In-Flight Entertainment

So my flight back to California wasn't quite as enlightening as my flight back to Texas a couple weeks ago when I got to listen to two people get to know eachother. Well more accurately I got to listen to a man spend the flight trying to get into a girl's too-short skirt and a girl spend the flight loving every minute of it.

The names have not been changed because these people are not innocent.

- 30-something Condo Builder Troy was in California to go to a Christmas party in Santa Barbara (dammit!) and loves movies. 21 year old Reality Show wannabe Catherine Le was in California to ... wait for it ... audition for a new reality show on MTV and loves movies.

- Troy likes to impress girls with stories about how he meets famous people in airports. Catherine loves famous people and is easily impressed.

- Troy got his degree in Radio/TV/Film. Catherine is getting her degree in Radio/TV/Film! Although claims she doesn't need the radio part because she is destined to be in front of the camera. Troy agrees.

- Troy is a Pieces. Catherine is a Scorpio. Catherine points out that Scorpio is the narcissistic sign. Troy points out that Scorpio is the sexy sign.

- Troy spent several months in Asia. Catherine is Vietnamese.

- Troy thinks that Vietnamese, Thai, & Chinese are all the same language. Catherine (thank god) knows they are all different but is pretty sure there is more than one dialect of Chinese.

- Troy likes Rum & Coke. Catherine likes Vodka. They both like to drink on airplanes.

They are MADE for eachother!!! They exchanged email addresses and promised to keep in touch. I wonder if Troy will happen across this blog while googling Catherine Le.....

The 12 Days of wait...what????

Sometimes Christmas Carols CAN get cooler....

The Coincidental Center of the Universe

So I have this theory (okay Scott has this theory that I frequently pass off as my own) that Austin is the coincidental center of the universe. This isn't something that you can understand until you live here and realize it is TOTALLY true. The reason that YOU can't understand this is because (again, as Scott says) if you were to start keeping track of these things people would think you're crazy. Luckily most of you already think I'm crazy and the rest of you need to catch up I've decided to start the first recurring segment here on I Like My Middle Name called, coincidentally, The Coincidental Center of the Universe.

Today I ate at Chili's for the first time in well over a year. It isn't that I don't like Chili's, I just usually forget that it exists unless Carl is visiting Santa Barbara and we eat there because he thinks the waiters are hot. So anyway, ate at Chili's at the first time in a LONG time and today I get home and waiting in the mailbox is a gift certificate to Chili's from someone who loves me.

The End of the Semester

So finals are over and it seems like the semester went by really quickly. I'm feeling good about how it went, all in all it was a positive semester. I got A's in all my classes which feels really good since I was taking Trig & Chemistry this year for the first time since 2000. Mostly it feels good that I did well in the class that I am planning on making my major AND I really enjoyed it. I mean, can you imagine if I left my awesome job in California to move to Texas to go to school full time and told everyone about how I wanted to be a Chemist and then failed my first Chemistry class???? Awkward.

oh and fyi, I would never fill in my scantron like the one above. I always completely fill in the box.

10 Other things I did this Weekend

1. Made it through security wearing my belt immediately after a man was stopped for wearing his.
2. Made it through security with batteries in my purse immediately after a woman had her purse searched because they thought they saw batteries on the xray.
3. Paid $3.50 for an unfulfilling breakfast taco.
4. Read three books.
5. Saw Oprah's house. (okay saw her driveway, basketball court, tennis court, and caretaker's "cottage")
6. Saw Glen Phillip's house. (he drives a scion xb)
7. Almost met Glen Phillips.
8. Ate a cheeseburger from Chubbies.
9. Went to a Christmas Party and danced.
10. Comforted a friend after she had one too many glasses of wine and threw up in the corner of the club/restaurant.

YAY for New Family!!!

I just want to be the first to officially internet welcome Gretchen into our family.

For those of you who don't know, I spent the weekend in California to go to the wedding of my uncle Steve and my newest aunt, Gretchen. It was a really fun and simple wedding and the bride looked beautiful. Mostly it was just awesome to have it official, Steve and Gretchen have been dating for a long time and we all love Gretchen so much and have considered her a part of the family pretty much from the very beginning. Gretchen is so much a part of the family that I've been getting weird looks because I kept saying, "My aunt and uncle are getting married!"

Below is a video from the wedding that has my cousin singing (isn't he great??). Also, you should notice the beautiful flower crown that Gretchen is wearing because I made that :o)

Christmas in Austin!!

Our fireplace is all set for Christmas! Sorry some of the pictures are so dark, it is hard to capture the true gloriousness of Christmas lights.

In answer to your next question..... Yes, our tree is purple and yes, those are the Chipmunks.

Maybe Daredevil does exist...

Luke sent me the link to the above video which you should watch but if you didn't it is about a blind kid that has learned how to use echolocation to some extraordinary results. This kid is crazy, he can play video games, rollerblade, have pillow fights, and kick your ass in foosball but his eyes were surgically removed when he was 2 years old. This is a great story about triumph over adversity and a true testament to his mother's ability to raise a disabled child to be better functioning than I am.

But what did I take from this video? Aquanetta, his mother's name is Aquanetta, and I can't get over that. It got me thinking, why would a person name their child Aquanetta? Did her mother own a hair salon? Is it an old family name passed down from generation to generation? These are the questions that plague me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It has all the same great food as Christmas (mmmm Turkey), and all the family togetherness but it seems to be missing a lot of the stress that goes along with Christmas. Plus, it is an American holiday, I like the idea that everyone in this country is sitting down to a meal and thinking about what they are thankful for all at the same time, Americans need to do more of that.

The one thing that annoys me about this time of year is that Christmas now begins in August. Thanksgiving is becoming the red-headed stepchild of the year, forgotten and ignored until you have to put something in the oven then its like, "Where's Thanksgiving?"

This year I'm thankful for a lot of things, here are some of them:
1. I'm thankful for my family who is supportive of me finishing college and accepts the fact that I didn't go about it the "normal way."
2. I'm thankful for my friends who are always encouraging and helpful.
3. I'm thankful for my down comforter now that it has decided to be 40 degrees in Texas.
4. I'm thankful for my country and its free elections every 4 years.
5. I'm thankful for my puppy who has brought so much joy into my life.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Nickel Creek Concert

So it has been a really fun week with both So You Think You Can Dance and Nickel Creek happening. The concert was tons of fun, we were way up in the back of a standing only outdoor venue but since it was on a hill we could still see pretty well. The one major problem, Sean Watkins is so short that we thought he was sitting down through most of it...he wasn't. And he is my favorite so I'm a little bummed about that.

It was Kailey, Scott, Larry (my boss), Kelly (Kailey's boss), and me! First things first, we all looked so totally cute, if one of us had been having an off night (none of us were) the others would have completely made up for it on the cute scale so we were all set. Especially after a pre-concert trip to Shoe Pavilion so that Kailey and I could buy new boots.

Both the music and the company were awesome. They even played my personal favorite.....the cover of Toxic and closed with a really beautiful version of Lighthouse. In the middle there was the trio of "break-up songs" one from the each of them. The chorus to Chris's went "If you're gonna leave me, set me up with one of your friends" and was hilarious!

After the concert it was a midnight dinner at Magnolia Cafe. Sometimes a night just goes really really well.

PS: Sean Watkins, you still owe me for not calling and singing happy birthday to me when I turned 20. Call me and we can work out some sort of way for you to make that up to me.

Part 2: The Destination

After an event filled trip to San Antonio it kind of felt like we had already had a full evening but we were still really excited about the show. It was kind of like going to a rock concert, I’m a little hoarse from yelling. We had great seats about 50 feet from the stage with no one sitting in from of us and an aisle straight ahead so a perfect view.

They opened with the only Disco Routine I have ever enjoyed on the show starring Neil & Sara…

And continued through many of our favorites…

Sabra & Dominic Hip Hop

Lacey & Danny Samba

Neil & Lauren Jazz

Pasha's Solo

The crowd was an awesome mixture of couples in their 40’s who were all dressed up for a night out and screaming/giggling 10 year old girls. Normally that would have been annoying but since Kailey and I were screaming/giggling 25 year old girls it didn’t really bother us. Kailey is in love with Neil, I’m in love with Danny and we’re both in love with Pasha.

There was no host, although there were some video clips of show host Cat Deely and exec. producer Nigel Lithgow, mostly other members of the cast introduced the different dances and had “witty” overly-scripted banter that was still awesome because it was them and they are all adorable.

Kailey and I realized we were huge dorks when (no, not when we bought tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance Live Tour) watching we could say, "oh Lauren is dancing Lacey's part in this one, interesting." or "Hey, they took out that one move."

They ended with what Kailey and I have decided is our favorite dance from the season.

Neil & Sabra Jazz (the plange was awesome :) )

I didn’t bring my camera because I was stupid, definitely next year though.

"The Journey is Half the Destination" - Kailey

(Kailey’s Note: Whatever, you know what I meant)

Yesterday, Kailey and I drove to the AT&T Center in San Antonio to see the live tour of So You Think You Can Dance. And you should TOTALLY be jealous!

Part 1: The Journey

We decided to leave mid-afternoon to avoid the insane rush hour traffic around here. We made plans to stop in this little town called New Braunfels and grab a bite to eat and kill some time, the show didn’t start until 8pm and San Antonio is about an hour from Austin (without traffic). Those of you in the Santa Barbara area are familiar with Solvang and that was kind of what I was expecting – though maybe not to that extreme. In my mind New Braunfels was this adorable little German town, I mean they just finished up the 2 week long WurstFest for an example. In actuality New Braunfels is trying really REALLY hard to be quaint but it isn’t really succeeding, the town center could have been charming but was, instead, old and covered in realty offices. We did end up with some yummy fudge and then decided to try and find Schlitterbahn which is consistently voted the #1 water park in America. We found was a water park which looked cool but not like the #1 water park in America, turns out it was just mini-Schlitt (our name not theirs) and then got the hell out of town.

We got to San Antonio at about 5:30 and drove by the AT&T Center, we were really early so wanted to find something to do for a couple hours and proceeded to drive around the neighborhood, which turned out to be the ghetto. We saw no less than: 3 houses with couches on the porch, 12 cars parked on lawns, and 2 crack ho’s. So we called a friend Kailey went to college with, Jonathan, and invited ourselves to hang out with him for a while. Thanks to Jonathan’s directions it took us about 1.5 hours to get to their house, but thanks to Jonathan’s wife, Mandy, we finally made it. We hung out for 20 minutes and jumped back in the car for the 20 minute ride back to the AT&T Center.

to be continued.....

I'm the Big Winner and You're Not

unless you are one of the other four winners but I doubt those people are reading my blog so I think I can safely say that I'm the big winner and you're not.

It took cunning and ingenuity and luck, okay mostly luck.

Actually, it is Victoria

Lady: Okay great, now how do you spell Vanessa?
Me: huh?
Lady: How do you spell your name?
Me: v-i-c-t-o-r-i-a
Lady: Wow, I've never seen Vanessa spelled that way before.
Me: That is probably because it is Victoria.
Lady: Oh, right. (Laughter)

WTF people??? WTF???

I actually get Veronica a lot, this was my first Vanessa and to have it go that terribly wrong is pretty amazing. I get that we all make mistakes from time to time but pull it together people I have a REALLY easy name. Top to bottom my first, middle and last names are all very normal names with very normal spellings. It isn't Victorya or Viktoria, it is just normal Victoria, like Victoria's Secret or Queen Victoria or any other famous Victoria you can think of (don't get smart and start googling all the other spellings to find a "famous" Viktoria that isn't the same as thinking of them). On the upside it allows me to be passive aggressive about it. If your name is Michelle but I keep calling you Melissa, now you know why.

I Sooooo Live in Texas

Top three ways to tell that I live in Texas:

1. I have seen a privately owned herd of wildebeasts.
2. Mormons carry guns.
3. Simon, my dog, had to have a bath because he was humped by an unfixed pig.

Happy Halloween!

I did not dress up this year, BUT randomly I kinda look like a boy today so maybe I'll just pretend I did that on purpose.

Most Awesome Halloween Statement:
Modesto, CA residents turned out for the city's annual Ninja Parade, where no ninjas were seen for the 30th year in a row.

What's On Now?

BurnI watch a lot of TV, I'll freely admit that. I enjoy television and movies (and books too!) mostly I think I like stories and that explains a lot. There are a lot of new shows this season and it is hard to add new things to my already packed schedule but sometimes you just have to make sacrifices for the truly awesome.

What I'm loving:
Pushing Daisies - Narrated by Jim Dale, takes place in a pie shop, and has Kristin Chenoweth so that is three major points right there. It is somehow both darkly comic and incredibly cheerful at the same time. I heard a lot of really great things about this show before watching it but I was still wary, it isn't really at all what I expected but that is a good thing.

Chuck - The premise is dumb. When I say dumb I mean in a bad way. Regular, dorky guy learns state secrets and now people are trying to kill him. Pretty sure I've seen that before. But here it is the execution that really nails it. Plus it stars Jayne, a female spy that kicks major ass, and one of the secrets is who shot down Oceanic Flight 815 so I'm loving it. Thank you Renee, without you saying you liked it I never would have started watching it.

What I'm hoping will get better:
Big Shots - Yeah, it ain't good people. BUT it has Michael Vartan, Christopher Titus, Dylan McDermott, & Joshua Molina. All actors I really enjoy so I beg you, please please please get better.

What I can't wait to return:
Burn Notice - I need my Michael Weston.

Comma Haiku

i hate you comma
you exist to destroy me
i hate you comma

Have I mentioned that I have no idea how to use the comma? I mean I know the basics like it is Austin (comma) TX or I bought milk (comma) eggs (comma) cheese (comma???) and cereal at the store, okay maybe I don't really have that one down.

In the ninth grade I took the comma test three times and the best I could do was a C. Wait, it gets worse, it was the EXACT SAME test each time I took it. In between taking the tests I was presented with a corrected test, so basically I couldn't even memorize where to put the comma correctly. My teacher finally took pity on me and told me that he would give me the points, he was a nice pot-smoking teacher.

I put the comma where I think it should go and usually I'm wrong. This is not for lack of trying I assure you. I have read text books and helpful hints books, websites and papers. Kailey, my mother, two teachers, and my boss have all gone over how and where to use the comma. It didn't stick. And don't tell me it goes where the pause is because that is bull****, apparently I pause differently than you do.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, the commas in the blog are going to be wrong. I guarantee it. And don't even get me started; on semi-colons and dashes, we could be here - all night.

Sneaky Roommates

So this morning I am sitting at the computer and I see a little spider hanging between the monitor and the speaker. It was tiny so normally I would just smash it but Kailey actually likes saving these things so I call her over to put it outside. She picks up the web, opens the door, stops, looks down, kinda looks back at me then jauntily tosses the "web" outside saying, "there you go spider!" Then looks back at me and walks away.

Now, I SAW the spider jump back from her hand to the monitor and I could currently see it crawling along the side of the monitor yet Kailey walks away as if she had just thrown it outside. I did make her come back and actually put the spider outside but it makes me wonder what else she is hiding from me .......

Cash It In

Today I would marry for money. Okay most days I would marry for money but today I would marry for less money. If that person would just support me through the remainder of my college career (no guarantees on how long that will take and I promise to get at least a part time job when I'm done) then we could probably make it work.

Some provisos:
1. You can't be a total ass.
2. You must have enough money that I can live comfortably and do a reasonable amount of shopping when I get bored.
3. You must love dogs and cats.
4. You must kill bugs or retain a staff to do such things.
5. If you are really ugly you must travel a lot.

I am REALLY tired of working and going to school and not being able to do either with enough brain power to make me happy.

My Life Mix

So I don't claim to know a lot about music. It isn't really my area of expertise. TV & movies I am all over but music is more just something that I enjoy listening to rather than enjoy knowing all the details about. This morning on the radio two of the DJ's were presenting their 90's Hit Mix of songs that they listening to in the 90's and it got me thinking, what was I listening to? Below is my list, one song for each year (okay some have 2) from the very first song I remember talking about to someone and wanting to buy the tape for. I have not included my early love of Raffi just fyi.

1992 - I Wish the Phone Would Ring - Expose
1993 - The Sign - Ace of Base
1994 - Hero - Mariah Carey
1995 - All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
1996 - You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette
1997 - Bitch - Meredith Brooks
1998 - One Week - Barenaked Ladies, My Hearth Will Go On - Celine Dion
1999 - Bailamos - Enrique Iglesias, Ciega, Sordomuda - Shakira
2000 - Oops, I Did it Again - Britney Spears
2001 - Smooth - Santana featuring Rob Thomas, Right Where I Need to Be - Gary Allan
2002 - The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
2003 - Boys of Summer - The Ataris
2004 - This Love - Maroon 5
2005 - Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
2006 - Buttons - Pussycat Dolls, Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
2007 - Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood

So after looking at it it is weird to see the patterns that I went though from an early love of single female singers through my latin music phase and then onto alternative rock and ending up with a country power ballad. Also, I realize that many of the songs I remember are for a specific reason. My Heart Will Go On? Titanic, I loved Titanic, what can I say, saw it 5 times in theaters. Oops I Did it Again? yeah well if you spent your senior year with nothing to do except learn the silly dance routines from music videos you'd be listening to that song a lot too. Buttons? Bachelorette party and that is all I have to say about that.

As for the here and now? I have combined all of the above, my music collection consists of Country, Rock, Latin, a little Hip Hop, Pop, & combinations of the above (yes, including a little hip-hop/country combo, gotta love modern music).

Numero Uno

So, this is it. This is what it feels like. It is a strange kind of rush that includes excitement and fear but the best endeavors usually start out that way don't they? Moving to Texas involved a lot of both and so far that is going well but moving to Washington involved a lot of both and that was a disaster so I guess we will just wait and see on the whole blog thing.

I don't know what to expect so I can't tell you what to expect. Currently I have many ideas running around in my head for posts but once those run out I don't know what will happen. Will it be observations? reactions? thoughts? feelings? probably.

See you soon.

PS Happy Birthday Janelle! This is not your present, I mean, unless you want it to be because I didn't get you anything else except a wholehearted thank you for being awesome and my friend at the same time.