Where are you stayin' at?

Well, I'm in Houston. Land of hot weather (it's like the surface of the sun), space shuttles, dangling participles, and very complimentary homeless people (good morning, cutie). So far, the work is easier than I was expecting, but also very boring. The people here are either really really nice or really really rude. I would only describe 2 people as really really rude, the rest are very nice and hospitable.

Living in a hotel for the majority of the week has its perks. I love having my bed made for me. The housekeeper leaves me candy (andes candies and peanut m&m's). Room service rocks, and they don't judge me for ordering a glass of cabernet with chocolate ice cream. Being away from home (my hubby, my bed, my animals) royally sucks.

But I made a conscious decision after week 1 to keep a positive attitude while spending the rest of my summer in H-town. My first week down here was very miserable. I hated every second of it, and was nearly in tears every night when I talked to Steve. But 8 weeks is going to feel much longer if I spend every second miserable. So now, at nearly the end of week 3, my new attitude has made life bearable here. I still can't wait for it to be over, but I'll live.

Despite my new positive attitude, airports have become one of my least favorite places on earth. I used to go to the airport and be bursting at the seams with excitement. Mostly because until I got me a REAL job, the only time I ever traveled was for some fabulous vacation. Montana for snowboarding, New Mexico to visit friends, Mexico for some sun, etc. But now I dread every second I spend at the airport.

I especially hate the Houston airport. Only because it reminds me of how alone I am. I stand at the baggage claim alone, surrounded by reunited couples, families, friends. Then I politely ask those happy people to "pardon me" so I can grab my luggage and catch a cab to the hotel.

Once I get to the hotel, however, I'm okay again. I can watch TV, work out, read Harry Potter, and order a nice cabernet with a side of Haagen Daz chocolate ice cream.

I'm a travelin' (wo)man

A few days after my last post, I went to Atlanta, GA for training. My friend Jamie and I were the only two people from the Milwaukee office to attend the training, so we tricked the powers that be into allowing us to share a room. That is my biggest gripe about going to training is that not only are we all forced to share rooms, but they assign us roommates. So most people are roomed with a stranger from another office. But Jamie and I discovered a loophole. When you register for the training, there is a box on one of the forms for special requests (if you are disabled or a vegetarian or something) so the coordinators can arrange your accommodations accordingly. So for our first training, Jamie put in her special request (she just had a baby and was having a bout of post-partum, and would like to room with me). And it worked! And during our subsequent 3 trainings, she's either been pregnant or just had a baby, so we've been able to share a room for all 4 training seminars. Granted, the coordinators in charge of training think she's a bit touched in the head, but it's well worth it to share a room with someone you know.

In other work-related travel news, I've been asked to spend two months this summer in Houston, TX to help out with a big client. My first instinct was to run screaming from the conference room and burst into tears of self-pity. But a few months ago, I turned down a 3-month engagement in Princeton, NJ. Therefore, I felt obligated to take this engagement. I don't want to go. I'm very much a homebody. I love sleeping in my own bed and cooking dinner in my own kitchen. And I love walking across the street to see my in-laws, and driving no more than 5 minutes to see my parents. But it will be a very good learning experience, and this is a promotion year for me, so I need to make the extra effort, blah blah blah... So I'm going to Houston. In July and August. It'll be about 100+ degrees and humid. The hotel I'll be staying in is only 2 blocks away from the client site, and all of downtown Houston is connected by underground walkways. I could theoretically never step outside the entire time I'm there. I'm gonna try it!

Happenings

Sorry, it's been a while... The trip to Colorado was a smashing success!! I got to Sioux Falls at about 5pm on Wednesday (May 25th), and we had a mini-WSU reunion. Just 3 of the former residents of 227 W. 4th Street. Thursday, we left Sioux Falls at about 7:30am. It took about 12 1/2 hours to get to Colorado Springs.

After checking into our lovely hotel, we got lost on our way to Danka's house due to a faulty map provided by Google Maps... Thanks for the lousy tip, Emily!! Google Maps failed me 3 times that weekend, although one of the failures arguably could have been my own fault... At Danka's bachelorette party, her father was passing out shots of what he called "plum juice", which in actuality were shots of 140-proof Serbian plum brandy. I swore it gave me a heart murmur... And possibly instant cirrhosis of the liver. We also went to a local boot scootin' boogie bar called "Cowboy's". Surprisingly, we discovered that Cowboy's was a line dancing country bar!

Friday, Andrea, Janna, and I did some exploring in Colorado Springs. We visited Garden of the Gods, which is a beautiful park. Then it was time to get ready for the rehearsal. On my way to the rehearsal, I was talking to Steve on the phone and got lost. I truly believe that if the Google Maps directions had been clearer, I would not have gotten lost. After the rehearsal, we had a lovely dinner at the Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, and imbibed in the best weiss beer I've ever had.

Saturday was the wedding, and it was beautiful. The mountains in the background, the setting sun, it couldn't have been more beautiful. Then on Sunday, it was time to head back to Sioux Falls. We didn't get back until about 10pm, and then Andrea (the hostess with the mostest) made me some thin pancakes (her specialty, kinda like crepes).

Monday I returned home to a SPOTLESSLY clean house, courtesy of my wonderful hubby!! He has this awesome habit of wanting to surprise me when I get home from out of town. I think he gets it from his dad. When his step-mom went out of town once for a quilting retreat, she came home to new flooring. Steve and his dad had installed laminate floors in the kitchen, dining room, and hallway while she was gone. She immediately started crying, she was so happy. Since I'm leaving for Atlanta on Sunday for a training seminar, I'm excited to see what he gets done while I'm gone.

99 Problems

I recently discovered VH1 Radio (http://www.vh1.com/music/radio/), and was listening to a song by Jay-Z when it struck me how hysterical this is. I'm sitting in the middle of a sea of cubicles filled to the brim with conservative accountants, listening to rap ("I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one."). But before I could even recount the tale to my cube-neighbor, the song was over and Matchbox 20 came on (which I quickly skipped - I may be an accountant, but I'm still too cool for adult-contemporary music).

What a wonderful weekend I had! I wish it weren't Monday. Friday night Steve and I went to a car show with his parents. We ran into my step-dad's brothers, but had missed my step-dad by about an hour. Saturday we went to my cousin's housewarming party in the middle of nowhere. If you think Hartland is in the sticks, I triple-dog-dare you to visit Watertown. Hoo-boy, we were miles from civilization!! But my cousin's house is really nice, and we had a nice time. Sunday I met my cousin and my co-bridesmaids at the bridal shop so we could all try on our dresses together. Then my mammy and I went to a jewelry party, but we didn't buy anything because it was ridiculously overpriced. Then we made up a bunch of errands to get out of there (fast!). Instead of our ficticious errands, we just went to Kohls so mammy could return a few items and get into a fist-fight with customer service. I escaped to the card aisle because fist-fights make me anxious.

Speaking of anxious, I can't type or say that word without thinking of the 5th grade spelling bee. I thought for sure I would win, because spelling was always my strong point. However, the word anxious ended my spelling bee career much too early.

Welcome to the age of technology!

Steve and I bought our very first home PC this weekend. I've always had a laptop for work, which I would bring home on weekends so Steve could search eBay and Amazon for muppet figures, pocket bikes, woodworking plans, etc. But we've never had a computer (a decent computer anyways) of our very own. The computer we currently have is about 5-7 years old, pieced together by my brother-in-law who happens to be a computer expert, and has the operating capability of an 8-digit calculator. So we bought an eMachine which came with an LCD flat-panel monitor, DVD-burner, CD-burner, AMD Athalon processor, 2.0 GHz, 500 somethings of RAM, and a "kick-ass" ATI video card. Please please PLEASE do not ask me what any of this means. We still need to get internet access though, and then we'll really be welcomed into the age of technology. I don't want to spend more than $10-15 per month (seriously), and I'm not too good for dial-up (obviously - given my cost restraints), so if anyone has any suggestions, please speak up.

I also got some gardening done, which I don't enjoy doing. I hate weeding, because I don't like bugs, and I don't like getting my hands dirty. I'm kind of a princess that way, I suppose. I'm not opposed to the work, and I do enjoy the results when everything is blooming and pretty and smells good. I especially like sitting on the deck, overlooking the backyard, and drinking a cup of coffee or tea or something. Yesterday I was doing dishes, and saw a really pretty bird at one of our bajillion bird feeders (Steve loves bird feeders, he's developed a sort of obsession, so we have about 5 of them all in the same crab-apple tree right next to our deck). Anyways, I saw this pretty bird and decided to make some hummingbird and oriole nectar. In the meantime, Steve decided to put out some grape jelly for the orioles, to attract them to the feeder. But he emptied the whole effing jar of grape jelly into a bowl. I love grape jelly, and he used it all up on the birds!! He said he didn't think I even used it, he thought it was all for the orioles... Grr...

It's been a while

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while. I haven't had anything interesting to say in the past couple of days. I work, I go home, I watch TV, I sleep, and repeat. My favorite show's season finale was on last night, which kept me glued to the TV for 2 whole hours!! My neck was stiff by the end! I just love the Amazing Race. And my favorites, Uchenna and Joyce pulled it off last night! Hooray for them!

My friends from college and I are planning a little road trip to Colorado at the end of the month to attend the wedding of another friend from college. I'm so excited about it that I've been printing maps for every combination of destinations we might need: hotel to the rehearsal, rehearsal to the rehearsal dinner, rehearsal dinner back to the hotel, hotel to our friend's house (just in case), and hotel to hospital. Well, I'm kidding about the hospital. But now that I think of it...

All my excitement about this trip is because I feel a serious lack of female relationships in my life right now. I have Courtney and Jenna, of course, and they're wonderful, but I don't see them often enough, and when I do see them, it's with our respective spouses. There's something about getting a big group of girls together, talking, having a few cocktails, getting silly, etc. It's probably the biggest thing I miss about college. I feel like I took it for granted when I lived in a house full of girls, and every night was a slumber party. Of course, I'm conveniently forgetting the petty arguments that were caused when two people were PMS-ing at the same time, and the normal roommate annoyances like not doing dishes, leaving a mess in the living room, etc.

I graduated 3 years ago this month, and I've only seen these girls 4 or 5 times since then. Each time I've seen them has been for only a weekend at a time. And now we're driving to Colorado and spending nearly a week together. So what happens if we've all changed, and this isn't the spectacular girls-only trip that I'm gearing myself up for? I guess I'll try not to worry about that right now. No use in worrying about something that hasn't happened yet. And in the mean time, I'll just put together my mix cd's, get out my old photo albums, and keep printing off maps.

I hate bees, I hate bees, I hate hate hate bees!!!

Ugh. Worst post ever. My sister (http://crunkypopjoy.blogspot.com) posted a picture of a big fuzzy scary bee on her website, and I can't erase the image from my brain. I hate bees. It's a totally irrational fear, which makes it even more frustrating. I feel like I'm a semi-intelligent person, I shouldn't be paralyzed by something so irrational. So what do I hate more, bees, or my fear of bees?

As far as I know, I'm not allergic to bees. I've never been stung though (well, I may have, but I'll get to that later), so I could potentially be allergic to bees, and not even know it! So maybe it is a rational fear!

I may have been stung last summer. I'm not sure. I noticed a bee on my hand once while gardening (which could explain why I hate hate hate gardening -- more on that some other time), and after I shook my hand to rid myself of the bee, I noticed a red dot where the bee was and it kind of hurt. It could very well be phychosomatic. So if I was stung, and it didn't even hurt very much, I shouldn't be scared anymore, right? I've (possibly) been stung and didn't die of a previously unknown fatal allergy to bee stings, so I should be okay.

However, my parents have a neighbor that nearly DIED from a bee sting. She had grown up by a lake and was stung hundreds of times before and never had an allergic reaction. But one day, only about a year or two ago, she was stung in her backyard and collapsed. Her doctor husband had to perform CPR on her for about 15 minutes until the ambulance got there with their adrenaline shot. All this in front of her two kids, ages 9 and 12. Her heart had stopped beating, she had stopped breathing, and her 12-year old son had to call 911 while his dad performed CPR. For about 15 minutes.

That's super scary. Scary enough to keep my fear of bees firmly planted in my psyche. If anything, I'm only more afraid of bees as I get older. But that's okay, I think I'll decide to be okay about this fear, even if it seems irrational at times.