2007 bests

Best day: It's hard to say what the best day was. Out of so many good days, including this last Christmas day (ate Denny's with family, ate leftover ham, then went to see live jazz with Matt, my brother, and my dad), I have to say it was my birthday back in March. Matt took me to San Antonio to see my brother and dad. We saw lots of nice people that weekend, including some friends we don't see nearly enough. That Friday night when we got there, Matt and I got stupid drunk at Jack's Patio with said friends. The Burden Brothers were playing and we didn't care so we hung out outside, smoked cigarettes and chatted excitedly while drinking Dos Equis until closing time. The next day I woke up with a headache and went to lunch with Aimee, Amber and Robin at a wanna-be Mexican restaurant where I felt left out of the married women's club, hardly touched my enchiladas and excused myself twice because I had the beer shits. Then we went shopping at La Cantera, where I bought some cute tops at Forever 21 and had to excuse myself a couple more times because beer sucks like that. That night my brother played at Jack's and it was round two of partying. I remember it was a weird night because a lot of the band's Brownsville groupies were there and it was like hanging out in Brownsville, but in a totally different bizarro "woo-hoo! we're out of town!" setting. I ran around, giggled a lot and took pictures in a bathroom stall with my brother's girlfriend at the time with a flask of tequila.

The next day was my real birthday and it totally didn't feel like it because it was travel day back to Dallas and I was so hungover. Matt and I stopped in a town called West and picked up some kolaches at a Czech bakery that almost made me sick. Good times. It's kind of a sad year if my best day/weekend is one in which I'm hungover and/or going to the bathroom, but the truth is that that weekend came at a time when I really needed a weekend like that and there's no substitute for a good weekend away.

Best party: That would be my friend's friend's boat party in April. I took my first beer bong, got a lot of "okay, tell me if I'm right -- you're...half German...half...Japanese?", and got in a cake fight. It was a good three and a half hours.

<----- Not me, but a good representation of the cake fight.

Best trip: That's a tough one because I went to Mexico this year, but I have to say it was the Brownsville trip in early November. It was a short weekend trip, we didn't see anyone except the people we were there to see, and went to a party hosted by none other than my grandpa.

<------- Not grandpa.

Best hug: When Matt came home from New York and he grabbed me and said, "I missed your smell." It surprised me. In a nice way.

Best elevator ride: The last time I walked out of my old office back in August.

Second best elevator ride: The next morning on my first day of my new job.

Best movie: It's a tie between "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" and "Once."

Best Christmas present: My new Ipod. Yes. I am now an Ipod person. I never thought it would come to this.

That's it. K bye.

Always a bridesmaid, never in debt

I was at happy hour with some co-workers last night and we started talking about engagements and weddings. I typically hate this kind of conversation because it's pretty much the same conversation every time: "You've been with your boyfriend how long? Wow. When are you getting married?" Ugh. When we feel like it and/or when thirty grand magically drops into our laps, okay?

A snippet of my conversation with two idiots last night:

Idiot No. 1: "Wow, you've been with your boyfriend forEVER! When are you getting married?"
Not Idiot No. 1: "I don't know. Whenever we save enough money, I guess."
Idiot No. 2: "Wait. Do you share a checking account with your boyfriend?"
NI#1: "No."
I#1: "Well, I guess a ring CAN be expensive."
NI#1: "Not just the ring -- a wedding itself is expensive!"

Their blank faces and raised eyebrow glances at each other could only mean that they didn't think about the fact that I would pay for my own wedding. I'm astonished that many people I meet don't understand that some of us intend to pay for our own weddings. While I've had much help from my family throughout the years (college, the depressy-not-working aftermath), I wouldn't dream of asking anyone to shell out a bunch of money for my big party. I don't know how I'll do it when the time comes for us to get married, what with my expensive beer habit, but I'm not going to let a little debt scare me into asking the parentals to buy us a big party.

Oh, the miserable freedom of paying for your own shit.

Over November

- I finished my portfolio, but haven't shown it yet. Long, boring story. To sum it up, I've been busy at work, and when I wasn't busy at work, I was paralyzed by boredom. But it's finished. And sitting in my car.
- Matt's New York trip was mostly a giant, expensive disaster, but he came back with some good stories. Celebrity sightings included Steve Carrell, Gilbert Godfrey, and (somebody restrain me) Parker Posey. They made bets with mafioso-types at the bar, lost their car for a day and a half, and played with musicians in Washington Square Park.
- I've over my bangs.
- I went to the hometown twice in November and partied with Grandpa and the crazy characters, which included the infamous Mexican lounge singer, some rich airheads from San Francisco, and my mom, who was drunk-larious and charmed everyone around her. I also ate yummy Thanksgiving, but that's not special as everyone does that and they don't blog about it, do they. DO THEY????

I'm over November. Someone get me a foozball table for Christmas.