Woo hoo!!

I'm leaving for [the general vicinity of] the airport TODAY! I can't believe I'll be in Oregon tomorrow! Hooray!

Update (for those who were alarmed).

I got so many messages of concern regarding the possible coronary in last Friday's randomness post (okay, not really - what's wrong with you people? Weren't you worried?) that I felt I should post an update to the situation.

I may have made light of it, but I was really weirded out. Seriously - when does your upper rib cage hurt (on the left side in the front)? How do you even pull anything there? Well, who knows, but evidently I did. Still hurts like a bit** too.

Super cute PT-man examined the injury today (ouch!), as he noticed me grimacing during our session, and informed me that I had indeed pulled something. Ya think? I am an idiot. I really am - since I think I did it during last week's fall. Falling down would have been way cooler if I hadn't pulled an intercostal.

So you can all sleep easy now - no myocardial infarctions here.

I feel like I gotta.

Ten things I want to do while I'm in...

M-F / Walla Walla:

1. Eat at La Casita

2. Buy produce at Andy'’s

3. Peruse shops on Main St.

4. Count how many random high school people I run into

5. Burn wedding pictures

6. Visit the Walla Walla YMCA

7. Eat [fake] sweet and sour chicken at the Modern

8. Bake with my mom

9. Go to the Green (I've never been, so leave me alone)

10. See old friends

Portland:

1. Have game night at Trash's

2. Visit the lil ones from my past

3. Eat at La Terrazza

4. Have a drink with my fun Alaskan friends (and their cute dog)

5. Walk through Pioneer Place, down 23^rd, and around downtown

6. Get Mexican hot chocolate at Moonstruck

7. Go to happy hour in the Pearl

8. Get pizza at Escape from New York

9. Shop for baby stuff w/ the prego

10. Eat at Thailand

Images: the easy way out.

After a brief pep-chat from the prego, I've decided I need to stop feeling guilty about procrastinating [today]. Today's particular lack of writing is not my fault and there is nothing I can do about it, so instead I will blog. As it's officially the holiday season, I've decided to post my own holiday-themed image survey.

Favorite Christmas Movie

Favorite Christmas Cookie


Favorite Holiday Beverage


Favorite Holiday Activity


Favorite Place to Spend Christmas


Favorite Christmas Carol


Favorite Holiday Weather

The symbolic end of an era.

The jeweler called today to inform me I can come in and pick up my rings. Plural. Meaning my engagement ring and wedding band, which had until today been fused. I think it will be good for me to see them apart, as two... and to give the band to the B-man's mom :) (Seriously - what am I going to do with it? The engagement ring, on the other hand, is beautiful and very non-traditional looking (thus wear-able at some later date).)

During the same visit to the ex-in-laws I will be returning the various material goods one accumulates when you share your life with another person. I'm not looking forward to pilfering through everything, especially the wedding-related items. I feel as though I got the short end of the stick on this front, as everything is at my parent's house I am forced to do this instead of him. On the plus side, it is highly unlikely that the B-man even remembers everything that we own and will be unaware of what doesn't make it to his house. Oops. Good stuff, welcome to my house.

On a happier note, the fact that I will soon be forced to do this means I will be at home, surrounded by the people I love, and who love me. That is a too-rare occurrence right now, and one I am looking forward to tremendously.

The fact that it's Christmas isn't really playing into my excitement, which I am attributing in part to my feeling awfully adult-ish this year. The importance of true friends and a supportive family has made itself clear to me over the past few months, and this year I can honestly say that the holiday season has new meaning - in a very good way.

Friday randomness.

It's Friday and I'd rather be at home (or finishing my Christmas/holiday shopping), so I have decided to protest with a blog entry - just your luck. Since I don't have one, full-length topic in mind, I am jumping aboard the mythical bandwagon and writing on nothing. Here's to you, Ash.

First off, my fantastic Australian friends are celebrating their tenth anniversary today (cheers!) - hat's off to them, no? It's not often I meet a couple and truly adore both halves, but you should meet these people! Start with two wonderfully bright, enthusiastic, and thoughtful individuals, then add in the accent and ridiculously fun Aussie vocab and you have quite a good time in the making.

I will be in my home state in 6 days and 23 hours. Can you tell I'm excited? The crazy winter wind storm currently wreaking havoc on the area should be gone by then. I hope. While home I get to see my now-visibly pregnant sister-in-law. Since this is the first baby in the family, I'm pretty excited about it. You should see the cute presents I have for him (and parents)!

Speaking of Christmas (or "gimme gimme presents day" as it was once referred to), I've discovered that Christmas lights on palm trees make me inexplicably happy. It's very odd. Seriously. I can't figure it out, but I love it nonetheless. I also love the word nonetheless. It might be in my top 5 current favorite words. No one else has a list like that, do they? I'm never sure when to admit things like that.

Do you think it's possible I'm having a myocardial infarction? I've been having this weird chest pain for the last two days that I've never had before. It's freaking me out a little bit. If I die, I'd like someone to blame it on my new prescription and profit from the loss (well, it would be devastating, no?). I'm so American.

Speaking of, I've been informed that even though the rest of the world hates Americans, foreign nationals would like me (something to do with being from Oregon and not Texas). I take this as quite a compliment (thank you, "Amber").

I gave my neighbor an icy glare today. I'm so mature. While making fortune cookies last night (yes, you read correctly) I was tempted to make one for #12, and have the fortune read something along the lines of "too much loud sex may make nice neighbor angry". But I didn't. Maybe next time.

My other boy dilemma lives on as well. Will someone tell me whether or not I should answer the phone when the B-man calls? I told him no talking! Several times! I feel as though answering the phone (albeit to tell him to stop calling) would still be a victory for him. However, I also want the money he owes me, and would rather get it without involving the state of Oregon. Thoughts?

I fell down on Tuesday. You should have seen it - it's not often an adult falls down. In my defense, it was during tennis, and I made a sweet save. I did fall down, however. During my class. Yeah... it was awesome. Especially since I just lay there for a minute and then yelled "I'm down!". You should have been there. Ahh, the memory.

This is turning into quite a post. If only I could write this much on my academic paper. You know, the one to complete my degree? Yeah - I'm a huge slacker. You'd think I'd want the $40k in tuition to actually mean something and try to finish. Nope. That would make too much sense.

Okay, I'm officially out of nothing to talk about. Happy Friday to all - please send some motivation my way over the weekend.

What is wrong with me this week/month?

pro·cras·ti·nate

transitive and intransitive verb

Definition: postpone doing something: to postpone doing something, especially as a regular practice

[Late 16th century. <> procrastinat-, past participle of procrastinare "put off until tomorrow" <> cras "tomorrow"]

I know everyone is waiting, so here it is.

I went to New York on Friday! Hooray for me!

The weekend got off to a rather bad start, however, when I didn't get out of work early enough. Mind you, the airport is an hour and a half away, and I needed to park my car at one of those shuttle places, so I should have left at 1:30 or so for my 5:00 flight. Well, that didn't happen. I pulled out of the G'ville gas station at 2:30 and started to panic. And of course, there was traffic. In G'ville! When is there traffic here? And at 2:30?? Come on, people! I felt as though I was being punished for my late start. The traffic gods laughed at me the entire way to JAX, actually, as everyone thought it would be fun to block me in while driving under the speed limit. I'm normally a patient driver, but the Bacilos concert was in jeopardy! So I got a little too close to some cars to remind them that the left lane is for people in a hurry, namely me. So I pull into the fantastic valet car park/shuttle place (for $4.00/day!!) at 4:25... I've never missed a flight before, and I was pretty sure that was what might happen. Alas, we took off 1 minute later (thank you, King parking!) and I arrived at the check-in desk, looking rather sheepish, at 4:35. The woman at the counter held back her reproach and told me I should probably head right to security (ya think?). Anyway - I made it! Thank you for the 10 minute delay, JetBlue, thank you.

On an aside - I love JetBlue. If only they traveled to more of the destinations I frequent. Free TV in every seat? Who wouldn't love that? And normal sized snacks! And the entire can of soda! I mean, come on American/Delta - you really can't swing for the entire can? The little plastic cups hold about 3 swallows of liquid once they pile in the ice. Combined with the four pretzels you're offered, it's a choking hazard in the making. But not JetBlue - no choking on their flights. Well done.

So JFK has a sweet lightrail system that hooks up to the LIRR - it's relatively new and very nice. Almost worth the $5 fee each way. $5 - really? I miss Portland. I digress. AirTrain + LIRR = Penn Station for $10, and takes only 45 minutes or so, which I thought was pretty good. One cab ride later I was looking at the ridiculously large lit-up tree in Rockefeller Center (One more digression - is anyone else sad about them cutting down these beautiful, 100 year old trees every year? I couldn't help being a little peeved as I looked at it).

So my crazy friend V and I meet up under the tree (which would have been very romantic if she'd been a boy) and make off for Time's Square. A slice of pizza and one large beer later, we're waiting in the VIP line at BB King. What kind of concert starts at midnight? Crazy Bacilos. We're ushered inside at 12:15 (SO, SO cold outside) and the show starts an hour later - ahhh, hora latino. But you know what? It was so worth the wait. I rank it #2 on my "best concerts I've ever been to" list, right behind.... Bacilos (2002 - Guayaquil).

Two hours and one picture with the drummer later, we head off on the next leg of the adventure: last call, of course. Who knew that there's not a lot to do at 4:15am in NYC? The 20 degree weather also put a damper on things, so we made our way to a 24 hour diner, to the delight of the wait staff. Around 6:00 we went to V's friend's to crash on her [super cold, hardwood] floor for an hour.

V and her friend were heading home for a few days, so I was on my own and headed back to Time's Square for a bit. About this time I was feeling a little yucky, having been wearing the same clothes for to many hours and without access to a toothbrush. Still fun though :) I walked from Time's Square to Penn Station/Madison Square Garden and caught the LIRR back to JFK. It was FANTASTIC.

One fun fact about the trip was that I took absolutely no bags. No backpack, no purse, nothing. I felt very liberated by this accomplishment. Mittens, hat, phone, money - it was great! I definitely recommend it for all travelers.

Anyone?

If any of my dedicated readers (hee hee) happen to see the B-man, could they ask him to stop calling me? Seriously.

Thank you, JetBlue.

Random recommendation for the day:

It is ideal to arrive at the airport with more than 20 minutes until your flight departs.

A tribute of sorts.

In honor of the upcoming concert, I have compiled one of my favorite things, a list!

My ten favorite Bacilos songs (and reasons for said selections)

10. Contigo Se Va (Final single - so good, yet so sad)

9. Odio el Silencio (For the romantic in me)

8. El Edificio (Just plain good)

7. Viejo (I want someone to walk the streets of a city all night simply because they know that I'm there)

6. Besela Ya (Makes me smile and dance every single time - plus the video is pretty darn good)

5. Pasos de Gigante (Goodness, how I relate - I feel ya Jorge, I feel ya)

4. Feliz Conmigo (Fantastic "like me for who I am" bottom line, and Jorge growls - what more could you want in a song?)

3. Mi Primer Millon (So fun + they mention Guayaquil, AND I can make out the subjunctive)

2. Caraluna (Mancora, Peru (and/or Guayaquil, Ecuador) + cute, Latin boys singing to me = good times.)

Drum roll, please....

1. Tabaco y Chanel (This is the song that taught me to grab my 20's by the balls - thank you, Bacilos)

There should be a cartoon lightbulb above my head.

As I pushed my grocery cart to my car yesterday evening I had an epiphany. That's right, an epiphany. If I were a cartoon character (what kind of messed up cartoon would that be?) there would have been bells dinging and a lightbulb flashing - it was that kind of epiphany.

Grocery shopping has the potential to suck for single people, circumstances depending. No, that's not the epiphany, but it's related. I decided that someone needs to design a 21 and over grocery store - forget (or, even better, in addition to) sample stations: SHOT STATIONS! That's right, I firmly believe that the grocery shopping experience could be much more pleasant with the addition of a small amount of alcohol (keep in mind we will have to drive home with purchased items). Seriously - how fun would that be? Leave the produce department head toward frozen food and have a shot of tequila on the way. I love it.

I realize there will need to be some sort of system for monitoring the number of drinks provided (one upon entry, tickets, etc)... these details bore me. Singles will agree, though, that the concept is appealing.