rachel ellen

My sister Rachel has a blog, and I've linked to it on the right, but I thought I'd put it in here, as well for those of you who can't "see" the "right side" of the "page."

J-Ro, you might be right. I think Rachel IS funnier than me. *le sigh*

set love free

I'm back from my long anticipated trip to Lake Tahoe!! I'm going to give you a visual storytelling recount of my trip, with a few words here and there to help out. These are just my pictures, so since Amber has all of the ones where I fell down (she had the luxury of taking pictures of me in humorous positions as she wasn't the one falling. (except that one time...) As soon as I get those pictures from her, I'll post my misfortune for you all to see.

This is going to take up a lot of room, so get ready to get your scroll on!

I'll spare you the "at the airport" pictures, because I'd prefer to have no memory of any of the SIX planes we had to ride to get to Reno/Tahoe and back. I'm going to try to get these pictures in order, but we'll see.

Amber, my cousin Katie (henceforth referred to as Katie), and my Aunt Monie (henceforth - Monie) in the kitchen at their lake house in Tahoe:


Katie & Monie at the Donner Party Museum:


This is a picture of a picture of a lighthouse in French. Phares means lighthouse in French. *nodding enthusiastically*:


This is Katie & Ambie & I preparing for the long winter months ahead at a shop in world famous Truckee. Where? Exactly:


Ever get tired of putting on your ENTIRE cowboy boot? Well, now you don't have to! (see: far right):


Watching the Mavs game Sunday evening ere we head over to the resort:


Our lodging thanks to Kiss FM:


Inside our room - Amber reading map and planning next day's trek:


Outside our window, ski-morning 1:


Outside our window, ski-morning 2:


Getting ready before skiing:


Amber defying gravity per usual:


Ski-maester (me):


My first successful turn on skis without falling down! (look closely):


A couple of nice older ladies took our picture right before they were about to tear it up on the blues, and we, the greens:


Making the most of our time on the gondola back up to get the stuff we left in our locker, after already having forgotten it and gone back to the hotel room, SHEESH!:


Probably the most unattractive picture of me that's ever been taken:


Sitting on a huge pile of snow that accumulated outside the breezway at our hotel:


My favorite picture from the whole trip. I call it "You let me change lanes, while I was driving in my car":


On the way to the airport where we would naturally get on 3 planes, taking us 8.5 hours to get home when it should have only taken 2.5-3. Look how happy I am about it!:


And finally, our boys picking us up from the airport.......right "on time" *WINK*:


What a trip. Sweet sweet what.

sidesliding

Today is the day I go on my long awaited ski trip! I could definitely use a break.

I would like to thank Southwest Airlines for not flying directly to Tahoe, making us stop THREE times, and turning what should be a 3 hour trip into 9 hours. Sincerely. Thank you.

I actually don't care so much about that. I'll have Amber, books and NY Times crossword puzzles, so I'm cool. I probably won't have internet access, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't get online, save to email one or two choice Kpeople (sic), so I'll expect you "all" (see: both) to continue commenting faithfully whilst I'm dominating the diamond black slopes on my first time to ski EVER in my life.

Wish me luck and bones intact when I return. Holla. (Haw-luh)

a few random thoughts

i. I think that one of the most unattractive qualities in a person is pride. That combined with an unwillingness to believe that someone else might have a better idea/plan/suggestion, etc. than oneself. I hope I never come across that way.

ii. Here are a few of my favorite IM taglines over the past few months:

-The face that launched a thousand ships
-I brake for boys
-High collar and baggy pants say "I'm a pro!"
-Billy goats love for you to pet them....unless you have no hands
-arthritis is the new black
-B'Licious
-Beck "in the USSR"
-sometimes I DO feel like I have to live like a refugee
-my fingers are like delicate flowers
-the power of the babe
-DJ Peach Blossoms
-seek advice from an octogenarian
-I'm happy, but I'm aware of the ironic rammifications of my happiness
-back in the days when I was a teenager - before I had status and before I had a pager
-incon-thievable!
-death cabernet for cutie
-yell "I hate you beans! I hate you beans!" at the beans because, really, you love them.
-g sharp major flat
-hey, I'm 5'6"......do I still need to pay?
-even chimney sweeps sometimes have dirty chimneys themselves *nodding*
-not bound by the confines of day-time specific food
-protractorbeam

And I'm spent.

little mary le

My friend Sara sent me an email with 3 links the week before last: 1, 2, and 3, informing me that a college friend of mine (and long time friend of hers), Mary Le, had died on April 5th when a pick up truck carrying a livestock trailer hit her motorcycle while she was stopped waiting to make a turn.

I hadn't talked to her since I left UNT in 2003, but this was crazy news. Sara sent me this picture today in my email. Mary is the cute little Asian girl in the middle:


From left: Sara, Geoff, Mary, Paul, Matt, and me across the bottom.

This had to have been our sophomore year (2001), because Geoff and Paul were out of the dorms and in their house, Geoff had huge hair, Matt worked at Target (see: red shirt) and I still wore Old Navy flip flops.

I haven't seen Mary in a few years, like I said, so this whole thing still seems extremely surreal. I found out from these articles that she had graduated from UT Austin last year, worked as a pharmacy tech, was going to go to grad school in the fall and was engaged to be married. I wish I'd kept in touch with her better.

It's times like this that I realize how much I really take for granted that people will just be there. I feel like I don't really need to call people and catch up because I can always call them next month or next year when I'm not so busy.

I really need to call people more.

exempli gratia, id est, and litmus test

I wasn't planning on doing my 100th post today, but here it is!!

I'm going to see Imogen Heap on May 10 and Blackalicious who's opening for The Roots on June 1st.

That's pretty dang exciting.

100.

99 red balloons

This is my 99th post. I guess my next one better live up to it's monumentally centurial (C) ideal.

Yesterday was a nice day. Work didn't feel so overwhelming, but busy is good, so I can't complain. After work, I had to drop off some music for my cellist friend to arrange for a wedding I'm playing in this weekend. It's "Portraits at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky, and it's beautiful. Anyway, it's a piano piece and we're a string quartet, so some arranging will have to be done.

After that, I had some time to kill before my final b-study (b=bible) with Analdo (Annie) and Reno (Rian), so I decided to sit outside and read before I had to leave.

Now, my post-first semester college schedule was always pretty packed because I had to work a lot, and didn't have much down time to hang out on campus between classes. Every time I was walking to class on a beautiful day and I would see people on benches or laying down on the grass reading or studying or doing homework, I so envied them. I would have loved to have been around to really enjoy the campus. So, I did that yesterday, and I think I might try to do it more often, actually, now that the weather is nice. I sat outside between the architecture building and the fine arts building, and let me just say that the architecture building at UTA is definitely the coolest building on campus, and believe you me, I haven't seen more than half of them! *eyes darting nervously around computer screen*

Anybuns, (that was for Victoria) I sat in this courtyard where there's this fountain, and this little minimalistic shelter thing (how very architectural) and it was FANTASTIC!! The weather was perfect - not too hot, not too cool. Then while I was reading, the step team started practicing somewhere near by, and it sounded awesome! Then the drummer started practicing outside, and it was far enough away not to be annoying or detrimental to my hearing, so it was nice, too. The campus was just full of life! It was nice and relaxing. Plus I didn't have any papers due, so it was dooobly (sic) nice!

Then that night, I found this awesome coffee shop, with Rian and via Annie, who's name escapes me. It used to be this cool restaurant called Amelio's, and now it's not. But I forgot to check their hours and their name, and now I can't find them online. Blast! Anyway, it's right by campus on Abrams behind the McDonald's for those of you (1-2) who are familiar with the area. Annie if you remember the name, let me know!!

Here's a picture of the architecture building from the front. If you go through that big dark opening in the middle of the building, you can get to the courtyard about which I spake:


Incidentally, this is a picture of where Kevin lived when he was at the UTA dorms:

to sire...

I would like to call attention to this, wherein my father actually posted a comment on my blog. (see: CoughDadCough) Thanks, Dad. Your love for me is now no longer a question mark hanging over my ever-waning feelings of self worth. *sigh* Thanks. *WINK*

In other news, I've been thinking a lot lately about getting back on to myspace. I know, I know. You're thinking: "Becki...you're a liar and a fraud."

"Kind of," I would reply.

I don't think I'm actually going to do it, but I was looking at some of my good friends' myspace pages the other day, and it made it look so fun! I'd get to not only talk to my friends online, but I'd get to see still frames of their lives! Especially the ones that live out of town or that I don't get to see so often these days. But truly, I do talk to the people who I would want to compile my friends list on that crazy space o' mine. I don't need the whole world (and by whole world, I of course mean those with an economy advanced enough to have the world wide web at the click of a button or the insertion of a phone cable) to see that someone is my "friend" or even one of my "top 8 friends" to validate that the friendship is real.

I have been concerned with how busy I've been lately, and wishing I had more time. Special K reminded me of this today when I was telling him how I was thinking about getting back on. He said that since I've been hating how busy I've been lately, I might not want to spend the free time I do have in front of a computer screen looking at pictures of my friends when I could be hanging out with them instead. (I added the friends part, but it's true, too!) Thanks, Special K! You're so special!! *insert cheesy Full House™ keyboard pad crescendo here*

Does it sound as much to you like I'm trying desperately to convince myself as it does to me? *ZOINKS!*

*le fin*

9-5 (or is that 8:30-5:30?)

Taking you to work with me today:







I wish I could do "screen shots" of my desk right now, Sheesh! I had a couple minutes waiting for vendors to return my phone calls, so I thought I'd update w/little text and much pictures. Now this calendar is my "after work" schedule. CRAZY. Holla.

definitive moments...

Last night Kevin called me "dude." We thought about it, and I think we both agree that it's best that we break up.














*not*

phenylalanine

So today during lunch, I decided to perform a little experiment on myself. (The title of this post is supposed to be an ingredient that might likely be included in an experiment.) This experiment consisted of me not continuing to eat after the point at which I feel full of food. This differs from my normal routine of eating until my plate is empty. I blame this ill-thinking on my parents' draconian insistence that I be a member of the "Clean Plate Club" in order to obtain some dessert.

Good thing my parents don't read this. (coughDadcough)

Anybuns, my friend Julie at work went and got some Mexican food from El Mercado today and I, per usual, ordered the flautas. These flautas came with some beans (didn't eat them of course.....julesdwit, if you were here we could have done an exchange of sorts with your delicious guacamole for my gross beans), rice and chips to boot!!

I did stop eating after I was full, and I noticed that I had more than half of my meal left over, but nary a centimeter was left in my stomach. I shall take this from my extremely serious experiment:

I don't need as much food as I have previously believed I did in order to sustain life.

Sucks to you "Clean Plate Club!"