Home Sweet Home

So in my normal tradition, I've titled my post according to what song I'm listening too. How odd, you'll find out why as you reach the bottom of the post.

So there have been many times I've been tempted over the last few months to just sit down and express on my blog how unhappy I am with my life is right now. And I haven't. First, because no one really wants to hear about the crappiness in some one's life while reading a blog. Second, b/c I work in new media and have only begun to learn about how crazy Internet stalking go and I don't want Joe Bob from Company X in several years to discover this blog while he's stalking me on the Internet to find out my true candidacy potential. So, in a way, I feel I hit close to bottom this week. I still don't have many friends in New York. I know this is in part due to my personality. I'm quiet. I don't talk much in groups. And that's no one's fault, that's just the way I am. I had my good friends Jackie and Julie here for a week and a half. In a way, before they came, I felt almost emotionless. Like I couldn't care anymore, and I just don't like myself when I feel like that. Point is, Jackie and Julie came when I really needed them to without even knowing it.

Anyways, point is, I think everything happens for a reason. I know it. I haven't reached the great peak in my life where everything makes sense, but little signs along the way tell me God's out there waiting for me to find my true calling in life. So, I've had a few this weekend. I ended up going out w/ my friend Kira and her friends on Friday night. As some of you know, I don't get to go out much. But I had ONE drink, and we went to the second bar, and I ended up dancing with no extra help at all (with an awkward situation on top of that). Have I ever done this? No. Then yesterday, I really wanted to go see StopLoss. I had no one to go with, so I went by myself. Which is completely fine. I couldn't really afford popcorn, but for some reason I really wanted some. And you know what happened? I got a free small popcorn coupon with my AMC card. Dinky, I know, but why the one time I want popcorn and can't afford it do I get a free small popcorn coupon? StopLoss was a really good movie. And I love Ryan Philippe. Mmm....I do!!

So then I went to barnes and noble in quest of a book I can devour b/c I'm still having book hangover from the outlander series. After spending an hour and a half in the store, I remember I want to read Mists of Avalon. Keys to the book: Historical, King Arther, and the most important part of any book I read.....a little romance. Done I'm already on page 40 and when you pick up this book it looks like it could be the bible. Not so much of a sign, but I'm glad it's a page turner for the subway.

Then this morning I decided I'd go to church at 9:30 because I want to watch the KU/Davidson game. So I went. I got turned around as I tend to do on the Upper West Side, could have been late, but I got there at 9:35. Mass was just about to begin. I know I'm not the best Catholic out there. I strive to be in my own way, though. Would you like to know what the homily was about? Fear of becoming part of the community. You know what? This is what I've been struggling with all week. And God just throws it in my face and says "What are you going to do about it? I'm here, I've got your back, you will fall some (what I've been doing), but it'll be OK in the end." So yeah. I need to get out there. I need to feel like a complete idiot with a huge group, but I can do it. Anyways, this was the biggest sign of all. Now, just where to find these groups is another question. But I figure if I get out there, with a little divine intervention, I'll find the right one.

Finally, I got paid. I had two spend $50 and only pay $25 at ann taylor loft. So I decided to go shopping after church. So there's this green dress I've been fixated on for a good month and a half. It's gone. The nice lady helping me finds the black one for me. OMG. I was in love. In fact, I have it on (trying it on w/ the shoes at home). I spent way too much money at ATL but I'm not upset with my spending (yet anyways). Got two black sweaters too.

Home sweet home. NYC can become that for me for the time I'm here. I just have to get out there and embrace it. And I know I can do that. I've only done that four other times in my life in four other places.

Have something your struggling with? I'm hear to listen (c; Cheesy, I know, had to throw in the little interaction part, like I do on my work blog posts. If you want to read those, shoot me an email and I'll give you the links. If I post 'em, bloggers have a really weird way of tracking the links that other bloggers post on the internet, and I wouldn't want them to read this stuff.

Now the fun on

So the last post was a summary. So now I'll give you all my random musings I just know you love hearing!!

So, I have embraced a few things as a New Yorker. My favorite....hands down.....is drop off laundry service! I paid $11 today for dropping my laundry off last night and picking it up today...clean, dry, and folded!! However, I always hear this phrase come out of my mouth as I'm going through my new clean laundry "oh smack! i let them wash that?!" and "uh oh, where'd the matching sock go?"

I also drank my first cup of real coffee. Just plain coffee!! A few mornings before we went sight seeing. Not too bad with half and half! I may be lowering my dependence on the carmel machaitto.....

So I have a new complex. It's called the Foo Fighters complex. OK, so for the Feb Foo Fighters concert, I got on 50 minutes after the tickets went on sale and tehy were sold out! So now, every time i hear about a show I have to buy tickets. These would include: 2 Augustana shows and a Foo Fighters show in July (mike and I have sixth row tickets!!!!)

I'm really excited to go see Stop Loss this weekend. And basketball. I'm also finally going to buy an under the bed box for the extra clothes in my closet.

I've been doing pretty well at writing for my blogs at work. I'm not going to post the names of them b/c bloggers have a tricky way of tracking back to my blog......which I don't think they need to know certain things about me....like my obsession with basketball.....so email me and i'll email you the links! I got my first guest blogger to post today on my innovation blog!!

OK, I had more funny stuff but I forgot. I hope you all enjoyed this!!

French Onion Dip

Long time no blog (I know, that's how I started out my last post) but I have reasons!! And this blog post is probibly going to be worth your time!!

Anyway, my post is titled b/c I'm not listening to music right now. But I did have some french onion dip earlier, and oh man. It's just better if I never have french onion dip mix in the cabinet, b/c I will eat it. OK. I finished a tub today, it lasted a week!! Record slow btw. OK, so back to the reason for the post. I'm not listening to music, I'm watching basketball. Yeah! March is my favorite month. OK, well, this paragraph in my post is dedicated to my roommates Laura and Megan b/c they get a lot of credit for dealing with my addiction! Props to them. They do not enjoy basketball near as much as I do. I promise, I don't have more sports to watch after college basketball until football comes back! Yeah, a lot nice with K State in the field! Too bad we suck. Michael!! Pass up millions and come back next year w/ Bill and win KSU a national championship!! I know you can do it!

Alright. What I've been up to since the last post. After my super crappy weekend, I decided to go home the next weekend. So I hung out w/ the parents and Mike. The highlight of teh weekend was HUGE storm that blew threw. We were playing some cards (go Washington State!! I have you beating UNC!) and I look up and ask if that's a piece of trash blowing across the yard. Nope, sure enough it was a skunk. When Penny found out she went nuts. It was way to enjoyable to watch a skunk waddle around the yard in 30 mph wind and driving rain.

The next weekeend was WAY more fun b/c Jackie Allen came to visit me! She came on Friday and we went straight to the bar to watch K State. We won! Satuday we saw stuff New York had to offer. We went up the Empire State Building. Had some Greek food. My personal favorite part of the day came at the end, when for some reason we both laughed so hard I couldn't breathe while we were trying to streatch our lower backs from walking all day. Sunday we went to the Modern (we both got yelled at for getting too close to a painting), something else and then we went to Rent. Favorite part of this day came at the end as well. Jackie and I were talking to Laura and Megan comes down the hall and says "Guys, I think there's a cat outside my windown." In unison, Laura, Jackie and I say "It's Juan's cat!"

St. Patrick's Day we didn't drink a drop of liquer but instead indulged in a "Death by Peanut butter" sunday (I can not for the life of me think of how to spell this right now). Came home and find out the KSU women are playing in Connecticut. Of course I'm not skipping it!!

Tuesday was back to work. I met jackie after work and we went grocery shopping. Then we came home and ate and she left at 4 am.

Then Wednesday, I met Julie, my friend i studied abroad with in France, in times square to give her my house keys so she could stay with me! I hadn't seen her since fall semseter senior year (2005). It was lovely having her here! She did, for the most part, embrace my need to watch a lot of basketball!! Thursday night we met at the K State bar to see then men pull an upset of USC. Friday I had off, so we watched a lot of basketball, went to the Moma, ate raw vegan (ew, yuck, etc) and got some cupcakes and came back and watched some more basketball. Saturday, I took her to my fav place to eat in the city....the Peanut Butter Store!! We ate our sandwiches in Washington Square Park and then proceeded to go watch KSU loose in the second round. We then made it from 86th street to 4th street in 30 minutes (record for me) to see the movie Paranoid Park. (Kristi did a great job of finding the name of this movie with two clues.....It had Jenny from Gossip Girl and had Park in the title, we did it all by text post KSU game!).

Sunday, my parents came with a few goodies from Walmart (a plunger, venus rasors and walmart cheese!) before we went to Connecticut to watch the girls have a rough game. That was all that consisted of our Sunday, really.

Monday. Julie and I met my cousin Chris for pizza and drinks. It was really a lot of fun! And then Tuesday we didn't do much b/c Julie had to leave early on Wednesday morning.

So there's your wrap up. I miss friends. I do get to go to Oregon in April and back to Kansas in May!!

Supersonic

Well, long time no blog.

Truth is, last week was a pretty crappy week. Last weekend wasn't so great, followed by an even more spectacular Monday at work leaving me to one of the worst weeks I've had in a while.

On the up side, after all that bitching about Augustana they have a small club date in Hoboken and I have tickets for $15!!! Lets see, what else. Pandora.com is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I'm a personal fan of the Remy Zero station. It's fantastic.

I'm glad it's March Madness and I'm in the States!! Not too bad for my Wildcats on either side, 1st place in the Big XII for the girls and third for the boys. So, I'll basically spend my week in the bar watching the tournaments. Man, this is when it'd be cool to live in Kansas and have people to watch basketball with me!! However, Jackie (c; comes Friday, so I'll have somebody by the end of the week!!!!!

And store update. I hate shopping, as many of you know, but I've found my store. I could buy almost everything in it. Which store you ask?? Ann Taylor. Loft. The real one. The outlet one. Ah, I love it!! Now I can't wait til I make enough money to buy all my clothes there instead of just the two or three shirts a season when they go on sale after the season is over!!

I also started watching Sex in the City on Netflix. I'm sorry, but I don't see what the big deal is. Maybe it gets better but I'm 2 episodes into the second season and I'm not seeing what the big deal is. I'll keep going b/c I do netflix for TV shows. But I believe next is Party of Five season three, followed by the Sopranos. Yeah! OK, lovely week in March, all!

Almost forgot. I'm MISSING 90s alternative. What we've got going on in this day and age is no where near as great as 96x was in those hay days of the late 90s. What brings this up? Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Cake, Cracker, Stone Temple Pilots, and an array of other bands from the late 90s I heard this weekend on Lucy courtsey of XM Radio.

Sweet and low

and augustana went and got all poppy. which is not so cool. maybe i'm overreacting because all i've done for the last six months is listen to these songs acoustic....which it's no secret that augustana is SSSTTTEEELLLLLLLLLLAAAAARRRRR live. in my opinion anyway.

Long Road to Ruin

So, as you read in by blog last week......I went to some concerts!! Yeah, I pretty much love New York City and music. I spent the past two nights at Madison Square Garden. Let me detail this for you. My roommate and I started out Monday night at the Spice Girls!! Because she is pretty much super awesome, have a look at where I was sitting. Um, yeah. These ladies were AWESOME!! They were georgous and could still sing. Dancing was on a low, but hey, they're 30!! So let me tell you. Victoria Beckham stole the show. She's gained some popularity since Spice broke up. But let me tell you my first reaction when she was staning right in front of me: "OH my GOODNESS!!! She sleeps with David Beckham!!" I think pretty much everyone was thinking that. They even SUNG MY SONG! Who do you think you are?!

Night two: THE FOO FIGHTERS!! I thought for a while I'd have to sit by myself since Mike wasn't sure if he could come, but he ended up coming back to NYC for the show. The first two bands pretty much sucked. JIMMY EAT WORLD I'm sad you canceled!! But who cares. Mike and I had limited view seating. AKA....we stared at Dave Ghrol's ass teh entire time. But that's ok. I find Dave pretty darn attractive. I'm sad he's behind this pole in this one picture I took. So they're on the list. What list you ask?? THE BEST BANDS I'VE EVER SEEN LIVE. They just kick ass. Sounded exactly like the CD. I mean, seriously, when you start out the show with "Let It Die," "Pretender," and "Times Like These" is it going to be a bad show?! OF COURSE NOT! So what else did they sing? UM, EVERYTHING. Everlong (1/2 acoustic, 1/2 band), Hero, Monkey Wrench, Big Me, AND BEST OF YOU!!!

I LOVE concerts. I'd truely forgotten how much fun they are while I was in teh other Manhattan. There's nothing like the first few notes of the first song when teh lights go down....aaahhhh......On my list of favorite things to do. Also! I was not the youngest in teh crowd!! The Foo Crowd was my age!

OK, so you know when you hear that concerts are more special in New York??? That's not a LIE!! I got to see all the Spice Girls kids! They were adorable! However, my first thought "OH my gosh, those are DAVID BECKHAM'S CHILDREN!!" And. Do you want to see the foo fighters? I mean, I don't mind looking at Dave Grohl's ass, but I mean, he pretty much embodies everything I look for in a man (long hair, some nice chin scruff.....a GUITAR) but You can see it on FUSE!! THE FOO FIGTHERS concert on FUSE! You should. I was there. OK, I'll leave you with little Cruz breakdancing.

Spice Up Your Life

That's right, mine's going to get spiced up Monday night, keep reading (c;

So my Monday started out with a bang. I had a phenominal Monday in fact. I decided a while ago, I was going to make my first vacation to the west coast (never been there) to see my friend Zoe! So I booked my plane ticket to go to Oregon in April. Zoe and I decided I'd come mid April when killer whales happened to be off the Oregon coast. (YEAH!!) At this exact time, miss Allen had finally been persuaded into coming ot New York after many, many "come to new york" ads produced by moi! Thirdly, my new roommate came home and asked what I was doing tihs coming Monday. Well, my dad is coming in for his birthday but he'll go home late afternoon. OK, Laura said, "Would you like to go see the Spice Girls at Madison Square Garden?" What?! YES!! I never saw them on the only tour they did in the US when I was in middle school!!! OK, tehn Wedneday, my sold out Foo Fighters show had magically opened a few seats and I looked at the right time. SO!! Spice Girls Monday, Foo Fighters Tuesday!! I wonder how many people are doing that combination.

OK, Tuesday, I was fully planning on going to the gym. Miss JCA had even told me she was going to make fun of me if I didn't make it, b/c I have a membership and have never been. So then I take my gym bag to work. I realize I left a hair band a home. Then I got an Email to babysit that night. OK, I decided to babysit. However, Alexandra and I did watch Barak Obama friggen SWEEP his states. Hillary, just realize that if you get the big, YOU got it by cheating. Winning a few big states and having lot of really old cheater friends as super delegates.

Wednesday. I watched K State fall apart. Terrable, guys, horrible. And that was when my Foo Figthers tickets magically popped up on my ticketmaster screen.

Thrusday. Valentines Day. Honestly, I'd almost forgot it was Valentines day. I hate the holiday. Not becuase of my terrible track record of boyfriends on Valentines Day, but because it's a terrible trick to make you spend money. If I do indeed ever receive flowers for Valentines Day, I want them either the day before ot the day after. Anyways, I ended up gettign drinks with Kira and her roommate and friend after work and then we watched The Jane Austen Book Club. Brilliant night.

And that's jp's week. I'll snap some pics of me and my roommate at the spice girls concert. PS. I'm goign to be closer to david beckham Monday night than i ever have been in my life.....4th ROW!!! I'm stalking him down. ah.....

ok, happy saturday and go k state men and women.