In and Out Burger Here I Come!

Well, I'm back from my short trip to Houston. It was rather uneventful, but at least it was something different to do than the norm, and I got to see some of the Houston office of our firm which was cool. Also got to put some faces to names that I had seen on e-mails and such, which always helps.

Now I just have to make it through today, and then I get another long weekend - and this time an adventure to California! I am SO EXCITED! Tonight, we are going to pack everything up and get ready to go and leave the apartment about 8 am tomorrow to drop off the dog at the pet hotel and park the car and get to the airport. It's so great to gain those extra hours back!

We don't have anything set in stone for our trip because we want to be able to do what we want. Just a general idea of things we want to see and whatnot. Like I know when we get there on Friday, we are going to grab the rental car and head to Newport Beach since it's by the airport, then head up the coast to check into our hotel, and then explore Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach areas since they are all around the hotel. Then Saturday, we are going to go to Venice Beach and Hollywood & Beverly Hills and do the "touristy" type things (Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive) - I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share! :) We are also going to meet my friend, Sean, for lunch on Saturday, and do something fun for dinner Saturday night since that is our six month wedding anniversary! :) Sunday we plan on heading up to Santa Monica & Malibu and exploring that area, and then Monday morning we have to head home! Overall, I just know we are going to have the BEST time, and I can't wait!

Austin's birthday is on April 11th so I gave him his BIG birthday present early - a portable DVD player. He loves it, and with all the upcoming trips we have, I think it is the perfect gift! :) Now I just need to get the rest of my ideas together for his birthday when we get back!!!

Other than that, not much to report....in case I don't talk to you before, I hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend and rest of the week, and I'm sure I'll have lots to post when I get back!

Just Wanted to Say Hi

I haven't written in a few days so I thought I would just blog a quick little note to say hello! I'm about to leave my apartment to head to the airport for a quick flight down to Houston for the day. We are doing training down there all day today on some of the new programs that we are using specific to our client. The main office of my law firm is in Houston, so it will be interesting to see what it's like down there too.

Needless to say, I won't be around much today because our flight doesn't get back in until 6:25 tonight, but I hope you all have a great day and I promise to write tomorrow since I'll be out of town for the long weekend (man am I ready?!). Talk to you later, alligators! :)

Monday Morning Again!

Monday mornings seem to come so quickly. Which is a good thing sometimes in that the week goes by, but a bad thing in that the weekend goes by quickly too!!! I was lucky to have Friday off making this an extra-long weekend, and I was quite thankful for the extra day. It was a very productive and fun weekend, and I luckily only have to work four days this week and then we head to California on Friday morning for another long weekend! :)

Let's see: Friday I "slept in" until about 8:30, got up, ate breakfast, watched some tv, and set to work. I tackled my big bedroom closet. It took me the entire day but I am done except for one large duffel bag that needs to be gone through and have the clothing put away that is in it. I am so proud of myself because it was truly a mess!!! I also went through all of my drawers in my two dressers and removed all the winter clothes and added all the summer clothes. It felt really good, my closet looks great, and I can actually find things easily! Makes getting ready for work much easier. I also watched Bridget Jones Diary 2, which was good. Austin came home around 4 (he had to work on Friday), we did our Advanced Core Secrets (yikes!), showered, and went to On the Border & then went to see "Guess Who?" The movie was cute and funny.

Saturday, it was raining and cold (yuck) but of course neither of us could sleep so we were up and out of bed by 7:15. We ate breakfast and headed to the grocery store. Then came home and relaxed a little bit before heading to Fort Worth. We went to see Cirque Dreams at the Bass Hall and it was wonderful. The show was great, and I LOVED Bass Hall (I had never been before). I want to go see another Broadway show there sometime this summer if possible (there are two that I want to see either in Dallas or Fort Worth - Movin' Out & The Producers). Roger & Jes also went to see Cirque Dreams, so after it was over, we met up and went to PF Changs in Sundance Square. It was a lot of fun! :) Then we came home and dyed Easter eggs. We are such little kids, but it was fun!

Sunday, we got up early again, and I had to cook some corn bake for Easter supper. Then we went over to Austin's parents' house and enjoyed a great meal and got Easter baskets. We came home, watched The Contender and Desperate Housewives (finally a new episode), and then watched "Little Black Book" which was good but kind of sad in a way. We stayed up a little later than usual and are both tired today, but the promise of another vacation in four days makes it all worth it!!!

So that brings me to this morning. I can't believe how cold it was this weekend. Parts of the area actually got snow!!!! It's supposed to warm up though for the rest of the week, so I'm looking forward to that! Wednesday, we have to go down to Houston for the day for computer training, but that will be interesting to meet the other people down there and figure things out. Plus I might even get a little overtime! :) Other than that, not much to report....hope you all had a great weekend and I'll write again when I think of something fun!

Random Thoughts

So I finally thought of a few small things that I would blog about, but don't expect anything too exciting. They are going to be sort of typed out as I think of them and are all unrelated! :)

First off, I was EXTREMELY disappointed by how they handled the whole American Idol revote. It was a big waste of my time that they acted like it was a new live show last night when in reality all they really did was replay the show again. Since I don't vote, I don't really care to watch it again, and we flipped channels about three minutes into it when we realized that was how it was going to be.

I heard about this funny little thing called Clockie. I think I need one although it would probably end up getting on my nerves. Basically these guys at MIT came up with an alarm clock that goes off like normal, and if you hit snooze the first time, it will roll itself off the bedside table or wherever you have it and use little wheels to hide itself somewhere away from the bed. I think it would probably freak my cat and dog out, but it would force me to get out of bed instead of continuously hitting snooze. I would probably want to hurt it though after I couldn't find the stupid thing! Who knows, I may end up buying one if they ever go into mass production since I have such issues waking up in the mornings.

Tonight is the premiere of "The Office" on NBC. I'm interested to see how this show is considering it's wide appeal in the UK of the British version, and I think that guy that plays the boss (he was in Bruce Almighty & Anchorman) is really funny. So I'm interested to watch that after a new episode of Apprentice tonight. I've decided I am definitely a TV and movie junkie, not that that should surprise anyone.

In the good news department, I have tomorrow off!!! So I will have three weeks in a row where I only have to work four day weeks. Next week I have off on Friday because we are leaving for California and then the following Monday I have off because we are coming back from California. Needless to say, it will be nice to have the time off tomorrow. I have rented the 2nd Bridget Jones flick from Netflix and plan to watch that with the dog & cat while switching out my winter clothes with my spring/summer clothes in my drawers/dresser as well as trying to clean my closet. I also need to have the apartment people come look at our hot water heater because it is definitely not functioning correctly. I'm looking forward to the long weekend and the vacation next weekend (I can't believe it's only a week away!).

Other than that, I can't think of too much else to report. I'm really enjoying my new job so far and looking forward to getting more involved in the work. It is sort of similar to what I used to do but in a good way so that I don't feel totally clueless as to what I'm doing yet am refreshed by the different subject matter. And the good thing is that here once this specific litigation goes away, they will have something new for us to work on. At the old job, it was asbestos 24-7 with no hope of change unless the legislation passed to end it, and in that case, half of us would have lost our jobs while they scrambled to find something else.

I might blog later today if the mood strikes but if not, enjoy your weekend! :)

A Case of Blogger's Block

Don't really have much to say but haven't posted in a few days so I thought I would at least say hi! :)

For those of you that watch American Idol, they apparently screwed up the graphics at the end of the show last night during the recap so the numbers were "possibly incorrect" and they are redoing it tonight with votes tallied and revealed on Thursday night. Interesting that they screwed that one up so bad! I personally think Mikalah was horrible last week and this week and that it is pretty clear that she should be the one to go, but I've been surprised before by who gets sent home. The American public is fickle. :)

That's all for now - hopefully I'll come up with something more exciting to blog about at a later time! Have a good Wednesday!

Weekend Update

Monday morning, week two. Got here about five or ten minutes after 8 and was told by one of the attorneys that I probably wasn't on the e-mail but that we have a conference call at 8:30. Fun! 1.5 hours later, I'm back at my desk with some down time before 1 pm when I'm going to finally get to meet with the senior paralegal and start off on this adventure! Still have one more program to train on (the billing program - yuck!), but I'm not in the system yet so I can't train until that happens.

Friday: Left work around 4:45 and got a phone call from Austin saying we got ANOTHER WARNING at our apartment complex. This time at least we weren't singled out, apparently they have a pigeon problem, and anyone around the complex that had shelves on their balcony were asked to remove them. We had shelves out there with plants on them, and we did find when we went to move them that there was plenty of pigeon droppings to warrant their request. Have to get smaller plant shelves or those ones that go over the side of the balcony I guess. :) Went out to dinner at Hooters and came home and watched Ladder 49. It was a really good movie, but VERY SAD!

Saturday: Got up, read some of my book & did laundry while Austin was mowing, and then did the 20 minute workout for Core Secrets. Let me tell you it was great, but my arms felt like jello afterwards and I'm sore still even today! We showered & got ready and headed out to the dealership to pick up Austin's truck (remember the alternator incident!). We looked at SportsTraks because we are thinking of getting one for Austin in the near future because he has like 165,000 miles on his truck and we're afraid it will depreciate in value further plus start breaking down more often. We both really like the SportsTraks because he can still have the truck bed but it's not huge & the interior is roomy like an Explorer. So maybe we'll have two new vehicles in the near future!

Saturday night, we met Austin's cousin, Josh, at TGIFriday's for dinner and then headed to the Maroon 5 concert. The Donnas were the opening band, and I have to say I was VERY IMPRESSED. You would never think rock sounds like that would come from a group of four really girly looking girls....pretty cool stuff! Then Adam Levine, the lead singer of Maroon 5, came out and said that he had had an accident backstage that day and had fractured his sternum & had a one inch laceration that had been stitched up, but that he was sorry and he was on pain pills & couldn't move much but he was going to try the best he could. It was a REALLY cool show, especially considering the pain he must have been going through...about 45 minutes into their set, he apologized again and said he would have to watch the rest of the show from the balcony. The normal drummer (the backup had been playing all night) came out (he apparently had been with him at the hospital all day and was waiting backstage to see how long Adam could last), and started playing with the band. They played that popular White Stripes song & then Highway to Hell and it was really very cool. The guitarist came out into the audience and came up the aisle we were on and jumped on the chair two rows in front of us and played guitar. It was really a cool experience despite the fact that they were just trying to do their best....but considering the show was sold out, they wanted to do the best they could.

SUNDAY: Got up Sunday morning and went to Walmart where we got some more plants (Austin has a green thumb), some picture frames for our offices, and I got a cheap rug for my new office to give it some color! Then we went over to Austin's parents' house for lunch. They had caught a bunch of fish on their vacation last week in Port Aransas so we had that - it was all so yummy! We came home and were going to go the grocery store but I wasn't feeling very well so we decided instead to cut out pictures for our new frames and relax. We had a coupon for a free pizza so we used that and I brought most of my part for lunch today since I was still stuffed. We watched the Contender (so sad!) and Las Vegas which we had tivo'd last week. Then we relaxed & went to bed!

This morning, I got woken up to deafening thunder which woke me up. Austin was already up and eating breakfast, and it scared him half to death so you can imagine how it felt for me when I was sleeping! Of course, it lasted just long enough so that I couldn't go back to sleep so I've been up since 5 this morning already! Oh well, probably have to hit the bed early tonight! :)

Hope you all had a great weekend like me and keep on blogging!

Confirming My Decision

Today's lunch definitely confirmed the decision I made to switch jobs. The people at my old firm had made this huge thing that they just HAD to get together with me this week to celebrate my new job and to have a goodbye lunch. We have had these in the past for people and usually the firm pays for it or at least everyone splits the check except the person it is for. I have been trying to conserve money at lunches because of our upcoming trip, and so today was a BIG disappointment for me.

Lunch was pretty good, everyone was nice but not very talkative. Guess we don't have too much in common now that I don't work there! Then the end of the meal came and everyone started getting out their individual credit cards. So I got mine out too because I didn't know what else to do. Well, they decided to split the check by 5 since there were five of us there, but there was also an extra meal that the secretary had ordered for my former boss (the unfriendly one). So not only did I have to pay for my meal, but I also had to pay for part of his!!!! I am SO bitter right now because I spent $10.50 on a meal that I could have done without and eaten something I brought from home. GRRRRRR!!!!

Okay, back to trying to be positive - needless to say, I am SO beyond convinced now (as if I wasn't already before) that I have made the right decision in accepting this new job. It is amazing to me how many people are looking forward to working with me here and appreciate the role I will fill on the team. Something that was REALLY lacking at the other firm....so I thought I would update you all on my misadventure at lunch. It is "Happy Friday" here so that means each Friday someone in our department brings in something for either breakfast or an afternoon snack. I will be chilling in my office again this afternoon with nothing much to do until I leave so drop me a line if you aren't busy! TGIF!

Some Updates and Some Weird Dreams

First of all, I just want to say I'm glad it's Friday!!! Even though my week has flown by fairly quickly and I haven't had to much intensive work since I've been mostly doing training, I still am looking forward to a relaxing weekend and a fresh start next week!

As you can see, I have decided to take the plunge and add Haloscan comments to my blog. I was sad to let my comments go, but I want people to be able to make more and considering how crappy Blogger comments have been over the past few weeks, I had had enough and decided to make the switch! :)

I'm also very sleepy this morning because I had very strange dreams last night. I did not have strange dreams like Kim where I killed my comments (didn't do that until this morning though so who knows what I will dream about tonight). I'm not sure what triggered them, and the weirdest part is that after the first one, I "woke up" in that nightmare and knew it was just a dream and that it hadn't happened and yet I wasn't really awake and was still dreaming and slipped right back into the same time period remembering what had happened. Okay, that probably didn't make sense, but neither did the dreams.

Started out that I was at a traffic light and there were a bunch of lanes across and we were taking a left turn (or at least I was trying to). When the light changed, I started to go and noticed the car next to me coming towards me. I had no control over my car and suddenly it was like I wasn't in my car anymore but was in the passenger seat of the guy's car that had been to my left. I knew this person in my dream but I don't recognize who it was. And we sped off as if nothing happened. Suddenly I realized that it was weird that one minute I had been in my own car, and then I was in the car next to me and made him go back. When we got back, there were cops everywhere and there stood my beautiful new car smashed and flattened to bits as well as several other cars that were part of the "accident." People were talking to me, the guy that I had been in the car with as well as some other "friends" that happened to be there and asking me if I was okay, and I just couldn't figure out how I had gotten out of that mess and gotten in the other car and yet I wasn't a ghost or anything weird like that. At the end of the dream, Austin had come to take me home and the only thing I was worried about was having to tell my parents that I had wrecked my new car (even though I wasn't part of the accident).

Then came the part where I "woke up," realized it was a dream, went downstairs and saw my car was fine and intact, and moved on....and yet in real life, I was still in my dream. Then somehow I got back into that dream world within the dream and it was the next day and we were going to Port Aransas with Austin's parents and my parents. I was trying to explain what had happened with my car, and my parents were flipping out. We stopped at this mall where my mom got her hair done and they screwed it all up and she was angry. So she started taking it out on me and calling me a "pudgy girl"and all these other random things and telling me that I had some nerve to do that to my car and to treat her that way and all this other stuff. It was very bizarre and luckily that is when I really did wake up in real life to the sound of the phone ringing (Austin always calls around 7 to make sure I get my rear-end out of bed). Overall, it was a very disturbing sequence of dreams, and I'm glad it wasn't reality!

Now, I'm sitting here in my office. I haven't heard word yet if I have to finish up my computer training on the billing program this morning or not. Otherwise, I pretty much get to figure out ways to entertain myself. I am going to lunch with my former co-workers as a goodbye type of thing even though I've already been gone for a week, but they wanted to wait I think to hear more about my new job and see how things were going. Everyone here has been so friendly. All the people on this floor (including attorneys) have come in to introduce themselves to me and to let me know where they sit and let me know that they are there if I need them. It's really kind of cool - seem like a great group of people, and I'm really thinking this is going to be a great fit for me! Well, I guess that's a long enough blog for now - if I think of anything else, I will blog again later - have a great weekend if I don't talk to you before! :)

Justice Has Prevailed!!!

Austin went into the office and talked to them when he got home, and they told him that they were currently "on property" researching the situation and that they would call and let him know but that they understood our position. As he was on the phone telling me what they said, the house phone rang, and it was the office. They apologized for everything and said that even though our balcony IS above this man's car, they realize that it was not necessarily us that was doing it, took our constant quest to fix the problem as the truth, and realized that since the guy claimed that his car was getting stuff thrown on it at all times of the day that it wasn't us since neither of us are home during the day (and they know this because they came to our apartment today and we weren't there!).

Needless to say, they are tearing up the paperwork as I type and our record is cleared. They are also going to go to the man whose car is having such "damage" and tell him that they spoke with us and that it is clearly not us and that we aren't even home during the day and see if they can tell if he is lying or not. I guess this all started because he came traipsing in there with these pictures as "proof" that he had soda & food stains on his car and was having to pay to get it washed several times a week/day. I told Austin maybe the guy was doing it himself and thought he would get away with it easily and get the apartment to reimburse him. He sure picked the wrong people to mess with! :)

I'm about to go home again since there isn't really a lot going on again yet....I know it will be busier than I want it to be soon enough! Hope you all have a wonderful evening and see you tomorrow! :)

They're Messing with the Wrong Balcony!!! ;)

So I finished up my first day of computer training yesterday and was able to leave at 4:30 (how nice!). I start again this morning at 9 am, and I'm hoping that today will be it. Of course, I also found out that in two weeks we are going to Houston to have training on the software specifically used for the cases we will be working on, but luckily everyone has to go to that so I won't be alone at least.

Anyways, I'm on the way home, and I get a call from Austin. Austin had a really bad day yesterday. Car problems, lunch problems, and then apartment problems. Turns out when he got home there was a note on our door saying it was our "first warning" for a violation of our lease. It goes on to say that it is a violation of the lease contract to throw food or beverages off the balcony onto the cars below. Well, duh! It's not like we are some heathens or having a fraternity live in our house. So apparently he went and talked to someone at the office, and they basically blew him off and acted like it wasn't a big deal, that it would just go in our apartment file, and not to worry about it.

But I wasn't willing to take that as an answer. There are only a few things in the world that really make me ANGRY, and being accused of something that I didn't do is one of them. So I get home and go straight to the office, and I ask exactly what is going on and explain that we haven't done this and why are they saying we are in violation of our lease. The manager says to me that it's possible that they may have gotten the wrong apartment, that it's hard to tell from the outside, but that someone is dropping sodas and food all over this guy's car. I tell her it's not us, we would never do that. She tells me it's happening at all times: day, night, weekends, weekdays, etc. I tell her that we both work and therefore are not home during the day. She asks me if she can have permission to enter our apartment tomorrow (which is now today), and look out from the balcony to see if we are above this "incident." And that if they determine we aren't the ones above the car, then they will remove the letter from our file and we can throw ours away. I tell her that she has permission and to please call me when she finds out what is going on.

So that's how it stands right now. She and I are still going to have to have words today if she claims that we are the ones above him. Just because our balcony is above his car doesn't mean we are the ones that are doing it, considering that food & liquid can travel especially when thrown from a 3rd or 4th floor balcony. I will ask her if they have actually seen items coming off of OUR balcony because otherwise they have no proof that it is coming from us or that we have anything to do with it, and it is unfair for us to have a "warning" in our file when we are not involved. Additionally, I will tell her that I don't appreciate being accused of something that we did not do, nor do I appreciate it having possible ramifications upon our lease considering that whoever IS doing this (since it isn't us) may continue to do it (especially if we are made to take the blame and they are unaware that people are complaining about it) and then what if they continue to blame us and try to kick us out of our lease. And if I have to, I will use what legal jargon I can come up with as well as make them aware that I am a paralegal with a prestigious Dallas law firm, and in the most extreme case, we are willing to take lie detector tests to prove our innocence.

I'm hoping none of this will have to occur and that she will call today and apologize and say it's not our balcony. But if she does, I'm ready with ammunition to fire back because I WILL NOT take blame for something that we had nothing to do with.....and it will be so on! That is my drama episode for the day....stay tuned to find out more! :)

Car Problems and Computer Training

Just wanted to write a short blog to let you know that I will be starting computer training this morning at 9 and therefore, will be out of commission for a little while. Hopefully I can check in on everyone during lunch. I'm not sure how many days I will have to do, but since I luckily pick it up quickly, I'm hoping it won't take me long at all to get the hang of it and move on.

This morning Austin called me on his way to work (5:30 am I might add) to tell me his battery light was on and that his windshield wipers weren't working and his lights were flickering. After several bad experiences of breaking down in my old car from alternator problems, I knew exactly what that meant and told him to go now out to his cousin's dealership, get a rental car, and then get into work as soon as he could. So after just getting there, he left work and headed out there. They agreed with my diagnosis, and he now has a rental truck probably until Saturday when we can get back out there to exchange (the dealership is about 45+ minutes from where we live so it's inconvenient to get to especially in workweek traffic). Needless to say, I didn't get my extra hour of sleep this morning and even though I am very strange and began falling asleep at like 8:30 last night, I am still sleepy this morning!!! I hope I can stay awake for my training - they told me though that after training, I get to go home so that will be nice to start my evening early!

Last night, Austin & I tried out the first DVD in the series of Core Secrets. It's great! Not too hard, but you definitely feel the burn. And without even knowing it, you are constantly working out your abs just to stay on the exercise ball. Needless to say, I'm very excited to keep using that video and then stepping up to the next level of videos we have. I'm hoping to be confident in my bathing suit in a few months when it's warmer! :)

Guess that's all for now - hope you all have a great day, and talk to you when I can!

My First Day

I feel really bad for not posting at all yesterday because I'm sure some of you were curious to see what I would have to say. I meant to post when I got home last night but around 4 yesterday afternoon, I began to get a horrendous headache, and it didn't subside until about 8:30 last night. Needless to say, I didn't think I could spend another minute staring at the computer or doing anything productive except lay in bed and watch TV. :)

So I decided since I really don't have all that much to do anyways yet since I'm still in "training" that I would blog this morning about yesterday and give you all an update! Right now, I'm sitting in my new office typing on my new computer with flat screen monitor. I have a real desk, not one that falls apart at the drop of a hat. I have a door that shuts and no one else that has to share it with me (and soon there will be a name plate on that door as well). I have several bookshelves which I'm sure will be full sooner than I want them to be and empty walls which I'm still trying to decide what I should do with. I might request a bulletin board since I'm used to having cube walls with which to stick things in and it's nice to keep things handy that way. I am horrible with measurements but if I had to guess I would say it is somewhere around 8' x 7' or something like that. I have a guest chair too. This is my "temporary" office until July or so when the other girl that is in my office now leaves to go to law school, and they shift the IP department to the new floor they are taking over soon. But I'm super happy with it and the fun part is that it's across from a conference room so when my door is open and the curtains are open in there, I have a view of the outside world! ;)

Let's see what else: got here around 9 yesterday and got to leave by 4:45 since there wasn't much for me to do....they said I should get to leave early almost every day this week since I'm training which is fine by me (especially yesterday when I had the worst sinus headache in the world!). I filled out a bunch of paperwork yesterday and need to look over the insurance materials and such today to finish filling that out and give back to the HR lady. Parked in the parking garage this morning and that was nice. Other than that, everyone was really nice here - they took me to lunch at Pappadeaux (sp?) yesterday which was yummy - and I'm just looking forward to next week when the senior paralegal that I will be working with primarily is back and can give me more direction! And the fun thing is that I found out I have Good Friday off which is awesome! And since we are taking off Friday April 1 & Monday April 4 for our California trip, I will get to work 3 short weeks in a row (4 days a week!). Good stuff! :)

I'm sure I will blog again later if I think of anything since I pretty much will be wasting time most of the day! Hope you all had a great Monday & continue to have a great week - our beautiful weather has disappeared and now it's cold & rainy for a few days. At least it's supposed to get better for the weekend which is a change from the past when it was nice during the week and crappy on the weekends. We are going to see Maroon 5 on Saturday night, so I'm excited about that. And Austin surprised me yesterday for my first day of my new job with tickets to see Cirque Dreams at Bass Hall on Easter weekend. So that's fun since I've never been to Bass Hall before. Okay enough blabbing, talk to you soon!

Sunday Morning Thoughts

Here it is Sunday morning already! I swear that weekends fly by too quickly! The rest of my day on Friday was surviveable at least, even though my boss kept trying to come up with random things for me to do. Guess he wanted to squeeze every last bit of work out of me that he could! Around 3:30 though, I pretty much shut down because my boss left to go work out and people kept coming in to visit with me....so it was a nice last day. Friday night, I went to dinner with Austin, Josh, Laura & Sara. We went to Gloria's - it was SO YUMMY! Then we just came home and went to sleep - I'm definitely getting old because I have a hard time staying awake late on Friday nights especially.

Yesterday was a beautiful day although a little hotter even then I expected. I tried to do some shopping because I wanted a new outfit for my first day at my new job, but there wasn't anything that I was particularly excited about. I finished up the invitations for my parents' party they are hosting and mailed them to my mom, and then yesterday afternoon Austin & I went to Northeast Mall to get some Aveda products we were out of and to look around. Austin ended up finding a bunch of really nice shirts that his mom got him as an early birthday present, so that was good. We ate dinner with his parents and brother at Logan's, and then his mom came with Austin and me to see "Robots." I love those type of movies, and I thought it was great! Really funny and just a happy type movie! :)

Now here we are to Sunday already. We've gotten up around 7:30 am yesterday and today. We just can't sleep in any more! It's kind of annoying not to be able to sleep in but I feel rested still so I guess that's all that matters. I'm about to head to the grocery store, and Austin is going to run by Best Buy to ask them a quesiton about the rebates for my laptop and to go to Academy and get some small weights for us to use with our Core Secrets DVDs that finally all came this weekend. Then we are both going to get haircuts this afternoon, and Brad & Jocelyn are coming over around 4 or so, and we are going to order pizza and watch movies and hang out.

I am SUPER EXCITED about starting my new job tomorrow. I'm sure it will feel kind of weird that I won't be going to the other building, but at least it's close by and I'm sure I'll still keep in touch with some of the people I used to work with. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get on the Internet tomorrow, but I will definitely post when I get home if not before so that you all can be updated on my first day! I might have to take a Benadryl tonight before I go to bed to make sure I get a full night sleep because I will probably not sleep otherwise since I'm so excited!

Hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoy your Sunday! Hopefully I will be updating you with GREAT news of tomorrow's adventure. :)

The Final Hours

Here I am, sitting on the edge of a new adventure. In a few short hours, I will leave this place like I have every Friday afternoon for the past 2 years and 2 months. However, this time it will be different. Because after I enjoy a restful & fun-filled weekend, I will get up Monday morning and go somewhere completely new and different. I will no longer have my same old desk that falls apart once a month, my same old computer that I have now torn off my Finding Nemo sticker and that has been the thing I have had to stare at nearly 8 hours a day for the past 2+ years, my same office that I share with two other people, my e-mail address that ends in a q, my phone number. I will leave all these things behind and get new and improved things, things that I can't even imagine yet!!! :)

Today has been a relatively good day so far. I got up a little early this morning, got ready, and stopped by the Krispy Kreme store to get two dozen donuts for my fellow co-workers in appreciation of my leaving (somehow I think it should be the other way around but whatever). Got to work, ate a donut, chatted, read e-mail, did some work, went to lunch at Campisi's (yum) with Jes, and now I'm back here sitting and writing this blog! It's kind of odd that my pictures & calendar and other things that have surrounded me for so long and helped me get through the day are now in the trunk of my car waiting to me taken in to the next place. It looks really empty and bare...which is good because it kind of makes for some closure and a readiness to move on!

I hope the rest of my day goes smoothly and easily and when I leave here in 4 hours, I want to feel at peace and ready to take the next step in my road of life! I can't wait - if I don't blog about it again today, I hope you all have a wonderful day and weekend, and enjoy this beautiful weather we are being blessed with for a few days! :)

And the process begins.....

So now that I've virtually turned everything over to the girl that will be taking my position over, I don't really have too much to do. Except for this massive chart that my boss dumped on me Monday afternoon and said could be my "final project for my last week." How thoughtful of him! ;) Needless to say I've already worked on it like 5 hours today and 2+ yesterday, divided parts of it out, and I still have quite a bit more to go. But since I won't have much to do for the next two days, I hopefully can get my portion done.

I took down all the personal stuff of mine on the walls: pictures, business cards, fun sayings, my sunflower, my fan, my calendar, etc. All of that will be coming with me to my trunk to wait to be taken into my new office next week! It looks kind of weird in here now though that it's gone. I think tomorrow I will get the cleaning supplies and wipe down the desk and phone and stuff so when the other girl moves in here on Monday, she has a clean area. :)

Other than that, not much to report. Pretty average day! Going to pick up a prescription after work and heading to Target to get a cheap watch while my Fossil one is being fixed (it broke on Sunday) and some last minute needs to finish up the invitations that I'm doing for that retirement party. They have turned out SO cute! Definitely have to work on them more tonight though because they are a bit tedious so doing a little at a time while watching TV is best, and I want to get them done in a decent time since the party is just a little over a month away so I'll need to ship them to my mom so she can send them out to the invitees. But I'm very proud of how cute they've turned out so far!

Hope you all have a great evening and hopefully I'll have something more entertaining to blog about tomorrow! :)

3.5 More Days (not that I'm counting!)

Well, here it is my last Tuesday! Starting tomorrow Sara can start having her last days too! She has another Monday & Tuesday to go though before she is done here. I'm getting really excited about starting my new job! I can't wait to tell you all about it next week!

Let's see - what's new?!

I'm annoyed by the motivational conferences they have here in Dallas for today and tomorrow. It is causing SERIOUS traffic around downtown which is already trafficy enough!!! It took me 45 minutes to get into work today (usually only takes about 20-25) so that was highly annoying, and I'm sure this afternoon will be just as bad because they get out at 4:30 and I usually leave around 5. Plus tomorrow again!!!! I think they need to motivate people to get out of my way!!! 40,000 extra people makes for quite a mess especially at rush hour times with work traffic.....must be nice to be spending the day at a conference, I have to get to work people!!!

Enough of my venting about that! What else? We got our Foreman grill back so I'm excited to get to use that again. And we got one of our Core Secrets videos & exercise balls so hopefully by this weekend we can start working out! Oh, I found out that I will be covered on insurance here through the end of the month which is good since I'm not positive when the new company insurance will kick in.....plus at of sheer laziness by our firm administrator and a little convincing by me, they have decided to go ahead and pay me a full check next week for here even though I'm not working Monday or Tuesday! Yippee for me! :) That will help a lot since we have our vacation to California coming up in the beginning of April!

Other than that, not much new to report. I actually went to sleep at 9 pm last night because I was SO TIRED from the night before and slept through the night until 5:30 this morning when Austin left for work. I of course couldn't fall back to sleep for the extra hour, but I was okay with it because I got to finish last week's episode of Amazing Race & relax in bed, and I had already slept 8.5 hours so that was plenty of rest!!!

Well, gotta go - my boss gave me this HUGE chart of old cases to go through and update yesterday afternoon and said it could be my "last project" for him....don't know that I will get it all done before I leave but oh well. Also, I started taking down my pictures and other things around my cube and cleaning out drawers so it's feeling more real! Scary but SO EXCITING! Hope you all have a great rest of the day! :)

And the Sleep Deprivation Begins.....

I had a GREAT weekend, I really did. I know this because of how fast it flew by. I also know this by how unhappy I was to have to go to sleep last night and how I just wanted to finish the last half hour or so of Amazing Race. But I tried to be a nice wife, and let my husband get some sleep (considering he has to be up at 5 am)! But apparently my body just wouldn't give in. I tossed & turned all night long (well not all night, I think I finally fell asleep in pure exhaustion at about 3 or 4 am and slept until 7:20!). Needless to say, I was having hot flashes in the middle of the night again, felt cramped by my cat & husband, and generally could not sleep. I am EXHAUSTED today and felt that icky-horrible feeling you have in the morning when you haven't slept and your heart seems to be pounding in your body and you're hungry and tired and light-headed and everything rolled into one.

Anyways, here's a weekend update:
Friday night we went to dinner at Chili's and then went to see "Be Cool" - I really enjoyed it a lot! Saturday, I cleaned up the apartment while Austin was mowing the shop yard, went to the grocery store, and watched I Heart Huckabees. It was a really strange movie, I wouldn't recommend watching it unless you really like those types of movies, and I know that I won't watch it again although I didn't HATE it. There are some really cool visual effects, but other than that, I wasn't too impressed. Saturday night, Jes & Roger came over for fondue which was a lot of fun and VERY yummy. I was surprised how quick, easy and painless it was to cook such a yummy meal. We were going to play games and such, but since we are OLD PEOPLE, we decided to look at pictures from our honeymoons and talk and then call it a night around 10 :)

Sunday, we ran a bunch of errands (I'm making invitations for a retirement party my parents are throwing in April so I had to pick up supplies), took my watch to the Galleria because it was acting up and now I will be watchless for 2-3 weeks while it is repaired (so going to go to Target this week and pick up a cheap watch to get me by!), and met Sara & her mom at La Madeleine for lunch and chatting. Then we finished up our errands, went to dinner at BW3, and watched Manchurian Candidate when we got home. We had gotten this movie in December on Netflix, didn't get a chance to watch it over the holidays, and had been putting it off ever since but it was actually really good. Then I proceeded to try to catch up on the 2 hour Amazing Race episode from last week even though I didn't bother to start it until 9:30 and finally gave up around 10:45 to let Austin get some sleep and for me to try....didn't really work but oh well.

Today has been busy so far because Sara is out until 1 pm and our other officemate is out too and for some reason our boss needs to know information on all her cases TODAY. In between training the person that is taking over my cases, going through old e-mails, organizing, and trying to stay awake! Whatever! This is my LAST MONDAY here - hurray! Hope you all had a great weekend too! :)

Open Up a Can of Worms

Okay that was really bad humor but oh well! :) Anyways, Kim has requested the story of the can opener. I have tried to refrain from posting too much bad stuff about my current place of work but since I'm almost out of here and it's all the truth, I feel like I can now share funny stories at least! ;)

So we always joke that our law firm is ghetto. In reality, it's not our law firm - it's our section. We are the red-headed stepchildren (not to be offensive to any red-headed stepchildren - my good friend is actually one!) of the firm and therefore get all the old junky stuff. Well, before Jes started working here, we used to have this REALLY bad can opener in our work kitchen. I mean like it took at least TWO people to use it because it was so ridiculous. One person would hold the can opener and twist and the other would have to hold the can and twist. It was so absurd! It exacerbated our carpal tunnel from typing and was just a big pain.....we used to laugh at how stupid and difficult it was to just eat a can of soup or some spaghetti O's.

And then Jes joined our firm. In her bottom drawer of her desk, she had a mini-mart. She had crackers, oatmeal, canned soups, and other treats. And she brought in a can opener. It was a hand can opener still, but it was a normal one that only took one person to use! Once we saw Jes with this can opener, we would have to sneakily borrow it from each time. We could not leave that can opener in our kitchen because the people from the other kitchen would try to come steal it, and we would back to the stupid can opener again.

When Jes left, she decided to pass on the can opener to me. I have it hidden in one of the cabinets above my desk. The people in our section know that is where the good can opener is hidden so that we don't have to use the bad one anymore. In fact, I think the bad one is probably even stolen to the other side already.....because I think we got it from the other side originally when we had none at all. Needless to say, it has become a very important fixture in the ability to eat lunch around here especially in the winter time or whenever you want soup or canned goods. So I decided it was necessary to pass the can opener on to someone else who can keep it hidden safe and so they can still enjoy the yummy goodness. We've asked for a real can opener, like the electric kind that costs what like 30 bucks, and to no avail. Mind you we have logo-imprinted shirts and sweaters, a stocked beer fridge, and a swanky Christmas party, but we have no normal can openers.

So there you have it, the can opener story! Hope you enjoy! :)

In a Good Place....

Right now, I'm in a good place. I have a new job to look forward to. And the best part is that it's not so miserable here right now as I thought they would make it! Everyone has been really nice and helpful, I'm getting to train the new person on my docket which I like to do, and it's kind of this wind-down of getting things organized and explained and then getting ready to head out the door.

Today, I gave the secretary my tree that had been behind my desk since before I moved to this desk.....it is so ghetto around here that whenever someone leaves, those that are left scavenge for the good stuff, put their old crappy stuff in that place, and the new person gets the bad stuff. Oh well! That's how it is around here I guess. So I feel like I've been making out a "will" of sorts of who gets what when I'm gone. Still have another week & a day, and I already have given out my tree, my big stapler, my can opener (which was passed to me by Jes when she left), and my streamers for birthday decorating purposes. It's entertaining to me because I remember doing the same thing, checking out D's & Jes' stuff before they left and even Eugene's....how sad!

Needless to say, I will miss a few good times from this place, but I am SO excited about the promise of a new adventure that I just can't wait. At least I know I'm going to survive until then.....

Other than that, not much else new to report. We were supposed to have a happy hour tonight but no one can go anyways so that's fine with me because I didn't really want to have to go. I got a new coat, and it arrived last night. Oh and the guy at the cell phone store told me to just get my old phone unlocked since I liked it so much so instead of having to pay like $130 bucks for ANOTHER new phone that functioned well like the one I had paid $99 for last summer and loved, I got on the Internet, went to www.unlock123.com and paid $4.95 and now get to use my old phone - yippee! It's so much smaller & lighter and better service and the alarm even works! Oh and I actually fell back asleep this morning for an extra hour! So it's been a great week for me and should be a fun weekend. Talk to you soon! :)

Love Potion #31

As we were watching the news tonight while waiting for the dinner to finish cooking, Austin saw a brief portion of a news story about free ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Unfortunately, we didn't get the full story, but I thought I would share it with you all in case anyone happens to look at this and gets to enjoy the pleasures I enjoyed tonight.....If you go to Yahoo.com you will see they are celebrating their 10th birthday. And towards the middle of the page, there is an area where you can click on for free ice cream. Fill out the form and TODAY ONLY SO HURRY UP, you can get one scoop free (and the one we went to did another scoop for $1). Of course, we did not know about the trick with the Yahoo coupon, but still got some yummy treats. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo_birthday/

Mine was called Love Potion #31, and it really truly is probably the BEST ice cream I've EVER had. Here is the description: raspberry ice cream swirled with white chocolate ice cream and raspberry puree ribbon throughout plus raspbery filled chocolate chunks! It was to die for! It is the PERFECT combination of all that I enjoy: chocolate, raspberries, and ice cream! I will stop writing now in case anyone can make it to enjoy the yummy goodness of free Baskin Robbins....hope you have a great night and if you don't get to go tonight, then try that ice cream some other time too! ;) I'm afraid it is only seasonal for Valentine's Day but hopefully not!

My New Alarm Clock

So you may be wondering what the heck I'm doing posting already this morning.....and that is really what this blog is all about. I don't know if it's because I am excited/nervous about my new job and all that is to occur in the next two weeks or if this is going to be a common occurrence for me.

Here's the deal: with Austin's new promotion, he now has to be at work at 6 am instead of 7 am. Now that may sound ridiculous to some, but it's really only an hour earlier, there is a LOT less traffic so he doesn't have to get up as early, and he can get in his 8 hours plus 2 hours of overtime (yay $$) and still get to leave work by 4:30. So even though it's hard to get out of bed in the morning, it's worth it in the long run. Needless to say, his alarm now goes off sometime around 5 I guess (I usually don't hear it at least), and then about 5:30 or so, he comes in, gives me a hug and a kiss, and heads out the door. Now when he used to leave for work around 6:20, he would do the same thing, and I would still manage to sleep/rest for another 30 minutes before I had to get up. And even the first few days of this 5 o'clock schedule, I was able to sleep an extra hour or more......

But this week for some reason, I have NOT been able to go back to sleep after he leaves. He walks the dog and lets her stay out and sleep in the bed with me after he leaves, and I don't know if it is her that is causing me to stay awake because it takes her a few minutes to settle down and by that time I'm awake or what the deal is. So this morning at about 6, I finally gave up, turned on the news, and grabbed my laptop to catch up on people's blogs and write one of my own. I'm hoping this a temporary thing because I have a lot on my mind and I end up keeping myself awake thinking about those things. The only good thing is that I have NO trouble falling asleep at night, but it also makes me sleepy earlier. Oh well, what can you do.....well now I've wasted enough time that I guess I better try to get ready. It's a rainy kind of day here and colder so I don't know what to wear (blah!). Hope you all have a great day and I'm sure I will try to blog later today. :)

A Sign This Morning

This morning as I was driving in to work, I was flipping around on the channels to avoid the commercials. I happened to hit the button for one of the oldies stations just as I was approaching downtown, and as I saw one building in particular, I realized the song on the radio was "Nah, nah, nah, hey, hey goodbye" - I don't know who it's by because I'm horrible about that but you'd know the one I was talking about if you heard it!!! :) I smiled because I was hoping this was a sign as to what was to come!

So about 11:30 this morning, my work phone rang from a private number. I haven't told any of you all yet because I have been trying for what seems like forever and didn't want to blog about things. I've been searching for a new job, and the phone call at 11:30 this morning was the recruiter telling me that I had been offered a position with a the firm I interviewed with. I AM SO EXCITED! Of course, right after she told me, Austin called luckily and I told him the good news, proceeded to e-mail a few close friends, and then started shaking from excitement and nerves on how the heck I was going to tell my boss and co-workers.

I have been working at my current job for over two years now. I have been looking for a new job for about the past 1.5 years! I feel like I have submitted tons and tons and tons of resumes, I felt like I was going to be stuck there forever, and I felt like I kept getting rejection after rejection. I didn't have enough specific experience, I had too much experience, so frustrating! Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much after interviewing at this law firm, but was pleasantly surprised at how well the interview went, how comfortable I felt, and just sort of an inner peace about the position. So when she called and said, it's yours, it was a HUGE relief.

So here comes the interesting part!!! Just as I had finally gathered my thoughts, written my resignation, and psyched myself up to go tell my bosses, I found out that one of them had gone to work out. Who goes to work out at 1 pm in the afternoon? My boss of course! So I went to tell the other attorney, the one that actually has a family and a nice attitude most of the time and is the "lead" attorney of our section. He actually was really nice, as I figured he would be, and offered me congratulations, said that the firm I'm going to is a really good one, and that he completely understands and not to be upset (I have a tendency of wracking myself with guilt even though I'm happy so I of course was crying!). I then went and told the senior paralegal, the two secretaries, and then the rest of my co-workers. They were all surprisingly really receptive and nice and everything I didn't expect them to be.....

And then there was still the other boss left, you know the one that I frequently complain about, the one that makes me e-mail him when I walk in the door in the morning and when I leave, that sort of thing. So I had left the resignation letter in his chair with a sticky note on it saying I had come by to talk to him about it and that when he got back, we could talk about it if he wanted. Of course, he didn't bother to read the letter so when I went in there to pick up the documents that I also needed signing and had left for him, he had done neither so I ended up having to tell him.

And then the strangest thing in the entire world happened: he cried. Yes, he cried. Not like sobbing crying or anything like that but tears to his eyes, red-eyes, crying. He told me that he was sad to see me go and that I would get good experience and different types of work but that I wouldn't have as much "fun" - to which I really really wanted to laugh instead of cry because when is asbestos law ever "fun," let alone working with the group of people that I end up dealing with on a daily basis. He also told me I'd hate it there when I told him where I was going, and when I asked him why, he said it was because he and the other attorney had both worked at big law firms previously and had purposely chosen to avoid that (which isn't entirely true but I guess he was trying hard to make a point). The funniest thing about the whole deal was after that he looked at the papers that needed signing, made one change, and when I came back to get the ones he had signed and add the changed paper, he was actually crying enough so as to have to use a tissue before turning around to talk to me. Not once did he actually try to convince me to stay, nor make a counter-offer, nor anything else so I am guessing that it wasn't the end of the world! ;)

After that the rest of the afternoon was pretty much a blur, I was super busy working on some mass mailing we had to get out today and dealing with other drama in the office. But in the end, I couldn't be happier or more excited to embark on this journey. My last day will be Friday, March 11th, and I will start my new job on Monday, March 14th. I can't wait! I will miss certain things about my current job, but I can't wait to see what this new adventure will bring.

I know there is a reason that all of this worked out, and it's time to see what that reason is. I know they'll survive without me (although I also know they will at least miss me for awhile because I do more around there than they probably realize!). Thank you all for all the support and well wishes I got and for being patient for me to write. I obviously will keep this blog up even if I have to do it evenings from home when I actually have a job where I have work to do!!! But I'm sure I'll be able to sneak in 10 minutes each day to keep you all updated and besides, we have two weeks before we even have to think about all that. Love you guys and can't wait to share all the new adventures with you!

The Stolen Quiz :)

I stole this from Kim, and she stole it from Lyvvie I think.....and so the cycle continues! :)

1. What time is it? 10:43 am
2. Name as it appears on birth certificate: Melissa Piper B#$^!#@*&^
3. Nicknames: Mel
4. Piercing: 2 in left ear, 1 in right, used to have tongue pierced a few years ago
5. Eye color: Blue green gray
6. Place of birth: Philadelphia, PA
7. Favorite food: Snow crab legs
8. Ever been to Africa? No
9. Ever been toilet papering? No
10. Love someone so much it made you cry? Yes
11. Been in a car accident? Yes
12. Croutons or bacon bits: Bacon bits
13. Favorite day of the week: Saturday
14. Favorite restaurant: Benihana's
15. Favorite flower: Sunflowerm unique colored roses, periwinkle hydrangea
16. Favorite sport to watch: NBA Basketball but only if I'm there!
17. Favorite drink: Raspberry Margarita
18. Favorite ice cream: Half Baked (chocolate chip cookie dough & brownie chunks)
19. Disney or Warner Bros.: Disney
20. Favorite fast food restaurant: In N' Out (California only boo!)
21. What color is your bedroom carpet: off-white
22. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Passed on the first try!
23. Before this one, from whom did you get your lastE-mail? ...from my boss telling me to call some random firm in Austin and ask 100 questions (because they'll LOVE that)
24. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Nordstrom's
25. What do you do most often when you are bored? Read, surf the net
26. Bed time: in bed by 9 or 10, asleep by 11 (except on Saturday night)
27. Who will respond to this quiz the quickest? Don't know (depends on who sees it here or on Kim's website!)
28. Who is the person you think is least likely to respond? My husband
29. FAVORITE TV SHOWS: Desperate Housewives, The Apprentice, Amazing Race
30. Last person you went out to dinner with: Austin & Brad & Jocelyn
31. Ford or Chevy? Ford now, Chevy before October 2004
32. What are you listening to right now? My office mate's music and typing on keyboards
33. What is your favorite color? Periwinkle
34. How many tattoos do you have? None
35. Have you ever run out of gas? Once. It was late at night, I thought I could make it, and I stalled out at the light on the other side of the street from the gas station on the corner. Had to run over to the gas station, get a lecture from the guy working there, get some gas, fill it up, and drive through the light and in to fill up the rest of the way.
36. What is your favorite Book, Movie? Book- Harry Potter series, and then pretty much anything and everything Movie: no favorites in particular that I can think, I like most any movie