Question

Should I tip my MAC girl? If so, how much?

My $1200 Date

Next Saturday, Dave and I are going to a charity gala in San Francisco that will benefit the City of Hope. I'm pretty excited since I LOVE Dave's black tie events, the people we get to see, the food (at the last event there was all you can eat sushi!), getting dressed up and the causes we're able to support. Unfortunately, attending this event means that I'm going to miss an old friend from college's wedding and seeing my good friend Tammy ;-( But attending this event is good for Dave's career since he's in line to become a VP at his Fortune 50 company and that is a HUGE step for our future.

Dave and I were talking last night and he reminded me that after this event we have another black tie event to support his work's foundation in late September then we have a wine tasting night that supports Easter Seals in early October. Holy Cow. I need to do some massive shopping to find some cute dresses! I think I'll be making a trip into the city this weekend to try and find some cute dresses like this (even though that example is not formal enough). I have about 10,000 little black cocktail dresses/evening gowns in my closet so I'm going to try my hardest to find something with color and something that isn't my steorotypical strapless a-line.

Deep Throat

Since Saturday, I've had the raspiest voice to ever come from a woman. It's not even sexy. I sound like a 60 year old smoker with a few squeaks thrown in for good measure. Dave called me squawk box.

I thought my raspy voice was coming from a respiratory infection since I've had a phlegmy throat and low energy. The low energy wasn't helped by the fact that I haven't been able to sleep at night. This sounds disgusting, but I thought that all the phlegm from my throat was draining into my stomach and giving me an upset tummy and nausea all day long. For the past few nights, I've been tossing and turning in bed till 3am because my stomach is so upset that I can't sleep or if I do fall asleep I'm awakened by nausea a short time later. It sucked. I can live with the phlegmy throat and raspy voice. I can't live with feeling like I'm going to be sick 21 out of the 24 hours of the day.

Yesterday, I decided that I wasn't getting any better so I made a doctor's appointment. Surprise, Surprise! I was so completely wrong in my little diagnosis. The doctor informed me that most likely I have acid reflux which is causing my nausea. Stomach acid is traveling up my esophagus and affecting my vocal cords thus the raspy voice. As a result of the acid, my esophagus is producing phlegm to protect itself. The acid reflux is probably being caused by stress which I don't doubt since last week I was a hormonal stress ball (need I remind you). It all makes so much sense now.

So Mad I Wanna Kick Him

Dave: (checking his accounts online) Cool! I have $xxxx already saved in that credit union account I opened a few months ago.

Me: Cool! $xxxx is alot of money. (As I've said before, the bastard has done a good job of saving money in several different bank accounts.)

Dave: What's even cooler is that I have nothing to spend $xxxx on.

Me: Nothing?

Dave: Nothing planned. (Can he please wipe that big innocent smile off his face! Looking at his face I can just tell that he's being honest. He really doesn't have any plans to spend his money on anything really romantic and wonderful. Like an engagement ring. A really BIG engagement ring!!!)

Me: Cool. Nothing. That's wonderful. (SUPER wonderful. BASTARD!)

Pictures!!!

I'm loving my new computer. So pretty. So lightweight. So mine!

Here is Dave and my new apartment complex. I love how the apartments are right on the lakes. I especially love our little backyard patio.

Not long after moving in, Dave and I had a housewarming party. We got lots of towels and other cool gifts. We were excited ;-p Check out ow cute Dave's nephews are: Matthew and Ryan.

In June, Dave and I went to our local county fair to see the livestock and search for deep fried twinkies. I heart that boy ;-)

In July, Dave and I went to Washington DC. We saw all the sights, did some neat stuff, and watched fireworks. I really REALLY love that boy ;-)

In July, A few sorority sisters and I also went wine tasting. I can't believe how romantic and beautiful some of the wineries are.

Goodbye Pretty Car

I posted ads to sell my car today ;-( I'm gonna miss that car ;-( ;-( ;-(

Deep & Scary Stuff

Somedays I just want to be a hermit. Run away to a mountain cabin where I'd feed and cloth myself. No need for money. No need for interaction with society. No people to annoy me. No need to find someone to love me for the rest of my life. No traffic to deal with. Being by myself all day long would make me happy.

Somedays I just want to drive around in my convertible camaro with my Tiffany's necklace, Seven jeans, D&B handbag, perfectly manicured hands, pedicured toes and expensive highlights. On those days I'm proud of my corporate boyfriend, apartment near the city, materialistic clothing and impractical car. Shopping in San Francisco at the 5 story Macy's that is dedicated to women's clothing is what makes me happiest.

And somedays I start to think about how my heart could be broken at any time by Dave. How my Dad could die tomorrow from a heart attack. How I'll never have enough money to buy everything I want. How I'll never be as thin as I want to be. How I want to have babies one day but have no idea how I'll manage a career and parenting without losing myself completely. How hard it is to maintain a happy marriage. How hard it is to go to work each day with people you don't really like. On those days I wonder why we do this thing called living when it's so difficult. Why do we live each day knowing that tomorrow wont be easy and tomorrow's tomorrow WILL bring sorrow eventually. Wouldn't it be easier to just give up and end it all? End the crying? End the bickering? End the tears? End the days of feeling fat? I'm confident that I could never kill myself but I seriously wonder why we endure so much hurt for the few moments of sunshine ...

Good Times They Are The Gold

Sorry I've been busy lately and I've got a terrible case of blogger's block. I'm not the best writer to begin with but lately my writing is neither coherent or interesting. And I have a lot to say too! Please bare with me and this jumbled up blog post that is probably going to suck.


Anniversary Weekend - Have you ever seen a prettier anniversary present??? Last weekend Dave gave me my first piece of Tiffany's jewelry. It was definitely an unexpected surprise. Can my boyfriend be any better??? The rest of the weekend went well. We stayed at a hotel in The City near Union Square. Very pretty room. Very pretty view. I love San Francisco. I love my boyfriend.

DMB at SBC Park - On Saturday night, Dave and I went to night 2 of the DMB concert. Good concert. Our seats were mediocre which made the concert not as enjoyable as it could have been. I gave my night 1 tickets to our friends Ryan and Tamar who were upgraded at the concert by Warehouse to 9th row! Ryan and Tamar don't even like DMB that much! Whatever. We did get a very cool and romantic set list which was nice. Crash, Dream Girl, The Stone, #41, Two Step, Lover Lay Down, Steady as We Go, Warehouse, Dancing Nancies AND Tripping Billies. Dave isn't into DMB but he's such a good sport and came to the concert with me because he knows how much I love the band.

New Computer - I got a new lap top with a very pretty big screen! WOO HOOO!!!! My old desk top died about a month ago so I haven't been able to sync my PDA, upload pictures, or blog from home which sucked. Dave was more then willing to let me use his lap top since he has 2 (work and personal) but I need my privacy so I'm very happy to have my own computer again. And it’s so pretty!!!

Good In Bed

I'm a book whore. Seriously. I admit it. I LOVE books. On average I read a book a week and sometimes I even read 2 books a week. So as you can imagine I come across a lot of different types of books (Thank God for the Library!). Some books are bad and some books are decent. And then there are a few books that I come across that are stellar, excellent, wonderful, thought provoking, etc. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner is one of those books. It's the story of a chubby girl and her ex-boyfriend that she still loves. Stuff happens and things occur but I can't tell you about that because then I'd ruin the book for you and it's such a good book that I want you to read it and love it as much as I did. Ahhh!! I want to read it again!!!! I think it might even belong on my top 5 books of all time list. It's that good!

My Favorite 5 Books:
1. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
2. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
3. The Wedding - Nicholas Sparks
4. Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickins
5. Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner

Where the Deer and the Buffalo Play

I'm in Wichita, Kansas this week for a work conference. I'm scheduled to give an hour 15 minute presentation tomorrow to the entire group (about 100 people). Holy cow is all I can say about that.

I leave here on Friday, fly into Oakland, then take BART directly to San Francisco where I'll be meeting Dave at a hotel. We plan on celebrating our anniversary with a nice dinner on Friday then DMB on Saturday. Dave was joking around and made it clear that I wont be getting a ring as my anniversary present. ;-( Of course his comment hurt my feelings but it lead to a nice discussion on us and marriage. Surprisingly, the discussion was mostly lead by me OPENLY, honestly and effortlessly telling Dave how I felt on the whole subject (such a huge step for me since I suck at the whole communication thing). Dave and I agreed that we want to get married because the time is right for us and NOT because all of our friends are doing it. We both want to talk about marriage and wedding plans extensively before becoming engaged which we'll be a bit difficult for Dave since he is able to show how he feels easily but forgets that he needs to say how he feels too. We both agreed that we're at a good time in our lives to get married (financial stability, established careers, educated, mature, etc). And we both agreed that we want to keep each other and that we both hope marriage is in our future together. Ahhhh! I love that boy!

Batter Up!

Last night, Dave and I played in our 1st co-ed softball game of the season. Last night, Dave and I also saw his ex-gf 'Imelda the Horrible' again since she plays on another team in our same division. Wooo ;-/ I'm sure we'll be seeing much more of Imelda as the season progresses and we'll even be playing 2 games against Imelda's team sometime in the future. I must admit that last night Imelda became louder and more annoying as soon as she knew that Dave and I were around but at least she wasn't as bitchy or drunk as last time I saw here. She ignored us and we ignored her. I can live with that.

Refresher: (I really needed to load my archives back into blogger!). Imelda the Horrible is Dave's ex-gf whom he dated for 6 months from Oct 03 to May 04. Last softball season (around October 04) we played a game against Imelda's team. Imelda came to the game PLASTERED drunk! It was my 1st time meeting her. During the game Imelda talked sh*t to me everytime I came to bat (she was catcher) and then as soon as the game was over she immediately ran over to our side of the dugout, tried to be friendly with all of our teammates while hanging all over Dave and talking about things they did when they were together. Dave was a perfect boy, he was nice to Imelda but didn't play into any of her games. I was really proud of how he reacted but not pleased at all with Imelda (to say the least).

On to other news: Last night, Dave and I found out that one of our teammates (and good friend) just got engaged to his girlfriend. Wooo for them. They're a super cute couple so I'm completely happy for them. Unfortunately, I think that makes Dave and me the last unmarried couple in our group ;-( *SIGH* I've come to semi-accept that Dave and I wont be engaged for a very long time to come. I'm thinking that it'll probably be around the 2 year mark or maybe even later. Dave's just not in a hurry like I am (but at least he seems to be ready). Plus, Dave's so preoccupied and stressed with his job that he even admits that he doesn't think of much else but work even when he's trying to relax at home. Last night, Dave came home around 6pm, we ate dinner at his parent's house, went to our softball game at 8pm, then as soon as we came home Dave went back to work til 1:30am. AND He woke up at 5:15am this morning so that he could get back to work and finish up some things before everyone else came in. ;-( *SIGH*

Sorority Girls Gone Wild

I took Monday and Tuesday off for 2 reasons. The first reason was that I wanted to organize our 2nd bedroom closet which had become a trash bin for everything in the house that we didn't know what to do with. I've been meaning to tackle this project ever since we moved. Finally I decided that I was too lazy/busy to accomplish the organizing in one weekend and that I needed to take a few days off of work. So I went to Ikea, bought really cute (and cheap) storage bins and secluded myself in the room along with file folders. Final Outcome: the room is much more organized then it was a few days ago but I'm not completely satisfied ... yet. We still need to replace the current desk with a newer/cuter/more compact desk as well as buy a new matching bookcase.

The second reason I stayed home for 2 days was to re-coop from my crazy wine tasting trip that I took with 10 other sorority sisters. I definetely need more days to re-coop and rest. Those girls wore me out! Highlights of the trip were bringing home a winemaker after meeting him in his tasting room (he stayed til the next morning), making friends with a cop who showed up at the house later in his cop car to see how our night was going, and dancing on the table of a tasting room. If you've never gone wine tasting then let me tell you that USUALLY wine tasting is a very romantic and refined event filled with gorgeous views, snobby wine people, limos, and lots of expensive handbags being carried by the fellow tasters who are ungodly rich. Somehow we turned our classy girl's weekend bonding trip into a drunk and crazy laugh fest. Let me tell you, I wouldn't have had it any other way!

PS ... Best Wine of the Weekend: FroZin by Meeker. It's a truly yummy desert wine that is very unique. One of my favorite wines ever. Please do yourself a favor, buy some online, mix it with vodka to make a FroZini, invite some girls over, and drink your FroZini's while eating a chocolate cake. You'll love it!!! Mmmm!

PPS ... After this weekend, I've decided that if I ever get married, I really want my bachlorette party to consist of a girl's weekend in Napa/Sonoma. Limos, wine tasting and mud baths are my definition of a perfect girl's weekend.