A Christmas Tragedy

Well, that MIGHT be an exaggeration, but I am sad none the less. My computer has been on it's last leg for a while but I have been able to patch it up over and over again to keep it alive. Last time it went to the Doctor he warned me that I was getting close to a final breakdown. The place where you plug it in to charge wasn't fitting snuggly and when it finally broke it would really be too expensive to repair...you could consider the computer totalled if you will. Well, apparently the copious amounts of internet play over the holidays did him in, and he will no longer charge. Goodbye Mr. Mac it's been a pleasure and you have turned many a friend into a Mac person because of your solid companionship. I will miss you but I am hoping to donate your organs to those in need so you will hopefully live on in the lives of other struggling Macs, and help pay for your predicessor (is that the word for a follower or the one that comes before? I'm not sure.)

Now for the great dilemma that really shouldn't be. Most times in life I unfortunately freely spend my money, something I have really been working on over the years. But, there are inevitably those times that I absolutely labor over making decisions about things and about spending my money. I am in need/want over some new "equipment" which I was doing a pretty good job of saving money up for until an unexpected expense of a new computer arises. I have been saving for a new automobile of some sort, yet to be decided, because I don't feel confident to go purchase one at this financial point in time. I also need a camera so I can quit stealing my mom's, her patience is running thin in this area of moochism (potentially because of all the other items I mooch) and because of weekends such as this when we are both going to be out of town with only one camera between the two of us (mine died a few years ago.) So while I can hardly fathom slipping back in time and reverting to a PC laptop, that is maybe a better financial decision? But oh the thought of viruses, and the lack of cool amenities is almost too much to bear. So I have stopped over at my parent's house to do some research on the situation. I shall keep you posted. Until then, and the return of my (mom's) camera I can't update you on the great Holiday Family Festivities.

RIP Mr. Mac you deserve it.

The Great Blackberry Picture Dump

I recently dumped all of the pictures off of my blackberry onto my computer. I found a lot of random pictures that I never ended up using on the blog, and a lot of trends...haircuts, food, and funny random pictures from my job. In no particular order, I picked a few to share:

Oyster Roast during Homecoming at work.

Just another day in the office...picking up trash after an event.

Matt Nathanson in the yellow.

My favorite koozie.

Old ladies (me and EA) working a puzzle one night.

Dinner one night

New $9 bedroom shoes from Wal-Mart

The mouse that died in my office

Dingo sleeping in funny position

Bangs

another awkward picture of swoop bangs...hey round face

Stockings pre-messed up

Cute Ben that I babysat for

Nephews at thanksgiving, killing me at some random airplane game

A really good dinner

Fraternity House covered in kudzu for a party

Sullivan ate a pen

Birthday present from boss lady

Birthday cakes my students brought me in class

Awesome birthday present from Gmama

Sullivan at the Dr for a checkup

Let me out of here!

Fraternity Bid Day

Awesome dinner again

At work during orientation

Took this to show my recruitment chair all the stuff she ordered that turned out awesome!

B5 Reunion in Greenville

Season finale of Real Housewives of NJ

B5 Reunion when we had to sneak into the pool, we were really sly with our huge cooler

Sugarland concert...

Graduation at "The College"

Just a normal afternoon at work

This vehicle was sitting outside of the Nu one day...I said lets take a picture...so EA logically climbed in.

My fearless assistant inside the fair food trailer at May Day Play Day.

Spring Weekend...

Sand Volleyball Tournament

We truck in that sand to build the court early in the morning.

Shaving Cream Fight

Slip and Slides

This would become a bungee jumping aparatus.

Huge pile of mulch dad had delivered to my house one day, it sat there for a year.

Reliving some old memories

Dinner. And I forgot about that purse until I saw this picture. Can't wait to bust that out when I get home!

Rug Shopping

Eli J at dinner one night forever ago.

G-mama Encounters with the Boss Lady

G-mama and G-daddy have a fun tendency of bumping into boss lady out and about in town. Oh the joys of a small town, and your grandparents somehow sharing a similar social circle with your boss.

The first time it happened was a few years ago when I was first applying to work at "The College," my first year out of college. Our sorority formal during the Spring of my senior year, a year I had chosen to begin drinking for the first time (yes I rebelliously waited until I was 22 before I started drinking), happened to be on April Fools day. I had recently turned over office in our sorority, and at some point in the evening the new sorority president and I thought it would be fun to play a little prank on the chapter. So we partnered with the security officers we hired and planned for them to come arrest me off of the dance floor. Plan goes into action, I did inform my date (good ole Weston) about what was going to happen so he was on board. Weston and I were dancing, and I was pretending to act a little bit rowdy even though I wasn't, and the security officers come up to me and start acting rude saying they need me to step outside with them. About this time most of the girls take notice of the situation going down. I demand to know why, to which they refuse to say anything other than "ma'am please step outside with us." After refusing again they slap handcuffs on me and escort me outside. A bunch of the girls started getting involved, yelling at the cops wanting to know what I've done (such faithful sisters), and then begin to follow us outside, especially fearless Festa who is YELLING at the cops and trying to grab me away from them, she followed us all the way outside! As they escort me outside the new president hopped on the mic and yelled "April Fools!" It was awesome! So awesome, in fact, that when my grandparents first meet the lady who could potentially be my boss in my first big girl job they think that is an appropriate story to recount to her over the dinner table. Awesome. Lucky for me, she thought it was funny and hired me anyways. I suppose it was a good story to prepare her for just who she was hiring.

Well, apparently G-mama and G-daddy ran into my boss at another dinner earlier this week. According to boss lady they had a great time chatting (oh geez). According to boss lady part of the conversation went like this:

Boss Lady: I loved Courtney's Christmas card! It was so cute!

G-mama: Yes, it's just a shame she doesn't have anyone else to put in it besides her dog.

Oh G-mama, ever so supportive.

Fun Weekend Recap

Last weekend was so busy but so fun!

Thursday night I went and picked up Festa, you may remember her from these posts, from the Columbia airport. Her plane got in at 10:20, then we headed to Laurens to spend the night with the Molony family. I think we got to Courtney and Ryan's around 12:30 and stayed up talking and laughing until 2ish. I was so proud of how late Courtney was able to stay up with us younger folk! She has rarely been able to do that, even in college! We had a great time talking and laughing late late into the night.

I made these awesome signs to hold up at the airport so Festa would be able to find me...you know, in the crowd of 10 other people and all.

My favorite quote from the night was when we were discussing Durham and something came up about her having to be swaddled to sleep through the night. During the discussion of swaddling Festa claimed she had never heard of such, she was definitely not swaddled, so this must be a new trend with babies "when did it start" she asked. Knowing full well that yes, we were swaddled as babies, I was overtaken by the smart ass in me and quickly quipped "they wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger...Jesus is when they started swaddling!" Oh how I love her.

I took Friday off so Courtney, Festa Durham and I pretty much laid around all morning in our jams. Ryan and Courtney woke me up when D. first woke up at 6:15 so I could see her released from her swaddle! I saw the event and crawled right back into bed until after Durham's morning nap, when she and Courtney came to greet us. The weather was NASTY outside, so I was more than happy to stay inside with a sweet little baby. Some of you will be proud to know that I did share and let Festa hold her a few times, ya know since she had to be all trashy and move to TX and all.

(Please note Festa yammering on about how awesome Dallas is in the background, haha!)

The girls and I met Ryan at Hummingbirds for lunch. Hummingbirds was one of my FAVORITE places to eat in college, and since it is small town America they are NEVER open when I am back in town. Ya know they are one of those places that closes for every possible holiday, even chocolate covered raisins day I think. So I was pretty excited for my sweet potato chips and chicken salad salad. It was just as good as I remembered!

After lunch and a few errands I headed to Charleston to see EA in her new homestead. Krissie was supposed to come for the weekend but was sick and wasn't able to make it. We missed you KB! We try to make it an annual event when Krissie head's south for the holidays. The rain slowed my traveling time to a gradual crawl, and it took me over 4hrs for a trip that should have only taken 2.5! It was raining so hard you could only see the car in front of you and had to drive about 20mph below the speed limit. Then as I was getting into Charleston downtown was flooded due to high tide and the rain, so I was rerouted which took FOREVER! All the traffic from downtown was bottlenecked and miserable. But I finally made it and it was worth it! EA and I had a great weekend. Most notably taking home the Best Overall Dish in her roommates Christmas Cook-Off Party for our Chimichangas! Thanks to Amy for introducing us to the bite sized mexican jubilees. It didn't hurt that EA went around all night politicking for votes!

Rolling the Chimis is neither mine nor EA's strong suit but they still tasted awesome!

Frying these bad boys up outside.

And afternoon DVC to keep me awake on the drive home!

Sunday as I was driving home my dad and brother called to see if I wanted to go to the Panther's game with them. I literally had enough time to run in the door, change clothes into about a million layers for the freezing football game, and hop in the car to head to Charlotte. This was my first Panther's game and it was really fun! We had a "bird's eye view" i.e. we were high enough to be with the birds. I think there were maybe 5 rows higher than us in the entire stadium. The Panthers were playing the Minnesota Vikings, which always reminds me of Marshall on HIMYM. We got home from the football game around 1:30 that morning, but it was totally worth it!

The cute family all bundled up.

Our Minnesota Viking Seat Neighbor...enough said.

Final Score, Panthers Win!

I'm exhausted just recapping everything! It was such a fun weekend!