A Letter of Complaint To Emergency Alerts

Since we moved here a year ago, I guess you could say this is our first "rainy season" in Houston. Whoa. This place does not mess around. Considering I am from San Antonio home of the odd/even water ration days; lived in Dallas which was so hot my last summer there it gave my mover heat stroke (not a joke); and Austin thrown in there with nonstop discussion of drying up lakes and rivers....you could say rain, flooding and water confuse me.

Fast forward to this week which has been torrential downpour central.... 

Last night at approximately 3:57am, Gregg and I are all of a sudden awakened to the sound of blazing sirens. Like I thought the sirens were coming from the sky and the Earth was about to say: This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system. I repeat this is only a test.

Instead I heard expletives, feet being stubbed as Gregg tried to haul to the other side of the room to get his iPhone and blackberry, Chloe jumped off my feet like she was being attacked, I rolled over to shut off my iPhone and just as I thought we were in the clear, it's time for my blackberry charging in the kitchen to wail. Meanwhile, because of the insane lightning, our entire apartment looks like we are at a club with strobe lights flicking on and off. We might as well have been in a hotel room overlooking the Las Vegas Strip.

And what was all that chaos supposed to inform us?

That we need to grab Chloe and evacuate? No.
That we need to grab Chloe and take cover? No.
That the world is literally ending? No.
That we need to somehow avoid the area, which is coincidentally where we live and are currently sleeping, until 6:45am? Yes. 

I am honestly still speechless. And tired. And speechless. But not speechless enough to write a letter of complaint to the Emergency Alert Headquarters because in case you didn't know, I love a good letter of complaint:  

Dear Emergency Alert,

I live here and I am currently trying to sleep through the disco strobe light-lightning show that has taken up residence outside every window in our apartment. So first of all I cannot avoid this area until 6:45am. I literally have nowhere else to go. I also promise I won't be going anywhere because it looks like the apocalypse outside. Not to mention that it is 3:45am on a Wednesday night and I am not in college anymore which means you can guarantee I am asleep. Finally, I planned to wake up at 6:45am at which time it seems the apocalypse will have ended. 

You have now scared my cat, Gregg nearly broke his toe and I am wide awake in confusion trying to figure out if I am supposed to go back to sleep or supposed to stay awake and vigilant through the storm. Unless Noah is around with an ark I am supposed to board ASAP, let's try to not be so dramatic next time. 

Sincerely,
Me

Wishing everyone a less dramatic and more peaceful night's sleep tonight!

Wine and Art

Thursday night S and I headed to another evening of culture at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A few weeks ago we bought tickets to an evening of wine tasting and art learning..because let's be honest, who does culture without drinks? Not us. 

In case you missed it, S and I are currently on a mission to explore more of Houston's culture scene with museums, events and whatnot. 

Our evening plans also came on the heels of an insane day at work. I was entertaining kids all day so their mom could participate in a media opportunity for Mother's Day airing in May. It involved an afternoon of pampering at the salon for her…and an afternoon of child care for me. It was totally worth it but totally exhausting.

This is how you entertain toddlers in a conference room.

Let's just say by the time work ended, I was in desperate need of happy hour so it was perfection that S and I had planned a wine tasting. When we showed up at MFAH, I was quite impressed. The entire room had tables set just like this ready for us to drink and be taught all about wine and art.

The light cheese and crackers that served as our dinner until a post-wine tasting dinner.

Each table had this nifty place setting with six glasses to help you keep track
of what you were drinking. 

We were also given a handout to take notes on the wines and in our case also write notes to each other about annoying people in the class...You know because every class has ONE.

The Art Part

The class started with an overview of The Age of Impressionism exhibition going on now…the only thing I remember is that impressionists paint how they see something as opposed to how it looks. Now that I am rewriting that I don't think it makes sense….that's the result of getting distracted by all the wine glasses staring me in the face, all I wanted to do was see them filled up.

So what did we drink? What did we learn? 

Please note this is all interpreted in my terms but if you file these away, they could keep you occupied mentally the next time you are drinking wine with boring people. I don't really know what that is like but I imagine it sometimes happens.  

You want wine to speak to you. How do you get your glass of wine to speak to you?

• The color of the wine tells you its age. 
• The smell gives you a preview of what you are going to taste. 
• Swirl it on the table and then stick your nose inside to try and figure out what you smell.
• "Start wide with all your options and then narrow it down" 
• It should be noted S and I were really bad at this all night.  We constantly guessed wrong or didn't know what to guess. 
• The acidity level determines how tart or dull the wine tastes. 
• The more saliva in your mouth, the higher the acidity 
• The less saliva in your mouth, the lower acidity 
• How well you can see through the wine will tell you how light it will be. 
• Hold up the glass to a white piece of paper and see how well you can read the words through
• Not going to lie, S and I were pretty good at this tip.   

What did we drink?
I have to be honest. We drank a lot of wines that I am pretty sure I would never be able to find at my local HEB or in the $10-$15 bottles of wine section we usually frequent. All were white wines except the last two. But here we go…

1. Chateau de la Ragotiere Muscadet (2012)

• My least favorite. 
• Pair with seafood and salad. 

2. Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon Blanc (2011)

• I understood that this was a Sauvignon Blanc and my understanding stopped there. 
• Pair with lots of food, especially cheese. 

3. Ladoucette Comte Lafond Sancerre Blanc

• During this taste I learned that when you are drinking sweet wine, you are really drinking rotten grapes. 

4. Domaine Pichot Vouvray (2012) 

• This one was our favorite.
• It was made of 100% Chenin Blanc…whatever that means, we think it's important. 
• Pair with Asian food and apple tarts. 
• Considering I make apple tarts all the time, good to know.
• Also I have never had wine with Asian food…adding that to the list of things I need to try.

5. Paul Thomas Sancerre Rouge Chavignol (2010) 

• Had tastes of strawberry/cranberry  
• This was the 1st red wine of the night. We preferred this one over the next one.

6. Domaine de Pallus Les Pensees de Pallus (2011) 

• Tasted kind of spicy and earthy. 
• Not a fan. That's pretty much what you need to know.

At the end, S and I had saved a little of each wine and went back and re-tasted each of them. Before we did this, S gave me the wise advice that whichever ones we didn't really like we should just take like a shot. Totally worked. 

Afterwards we were in desperate need of food other than the few pieces of cheese and crackers we had been snacking on and headed to Niko Niko's. This was a big personal accomplishment because I was finally able to check it off the list of places I need to try in Houston…it was delish, just like everyone said it would be. 

My overall thoughts: Super fun evening but I doubt I will ever find wines like these again because in order to do that I would need to take a class in how to navigate the wine section of a store. 

Not going to lie, seeing this when you are trying to find a quick bottle of wine is
just a little overwhelming. 

Couldn't have said it better myself…
Cheers to many more wine tastings and culture evenings!

Happy Hour Today With Friends From Yesterday

I went to Happy Hour tonight with some friends of mine from college and I have to say there is something magical about getting together with old friends- you know the friends who knew you when you were 18 and thought everything in the world rested on "what major you chose," who you lived with in your sorority house and saw you at your worst (early mornings), your best (date party formals) and everything in between (classes and meals), who saw and met the different guys you dated and heard about the corresponding drama that went along with those moments, who you drove to class with, who you studied with in the sorority chapter room, who you had lunch with- the people who knew you those 4 years when you were trying to discover who you were away from home before you shifted into the "real world."

You share these great memories because you experienced the same things. The same things that silly or serious are all just silly now. And as you sit there with your old friends, you are able to let your guard down because these people know you, the real you. You are mentally transported back to a simpler time when your only responsibility was school and the biggest worry you had was whether the boy you liked would call you back.

I am thankful for these nights and think it is important to have these nights. To have one of them on a Wednesday, allowing me an evening of escape, is like a midweek reward. These nights end in smiles as I am filled up with memories and emotions of happiness thinking about my past as I tackle the rest of the week in the "real world" of my today.

Happy Hour with the Wine and Silver Blue. Some of my faves from PC 02 & PC 03.

What's In My Bag? More Like What's Not In My Bag.

You know those cute "What's in your bag" pictures when everything looks perfectly coordinated, organized and necessary to achieve a fantastic life:

Photo Credit: Inside Instyle Tumblr

Well, the "What's In My Bag" version for my life should be renamed "What's Not in My Bag."  And the only answer to that question would be Chloe.

This may explain why my purse has weighted 100 lbs recently.

Here is the rundown of the above and how I can rationalize each of these items being in my purse before cleaning it out:

• 8 pens: You know in case one runs out, I am always prepared for eight other opportunities.
• My 2014 calendar: Because yes, I am one of the few people on Earth who still carries around a handheld calendar. It's going to be that way for awhile people.
• Lip glosses and lotions, 2 bottles of Aquaphor to be exact. This must be the same principle behind the pens. If I run out of one, I will have the other in case of a chapped lips emergency. 
• 10 hair rubberbands: Yet for some reason I can never even find one. This situation is a mystery to me.
• Green earrings Mom gave me as a gift on my last trip home three weeks ago: Clearly they have not made it out of my purse yet. I am always prepared in case of an earring emergency that way.
• Nutritional Hydrate Supplements: I got these at a press conference last week. By leaving them in my purse, I am be prepared for hydration all day everyday. 
• Business card case. This one is actually normal. The fact that I have random business cards of mine floating around in my purse that aren't in this case…that may not be so normal. 
• Kleenex. I always have kleenex in my purses. I think this one is hereditary. 
• Bills I need to pay online: Three years ago this ended up on the wife list of responsibilities. And it has never gotten taken off. 
• My exercise drawings: I don't have them memorized and I am forced to wander around the gym looking at these to figure out what to do. The problem is I will most likely forget to take them to the gym if they aren't already in my purse. So I'm stuck. 
• Wallet: The one seems self-explanatory even though it won't do anyone a whole lot of good should they get ahold of it. 
• A Ziploc bag with two Tylenol: I lost my purse size Tylenol bottle somewhere and in a rush to get out the door sans headache last week I threw some in a Ziploc and off we went. 
• Old grocery lists: I've got nothing. 
• A stack of receipts to be thrown away: Again, I've got nothing. 
• Sunglasses: Due to these lovely things called contacts, if I forget these I am practically blind outside. 

I am obviously prepared for anything and everything. It is also amazing I haven't broken my back due to the weight of my purse in recent weeks. Half of this stuff has now been removed. But I am sure a whole new random collection of items will appear over the next few months and I'll just be forced to do another version of "What's Not In My Bag?"

Fancy Nights and New Friends

Sometimes it is interesting to break routine. Break up the weekday plans and throw in a ball one night. You know, just for fun. That is exactly what happened last week on Thursday night. Junior League hosted their annual ball and Thursday night is known as Girls Night. Since I am a new transplant to the city, I wasn't planning to attend but my new co-worker bestie J, who also belongs, invited me to attend with her friends.

Thursday came and I worked all day. Given that it was Thursday, I still had one more day left to work. But Thursday evening I had a ball to attend. Nothing will break up your week like trying to mentally process the change in dynamics from working world to social party world and back again.

It was a night of laughs, a night of champagne and a night of dancing. It was an all around fun night. One of those nights where you begin to think, okay maybe I am sorta settling into my new city. I have learned to embrace those moments because soon I will be driving around, confused, overwhelmed and lost again in my new city.

The evening was sprinkled with little nuggets of wisdom and laughter that are still making me laugh. I think they are still making me laugh because they took little things I was honestly worried about and now I feel silly for even thinking about them. A reminder that life is not as serious as we often think it is…or not as serious as I think it is, I should say:

On hanging out with new people:

• I met J's friends and told them how much I appreciated them letting me tag along…how I didn't want to be the "awkward co-worker" who came with J. One of them kindly said "You are only the awkward co-worker if you are in fact awkward. So far you appear very normal." Truth. Sorta :)

On the attire:

• You know how when you go to an event you are always just a little worried about wearing the appropriate thing to fit in….with the phrase "cocktail attire" it could go a lot of different ways. As we stood around during the champagne filled cocktail hour people watching, we began to see some very elaborate outfits for the "cocktail attire" evening. The kind of outfits where you cannot help but stare. You try hard not to but end up staring anyways. One of the girls said "I just love when people overdress." And I said YES. Took the words I have always thought right out of my mind. 

On the entertainment:

• I had been hearing for months about this show that was going to happen. This show people auditioned for, tried out for, practiced routines for, learned songs for…and I could legitimately not wrap my head around it. I mean I danced my whole life and I love a show. Should I be in the show? But I am 29 years old. I don't understand the show. 
• The show is a cross between the dance recitals of my past/ end of "summer vacation performances" channeling the final show in Dirty Dancing sans Patrick Swayze/ Six Flags performances/ and then just a good ol' fashion show.  
• The verdict? I won't ever be auditioning. However I now understand why all the girls were insisting we get extra glasses of champagne for the performance. I sang along. I danced in my chair to the tunes. Cheers to the girls who performed- you rocked and are far braver than I am. 

On the food:

• Lesson learned: when you take a break from your normal weekday evening routine to attend a ball, you need to eat a snack before. Otherwise you will inhale your plate of food PLUS two rolls. 
• It would have been helpful in Cinderella if there had been a dinner scene. I imagine many girls my age would know better now about having a snack prior to "the ball."

On the fun:

• Between the dressy evening, the champagne, the new friends I made, the music, the dancing…I had SO much fun!  

On being thankful for friends in a new place:

• When you are new to a city and a new organization, it can be hard to feel a part of everything. Thursday night I felt a part of it. That is all thanks to my co-worker J who is more than a co-worker but a good friend. After being in the working world many, many years, I have to say good friends at work are hard to find. I am thankful to have one placed in my life. Thank you J for inviting me along because thanks to you, I am still smiling about the Thursday evening several nights later.  

Thanks J, Looking forward to many more fancy days and fancy nights! 

Home Happy Hours

About Me Disclaimer: I am horrible at being creative and will never provide you a good DIY project. My life doesn't look like a Pinterest board that I would advise anyone to replicate. I steal other people's fashion advice meaning I have none of my own to give out. But how to have happy hour at home? This is the kind of nonsense I promise you will always find here. 

Yes this photo was taken at Halloween time. No, unfortunately I am not stocked on candy corn year round. 

While Gregg was busy in his MBA program getting an MBA, I was busy befriending girls in his program who were not only getting an MBA too but also watching The Bachelor. One of the girls, S, moved to Houston as well for her job so I have gotten to keep up the tradition a smidge when she is in town and not traveling. Last night she came over because she hadn't watched The Bachelor and once I finished an after work interview taping, I had no plans...so duh I wasn't going to say no to REwatching The Bachelor with wine. Here's the thing, I will pretty much watch or rewatch anything reality TV related with anyone anytime if there is wine involved. 

It was a "late night" viewing beginning at 8:30. Just in time for a late night home happy hour….a kind of happy hour I have grown to love. Don't get me wrong, I still love going out for happy hours but home happy hours should not be overlooked.

Think about the effort it involves:

Get dressed up? No. You can change out of your work clothes and have on pajamas for all I care. At my home happy hours, the comfier the better. 

Clean the house? I prefer to say "clean" because let's just lay it out there, I don't have a maid and if we are good enough friends that we are doing a home happy hour then we are good enough friends that you are going to see what our apartment looks like on a Tuesday….meaning there is a 50/50 chance this place is a disaster. Gregg often works late and is literally like a brain dead tornado when he comes home. Sometimes I can manage the fall out from the tornado and sometimes I don't have time. Often in the afternoon when I am at work and we are planning a home happy hour, I don't even know what my house is going to look like until I arrive home. It's an adventure for all of us. 

Waste time trying to figure out a good happy hour location and/or deal? Not necessary. I provide wine, along with a couch and television full of mindless reality TV shows I am behind on to watch while we chat. 

No one gets off work in time for happy hour? No problem. Come whenever. Come looking however. Pick up food. Eat my food. I don't care. You never miss the deal at a home happy hour.

There you have it, go forth and host your own home happy hour. And the next time you may get off work after happy hour ends or feel lazy and don't want to get dressed up, consider yourself invited to a home happy hour with me.

My next dabble into the home happy hour is the long distance happy hour. I have so many friends who live all over that I think this could have real potential.  

 

Tootsie Pop Tuesday

This afternoon my boss who is expecting said she has been craving Tootsie Pops and asked if I wanted one. She then proceeded to pull out a bag full of them from her filing cabinet and I proceeded to mentally revert back into a child..on the outside I was still very much a fake adult acting like this was no big deal.

I went back into my office and enjoyed an afternoon tootsie pop. What is it about tootsie pops that make you instantly revert back into a child? Is it knowing there is a tootsie roll inside? Remembering the last time you had one? Knowing you are sitting at your desk eating a tootsie pop while answering important emails and pretending you are an adult? I have no idea.

Amidst this mental chaos I also thought to myself, I still have no idea how many licks it takes to get to the inside of a tootsie pop. As the owl once said, 

"the world may never know."

Do you have a favorite candy that makes you instantly revert back into a child on the inside...even while you are faking being an adult on the outside? 

Snow Day- Take Dos

Yesterday we had another snow day…or ice day… or just cold day depending on who you talk to around here. I'm not going to complain or lie- I enjoyed it. I would like more of them please.

What did I do that I enjoyed so much? That would be nothing actually. I drank coffee and read my latest Oprah magazine. Chloe also kept me company for the day.

Okay I am lying. I did do one thing productive and I went down to our apartment gym. My chiropractor has given me all these new strength training weight exercises he wants me to do and I have two pages of notes detailing how to do these based on his instruction at his office.

[Disclaimer: Weights intimidate me. Strength training intimidates me. I have been told by my chiropractor I do not have a choice and have to get over this. Stay tuned for more on me conquering this issue. Knowing me, I am pretty sure this adventure is not over.]

I have been quite intimidated to actually take these notes and go to the gym. Why? That would be because I feel like a huge loser walking in with my handouts complete with stick figure drawings and explanations only I understand because I did them…yet I still don't really know what I am doing.

I mean look at them. They scream LOSER and they scream I have no artistic abilities when drawing a person and a giant ball. 

I figured yesterday would be safe because there wouldn't be anyone there and I could sit and figure these exercises out.

So I did. I was actually pretty proud of myself because there were other people in the gym but I put on my headphones and with pop music in my ears I zoned out into my own world. A world where I was laying on the ground with a medicine ball trying to figure out ab exercise diagrams I had drawn on sheets of paper several weeks ago. I would've taken a picture but a) that is strange and b) I was doing good to not severely injury myself while straining my neck to look at the paper and crunch at the same time.

Did this idea work? Well I am still scared to go do these at the actual big gym but I am slightly less scared.  I think I also realized that even at the gym it all comes down to the cardinal rule of life, you have to fake it 'til you make it. If you just zone out into your own world and pretend you know what you are doing, people are going to pay a lot less attention to you than you think….and dare I say they may even mistake you for someone who understands what they are doing?

Don't be concerned though…the second that was over this was happening once again on my couch:

Solving the problems of the world with Chloe & Oprah. We make an unstoppable trio.

Texas Ice Day

Rain all day yesterday + Temperature below 32 last night = Friday Ice Day 

(translation: no work today!)

Disclaimer: I know people all over the country are laughing at Texas and I completely understand. I used to live in Denver and they seriously never canceled anything. I believe the only weather condition that shuts the city down is a full on blizzard. Laugh all you want though. I got to stay home from work today. 

Figuring out if you are getting an ice day is tricky stuff. It requires you to be very alert and focused at a very early hour of the morning. This morning when my alarm went off at its usual time, I reached for my phone and then turned on the TV nearly blinding myself and scaring Chloe from the loud noise and lights in the room so early in the morning. I honestly couldn't even see I was so blind and I couldn't even figure out what I was looking for or what I thought they were going to say to help me out here. I was waiting to see if a school district had been closed so I would know that we had been closed…then I remembered we had an emergency phone line to call so I did that instead. Considering this is my first winter to ever be working at my current job, these are the things you forget exist and do not remember in the wee hours of the morning. It is very surreal though because you are so excited and consequently filled with energy even though you were just given permission that you didn't have to be awake...but if it was the opposite you'd be annoyed and tired that the day would be resuming as scheduled and you'd be forced to be awake.

But here is the thing about an "Ice Day" and my cardinal rule…you don't have to do anything. Seriously you do not have to do anything. My reasoning behind this is that under any other circumstances you would be at work and unable to do anything at home. So take advantage of the free pass you have just been given by life to be lazy and be lazy. 

For me this involves the following:

A nice big cup of coffee on a very chilly morning.

Catching up on Friday blogs, links and articles. Writing my own
& listening to some good ol' Frank Sinatra music.

A little aerobic activity courtesy of Leonard the Bee.
Official uniform of a snow day: fuzzy socks and sweats.

Not pictured: all the snacks I have also consumed today. 

This ice day also includes a moment of silence for Gregg: He had to work today. 

How did you enjoy your snow or ice day? Were you blinded by the television way too early in the morning trying to figure out if you had to go to work today? Have a good weekend!

Luncheon Anxiety Cures

Luncheon Anxiety: A made up term (by me) that describes fear of drinking a complete stranger's water at a luncheon. 

There is nothing that stresses me out more in the working world than being invited to a luncheon, sitting down and all of a sudden having my mind go blank trying to figure out which iced tea glass is mine, which bread plate is mine and which dessert is mine. I fill with fear trying to figure this out in my mind. FEAR.

I went to a luncheon yesterday and I went to another one today. Let me explain to you what happens at these events from my internal perspective...

Step 1: I am looking forward to going.

Step 2: I walk in and all is well. I am socializing. I am passing out business cards.

Step 3: We sit down to eat.

Step 4: Fear. FEAR.

Is this my iced tea and water on the left? Is that my bread plate? 

Oh wait is that my iced tea and water on the right? 

I realize most of the world probably attended an etiquette class at some time in their life and learned this. I actually think this is the reason Mom put Kristina and me in Cotillion year after year and we probably learned this at one time too. But clearly 20+ years later it didn't stick and I am confused and stressed out about it. I have failed my mom. I have failed Cotillion. I have failed as a 29 year old adult.

One time someone told me to make 

The letter "b" with your left hand and a "d" with your right hand"

It is supposed to stand for "bread" to your left and "drink" is to your right. Well on Tuesday that didn't work so well because for whatever reason I kept thinking "d" stood for dessert. So there I was getting more and more confused in my head while pretending I had my life together and carrying on a conversation. Yet deep down inside I was growing thirstier by the minute and couldn't figure out which glass was mine. Finally someone next to me put their bread down. Finally someone else took a sip of their water. Yes. We are in business. All is well.

Then the same thing happened all over again today.

But today while we were sitting down discussing how confusing it can be (I was laughing along but secretly thinking yes, this is serious stuff), someone said she thinks of the phrase "B-M-W" 

• Bread is to the upper left
• Meal is center
• Water is to the upper right 

Cue the lightbulb. Yes! Yes! This makes sense. This I can remember. 

So I felt I had to share my new tip with anyone who may have also been impacted by luncheon anxiety...or anyone who has zero luncheon anxiety and just wants to laugh at me. 

Either way...let's all B-M-W the next time we are in a stressful eating situation.

Cheers. 

Please comment if you have a better tip that I need to know about...clearly I am open to any and all suggestions.