Yeah...yeah - sometimes I suck at keeping up with this journal. I really don't want to just link to Step's journal everytime I go a couple of days without posting anything so I'll just say that we were fabulous as Wednesday and Pugsley, the pumkin party on Sunday was a huge success, and we had a wonderful time with Doug and Lucianna on Halloween on Sixth Street.
Mom and I successfully made it to NYC. My flight out of Houston was PACKED!! I'm pretty sure that I was the last one to get a seat on the plane. The Continental gate agents were desperately seeking volunteers to catch a slightly later flight to Newark - if I wasn't meeting Mom at La Guardia I would have jumped at it. Now I'm sure that Mom would have been okay if she find her way to Port Authority on her own, but on the other hand, I think it was a very good thing I was there with her...Stepan is going to hate traveling through Europe with her (and no, there are no plans for that yet, but I'm sure it will happen eventually).
I love New York - and I know so many people who live here! Last night, we met up with some friends from High School (Cambri Crews and Debra Rumple) at a very cool, very non-touristy restaurant/bar called Vynl. We also went to a gay bar called Posh where we met up with Scott Ramsey and Greg Gorman. And we ended the night at another restaurant, Jo Allen, where famous Broadway actors supposedly come after their shows - though none showed last night. The amazing thing is I was awake and fairly alert the entire night despite getting maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before.
Note to all Bloggers: Be careful where you leave yourself logged into your journal. I swear I only left my sisters computer for a second. When I returned, Meredith had attempted to post this:
My sister is the coolest. Everything I am today, I owe to her. I am so glad she doesn't think Stepan is cute because I know he would pick her over me if he had half a chance.
Yesterday was another exciting day in NYC. We started out kinda late (around 2pm) and wandered around the streets of Manhattan until we found the Wedding Gown Sample sale. All proceeds from this event benefitted the Twin Towers Orphans Fund. I really had no intention of buying a gown - I was just interested in trying on a few gowns to get a feel for the style that I liked....as you've probably guessed, I bought a gown. They made an offer I couldn't walk away from. It's a designer gown that would retail around $3000-$5000. At the sale, it was marked $1375 though right off the bat they offered to reduce that price by 20%. I probably wore the gown for over an hour, occassionally going back to another gown I liked when they offered the dress to me for $900! Two hours later, I still couldn't commit to the dress. I was all set to walk out on it - I had lots of pictures that I could use to help me pick out a dress at a date closer to the actual wedding. Then they said that their absolute bottom price was The collective gasp from the ladies in the dressing room with me was nearly deafening. So I bought the dress (Mom paid for half)...if I end up changing my mind, I figure I can always sell it for a profit on ebay.
After impetuously purchasing a wedding gown, we caught a quick bite to eat at a sandwich bar that had delicious pizza right next to the theatre where we saw The Shape of Things. It was an extremely interesting play - kinda dark with a bizarre twist. Mom got really excited as we were picking up our tickets because Harvey Keitel got into line nearly right behind us (there was another couple in front of him and his companions). After the show, we went back to Jo Allens. Cambri got there first; we're not sure who the management thought she was, but she got a great table - someone inferred that it is where the cast from The Producers usually sits. Sure enough, about 30 minutes after we come, Matthew Broderick shows up! During the course of the evening, Edward Norton also showed up, but he ended up leaving because the table where Matthew was sitting was too small to accomodate any more.
After we closed down Jo Allens, we moved to a caberet across the street call Don't Tell Mama. Meredith, mom, and I were only going to stay for a couple of minutes ... we were slightly shocked when last call came at 4am! On the bus ride home, a very nice older man (from Italy) invited me over to his house for a drink. I told him I didn't think my fiance would approve and offered to call him to check, but I couldn't reach Stepan on the phone so I just went home.
Another day...another year...another one-tenth century gone! I'm now officially ....or maybe since that "something" is zero, I'm not actually "thirty-something" until next year. I've been trying to tell everybody that I was 3 (as in decades), but Stepan insists on using the 30 word to describe my age. I think maybe I'll start going by months (360) or weeks (1,560) or days (10,920).....except since my birthday was yesterday, I'm actually 10,921 days old - that could get cumbersome to keep up with....maybe I'll stick with years!
The president of WHM, Mike McInturff, has been in Houston giving expert testimony in a condemnation case....I sure have missed him! Things around the office aren't nearly as exciting as when he's here. For example, this afternoon (probably around 2pm), he came to my office talking about emergency changes for Tivoli (one of those projects that just won't ever end!). Of course, he hadn't marked-up the edits yet, and of course, we needed to have full-size mylars delivered to the client by 12N on Monday....full-size mylars that need to be sent to Miller's for plotting!!!....being the fabulous professional that I am, I was able to implement all edits and send plot files out for production -
I am all that is good and wonderful. WHM is lucky to have me :-)
I've finally added comments to my journal...I can't wait to see what other people have to say about my postings.
I really need to be more diligent in checking my mail. Back in July, I redeemed a gift certificate from my mom and sister at a day spa (you can read all about it here). Well, as I was leaving, one of my rings fell into the locked locker below mine. I spoke with the staff (who didn't have an extra key) and they said they would retrieve the ring when the locker's current owner checked out and mail it to me. Well, I never heard from them and had decided that I probably wasn't ever going to get the ring back.....this is where checking the mail more frequently would have come in handy....Last night, I was going through some mail I brought over from the old house. Turns out, Lake Austin Spa mailed my ring back to me (as promised) on August 2!
Two things I love about my Dad: 1) His God complex...at dinner last night, he was giving thanks before the meal. He kept saying things like "I thank you for all the things I've given us" and "thanks for all the things I've done. and 2) when he leave messages on my answering machine, he always closes with "Love, Dad"....like he was closing a letter....it's very endearing.
It's going to be a cold night here in Austin....I'm trying my best to convince Mean Ol Stepan to let Homer sleep inside, but he's not budging an inch :-( Maybe I'll make him sleep on the couch....without any blankets....and with the window open!
Stepan finally gave in to my hearfelt pleadings and let Homer sleep inside last night. It's a good thing we did too - I'm sure the temp dropped to below freezing and it definitely hailed at one point...I'm positive Homer would have gone bug-eyed again if he had been left outside... There were no problems with him during the night. It took him a few minutes of fidgeting after the lights went out to settle down, but he didn't roam around the room, gnaw on any of our stuff, or pee on the carpet. In fact, I believe he would have been content to sleep a few hours more than my alarm allowed. He sure is a good dog :-)
Apparently the Braker Lane overpass at MoPac is not a high priority for the crews in charge of salting the roads after a freeze. When I went through that intersection this morning at 7:45am, the traffic was backed up nearly to the next signal (which generally never happens) and people were creeping across the bridge. When I got up there, there were cars in each left turn lane which had lost traction....they weren't sliding uncontrollably - they weren't going anywhere at all!...they were pretty much stuck where they were with their back wheels spinning furiously and making an amazing, whining racket that I could hear over my radio.
What a beautiful morning for a run at Town Lake. I got there around 7:40am (I was running very late) and parked by Austin High. The temp was in the upper 30s (F) which sounds pretty cold but is perfect weather for running. The lake was amazing. As I approached it on MoPac, you could see this fog bank hovering around the bridge. As I was crossing the pedestrian bridge, underneath MoPac, the scene was very dream-like - steam or mist coming off the water...the trees at the water's edge colored in hues of fall....a family of ducks drifting close to shore - it was quite breathtaking and if I can rouse Stepan out of bed tomorrow morning, I would like to take Homer down there and take some pictures.
