Because the military is very close to my heart I would just like to say Happy Memorial Day! From my family alone both of my grandfathers served in the Army and Navy respectively and my step-dad served a full career in the Army as well. Not to mention Josh spending 4 years in the Army in military intelligence and as a paratrooper and then going back to serve in the National Guard.
I am so proud of those who have served our country and those who still do and we all owe our freedom to those who have been willing to fight for it. I remember going to Arlington National Cemetery in DC last summer and realizing that there are people out there who serve to protect the rest of us and it was unbelievable that so many think about the welfare of the world before themselves and I am truly grateful for that.
Thank you to all of the members of our United States military branches!
Monday, May 29, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
This reminds me of....
It's funny how certain things in your life remind you of the people you surround yourself with. Take for instance music...when I hear the song "These Days" by Rascal Flatts I'm automatically reminded of Josh. It brings back memories of our first date 3 years ago and how far we've come in that amount of time. Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Going Down" reminds me of M and I in our old office and a conversation we had about a crazy night of celebrating and partying after training down in the Southern Missouri facility back in December. "Build Me Up Buttercup" reminds me of my mom and her singing me that song when I was just a tot. And I'm reminded of my bro every time I hear "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. My bro sings an awesome version of that song that I was quite shocked to hear at first because he doesn't seem like the type who could rap. In any case, I have a lot of good memories from songs and music in general.
Last night something else brought back some very good memories for me as well. It all started when M and I decided yesterday that we were going to go out after work. We haven't really had a chance to go dance or kick back in quite awhile (ok probably only a few weeks) and after the week that we had we felt we deserved a break. So I got online at lunch and tried to find out what bands were playing where and see what we could iron out. Well come to find out two of our favorite local bands were playing at the Bottleneck Blues Bar last night and we definitely wanted to go. But the bar didn't open until about an hour after we got off of work so we needed a plan for grabbing something quick to eat and possibly getting a drink there before dancing the night away. That's when we thought about SidePockets. SidePockets is a bar and billiards hall and we'd been there one time before with J and we only found it by accident after the other bar that we were at only accepted cash and all we had at the time were debit and credit cards. Anyway, our little stop in to SidePockets last night reminded me of that night and all the fun we had before J left for Laredo and then of course it brought back the memories of all of the crazy stuff that the 3 of us did for the 2 months he was in St. Louis by himself. The night at SidePockets, M lost her cell phone and J and I called it like 20 times to see if we could hear it ringing anywhere in the bar. Come to find out it was in J's truck and when he and I went out there looking for it all you could hear was what sounded to be a chicken clucking. It wasn't, but her ringtone sounded really funny and all I remember J saying in his Arkansas accent, "where the hell is that chicken noise coming from...who has chickens around here?" It was hilarious. Of course the thought of this brought back all of the memories of the fun times I've had with my coworkers at this company. Who would have thought a year ago that I would have met some of the greatest people in the world that I now call some of my closest friends.
What is also kind of funny when it comes down to it is that M completely agreed with me. We were talking yesterday about how it doesn't seem like either of us has changed that much but that we both think that some of our other friends are no longer on the same page as we are. Probably the biggest thing I have seen myself is the fact that I hardly keep in contact with the friends I had in high school and college. I always thought that I would have a small group of people from both high school and college that I would email or call and see on a semi-regular basis. While I know that lives move forward and priorities change it seems as the contact has fallen by the wayside. I know a lot of that is probably my fault since I don't get online every night like I used to and I'm not very good at calling people back. And it also boils down to the fact that I have been very dedicated to getting my feet off of the ground with my job and trying to adjust to living on my own. But like my new motto suggests, "live and learn" -- either I will go back to contact all of the people I thought I would remain friends with over the years or I will just move forward. I haven't decided which is best yet especially since I'm pretty much satisfied with my life at the moment, except for one small thing that hopefully will work itself out in enough time, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoy the 3 day weekend if you're lucky enough to get Monday off!
Last night something else brought back some very good memories for me as well. It all started when M and I decided yesterday that we were going to go out after work. We haven't really had a chance to go dance or kick back in quite awhile (ok probably only a few weeks) and after the week that we had we felt we deserved a break. So I got online at lunch and tried to find out what bands were playing where and see what we could iron out. Well come to find out two of our favorite local bands were playing at the Bottleneck Blues Bar last night and we definitely wanted to go. But the bar didn't open until about an hour after we got off of work so we needed a plan for grabbing something quick to eat and possibly getting a drink there before dancing the night away. That's when we thought about SidePockets. SidePockets is a bar and billiards hall and we'd been there one time before with J and we only found it by accident after the other bar that we were at only accepted cash and all we had at the time were debit and credit cards. Anyway, our little stop in to SidePockets last night reminded me of that night and all the fun we had before J left for Laredo and then of course it brought back the memories of all of the crazy stuff that the 3 of us did for the 2 months he was in St. Louis by himself. The night at SidePockets, M lost her cell phone and J and I called it like 20 times to see if we could hear it ringing anywhere in the bar. Come to find out it was in J's truck and when he and I went out there looking for it all you could hear was what sounded to be a chicken clucking. It wasn't, but her ringtone sounded really funny and all I remember J saying in his Arkansas accent, "where the hell is that chicken noise coming from...who has chickens around here?" It was hilarious. Of course the thought of this brought back all of the memories of the fun times I've had with my coworkers at this company. Who would have thought a year ago that I would have met some of the greatest people in the world that I now call some of my closest friends.
What is also kind of funny when it comes down to it is that M completely agreed with me. We were talking yesterday about how it doesn't seem like either of us has changed that much but that we both think that some of our other friends are no longer on the same page as we are. Probably the biggest thing I have seen myself is the fact that I hardly keep in contact with the friends I had in high school and college. I always thought that I would have a small group of people from both high school and college that I would email or call and see on a semi-regular basis. While I know that lives move forward and priorities change it seems as the contact has fallen by the wayside. I know a lot of that is probably my fault since I don't get online every night like I used to and I'm not very good at calling people back. And it also boils down to the fact that I have been very dedicated to getting my feet off of the ground with my job and trying to adjust to living on my own. But like my new motto suggests, "live and learn" -- either I will go back to contact all of the people I thought I would remain friends with over the years or I will just move forward. I haven't decided which is best yet especially since I'm pretty much satisfied with my life at the moment, except for one small thing that hopefully will work itself out in enough time, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoy the 3 day weekend if you're lucky enough to get Monday off!
Monday, May 15, 2006
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
The new Busch Stadium is awesome! And to top it off, Saturday's game is probably the best game I've gone to in a long time. Of course what made it even better is that I had the most important guy in my life sitting in the seat next to me. Josh was thoroughly impressed with the stadium and the company seats as well and I'm so glad that he was able to go with me. We got to the game at the bottom of the first inning because dinner took us a little longer than we expected but from the time we got there until we left it was an exciting game. The D'backs pitching was lacking a bit and the Cardinals took advantage of that. Rolen hit a home run with runners on 2nd and 3rd and then someone else knocked in a run later in the inning. In the 2nd inning, Albert the Great hit a homer and the crowd went wild. In fact, the rest of the night when he came to the plate the flashes were going like crazy to get a good shot of him hitting another one out of the park but it still was exciting to watch him every time. The Cardinals ended up winning the game 9-1 and moved into first place in the Central Division. But, perhaps the greatest part of the night was the time I got to spend with Josh. I updated him on all of the progress made with my job and everything else that has happended in the last 3 months. He told me about the National Guard and school next semester and of course we talked about everything we still wanted to go see and do this summer. It will be great if we get to take a weekend or even a few days one week and go on another one of our adventures. The last two years we've been lucky enough to be able to go to Vegas and Washington DC...who knows what this summer will bring and if we'll even get any time to go somewhere. I'm sure going to try though!
Sunday was Mother's day and like a good daughter, I went and spent the day with my mom and grandma. We ended up going to Longhorn for dinner and then came back to my apartment for cake. It wasn't a very eventful day because my mom was working on student assessments for her classes.
Today started another week of work. Time just flies by there. Our terminal manager from Laredo was supposed to come into town today however his flight was cancelled because of storms in the south so he won't be in until tomorrow. It will be nice to meet him, since most of us in our office have only talked to him on the phone. Plus, it will be nice to have him in the same office for a few days to help us with some issues in person. I've got a list of stuff for him to look at already and I'm sure more things will come up this week. M and I are also supposed to be planning a happy hour for later this week for everyone...not sure what is going on with that though yet. I wasn't able to give much thought to it today, but if we do something I'm sure it will be exciting. Tomorrow I have another AR meeting, but this week it's an hour earlier than normal. I'm sure I'll be running around the office like an idiot tomorrow trying to get everything accomplished before my meeting. The one good thing is that I'll be able to get my meeting minutes out a little earlier and I might be able to leave on time for a change and I am looking forward to that! It will be better though if my numbers are actually down this week. We'll see what happens though...I might have to start knocking some heads together to get results. Watch out now!
Sunday was Mother's day and like a good daughter, I went and spent the day with my mom and grandma. We ended up going to Longhorn for dinner and then came back to my apartment for cake. It wasn't a very eventful day because my mom was working on student assessments for her classes.
Today started another week of work. Time just flies by there. Our terminal manager from Laredo was supposed to come into town today however his flight was cancelled because of storms in the south so he won't be in until tomorrow. It will be nice to meet him, since most of us in our office have only talked to him on the phone. Plus, it will be nice to have him in the same office for a few days to help us with some issues in person. I've got a list of stuff for him to look at already and I'm sure more things will come up this week. M and I are also supposed to be planning a happy hour for later this week for everyone...not sure what is going on with that though yet. I wasn't able to give much thought to it today, but if we do something I'm sure it will be exciting. Tomorrow I have another AR meeting, but this week it's an hour earlier than normal. I'm sure I'll be running around the office like an idiot tomorrow trying to get everything accomplished before my meeting. The one good thing is that I'll be able to get my meeting minutes out a little earlier and I might be able to leave on time for a change and I am looking forward to that! It will be better though if my numbers are actually down this week. We'll see what happens though...I might have to start knocking some heads together to get results. Watch out now!
Monday, May 08, 2006
"Good Things Come To Those Who Wait"
So I was minding my own business, dealing with the everyday Monday stuff, sending out stern emails on what we need to change to make sure that operations are moving in the right direction and correcting problems when M gets a phone call from the President of the company. He tells her that he needs to see the two of us in his office immediately. I was freaking out. I haven't been the nicest person at work...I've been very demanding and I have started to question some of my coworkers actions because I want our company to grow and become one of the leaders in the industry and I thought he was going to come down on me for my attitude. As for M...I didn't know why he was calling her in but we both walked into his office together and he asked that we shut the door. I'm thinking to myself, "Oh no...this can't be good." So we sit down and asks what our plans are for the rest of the week. M had some family stuff going on but I told him I was free all week. The greatest thing happened. He told us he was very pleased with all of our work and he wanted to show his gratitude with Cardinals baseball tickets. We were very excited and we ended up getting two tickets a piece for Saturday's game against the D'backs. It was freaking awesome, especially since not everyone in our office will get a chance to get tickets for this season. Plus, I'm dying to see the new Busch Stadium and I'll have a great view from 11 rows off of the field.
After the meeting I sent Josh a text message telling him the good news and asking if he wanted to go with me to the game. Turns out he would love to! And that meant more awesome news for me! I'm so excited for Saturday! The game will be fun but more importantly I want to see Josh. It's been awhile and I miss him tremendously and I think it will be great for us to get to go to the game together. We definitely need to spend some time with each other and catch up.
In other news, this weekend was pretty fun. Friday after work we went to Chevy's for Cinco de Mayo and had a great time drinking margaritas and eating chips and salsa. The Smash Band was playing and they were alright. We danced a bit and because we were completely worn out we left about 11. That's an early night for M and I, usually we're out until the bars close, but we had a wedding to attend on Saturday and I didn't want to feel like crap so I decided it was best to just grab something quick to eat and get home. Saturday one of the guys I work with got married and M and I and a bunch of other coworkers were invited to the ceremony and reception at Pere Marquette in Grafton. I didn't realize what a drive that is from my place, almost 100 miles round trip, but it was well worth it. We had fun with everyone from work and it ended up being a very nice afternoon and evening. No wild antics this weekend but it was a good time and I ended up finding out on Saturday night that I do in fact like whiskey sours. I wasn't sure if I would, but the few that I had were pretty tasty. You learn something new everyday!
And Sunday I just ended up staying home and getting caught up on ironing and other household duties that I have put off for weeks. I also found out that I like the show Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. It was pretty interesting to watch Alaskan fishermen battle the weather and the sea and the other teams out there trying to get the most snow crab. I'm so easily amused.
As for the rest of the upcoming week, well I'm not sure what is in store yet. I have an accounts receivable meeting tomorrow afternoon with the bosses and the normal stuff going on, but I'm sure something will come up and frazzle me in no time. Luckily, I work with some of my closest friends too so I'm sure that either J or M will pull me out of my funk...they always do!
After the meeting I sent Josh a text message telling him the good news and asking if he wanted to go with me to the game. Turns out he would love to! And that meant more awesome news for me! I'm so excited for Saturday! The game will be fun but more importantly I want to see Josh. It's been awhile and I miss him tremendously and I think it will be great for us to get to go to the game together. We definitely need to spend some time with each other and catch up.
In other news, this weekend was pretty fun. Friday after work we went to Chevy's for Cinco de Mayo and had a great time drinking margaritas and eating chips and salsa. The Smash Band was playing and they were alright. We danced a bit and because we were completely worn out we left about 11. That's an early night for M and I, usually we're out until the bars close, but we had a wedding to attend on Saturday and I didn't want to feel like crap so I decided it was best to just grab something quick to eat and get home. Saturday one of the guys I work with got married and M and I and a bunch of other coworkers were invited to the ceremony and reception at Pere Marquette in Grafton. I didn't realize what a drive that is from my place, almost 100 miles round trip, but it was well worth it. We had fun with everyone from work and it ended up being a very nice afternoon and evening. No wild antics this weekend but it was a good time and I ended up finding out on Saturday night that I do in fact like whiskey sours. I wasn't sure if I would, but the few that I had were pretty tasty. You learn something new everyday!
And Sunday I just ended up staying home and getting caught up on ironing and other household duties that I have put off for weeks. I also found out that I like the show Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. It was pretty interesting to watch Alaskan fishermen battle the weather and the sea and the other teams out there trying to get the most snow crab. I'm so easily amused.
As for the rest of the upcoming week, well I'm not sure what is in store yet. I have an accounts receivable meeting tomorrow afternoon with the bosses and the normal stuff going on, but I'm sure something will come up and frazzle me in no time. Luckily, I work with some of my closest friends too so I'm sure that either J or M will pull me out of my funk...they always do!
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