Le Sigh

Oi vey. What a weekend. What a Monday! And what a terrifying two weeks i've got ahead of me. It's that time of year again, my friends, FINALS time. Yes it is the last time i'll have to endure this, but let's be honest, the BAR is only going to be 20X worse. So i apologize if i can't see the silver lining quite yet.

I had a fabulous weekend - highlights included an incredible dinner at 34th Street Cafe w/ dear friends, closing down the bar at Vin Bistro, and then post-partying at the Pink palace until 3:30 a.m. Woke up to MANY empty wine bottles, but it was totally worth it. Can't wait to do it again! The rest of the weekend's a bit of a blur, to be honest. This morning was the last class day, and i graced the law school with my appearance. (Yay me!) Then i rode my Cruiser (thinking of giving it a name... more on this later) to the tennis courts and played w/ Pony. Since then i've mostly been studying, emphasis on the DYING. My body physically reacts to studying, it's awful. I get achey, nauseous, and pretty much want to crawl into bed and never come out. Ever. Luckily i broke for delicious and Gossip Girls (that show is a baaaaaaad addiction) and a couple of phone chats w/ Momma Park and Ma Soeur. Truthfully i kind of wanted to turn off all lines of communication. There's something about not wanting to talk on the phone to other law students when it's finals time. Don't take offense, kids!

My darling baby has spent most of the day sleeping. I feel really bad for her since I can't give her attention she needs/deserves these days. The kitties have been living it up in my bedroom, spending hours gazing out the window and curled up on my duvet. I really do love my little zoo. :-)

Ok before i hit the books again, does anyone know how i can get old episodes of the Oprah Show? I missed the one with Elizabeth Gilbert, and i'm DYING to see it!! Also, i found this great ritual that i'd love to start tonight (if i can remember!). Before going to bed, i'm going to write 3 things for which i'm grateful in my journal. These days i'm way too exhausted to actually spend time journaling, but there's no reason i can't spend a few minutes thinking about the good things with which i'm blessed. One thing i'm grateful for today? That i have a beautiful apartment and cuddly animals. Sure makes staying inside and studying a LOT more bearable.

Lola the Dogi

Lola received a lovely gift in the mail today... a rockin' Tranquil Space tee from her beloved Kimberly Wilson!! She decided to wear it for the return of Gossip Girl tonight and insisted that i put this leopard print bow in her hair as well. After all, isn't Kimberly always in black and leopard print? ;-)



P.S. Yes i realize that i'm one of those annoying people who talks about their dog nonstop.

Saturday @ The Triangle

Brownies are cooling, banana bread's in the oven, Lola's napping (i hope), apartment is sorta on its way to being clean, new patio furniture/accessories are in place, and i am one happy gal... sans the fact that i'm actually over at Flipnotics with Juddy attempting to get a paper written. It's another gorgeous day here in Austin, a sunny 80 degrees, and i am taking full advantage by joining my fellow Medley members at the big pool over in building A for a good ole fashioned BBQ. I'm bringing baked goods and plastic plates/cutlery. No more paper plates!!

P.S. If you watch Oprah and have last week's episode on wastefulness recorded, watch it. It's real tite.

Short & Sweet

How is the weekend already over? I don't know, but it seriously freaks me out. I've got so much work to do and seemingly no time or energy to do it...

Quick wrap-up of the weekend:

-Had a lovely dinner @ NoRTH http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif and really enjoyed it. Started with a spinach salad with goat cheese and pancetta, had the pasta bolognese which was really yummy and more like a baked cheesy dish than your typical bolognese dish, and had a white peach frizzante (prosecco and fruit puree) to drink. Not cheap but not bad. Great patio atmosphere.

-Played Scrabble tonight with my 3 L's and was reminded of how much i suck at Scrabble, but how fun it is to play! Sunday night = Scrabble night from now on.

-Took loads of lovely walks w/ Lola... around the neighborhood, at the Domain, 2nd street district...

-Was kicked out of Central Market today for bringing Lola (even tho she was zipped up in a bag!). Really put a damper on my mood, especially because i dealt with more unhappy salespeople even after taking the pup home...

-Read Confessions of a Carb Queen and scarily related to her addiction to food. Except i no longer have a binge problem with food, i have it with shopping. It's just as exhausting, terrifying, and dangerous. I think it's about time for professional intervention. I wish there was rehab for shopaholics... seriously.

-I miss these kids...


Bonsoir.

YAY!!

I successfully rode my new cruiser around the neighborhood!! Dude i know the saying, "it's like riding a bike" exists for a reason, but i gotta admit, i was a little terrified.. Nonetheless it was loads of fun, and while i won't be taking to the streets anytime soon (at least not until i get myself a helmet!), i'm gonna have fun with this baby. :-)

It's the Weekend, Baby!

Bonjour, mes amies!! I'm shocked at how early I was up this morning sans alarm (7:30!!). Then again, Lola's whimpering may have contributed to that. We've had a lovely morning complete with a successful tinkle outside and a not-quite-as-successful #2 in the kitchen. Nonetheless she is happily napping in her crate, and i am enjoying this gorgeous morning. Am tempted to take my bike out for an early morning ride before the traffic hits...

Last night i was social for the first time in awhile and attended a fun dinner @ Trudy's in honor of my dear friend Mike's girlfriend Bi's visit to town. It'd been such a long time since i'd seen some of those friends, so it was nice to reconnect. I even smuggled Lola in! P.S. Is that not the most darling picture of her ever to the right? Anyway, here are some pics from the evening along with a pic of Lola in her new very political tank top. What's on the menu for today? A dim sum brunch with my Medley loves and hopefully some serious work. Muah, darlings! Have a fantabulous Saturday!!

<3 C

Me & John

John Mayer and i have had an on again/off again love affair (off = when i found out he was dating the most worthless human being alive, Jessica Simpson) for about 7 years now. His albums never disappoint me, and even if people think John Mayer has gone totally commercial (is it his fault that he got so famous??), i still think he's an incredibly talented artist. The cool thing about John is that he's also a fellow blogger, though his entries are on a slightly different scale than mine. Recently he got a lot of flack on his once celebrated celebrity blog for defending the aforementioned ex-girlfriend. (i've forgiven him... so should you.) So imagine my surprise when i clicked on his blog and found this very raw entry. I find it sincere. Others may not. Either way, i think you should read it.

FROM THE HEART....

I need to write this.

I've been traveling alone in Japan for the better part of three weeks now, and It's been so remarkable an experience for me that I can't book a ticket home yet. I haven't spoken very much out loud these days, but I've been thinking to myself in what feels like surround sound. I can see so many things clearly, and feel so connected to myself and the world around me that I need to share the perspective with you.

I'm already aware that when I sing, say or write anything, 50 percent of the response will be in support of it and the other 50 will want to discount it. This blog, though, is directed to 100 percent of people reading it. If my blog truly does have any cultural effect, then it should be used for more than just pictures of sneakers and funny youtube videos. (If you don't think my blog has any effect, than you can't by definition be reading this right now and therefore don't have to respond to it in any way. Isn't that tidy?)

What I'm about to write isn't about fame or success or celebrity or the media. That's my business.

This is about us all.

This is about a level of self consciousness so high in my generation, that it's actually toxic.

This is about the girl in her bedroom who poses in front of the camera she's awkwardly holding in her outstretched hand. She'll take a hundred photos until coming up with one she's happy with, which inevitably looks nothing like her, and after she's done poring over images of herself, will post one on her myspace page and then write something like " I don't give a f*ck what you think about me."

This is about the person trying out for American Idol, who while going off about how confident they are that they were born ready to sing in front of the world, are trembling so badly they can hardly breathe.

This is about me, the guy who walks through a throng of photographers into a restaurant like he's Paul Newman, but who leaves a "reject" pile of clothes in his closet so high that his cleaning lady can't figure out how one man can step into so many pairs of pants in a week.

This is about a young guy who maintains a celebrity blog that subsists on tearing other people down but who has wrestled with a lifelong battle for acceptance as a gay man.

This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don't want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything. And I think I'm done with that.

I'm not the first person to admit we're all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to do is to shed a little light on why we're all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing.

And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain't gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he's following ain't gonna be Bob Dylan. It's just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right.

What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me.

Root for others.

Give more and expect the same in return, but over time.

Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that.

And when it's all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you.

I'm going quiet now.

John


Taken from http://www.johnmayer.com/blog.

Paycheck 2 Paycheck

I've been doing some thinking (shocking, i know), and i really don't want to be one of those people who lives paycheck to paycheck. Even though i don't have a literal "paycheck" right now, getting help (read: $$$) from my parents sort of feels the same way. I know that if i ask for more, it is likely that i will get more (although VERY begrudgingly, oh and p.s. these are all "loans"), but then i know my mom will be upset with me and wonder where all this money is going. As a result, i tend to be really careful about how often i ask for "help." And so i pretty much have been living paycheck to paycheck for the past 7 years. This is not bode well for the future. I know what you're thinking. I'm going to be an attorney making a six-figure salary; how on earth could i blow through each paycheck so quickly? Believe me. I am VERY good at spending money. It's outrageous. I should enter contests.

Lola slept through the night again, which is great since i apparently turn off the 3:30 a.m. potty alarm in my sleep. Was running late for class this morning so she only went out (and by out, i mean the kitchen..sigh) once this morning before i had to re-crate her and dash to class. Really hope she doesn't potty in the crate...

I am determined to get my bike fully assembled and ready-to-ride today. Just need to find the correct size of allen wrench, pump up the tires, attach fabulous basket, and GO. Must limit my biking to the Triangle area for now until i get a helmet (yuck...). Am fairly certain that they don't make cute pink helmets big enough for my head. Did i mention that i had the largest head circumference in both middle school AND high school?? And people wonder why i have a complex...

I'm aiming for 100% class attendance today. WOO HOO!! So far so good... I'll let ya know how it goes. Have a good one, darlings!

Sleep Don't Weep

I am pooped! It's not that having a puppy (or at least my puppy) is that much work. But for some reason, I'm ready to sleep by 11 and still have difficulty staying out of bed at 8 a.m. Lola's an absolute doll and still doesn't whine or bark when she's crated at night. Last night she even slept through the whole night! Of course, when I took her out this morning she refused to go potty and then proceeded to go as soon as we got back inside, but you know... details. I have to remember that i've only had her for 4 days, and that the housetraining process is a slow one. I'm just afraid i'm gonna screw her up.

We had a lovely weekend together. She had beaucoup de visitors - Pony, her sis, and her yorkie Beau, Juddy, Sista, S, and even Life Coach stopped by to pay their respects. Even took her to my babysitting gig Friday night, and she was really good with the kiddies. She is wildly adored. Saturday night I dined with Devon and her chihuahua Snickers and Danny at Sabo, the new "Modern Mexican" restaurant in The Triangle. We sat on the patio, and Lola was an absolute doll! She just curled up right by my foot and slept. Not a single peep. Ditto last night when I took her to Quacks (illegally inside!) to study w/ Juddy. She whined a bit in the car but once we got inside she settled into the bag and was the cutest sleeping puppy ever. How did i get such a kickass puppy??

Alas now i am in class, and the poor doll is crated. She has a vet appointment today, and i hope all goes well. Can't believe it's already the second week of April. I have SO much to accomplish in the next 5 weeks, it makes me tired just thinking about it... Ah well, i should get back to paying attention. Enjoy these pics!

SURRRPRISE!!!

Allow me to introduce you to the newest member of my family... LOLA!

Au Revoir, New York

After getting a whopping 3 hours of sleep last night (just could NOT put my mind to rest!), i am getting ready to say goodbye to the city. This morning I took a walk around the gloomy financial district, made a stop at ground zero, hit up Borders, then ran home in the rain. Above is a picture i took Sunday night of the beautiful sunset to which i returned. (To the right is Will's building.) All in all, i had a lovely get-away this past week, and i'm a bit nervous about returning to the real world. Luckily i have a lovely treat coming my way on Thursday (remember that surprise i mentioned awhile back?), so i can't be too bummed! Have a good one, kids. See you in TX.