Party trifecta!

I've been thinking in movie/TV quotes more than usual this week. If you can guess what TV show that's from, I'll buy you a cookie.

It's barely 8 a.m. on a Saturday - my only day to sleep in! - and I'm awake because SOME DUMB CAT (ELLIOTT) won't stop jumping on things and making noises. Ugh.

I feel really crummy this morning, most likely due to the massive amount of sugar I consumed yesterday. We had our office Christmas party, and we had catered in delishhhhh food, and there was candy scattered all over all the tables and ... well I need to learn a little self-control. After work I got all dressed up for Matt's friend's rehearsal dinner, and they were trying to pawn off all their dessert food afterwards, and somehow I ended up with an entire pie. I was like, great, what am I going to do with this? I can't let myself eat a whole pie! I tried to give it away to one of my neighbors, who was outside smoking when I got home, and he took half of it, but was all, "I can't take your whole pie from you!" and I'm like, "PLEASE, I don't need to keep a pie in my house." I don't keep sugary stuff at home, because if it's there I'll eat it. I do enough of that at work every day. Plus this guy has kids, kids love pie. Well, at least now I only have half a pie to worry about, and someone suggested freezing it, so maybe I'll do that.

The rehearsal dinner was in this really cute art gallery that was full of Aggie-related pictures. There were a lot of pictures of the various Reveilles and a lot of football pictures - even pictures of Aggies playing football with Longhorns - so I asked Matt where were the pictures of the Aggies playing the Sooners, and he said that since OU wasn't in their fight song, we weren't special. I beg to differ, sir, I beg to differ. There was also a train caboose outside, and it was just a cute place overall.

I hope my stories are at least somewhat interesting, ya'll. I try to take mundane things and make them sound cooler than they actually are (without exaggerating) because really I'm not that exciting in my day-to-day life. So I hope my pointless Allie stories are amusing, if nothing else. Have any suggestions about things for me to write about? I will totally do it. :)

Last weekend was the biannual Percussion Studio show, which was awesome. The theme was YouTube videos, and there were a lot of creative things done for it. Then, mid-week after all the college kiddies were done with finals, Percussion Studio did their annual boxer gift exchange (everyone brings boxers and Yankee Swap ensues). Ended up with some South Park boxers that are really soft, so now I have some new PJ pants? Somehow, awesomely, I have become an honorary PS member, along with another friend, Jackie, whose boyfriend is also in Studio. We end up at all their events and we're just awesome that way. ANYWAY. That party was followed by another party for being done with finals, and I went for an hour or two, but since it was a Wednesday night and I am an old woman who has to work, I left like, five hours (!!) before everyone else.

Today is the wedding (Matt's a groomsman, hopefully I can remember how to get to the church...), tomorrow my book club is doing a White Elephant gift swap and hors d'ouevres. Things are crazy! Hope your weekend is awesome too.

A Rant

One thing that I dislike about working in an office is that there isn't much opportunity to get up and move around, so I find myself sitting all day, then I come home and I sit some more, and right now my legs are practically withering away from disuse.

I've been a chronic worrier all my life. I've been given worry dolls, I've prayed, I've talked to therapists ... and while all have helped to an extent, today I got so irritated at myself. I realized that my constant anxiety is WORTHLESS. It is a COLOSSAL waste of my time. And I know this realization probably won't make anything change, but I don't WANT to worry anymore. It doesn't give me the control that I think it does. So why do I do it? This is a hypothetical question ... but I know in some circumstances, I've been worrying about the same things for so long that I just don't know how to NOT worry.

OK, I'm done being frustrated. Other goings-on ...
• My aunt came to C.S. for work last week, and she stayed with me for a couple days. I don't know a whole lot of things to do here, so I guess it's good that she stays busy working. Anyway, she got assigned to come down here again, so I'll get to see her this week too, and then my sister got jealous (even though she lives 15 minutes from my aunt), and decided that she wanted to come visit (on a completely different week...) and that makes no sense to me, but I am always happy to see family. :)
• We are working on creating a Sunday tradition. There is this local BBQ place, C & J's, that is very close to Matt's apartment, but he had never been there before I moved here. Since then, we've gone a few times after church, and now Matt always wants to go get barbecue. I told Rachel about it, because she likes barbecue too, and now when she comes to visit I have to take her, plus Freebirds, because she always demands that we go to Freebirds.
• After several weeks of attending a particular church here, I think we've decided that it isn't for us, and we will continue looking.
• I was supposed to meet some people from book club at a Chinese restaurant tonight, but after about 15 minutes no one had shown up, so I just left. I was a little hesitant about the restaurant once I got there anyway; it smelled delicious, but was kind of dingy, and there was a sad fish tank with half the tank's dirty water evaporated. Does not inspire confidence.

That's all I can think of for now, and I want to get some ice cream, so peace out homies.

Sandwiches! Sandwiches!

Matt and I went to a new sandwich shop, Sub Culture. I think it's a super awesome name for a sandwich shop. However, on the way back home Matt mispronounced it "Cub Soldier" so now that's what I'm calling it. :) I'm such a nice person.

This week has gone by really fast. I've been staying pretty busy at work, but I like being busy. I've gotten to do a bunch of sweet designs for drive-through windows for some potential clients.

Book club has been growing pretty rapidly, so they decided to start doing "dinner club" as well, so now smaller groups go out for food once a week. This week we went to Wings N More, and it was uh-MAZING.

I'm working on finishing a book I've been reading the entire summer. I'm supposed to start the next book for book club, but I am frustrated that I'm not finished with this other one I've been working on for so long.

My aunt is coming over now, so I'll post more later.

A Post Before Sleeping

I think THIS commercial is so clever.

As I've posted before, I am in the process of learning how to cook. I haven't quite gotten the hang out what things actually go together, so I blindly follow recipes in the hope that whoever wrote them knows better than I do. This is sometimes, but not always, true. As most of my cooking is highly experimental, I am very lucky to have a boyfriend who is always willing to partake in free (for him) food, no matter what the results. I am always a little bummed when things don't work out and I waste time and money, but mainly I just like that recipes require me to buy and try stuff that I otherwise wouldn't.

I finished up my scrapbooking and am now looking for another project. I was all excited when Matt actually asked to look at the finished results. No one is ever interested in my scrapbooks! It makes me very happy to share ... because otherwise what would be the point of documenting everything?

I can't remember the Mary Poppins cleaning-up song. Otherwise I'd put the lyrics here.

I know no one really cares about this, but I find it very ironic that when you pay money to buy the kind of sunscreen that's supposed to NOT clog your pores, you break out more than you would if you had just bought regular ol' Coppertone. We went to Inks Lake this past weekend, which was way fun, but my skin is now freaking out.

Been trying out lots of local restaurants, mainly in the two-block radius around where I work, which happens to be about 20 minutes from where I live. A girl I work with and I go to lunch about once a week, and I love that there are no chains within walking distance (except Subway). We went to a cute little Italian place, Square One Bistro last week, which was YUM (I am having a minor love affair with all things Italian), and today we went to get Mexican at Papa Perez. I am rather picky about my Mexican food, and have yet to find anything that can beat out El Fenix, but they had very good tacos. Tomorrow is my birthday, and we are going to go out and get drinks after I help Matt move. Unfortunately she's moving to Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks, which is awesome for her, but I am sad she'll be leaving.

I've been trying to clean my apartment, which has become a lot more work since Roachgate, because I had to rewash almost every dish in my kitchen (I didn't bother with stuff in the top shelves of my cabinet. I might end up going back and doing that later out of paranoia, but I am assuming bug spray around the floor won't mess up stuff that high up?). Also, wood floors are a lot more difficult to clean than I thought they would be. They make it look so easy in the commercials when dust is the only things your Swiffer needs to pick up.

Need to do some more stuff before it gets too late and I get lazy. I really need to go grocery shopping, but I think that might have to wait until another day.

Most people either live to eat or eat to live. I live to write about what I'm eating.

In my intro to sociology class in college, we spent a great deal of time talking about what some book called "McDonaldization." Basically, it's that chain restaurants create some magic formula for their food so that no matter where in the world you visit, their restaurant/fast food chain's meals will always taste the same. A big part of this class was spent discussing the "Iron Cagers," "Rubber Cagers" and "Velvet Cagers." The velvet cagers were the ones who loved this about restaurants, and stick to major chains because they like what is familiar. The iron cagers are the ones who always try to break free of the chains, primarily visiting local restaurants only. The rubber cagers were kind of in between, liking a little bit of both. This class bored me to tears, so I'm sorry I had to explain it.

My family has always been iron cagers. They like trying out every local place when we travel somewhere new, and my dad gets restless with eating the same foods all the time. One of my biggest goals since moving here (far aside from finding a job) has been finding local restaurants. I would consider myself more of a rubber cager. But along with being sick of fast food and enjoyment of cooking for myself came a desire to try a lot of local food places.

Today I wanted to try Firehouse Subs, a place that I thought was local, but my mother informed me a little while ago that there's one off the highway up by her house, so that's kind of a bummer. BUT, it was AWESOME. They have amazing subs, and Matt and I decided that it was way better than Jimmy John's, and we couldn't decide if it was better than Quizno's. The only problem was that the sandwiches were HUGE, and I couldn't finish mine even though I ordered the smallest size. The interior was really cute too, with Dalmation-spotted tabletops and fireman-themed everything.

My current adventure has been looking for a church down here. What makes this interesting is that I'm pretty flexible about church-going; I went to a Presbyterian kindergarten, but soon after that we stopped attending church altogether. In high school my now-former-roommate Julie started dragging me to her Methodist church, and I continued going to a Methodist church through college because that's what I was used to. I don't really consider myself to be of any particular denomination though; I prefer to label myself a Christian and leave it at that, because sometimes the labels cause too many problems among different groups. So we've been trying out a lot of different places. So far we've found the Church that Feels Like School and the Rock Concert Church, both of which we've nixed. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I haven't found it yet. But the search has been fun. I think I'll just know when the place is right.

By the way, now because of this town, I keep trying to capitalize the word "college," even when used to informally describe the university which I attended. Thanks for that.

Hi, I'm Allie and I'm a bibliophile.

Yesterday was pretty fabulous. After work, I went to get dinner with some of Matt's friends' girlfriends. We went to this cute little Asian restaurant, Rosie's Pho, a couple blocks away. It was pretty good food, and better company. Fortune cookie: "The best things in life aren't things." :) Unfortunately I had to dash out after dinner, because last night was the first meeting of a book club I found. We were reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, which I recommend, even though it was a little tough to get through. It's all about how our "Western diet" focuses too much on trying to be healthy through supplements and particular nutrients instead of focusing on eating whole food, and how the "Western diseases" (diabetes, heart disease, obesity) would be less of a problem if people would choose less processed food and stop making food decisions based on health claims.

Anyway, we went to Caffe Capri for the meeting (which had AMAZING cheesecake in ridiculously large slices). I think I am really going to enjoy going to these meetings. Mostly women who are in grad school or have just finished school, most of them engaged or married, and most of them pretty new to town. I'm very glad for this, because everyone seems very open to meeting new people, and it's not such a college-y environment. Don't get me wrong, I love the college environment, but I was seriously worried when I moved here that I wouldn't find anyone to hang out with that wasn't still in school. I'm really looking forward to getting to know them. Plus, one of them lives in my apartment complex, so maybe she will have the answer as to what to do with the curtain problem?!

There is a fly in my apartment that is driving me crazy. I finally did dishes, too. I made brownies the other day, and they were only okay, but they managed to dirty almost every dish I own, and I didn't get around to doing them yesterday. Major gross. But SHOCKER: I think I might actually love cooking! But, I am not particularly good at figuring out what goes well together sans recipe. So I am looking for a way to quickly use up a lot of cilantro, red onion and snow peas before they go bad. (Not necessarily in the same dish, but whatever.) Any ideas?

America's Next Broke Homemaker

GREAT day yesterday. Okay day today. We're going to do this by topic today.

Money. Already broke my no-more-spending rule, but it was for a good reason! Yesterday I FINALLY found a "manly" bedspread (this was a requirement; Matt wanted it to be manly, I wanted it to be pretty, so we compromised on getting a pretty set in semi-manly colors), and it is BEAUTIFUL! Sage green and brown. When I ever get around to taking pictures of my apartment, I will post them for all to see. I wanted to wait until my curtains were up, but I am STILL having issues with that one (see topic: Lowe's).

Party. Last night we went to a party with some of Matt's friends, and it was a fantastic time. We basically hung out outside all night, and it was really nice; I can't remember the last time I just sat outside. Despite the many bug bites I discovered this morning, it was much needed social time. Matt's friends are really cool, and their girlfriends are cool, so I am looking forward to getting to know them better. (See topic: This Evening)

Lowe's. In an attempt to finally get curtains hung today, I took a little trip to Lowe's. This was much more complicated than it sounds. Apparently Google maps doesn't know that one of the streets here splits into two different streets, and so I went on a 10-15 minute run-around trying to find a street that didn't exist on the wrong fork. When I finally found Lowe's, they didn't have screws short enough to fit into the wall (for some reason I can't drill more than half an inch into the wall, and the screws that came with the curtain rod are too long). The college guy running that aisle told me I should buy a hacksaw and get one of the thicker screws and just make it shorter myself, but I have no idea what I would do with a hacksaw once I got one. Plus I'm not spending money, remember?

This Evening. Overall, today has not been the best. But it had its good moments, the first being that I went to Layne's for the first time for some chicken (here, it is in heavy competition with Raising Cane's, but to be honest, they are pretty much exactly the same). Matt's friend Matt works there, and invited me to come tonight for some free chicken with the purchase of a drink (Allie likes free food). It was slow, so we got to sit and talk for a little while, then I came home to watch So You Think You Can Dance and other quality TV (see topic: Modeling Shows). After a little while, I decided to go to the McDonald's across the street to get a Redbox DVD, since Matt went to see the Rangers play and that means I can watch bad chick flicks. I opted for Bride Wars, which NONE of you wanted to see with me and it was REALLY CUTE AND YOU MISSED OUT!!! :) I am thinking this Redbox thing is a good idea, since there are quite a few movies that I wanted to see over the past semester, but never got a chance to (THANKS, CAPSTONE).

Modeling Shows. Tyra Banks may be freakin' crazy on America's Next Top Model, but damn does she know how to turn out fierce models. While flipping channels, I came across She's Got The Look, a modeling show for women over 35. I think this is a great idea; you know, embrace aging, all women are beautiful, etc. However, in watching the photo shoots and casting calls, I am struck by how unprofessional everything is in comparison to ANTM (despite SGTL also featuring supermodels, though not ones I've ever heard of). The judges absolutely raved over this one woman's photo, even though her face was totally dead. I wonder how the other modeling shows are, because other than that crap Most Smartest Model, I haven't watched any of them. But even through the madness, I will still have mad love for ANTM. I can't stop my curiosity about what will come out of Tyra's mouth (and imagination) next.

In Response. Pam, try going to a secondhand furniture store. Not like Goodwill, but a place that only sells furniture. In Oklahoma, Alyson and Lola bought a couch for a semester from a secondhand store, and it was decently nice. Amy, I am glad I am not the only one with a padded dining room table. My mom had one too, but my family is kind of weird about furniture. My dad spent a year in California, and he slept on a blow-up mattress and only had furniture he found in the garbage outside his apartment complex.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

I've been COOKING since I moved! When I was living in OK, Alyson told me she never ate TV dinners, and always cooked instead. I thrived (survived?) on TV dinners, because I was/am lazy and don't particularly enjoy cooking. But, one of my goals in moving here is to learn to cook things, and hopefully learn to enjoy cooking as well. So far my biggest success has been sweet 'n spicy meatballs in my Crock Pot.

Went to the movies with Matt yesterday to see Up. I love Pixar. It was adorable, and such a good story. Plus, I had never seen an animated movie in 3D before, so that was a pretty cool experience. There are a lot of 3D movies coming out.

Even though Texas and Oklahoma are not that far from each other, the weather is WORLDS different. It has been hot and muggy the last couple days. I've been used to a drier kind of heat, so I'm trying to do the whole "embrace your hair's natural texture" thing, and doing the wave. Waves don't go very well with bangs.

I'm really missing my girls. Excluding Matt, I have one friend here from high school, and we got dinner the other night. But I miss having people around all the time. In Norman, our house was kind of the hub of hanging out, so we always had people around. I am not a clingy person by nature, and so I am irritating myself by being so attached-at-the-hip to Matt, but I hate being lonely.

I have been reading a lot though. That's been a plus. I love reading, and I'm glad to have the opportunity. Especially since I tend to start two to three books at the same time, and then it takes me forever to get through them.

Also, am planning to start a part-time internship in a week or so, where I'll get to do a little bit of copywriting!

Tomorrow I am buying Hercules Hooks and hanging up my curtains. Fo' real.

Women are not meant to use tools. This is why we keep men around.

I really don't get the point of those plastic "anchors" you're supposed to put in the wall before you put in screws before hanging things up. Is plastic really that strong, that it is necessary on top of METAL to keep something as simple as a (very lightweight) piece of fabric from falling off the wall?

It sucks that my boyfriend has a broken leg, and does not have the full range of motion that he usually does, but he was so good today when I freaked out about aforementioned anchors when I tried hammering one into the wall and it shattered. Turns out I didn't have the right tools to install my living room curtains, so he promised to get them tomorrow. Just goes to show, Dad may buy a toolkit for his high school grad, but Daughter won't necessarily figure out that an electric screwdriver is not a drill. In the meantime, Matt hung up some shelves for over my TV (which I bought mainly to disguise the ugly thermostat that hangs RIGHT. IN. THE. MIDDLE. OF. THE. LIVING. ROOM. WALL.) and I am very happy with the way they look. I am very much looking forward to taking pictures of everything decorated nice.

Never got a chance to hit up Hobby Lobby, but Sis and I did go to the mall (note to self: don't wear platform heels when going to an unfamiliar mall) to see what was there (and where I will be shopping this week when I run out of other things to do), and we bought curtains, miscellaneous decorative items, and the best floor rug in the world. We also had lunch with Matt's parents while they were in town for the day, and nachos for dinner. Yes, I know I dislike cheese, but Freebirds nachos do not count, because while there was definitely cheese on them, there was SOOO much other stuff that I couldn't even taste it over the guacamole, pork and refried beans. Yummm.

Learning my way around a little better. Matt drew me a map, which has been extremely helpful. Also, my sister is really good at reading maps. I am not.