Close enough to touch....but too chicken to do anything about it

So, I'm in Chicago at my favorite meeting of the year. I walked into the hotel and before I could make it to the front desk to check in, I was bombarded by people I knew. Hugs, cheek kisses (which is apparently very big in my client's world), high-pitched "hiiiiyyeeeee". I LOVE it!

It's a good chance for me to see people I haven't seen in a while, but also just to network and, yes, feel important.

Anyway, each year a "Guest Speaker" is announced on the agenda with no indication of who it is. Which normally means someone big. Two years ago it was Jerry Seinfeld. We're talking big time.

We'd been speculating for a while about who it might be and decided that it HAD to be Ben Stiller. But when the speaker was announced, it was not Ben Stiller it was Tom Roffman who is CEO of 20th Century Fox Films. He was a great speaker, very funny, relevant. Blah, blah, blah. Finally it came down to pushing a new movie and out walks Ben Stiller on stage right in front of us!

We jumped to our feet and roared for him and he regaled us with tales about filming and growing up with his parents, and how much he loves this client. Then it was question and answer time and long story short...Zoolander is on of his favorite movies to make and he did the Zoolander walk on-stage with blue-steele/magnum look and all!!!! It was so awesome!

Then, I was headed back to my room and got caught in a crowd. Ben Stiller was waiting for the elevator right next door to my hotel room! Waiting! I needed a pic, but was too chicken to ask. So...the back of his head is what you got. For proof, Tom Roffman is next to him on the left. I brushed Ben's sleeve as I passed!

Starstruck crazy Zoolander-loving lady here! It was awesome, that's all I can say!!
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Never, ever drink at meetings like this. It is waaaaay too much fun to watch others be drunk! And then you don't have the vomit and migraines they have, just the fond memories they don't.
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One last day of the best meeting ever! Then home where I'm on a mission...we'll talk soon. In the meantime....ORANGE MOCHA FRAPUCCINOS!!!

Lists never fail

Geez...I can't believe how sucky this blog has been lately! Sorry so boring. I am truly my usual beautiful, hilarious, perfect self in real life. So much of what has been going on is stuff I don't really want to write....who cares about work or parties or coffee nights or being tired all the time.

I leave tomorrow for my third trip in the last two weeks. Headed to Chicago for my favorite meeting. Last week was travel to Iowa, then "On the Road" with ch. 5. It's just been hectic around here.

One of these days I'll get back to better posting. I've also found it's really hard to keep up more than one blog and stay interesting and fun on both. So much of what's going on in our life centers around adoption, which I'm chronicling on the other blog to avoid boring people here who aren't interested. I may have to combine the two blogs one of these days!

But you know what never fails me on blogs? Lists....so I give you the first of several lists over the next week. There's no purpose....just making a list because people like lists!

Books we've read in Book Club since it started:
The Reading Group
The Lovely Bones
Wicked
Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Drowning Ruth
Memoirs of a Geisha
Life of Pi
Keeping Faith
Secret Life of Bees
Jewel
Running with Scissors
A Mighty Heart
The Thirteenth Tale
Lamb
The Road

Our next book is The Last Lecture.

Favorites: Life of Pi, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Thirteenth Tale.
Least Favorites: Running with Scissors, Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing.
Didn't read: Jewel (I own it, just haven't read it and I hate that it remains unread!)

Any I wouldn't recommend? No! They are all SO different and I liked each for different reasons. Running with Scissors is a little risque, but I'm still glad I read it.

I love my "book club". I love the girls in it, I love the food, I love the excuse to read books I never would have picked on my own. I recommend everyone get a book club, even if you don't like to read.

This list brought to you by last Saturday's Book Club meeting, where we enjoyed homemade pasta (from Pizza Hut), homemade chocolate cake, the best book discussion we'd had in months, and all around good conversation! That's why it's on my mind...

I'm taking orders

Today I went to a bridal show with Melissa. One of those deals you walk around, pick up business cards, see samples, register to win.

Well, the big prize was the free honeymoon. They were looking for 3 contestants to make a Krispy Kreme cake in under 2 minutes. Melissa had a 1976 quarter and that made her the third and final contestant! So, of course, she dragged her maid of honor up on stage to help her. We had a box of donuts, ribbons, beads, dowel rods, and fake flowers to make a beautiful wedding cake.

I KNEW the minute we got up on stage we were going to win. We ended up being the only group that made a multi-leveled cake. We had a top donut with a flower, with beads and ribbons spilling down across the base. And when the crowd was asked to cheer for the best, we were HANDS DOWN the best. So Melissa won a free honeymoon!!!! I was screaming and jumping up and down, hugging her with my sticky fingers and freaking out.

Anyway....what a fun way to spend a Sunday, helping my best friend win her honeymoon. Plus, I was able to pick up a copy of Oklahoma Bride Magazine, so I can thumb through hundreds of OKC brides (more than half I know from high school, college, and work). Good times...

Anyway, congrats to Melissa! And checkout our beautiful cake...we're taking orders if you're interested!

Remembering

Random things I'm remembering:

I remember making this pledge week after week:
On my honor
I will try
To serve God
And my country
To help people at all times
And to live by the Girl Scout law
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I remember one summer my parents had just bought the ultimate in style and comfort, our blue Chevy Lumina minivan. We loaded it up and took it crosscountry to visit my grandparents on the East Coast. We stopped at many places along the way, a good old-fashioned road trip.

This was around the time I was very into horses, and I'd read Misty of Chincoteague. And my parents went out of their way to stop at Chincoteague Island in Virginia/Maryland to see the wild horses there, just like in the book.
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I remember when my sister was into "Harriet the Spy" book and movie, and she and her friend Jennifer (our neighbor) decided to be Harriet. They drew tattoos on the bottom of their feet, packed spy kits, and became peeping toms at all the houses on our street peering into open windows and backyards to spy on the neighbors.
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I remember a big storm coming through when we lived in our house on Teal Place. It was already past us, but still close by and my dad took me up on the roof to watch it. I remember sitting up there and can still see the gray, lowering clouds that seemed just inches from my fingers. I've never felt safer in a storm than I did up there on the roof.
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I remember spending all afternoon in the kiddie pool in the backyard and getting a blistering sunburn. I couldn't even move for a couple of days, it hurt so bad. But when I finally felt up to getting out, my mom and dad took me on a walk around the block to push my babydoll in her blue plastic stroller.
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So, random, I know. But all have come up in the last few days while I was on the road for business. For some reason, each seemed significant.

Word Associations from the Airport

Kids in bathing suits: cute. Kids in bathing suits at the airport: weird. Parents in bathing suits at the airport: disturbing.

Iowa Hawkeye fans: cool. Iowa Hawkeye fans gabbing on their cell phone "OMG Lance is SO NOT a Hawkeye fan" in the airport bar: mildly obnoxious. Drunk Iowa Hawkeye fans screaming "Go Hawkeyes" 8 times while approaching landing in Iowa: typical.

Polite people in the seat next to you on the airplane: relief. Polite people in the seat next to you who want to carry on a conversation the whole flight home: annoying. Polite people in the seat next to you who's teeth are falling out of their carry on luggage on the floor near your flip-flopped feet: distracting.

Meeting potential new clients: exciting. Talking about Oklahoma weather with every new potential client you meet: exhausting. Trying to figure out what the heck is a midget race called the Chili Bowl that takes place in Tulsa every year with a potential new client who pronounces it "Barry Sw-EYE-tzer" and then not getting the business: maddening.

It's been a terribly long, exhausting 48 hours.

Dinner at the movies

Summer means a lot of things to me: many hours of daylight and lots of energy, sleeping in t-shirts instead of sweatshirts, hardly any cute clothes (most of my cute clothes are winterish), catching up on my cable networks because there's nothing else on, buying more razors, etc.

But most of all, it means I'm a golf widow. I normally don't mind, because I know John LOVES golfing, and he will start as early as the weather will allow and continue until the weather becomes too cold for comfort. He loves it, and it gets him superactive. Most of you know...he doesn't like to sit around. So, normally I encourage this. Especially because I've been filling my time lately getting coffee and catching up with a lot of friends at the Starbucks that will soon close.

Anyway, I kind of had a breakdown this week. John went golfing almost every day for the last couple of weeks, and I missed him! We hadn't been out just the two of us in so long and I missed just being around him.

So tonight we both were off work early and headed to SEE A MOVIE! This is a big deal, we never see movies. But we went to a 5:30 showing of "Hancock", got a snack (dinner was movie hot dogs and popcorn), went to the store and were still home by 8:00. We're old, boring married people y'all.

Anyway, we both really liked "Hancock" and it was totally not what we expected. I was a little disappointed because I had my heart set on seeing "Mamma Mia" but it doesn't come out until Friday. He promised to take me...but we both know the next time we see a movie it will be "Stepbrothers" with Will Ferrell because that's how we roll.

It was nice to get out. I leave tomorrow for my first of three business trips in the next 14 days. I'm missing my airport security friends!

It's gonna get ugly

Y'all, it's about to get ugly.

I'm sure you've heard Starbucks is closing 600 U.S. locations. Well, it turns out almost all 600 locations are right here in Oklahoma. Like, ALL the ones near my house.

Britton and Broadway
122nd and Penn
15th and Santa Fe
Danforth and Santa Fe
Memorial and May

A good part of my weeks are spent at Starbucks near my house. I ask you...where am I supposed to go now? I mean, who wants to drive ALL THE WAY over to 15th and Broadway or 15th and Bryant? Seriously?! That's a whole 2 miles, at least, out of my way, and with the prices of gas I just can't afford to drive an extra 2 miles for my $4.00 cup of coffee.

Shoot, Emily, I forgot to ask about Bryant and Memorial...

To pause or not to pause

I was going to write a cute little story about how I called a good friend last night to share some important information and ended up annoying her greatly because I was interrupting her Lindsey Lohan movie. And how her husband gently reminded her that they had a DVR...you can PAUSE THE LIVE TV!! And how then she was quite interested to talk to me.

But I'm too tired to tell you that WHOLE story. So I'll just leave you with a precap of my weekend: poker tonight, my cousin is coming back in town for the weekend, and we're going to see Jim Gaffigan tomorrow night at Rose State. Then I'll probably work on Sunday. I have business trips planned for the next three weeks...so a lot to do before heading out.

I'm so not interesting. I'll try to think of something to talk about over the weekend. Blog funk is back again!

Oh to be a Swedish author

A couple of weeks ago we went exploring at IKEA and I found this book. As you know, everything at IKEA is Swedish and after a little digging I found that this is actually the name of the author. Miss Lotass is known as one of the spearheads of Swedish literature.

This, my friends, is why I carry a digital camera. Because my husband wasn't with me, and it had to be shared.

I've been busy

Sorry for the lack of posting. I had a GREAT 4th weekend with lots of fireworks, food, friends and family.

In my spare time I was completing a little something called a homestudy packet. You can find out more at Here's to Hope. A photo of our hard work is below, with a quarter for a reference of how much we did. Hopefully it signifies a huge step in our lives. We have no idea how much longer we'll be waiting, but there's no going back now. The paperwork was dropped off this morning and is complete on our end!

Anyway, back to regular blogging soon.

I heart Bob Stoops

It's about this time of year that I rise from the depression that encompasses me for the first 7 months of the year and start to hear the sound of sweet, sweet triumph.

It's a little voice in my head that sings oh-so-quietly:
Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, O-K-U.
I'm Sooner born and Sooner bred and when I die I'll be Sooner dead. Rah Oklahoma, Rah Oklahoma, Rah Oklahoma...O-K-U.

That's right, kids. The countdown is now within reach, meaning I can count the number of weeks to kick-off on two hands. 7 weeks from this Saturday my life's happiness begins.

I'm so ready for football season. I'm going to make t-shirts that say "Sam Bradford is my homeboy" and it's going to be awesome.