Book recommendation

During my weekend of doing nothing, I read this book:

It takes place in the early 1960s when the Civil Rights movement was just starting to get hot. I wasn't able to put it down and highly suggest that it go on your list of books to read.

This weekend I'll be doing...

Nothing.

And I am so exicted about that.

Yes, please

If I could design my dream kitchen, this would be it. Just look at it!! It makes me want to fast forward life so I can get to the part where I have a big house that I can do with as I please.

As it is, I'm dying to just have my own apartment that I can decorate however I want to. Although I may browse design blogs and swoon over the magazine House Beautiful, I'm not so sure I'd actually be able to put together a living space that didn't look like a schizophrenic person went wild in. But hey, a girl can dream. Now I just need that apartment...and one day, that kitchen!!

Kitchen from this article

Pauljavier.com

Sometimes you just need a break from your real life, a time to let loose and act as if you have no responsibilities waiting for you at home...i.e. act like you're still in college. So that's exactly what a group of us did this past weekend. Girls River Weekend, as we called it, was a great success.

Friday night found the four of us meeting from different cities in New Braunfels, TX to begin our epic weekend. All intentions of cooking a decent meal were thrown out the window, and we instead found ourselves purchasing turkey dogs and chilli. When on a river weekend, this is the only appropriate dinner there is. Then it was time for college throwback, and many games of beer pong were played. We had a chance to show our skills, or lack there of. All thoughts of jobs, relationships, and bills were forgotten as we were transported back into a simpler, drunker time.

Saturday morning we arose, ready to take on the river. We found ourselves on the Guadalupe with hordes of other river revelers. Let me just say that the river is a great experiment in people watching and could keep one entertained for days. It was decided that we all saw more trashy tattoos in this one weekend than we've all seen in our entire lives. Imagine Jersey Shore+Beverly Hillbillies+a frat party and that's the river.

Now imagine us, a group of five 20something females with three coolers filled with booze, fruit, and summer sausage & cheese. Yes, that was our lunch. We were warned almost immediately that the jello shots we brought for fun were actually considered river contriband and that we should probably dispose of them immediately. With sad hearts, we left our Walmart bag of jello creations on the banks of the Guadalupe. Our great state doesn't want us to litter, yet we were forced to do just that! I know, I know, shame on us. But getting a ticket was not something we were too excited about.

The real excitement began when we reached our first big river dam/rapid. I had the unfortunate experience of being pushed out of my tube, and thus went crashing through some rocks. Bathing suit top down, tears flowing, an attractive and graceful experience overall. What's ironic about this situation is that I was the sober river-goer. Somehow the other 5 million drunk people on the river made it through this just fine. I'm so lucky! However, I do have some pretty sweet battle scars to show for this experience. I'd post the pictures, but I don't think any of you want to see the cellulite on my leg.

Calmer waters brought what every river goer hopes for: river friends. We were drawn to them because of the floating beer pong table that accompanied the group. How it happened, I don't remember, but we somehow weasled our way into their midst. Turns out this all-male group was there from across the country (literally...Hawaii, Seattle, San Diego, Jersey) for a bachelor party...minus the bachelor. Poor guy ended up in the hospital right before the trip, but the rest of them refused to miss out on an epic bachelor weekend after all their plane tickets had already been purchased. Sucks for the bachelor, but it was great for us. Making friends on the river is tantamount to the whole experience, and we certainly picked quality pals. One of them, who introduced himself as "pauljavier.com," was a professional photographer/real estate company owner from Hawaii. That really is his website, by the way.

So the rest of our river time was spent playing with the floating beer pong table and generally causing a spectacle. However, we were nowhere near as entertaining/creepy as the two women we saw who could not stop sucking on each others' toes. See what I mean about the river?

When our float ended, our new friends had quite the hard time parting from us. They begged us to come to Austin that night to play on 6th street. We even got an invite to their penthouse suite. What? Yes. We are careful girls, and of course did not agree to these lavish plans. But sometimes it's nice to have a random group of men invite you to a penthouse! And I mean that in the least creepy way possible.

After a long day, four out of five of us were up for going out to dinner. Our missing friend obviously embodied the spirit of the river more than the rest of us! Since it was 10 pm when we finally got to eat, we attacked our meals as if we'd never seen food before. The river will do that to you.

Like I said, a successful weekend. I love hanging out with my girlfriends, and it's been hard to do that since we're all spread out now. We may have acted a little silly, and sure, maybe we could have done something a little more classy with our weekend, but this was PERFECT. Don't knock the river until you've tried it!

Riiiivvvaaaa

I'm from Texas, where summer and floating on a river are synonomous.

This weekend is what we're calling "Girls River Weekend." Terribly creative, I know. But I think you get the point of what exactly it is. Five friends, a river, lots of food, dessert, libations, and fun.

I never get to just let loose with a group of girlfriends anymore, so I am beyond excited.

So here's to a weekend of all things fun and a killer tan.

A list of nothing

Oh my, have I been slacking! For once work is actually busy. Gasp!

I had the best weekend, just so you know. I like making lists, so that's just what I'll do.

1. My hair has a shape again. Thank you, Orie, at Visible Changes.

2. I went to the wedding of a friend from college. We met through Fish Camp, and so far he is the FOURTH person from good ol' Camp Powell to tie the knot (two of them married each other!). Needless to say, very good times ensued. I love weddings, and this one was beyond fun.

Pretending to be on the Titanic. I think. There were free margaritas, so nothing is too certain!

Members of Camp Powell who were present holding up the lucky groom.

My dear friend, Jenna. We forgot what a good time we have together. I like to think we were the life of the party!

3. After craving them for over a year, I finally tracked down Kinder Bueno bars in the states! I should have known World Market would carry them. They maybe weren't actually displayed and I maybe climed up a shelf to grab them out of a box, but a three pack is now mine!! Knowing where to buy them is both a good and bad thing.

4. I read the newest Sookie Stackhouse book. Amazing as usual. I hate having to wait so long in between books though!

5. I returned to College Station with TWO new cookbooks. The Silver Spoon, Italy's best selling cookbook for over 50 years, and Taste of Home's Cooking Light. Can't wait to sample some new recipes!

6. I finished my first month of P90X and actually noticed results this time around! So I guess following the diet is the way to go. But I maybe ate a cupcake this weekend anyway. Oops.

7. I am very much debating whether or not I should buy my Canon Rebel XS today. I have a 10% coupon at Best Buy, plus they don't charge interest if you pay it off in 18 months. I have never put anything on a credit card that I didn't pay off immediately, so I'm rather nervous. What should I do?? I really do want it.

8. True Blood came back yesterday. I am not blessed with HBO, but I turned to trusty casttv.com and watched part of the season premier at lunch (while sitting in an empty office...definitely not the kind of show I should watch at my very public desk). I'm itching to finish it up, but it will have to wait until tomorrow's lunch. No internet at home=TERRIBLE.

This weekend I'll be heading to the river for a weekend with some of my favorite girls. Can't wait!

Crooked teeth little girls have dreams too!

I love TV. We all know this. However, summer TV is devoid of anything satisfying EXCEPT one little gem...So You Think You Can Dance. As a lover of all things dance-related, I am just slightly obsessed with this show.

This fondness of dance goes back to age 6, when my mom decided I was too shy and needed to get involved in some sort of lessons that would teach me how to not be socially awkward around anything that breathed. I was given some options and chose dance class. My first recital was the annual Christmas show, and my class did a ballet number. I'm pretty sure all it involved was some toe pointing here and there and maybe even a shaky pirouette. Scratch that, the pirouette was probably too advanced at that point. But from the first day of my first class, I was hooked on dance.

I would continue to take lessons at the same studio into my freshman year of high school- tap, jazz, ballet, a forray into tumbling that I gave up after a couple of years when I realized there was ZERO hope that I would ever be any good, and even hip hop during my last days.

There are countless recital tapes and photos of me in every single costume (and that's a lot...at each summer recital I'd be in at least 4 numbers and 2 at the winter recital. So let's say I have ammassed about 50 costumes). You only wish you could see these photos. Let's just say that if I ever get really famous and someone wants to blackmail me, these things are excellent amunition.

I'll paint a picture: Hair gelled back into a bun or pony tail with some sort of sequiny contraption around it, purple or blue eye shadow, bright pink blush that would make those tykes (or should I say, the moms of those tykes) on Toddlers and Tiaras swoon, red lipstick more befitting of a woman of the night, a unibrow, and to top it all off, pre-braces front teeth that crossed each other (these would eventually be replaced with braces, and then finally be straight in the 7th grade). Then came the costumes. Oh boy. Some were simple and not so horrendous. Some were just demonstrative of the 1990s/early 2000s. My least favorites were the two piece ensembles that showcased my pudginess and lack of a wasteline. So in conclusion, I looked reeeeaal cute.

Despite my general frightening appearance, I had FUN. I lived for getting on that stage. Sure, I was guaranteed to make at least one mistake every time (like the time during a competition when I completely spaced out and forgot an entire part of a tap routine set to "Spice up Your Life"), but it was always such a rush. And when my friends would go home after school and do nothing, I got to be active and artsy. In middle school, I even did dance AND volleyball. How the hell I pulled that off, I cannot tell you. Current times Alex is seriously impressed and doesn't understand how I wasn't skinnier during that time. But that's neither here nor there.

Eventually, I quit so I could concentrate on my studies. I went to a medical magnet school that required a lot of its students, and I was way too anal about keeping perfect grades. Plus, dance stopped being fun for me. I started seeing it more as a chore and as a stress. Many of my friends either switched to other classes or quit altogether. First I dropped the classes I had been taking for years and decided to just do hip hop for fun, but even that wasn't working out for me.

I also realized that when it came down to it, I actually wasn't that good. I mean, I wasn't bad by any means, and that's probably because I just flat out loved it so much. But I lacked that grace that truly great dancers have. Though I will say that I was indeed crowned the "leap queen" of my jazz class for having the highest and most parallel to the floor leap. Yeah, take that.

So I quit and it was hard. I wasn't use to not having an activity outside of school; it made me feel so cool to say "Oh yeah, I'm a dancer." But to this day, I still love dance and like to live vicariously through shows like So You Think You Can Dance. I also love to critique the dancers as if I actually know what I'm talking about. I mean, I am clearly an authority on all things dance.

And I certainly haven't stopped dancing altogether. Put a little alcohol in me and I will bump and grind and dance with pure abandondon like there's no tomorrow. And don't even get me started on shaking my hips around. It's not as refined as my days in the studio, but it sure is fun.