn with my reading comprehension or my general understanding of the English language. The poblem is two-fols:

• I really am trying hard to not make mistakes today and therefore, I"M MAKING A LOT!
• My fingers can't keep up with my mind. Te minute I start typing a thought, I'm thinking another thought, and then I can't keep them straight and the keyboard gets in the way. Please forgive man me and please don't think I'm a total idiot n the next time we speak. That would really mean a lot to me :)

Personal Finance: rant?

So I read a few personal finance blogs here and there. It's always been a topic that has interested me for some reason. Probably because it fits in beautifully with my somewhat scary attachment to all things Excel related.

Anyhow, I was catching up on some blog postings this morning and came across a post titled something like "Cut corners today and retire early and rich" or something like that. The gist of the article was that if you choose to pack your own lunch a few days a week, and take less trips to the local coffee shop, over time, you'll save a billion dollars.

The concept is true enough. But it's the execution of it that really matters. Let's say that you do decide to brown bag it to work a few days a week. And let's say that over a week you have "saved" $20 doing so. And let's say that you cut back on the americanos and lattes for that week, "saving" $10. For the week you have spent about $30 less that you spent the previous week. So you're up $30. In a month you're up $120.

Now if you're anything like the typical consumer, at the end of the month you peek at your bank statement and think, "Wow! Extra money! Let's go see a movie, honey! Or how about a new pair of shoes?"

There a big difference between 1) saving money and 2) not spending money. If you avoid the coffees and the dining out, but you do nothing with the money you didn't spend except for keep it around and spend it later on something else, then you haven't gained much.

The key to the article isn't "cut corners and save money" it's "cut corners, save money, and put your saved money to work." Pick a mutual fund to invest in. Put it in an ING account. Just don't put it in your change jar.

I don't know why this struck me this morning...how are you? Anything you want to rant about?

My list

It's been awhile since I've posted. I think I was 1) waiting for something post-worthy to happen and 2) reeling from all of the post-worthy happenings. So here it is, in random list form. I'll write more about a few of these in more detail, but I hope this will suffice for now.

The count, over the last week:

• Total car breakdowns: 1
• Car loans applied for: 1
• Nifty friends who have helped with car situation: 10+
• Used car searches on the internet: 50+
• Fireworks observed from a moving car: 97
• Days off from work in a row: 4
• Days I slept in: 4
• Days I worked from home due to car situation: 1
• Cup cakes baked: 20
• Cup cakes consumed for breakfast: 5
• Times I hijacked a car without the owner knowing: 1
• Random people staying in our house over the past 10 days: 4
• Days until the wedding: 43
• Days until the future in-laws arrive: 16
• Boy band sing-alongs attended: 1
• Celebrity sightings: 2
• Press-related photo shoots: 1
• Tow trucks hired: 2
• Weddings attended: 1
• Invitations stuffed: 125
• Long lost friends found through MySpace: 1
• Random friends spotted about town: 3
• Random friends assisting with car loan: 1
• Pages read in children's fiction book: 75
• Good friends leaving work permanently: 3
• Burst into tears: 3
• Burst into wild laughter: 13

Caution: Patient shows mild aggression in her sleep

So last night I went to sleep a little later than normal. No biggie. I was out pretty quickly after my head hit the pillow. Typically, I do dream, but I don't always remember what the dreams are about. Last night was an exception.

Last night, I succinctly remember dreaming that I told someone off. And I don't mean in a wimpy "You're not my friend" kind of way. I really let loose. I had my finger shaking in their face, I had excellent delivery and a superb choice of vocabulary. I did not use any profanities, but I did get my point across that not only was I very disappointed in this persons behavior, I was hurt by it and by golly, they were either going to apologize for it or further face my wrath.

Said person just sat back and laughed while I resisted the urge to shake them by their shoulders.

Then I woke up. I realized that my heart was racing, and that I felt like a huge weight had just been lifted off my shoulders. I wondered if I had actually said any of my dream out loud as I was dreaming, as I have been known to talk in my sleep.

But I felt so good! Is that weird? It felt weird.

And no, I completely promise that this post is not about you. I am 100% certain that the person in my dreams does not read this blog, nor will they ever. And no, that's not why I was mad at them :)

How about you? Any weird dreams lately?

Helpful tips when shopping

Like how NOT to get the plague.

I occasionally peruse this personal finance blog for interesting financial tidbits, etc. Today's post gives users some tips for saving money at the grocery store.

10 things your supermarket won't tell you

Well, after perusing their list, one of their tips stood out to me:

"#4: Our stores might make you sick - Insects, rats, and other vermin are a problem for any place that handles a large quantity of food."

Say it with me, folk: ewwww!!

Until recently, I would not have believed that.

That is, until my friend Kim told me about her neighborhood grocery store. You see, Kim was in the dairy section of said store, grabbing some yogurt. She saw something out of the corner of her eye. And behold - a giant rat. GIANT!! It scampered around the yogurt section, then hopped right in and disappeared behind the merchandise.

She just stared at it. When recounting the story, she described the rat as "comfortable with its surroundings....like it was at home in the yogurt section." Yeah, it probably has a little two bedroom condo back there.

Sick.

When nature attacks

Ok, so I really wanted to title this post, "Snakes on a plane" in honor of the sure-to-be-classic movie that is coming out soon. But then there would have been all sorts of legal craziness, because the sheer volume that this site gets would indeed draw traffic away from the real site for the movie, and I just didn't want to mess with that.

Then I thought, what about "Snakes on a geometric plane" (because technically, that's what happened) but decided against it, namely so that Amar wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment that comes along with marrying a total nerd like me.

So, what's the big deal, you ask?

I was attacked again last night. Nature has unleashed itself on me with all of its fury. And when nature decides that you're going down, there ain't nothin' you can do to fight back.

Please pray for me. Nature, my friends, takes no prisoners.

Last night, as Amar and I were about to commence invitation printing round deux, I was almost killed by a cursed, legless creature as it slithered around on the sidewalk (the aforementioned 'geometric plane') in front of Amar's office. We were entering the building when I paused to look back at a sign. When I turned around, I looked down to see a GIANT SNAKE between my feet, writhing back and forth. Apparently, snake etiquette says that you're supposed to freeze if and when this happens to you.

Whatever.

I screamed bloody murder and started hopping around trying 1) to get the heck outta dodge, 2) trying not to get bitten by this potentially venomous creature and 3) trying not to step on it.

After a few moments of screaming and flailing, I hauled it back to the parking lot, away from the sidewalk, only to see it slither off into the bushes.

CREEPY!!

What.is.going.on?

Oh, and this morning when I left for work, a brownish-green lizard was peeking at me from the window next to our front door.

I think he was a spy.

He just looked at me with his creepy little eyes, watching my every move. I have no doubt that after he saw me get into my car, he pulled out his little walkie-talkie and messaged out to his cronies, "She's on the move" at which point a whole army of creepy, crawly lifeforms moved into position for their next onslaught.

This is going to get ugly.

The best week ever

For bugs.

I think I picked up some nasty karma from that grasshopper I killed earlier this week. The next day, we were attacked by a killer fly during our staff meeting, and then yesterday, yet another incident.

The scene: I'm sitting in a meeting room with three other people. We are all seated at a large conference room talking about work stuff.

The incident: About halfway through the meeting, I see something fall from the ceiling onto the table, landing with a noticeable "smack."

Could it be a leaf?

Maybe.

What about a piece of a ceiling tile?

Possibly.

So I turned my head ever so slightly to see what it was. It was a big, hairy brown ROACH!! In less than half a second. I had screamed, shut my laptop, shut my bag, pulled them into my lap and stood on my chair. Serious cat-like reflexes here, my friends.

No one else in the room saw it until I was standing, screaming and flailing in the general direction of the roach. I was finally coherent enough to tell the others that there was a roach in our room, and it was on the offensive. It was taking no prisoners.

Finally, one of the guys in the room tracked it down and killed it. I plugged my ears so I couldn't hear the crunch.

What is the deal? Is my life going to end up like that one part in the Indiana Jones movie (Temple of Doom?) where they're trapped in a room full of bugs and they have to reach into a bug-laden crevice to turn the knob and set them free? Folks, I'd die. I'd just keel over right there and eventually, the bugs would eat my body, because there's no way in heck I'm surviving anything like that.

Another day, another list

Well, maybe not a list, per se, more like a summary of a collection of thoughts/instances/happenings/oddities. You get the idea. And since I like bulleted lists so much, allow me to treat you to...

• Today feels like I've been in one constant meeting from 7:30 AM until now. Ick. Productive? Not so much...
• About 2/3 of our staff meeting today was consumed by the team trying to catch and kill a fly. I told them that since I had been involved in the recent death of an ill-fated grasshopper, I couldn't participate. Their loss.
• I have worn a skirt every day for 5 out of the last 6 days. People are starting to talk.
• Amar and I are trying out a new Bible study tonight. We are very excited.
• Last night I watched what was potentially the scariest thing I've ever seen. Have you heard about Connie Chung's farewell to her weekend newscast? Oy vey! Malita posted about it. Check it out here. Pay careful attention to the grunt when she slides off the piano.
• The other day I really wanted to show Amar the old SNL skits of Celebrity Jeopardy. Well, after some significant Googling, we discovered that NBC had scrounged up all the web postings of said videos. Such a shame. They publish snippits of them on NBC, but they cut off right as "Final Jeopardy" starts. Seriously some of the funniest stuff I've seen in awhile, of course, with the exception of Connie Chung. Anyone know where I can find the full skits?

Well, that's all for now. Peace out, homies.

Things you should know

-OR-

Confessions of a lanky, red-headed, soon-to-be-changing-her-last-name, I/T professional:

• Re-heated naan bread is NOT the same as fresh naan bread
  Not even close
• Everything in life can be made into a spreadsheet, in my humble opinion
• This morning I saw a grasshopper in the house and my first instinct was to throw my shoe at it. I missed. So I grabbed a magazine and dropped it onto the floor, directly on top of said hopper. I then promptly left for work, afraid to look under the magazine.
• I get married in 60 days
• I am not going to Brazil anytime soon
• Last week I spent about 2 hours with old high school friends looking at the MySpace pages of people we used to go to school with. And it was fun!
• I had my 4 year anniversary at work last week. Yay?
• Bloglines will change your life. As in - you will be able to read so many stinkin' blogs with such ease that you will have no life left in you to live
• Everyone is having babies!! And they are ridiculously cute!!
• I took a cupcake from the breakroom today, and I didn't feel guilty about it. It's now taunting me from my desk...
• I'm going to a Boy Band Sing-along next week, and I couldn't BE more excited!!!
• I woke up this morning, well-rested mind you, at 1:30 AM, sweating like a dog. What's the deal with that?
• Occasionally I make boring lists of things that are going on in my life