modernity in tallahassee

Ugh. I am soo hot right now. I am sweating all over, and I can't move or do anything because it will wake up someone. Also, the people on the other side of the wall are hammering nails into the wall, and that is kind of annoying too.

I had five guys for dinner. I have heard amazing things about this place, and then when I finally eat there, all I wanted to do was say "eh. it tastes like a burger". I think I am either spoiled or apathetic. Either way, it can't bode well for me seeing as how everyone I know loves it. Even the god damned vegans. psh.

After dinner I went and played smash brothers. It was a lot of fun. I had forgotten how fun that game actually was, because I hadn't played it in so long. I bet it is even fun by yourself, and that is definitely the best test for a game's playability...alone time. Every game is more fun when you have other people playing it with you. I was 2nd place on almost every round of the game, which isn't bad saying as how I was button smashing the whole time. Hurrah for button smash!

After a few games of Smash, I needed a pick me up(AKA caffeine) so all of us walked to Red Eye cafe. For some reason, the person whos house we were at thought that they lived relatively close to this coffee place. They were mistaken. They lived like 7 blocks away. I know that isn't far to all you city people, but to people who live in Tallahassee in the summer, that is an eternity away. And not to mention really gross after the first two blocks because of the mugginess.

The coffee/chai was good, and after a brief discussion on Russia, Education, and Government leftism, we were wiped, and walked back to my car.

Not bad, not bad.

dancing for the heart

So, after I blogged about my awesome/horrific dream about Hogwarts and Voldermort, I had a pretty normal day. My coworker/boss who I help alot is in a conference in Washington D.C. all this week, so I have just been doing really easy work, keeping it light because I know as soon as she gets back I will have tons of stuff to do.

After work, I went to a workout class with my friend called Zumba. Now, I know what those of you who know me are thinking, "this girl, in a latin dance/arobics class?" Contrary to what I thought, I had a lot of fun. It is probaby the first class where it was directed at arobics that I was smiling the whole time. It was sexy, and full of sass, and I definately didn't feel as uncoordinated as some of the ladies in there, but to be fair, I was probably the youngest one there, besides the teaching aide. The teacher was just soo full of energy! Sometimes, you have that instructor who shows you the movements, but then doesn't really do them, and just walks around the whole time "helping you" do your posture or movement. Not this lady. She was bouncing and jumping, and shaking her top and shaking her bottom. It was great.

After I got home, my great boyfriend had already made me some food, which I was very thankful for. I drank some juice, ate the food, and was feeling semi comatose by the time 9:00 rolled around. We tried to watch all of Pan's Labyrinth, but he fell asleep on my belly by 9:30, and I fell asleep by the end of the movie at about 10:30. I was so exhausted.

cleaning out the cobwebs

So, this weekend was pretty good. I helped my coworker decide over which couch to get, and the one that she picked was a brown faux-leather couch ( to work with her pro animal stance). I had a party at my place that was thrown in honor of my roomies birthday. We had a lot of gaming going on for the first bit, but after the pong was broken out, the real chaos began. My roomie found out he is a sevant at playing beer pong, but just not that keen on drinking. Maybe that was his tactic, to avoid drinking the beer at all costs. We also had a pie eating contest ( with no hands allowed), and a pinata full of adult fun stuff. It was a pretty fun party, but after a few hours of doing too many drinking games, I was ready for bed. I also wasn't feeling well to begin with, with a massive eye watering headache, and other physical pains, so drinking didn't help that.

The next morning, my boyfriend went with his family to go scalloping, and because of more headaches and a copius amount of cleaning/errands to do, I didn't go. I instead went and had my car alligned, and my oil filter changed, and all my other fluids toped off, and all that fun stuff... I then spent some time on myself and had my eyebrows tinted and waxed. Now, this is my first time to have eyebrow tinting done, but the change looks really natural, and I am glad I don't have to spend hours a week drawing in color. Then I came home, and cleaned. At this point, I didn't really want to spend time with "the boys" at my house, so I called up the coworker who had just recieved her couch, and we watched last chance harvey. It was either a 6.5 0r 7 out of 10. After getting licked by her dog and laughing at the absurdities of wagging tails and bunny runs, it was past my bedtime, and I went home to find a very sunburned and tired boyfriend.

On Sunday, we woke up and made some coffee, and blueberry pancakes. MMMM. I heart a boy who likes cooking. :) Then we were cheap, and saw an early showing of "The Ugly Truth". This was a pretty cute movie, even to guys (my boyfriend laughed louder than I did at some parts).. I give that movie a 7.5 out of 10. we came home, and I did some cleaning around the house, while he cleaned the scallops that he had caught the day before.

Overall, a pretty good weekend!

In narrative form

I looked out my window. The air-conditioner started producing condensation, which was slowly creeping up on my view of the only green I see all day. Behind me, per usual, was my roommate and his friend playing some game on the TV, discussing different button coordination techniques in order to achieve a better level in the game. I sit at my desk, half being productive, half wandering with my mind outside. My mind wanders to the birds in the trees ( who start chirping at a lovely 4:00 AM), the things I need to pack, the garbage I need to throw away.. All of these things seem so menial, and yet, these million things are the only ones I can seem to have running around in my head.

As my new neighbor walks by, I hear her shoes come up the metal walkway to her apartment. I have hoped in vain to have her be a distraction, so that I might be able to think about what really needs to be done. She walks, uneventfully, to her door, and opens and shuts it before I have a chance to play nosey neighbor and look around my curtains.

I am discouraged, and sigh heavily as the symptoms of my slight yet ever annoying cold start creeping up. My head aches, my ear hurts, my throat is scratchy. All I wanted today was cold water for my throat, and for the drilling pain behind my temples to stop. Of course my body would rebel against me when I am to go on a trip soon. Of course. I blow my nose, and give up on the fact that my immune system is not made of super cells, and that I might need some medicine after all. Crap.

After coming back to my desk, the realization that I am going on a trip hits me. I will be away from work, from school, from Tallahassee for 10 days, and yet, all I can think about is how alone I will feel. I won't have someone to share inside glances with when I see something funny. I wont have the comfort of my boyfriend as he pulls me close in the night. All the things I love most about him are the things that I will miss, and it starts to get to me. My head hurts more now, thinking about this, so I turn to something more manageable to think about. Laundry.

time goes by..

I am not sure how this happens, but this weekend/week has probably been the most diverse week I have had all month ( haha, nice how i quantify my answers, yeah?). I could do the usual rundown of my life this weekend, but I think I need to skip around by talking about the most jarring, to the most mundane.


Obvious to me, the most shocking thing that happened to me was that my car was broken into and my rent money ( which was in a locked car, in a glove compartment, in an envelope) was taken. Yeah. Pretty much the big suck of the whole month. I was devastated when I came out to my car at 7:30 AM and saw that my door was open on my car ( which is not normal, I locked my doors that night BECAUSE of the cash), and my window looked jimmied, and my handle was awkwardly up. So I told the cops, which was an ordeal onto itself. It was an ordeal because when I called at 7:45 to call in the theft, I was already on my way to work ( I didn't want to get fired on the same day I got robbed). The officer on the phone was very nice, and told me I had a few options on how to file it. I could either drive back home after I checked in at work, and wait for a cop ( he said this might take all day depending on drive routes and who was available), I could call later in the day and try to file one then at the police station, or I could call the Serveline ( or something of that nice helpful title). I asked what this serveline was, and weather it would get me a file today ( preferably this morning) and he said because it was early, probably. I opted for that answer, so that I could go to work and not have to disrupt my day. I called the number, and got an answering machine, and I left my message. A few hours go by, and no response. I decide to opt for the second option, and go to the station. I am greeted by a rather old and rather abrasive officer lady who tells me that I am not allowed in the back room to file my report, because she is very busy and the only one here today in her department. ( A staffing issue that they need to get fixed) But she does say she will call the lady, and when she is done with some of the reports, that she will come out. I wait 40 minutes before a large lady in a yellow shirt ( later I found out her name...) goes to the desk and says she is going to lunch, and that she cant see whoever it was that needed to see her. WTF. I just wasted my entire lunch waiting for her, and it would take literally 5 minutes for her to take my report. Oh well. She said she would call, but didn't. So at 5:00 PM, I call the station, and ask to file a report and have an officer come to my house. That entire process ( including me driving home) took 24 minutes. Goofy.


So now, because it was the whole rent, I have to come up with 700 dollars rent plus 200 dollars late fee ASAP to pay my rent, because my landlord has conveniently gone incommunicado.

So the next shocking/jarring/exacerbating thing on my list this past week has probably been the parties. I went to a going away party on Friday for my friend C. She is moving up to the Northeast, and then 3 months later, her fiancee is also moving. It was a lot of barb-que ing, a lot of laughing, some drinking ( not really alot) and some hugging. Then the other party I went to was my friend E's birthday party. Her grandma has a pool out back, so we were swimming for what felt like forever ( maybe 3 hours??) and we played apples to apples, and some fun game called werewolf ( which is a lot like a murder mystery game plus balderdash). That was a good night as well.

Then Joe and I went blackberry picking at a "u-pick-em" place 20 minutes outside of town. It was blazing hot outside, with sweat formulating ( or maybe the air just dumping) within 2 minutes of being outside. There were rows of bushes, and between the two of us, we managed to get some of the biggest blackberries I have ever seen, let alone took home. The price wasn't bad ( 8 dollars for 2 quarts of fresh no pesticide berries), but when we stopped off at the grocery store to get lunch meat for the upcoming week, we saw them on sale for 7. Dang.

As you can see, I haven't said everything that has happened this week, but those are probably the top three for excitement, if you can call all of this exciting. Hopefully the next week will be a bit easier, but I doubt that, saying that the 4th of July is right around the corner ( or the river bend for those of you who are Disney inclined)

food for thought

This morning, I woke up at around 8:00 AM, a nice leisurely time to wake up on a Thursday. My soft blankets wrapped around me with the cool of the air-conditioner blowing softly around my face. Looking out at the brightness outside, I decided I would go outside, drink my coffee, and read a few pages in the novel that I have been devouring lately. Its a book about storytelling, really, how would I not love this? So about 2 hours go by, my coffee drained, and the thermostat going up in not so small increments. I go back inside to decide what my real breakfast would be. Living with two boys ( basically), I was skeptical that real food was left in my pantry. I opened it and to my pleasant surprise, I noticed that they had not touched the pancake mix. I wasn't really hoping for pancakes, but if it was there, I was going to eat it. So once I got all the mix ready and the skillit sizzeling, I looked in to the fridge, to find raspberries. I had resigned to the fact that the boys had eaten them the moment I brought them in, but they were still there... I was so happy. For those of you who don't know, I love raspberries. I do not love raspberry flavorings ( that are inexplicably blue??), but the real things? Heck yes. I love how they remind me of summer, of good desserts, of everything that is innocent and outdoorsy. It is a good deal for me. I made two pancakes, and put the raspberries on top. It was so decadent and appropriate for the hot balmy days that are typical to Tallahassee. The picture above, I sadly did not take, but it definatly evokes the spirit of what I ate, if food can have a spirit. Talking about spirit here for a moment, I want to diverge into the spirit of adventure. I recently bought tickets for me and my boyfriend to go to Utah to see my parents. It ended up being a trip we couldn't take, so now I have two tickets that are usable for up to a year, anywhere I can use the money to (at 300 bucks, I think I can manage somewhere cool).... so now the question is, when, and where. :) We want to be able to save some money, so we don't have to bum it when we go somewhere, so our when is probably later in the summer, or something like that. I am soo excited.

litmus test of exciting

I don't know if my blogs have been telling lately, but I seem to be quite ready for an adventure. Most of the time, my brain is going to new and unexperienced places, such as randomly searching for exciting new streets in Tallahassee with amazing houses and cool people that will just invite me over for a glass of wine, or a barb-q of epic proportions.

This hasn't happened yet, so I keep my eyes open, and my mind wandering. This week has been a unique example of my desire to do things. If we were to start from last Tuesday, I was directing the Florida Underage Drinking Task Force, which is what the high ups call a "beneficial meeting to discuss a growing problem of society", but what I call "social hour". It wasn't bad, no hiccups, no missed words or rambunctious party members ( thinking house of commons here..), but overall, interesting. Wednesday and Thursday, all I did was try to figure out what to do with myself, because I was getting a little antsy, so I decided to start reading a book. It is called The Shadow of the Wind. Very interesting to me right now because it actually depicts real streets in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. It makes me want to go there and walk around, maybe get some tapas. MM. Tapas.

Friday was a pretty chill day at work, and it was my last day of class this summer ( a whole week earlier than the rest of the suckers, I mean, students). This means that I went to 101 lounge with co workers and enjoyed a nice basket of sweet potato fries. and a couple of martini things. Then I went on a walk with Allyson ( who I know doesn't hate me) and showed her the magic of fireflies in the south. Saturday was a beach day with some friends, and although we all got some sun, I managed to scrape out with only raccoon eyes, which is much better than some of my more sun tolerant and tan friends. Then Joe and I went to a pool hall and he celebrated in true Tallahassee fashion his birthday with guy friends. We all joked, and shot bad pool, but it was definitely the "run and swoop" routine that Eric ( a friend of Joe) and I conceived that eventually won us the title for a bit. It also didn't hurt that I wasn't drinking. heh. Sunday was Joe's real birthday, and he relaxed from the revelry, and we ate chinese food, and then we went over to his brothers place with his family, and ate a great dinner. His brother just got a puppy, so that was what I was playing with the whole time, and seriously thought about putting it in my purse, until I remembered I didn't take my purse in. Damn.

Now that I have no classes, I seem to just want to do things, but alas, lack of money hits kids like me hard.

oh well. :D

Picnic in a briefcase

I happened to stumble around the internet at the new Urban Outfitters blog to see what was happening in the "hip" crowd, and i came across this gem. I would totally do this for a friend, or maybe just for myself. Its adorable, especially since inside it is 12 degrees and you know you want to be in the shade of a tree somewhere outside for your lunch....

The whole article on how to make this adorable little picnic in a briefcase is here at http://is.gd/12E5p .

This and other greatness comes from this blog I found http://www.designspongeonline.com/ . It is amazing in its use of pictures, its commentary, and of course its budget wise decoration and DIY ideas.

dont hate you, hate me.

I do not hate Allyson Adolphson, I just like to leave work. :)

Yesterday I decided that I was going to start doing things for my body again ( not gross stuff), but just going out and running, or jogging. Thanks to some people blogging and talking about the Couch to 5k workout, I thought that it would be a great way to do some interval training, as well as not going crazy about running and feeling WAY out of shape. I went to my favorite park, which has a 1.3 mile loop in it ( Lafayette Park). I downloaded the podcast that was made by this guy named Robert who was doing it, who obviously knew that I needed music to run along with. Sadly, I did not download the very first one ( good job Erin!), so I had to start on week two. That was rough goings. I made it through it though! But I was very tired afterwards. Oh well. Hopefully Friday I will be able to run it without keeling over on myself. :)

After that, I came home, and all I wanted was to chill out, and read a book. This didn't happen though, because after a nice cool shower, I found out that the show Wipeout was on. Wipeout looks ridiculous to say the least, and really strenuous at that as well. I can understand how the 4' 8" girl wont make it in the wipeout zone, because she simply isn't tall enough or strong enough to do it. It is definitely hilarious though.

the difference on pages

Yesterday, I went to Target to try to peruse the aisles for something to jump out as a good birthday gift for my boyfriend. Nothing did, but in my wanderings, I went over to my standby, the magazine rack. Now, just so we dont get ahead of ourselves, I absolutely loathe the fact that "women magazines" have to deal with pregnancy, weddings, hair styles, sex, and fashion. You go over to the "men magazines", and all of a sudden, you get things like, how to take care of yourselves, how to grow your own garden, and political things you need to know to be informed citizens.

Now, I want something that is similar to GQ for women. Right now, GQ is my all time favorite mens magazine. Its sharp, a little crass, very visually stimulating, and all together stylishly sexy.
Do you know of a womens magazine that has all that? I can think of several different magazines doing this, Real Simple can tell you how to grow your own garden, and how to buy a raincoat under 30 dollars, and vogue can tell you how to do your hair for this falls runway show, but I don't know of any womens magazines that tell you " what to expect in '09s politics" .. really???

Why the gender difference? Ergh. I want a magazine that is like vanity fair plus glamour plus real simple put together without having to pay 20 dollars for all three.