trip to Santa Barbara

Here's so real cute videos of Clara playing with a Budda and doing "Crazy Feet".

She freakin rocks!

HALLOWEEN!!!!!

"No, I'm not from XMEN."
"No, I'm not a Power Ranger."
"No, I'm not Wonder Woman."

"No, I'm not wearing a wig."
"I'M SILK SPECTRE FROM WATCHMEN!"-----True story.


You can kindda see my blue contacts here. Those were a bit uncomfortable, but totally worth it.

Obviously, I had a lot of fun with this costume.

The cops LOVED Dales' War Machine costume. They pulled over to the side of the road just to get a look at it!

War Machine and Tyrone from Chappelle Show.

All the Ladies! (My Award-Winning Mrs. Santa Claus outfit, Silk Spectre, and Lyla from Jonah Hex)

Instead of Skydiving, I went ZIPLINING!!

First and foremost, I am sorry I haven't posted anything new in a long time. I go through phases, it's very normal. Second, I went ziplining last week and it was so much fun! My only gripes (is that a word?) is that I wish there more zips and I wish they were longer zips. Here are a few pics. This zip place is west of Austin and absolutely beautiful to be in and peaceful. I went with a group of girls from work who I was happy to see also enjoy themselves. I'm hoping to start doing more excited things like this in the future, I just need people to do it with me!







Here is a video my friend took of me zipping....sorry it's sideways but it's not that difficult to tilt your head to the side to watch it, so don't complain.

Skydiving

So, I'm going to go skydiving soon....probably real soon. Anyone want to come out here and do it with me?

Mom.....

I just received an email from the guy I ordered your birthday present from (back in April) saying he forgot to send it waaaaay back in the day.....so he sent you two!! Happy Belated birthday!

It was a sad day

I've somewhat enjoyed this birds nest that has mysteriously showed up on my porch. And I mean somewhat because where there's birds, there's birds**t. Sorry for such foul language but when the pile gets THAT big....it's S**T. I woke up this morning, opened up the blinds for Rusty to enjoy the day and noticed.....a dead baby bird. You can see it in the picture as the gray blob. Needless to say, I got teary eyed since I've let this family of birds occupy my porch and crap on my rug, I've grown to love them. Why? Because they choose ME! Anyway....it destroyed the beginning of my workday. And now I'm letting this sad news destroy the rest of YOUR day. Sorry.


Oh yeah, P.S.....when I noticed the bird's nest, I also noticed the Hornets Nest....needless to say, the hornets nest was gone in two days. I guess they get along huh?

Free stuff is so awesome!

So last week, Tascha and I went shopping at Victoria's Secret and right before I got into line to purchase an awesome new swimsuit top, Tascha takes me to the perfume section to show me the new, and slightly expensive Blackberry perfume. As we are standing there spraying ourselves, some creepy old dude, possibly in his mid-60's comes up to us and asks our opinion on which perfume to purchase his girlfriend. We explain to him that new one we were testing out was pretty good and he just continues to talk to us, which is when Natascha walks away because she feels uncomfortable. However, I stuck around alittle bit to help him out with his product purchases. He then states, "I'll take one for me and one for you!" as he points to me. Then, as I was smelling some massage lotion, he asks if it smelled good, to which I said it was pretty good, so he bought me that too!!!! I walked out of that store with $55 worth of stuff. Let me just add that it was probably the most awkward 10 minutes of my entire life because the guy was soooooo weird, but whatever. As I was walking out of the store/trying to escape the twilight zone, he started to follow me to the door and kept telling me how pretty I was. I just smiled and said thank you, then ran to another store leaving Natascha in Victorias Secret. Free stuff is so awesome!!!

What's the Point?

Last night after work, I went running with Tim (Hawkins) around Town Lake here in Austin which is something he and I like doing every once in awhile. It's real nice to run around the beautiful lake in the evening when it's starting to cool down, however, you just have to dodge the millions of gnats. I get one in my mouth/teeth every single time. We ended up running 4 miles, which for me was awesome....but I wanted to die in the end. My question is.....





what is it about running your butt off that makes you want to eat a juicy, delicious cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickles, and mustard??











After running, I convinced Tim to go with me to Dan's Hamburgers, this local burger place here. And it was.....AWESOME!!!!




With curly fries on the side and a large Barqs Root Beer. I'm sure however many calories I just ran off, I replaced double time with this hankerin for a cheeseburger. Oh well.

Life is pretty awesome.

It's not you, it's me.

I'm through with Chuck. It just got too cheesy. I hate that I'm feeling this way because Chuck is one of the coolest guys ever....but his sister annoys the crap out of me. Also, there isn't enough Captain Awesome, more of him, preferably with his shirt off couldn't hurt. So long Chuck. It's been a good run.

look closely. its a mouse on a cat on a dog. oh austin, how u amuse me.

This is a pic I forgot I took of Rusty at the park next to our old house at Keesler AFB. Mom and I stopped by the old "neighborhood" on the way to Austin and saw that our neighborhood was no longer. They replaced it with brand new awesome base housing. Even though it was nice to see the base and the park, I really wanted to see our old house. So mom and I went to the park to play and eat. We stayed as long as we could until the No-See-Ums pushed us out. They were awful!! Anyway, although Rusty did very well on the long three day drive, I'm sure he really needed to run around.


By the way, as I type this, a commercial for the series premier of Mall Cops:Mall of America is on tv....I"M SO EXCITED!!!!

Iron Man 2!!

On Saturday, my friend Dale and I (I call him Gayle sometimes) went to see Iron Man 2. Of course, growing up with Lt. Col Gregory Young, I had him meet me at the theater 45 minutes....which I didn't know was too early, but apparently it was. The theater wasn't even cleaned up after the previous movie yet. So to pass the time until we could go sit down, Gayle and I went to go play some Air Hockey. We put the dollar in quarters in the machine, but nothing happened. After some mini-investigation, we saw it was turned off. And Gayle, being the dude he is, crawls on his knees underneath the table and turned it on. Then we put another dollar in, but no puck comes out. We then concluded that the game was turned off for a reason.....lack of puck. Gayle wants to give up and go sit down, but I didn't want two dollars to go to waste. of course. So i go find a manager and I say,

"Hey, the air hockey game stole dollars from me."
and he says,
"Well, looks like you just lost two bucks."
and I say,
"No. It looks like I just gained some free Popcorn."
"You want some free popcorn?"
"I want free anything."
"Okay i'll get you some popcorn."


Score, direct hit. Too bad right before I got the free popcorn, I bought a hot dog and nachos. And I don't even like popcorn!!!

On to the movie....IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't like Scarlett JOhannson all that much but I have decided I'm going to be the Black Widow for Halloween.

Stuttering Stylist!!!

I went to a Beauty School yesterday for a $7 haircut...yes $7....not a typo. And of all the people in the school and of all the people in the world....I GET THE STUTTERER. She didn't just stutter....she took minutes to get out full sentences. And when she would get frustrated, she started spitting from all the stuttering. She needs her own documentary!!!!

Remember that scence in Return to Oz where the Wheeler was talking about Princess Mombi but couldn't get her name out, he just went "MmmmommMMoooommMMMmmmmBI!!!" IT WAS LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Christmas present from JapanLand

I finally got around to putting up the Japanese Wall paintings(?) is that was they are called? Anyway, the match my new couch perfectly! I just freakin love it! Thanks Tyler and Anna:) by the way, putting it up? PAIN IN THE BUTT. but totally worth the measuring and all the math.

Rusty's new comfort zone

One day I was sitting at my desk and looked around for Rusty not know where he was. Starting to get alittle worried, I stood up to go look for him and he was here! under my computer chair! What a little goober.

Philadelphia Freedom

I'm free from the city that I OhSo Love but also OhSo need a nice long break from. I have been realizing that Philadelphia and I were in a reckloose, fun but abusive relationship. Phil and I loved eachother, but also loathed eachother at the same time. I also had a apartment that I hated but loved. The mice sucked. Not having a dishwasher sucked. The endless amounts of dust, no heating in the winter/no cooling the summer also sucked. But I loved the area and I loved my backyard.

I'm going to miss my friends. Marisa and Britt are two of the coolest people I have ever met and I'm happy they have let me into their lives with open arms. Bryan, Rusty and I will miss you....until we meet again. Until then, Austin here I come!

Moving to Austin update

So everyone knows I'm moving to Austin right? Right. I have pretty much 70% of my things all packed up and ready to be picked up by the movers that are coming next thursday afternoon (the 11th). I'm extremely happy with myself for getting as much done as I have no early on in the process. The bad part is, when someone comes over to look at the apartment, it's nothing but boxes and walls full of spackled holes (yes I did spackle, no messy!) Today I was woken up from a deep slumber at 4pm (I worked last night)by a knock at the door and Rusty freaking out. It was one of the Spanish mainentance guys that works for my landlord that wanted to take a look around the place since he was interested in renting it out. I was so glad at that point that I had recently cleaned up for some other interested lookers. We get to the bedroom...very clean with nothing on the floor except...MY BRA.

very cute. I didn't waste time kicking it over since he walked in the room first and me trying to get rid of it would only bring attention to my pink polka dot bra. What can you do?!?!




I was also so happy that I had Febrezed the crap out of the place since when I got home from work, Rusty had planted loads and loads of diarrhea all over my dining room causing the apartment to smell like, well, diarrhea. Normally I would just cleaned it up, washed the rug and thats that. And why does Rusty have awful diarrhea you ask? Well because he ate some days-old frozen pepperonies someone threw in my backyard that Rusty dug out from the snow. Thats why! I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE!!

Thank you Antimicrobial Febreze!


I must say I am quite excited for the 3-day roadtrip with mom. I already purchased a macbook car charger so that we can watch movies all day long! (mom it's coming in the mail soon to be arriving at your house.) I was complimented recently on how "organized" I was about my packing. That's all mom. When labeling boxes, I'm resisting writing the word "stuff" after everything. Remember Dad? electrical stuff, cleaning stuff....well if you don't, I do.

Signing out.

Wanted....

Anyone have an extra Wii Sensor Bar?? A stupid mouse chewed through mine behind my entertainment center. I hope that mouse died of electric shock.

And I was sooo looking forward to playing World of Goo tonight!!!!! Dang it!!!!!

It's been a few months....slacking off is one of my favorite qualities

This is Clara getting ready to see the Dophine Show at the aquarium in Hachinohe (is that right Anna?) She signs water and baby.


Feeding the seagulls on the boat tour.....I just wished we got the video of my finger getting bitten by one of those little buggers! Do you hear the Japanese music in the background? After about an hour of that music, I wanted to cut my ears off.


And finally, a video of clara and her wonderful sounds to make you smile and laugh on a crappy day.....


Very loud sounds out of a very small person...but, when you gotta go, you gotta go!
<

A trip down memory lane...

Oh Japan....I want to go back!!!!

just call me Foregirl!

I called mom today to tell her how happy I was. I finally got a new driver's license, a new checking account, all new credit cards, three job interviews in two weeks in Austin and no more jury duty!!!!!!!

My friend Brit (Brittney, but I'm Brittnie and she's Brit) DARED me to volunteer to be the foreman. And I did it!! I called myself the "Foregirl" to the court marshall and I think he liked that very much. And the best part about being foregirl? Getting to boss people around!!! I absolutely loved it! So, I hereby dare each and every one of you to volunteer to be the foremen if you are ever a juror. You won't regret it!

I'm watching Toddlers and Tiaras and see 3 year old get spraytanned is pretty disturbing, yet kindda funny since she giggled and laughed the whole time. Poor kids.

Want to see EVERY SINGLE pore on my face?

http://www.timothyjhawkins.com....Enter site, click on portfolio, then Portraits. See a familiar face??

What do you think?

Philly can suck it.

Let just go through the list of what has sucked the most in the past two months....

Had to work Christmas, sucked. But then finally made it home to MD on Christmas night to have "Christmas Eve", changed into brand new jammies and off to bed. The morning after, presents were opened all morning....Santa must've thought I was a real good girl this year!! Thank you Santa! Then the day was topped with an amazing Christmas dinner, not to mention THE BEST Yorkshire Pudding prepped by mom and dad. Got see Giff and Christina Sunday night, then I was on the road on Monday morning to come back to Philly.....

That evening, i go on a date with Bryan (whom i've been seeing for a few months but is no longer in the running to become America's Next Top Model). We go see a cheap movie, leave the theater to get a cab and all of a sudden, this black guy has a gun pointed to my FAVORITE SILVER SNAKESKIN BEBE PURSE and is demanding I hand it over to him....not only did I freeze in that breath, in that stance and in time, but I couldn't do anything but stare at this black (9mm) gun that this black dude has against my stomach to point at my point. Bryan grabs the purse off my arm (since I went into a temporary catatonic state) and basically throws it at this nice young man equipped with a firearm and he runs off. What next you say?? Bryan runs after him. Not wanting someone to get shot over a $70 purse, I freak out, yell his name to come back and continue to do so for about 10 seconds. Then I run into a Chinese take out (Yummy Yummy) and demanded a phone to call the police. The Asian girl looked at me like I was Big Bird and kept looking at some Asian dude sitting at a table....who eventually and finally came to me with their cordless. With my hands shaking and me TRYING to stay calm, I call 911, report where the craphead ran, then call dad to cancel my credit cards. I get off the phone, instructed to "Wait there" and I see a slew of cop cars looking for this guy, but going the wrong way. Great. I yell at them and pointed where he ACTUALLY ran to. But they just stopped there, got my report and gave me the option of going home or going to the police station and making an official statement to a detective. "Well of course I want to talk to a detective!!" I said. So, 3 and a half hours and many many many phone calls later (to mom and dad, to friends to get spare apartment keys, to work) i go grab Rusty, important documents, a change of clothes and head to a friends house for the night. The next morning, my apartment locks are changed, accounts are put on hold, I called out work (after my boss asked me to call coworkers to see if they could work for me...like I had nothing else to do with my time.) But best of all, Mom and Dad drove up to Philly to bring me my spare car keys. It was nice to have Dad finally see my apartment since he helped me move in. But it was even more nice to get to hug mom and dad after such an experience. So they went with me to the bank to take care of a few things, mom even got a few items on her "to do" list checked off, then we went to lunch.

I should get mugged more often just to have mom and dad come visit me!!!!!

Of course, in my purse is my jury summons....great, that's gone, now I don't have to go right??? Wrong. The day of my original date to report for jury duty, I call them and say, oh no I can't come in....they didn't buy it and just rescheduled me for two days later. This brings up to the week after the mugging on a Wednesday...I go to downtown Philadelphia jury duty....oh what a wonderful experience!!! My previous jury duty experience was in little ole' Ellicott City where I reported at 8 am and was sent home by noon due to them not needing any more jurors. Not the case in Philly. I reported at 8 am, go through a metal detector while my purse goes through the xray machine and head to the main jury room that houses approx 400 jurors. I get choosen in a group of 25 jurors to go to a courtroom and get questioned for a Criminal case of why I think I won't be a good juror. I got that one in the bag. When it came down to my turn, I state my reason "Good morning Your Honor." "Hi Juror number 4, you stated on your questionnaire that you would be an unfair juror, what is your reason for this?" "I was mugged at gunpoint last week." "Next juror please." awesome. I'm going home.....so I thought. I was then told to go back to the main juror room, or the slaughter house, so I called it. Then I get called into another case! This time, it's a civil case. I told them why it would be a hardship for me to become a juror, told of the mugging, they stated they were sorry that happened and then ended up PICKED ME!!!! So needless to say, it's been a very interesting past few weeks. At least I get to spend quite a bit of time at the historic City Hall in downtown Philly.

So what now you ask?? I'm moving to Austin!! I have two job interviews coming up in the beginning of February. After securing a job, I'll get an apartment, probably online or over the phone and start packing! I loved Philly off and on up until the mugging, but now, the love it lost and I'm excited to make another change.

So stay tuned!!!