i'm on vacation

i mean, really...i can't be expected to blog while i'm on vacation, right? besides, my home computer is in the basement and it is fuh-reeezing there. at any rate, here i am checking in live from the arctic inner sanctum.

despite it being cold, i've been enjoying my vacation very much. i hosted a dessert swap and made peppermint bark brownies, sock-it-to-me cake, oatmeal raisin choc chip cookies, and also a spinach & turkey lasagna as well as spinach dip. things were shaky at one point but by the grace of god everything turned out delicious. and there is still dessert left. i love hosting parties!

i also got to visit friends and family. my roommate's sisters held a scrapbooking party to collect memories for her daughter (she's such a little cutie!). my aunt made a sunday dinner for us and sent us home with a boatload of food. we spent christmas with my mom at her friend's house and both of them sent us home with food. i think they all believe we're here starving since my mom left. if i play it right i won't have to cook until tuesday or wednesday.

best of all though, i've met someone that i like a lot. like FINALLY! i can honestly say that i'm happy. yay for me :)

oh and i got to hit up woodbury commons for the first time. great outlet shopping. i probably bought too much. i can't (meaning i don't feel like) post(ing) pictures but i'll just say shoes, handbag, jeans, sweaters, blouse, serve ware, springform pans...holler.

already preparing for next year

i bought four boxes of this stuff over the weekend and they don't expire until 2010 so that gives me plenty o time to come up with something new for madness part 8 (oh em gee!).

so yeah like back in 2002 i had my first ever margarita madness party. i don't remember what inspired it or even when i fell in love with margaritas (my roomie used to always try to get me to do tequila shots and i'd be like nah b i'm good) but i do remember the first madness being a sausage party almost (thank goodness for fa!) with real margarita glasses and salt and paper umbrellas. i made food too...fajitas i think.

anyways, this somehow became an annual tradition for me and part 7 took place a few weeks ago. it's better to me now that i have a proper yard. last year it was more bbq like with the grill and everything but this year i went the catering route and was all the better for it. it was nice to actually enjoy the party instead of running back and forth with the food. the featured margarita flavors this year were mango and pineapple (i liked the mango best...last year pineapple was the hit). of course there was f r a l s a © jamal. and new this year was a dj and a photo booth. i think everyone enjoyed themselves.


i can't believe it's been 7 years. i'm in a long-term relationship with a party. lol :o(

rah rah rah

i have to give a presentation on sunday.

yep. sunday.

i might've mentioned previously that i'm chairing my alumnae chapter's annual benefit this year. well, sunday is our holiday mixer/membership drive and this is where we kick off the push for the benefit. it's my job to get these ladies excited about selling tickets. so i'm taking it back to 8th grade book reports for mrs. reed. this basically boils down to putting my best foot forward.

the only way these women will be excited is if i'm excited too. so i'm pulling out all the stops. i've written my speech and i'm working on accompanying visual aids. i've developed a ticket-selling strategy that seems simple. i'm going to be a ppl person!

bleh...to know me is to know that i am not a ppl person. however, i am the same girl who cried on the stand for mock trial while i testified about killing my unborn child with cigarettes and alcohol, so i might be able to pull off "ppl person" for a couple of hours.

in other news, i have a much needed hair appt tomorrow. i wanna cut it some more but i'm gonna have wait until i can afford regular maintenance. tomorrow is also game/fight night at my bff's house. i'm looking forward to playing taboo and eating chicken!

he's coming! he's coming!

dennis ferrer* too? i will be in the house.
i might need to switch around some vacation days.

*i don't like most of his songs but if he plays "how do i let go" i will lose my mind.

my first house party

inspired by this blog entry.

i was in 7th grade and attending a new school. my crush, micah, had invited almost the whole class to his birthday party. i must preface this story with the following: my education from pre-school through 6th grade was at a very small, private school. for the most part, we were a sheltered group of children not fully exposed to the ways of the world. my transition to blessed sacrament (yes, a catholic school) came with some emotional turmoil and exposure to lots of umm...new things. these kids were faster than any i'd met at that point (although the subsequent transition to public school would make them seem like puritans by comparison...and not the hester prynne kind either).

so anyway, micah's birthday party was my first grown-up party, so to speak. my mom called his mother ahead of time to see what kind of party this would be exactly. she took me to sears to buy a new outfit too. i spent some time getting dressed and i think i even put on lipstick and my favorite clear heart drop earrings. despite all this, i was extremely nervous when my mom dropped me off.

micah's mom led me down into the basement where all the other kids were. the first thing i noticed was that i was a bit overdressed (i don't remember exactly what i wore but i'm sure stirrup pants, a big shirt, and a diagonal belt were part of the ensemble...this habit of overdressing would translate to fabulousness in my adult life). the second thing i noticed was the boys were on the opposite side of the room from the girls. everyone was talking to each other though so i inconspicuously found my way to a seat. i sat there hoping not to be noticed but my nervousness had manifested itself in my right foot -- it was swinging like mad. in fact, after a short while it was swinging so hard that my shoe flew across to the other side of the basement. as if a record scratched, above the middle school chatter someone said, "Yo, whose shoe is that?"

of course i was mortified. and of course i had to get up and claim it lest i'd have been sitting knee-high stockinged out on the arm of the couch. so much for not being noticed. things weren't so bad after that. i didn't dance or eat anything but i did talk with some of my classmates. a game of 7 minutes in heaven had started up but thankfully my mom came to pick me up before it was my turn.

and you know my shoe was the talk of the class on monday morning.

i won

for most original costume. actually, i tied with the party hostess but she deferred to me since i was the guest. i got a t-shirt that i've already worn to kickboxing and a skull belt buckle that's also a bottle opener. since the costume was his idea i feel like i should give the belt buckle to hak - he'd probably get more use out of it than me.

i know i promised pictures but the thing is is that (© james) i didn't take any with my camera. so i'm at the mercy of friends uploading theirs. as soon as i get them, you'll get them too.

i'm leaving work early to hand out candy to the kids. there's this new phenomenon called trunk or treat that some orgs and schools are doing where you meet in a designated spot and pop your goodie-filled trunk for all the kids to come get some. i think i'm gonna do this in my driveway so they don't even have to come to the house and trample my lawn. i bought $12 worth of candy this morning. and i'm so broke. oh well.

happy halloweenie!

UPDATE: so here's a photo. it's not full length so you can't see my knee-highs. and it's my mean lunch lady pose. i'm still waiting for the sexy lunch lady photos. there are also naughty lunch lady photos. rawr.

muahahahah...

*wrings hands*

so my halloween costume is coming together quite nicely all thanks to hak. there are a few more items i need to get and i'll be set. i tried it on last night and was overcome by a fit of giggles. i'm definitely gonna post photos after the wknd.

negro please

so, wonder beyond wonders, i've been invited to not one but two halloween parties this year. after years of having brilliant costume ideas and no place to go, i am now in quite the opposite situation. i have no idea what to dress up as. at first i wanted to be niecy nash but i figured ppl wouldn't know it was her. so then i though hmmm maybe raineesha from reno 911 instead...which *is* a brilliant idea but an out of budget one as well (*sadface*). then a friend suggested willona woods -which could work bc i'd only have to buy a wig and some more costume jewelry - but i don't think anybody would know who i was. unless, of course, i walked around calling ppl booger or buffalo butt...or saying negro please.

now i only have a week and half to come up with something not corny. please leave suggestions in the comment section. and none of those corny faux sexy lady costumes either - i HATE those.

happy birthday, pookie!

today my sister turned the big two-five. i left her present in front of her bedroom door and that heffa called my mom to thank her for it! granted, i didn't put my name on the gift but umm who else would've wrapped it in such a dazzling way? turns out my mom left a card by the door too so that's probably why she thought the gift was from my mom.

i have bday celebration to attend every wknd this month. it's odd and i still have two more gifts to buy but eh. last friday was the sweet 16 party. it was like a wedding reception complete with father/daughter dance and corny dj. actually, when it was time to do what he knew how to do (play music) the dj wasn't so bad. he had this setup where the video would play along with the song. if he scratched, the video would scratch. a little distracting at first but pretty neat. he was awful during the program part - probably because he didn't know what the program was. everything worked out in the end though.

this wknd we're going rollerskating for my sister's bday. this should be totally hilarious as i haven't been on a pair of skates in ohhh twenty or so years. i used to be a skating fool when i was much younger. in the house, down the hill, around the corner...little dorothy ramsey! i couldn't do any tricks though. really all i could do was go back and forth. i remember one time at united skates of america i almost knocked the skate-a-saurus down during the hokey pokey. in my defense the skates i was wearing had a faulty stop. yeah...that's it.

next wknd my friend is having an 80s party for her 30th bday. i'm still working on my outfit for that. i need to get it in gear because i don't have too much time. i'm waiting for my sneakers to arrive because they kinda sorta dictate the rest of the outfit.

finally, my best friend will be celebrating her 33rd the last wknd of this month. i think we're either doing bowling or dinner. i have to start shopping around for her gift. i don't know why i've become so last minute with everything lately. bad habit.