Swingin' Time

It's unseasonably warm both inside and outside. I've been sick this week which has only made me more charming and desirable. Most people like to be taken care of when they're sick. I like to be taken....taken seriously when I say leave me the *beep* alone. There's just something about feeling like junk in the trunk that makes the majority of human contact overwhelming and infuriating. And I wonder why I'm still single. Actually I don't wonder, I know. Because I'm a total bitch. Moving on.... here's some of what's been going on lately:

The fair came to town! Oh yeah, nothing quite like stuffing your face with greasy, deep fried food while simultaneously judging all the poor slobs that are fatter than you.

I bought beer. In Lubbock. At the grocery store....... oh yeah, and a Hershey bar...
We found this lovely gentleman setting up camp on our front porch...

...and swiftly shot it out of it's web with high powered wasp killer. Here's his corpse next to a peanut M&M for scale (he was gigantic).

The blessed Egg Nog hit the shelves on a crisp October day. I maintain that Kroger's is better than Gandy's but a girl will take what she can get.

I went to Vegas for work, and found some time to make some new friends! Stilts Man and I are getting married in the Spring...
...but Toby doesn't know. Shhhhh (also this pic isn't blurry, you're just seeing it through 'Vegas Vision')
Yep, it's been a good Fall. As we roll into Winter I have the peace of mind that comes with losing 5 pounds after the aforementioned sickness. Ahhhhh, sweet sickness.

Sittin' here, eatin' some Ramen.... I attended Mylene's Quince tonight...

Aaaaaaaand that's about it right now.

Oh how I've missed you, personal blogosphere

It's been a lo-ong December and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.... okay so it's not December, but Summer. Or at least it was? Who knew the last few months could be so hectic! I finally got my sweet self moved across town. It's amazing what some subtle roommate peer pressure can do in the way of getting unpacked and organized. I only lack a few kitchen boxes which have been indefinitely moved to the garage. Jacqueline's kitchen is far superior to anything I ever established, and has not yet experienced the painful aftermath of hard water. Needless to say, the few foggy bar glasses I unpacked went directly to an unused cabinet never to see the light of day...

I've been traveling for work which has been an exhausting and exciting ride! July was a surprisingly cooled Atlanta, August was a hot and crowded New York City, and September saw me to Las Vegas: my new favorite place. I've always loved the beach and the mountains. The LV mountains are kind of imposter mountains, but they're lovely none the less, and the attitude there is that of a Spring Break destination with loose money (instead of loose, bouncy coeds) and more clothing (usually). I had to laugh when our cab driver was explaining how to "spot" hookers on the strip after we naively admitted we hadn't seen any. He said "If you see a girl in a tight dress, high heels, with a cell phone glued to her ear... that's a hooker" I mused "Oh, see back home we just call those Tech students"

Things are starting to calm down a bit, which has afforded me more time to run the company blog (www.stephenjosephgifts.wordpress.com), Facebook and Twitter page. I try to juggle the three of these while still fulfilling all of my office duties. It's not been easy, but I'm enjoying it. Sadly, the side effect is that I really have no desire to update here after I'm done.... but, it's not "Deep Thoughts" fault so I decided I could show it some love whilst waiting for Derek to come over!

The South Plains Fair is in town, and with it comes the yearly ritual of stuffing our faces with anything and everything that crosses our path! It's a long standing tradition dating back a good 10 years. Today Sydney has come in from San Antonio and Derek has driven from Dallas to enjoy all the fair has to offer. The excitement of corn dogs, funnel cakes, caramel apples, fried pies, cheese on a stick, curly taters, turkey legs, cotton candy, fajitas, pizza, and corn on the cob is almost too much to stand! I plan on taking many pictures with the hand-me-down digital camera Jacqueline has generously lent to me. I hope this Saturday finds you all well; I'll eat a corn dog for ya!

Mr. Mercury

I'm lacking inspiration, but sometimes things are better left to the professionals.

Who needs a house out in Hackensack? Is that what you get for your money?

This will be my last blog from my apartment. As some of you know I have been "moving" for the last few months after it was decided in late spring that I would be moving into a house across town with a coworker rather than renewing my lease. Today is my last day here.

It is always bittersweet to leave a home. I sit here on the floor in a totally empty loft (and if you saw it before you'd be shocked at the size; all of my crap severely dwarfed the place). My green paint is still on the walls; the apartment office found the task of providing me the correct shade to paint it back to be a difficult and insurmountable one. The carpets are freshly steamed, because I am a firm believer in leaving no reason for your landlord to not return atleast a large portion of your deposit. The thud of the hammers from the carpet guys next door is impossible to ignore. Shadows from the 6 foot weeds that more resemble small trees spy through the discolored mini blinds. I was fond of this apartment at times.

But as I sit here I try to remind myself of all the struggles and hardships I encountered whilst living here. Not to depress myself, no, but to remember how lucky I am to be moving on. I have always been one to dwell on the past, and nowhere here to escape it. There have been small highs followed by crushing lows. Pleasant triumphs were had only to be met by suffocating defeat. I can not in my right mind be sad to see this place go. The character of the loft is immense, but it's not enough to redeem the mental, emotional and often physical pain I felt here. Perhaps the joys of living alone were lost on me. There was too much time. Too much time to sit and dwell; too much time to agonize over all things big and small; too much time to feel depressed, alone and forgotten; to much time to wallow in self pity and hatred; too much drinking; to much shopping; too much TV; too much sleeping; too much not living my life to the fullest. I mean I'm not a slug or anything, but I can honestly admit now what I've known for quite some time which is I let myself be a lesser version of me here, alone, away from the truth in love.

So I'm about to close my laptop, pack up my car with the last tiny load and hit the ground running (not literally... we all know how much I hate to run). Somerset Square can kiss my ass.

Sarah's Summer: Cliffnotes Edition

Holy Moly.

Sooo what has Sarah been up to lately? Traveling. A lot...... well atleast a lot for me. Things have been busy since the Big Lebowski Birthday -

Little Lebowski Urban Achiever (Monica), The Dude (Me), and Maude Lebowski sans robe (Carcie) enjoying some "caucasians"

and if you missed that then you're a sucka (and most of you did miss it). Family was in town, Sarah was moving her happy self clear across town, parties were happening; it was nuts.

Next was a short albeit busy week at work then it was off to the mountains for some R&R. But before I could leave I had to haul all my clothes, makeup, etc (y'know the things I need to go out in public) to the new casa... we'll get to that in a little bit. So after work I load up the Focus and head out into the clear blue yonder to the beautiful mountains of NM. I arrived late Thursday night and quickly settled in for a "relaxing" weekend in the mountains (with a mountain of things piling up at home). We ate, we gambled, and I finally met the lovely Eric. I enjoyed the treat of a supreme pizza at his establishment Cafe Rio. Good food, good people, good place. Right on.

I said my goodbyes to the view and made it back to Texas by 8pm. Just enough time to unpack, wash and repack (the reason I needed everything in one place): My flight was leaving for Atlanta in 34 hours. Toss in another busy day at the office and an evening filled with prep for a weekend of more work (in dress clothes) and Sarah had her hands full. I squeezed in two hours of sleep before my 4am wake up time and I was off to the Peach State! We landed around noon Atlanta time, took the Marta to our hotel downtown, then promptly speed walked to Gibney's for some turkey burgers and the best Diet Coke I've had in recent memory. Next was booth set up at the Americasmart until 8 o'clock. Ugh. I love traveling for work, but the exhaustion was already setting in and the show hadn't even started yet. Some General Tsu's chicken at Hsu's helped ease my pain and it was home to the Marriot Marquis for some sleep.

Shows go a lil' something like this: wake up at 6:30, meet at 8:15, scarf down breakfast and head to the booth. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, lunch from Lassiter's, sell, sell, sell, sell, eat at a fancy high priced Atlanta hot spot, head home, repeat. Good times, but very tiring. I flew home Monday only to discover my good friend Andrew was in town. Scratch the 10 o'clock bedtime, and head to a softball game with him and Connor. Drop the boys off at the Library for some drinks and then I finally made it in bed just before midnight. What's the point in sleep now? I was running on auto pilot, a feeling I remembered all too well from my restaurant/retail days and a feeling I realized perhaps I was getting a little too old for. Even coffee couldn't revive me; it was just keeping the status quo: awake.

I struggled (and I do mean struggled) through the hectic work week. It's nice to get out of the office and have a chance to work with our customers in person... that is until I have to come back to the office and work the other end of the business: order entry. I very much like my desk job as well, but it's kind of like TP'ing your own house: You have fun making the mess, but you still have to clean it up. The loooong week ended with a celebration! A coworker, Carcie has the same b-day as Harry Potter so what better way to celebrate than with an HP themed party! We all dressed up, had HP inspired treats such as butter beer, pumpkin pasties, polyjuice potion punch, etc. I dressed as Dobby, Carcie was Tonx, Jacq was Dumbledore (complete with a three foot wizards hat made from poster board) to name a few. Aaron actually shaved his whole head (eye brows included) and came as Voldemort. We filed into the theatre much to the delight (they were delighted to sit there and make fun of us) of our fellow theatre goers and enjoyed the Half Blood Prince.

So here we are today. I still haven't moved out of my apartment, I've got a laundry list of things to do to get there and the clock is ticking on the time I still have left with my Bro's truck. I hope everyone else is having a more relaxing summer. Things have been nuts-o but good! I'll be back to my usual updating once I get settled. In the meantime I'm getting paid to blog! You can check out our companies new (and I do mean very new... I have very limited time to work on it so it's a work in progress) blog at http://www.stephenjosephgifts.wordpress.com/

Peace out!

Here Piggy Piggy Piggy!!

As I listened to the sausage sizzle and pop in the skillet tonight a memory came to me...A few years ago I became a vegetarian (only for a short while) in the hopes of reaching some sort of enlightenment. While the pledge didn't stick, the enlightenment did. I watched while the sausage patty browned; a key ingredient in my dinner of breakfast. I melted some cheese atop said sausage as it rested in the safe confines of a toasted English Muffin. Add a lightly scrambled egg and the sandwich was complete. I'm always surprised by myself when I eat pork, and I've already eaten it 3 times this week. While this is certainly more than I usually partake in, my mind always does a few flips when I touch the pig to my lips.

You see, the thing that prompted me to kiss off the meat was the following article in Rolling Stone. It outlines in detail the depravity of the Pork Industry. I had been contemplating becoming a vegetarian for quite some time, but after reading this I was so completely disturbed I couldn't ignore it anymore. I firmly believe in the responsible use of animals for our nourishment, shelter and well being. It is our God given blessing (Genesis 1:26). Clearly these Pig Farmers didn't get the memo. I still eat meat, and ironically pork in all it's many forms is one of my favorites (sausage? good. ham? good. bacon? good!). I don't know if that makes me a hypocrite or not. Either way I feel people should be informed about what they're eating.

Please don't be discouraged by the length of this article; you will NOT regret reading it. Be enlightened...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters