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Work is kicking my ass this week. Yesterday was the first time I had to take meds to cure the headache I’d caused by staring at the screen too hard.

I got home from work last night, made some stir-fry, watched recorded Simpsons episodes and started to doze on the couch. Danny and I somehow managed to peel ourselves off the couch to go to Safeway and Taco Bell. We were out of toilet paper and you can’t live for long without TP or at least a box of kleenex to get you by. After picking up the necessities, we hit Taco Bell to get Danny some dinner. He thought it was pretty funny that we made it a point to get TP and Taco Bell at the same time. Hee.

Once we got home, I got cozy on the couch while the kitties got cozy with each other on my butt. When I’m lying on my side, they like to nuzzle into my knee pit or curl up against my butt. It is strangely relaxing having a purring cat warming and buzzing your heinie as you drift off to sleep.

So you’re probably wondering what amazing and thoughtful gift I gave Danny for his 30th birthday. A new car? A lazy boy recliner? No. I took him to Kmart and bought him underwear and pajamas. Seriously, I did.

Neither one of us could think of anything that he wanted. He’s been pretty good about keeping himself entertained with new gadgets and such. He’d mentioned earlier that he needed some new boxers, so we stopped in at Kmart on our way home the other day and grabbed some.

It was funny. Earlier that day, we had gone to the Sunset yard fest. Danny mentioned that there weren’t very many “festival folks” hanging around. Not carnies, but the white-trash moms with a million screaming little kids being bad in the middle of the walkway. Instead, everyone at this thing appeared super-yuppy, right down to their mega-strollers and matching diaper bags.

As soon as we pulled into the Kmart parking lot, we started grinning. There were our festival people! They were right up front digging through the 50 cent underwear bin while their demon children ran around nearby. The kids weren’t necessarily bad. They were most likely bored and could not yet appreciate the joy of finding a nice pair of 50 cent underwear of the right size.

When we got home, I made Danny a birthday cake: yellow cake with chocolate icing, accompanied by vanilla ice cream. It wasn’t fancy, but it was yummy.

As for our hairy demon children, they showed us a new trick they do when we ignore them for too long. They’ve learned how to open the door to the linen closet. Once inside, they burrow and dig until everything on the first and second shelves ends up in a pile on the floor. And then the nuzzle into the pile and go to sleep. This is how we find them when we wake up in the morning. Great. Clean towels are all over the floor and covered in hair provided by a warm cat body. Joy.

Since Danny’s birthday was on Sunday, May 22, he and I spent the weekend doing birthday stuff for him. Well, not all of it was for him.

On Saturday, we got up and walked over to Sunset Magazine’s annual festival. The weather was perfect; a little hot in fact. The reason we went over there is because I saw an article in the newspaper about this fancy new pre-fab home that is cool-looking, eco-friendly, big, and affordable. Mind you, I’m not planning on moving us into our very own home anytime soon, but it doesn’t hurt to keep my eyes open for affordable options.

We got to the event around noon. The place was swarmed. I figured out quickly that there wasn’t enough stuff there to hold my attention for long, but it was worth it to do a full tour of the place and pick up some free stuff if possible.

First, we went to the Sunset Breezehouse, which was fully assembled, furnished and packed with people. The line to get in had to be at least a quarter mile long. Our immediate response was “screw that”, so we walked around the outside of the house and peeked in the windows. It’s a single-story structure with a ton of windows and natural light, so I feel like I got a pretty good view of the place. I commented to Danny that it looked like a model IKEA home. He asked if I thought it would fall apart like IKEA stuff. I hope not.

In general, I think the house was really really cool. It was big AND it comes with a small front porch and a large, rear deck. Granted, it isn’t as cheap as your typical pre-fab home, but it’s about the only thing out here that I could afford that already comes with a roof and a front door.

Yesterday, we went and saw “Revenge of the Sith.” How was it? It was exactly what I expected which means that I knew it would be bad, but not as bad as Episodes one and two. This pretty much explains how I feel about the movie.

When we got home from the theater, I called my brother to tell him that it was better than the other two. “Why was it better?” he asked. My response: “It had less dialogue and more action, AND there was a wookie planet.” I mean, how can you NOT be excited about seeing hundreds of Chewbacca’s bringing the smack-down on some robots?

I’ve been slammed at work today. In fact, I’ve been slammed for the last week and a half. Don’t get me wrong. I like having things at work to keep me busy, but I’m pretty brain-fried already.
I’m getting a little nervous. I have my first real GMAT class on Thursday. I don’t have to do much to prepare for that but the homework and reading is going to kick in big time from then on. Work will keep me darn busy until the end of June. I’ve never been good at making myself study, but now I’m seriously going to have to force myself to focus after a full day of brain fryinization. You get the idea. Maybe I’ll make some flashcards so Danny can drill me. Ermmm…ask me questions.

Got any good study tips besides getting out of the house?

On Saturday night, I stayed up late - real late. I stayed up until 5:30 watching three months of recorded Veronica Mars episodes. Now, everyone who knows me should recall that I can barely stay awake during the day sometimes and am usually the first one passed out on the couch around 10pm. Regardless, I started a Veronica-Mars-a-thon with Danny around 10 on Saturday night. I thought “well, I’ll watch about two episodes and then hit the sack.” It was not to be. The show is sooo freakin’ good I couldn’t stop.

Why did I have seven hours of VM recorded? Last fall, Danny and I watched the show every week. Then in January, they started playing a lot of reruns and we got DVR so we weren’t as tied to our 9pm viewing time as we had previously been. After recording about four new episodes, we just let it go and decided we’d have to sit and watch them all in order sometime. Well, that time kept getting pushed further and further back until we had a grand total of nine unwatched episodes.

But get this: How was I expected to just go to bed when Veronica finds her deadbeat mom living in a bar in Barstow, makes out with her cute deputy boyfriend AND her dead best friend’s boyfriend in the same episode, finds out that her ex-boyfriend is her brother, finds out via paternity test that he ISN’T her brother, and dons a number of costumes to get back her dead best friend’s secret sex tapes in order to convict the real murderer?

Whew, I couldn’t just go to bed and wonder those things all night. The only hard part of watching all of that at once is that we had the season finale recorded which had us finish up on a major cliffhanger.

Now I’m off to read the speculation threads on TWOP and wonder what Veronica and Logan’s babies will look like.

I’ve discussed this with some of my close friends and family, but I’ve decided to come out at last….I’m going to graduate school! I have to get accepted somewhere first though. Details, details…

I’ve always wanted to go to business school, but I kept putting it off while waiting for the right time. I reached the five-year mark with my current job and I got to thinking: is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? The answer: a resounding No.

Although I think I do a good job in my current position, I’ve been doing the same type of high-level work for the last four years. I just don’t see myself growing much as a professional or as an employee. The logical pattern would be for me to move up, but I couldn’t do much except manage others in my current job (yuck) or get a higher degree. I’ve chosen the latter.

The good thing is that I will be applying early this fall for the following fall semester (2006). This gives me enough time to take the GMAT, visit schools, talk to people, get an idea of what types of business really interest me, fill out applications, and hope and pray that I did a good enough job preparing so that I get into the school of my dreams. I’ve just started taking a GMAT prep course, so that will give me a headstart regardless.

Anyway, I hope all of this isn’t too boring for y’all to read but I’m excited about it. As always, Danny is being incredibly supportive and is encouraging me to do whatever it takes to get into the best program I can find. There may not be too many posts in the next six weeks considering that our instructor told us that we should allot 10-12 hours a week to study for the GMAT. I hate standardized tests, but there’s no way to avoid this one. All I can do is study my ass off and hope for the best.

I was feeling uninspired the other day. Then I ran across a list of lists on Lisa’s blog. Mine aren’t quite the same, but here goes:

List of things I want (in no particular order)

to eat whatever I want and not gain weight
to find working out fun
more money
7 minute abs
lasic eye surgery
a clean apartment
a clean car
a tan w/out cancer risk

States I’ve visited (*lived in)

Texas*
California*
New Mexico
Oregon
Washington
New York
Missouri
Florida
Louisiana
Nevada
Colorado
Virginia
Indiana
Illinois
Oklahoma

Countries I’ve visited:

Canada
Mexico
France
Germany
Italy
Switzerland
Japan

Things that bug me:

mildew
hair frizz
stress-induced neck cramps
transitions lenses
bitch face
cat butt displays
sinus pressure
chipped nail polish
overstuffed fridges
radio commercials
clueless drivers
giant vitamins

It’s May and I’m still wearing sweaters. It feels like late March in TX, but it’s early May in northern CA. I wouldn’t need a sweater where I live on the peninsula, but I do need one in SF. It is weird, needing a sweater year-round. I mean, I guess I’m used to it, but it really hit me last night when I was going through my clothes trying to decide what I want to send to goodwill. I came across my cute little skirts and short sleeved tops. I realized - when am I going to be able to wear these? I can wear them outside of the city, but I’d need a long coat to keep my legs warm enough while waiting on the muni platform or walking to work from the train station. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a cold-weather wuss but geez, the thought of wearing a thin skirt and strappy sandals to work gives me shivers. For example, this is what I wore to work this morning - black flats, black corduroy pants, a blue vneck sweater, a black hooded sweatshirt, a floppy hat, black knit gloves and a black knit scarf. Granted, I didn’t need the hat, scarf, or gloves once I got to my office, but damn, it’s May!

I walked into the break room at lunch last Friday and smelled barbecue. I made a comment about it and the guy eating it mentioned that it was from a place in SF called Memphis Minnie’s. I told him that I was from Texas and recognized the smell immediately. He smiled and said that it was Texas style bbq. I said cool and smiled, and then realized that he was calling bbq from a place called memphis minnie’s “texas-style.” Oh well. He’s from germany. I guess if it tastes good it doesn’t matter what “style” it is.

Today, is Cinco de Mayo. When Cinco de Mayo rolls around, I get a little warm fuzzy in my heart. Until this year, I wasn’t 100% sure what it stood for. I knew it had to do with a victory by Mexico over some country other than the US. It never really mattered to me. I just knew it was a time for celebration. As the Cake song goes

I don’t know much about Cinco de Mayo,
I’m never sure what it’s all about,
I say I love you, but you don’t believe me
You say you love me, but I have my doubts,
Oh baby, I was bound for Mexico.

A couple of weeks before Cinco, there would be ads on the radio about upcoming festivals. There would be signs up around Austin for events such as 5K walks and parades. Most of the ads, however, were for restaurants offering drink and dinner specials on Cinco. Therefore, I closely associate Cinco de Mayo with margaritas. It really is the perfect holiday. Like ringing in the new year with champagne, people in Texas ring in the summertime with good mexican beer and lots of tequila.

I do miss the drink specials, but I’m sure I can find some decent margaritas out here in California. Have a tall, frosty, frozen, sour, sweet, salty margarita for me and feliz Cinco de Mayo!