Best Facebook Status Award of the Day

My sister's friend P., who is in California:

"earthquake 3 hours into the bar = 1800 people ducking under their desks...about half took their laptops with them."

Lurkers: humor me with a response please

I got to thinking about this after reading one of Stephanie Klein's old posts.

If you could sit down and have a drink with yourself from when you were younger, what would you say? Kind of Back-to-the-Future style - would you have advice? Pointers? And saying "take things less seriously" doesn't count. I know Frankie says RELAX, but frankly, I find that t-shirt annoying. Are you implying I'm uptight? Stupid Brody Jenner.

I think I would tell myself first, to stop spending so much energy disapproving my own body. And to stop wishing I had my sister's figure. It's a waste really, you work with what your Mama (and Daddy) gave you. In retrospect, I don't think what I was working with was all that awful, and I wish I knew that then.

Don't be jealous of people. You usually don't know the whole story and being jealous is really just your own hostile insecurity. Don't invest in friendships where there is a lot of competition and jealousy either. Being envious is fine. Realize the difference.

When you meet someone, remember their name. Full name. You haven't been good about this in life, and it is hard to learn later. Plus, it will save you a fair amount of embarrassment.

Wear sunscreen. SPF 4 tanning oil does not count. REAL sunscreen. This is so cliche, but I vividly remember getting at least one reckless sunburn every year, and I have the sunspots and dubious freckles to pay for it.

Write a journal. And actually keep up with it regularly. You will love reading it later. Also, try to write about something other than boys when you do.

Don't sweat your height so much. The boys will catch up eventually, so throw on some heels and stand up straight. Posture, please.

Don't use the F word in front of your parents. It is just blatantly stupid and hungry. And be nice to them. Turns out, they're human too.

Put down the Altoids. They will rot your teeth faster than you can call your dentist. It's just a dental downward spiral from there, really.

Realize you're not a great judge of first impressions. Give them a break, and be less judgemental. You didn't like most of your best friends when you met them. So be more compassionate to people.

Mom will ride you about this your whole life, so drop the word "like" from your vocabulary completely. You did not grow up in The Valley, and even if Clueless WAS a brilliant movie, there is no flattery in imitating here. Also, don't needlessly apologize so much, and try to refrain from starting sentences with "Honestly?..." No. Lie to me.

Pipe down with the righteous indignation. Sweeping judgements will bite you in the butt. Actually, blanket statements are the privledge of naivete, so forget I said that. You'll learn.

Last thing, that boy you'll have a crush on you in eighth grade? He digs you too.

Good Riddance*

I went to my 10-year high school reunion this past Saturday evening. It was a really last minute decision for me, because for quite a while I was on the fence about that one. There are so many stereo-typed pressures associated with it that can feed into insecurities you don't even know you had. However, after a day of nailing siding on a house with Habitat for Humanity (and a short nap), I decided that I was going to try my best to be a decent human being (difficult) and not feed into hype. Who HASN'T seen Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion? (If you haven't at least glimpsed portions while flipping channels, you might live under a rock and I'm not sure I can be friends with you. And I invented the Post-It.) So I took a shower, threw on clothes I already owned (I think most women buy a new dress, get their hair done, full mani-pedis, in addition to the crash diet regime), closed-toe shoes (to cover the lack of fresh pediness), some make-up to soften a few of the more obvious wrinkles, and out the door we went.

OK, I wish I would have had time for a hair cut. I will admit that - I was looking some kind of scraggly in the split-ends department.

We arrived at the hotel, and you could hear the sounds of 1998 pumping from the ballroom. Don't hate me but I like 90's music. Probably better than 80's music. In a different ballroom at the same hotel, the Class of 1978 was having their 30-year reunion, so Andrew suggested we hit that party because the music might be better. Ha, Ha. Don't hate on No Doubt dude. I know he's just trying to cover his closet crush on Gwen Stefani anyways.

I think I expected there to be maybe 50 people there. I figure that for most, ten years isn't enough distance from the discomfort of teenage memories. To my surprise, I would guess there were about 120 people from our class, plus dates and spouses. Way to plan, Amy! I was actually genuinely happy to see most of the people there. Some I hadn't seen since high school, and others lost touch through college. There were a few people I didn't recognize, but this isn't a surprise considering the size of our class. I didn't recognize several people walking across the stage at our own graduation, and that was at the time, in recent memory. Andrew was a real trooper, I must admit, because I felt like I bounced around a fair amount, talking between different conversations, and he didn't complain or flinch once.

The funny thing about this age - 28 plus or minus - is the variety of places that people can be in their lives. Some are single, some are in school, some are married, some are engaged, some are divorced, some are pregnant, some have had 3 children (or more!). Regardless, the chatting seemed to be relatively smooth, with not as much awkward small-talk as I would have suspected. And thankfully, the measuring contest [insert your own euphemism here] wasn't all that prevalent. I don't really remember more than a handful of people with whom careers were discussed. And maybe I arrived too late, but I don't remember any grand entrances in Ferrari's either.

So survey says: I was happy I went. It wasn't like a trip to the dentist at all.

* a la Green Day, 1997.

crackers can crab soccer

Photo by David

So I forgot to mention one of my favorite parts of beach day (besides the obvious loving of my friends, sun/sand/food/drinking/playing) was that we played crab soccer. YEAH CRAB SOCCER. Who played this in elementary school? Riques swears is a suburban white kid school thing because he'd never heard of it. Boys beat the girls 5-3, but the resulting pain all over my body for the next two days was the most brutal part of it.


Photo by David

You can see David's photos from the beach by clicking here.

I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your body

I have been 28 for one week, and so far, it's looking not too shabby.

Last Wednesday night, I went out to eat with my in-laws to The Grove restaurant in the new Discovery Green park downtown. It boasts that it is a "green" restaurant, although I'm not quite sure what that means. Is it just me or does this Being Green thing seem almost trendy? I am not knocking the concept, in fact, I think it's great. It appeals to the closet hippie in me, and I'm happy it's becoming popular to consider the environment in our choices. The food was pretty good, fancy and well-portioned, and the people watching was excellent. Business cocktail hours leading to dinners with clients begin the evening, and slowly the see-and-be-seen filter in as the sun dips down. It's nice to see Downtown growing in a positive way.

My first day of being 28, last Thursday, I went to a happy hour for school that lasted until well after dark. It was really nice to meet people, chat and get the scoop from the second years. I think I have this inclination that people will be pretentious, but so far I am relieved to see I couldn't be more wrong. I suppose there is the competitive streak, but so far it seems like it's all in good spirit. Those MBA kids like their drinks! The party hard, play hard mentality is obvious. Must. Adjust. To. This. Hi. I'm. Old.

Friday Gem and Leia came in to town and we went to Reef for dinner (yum!) and then played with the Wii Gem brought with her. Good times, always amusing to watch from the outside.

Later that evening, Kasia surprised me by bringing her friend Lindsey for the weekend, whom I haven't seen in ages, probably about 10 years or so. We grew up together and were very close in junior high/high school, she was like another little sister, so it was heart-warming to hang out with her again.

Saturday morning was beach day, and the weather couldn't have been better. I am addicted to the beach, I could live there and never leave and be completely content. Galveston isn't beautiful, but it has sand and salt water, and down west beach, surprisingly little rotting seaweed. But because it's Texas, the water is still soup in the July. About 17 of us came down and spread out under the two tents my sister brought (thanks South By!) which were life savers in the heat. This is another way I can tell we've all matured: we no longer want to bake our selves brown [or red] in the sun. Now everyone is slathering on the SPF 50, sitting in the shade and wearing large floppy hats to avoid the sun damage.

On Monday night, I went to the George Michael concert with my friend Liz, which was entertaining as all get out. George Michael completely reminds me of my cousin Asia, who is 10 years older than me, and was loving him when I was an impressionable pre-teen. How could we have not have known he was gay back then? This boggles my mind. The village people police officer uniform (which he dawned on Monday evening- yikes!) wasn't obvious enough? It was once again, great people watching, mostly people in their thirties... The killer was when the insane lady sitting behind us yelled "I WANT TO TOUCH YOU GEORGE MICHAELS!" (yes, with an "S") over and over again while her husband just kind of shook his head in embarrassment. Sweet.

Hasta La Vista Baby

Today is my last day as a 27 year old. Woo hoo! I celebrated by giving myself a facial and pedicure.

Also, Andrew and I have officially been together for 3 years-3 months which is the longest I've maintained a continuous relationship, so to me that's practically 33 years, or forever. I think I'll keep him around a bit longer.

This week I have started to do the pee-pee dance about school, and it's more in an "I can't handle this, I have so much to do" kind of way. I have started some of the tests and counselor meetings and readings and homework [cringe] that has to be done BEFORE I EVEN SET FOOT ON CAMPUS, but I still hate that I can't relax during the summer. I am so spoiled. Plus, I have this feeling like, am I even going to like this? Andrew's answer is a hearty "you better!" because he sees the dollar signs. OK, I see the dollar signs too, I just hope I squeeze every opportunity possible out of this experience, and enjoy it in the process. Is that too much to ask for?

In my counseling session yesterday about career choices, I was a bit taken back. Well really, maybe it is totally in line with my schizophrenic attitude. All the different personality and career tests I've taken contradict each other, so the counselor didn't know what to make of me so much as "you obviously don't know what you want to be when you grow up, but it looks like you don't want to do number crunching or be a sales person." So I have my research and work cut out for me. Things that did sound up my alley were new product development and consulting. I am going to a few conferences in the fall that will hopefully give me a better idea. I will be trying to hone some time management skills in the near future... I think I will miss my freedom now, sooner rather than later. Rice is about to own my ass.

6-Word Memoir

I got tagged by Amy, The Crazy Woman. I am only doing this because I love her dearly, the nerd she is. :)

Write your own six-word memoir.
Post it to your blog including a visual illustration if you would like.
Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogsphere.
Tag 5 more blogs with links
Don’t forget to leave a comment in the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
Here is my 6-word memoir:

Resolving myself between past and future.

I never claimed to be a good writer. And now for the tagging. I am going to tag people who must comment here with their personal 6-word memoir, because I don't know many people who blog (although several who should!) and it's easier this way.

Andrew, Janet, Joanna, Gemsong and Kasia.

I double-dog-dare you.