It's only been 10 years?

I went to my 10 year class reunion on Saturday. Other than getting wasted drunk with my friends, it was pretty lame.

Everyone hung out with the same people they did in high school. Everyone looked pretty much the same. A few people gained weight, a few people lost weight. Lots of girls changed their hair color.

My friends and I mingled with people that I really don't care if I see again for another 10 years or so! There was only one person there that I had really wanted to see again. I did see her and chat with her quite a bit. Didn't really care about anyone else.

What I remember about the night was fun. It could be the 5 bottles of wine we drank that made it fun. ;) I'm a little hazy on the last 30 minutes or so of the party. I don't really remember getting kicked out of the bar and my friend Bri getting put into a headlock by the bouncers. I have a couple bruises attesting to the fact that I did fall down at least once. Ouch.

Thank god I don't have to do that again for another 10 years!

The End of My Vacation

My long awaited and anticipated vacation has come to an end. It was fabulous! I really didn't want to come home. There were so many good things about this vacation that I don't really know where to start... One of my favorite things about it was that I spent 6 days straight with Jason. Not just see him every day, but 24 hours per day for 6 days straight. That was really cool. So here's a brief synapsis of the vacation:

Friday
Flew from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis to San Diego.
Picked up rental car. Had several hours to kill before we could check into hotel. Drove to Anthony's restaurant where we enjoyed a couple of pitchers of a local micro-brew. Got to the awesome hotel. Gawked at the view, the pool, the bay, the palm trees. Jason's friend Todd and his friend Jake got to the hotel to freshen up. (They drove from Colorado. They weren't staying with us tho. We got the big ol' king sized bed to ourselves. ;) It was huge.) Went to La Jolla to meet up with the bride and groom. And to meet them, in my case. They were having a dinner for family and friends on the beach. My first view of the ocean was at night. Big awesome sounding waves! Went back to hotel. We were starving so we went out to dinner. Had barbeque at Kansas City Barbeque. It was awesome. Also it's where a scene from Top Gun was filmed. Check it out at http://www.kcbbq.net/ Went back to the hotel. Passed out from being so tired.

Saturday
Got up at, oh, 7am California time - 10am Michigan time. Made some coffee, took showers, waited patiently for stuff around town to open for the day. We had breakfast in Seaport Village. When the shops opened at 10, we went shopping. That was fun! http://www.spvillage.com/ Lots of money later, we went back to the hotel. Swam in the pool for a while and layed in the sun. We met up with Todd and Jake for a late lunch and margaritas at a restaurant in Mission Beach. It was right on the ocean, we sat on the top and overlooked the surfers. :) http://www.canesbarandgrill.com/ After some fabulous mexican and margaritas we headed to the beach. We got a case of beer and hung out on Mission Beach.
http://www.sandiego.gov/lifeguards/beaches/mb.shtml
http://gothere.com/MissionBeach/
After the sun set on the ocean, we headed out to a couple of clubs in Pacific Beach. No photos there though, we left the camera in the car. :) It was lots of fun though! Dinner, drinking, dancing. What more could you ask for?! We had dinner at pacific beach bar & grill. More mexican! They had the BEST guacamole!!!! http://www.pbbarandgrill.com/grill_home.htm
Then dancing at a club, Margarita Rocks. http://www.margaritarocks.com/pb/ If you check out the pictures on the site you can see why the boys liked this club! We finally made it back to the hotel and passed out.

Sunday
We woke up at 8am, REALLY hung over, when the roomservice lady rang the doorbell. (Yes, she rang the doorbell. The door actually had a doorbell in the middle of it!) So she woke us up. Breakfast was yummy. And it only cost like $60. Total bargin. Geez. Around 9:45am I was in the midst of a nice hot shower when Jason knocked on the door. Honey, the wedding is at 11am. We need to leave in 15 minutes. WHAT?! Needless to say, we rushed to get ready. So much for doing my hair and make up. We made it to the wedding. It was beautiful. It was on Mission Bay at a marina. They had sailboats in the background. Really pretty. They served a lunch for everyone since it was so early. It was mexican! Fresh corn tortillas, real fresh guacamole, YUM. We left right after they cut the cake to go back to the hotel. We took a hangover nap. That was fabulous! We stayed at the hotel that night. No partying. Not much drinking. Ordered Pizza Hut from roomservice. The best $20 pepperoni pizza ever! ;) We went to bed pretty early - 11pm California time (2am Michigan).

Monday
Got up around 7:30. Had some coffee. Took showers. Relaxed for a while until it was time to go to the zoo. Went to San Diego Zoo. That was really cool! http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ We spent 4-5 hours wandering around. Took a bus tour, ate lunch, drank some beer while watching monkeys play. I took so many pictures that Jason's battery went dead on his digital camera and had to buy a disposable camera for $13! Finally went back to the hotel. Changed clothes, drank a couple beers. Walked to the restaurant that I was taking Jason out to dinner at. http://www.thefishmarket.com/ It was a seafood place just down the street from our hotel. Jason had swordfish. I had, take a guess... chicken. They had two chicken choices on the menu. About a hundred different seafood choices and two chickens. It was yummy though. We sat at a table on their deck, which was right over the water on the San Diego Bay. No windows, no screens, just a railing and the ocean air. (Which did have a slightly fishy smell to it) That was cool. Much cooler than the crappy decks we have in Michigan that people love to sit on overlooking little dirty lakes. ;) They had an awesome chocolate mousse that I had to have for dessert too. YUM. After dinner we had drinks at the lounge at the top of the Hyatt hotel. http://manchestergrand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/lounges/index.jsp It's on the 40th floor and has windows in every direction so you can see the ocean, the city, and mexico! It actually rained for about 30 seconds when we were there. We saw lightning storms over much of the city too. That was really neat. Went back to the hotel. Went to bed.

Tuesday
Got up at 7:30. Had coffee, took showers. Turned in the rental car. Went to airport. Had a drink to toast goodbye to San Diego, the ocean, and palm trees. Flew to Detroit. Had a 3 hour layover. Had dinner at the Budweiser Bar in the airport. Flew back to Grand Rapids airport. Picked up luggage. Found the truck in the parking lot. Drove home. Started missing the palm trees and the fishy ocean air. Got home - Tigger was estatic! Petted the cat for a while, fed the turtles. Went to bed at 1am Michigan time. Missed the big King sized hotel bed and the fluffy pillows and the down comforter. The end of a busy, but fabulous vacation!

Last Hoorah

This is my last post before I leave. I am all packed. My dishes are clean. I took out the trash. I watered my plants. I put LOTS of food in Tigger's dishes. I even cleaned his litter pan.

I tried teaching him to flush the toilet after he pees, but he hasn't quite caught on yet. Maybe he will figure it out while I am gone.

I don't expect too much from him. ;) Poor Tigger will be so lonely for the next five days. I will definitely give him extra love when I get back.

ATTENTION CAT LOVERS: check out this website! www.mycathatesyou.com

I am officially all set to go. It should be a blast.

See you next week! BYE!

Yay Packing

I am in the middle of packing for San Diego. I can't figure out what I am forgetting to pack. I always forget something, so I'm just hoping it's not something important.

I dropped the birds off at Lindsey and Burke's house earlier today. My house is very quiet now. It's kind've strange how you just get used to background noise like birds chirping and singing all the time. I hope I really do get all four birds back alive...

Today was the first day of my vacation from work at least. I got my tire fixed, went to the bank twice, the post office once, to Lindsey's house (where she had a flat tire too. Same tire as mine!), and the pet store. I hope I remembered to do everything today. Sheesh.

Nothing much else to report just yet. In 12 hours I will be headed to the airport. Hopefully I will have a big cup of coffee in my hands too.

I'm going to San Diego! :)

Strange Days

So for some reason, the past week has just had a wierd vibe about it. Work has been slow and strange. People are acting like they do during a full moon, but the moon isn't full, so I don't know what's going on. Maybe it's Hurricane Ophelia messing with the tides instead of the moon...

For example:
Customer: "I would like the soup."
Me: "okay, great"
Customer: "could you make sure that it's hot?"
Me: "yeah." I mean, come on, did she really have to request that the soup be served hot? I was going to just grab it out of the fridge and throw it in a bowl, but since she asked for it to be hot, I guess I could let the cooks heat it up on the stove. I asked them to make it so hot it would burn her evil little tongue. ;)


Customer's wife to customer: "Honey do you want dessert?"
Customer: "Yeah, that sounds good."
Customer's wife: (to me) "Do you have desserts?"
Me: "Yes, we do."
Customer: "Could I see a dessert menu?" duh.
Me: "Sure" (bring him a menu) "Here's the dessert menu for you, sir."
Customer: (doesn't even glance at the menu) "Do you have sundaes?"
Me: "Yes, it's right there on the bottom, sir." Idiot.

It's kind've been one of those weeks and it's only been two days! On top of it all, tonight I waited on the 12% guy again. Now, he comes in with this company that spends a ton of money and is really nice. This guy works for a company that does business with this company. Why he had to pick up the check AGAIN, I don't know. There were 9 other guys at the table, but the crappy tipping guy paid AGAIN. Thanks buddy. Learn how to tip.

So I finally head home from work around 10:30 tonight. I stop at a gas station to put air in my tire, cuz it's pretty low. I get there just fine and pull up to the air pump. I check on the status of my tire - totally flat. Crap. Maybe a little air to tide it over until I can get to the tire repair store. I put in my quarters. The air machine is broken. It eats my quarters. I go into the gas station. I am told by the rude employee that they are not responsible for the machine, they never wanted it put there in the first place and it's been working all day. Okay, well, it's not working NOW, maybe you could put a note on it or something. Thanks for your help.
Thank goodness last year I signed up for roadside assistance through my insurance company. Originally I got it just for the towing that I needed at the time. But today, I got to use it for the flat tire. Twenty minutes after my phone call a very nice young man named Mike pulled up in a tow truck and put my spare tire on my car and stashed the flat in my trunk. It didn't cost me anything today. Woo hoo! I think I will renew that feature when it expires in November. Sure was handy tonight.

So after what seemed like a very long and strange day, I've finally made it home. And I'm savoring some chocolate marshmellow ice cream. I really do think that everyday should end with ice cream. Yum.

Last minute thoughts

So before I logged off my computer tonight, I thought it would be fun to check out the blogs of my siblings. Not only am I amazed that Jay has been updating his daily, but that I have no idea what he's saying in that poker-speak. :) That's okay though. I like the stories anyway. Hicks are funny.

Cara's blog made me laugh. George W. is definitely monkey material.

So, to update my own blog...

Jason signed us up to join a bowling league with his sister and brother-in-law as our partners. We will bowl twice a month. As a bribe (read: gift) to me, Jason bought me a pair of shiny black and white bowling shoes. They will totally match any outfit. Apparently he thought that I didn't have enough shoes. This is why I love this man. ;) No, not just because he bought me a pair of shoes, but because he knows a girl *me* can never have too many shoes. What a guy.

In exchange for hanging out with his family twice a month, he has agreed (pretty willingly) to have lunch at my mom's and dinner at my dad's house once a month. But definitely not on the same day! I figured that was a fair trade. Course we will be drinking heavily and bowling with his family and that will be more fun, but then again, it's with his sister and brother-in-law who spend more time yelling at each other and calling each other names than they do actually bowling. At least that's what they did when we went golfing. I am assuming with a bit of beer consumption, they will do the same while bowling. But at least I will have some cute shiny shoes to look at while they yell.

I'm getting very excited for this trip to California. I have the Guiness Book of World Records 2006, and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" to read on the way out. Although I will probably save the Confessions book for poolside. The book of records ought to keep me entertained and give me lots to bug Jason with on the flight. "Hey, honey, check this out..." "Oh my god, honey, look!" He's going to try to read or watch a dvd... I don't think so.

I set up an account on half.com to sell some of my 700 books. I have 66 listed right now. Within the first two days, I sold two books. It was very exciting. Somehow I doubt the other 64 will sell so quickly. I need to get my other books back from Linz so I can put those up for sale also. And I could probably look through my shelves again to see what else I could put up. I just really don't want to move 700 books when I finally move out of my crappy little crooked apartment!

Anyway. Family chat sure was fun tonight. I like chatting with Jay. He's fun. Don't tell him I said that though, he will get all big-headed. He's still a meanie.

San Diego here I come!

so this is where we will be staying in San Diego. Looks pretty sweet to me. :) click the link and then do the photo tour

http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/sandt

I plan on sitting by that pool at least a couple of times. Oh yeah, this will be a good trip.

I guess we are also going to the Zoo on Saturday morning before going to the beach. That should be pretty cool too. :)

Blah Blah Blah

So I just got home from work. My cat is meowing at me "where have you been? pet me!" He's very spoiled. That's why I like to shave him like a lion. HA HA. Everybody point and laugh at Tigger! He has also taken over one of my shoe boxes. And it's a small box since I wear size 7. But he squishes his fluffy ass into the thing and just sits in it. It's funny as hell.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to satisfy an ice-cream craving. I am now savoring some Haagen-Dazs Light Smores. YUM. This makes my crappy day at work just melt away on a cloud of chocolate and fake marshmellow swirls. Every day should end with ice cream.

Wasting Time

My brother Jay is mean. I told him I was going to write that, so I did. He will probably tell me that it's lame too, but I don't care. :P

Lindsey insisted I update this often. So here I am again. I'm heading off to work in a couple hours, so I figured I have some time to kill.

It's officially been two years since I quit smoking. Hooray! My anniversary was on the 2nd. I didn't celebrate with a good cigar though.

Fun stuff coming up:

• Next Friday I leave for San Diego! I am so excited to be going to California for the first time. My boyfriend's friend is getting married, so we are going to the wedding on the 18th. We're staying at some fancy hotel for four nights and I am hoping that it will be lots of fun. But I guess I've spent way too much money on clothes and shoes for it not to be. BTW - Lindsey, tell Burke that during one shopping day last week I bought 7 new pairs of shoes. :) In fact, tell him that during all of my shopping in the past two weeks I bought 19 new pairs of shoes. Especially bring it up when he says that you have too many shoes. :)
• My 10 year class reunion. It's on Sept. 24th. Now, I am hoping that this will be fun. I have been assured by my best friends from middle/high school that it will be a blast. I'm going because they wanted to go, and we still work well as a group. And because Brian will be paying for me to go. I'm going to be his "date." No making out though.
• Girlie stuff: Fallsburg Festival, the Bizarre, making Christmas cards, scrapbooking my trip to California, etc. These are things that I know I will enjoy.

So I'm off to work in a couple of hours. It seems like I am always at work. Probably because for the past month I have worked 6 nights a week. In a restaurant, that's a lot. Hell, for any job having only one day off a week is a lot. So I've been working so damn much because Kim, Becky, Wendy, and Brad (you don't know any of them) all quit about the same time to pursue other interests. Myself and Jason, the gay bartender, were the only remaining employees. During the two week notice of one of the girls I started training a couple of new people. So now there are four employees. Thank god. (not counting the three kitchen guys and the dishwasher.) It was always a little restaurant, but you can't run the thing with only two employees. So I'm exhausted after a very long month. I've made lots of money though, and I'm going on vacation next week, so it's kind've working out in the end.

Oh wait! I almost forgot! One of the new girls, Alaina, dated a guy that I dated 6 years ago - anyone remember Carl? So she actually got dumped by him like 3 months ago. She lived with him as well. We tell lots of Carl-is-so-lame stories. It's kind've the highlight of my nights when I work with her. We laugh and laugh. It's probably bad karma, but then again, maybe it's just his bad karma that we work together now. BA HA.

My sweet virgin blog

Um, okay so this is my first blog. My site is lame. It's not my fault though because I just got the internet hooked up today. So it's not like I'm slacking, it's that it wasn't really available to me yet. So anyway. I got home from work late tonight because these fun people I waited on decided that for their generous 12% tip they could sit for over two hours after the restaurant closed. That was fun. Really, if you're going to keep a waitress at work for two and a half hours, you need to tip 20% MINIMUM. Seriously. I'm not even kidding. Take note. Write it down. Pass the word.