Hotlanta

Next weekend, I'll be headed back to the great state of Georgia to enjoy catching up with many old friends. The schedule is jam packed and I can't wait for Easter/My Birthday.

It's going to be a LOT of fun. And I'll get to see Number 10 while I'm there, too. MMhmm. I get to hang with Blair and see some old coworkers. My little sisters and big bro are DEFINITELY on the list of those to hang with. I do miss them so.

So Happy Birthday to me next weekend. Can't wait for my trip there.

Actually, before that happens... might be able to hang with my missed connection (Number 9) on Sunday for the first time. I'll be STOKED if this actually happens. He has been traveling for work for the past few weeks. Silly!

To the rescue...

Last night, shenanigans began early for me. I met up with a few old coworkers at the restaurant I used to work at. It's probably the 3rd time I've been up there since I quit in December. It's SO crazy there that they've had to bring people in from other stores to cover shifts. There is no one to work there. (idea brewing in my head... pick up a few shifts on the weekends, not a bad idea!)

Anyway, met up with a few people there and had a few drinks (ugh, that place is SO expensive) and stuck around for a few hours. Guy number 8 was there and we bantered for a minute. Guy number 3 was also there, but I haven't told you any stories about him yet.

Fran called when she got done with work and we decided to meet up downtown. We ended up at the bar I was going to work at. We grabbed a drink and walked out to the porch and stood by the stairs. You know, scoping out the scene to see what we could see.

I see this somewhat attractive guy with a beer standing there being stand-offish to the girl that's talking to him. This girl has a belly. She has bright red flat shoes, a green top, skinny jeans, and some sort of ribbon around her midsection. She also has a way-too-short bob thing going on top of her head.

This is what happens, in perfect detail.

Girl: (inching close to dude) So, what school do you go to?
Dude: (tilts his beer up, looking around - past the girl)
Girl: (getting closer) What school do you go to?

[Me: (to Fran) I think this dude needs saving]

Dude: Umm. yah. I think my friends are around here somewhere.
Girl: (even closer) Oh, yah, I'm sure they are. But what school do you go to?
Dude: I think I see them. Hang on a sec. (moves about 6 feet away, sipping beer)
Girl: (follows him)

[Me: (to Fran) Yep, gonna move in.]

Me: (walks up to them, puts a finger in the air in her direction, and leans in his ear) I feel like you need to be rescued at this point.
Dude: The restrooms?
Me: (leaning in his ear again) No, dude, RESCUED. Act like you know me.
Dude: OMG! I DO know you from somewhere... you went to SMU, didn't you?
Me: YES! I knew it! I recognized you from SMU, that's right! What was your name again??
Dude: I'm Alex. What was yours?
Me: (shaking his hand, I tell him my name)
Dude: Wow! It's so great to see you!

She's still not leaving at this point. So, I pull the greatest move ever.

Me: Do you remember Fran?? (pointing to the stairs) You should come say hello!
Dude: Oh yah!

Success.

We got over to Fran and he was SO thankful. He thanked me a million times and went on his way. He said girl bought him a shot or something, so he took it. Never again, haha!

She returned to her friends and told them how I came between her and the catch of the night. Dirty looks made their way over to us, but I don't care. If she wants male attention, she shouldn't be so creepy!

Either way, I made his night, I guess, because later he brought us over and introduced us to all of his friends. He maintains that's the coolest thing a girl has ever done for him in his 23 years. We all exchanged numbers and will probably hang again soon.

Ah, the joys of lending a helping hand. Rewarding every single time. :) Haha!

Ranty McRanterson

This is your warning. This entire post is a rant. Every single sentence. You have the option to close your browser now. Don't say you weren't warned. ;)

I must say, It's taken longer than normal for me to get irritated with a roommate this go round. It probably has something to do with the fact that I live with a very mild-mannered guy from California. Or it could be that I've gotten older and just don't give a shit anymore.

Well, now I have some complaints... and I'm not quite sure how to go about addressing them. I thought I was doing a good job of it, but clearly I'm not.

It seems as though all of my complaints are food-centered. The guy has never lived with a roommate before, always with his parents, so I have to give him a break.

About a month or so ago, I was going to make a cake. I reached into the fridge to see that my eggs were completely gone. I don't really eat eggs, or use milk, so it's rare that I buy them. I politely explained that I didn't care if he used SOME of my eggs if he didn't have any... but that I usually need three for baking. Simple enough, right?

I've started noticing all of the other things he uses. First, it's not really that big of a deal - but he never replaces it. I buy certain quality ingredients (and don't go the el-cheapo route with some things) for a reason.

Spices. He uses them. Daily. (never seen a guy cook so much)
Eggs. (We'll get to this in a minute)
Bread.
Butter.
EVOO. (expensive as shit... and he 'over pours')
Garlic.
CHEEEEESE. (I buy the 2% slices... and he replaces with the 100% fat kind. SO annoying)
Pickles.
Soap.
Trash Bags.

He has eaten my leftovers. (gross, btw) AND made "spaghetti" with a whole box of my noodles and my sauce. Like I'm going to eat a WHOLE box of pasta?!

Anyway, so what really pushed my button is the other morning I wanted some eggs for breakfast. I usually don't eat eggs in the am, but wild hair. I reach into the fridge to pull out the 12 eggs I JUST BOUGHT a few days before.

Three. Eggs. Left.

Are you effin' kidding me?! I guess he took what I said literally, or did it just to spite me - but this has GOT to stop, dude. It'd be different if we "shared" things that he buys, but clearly he doesn't buy much. When it's my turn to buy paper towels... I buy 8 rolls. His turn, 2 rolls of the cheap shit that crumbles. Now how is that fair?

The other source of frustration from him is the 3rd roommate. His "girlfriend" stays here 6 out of 7 nights a week. Not okay. In fact, he claims that they haven't had "the talk" yet about making it official, so it's okay for him to sit at home all day and scour the internet dating sites for hot girls - talk to them (INCLUDING my friends) - and take them on dates.

Not only am I footing the bill for her water usage, but they watch their TV shows every night - and it's whoever is watching first rule. Sometimes I just want to sit on my couches and watch my TV.

Oh, and when I DO get to watch a movie or whatever on TV... they come in very loud while he cooks dinner for her (nightly) and talk in the kitchen that's connected to the living area.

I just can't win.

So what do I do, you ask? I leave my shit everywhere. So spiteful. :)

Rii-ii-iide Out

It's getting to the point where I keep a list of "blog topics" in my blackberry, because I can never get to it in a timely manner to remember what it is I was passionate about in the first place! For you, the reader, this would make things much more interesting if I were to update as these things happen - all emotion included. Clearly, I haven't organized my priorities in such a way to make it happen.

So, today, you get a random update about what goes on at my building. Entertaining, yes. Will I be able to cleverly portray what I've seen so it's just as funny to you as it was to me? Not yet sure.

It just so happens that my particular office overlooks the highway. A major highway through the city - even a junction of two major highways. We must have the best seats in the house because the strangest things seem to happen on that stretch of highway.

For example, I'll be sitting at my desk... hastily working.... when out of the corner of my eye, something will catch my attention. Unable to stay focused (rubbernecking at its finest) all three of us girls that sit along those windows will erupt into laughter about whatever the entertainment seems to be for the day.

Once, there was a man riding a "bicycle" coming off the exit. I use the term loosely, because he looked like Santa Claus with a sleigh of random shit in the back of his "bicycle". Poor guy.

Today, there was a car that ran into a mattress. While this was extremely hilarious from our point of view, I could imagine that it was not, in fact, exciting being IN that car. The funny part was the police officer trying to physically PULL the mattress out from being intertwined in the wheel well and engine of this small car.

No amount of police or man force, big guy, will allow you to remove a queen(or larger) size bed out from the tangles of a wheel well or hot engine. But watching you try - priceless.

Mr. Random Thursday

I'm writing to you about my random Thursday a few weeks ago. At the moment, it didn't seem like such an odd day. But looking back upon it, lots of strange things happened.

I started my day like any other, but with the anticipation of a "first date". Usually, I'm not freaked out about dates in general. This one was different. I hadn't really met the guy before, but we'd had many conversations for several weeks.

We (he's been dubbed guy number 7) decided to meet at a restaurant between where the two of us work (which, for me is anywhere in the afternoons) and grab a few drinks.

I headed down to the area right after lunch so I could post up at Borders to work on some of the stuff for the marketing consulting company.

While at Borders, several randoms happened:

- Guy pulls up a chair next to girl. She proceeds to tell him that he needs to quit texting her and asking her out because she doesn't like him. He tells her that he's got "mommy issues" (wtf?) and needs someone around all the time. After all, she is the one that came on to him and gave him her number. She tells him that he's acting neurotic. And the banter goes back and forth for about 20 minutes. I enjoyed every second of this train wreck.

- As I was working at Borders, this extremely hot guy sits next to me and starts working on his computer and looking at a stack of books. I wanted to say something to him, but I didn't. As I contemplated talking to him, I asked Carrie what I should say. He packed his stuff up and left in that time, several hours later. She told me I could be "letting the love of your life walk out of that bookstore"...

- Super weird dude walks over and asks if my name is Rachael. No, weird dude, I'm not anyone you've ever met before. And usually I get Jessica... not Jessica either.


The night with number 7 went by insanely quick. We talked for at least 5 hours before we decided to call it a night. We haven't really had a decent conversation since, just a few random texts back and forth. He's almost been crossed off the list. Almost.

Because I kept thinking about Borders dude (we'll call him number 9) and had no way to reach him, I decided to post a "missed connection" on Craigslist. I never thought anything would come of it (and actually forgot about it) until I got an email a few days later. Seriously!? Does this ever happen??

We've talked a little bit but the guy is a work-a-holic. He goes out of town all the time and we haven't met up again yet. Not even sure if it'll go anywhere, but he's fun to talk to nonetheless.

Oh Mr. Random Thursday, how I have enjoyed you so...

10 Things I need to find motivation to do...

1. File my taxes. I know some of this isn't my doing (the whole procrastinating) but I need to just buckle down and go do it!
2. Learn Illustrator CS2. I bought a few books some weeks ago and just need to get into them.
3. Take a French Class. Honing my French skills before they disappear would be nice. This might be one of my "getting out of debt rewards" to myself. Hmmm...
4. Iron my clothes. My wardrobe is significantly limited when half my shiz isn't ironed when I go to put it on in the AM. OF COURSE I'd rather sleep the extra 10 mins.
5. Finish some mktg. conslulting co. projects in queue. New, more pressing, things have just come up all the time!
6. Keep up with the working out regime. I was going 3x a week for a while and I just haven't found the time recently. I went today, so that was good!
7. File the papers to sue the biatch.

Ok, so there's 7. The shorter this list, the happier I'll be about this. Gotta love figuring shit out.... :)

Google-r

I am a googler. I use gmail, blogger (of course), picasa, adsense, google desktop, calendar, google voice, fast flip... and many other google functions in my daily life. I just love google applications.

Today, at the oil and gas co., I was discussing with my boss the importance of an analytics program behind our website. I, being the marketer that I am, find it necessary to track visitors on your site, find out how they use your site, how long they're there - and what they see. This can help you in the long run with adjustments to drive more traffic. Not only that, but google will actually suggest some changes to your site to make it optimal for search engines. It all makes sense to me.

He agrees. (although he's not 'technically' a marketing professional)

Then he launched some schpiel to me about how he didn't want to pay for back end analytics, that it just costs too much money, etc. etc. As an avid google fan, my first response was to suggest Google Analytics. It's free, and it sets you up for good times with other google applications later. Win, win.

He proceeds to tell me that google isn't the only analytics tool out there. I think I stopped listening at that point. He doesn't know what he's talking about. In my world, it is. :)

Debt is not your friend.

Debt is stressful. I'll be the first one to admit it. I have no idea why I'm stressed more about it now that I make twice what I was making last year - but it seems to have snowballed. And I feel out of control.

I do have some credit card debt, but the bulk of it is student loans and that precious little car that I drive around.

Monthly payments just creep up on me like nobody's business. $50 bucks here for one student loan... $50 bucks there for another one... $200 here for the HUGE student loan... then there's my tag renewal that's coming up and I may or may not have to pay the IRS a shit-ton of money.

Then there are credit card payments galore. I think I might vomit just thinking about it. It's all manageable, but it is seriously holding me back from any fun there is to be had.

I've read the Total Money Makeover and feel like this plan is "feasible" but it is SO depressing to know that you work SO hard and make a pretty good deal of money... just to see it gone before you even get it.

I know I'm the one that put myself in this mess, and I'll certainly be the one to get myself out.... it just takes a lot of discipline.

I know that getting a weekend job serving somewhere would help me do it faster... but I can't seem to find a place that wants to hire someone with such limited availability. I may look into that this week.

Such a random post. And how appropriate that Pandora is playing "Somewhere in between" by Lifehouse. Love this song... ;)

Oh the randomness...

I'm just trying to keep up with life. My life is uber fun at the moment and I like it that way. Updating Carrie every day on new dating situations, going to happy hours and on dates... and all that fun stuff :)

Fran and I have started going out every weekend and having a blast. We meet new people, dance it up at the Dallas clubs, and have so much fun doing whatever the fuck we feel like.

I have probably 20 stories to tell you, but I'm not even sure where to begin. Even worse, coming up with aliases for all these douchebags is an intricate process. Maybe I should just start numbering them. Hmm... that would be easy!

I went out with not-so-random dude number 8 last night. He and I met up for happy hour and talked the night away. He and I used to work together at the restaurant and he just recently broke up with his girlfriend (the cheatin' biatch!). Anyway, it was lots of fun - and that's all I can publicly say.

I have a feeling that letting the blogger world in on my shenanigans might bite me in the ass one day. I have tried to keep it as top secret as I can (about me) but I'm not sure it's working exceptionally well.

I mean, no one used to know that I lived in Atlanta - now you do...and you know I live in Dallas now. That is kinda creepy.

So, bloggers, I ask you... what exactly do you want to hear about? Shenanigans with mens? OR just the normal bi-weekly random update?

I have a feeling the shenanigas are going to win and I'm going to be divulging a lot of juicy secrets...