H54F

It's that time again...time for my favorite day of the week AND my favorite Friday link-up!...that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call a two-fer!

1.) Last weekend my mom and I made fleece blankets. The kind where you tie the sides together in knots and it looks all cool and fringe-y.  

And by the time we were done...they looked pretty cool and fringe-y!

Don't let these bad boys fool you though, they take forever to finish. So worth it though!

...Now if only the cooler weather would come so I could actually use a blanket! 

2.) My friend Quan, whom I work with, drew me this picture

Quan is from China so she teaches me about all things China and Asian culture. Like how Hong Kong is kinda sorta its own country in that it has its own military and own currency, but really it's owned by China and its elected leader has to be approved by the Chinese government. And that Japan just recently staked claim on some islands that are located in Chinese waters and now China and Japan are all mad at each other and protesting all over the place. 

She gives me all the updates everyday at lunch.

And I found out that I was born in the year of the Rabbit. 

So she drew me this picture. 

And now it's hanging up in my cube.

And I'm a little in love with it.

Quan was born in the year of the Dragon, which at first, I was a little jealous of. Cause I'm like, dragons are way more fierce and cool and fire-breathing that rabbits are. But then I saw this picture and I'm like, bunnies are way cuter than fire-breathing dragons, so I think I'm ok with it now.

Thanks Quan.

3.) I got to have lunch with my dear friend Tanya who I used to work with at the pharmacy

Tanya was in downtown gettin' her pharmacy on at the State Board and since I work downtown, gettin' my public administration on, we set up a rendezvous for lunch. 

Actually she totally thought of me and the fact that I work downtown, and it made me feel warm and fuzzy that she wanted to spend her lunch hour with me.

So we hit up this amazeballs mexican restaurant and ate the crap out of their delicious chips and salsa. At least I did.

I feel like Tanya should spend more time downtown at the Board of Pharmacy and we could have more lunch dates like this...

It's a win-win

4.) So there's this coffee shop a few blocks down the street from ASU Downtown that my dear friend Stephanie found out sells cookies.

Really good, big, gooey cookies.

So this week before class we made our way down to One Coffee Co. and bought ourselves a cookie.

And it was heavenly.

I was totally gonna take a picture of the cookie, but once cookies get in front of my face I tend to focus on putting it in my mouth and eating it more so than taking pictures of it. Plus, Stephanie and I are way better looking than a cookie right?!

We made it to the coffee shop early enough that we had time to hang out before we had to walk back to campus, so we sat on the couch in this adorable coffee shop, in downtown, ate our cookies, talked about the X Factor, and I felt all cool and hipster and cool and stuff. 

Oh and side note, Stephanie had to leave half way through class to catch a flight back home and I was instructed to take notes for her for the remainder of the night, so here's what I sent her:

She can thank me later =)

Muahaha!

5.) Season 5 Big Bang Theory is out on DVD

Say no more.

Happy Friday!!

   

It's OK Thursday

How lame am I that my last two posts have been link-ups...on Thursdays and Fridays? 

My general rule of thumb is to try and avoid back to back link-ups so it doesn't look like I'm some lame blogger who only blogs once a week and has no creativity and can't think of anything to write about on her own.

But alas, here we are...back to back (to back) link-ups.

Drat.

But hey, it's ok...cause It's OK Thursday!!

It's OK...

To wear your broken sunglasses in the car, cause hey, (probably) (hopefully) no one will notice and they still totally serve their purpose

To be white.

Like really white.

My tanning salon I used to go to closed down and I'm too lazy to find another one, nor do I feel like spending the money on another membership somewhere. So I'm trying to make the best of it and I keep telling myself that it will make my skin look younger for longer and stuff like that.

Oh and the whole reducing my chances of skin cancer thing too. That's probably an added benefit.

To think that your 6th grade crush was hot even with a bowl cut.

A straight up bowl cut.

To post vintage pictures of your husband circa 1999 on your blog.

I'm pretty sure he'll be ok with it. 

He's a secure man. 

And we've already talked about the bowl cut.

To be that person that tuned into the X Factor cause of Britney Spears

If you like to buy household cleaning products/items...but hate to clean your house

To give your dogs a hug and a kiss goodbye when you leave for work in the morning

To take pictures of the traffic you were stuck in this morning just in case your boss didn't believe traffic made you that late

To text message your coworker who sits in the cubicle directly behind you cause the server is down and you can't email her and let her know how bored you are...and since the server is down, it's totally ok to be invited to your coworker's cubicle directly behind you to play connect the dots instead of work

Yep, I'd say it was a pretty productive afternoon 

What's OK with you this week?!

H54F

It's Friday!!

Question: is it weird that I almost didn't do this link up this week because when I tried to think of my "top five" things that happened this week...none were worth blogging about? Is it weird, then, that my life is so boring??

Also, question: is it weird that sometimes this link up confuses me a little? If we're to post on Friday, is it our top five things including things from only Monday? Wouldn't it be then, only our top five things from Monday through Thursday? Or do we include our last weekend's events? Even though technically they were last week?

Is it weird that I'm thinking about this so much?

Anyway, moving forward! My top five things from this week-ish (depending on how you look at it...)

1.) Sun Devil victory last Saturday!

Fear the Fork!

2.) Cooler weather

Do you see this?? It's under 100 degrees. And rainy. and Tuesday's high was 79.

Whoa.

Don't worry, we're back up past 100 next week...

3.) This picture

I know, I posted it yesterday.

Whatevs.

I like it.

4.) One of the talk show hosts I listen to in the mornings declared my congressional district one of the top 5 to watch Nationally. 

Is it weird that this makes me feel special? Yep, my congressional district race is pretty important...how 'bout yours? Is it weird that it makes me feel special because we're the newly created district after the redistricting in AZ this year? Yep, brand new district; we appeared as if from nowhere (either that or the redistricting committee) and everyone wants to represent us...there was like, a million people that ran in the primary.

And it makes me feel special.

Cause I care about politics more than I should.

Is it weird that Sinema was my teacher in my undergrad and I'm probably not gonna vote for her?

via http://www.azcentral.com

 I hate to get all political on you, but ahem... Vernon Parker for Congress 2012!

5.) Casey James

I realize I'm a little late to this party but this gem came on my Pandora this week and I've been listening to him ever since! 

Especially this song.

Cause I like his voice.

And his hair.

Which is weird cause I don't really like the long-hair-on-a-dude kind of a look, but it totally works for Casey 

Have a fabulous weekend!

It's OK Thursday

If it's Thursday, you know what that means...

It's OK...

to start counting down until the weekend at approximately 12:00pm on Wednesdays...cause it's all downhill to Friday from there!

to consider skipping class next Tuesday night to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance...I said consider ok? I haven't made any decisions yet...

If Cyrus is less-than-stellar at most other genres, cause he's way beyond BA at his own style, and he always tries so hard, has improved so much, and has such a good attitude and I want him to win it all!

To eat cereal for dinner

To take pictures in class instead of taking notes cause you don't feel like writing it all down

To get a little (or a lot) peeved every time a class takes a quantitative turn and starts throwing 

numbers at me. 

...I'm not getting a master's degree in math for a reason here folks

To stay up late and blog and justify it by telling yourself you'll have an extra (or two) cup of coffee in the morning...and then another one in the afternoon when those wear off...and so on and so forth

If time management is and always will be a challenge for you

To believe that maybe, just maybe your dogs have some sort of super power and can shoot lasers straight from their eye balls

What's OK with you this Thursday?!

Nine Eleven

I've been thinking all day about posting something about 9/11.

Something that sounds sincere.

Something that doesn't sound cheap. 

This has proven to be difficult for me.

Yes, we all remember where we were, what we were doing (I, quite frankly, was in the tub...shaving my legs), but do I remember how I felt?

9/11 should be a day of remembrance; but do I really remember my emotions of that day? 

Did I even have deep, rooted emotions? 

The kind that make your skin hot. 

Your hands sweaty. 

Your stomach turn.

As a freshman in high school, 9/11 was the first I'd ever heard of the Twin Towers; of terrorism. Or that the Pentagon was the epicenter of our Nations' defense. 

How is a freshman in high school to understand something like the events of 9/11, the profound amount of loss, or complexities of the politics?

I didn't.

I still don't.

I felt sad, I felt fearful, and I felt angry. But I never had to wipe my sweaty hands on my pants or fight the nausea in my stomach. I didn't grieve lost family members, or friends, or hang up any Missing Person signs.

Though as I get older, and I learn more about our current affairs, and begin to shape my own world view, I have different feelings about 9/11. Feelings that weren't there before as a Freshman in high school. I feel deep, rooted empathy for families and friends that grieve lost loved ones; I feel outraged for a direct attack on American soil; and I feel a love for my country start to boil up in me that makes my skin hot, and my hands sweaty, and my stomach turn. 

I remember that day, 9/11, and the days after and I think about how totally awesome our Nation is; the coming together to help out our neighbors, the sense of unity, the true grit and resiliency of the American people, and I feel so proud. I feel so proud to be a citizen of the greatest Nation there ever was. I feel so proud of the strength, and the might, and the bravery of the people willing to defend our Country and defend freedom. 

Operation Iraqi Freedom 07-08

When I remember 9/11 I remember not only the terrible sadness and a palpable sense of grief and loss, for loved ones and for Country, but I try and remember all things great about this Nation and how truly united we can be; and my hands begin to sweat, my skin becomes hot, and my stomach starts to turn.

...

"Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It's a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning; it's also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend - even a friend whose name it never knew." 

- President George W. Bush

"Let's Roll."

              

It's OK Thursday

It's OK...

To be totally inconsistent on your weekly blog link ups

To be so inconsistent that you forgot how to put the button on your page and tried to attach it as a link instead.
Whoops.

To be totally behind on your blogging in general

To be excited for fall even though it’s still gonna be 100+ degrees for another 2 months

To not like talking on the phone because of those awkward moments when you start talking and so does the other person, and then you’re like “no you go ahead” and then they say it at the same time too, and your conversation just sits there, idle, with nowhere to go

To wear white after Labor Day

To avoid Pinterest because it just reminds you of everything you don’t have, what your house will never look like, and all the recipes you’ll never have the time to make

To be sixty years old...

happy birthday daddy-O!

To brag about how you beat your mom at Words with Friends
By the way, I beat my mom at Words with Friends.
By a lot.

To brag about your new cubicle decor.
Cause really, it doesn't get much better...

To have your own idea of what parallel parking is...and hope no one sees you doing it

To curse all the ASU students downtown Tuesday and Thursday nights taking up all my diagonal parking spots!

What's OK with you this week?!

It's That Time of Year

As I'm sitting down to write this post right now, I'm totally having a dejavu. 

This is the place where I started my day today, at 5am, here at my desk and computer. Nate is sleeping and the house is dark and the same lamp is lighting my workstation.

Weird.

I had to wake up early today to write a policy memo for school that was due by 9am...I can assure you, however, that it was not because of procrastination problems.

Totally.

But writing a blog post is way more fun that writing a policy memo so I think I'm ok with this weird dejavu, feeling-like-I've-been-sitting-here-all-day thing.

Shake it off.

Anyway, I'd like to show you a sign that is on display in my house:

along with this one:

but this one doesn't really have to do with what I'm talking about, I just thought it was funny and wanted to show you. 

And let you know that I'm the nice one. 

So process of elimination will tell you who the grouch is.

I kid, I kid.

He's only a grouch, like, 70% of the time...

So hunting season is here in full force. Husband has been prepping for a while now and has been gone up north most every weekend since August. So since there came a weekend where I was homework free, I decided I would tag along with him and hang out where it's not 113 degrees.

In fact, we kinda lucked out, in that it totally monsooned on us!

And it's no secret that I looove monsoons!

I'm pretty sure the temperature gauge won't read 64 degrees in the Valley until like, November. At night time. When the sun is down.

But hopefully I'm wrong.

After the storm cleared we made our rounds to both Nate and his buddies' hunting spots so they could lay down feed, check their game cameras, and set up their ground blinds, tree stands, and whatever else they crawl into to hunt animals from. 

In fact, we visited Nate's tree stand so he could set up an umbrella in it and I really wanted to climb up and check it out.

BUT I was told I couldn't come up because I had "smelly" stuff on - and by "smelly" he means, deodorant, hair spray, clothes that weren't washed in a scent-free soap. And consequently, if I climb in his tree stand smelling nice and deodorized, animals will smell the human-ness and not come near his stand, thus reducing the chances of him shooting an animal.

Well then.

I spend all this time trying to smell nice and pretty and - heaven forbid - deodorized, only to be forbidden, rejected from my own husbands' tree house stand?!

Whatevs.

At least I didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting.

Besides that, I've been feeling a little jealous lately, that Nate's been spending so much time staring at and/or admiring tons of pictures of animals that come into his hunting spots. 

His phone screen saver is a picture of a deer.

I'm pretty sure your phone screen saver is supposed to be a picture of your wife.

So, at the next hunting spot I decided I wouldn't let the animals have all the glory and made my way over to his camera to give him this beauty:

Bazinga.

Those deer are gonna be so jealous.