Conquering the evil sickness!

Thank y'all so much for your kind well wishes yesterday!

I am happy to report that I am feeling much better. Laying around all day really did the trick.

Also, I have now completely finished the Pretty Little Liars series. CRAZY CRAZY MADNESS. Seriously, even if you are embarrassed about reading young adult novels, read these if you need cheap and quick entertainment.

My next trip to the library will be for a more age-appropriate book. I'm thinking Shantaram. Have any of you read it? I started it last year and was really enjoying it, but it was right before I moved away from San Antonio and I had to return it to the library. Looking forward to finishing it up!

I'll be hitting up my favorite Texas city this weekend- Austin.

It'll be another one of those nights where I prentend like I'm in college.

No judgements, please.

Everyone have a beautiful weekend!!

My body is rebelling against me

For the past few days I have felt like this:

My kind, motherly boss sent me home yesterday and today with orders to get rest. Rest, I have [but I've also gotten work done, so I'm not totally unproductive]. 

Lots of 30 Rock and Tudors watching, plus I'm on the last Pretty Little Liars book.

So please excuse my lack of wit or entertainment.

Off to the couch I go!



I am not above accepting an award twice

The lovely Sara has bestowed upon me the Stylish Blogger Award. Yes, I am aware I have received this before and done a post on it. However, Sara is awesomely fabulous and hilarious [seriously, go read her blog. I read from the archives and had so much fun], so I will not leave her hanging!!

To mix things up from last time, I'll make my list of seven facts themed. I just posted about the Oscars, so we'll go with a movie theme, yes?

1. For as much as I love movies, I've only ever been to one midnight premier- Twilight. My friend and I made shirts that said "I <3 Edward Cullen." As Aaron was still all kooky over me at this time, he went with us. We made him wear a shirt that said "I AM Edward Cullen." Yeah, he loved me for that. P.S. I saw this movie FIVE times in theatres. 

 2. Jaws is the first movie I remember watching...at the ripe age of 3. This could explain why I've always had a fascination with sharks.

3. I literally threw things at the TV when Brokeback Mountain didn't win Best Picture. I still get riled up about it to this day.

4. On the other hand, I cried with happiness when Titanic won. I made a score card for the evening to keep track of all the awards it won. Maybe I was a little obsessed with the movie. Ok, a lot obsessed.

5. My favorite movie of all time is Forrest Gump. When I get married, I want the score to be played as I walk in.

6. I hate the Sound of Music. Apologies to the rest of the world who loves it.

7. When Miss Congeniality was filmed in San Antonio, I BEGGED my mom to let me skip school so I could go be an extra. Mom nixed that idea real quick. I think I did the same thing with Selena too.

Thanks again, Sara!! 

The Oscars [like mimosas] take me to my happy place

I love the Oscars.

LOVE.

I used to fantasize about winning one. Maybe sometimes I still do. It would have to be for producing [Best Picture] though because as I've complained about over and over again on here, I am sans creativity.

The nominations came out this morning, and I must say that overall I am pleased. I'm especially pleased because the Best Picture nominees are actually movies that people went out and saw! [for the most part] The past few years there have been films in the running that I had either never heard of, or knew for a fact that their box office numbers were less than stellar. A lot of this can be credited to the public just not being into art house films or appreciating fine work, but I feel the Oscars should represent the balance between superb film making and popularity.

So the nominees are...

1. The Kings Speech- haven't seen it, but I hear great things about it. This focuses on history AND royals, so I really should get on it. Plus, Colin Firth is pretty much spectacular in anything he does.

2. True Grit- fantastic. I am NOT a fan of Westerns, but this one was in a league of its own. The Cohen brothers are so very talented, and they did not disappoint me. I'm also excited that Hailee Steinfeld is nominated for best supporting actress. She's only 14, but that kid is going places.

3. Inception- since it was robbed at the Globes, I'm glad it has earned its rightful spot as a Oscar nominee. This film was so cerebral, and I left confused as hell as to what I had just seen. Christopher Nolan is a genius, Leo is a genius, and it is a shame that neither of theme were nominated. I'm going to have to start a "Give Leo an Oscar" campaign soon.

4. The Social Network- thanks to Aaron Sorkin, this was a great movie. The man writes an impeccable script. I was suspicious when I heard they were making a Facebook movie, but I will give this one a "like." [get it?? A little Facebook humor for you]

5. The Fighter- haven't seen this one either, but plan to in the near future. The cast is excellent, so I have high hopes.

6. Black Swan- I don't have enough words to describe how much I loved this movie. It was dark, twisted, and shocking, and I enjoyed every second of it. Natalie Portman, you are a fantastical human being, and if you don't win an Oscar for this I might start a riot.

7. The Kids Are All Right-broke my heart. The acting was superb and the script gut-wrenching. While it certainly has its comedic moments, there is so much more to it. Annette Benning and Julianne Moore played their roles to perfection. If Natalie Portman wasn't nominated as well, I'd want the Oscar to go to Annette [but she has enough!].

8. 127 Hours- also haven't seen. But I love James Franco and how dedicated he is to his craft. I hear the arm scene is quite uncomfortable, but I am very much looking forward to seeing this.

9. Toy Story 3- I meannnn....really? I guess this satisfies "popularity" criteria that I mentioned, but I just have a problem with animated films in this category. They have their own category, and I do think this should win in that area.

10. Winter's Bone- I have honestly never heard of this movie. Have you? If so, please enlighten me because I have no idea what the hell it's about and am too lazy to google it.

Can't wait to see what happens in February. My guess is The Kings Speech or The Social Network, but I'd love to see Inception or Black Swan win. 

Friday randomness party

Ever since the end of my 30 day project, my little brain has been devoid of any clever ideas to share with y'all. So what could be better than just dumping a whole bunch of random thoughts. happenings, and intriguing news stories [i.e. things I have obtained from Perezhilton] on the blog for your reading pleasure? Seriously, y'all, this is gonna be random city.

Alex's completely random and in no particular order list of STUFF:

[I really like lists. They make me feel organized and accomplished.]

1. Last night I played bunco with Courtney and Amy. This was my first time to go again since the Halloween bunco extravaganza. What was different this time, you may ask. Well, I WON my own $5 buy-in back for having the most LOSSES. Hey, sometimes it pays to be a loser. Also, I got to drink mimosas. Those take me to my happy place.

2. After said bunco affair, I found I had hip discomfort. And it is still present this afternoon. I am obviously turning geriatric. Or I was gyrating wildly last night for reasons unknown to me.

3. After obtaining my library card, I am sad to announce that I did not use it to procure great works of literature. Instead, I checked out EVERY SINGLE [8 of them] book in the Pretty Little Liars series. I shall point out that they are quite blatantly stamped with a "young adult" sticker. Whatever, they're entertaining and I like the TV show. I promise the next thing I check out will be something of substance!

4. Did you know that attractive people tend to be more intelligent than unattractive or average people? Some scientists somewhere [yeah, I wasn't paying attention to details on this one] have announced this breakthrough. My issue with this is that beauty is completely subjective. So how were these scientists deciding who the attractive people were? Some people think Ed Westwick is hot. I think he is quite possibly one of the most unattractive men I've ever seen. As to his brain, I cannot speak. See how this attractiveness v. intelligence study could possibly have an issue? Plus, Einstein was an ugly dude and we all know how smart he was.

5. Reason #4897495784 why I love Jennifer Garner: She admitted to being sloshed during a recent appearance on the Martha Stuart show. Apparently Martha the lush kept filling her glass full of champagne before they even got to the cooking portion of the show. We all know that for regular folk like us, alcohol+no food in tummy=drunk. Celebs aren't immune to it either!!



Enabler



Unassuming celebrity

6. Speaking of alcohol, the new trend amongst [idiotic] teenagers is to get drunk by POURING VODKA IN THEIR EYES. Let that soak in for a moment [no pun intended]. Voda. Eyes. Pouring. Sounds like an excellent idea right? Wrong. I don't even have to elaborate on why this is dangerous. Makes you wonder how the first instance of this went down though, right?

Studpid teen #1: Dude. I'm 16 and my life sucks. [insert emo rant]. I just want to get drunk and feel nothing.

Stupid teen #2: I know where my parents keep the vodka. I heard that does the trick. But conforming is lame, so let's not drink it like sane people. I bet if we do something like pouring it in our eyes, our friends will think we're cool.

Stupid teen #1: Rad.

7. And if you thought that vodka in the eyes was just a symptom of young stupidity, there is indeed cause for further worries: Accoring to a new study, 45% of college students do no significant learning in their first two years of school. Hopefully they're intelligent enough to not be pouring libations in their eye sockets, but the customary keg stands, parties, jello shots, and the like are certainly hindering the learning potential of today's young brains. So to reiterate, for TWO YEARS young collegians [is that a word? I'm making it one. I promise I've never done a keg stand so we can't blame that] will learn nothing except how to cure a hangover the next morning. Bodes well for a promising future, right?

8. Boy bff enlightened me today on the inner workings of a man's brain and told me this: Men don't like it if their girlfriend/wife makes more money than they do. It compromises their manliness or whatever. They Tarzan. Us Jane. They must take care of us and bring home the bacon! Ginger boyfriend agrees. Excuse me? We are going to discuss this further.

9. I'm not sure if I ever believed in the whole 2012 apocalypse, but I must say I'm curious of late. Mass deaths of birds, fish, cows, and even seals have me wondering what's in store for good ol' planet Earth. I mean, that's not normal right?

10. I will end with this:

Get a load of all those tattoos! I should have been aware of the quantity of tats on Weezy's body, but I was not. Rather, I should have SUSPECTED this was his situation. The man drinks grape soda with Codine, so anything is possible. Might I add, he is the perfect subject to dispute the attractive-people-are-smarter theory. This is an unfortunate looking man, but this unfortunate looking man can write a mean rhyme. Yeah, I just said that.

Happy weekend to all!!!

Shaking things up

For some variety around here, I decided to partake in a "blog crawl" just for funsies.

Ashley over at A Hasty Life started this one called, "It's in the bag."

So bascially, I'm going to show you my purse.

Don't get too excited.



My go-to purse. It's a Longchamp that I bought in the duty free area of the Munich airport a couple of years ago. It was a pretty good price, but I had no idea they're so pricey in the states!



In my purse you will find no cute little coin purses or makeup bags. My contents are very simple, as this is the largest bag I own. I'm not big on keeping tons of crap in my purse. So we have the phone [duh], keys [duh], brush, anti-bacterial stuff, pen, Burt's Bees, Raybans, and my temp license until my new one comes up. That is all. Not pictured: the mints that melted to the bottom of the bag. Oops.



If you want to check out some cool new blogs, here is the one who posted yesterday [I know her in real life woohoo]: A Steady Stream of Chatter. And the one who will be posting tomorrow: Caroline Leemis Design.

Day 30

Day 30: A picture of someone you miss

This lovely lady is my Caroline, and we've been friends since our freshman year of college. She's one of those people that I don't see nearly enough, but every time we are reunited it's as if time hasn't passed. There aren't any awkward moments and conversation flows easily. She's probably one of the most awesome people I know, and I so wish we saw each other more often! P.S. She has a delightful blog about Austin, TX that features great music and DELICIOUS places to eat. Read it here. 

30 day project has come to an end!!

Shoot, now I have to think of new topics to blog about...

Age regression: Middle school slumber party!

Remember middle school?

Braces. Awkward hair. Limbo period before you really start understanding what makeup is. Weird clothes.

SLEEPOVERS.

At age 23/4, it is still perfectly acceptable to embrace your inner pre-teen and have a silly sleepover!

There was junkfood, girl talk [ok, maybe this part has evolved since middle school...I'm positive some of the topics we covered Friday would NOT have been commonplace at such a young age], karaoke, dance parties, and ridiculous photo shoots.

It's fun being a girl.

Saturday we made a "linner" [lunch-dinner] of bruschetta, king ranch chicken, and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. We were each responsible for one course. It was all quite good, if I do say so myself!

Is a Capricorn still a Capricorn by any other name?

I like to pride myself on not being superstitious or taking heed of any bullshit such as the zodiac, psychics, tarot readings, etc.

When in secret...I sometimes pay attention to these things for the simple reason of "what if??"

Now, this is not to say I live my life according to what Cosmo astrologer says [it's always something outrageously corny anyway like, "OH EM GEE when Jupiter is in the house of Saturn, you will totally buy a hot new purse and have crazy hot sex with a tanned and toned hunk!"]. Nor have I ever visited a psychic. But this one little piece of me can't blow them off completely! [except for Cosmo astrologer]

So when the news came out yesterday about a 13th zodiac sign that may have caused your personal sign to change, I maybe had a second of panic. My heart was beating as I consulted some super scholastic and reliable website about zodiac love matches to find out if Aaron and I were still ideal matches, as our previous signs suggested [we are, just in case any of you were concerned]. Then I realized how silly I was being and promptly shut the computer.

And NOW I come to find that none of this shiz even applies to the western world OR people born before 2009. Well thank God!

I am super pumped for this weekend.

Tonight holds the promise of a throw-back middle school slumber party with Caroline and Courtney. We're talking pizza delivery, oreos, cheetos, pigtails, dancing, jumping around, possible pranks, and boy gossip. What will not be present is middle school level metabolisms or braces. I am only thankful for one of those not being present.

On Saturday we are cooking a big meal, in which we are each responsible for a part of it. Caroline took appetizers, Courtney has the entree, and I have dessert. This was a feat, as Caroline IS THE PICKIEST EATER IN THE WORLD. I love her still though.

I hope everyone has a marvelous weekend!!

Day 29

Day 29: A picture that can always make you smile



Everything about this makes me happy.

You've heard me mention my post-graduation European backpacking trip about 500 times, but it was seriously awesome. In this instance, we made a trip to the laundromat an exhilerating experience! If it were possible to relive [good] moments of life, I would go back to this one every time.

Day 28

Day 28: A picture of something you're afraid of

Seriously. Scares the crap out of me. Can't be anywhere too close to an open fire.

Also taking close spots to the top:

Heights

Guns

Being stuck in the middle of the ocean



Day 27

Day 27: A picture of yourself and a family member

What would we do without our moms?

That time my apartment almost looked kinda cute

I've been in my apartment since October, but I purchased a couch just this past weekend.

Now, let me tell you, buying a large piece of furniture that will be used by many made me feel like such an adult. Not my first expensive rent check, not my big girl job, a COUCH.



As you can see, Chester likes the couch too. I see a lot of vacuuming in my future.

I also finally hung those two prints on the wall. They were in my bedroom growing up, but I appreciate them to this day. What can I say, I'm a sucker for French inspired things. And animals.

The shelves needed something in between them, so I went for a cheap print and frame. We'll pretend that's the original painting, ok?



I found this at TJ Maxx/Home Goods when I was in San Antonio and just had to have it. It makes me feel fancy and chic. Please disregard how bad those two little paintings look above it. I either want to get a larger piece of art for the space or put up several small ones.

Notice that I am tring to start a frame wall. Right now it's kind of puny.

The whole shebang. It's getting there!!

What would make this whole thing even better and make me the happiest girl alive would be if I had a Casey O'Connell painting [or 5] to display. Le sigh.

Any tips or suggestions?? [I'm looking at you, Mandy!]



Day 25

Day 25: A picture of you last year and how you've changed since then

This was on my birthday last year. So nearly exactly a year ago.

Then I chopped off a foot of hair. Shortest it's ever been! [except for the time I had a boy hair cut in kindergarten and cried]

Then it started growing out.

And growing out some more...

Then I got it chopped again.

Now, here it stands. I added bangs after not having them for a while.



Apologies for the extremely vain post. I do what the 30 day project tells me to do!!

And don't forget it's Mingle Monday!

Stylish Blogger Award

Who doesn't love an award?

Caroline and Andrea [blog friends who happen to be my friends in real life too] both bestowed upon me the Stylish Blogger Award. Thanks gals!

Guidelines of the award are to list seven things you might not know about me, then pass the honor on to 15 fellow blogers.

Seven things about Alex that you might not know [or you might indeed know if you have read my blog for a while, in which case I love you]:

1. I have never been to Disney World [true story, a commercial about Disney World JUST came on right as I typed that].

2. I am a VERY meticulous eater. I have to maneuver around my plate in a calculated manner, and if I am hungry enough to finish everything [which is often], I prefer the plate to be CLEAN. As in, I like to sop up every bit of sauce/juice/whatever.

3. I started normal schooling in the middle of Kindergarten. Before that I went to a Montessori school. It was a bit odd, but I was the only one in my new Kindergarten class who already knew how to read.

4. Pretty much anything slightly emotional/sad/happy can make me cry. Most TV shows, even if they are comedies, can make me cry if they play their cards right.

5. I have hyperhydrosis of the hands and feet. AKA I have sweaty palms and feet. Do you know how embarrassing this can be?? Having to hold hands with people during the Lord's Prayer at church was my worst nightmare. Several years ago my dermatologist gave me a special roll-on medicine to wear at night, which did help the problem. It's definitely not as bad anymore, but every now and then it strikes. BUT guess what? Aaron has the same problem and the same medicine. Match made in heaven, I know. Please don't be grossed out.

6. I am obsessed with weddings. And engagements. And stalking both of these things on Facebook. They also make me cry. Surprised?

7. The first time a boy asked me out [mind you, this was 5th grade], I SCREAMED and ran away.

And I am sharing the love with these fantastic ladies. Check them out!

austin life, (un)edited

Crowley Party

daily eday

Daniel and Diana Smith

life in technicolor

Life is Just a Bowl[es] of Cherries

Natalie Merrillyn

poptart

self proclaimed flibbertigibbet

STUDIOinHOUSE

sunnyside up

tales of me and the husband

wanderlust

Watch MeGo Run

the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell

Day 24

Day 24: A picture of something you wish you could change

The American 40-hour work week/sucky vacation policies

In Europe they work like 30 hours a week. AND the European employees of the company I work for get SIX WEEKS of paid vacation. SIX WEEKS. Want to know how many we get? 10 days.

I've always been a fan of running off to live in Europe, but now I'm completely sold.

Gorilla juicehead guido heaven

Oh lawzy. Do y'all watch Jersey Shore? Trust me, I resisted with all my might for the first two seasons. Being a lover of all things pop culture, this was a feat for me. But I held my head high and turned a blind eye to the outrageous antics of Snookie, Sammi, JWow, Ronnie, Paulie, Vinny, and The Situation.

But now.

Oh man. Now, I'm singing a different tune.

Aaron and I randomly started watching season 2 episodes out of boredom last weekend and slowly but surely got ourselves HOOKED.

There was no going back.

Last night as I lay in anticipation on my couch, stuffed with sushi and a champagne cockatail,  I felt like a giddy school girl waiting for a glimpse of her ultimate crush to walk by. It was almost better than Christmas morning.

And thank you guidos and guidettes, for I was not disappointed!!

There were enough one liners and girl fights in last night's premier to last comics a lifetime. Twitter was blowing up every 5 seconds with people [like myself and Katie Jo] who felt the need to play-by-play tweet. It was one glorious American cultural experience if ever I saw one.

I won't ruin the episode for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, or for those of you who are now just dying to see what all the rage is about, but I promise it was PURE TV GOLD.

They may be trashtastic to the max, STD ridden, and tanner than Bob Barker, but my gosh they are entertaining. Plus, I guess you can't really fault them for what has become such an American thing to do: capitalize on your most unsavory traits by going on a reality tv show and making so much money that you can roll up in a luxury vehicle. Cha ching!!

Aaand on a completely different and non-trashy note, my alma mater is playing in the Cotton Bowl today against LSU. While I would like to be in Arlington tailgating and heckling the Tiger fans, must settle for blogging about it. Gig 'em Aggies!!