On the road again...

Burrr, it is chilly in the DFW this morning! With such a nip in the air I decided that this morning would be the perfect day to start listening to Christmas music as I get ready for work. Really helps put a pep in your step! :)

This weekend, Mason and I headed back to Houston because we had a wedding shower to attend. On Friday though, Mason dropped me off in the Woodlands so that I could go to dinner and catch up with one of my very close friends, Lauren. Lauren and I have had our friendship tested this past year, but after much conversation and forgiveness we were able to move on. And I'm glad we did! Friday we had a great time catching up, re-telling old stories and laughing until our cheeks hurt! Lauren moved to NYC to start a new life with her new man on Sunday so I wish her the best of luck and also look forward to visiting her and Brad when Mason and I head north next week!

Saturday, Mason and I watched the UT vs. Baylor football game with his parents, then went to Jordan's 3rd birthday party (Jordan is the daughter of one of M's friend's from high school), and then headed to Pappasitto's for a wedding shower for Trevor and Jenn! It was a long day but so fun to see friend's and celebrate the big moments in their lives!

Speaking of big moments, Mason is celebrating his 26th birthday tomorrow! I can't wait! :) I am going to attempt to bake him a carrot cake (one of his favs)! Hopefully it'll turn out well! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! :)

Service With Without a Smile!

The following happened to me not once, not twice but THREE, yes THREE times yesterday!

One of my biggest pet peeves is when you are at the grocery store or the mall or even the library and you go to the counter to check out and the cashier doesn't even acknowledge you! Just grabs your things and starts scanning them without even looking up. I mean would it kill you to look at me and say "hello"!?! I went to Macy's yesterday morning right when it opened to get someone a b-day present and I knew exactly what I wanted so within 10 minutes I was ready to check out. Well Patty, the sales clerk, (and yes that is her real name, go nominate her for sales associate of the month) is sloooooowly unwrapping the quarters out of the packaging one by one sloooowly, then she moves on to the dimes, then the nickels, then the pennies. Then starts sloowwllly counting the dollars! Um, Hello Patty!?!?! Why don't you look up and say something...anything! I don't mind waiting while you open up the cash register, but can you atleast acknowledge that you know I am standing here with my item ready to check-out. But no, she just keeps on ignoring me, so finally I go "Ummm, are you able to ring me up or should I go to another cashier?" and she is all "Yeah you can if you want." So what does that mean? You can't check me out? The nerve. Where has customer service gone? I'm not suggesting that anyone roll out the red carpet for me, but a little eye contact and a polite attitude is not asking a lot. It seems that I am encountering more and more Patty-esque behavior everywhere I go. It happened to me again at the library that afternoon and then again at the grocery store! I mean isn't customer service covered in day one on the job?

I suppose it's not THAT big a deal, but it really does tick me off! What are your pet peeves?

Seeing Stars!

You all will not believe what happened to my mom yesterday!!! She received a phone call from WFAA/Channel 8 (which is the local ABC Network in Dallas) saying that she had won a contest that was recently featured on "Good Morning Texas" that she had signed up for online.

She won a trip for two to go here:

with a two night stay here (Beverly Wilshire Hotel):

and tickets to attend the LIVE FINALE taping of this:

!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it!?!? I can not. And best of all, she is taking ME with her! I am beyond excited!! I have never been to Los Angeles before! We will be there from Nov. 22-24 and literally the day after I get back, Mason and I are going to New York for our 5 day Thanksgiving trip! Can you say BEST WEEK EVER! First half of the week in LA, second half of the week in NYC (and I have never been to either city)! I am going nuts trying to figure out outfits for that many days of travel! No time to chat, must go shopping! ;)

Faux Fur Love

I don't know why exactly, but I have been drooling over this white faux fur throw from West Elm for quite some time now. It would look just lovely on our couch, and would be perfect for cuddling up in when the temps start falling outside. We refuse to turn on the heat until icicles start hanging from our chins in order to save some dollars (our heating bill is always ginormous compared to our AC bill bc we have such awful insulation in our apt). Anyway, this precious little blanket is usually $119. Probably worth every penny, but a little much to justify spending on a blanket. Also, Mason thinks we shouldn't get a white one, because he is afraid it will get dirty. Geez Mase, it's not like we have spaghetti and meatball wars in the living room. I mean we are mature adults people!! We can handle the responsibility of owning a white blanket! Anyway, I got the West Elm catalogue in the mail last week - and do what to my wondering eyes appear, but a sale on faux fur throws! Now I can own this luxuroius animal fur knock-off for the much more reasonable price of $83. Sold! I'm on my way to go pick one up now! Maybe I can pawn it off to Mason as one of his birthday gifts next week. ;)

Taryn & Kyle's Wedding Weekend

Back in D-town after a looonnnggg weekend of driving! Thursday afternoon Mason and I drove down to Shreveport because he had a meeting for work there on Friday morning. Mase's dad met us there and took us out for a yummy dinner and then afterwards we went to the Horseshoe Casino for a little gambling. Mason turned $20 into $200 playing roulette. I was too nervous to part with any of my own money, so I just sat jealously and watched him rake in the dough (ohhh how I long for the days of a joint bank account ;).

Anywho... after Mason finished up his meeting we drove through the country to places like Carthage, TX and Mansfield, LA looking at some of the oil wells he is in charge of. Not the most exciting adventure, but it was a beautiful day and we did most of our driving with the windows down! During our roadtrip, Mason started to get a little sleepy and asked if I would take the wheel! He NEVER asks me to drive so I was kind of excited to have something to do on our way to Houston! I even got Mase to take a picture of me manning the wheel for the first time (I'm cheesy, I know...) and here is Mason catching some Zzzz's... (sidenote: I would not recommend taking pictures while driving...;)

Friday evening, we went out in Houston and met up with a lot of our friends...good times! Then Saturday evening, we went to Taryn and Kyle's wedding. Taryn is a family friend of Mason and Cameron's. She was a cheerleader at UT and her boyfriend played baseball for UT. They are soo cute it is just sickening! Anyway, here are a few pics from the wedding:

{Travis (Taryn's brother), Mason, Cameron, Trevor (Taryn's brother), Kyle (groom), Nathan}

{Mase and I at the reception}

{Mason and me with Jenn and Trevor who are getting married in January!}

{Mason, Cameron and I with Taryn the beautiful bride}

We had a fab time at the wedding (which was held at the Four Seasons in downtown Houston). I'm still coming down from my champagne coma! ;) And now I have a very busy week ahead of me as someone (Mason ;) is turning 26 next week, so I have to finish some bday shopping! Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!! :)

Ch-Ch-Changes!

It's already November!? My, oh my... how the time flies! The arrival of November means the shortening of our days (aka Daylight Savings) and let me just tell you how motivating that is for my workout regimen. Um, yeah...it's not. I've been trying my best to avoid carbs to counteract my laziness, but that really hasn't been going to plan either. Oh well! Lucky for me, Daylight Savings Season is also Big Bulky Sweater Season! ;) Aside from changing our clocks, Mason and I have also made a change to our weekly routine. We are trying to implement "date night" into our Mon-Thurs schedule. I mean we definitely have date nights and do plenty of things together on the weekends, but during the week we are pretty much each in our respective areas of the apartment doing our own thing. Mason in the living room watching football, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf (basically anything involving a ball and scoring points)... while I am in our bedroom watching Gossip Girl, Glee, 90210 (and basically any sitcom featuring a corny high school plot ;). Oh sure, we have a little "How was your day?" chit chat after work and eat dinner together, but after that we pretty much part ways until bedtime. This week we decided we should try and dedicate at least one week night evening to each other and spend time together, in the same room, talking and enjoying each other's company! Such a novel idea I know... So last night was Date Night #1. It started off a little bumpy with me burning our dinner, then getting denied at Blockbuster because we had returned a movie earlier in the week without the DVD inside of it, then once we got home from our 2nd trip to Blockbuster our movie skipped (without us realizing it) and went straight to the end, spoiling the whole ending. But what matters is that we had an awful night TOGETHER! :) Haha, let's hope our next attempt at a week day Date Night goes a little more smoothly!

Dia de los Muertos

We survived another crazy Halloween night, but not without a little drama, but I'll get to that in a sec. This year for Halloween, Mason and I dressed up as Senorita y Senor Tequila! We went to a party at Sambuca that some of our friends were hosting and had a blast!

Until.... I got into a little chick fight with this girl who I realized after the fact that I know... oops! ;) It all started while waiting in line for the girls bathroom. The line was ridiculous. Seriously, it was like a 30 minute wait! Anyway, so this one girl tries to cut in front of everyone and I was all "ummm no, back of the line sweetie"! So she comes up to me and dusts me in the face with her little feather duster (she was dressed as a french maid) and says a few unfriendly words to me. Anyway, so after I finally go to the bathroom, I walk back over to where my friends are and have totally forgotten about the bathroom encounter. Feather-duster girl, however, has not forgotten about it and while I have been in the bathroom she was busy telling Mason and her boyfriend what a bitch I am. So when I get back, she walks up to me and grabs both of my arms as hard as she can and starts saying more unfriendly things. So Mason, grabs her and pulls her off of me (aww, my night in shining armor ;) and then she ripped his costume and kicked him you know where! What a LUNATIC! Thankfully a police officer was standing nearby and witnessed the whole thing and feather-duster girl got carried out of the bar by 4 police! Ha, thats what you get for trying to cut in line for the bathroom! ;)

Anyway, it wasn't long after our dramatic episode that we decided we should probably call it a night. Upon arriving home, however, I realize that my Blackberry was not in my purse where it should be! I break out into a full blown PANIC! I have only had my BB for like 2 months!! I can NOT live without it and I do not want to buy a new one! So I get Mason to drive us back to Sambuca, and I can't find it anywhere. So we go back home feeling defeated and of course I am a crying mess by this point! I sobbed inconsolably all night long about losing my stupid phone! Then the next morning I decided to go look outside, just in case I had dropped it. And guess what... there it was lying in THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!!! It didn't even have a scratch on it! I can not believe it wasn't run over or more suprisingly stolen! It was a Halloween Miracle!!! :) And that is how we spent Halloween 2009! It's prob a good thing Halloween only comes around once a year... ;)