Autumn Wishes

Well my dears it is 100% officially autumn. It's in the 80s now and while that does not sound like cool weather, compared to the sweltering 90s and 100s that Texans endure through approximately 7 months of the year, 80s are a more than welcomed change. First day of autumn I wore boots and a scarf. I told people I was willing fall weather to come faster with my clothing choices. Um, it totally worked. Take that, haters.

Things have been going pretty well throughout September. Still loving my hair. However, September 30 is the end of the fiscal year which means the government has been frantically trying to spend the last of the FY10 money. AKA- contractor HELL. I worked a crap-ton of hours the last two weeks because we had to get all of these proposals out. But that means we get a day off next week which is killer. I love feeling appreciated. Like all of my extra time spent was recognized. Ahhh, so thats what this feels like...i think id like to stay here for a while...

In other news, I am actively looking for a new place to live. I'm ready for something different. Less commercial. More personal. Less enormous. More unique. And I think I've found it. It's in an old mansion that was converted into apartments. It's called "Castle Arms". I'm calling it the Castle. It has a spire. Goal: make friends with the person who lives in the flying buttress. My dad found it on a more obsure apartment search website and we drove by and called the man. He had just rented it that day to someone who was living in a smaller unit in the same building. Therefore, the unit that person was moving out of is now available and I WANT IT. It is so adorable and unique and inexpensive for what I think I would get. Great neighborhood, the whole nine yards. It has a nook AND a loft! And a huge bedroom. I'm going to see it on Thursday because the woman living there now is moving into her new unit on Wednesday. I would have to give written notice to my current complex on Friday so if I see it and love it I'm making a decision on Thursday. What I'm most excited about at the moment is being in this place for Christmas. The nook is PERFECT for my christmas tree!!!!!!! I am so unabashedly in love with fall and winter holidays. 4th of July? America is cool and all but don't care about that holiday. Valentine's Day? Love is cool and all but I don't care about that holiday either. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's? BEST THREE MONTHS OF THE YEAR.

I bought three pairs of fall shoes at Target yesterday. I shouldn't have. But I did. Because they are fantastical and I wanted them. I know I have too many shoes already. So sue me.

I'm house-sitting for Amy's new puppy Roxy next weekend so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm gonna take her to the Men's ITAs on Saturday. That'll be fun. Everyone loves puppies.

Well that's all for today folks. Feelin pretty good. Over and out!

Sigh of Relief

We're closing in on a month without a post here and it's high time I continued this habit. This past weekend was labor day weekend and that means I just had my big presentation at work yesterday. I've been quite busy the past few weekends and obviously during the week trying to prepare for this presentation. I've had a roller coaster of emotion about this presentation for quite a few reasons.

Basically, I had to give this presentation to all the executives in my company. Yeah, no pressure. Thankfully, I've spoken to them plenty of times before from running meetings but still, this was a pretty substantial topic to present on and a relatively HUGE undertaking for 3 weeks of preparation and only 4 weeks even in my new position. ANYWAY, i went from feeling as if I'd been thrown out in the cold, to feeling I had so much help and I'd be fine, to feeling like I was the bomb and knew everything ever and back to feeling like I was an American toddler trying to speak perfect Chinese. 

Well it was yesterday it was in the midst of Tropical Storm Hermine tearing through San Antonio. Cue FIVE POWER OUTAGES DURING MY POWERPOINT PRESENTATION. Yes, 5. The first two were funny, the third was a little annoying and the fourth and fifth were downright angering. I mean, REALLY Hermine? Really? What kind of name is Hermine anyway?  Put an "o" in your name and be a character from Harry Potter for goodness sakes. It's one lousy letter. Maybe then I could at least respect you. Hermine? No. Get outta town. Literally.

Outside of Hermine's RUDE interruptions, my overall presentation went very well. Regardless of whether or not they actually think I did a good job, they told me I did and seemed genuinely impressed. I really have no way of knowing because they are all rooting for me to do well and most of them have this "parent/child" dynamic with me. I think this has both good and bad to it but I'm just going to focus on the good part. Unfortunately, I think the stress of it all did a number on my immune system and I'm pretty sick today.  But honestly, that's a price I'm willing to pay for the crazy amount of effort I put in and the rewards/opportunities I'll hopefully reap from it. 

*Sigh of Relief*

On a completely different note, I'm lovin the hair! I know I was still pretty skeptical of it last time I wrote...which to be fair was only on day 2 and I was still very much getting used to it. It's lightened up some and while my blondie roots are starting to show, I think I'm going to keep it dark (or at least darker than my natural platinum) for the fall/winter. Come spring we'll see how I feel about it but I just want to go through a cold season with dark hair and see how it works. My experiment has delivered some VERY interesting findings though. I wanted to see if the blonde hair coupled with the shortness/overall young look was making people treat me younger. 

Key Findings:

1. People who have known me for a long time/know me really well don't treat me any differently at all.

2. People who know me marginally well or are just acquaintances have treated me slightly differently, slightly more like an adult. As in, well maybe she is more mature than we gave her credit for? 

3. People who are just meeting me are 100% assuming that I'm as old or older than I am. They are noticing my articulation, my style, and my work more than my juvenile appearance. 

Now, please don't misunderstand. I loved my blonde hair. It was a unique quality that not many others had and sometimes I do miss that. I also don't think that just because anyone has blonde hair they are automatically assumed to be immature. This only applies to my specific appearance situation. 

I'm still going to be very busy over the coming 1.5 months. Which is great but will probably be pretty exhausting. Next weekend I'm going to a Dave Matthews Band concert in Dallas with Casen! I'm SO excited. I've only been to one DMB concert and it was at ACL so that doesn't really count. Apparently, there are some peeps who are so dedicated to DMB that they tailgate before concerts. Haha, so we're going to do that and have a blast. The two weekends after that are the fall Trinity tennis tournaments and I love going to support my kiddos so I'll be baking up a storm those weeks to bring them treats :) Then I have a free weekend, then its ACL!! So pumped. My good friend Kenny is coming in from California and we are going to have an incredible time. I already know it. Then one free weekend and then its Trinity Alumni weekend! Then before I know it, it's Halloween and Thanksgiving. Wow. I can't believe we are 2/3 of the way through 2010. 

Well I'm going to use this sick day to its fullest and make an ACL playlist, upload some pictures from labor day weekend in Austin, finish my book and do some painting. Here is one of my faves from the weekend:

Until my next major life event or epiphany.....