Ring-a-ding-ding

{image via Dilbert.com}

I feel like this comic is the story of my work-life lately - spinning my wheels 8 hours a day and getting absolutely nowhere.

How is it that I can be nearly *gulp!* 30 years old and still not know what I want to be when I grow up? Three years ago I thought I had this all figured out.

Now? I'm waiting on a call for what could be my fifth job in 2 years. This was so not my plan.

Shows you what I know.

State of Mind

Loving: having a weekend at home

Hating: waiting

Craving: a trip home

Wanting: a pair of patent gray booties

Reading: The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

Watching: the new Fall Lineup

Listening to: Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Caillat, Lucky

Looking forward to: full-on boot weather (where the heck is it?!)

Worried about: nothing. And loving every minute of it.

Coffee Lovers of the World, UNITE!

It's National Coffee Day.

I'm not sure who decides that kind of thing, but I definitely love them. And if someone could make it a national holiday, I'd love that person even more. Then I could sit in Starbucks all day long and do nothing but drink coffee and read a good book.

As it is, National Coffee Day is not yet a national holiday, so I made due by working from home and sipping coffee in my pajamas all day while I goofed off on the computer worked. Guess that will have to be good enough this year.

And I'm totally going to Starbucks for the second time today before Nate's soccer game. Gotta support National Coffee Day and all. They don't just give away national days, you know.

Dear God, Please let this be true.....

{image found here}

LOSTies rejoice!

It was reported last week that NBC is developing a new show by J.J. Abrams, creator of the epic series that we all knew and loved and lost (hee, hee, see how I did that? see?). And as if that was awesome enough, J.J. is creating the show for Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson!

Holy excitement, Batman! I might have just wet my pants a little.

The rivalry and love between Locke and Linus was one of the best parts about LOST. By the end of the series, it was clear that Terry and Michael had a bit of a bromance going on. When they dreamt aloud at several interviews of a vehicle all their own, I never dared to hope it would happen.

And now it's happening! On NBC! With J.J. Abrams!

I can't wait!

What I've been up to while I was away....

Celebrating my Grandma's birthday in Florida:




Loving on a few of my favorite people....



Eating at the Big Ice Cream Cone....



Hanging with the extended family....



Visiting my sister-in-law in New York City:

Blasting out my eardrums at the Eminem/Jay Z Home and Home concert...



Enjoying every single second with my sister-in-law.....



Singing all the words in every Jay Z song, even the bad ones (sorry, Mom!)....



Trying not to geek out when I saw Brad Goreski from The Rachel Zoe Project at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week....



Meeting celebrity dogs.....


Tasting every single Baked by Melissa flavor and not feeling a single bit guilty about it....



Taking a weekend road trip to Knoxville to cheer on the Vols:

Inviting my sister on a last minute road trip....


Making flip cup a family affair.....


Eating gator stew for dessert....


To see the rest of our month-of-vacations pictures, check out my Flickr.

Football FINALLY makes sense...

{image found here}

A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. They had great seats right behind their team's bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience.

"Oh, I really liked it," she replied, "especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn't understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents."

Dumbfounded, her date asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was: 'Get the quarter back! Get the quarter back!' I'm like...Helloooooo? It's only 25 cents!!!!"

The Neurotic Versatile Blogger

As promised, my other award from the talented (and recently promoted!) Cole.

For the Versatile Blogger award I need to tell you all 7 things about myself.

1. I always flush the toilet with my foot in public restrooms. Yes, I realize the stall door and the sink handles have just as many germs, but I can't help myself.

2. I have this obsession with headbands. I want to wear them so badly. My favorite barista at Starbucks wears one nearly every day and looks darling. I want to look darling too! Sadly for me, I've got a big fat head, so all I end up with is a big fat headache to match.

3. I currently owe $2.25 in library late fees. If I can't renew a book I'm reading, I'll just keep it until I'm finished. Bad, library patron, bad!

4. I hate it when people mispronounce the words indicative [in-dik-uh-tiv] and preferably [pref-er-uh-buh-leel . If you can't pronounce it correctly, you shouldn't be using it in a sentence.

5. After that last one, I might as well admit this one too: I love dictionary.com! More people should use it.

6. I like to keep my email organized. I have at least two dozen folders in my Yahoo account and file everything accordingly. I realize this makes me a dork. But I'm a dork who can find any email from the last 7 years.

7. When Nate's out of town, I always sleep with the bedroom door locked. I don't know why this makes me feel safer. All it really does is slow the bad guys down long enough to wake me up so that I'm fully conscious when they come to get me, but whatever. If it helps me sleep at night, that's all that really matters.

Your turn! Give me one random fact about yourself in the comments.

What a real man does....

A real man is a woman's best friend. He will never stand her up and he will never let her down.

He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and to forget regret.

He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.

He will make sure she always feels as though she's the most beautiful woman in the room and will help her be the most confident, sexy, seductive and invincible....

No, wait. Sorry. I'm thinking of wine.

That's what wine does....

Never mind.

_______________

Special thanks to my girl, Jamie, who brightened my day with this in my inbox. Who doesn't love a what wine does?

And we were afraid it was completely over...

{image found here}

Do you know what this is?!

LOST: The Complete Collection - and it comes out TODAY!

Six glorious seasons of the best.show.ever. Plus two hours of never-before-seen content, including a 12 minute mini-epilogue about Hurley and Ben's time as keepers of the island.

I want it. I want it bad.

But as Nate so helpfully pointed out - I've already seen it all. I know how it ends.

Well, yes, this is technically true. But I don't have cast and creator interviews, a mini replica of the island, a box that comes complete with black-light hidden secrets or my own personal Senet game. And did I mention the 12 minute mini-epilogue? I need to know what happened, man!

If you need to know what to get me for Christmas - this is it. Just don't expect to see me for at least 96 hours afterwards.

A scoop of chaos with a side of nuts

Cole from over at All the Small Stuff must have known I've been lacking in the blogging inspiration department lately, so she dropped some inspiration right in my lap in the form of two awards! One for today and one for later this week (you know, because I'm lazy like that).

I love the idea of 'A Daily Scoop of Chaos' - that's exactly how I feel like my life is right now! It was a roller coaster of a crazy emotional week over here. Nothing earth shattering, just a whole lot of random insanity that we were not quite prepared for. Add in the regular HOA drama and a really crummy project at work and we had a whole freaking ice cream SUNDAE worth of chaos.

What is your signature color?
Hmmm...this one is a toughie. If I'm getting dressed, I will always reach for black as my signature 'look'. If I'm decorating, it's anything in the autumnal color family. If we're talking about the color I gravitate towards like a magpie to shiny objects? That would orange, of course!

What is your most embarrassing moment?
Oh, so many to choose from, how will I ever narrow it down to one? Embarrassing stuff happens to me all the time, ya'll. Not even kidding.

My mom reminded me of this one the other day: I was 15 years old, we were living on the tropical island of Guam, and I had a babysitting job for a new family I'd not met before. As I knock on their front door for the very first time, a giant gecko (you know, like the Geico commercial?) falls from the roof of their house, straight onto my head. I, of course, start shrieking like any girl worth her soprano lungs and batting crazily at my head in an attempt to free the lizard from my hair. And just in time to see my manic fit, the mom opens the door, with the dad standing right behind her.

Hi, guys, I'm here to care for your children. So lovely to meet you.

Would you ever get anything pierced other than your ears. If so, what?
Considering I barely survived the panic attack when I got the second hole in my ears at age 12, I highly doubt it.

Are you a social butterfly or a homebody?
I am naturally very shy in large groups. Most people are shocked to hear this because I tend to speak my mind most of the time. But that's only to people I know. Although I must say, unemployment was good for one thing - it forced me to learn how to network despite my natural proclivity toward being a wallflower.

I love nothing more than staying home in my jammies with my hubby and my puppies, a great glass of wine and a good read.

Are you done having babies or do you want more?
I used to want five babies, but given our current difficulties, I've down-scaled that to three. Nate is holding steady at two. We'll see.

Are you loyal to your hairstylist or do you try every salon in town?
I've written about my allegiance to hairstylists before. I'm sad to say I've still not found someone I'm crazy about here in Indy. Luckily, I'm doing the growing out thing right now so it's more about maintaining health than maintaining a style. When I eventually grow tired of it and chop it again, chances are I'll be headed to K-town to do it. Sad, but true.

How many times have you moved in your life?
Oh my word. I don't know if I could count them all. Let's try:
Florida to Georgia at age 2
Georgia to Virginia at age 7
Virginia to South Carolina at age 10
South Carolina to Guam at age 14
Guam back to South Carolina at age 16
Sumter, SC to Due West for college x 4 years of college (which, if you think about it, is really EIGHT moves - 4 in and 4 out!)
Sumter, SC to Knoxville when we got married at age 22
Knoxville to Boston for six months at age 26
Boston to Indianapolis apartment
Indianapolis apartment to our first house at age 27

If you could plan your vacation with just you and your love where would it be?

We have so many places we'd like to go. Too bad that pesky job thing keeps getting in the way! We'd love to go back to Europe and see the places we missed the first time - Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Spain and Italy. We want to hit Australia for at least two weeks. I'm dying to go to Turks and Caicos someday.

Your turn! If you could vacation anywhere in the world, with anyone you chose, where would you go and with whom?

Countdown

Because I really, really need something to look forward to right now....

14 days until my Premier Designs jewelry party

22 days until I see (most) of my family!

23 days until COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON

30 days until NYC and Fashion Week, baby!

32 days until Jay Z and Eminem

49 days until a cabin in the woods with our best friends

80 days until we debut the world's most awesome Halloween costumes

94 days until the Colts open a can of whoop-ass on the Bengals

105 days until Black Friday

Confessions on Nosiness

One of my favorite websites is PostSecret.com. I look forward to reading all the new secrets every Sunday afternoon. Maybe it's just my female tendency towards nosiness, but I love reading other people's secrets - relating to some, being flummoxed by others, and praying for the really sad ones. I've also gotten some really awesome ideas for paying it forward, like the one above, which is probably my favorite secret ever.

So imagine my delight to find out that the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting an exhibit of Frank Warren's PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God! The exhibit opens tonight and runs through September 18. The opening reception is tonight and I've somehow convinced Nate and some friends to join me.

I can't wait to read dozens of new secrets tonight! It's like Christmas morning for nosy people!

Time to buy some stock in popcorn

I don't know about you but I've been pretty disappointed in most of the films released so far this year. Inception was the first truly good movie I've seen all year. Nate wasn't a fan but I thought it was amazing - complex, engaging and beautifully acted. That's a hard combination to find these days, when all Hollywood seems to be doing is remaking old favorites. I don't want a remake of what I loved when I was 12, I want something new and different! Is that so much to ask?

That said, the next two weeks seem jam-packed with movies that I am actually interested in paying $10 to see in the theater. FINALLY! It's not too late to have a big summer hit.

{image found here}

This one came out last week. Although the storyline probably isn't going to be revolutionary, who doesn't like seeing Angelina Jolie play a bada$$? And she did almost all of her own stunts. Gotta admire a lady who's not afraid to get dirty in the name of making a good movie.

{image found here}

The Other Guys has the potential to be hilarious. Maybe not Hangover hilarious, but still pretty good. I'm somewhat skeptical (Will Ferrell has the tendency to go a little overboard, IMHO) but Nate is pumped to see it. I will balk because that's what I'm supposed to do, but secretly I don't mind a bit as long as Mark Wahlberg takes his shirt off at least once.

{image found here}

I'm not ashamed to admit that I like a good action movie every now and then. It doesn't have to be all romance and rainbows in my movie world. Sometimes you just need a good shoot 'em up, and this one looks like it could be pretty amazing. Stallone? Li? Statham? How could it not be good?

{image found here}

Hang with me on this one guys. It is a given that the storyline will be predictable and acting overly dramatic, but OH THE DANCING! Have you seen the previews? To quote Rachel Zoe, I die. I'm all about the dance movies - Dirty Dancing, Save the Last Dance, Center Stage and, of course, the original Step Up, which brought us the handsome and talented Mr. Channing Tatum. The dancing in Step Up 3 looks off the chain. I'm giddy just thinking about it.

So what movies are you looking forward to? Seen anything good lately?

Suddenly I've got a craving for bananas....

{image found here}

The clothes!

The jewels!

The celebrities!

The meltdowns!

The medical drama!

The catchphrases!

OMG

I die.

Shut up, right now.

I'm coming undone.

It's going to be buh-na-nas.


Who else is ready for the Season 3 premiere of the Rachel Zoe Project tonight?

It's a short trip to Crazy Town

I used to pride myself on having a good memory. I never forgot a face. I could accurately identify every unlabeled baby picture in my mother's photo albums box of family photos. I could sit in a college class, pay decent attention and pull out a B without ever cracking a book.

And then I hit the real world. And got a job that completely fried my brain. The more responsibility I gained, the more completely useless information I was required to store in my increasingly overtaxed brain.

So now, while I still have an excellent memory, much of it is useless. I can recite every policy and procedure my old company had for the credit card program. I can parse out a VIN for you and tell you exactly what each section means, down to where your vehicle was built. I can recall the name of every vendor I did business with. during my 4.5 years there

But it seems I have no room left for any new information. You know, like the names of co-workers or vendors I presently work with. Or the fact that our anniversary is tomorrow and I completely forgot until yesterday.

I have always been a master list maker, but now I need lists of my lists. I live in a world populated by calendars, To Do lists and bright orange sticky notes. If I don't write it down, I will forget. I keep a notepad by my bed so I can write down all the things I think of while I'm lying there desperately trying to turn off my brain and sleep. I tote my To Do list with me practically everywhere I go.

My latest forget-me-not inspiration? My Palm Pre. Every time I think of something I want to add to my To Do list, I email it to myself. My inbox is full of notes to self: blog post ideas, emails I need to send, appointments I need to make, books I want to read.

Am I the only one who wishes she had a delete file function in her brain? What tricks do you use to keep yourself from losing your mind?