I'm trapped....by SNOW!

I woke up this morning around 5 am hoping that work would be canceled. As I looked out our front window, this is what I saw. Even if work wasn't canceled, I was completed trapped by snow. There was about a 2 foot drift surrounding my car and our front door and at the end of our driveway, a 4 foot+ drift. (I jumped in it!) SO, with all this snow surrounding my house I'm forced to stay inside and get those much neglected chores completed and checked off my list. I think the entire city of Des Moines is shut down today! I Heart Snow days! (and yes, work was canceled!)

Christmas Shopping

The following things were witnessed/heard while Christmas shopping with my mother today:

1) A man asking his wife which Snuggie, the blue or the pink, made him look less fat! (I'm going to assume he was joking)

2) A lady giving herself a facial with a humidifier in BB&B... for 15 minutes. How do I know it was for that long? Because I timed her!

3) While my mom and I were looking at Christmas music, I suggested I would make a playlist for her. Her song request: "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas

4) A child screaming in terror, throwing themselves on the floor, rolling around, flattening themselves on the floor so they couldn't be picked up... and the mom... texting.

5) The guy's name tag at the register in TJMaxx read: Jesus C.

6) "If he doesn't get me the Edward doll, I'll probably break up with him" (This was my favorite)

Ahhh,... the joys of holiday shopping. My feet hurt.

New Moon Premiere Day Recap

5:00 am To say that I bolted out of bed this morning would probably be an understatement. I literally hurdled myself off my bed. It was New Moon premiere day! My coworkers and I have been talking about Twilight for over a year and specifically this day. My work environment has been taken over by Twilight fever. You walk past people's desks and everyone has some sort of Twilight paraphernalia hanging on their wall or on their desks. Its quite funny actually. Even the guys around here know we're serious fans and if they bring up anything in the realm of Twilight, we talk about it for hours. We've all been so excited for this day its been the topic of about every conversation. I knew exactly what I would wear on this day (my Team Edward shirt of course) and knew that my brain would not be able to function coherently as the premiere day drew near. Now that it's actually here, my assumptions were correct (I know myself to well).

1:00 I'm having a hard time concentrating ( pretty much all day.) I'm firing off emails like a mad woman, running back and forth between meetings, and trying to be as productive as possible. But lets face it, I'm a crazy super fan. I've never been able to sit still for long but today is just driving me crazy. I'm bouncing up and down in my chair like a 5 year old at Christmas.

4:30 I'm so amped up, its like I've got an IV pumping red bull into me! Finally able to leave work and am speeding home to "try" to take a nap. Yeah right. My mind is going 1000 miles a minute. I can't sit down I'm so excited. Rpattz, only a couple of hours away.

7:00 Thankfully I am able to meet up with some friends to keep me pre-occupied before it's time to head to the premiere. My bff Melissa has seen first hand what Twilight does to me. When we were in Italy, the first New Moon preview was released and I literally was jumping on the bed in the hotel! Thankfully, the couple of hours before the premiere are all about her (we're wedding dress shopping for her) so I'm able to concentrate on that (and I use the word concentrate lightly).

8:45 - Time to snap some Pre-New Moon pictures with Rob. Sarah and I were pretty creative with our picture taking. I of course had to get one of Rob and myself in my Team Edward shirt. After pictures, we run to the store to pick up our snacks.


A little light reading with Rob watching over us.


Sarah recreating a Twilight moment


Team Edward


1015 - I get a text from Christie telling me there's a fairly long line at the theatre but they're letting people in to be seated already. Sarah and I frantically run out the door and head to the theatre to get our seats! Rob Rob Rob.

10:30 - we are in our seats and there's a crazy buzz in the air. People are watching Twilight on their portable dvd players in the theatre, some teenage girls in front of us are quizzing each other on Twilight trivia, and Sarah and I are laughing at variety of age ranges in our theatre. My coworkers are in another theatre and they told me the atmosphere was the same. Lots of excitement and anticipation.... I stopped by their theatre to say hello and its true.. there's people everywhere excited for Twilight.


11:45 - we're starting to get a bit delusional in the theatre


12:01 - I get a text from my coworker in another theater that people are chanting "Edward" and that the previews have just started. Crazy smiles!


12:05 - lights go down.... and the first preview is Rob Pattinson's newest movie "Remember Me." There's lots of screaming happening, myself included. I suddenly turn into a 14 year old girl when Rob is on the screen.

12:17 - OMG Its NEW MOON - lots and lots and LOTS of screams as Rob appears on screen... then when Taylor appears even more screaming.


2:30 - New Moon = AWESOMENESS! Loved loved loved the movie and how they ended it! Can't wait for Eclipse and we get to do this all over again!

European Adventure: Rome

When in Rome… such a motto carried out by many tourists, myself included. I've never eatten more Gelato in a 5 day span than my time in Rome. And so the Roman adventure began. We arrived by train in the late afternoon and hopped on a crowded city bus the stop that would take us near our hotel. We navigated the streets and quickly found out that our hotel sat on the corner of Piazza Nuovona, one of the best squares for local artists of all kinds (more about that later). Our hotel, being on the corner of the piazza was also smack dab in the middle of the best kept antique stores of Italy. A gem of a location if my opinion is allowed. The place was perfect as our last stop of our trip. Conveniently the only television station that came in clearly was Italian MTV. They played the same 10 songs on repeat pretty much the entire time so we got a good laugh about a few of the songs (Specifically: Tocco No No and When Love Takes Over were some favorites, Theresa didn't understand the Nelly Furtado video concept and kept watching it and saying "I don't get it", I kept trying to convince everyone that Robbie Williams had a hit song in the USA in the early 2000's, and we all were fascinated by the Italians love for Lady Gaga. She's crazy even translated in Italian).
Our first evening out we didn’t venture to far from our hotel and ate right off of the Piazza. The joke of the evening was regarding the waiter at the restaurant next to ours. He was pretty dreamy in that Italian sort of way. I was half tempted to ask our waiter if there was "Italian beefcake on the menu?" I'll take one of those! The piazza was really great during the day but it really livened up at night. Many local musicians, artists, B-Boys, break dancers, etc made their way to the piazza to showcase their talent. One night a guy made these spray painted pictures and to watch him make them was really amazing! Cindy and Melissa both ended up buying one. There were also some musicians that should definitely have record deals.
Our first full day in Rome we decided to take a tour bus around the city to see as many sites as possible. Our first stop: The Colliseum. W.O.W. Talk about stepping in to history. Its big, its old, and its brilliant. We spent a majority of the morning touring the colliseum and the surrounding grounds which included old houses, court yards, gymnasiums, and gardens. Another high point were the Roman Ruins and the Roman Forum. The history that we walked through really made me stop and stare. I always thought the coliseum and the ruins were in the middle of an open field, away from everything. I was so amazed that Rome was just built right around it... right on top of it! That afternoon we climbed the Spanish Steps, tossed some coins into the Trevi Fountain while wishing for love, and did a little more sight seeing. Our waiter that night was hilarious. He kept trying to speak English and he gave us all "typical" American names. We laughed a ton! That night I saw the preview for New Moon. I was jumping up and down on the bed. I think Melissa was a little worried! :)
Second Full day in Rome: We spent all morning touring the Vatican and Vatican city. Incredible. The amount of paintings and collections that are held within the walls of the Vatican and the worth of it all is unimaginable. Sculptures, maps, paintings, entire rooms crafted by famed artists. Dali paintings, Michelangelo paintings, the Sistine Chapel, etc etc etc. You could spend a month touring and still not see everything. The afternoon we toured the government building and the Pantheon. I know Rome wasn't built in a day but seriously, how long did it take to build this city? These buildings are incredible and HUGE!!
Our last full day in Rome was spent shopping!! I found this great jewelry store a couple blocks from our hotel that I spent a good chunk of cash in. Melissa and I also ventured to a local grocery store to get some snacks and PARMESAN cheese! We spent the night eating our favorite meal from Italy, eating our 40th helping of gelato, and people watching in the piazza. Rome was really really great. I would love to tour the city again and spend more time researching the history.

This trip has been amazing. I love the USA but there's just something about Europe. The lifestyle and pace is so different from the USA, it's got its own charm. If you can get past the smoke, the lack of blacktop roads, the modern convenience of America (thanks in part to our instant gratification complex), Europe will grab ahold of you and keep drawing you back. Everyone fits in, they take their time to enjoy life, and the best part... you can't walk 2 blocks without seeing a gelateria!

Trevi Fountain


Our sweet ride


Roman Ruins


The Coliseum


The Vatican


Our last day in ROME!


In the airport... awake for about 26 hours so far...

NEW MOON Premiere TONIGHT!

The day is finally here! I'll be sure to post a recap of this entire day!

Day of Ray... here I come

Finally, I'm taking a day off. I've been going in super speed since I've returned from Europe and it doesn't seem like I've been able to stop. Finally, tomorrow, I'm spending the day at the Mall of America (missing the New Moon cast by a few short days… tear) shopping until I drop and then it’s the Ray Lamontagne concert!! I've been looking forward to this for some time but it's unfortunately been overshadowed by work and the excitement over the upcoming release of New Moon.

Today however, I can honestly say I'm relieved that I can just spend tomorrow with friends at a mall (whether I buy anything or not) and cap off the evening with some great music. Ray's pretty mellow which is exactly what I need. I'll try to post some pictures after the event (if I have time) The Day of Ray… here I come.

This Is It

I saw the MJ flick "This Is It" tonight and there was definitely a 60 year old woman dancing up and down the aisle to Thriller. It was pretty much life changing!

Thankful

My life right now is nothing short of crazy…. And I'm mostly referring work. At times I really enjoy the extra work (strange, I know) but I've really learned a lot about myself in corporate america over this past year. Working for the company that I do, I've seen a lot and I've learned even more. I've put in long hours… and then even longer hours on top of that. The term "workhorse" has been thrown around my vocabulary as of late. I've had to push myself and really be confident in my abilities. My coworker Christie and I have become the "co-captains of the sea of hell" we like to say. I am so grateful for her, everything she's taught me and helped me with, I wouldn’t be sane without her (and the fact that she's willing to talk about Rob Pattinson any time of the day helps. We're becoming so much alike, its hilarious). A lot of my "awake" hours have been devoted to work and with that, I've had to let some things go. I've let some people down and haven't spent the time with them that they deserve. I know they're understanding but it's still hard for me to find that balance. Thankfully, I've got a group of friends who love me no matter what. As I sit here, typing away, there's a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my desk thanks to a few of my favorite friends. I had a big meeting today and when I came back to my desk, there they were. It took everything in me not to cry. They are so wonderful (my friends and the flowers) I couldn't thank them enough. This week has been especially hard with the passing of one of my coworkers as well and I'm so thankful to know I have the friends that I do and to know where my eternity is. While work is just temporary, I'm encouraged to live my life with an eternal perspective and to put my hope in Christ. Thanks buddies for the flowers…. You know who you are.

And in case you don't know, one's bff who's a school teacher who likes basically the exact same things I do, one's a WF bff who has the best jeans and music selection ever, another is a WF bff who can seriously make me laugh.. And has the longest legs ever, and the last is a bff for a long time who once saved my life and loves a good mustache. :)

Kids are Quick

Kids Are Quick
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TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.
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TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
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TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
(I Love this kid)
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TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
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TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!
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TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
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TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with 'I.'
MILLIE: I is..
TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'
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TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.
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TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
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TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE: No, sir. It's the same dog.
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TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher
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European Adventure: Pisa

Pisa is like a one stop shop. We literally unloaded our luggage from the train, hopped on a bus to the leaning tower courtyard, toted our stuff with us for about an hour, hopped back on the CROWDED bus to the train station and caught the next train to Rome. We saw Pisa in about 2 1/2 hours and I'd say I was satisfied. The Leaning Tower is pretty amazing to look at. After all, it leans! We took some great pictures around the courtyard and stopped at a few shops to admire the trinkets and togs. One thing I've noticed about Italy is that they take historical monuments and incorporate them into boxer shorts somehow. In Florence we were flashed with the David by Michaelangelo every where we went. In Pisa, well, they used a suggestive version of the leaning tower printed on the shorts. I had to avert my eyes many times. Theresa provided some commentary about the history of the tower and surrounding buildings so that was helpful. Before long, we were back on the train heading to our last stop, ROMA!

It's a falling building!


The duomo


Everybody was doing it.... so we thought we had to as well.