Hi from Sarasota

Look at all these plants! Just lining the store fronts! Don't see that in west Texas. 

Hello from sunny Florida!!

Or at least that's what the admin at the office I'm visiting said when she emailed about travel arrangements last week. So far, it's pretty rainy. Way more sunshine back home. I'm pretty unimpressed. 

But the real question today is... Hotel bathrooms on business trips. Shut the door or leave it open?? I'm a firm believer in a closed bathroom door at all times, even in solo hotel rooms. It makes me feels safe. Opinions? Thoughts?

This is what I ponder while laying around in my Fairfield Inn on a Friday night. The psychology behind being cool with leaving the door open while you pee. Or those couples that even take it a step further!?! You know what I'm talking about! Not. Okay.

Heading home tomorrow. Hope everyone is peeing in perfect privacy and I'll update soon. 

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Wanderings of the Mind

• Look how cute she is!!! I'm pretty sure she hung the moon. JUST LOOK AT HER! *sigh* I love her too much.
•  Katniss was totally on to something. When I really need my hair outta my face and secure, I start with an extra deep part and start french braiding my bangs back, then when I get near my ear, I french braid it all in to a side braid. This is so glorious under a hardhat, in case anyone else who reads blogs wears a hardhat. While I feel like this is almost an oxymoron, I know I exist. I'm pretty sure I exist. So there is at least one girl out there who reads lifestyle blogs AND wears a hardhat. Anyway, if I were going in to the arena for the Hunger Games, I'd wear my hair like this.
• Fun fact. My spirit animal is a swan. I took a quiz while I was sitting at the park yesterday eating my Subway. I think this is rather fitting for me. Also, I do have psychic dreams so this spirit animal quiz is preeeetty accurate. I'm down with the Swan. 

• D has a habit of trying to smoosh words together. If any two words have a similar vowel sound, watch out. Like, if he saw a red pencil, he'd call it a rencil. It's like a different language he speaks, sometimes. At times, it's a total stretch but the other night, we were at home eating our Freebirds takeout and he had a REALLY good one. I laughed so hard I snorted hot tomatillo. No bueno. Can you guess it? I'll put the answer at the end of this post.

• Ugh, so D and I were watching Holmes Inspections last night (yes. On our anniversary. Romantic, eh?) and there's a girl on his team and she does all this construction work, doing demo and laying hardwood and whatnot and THAT'S THE JOB I WANT! I want to be a construction worker. Sounds like something a Berenstain Bear would have wanted to be when she grew up but it's true! How satisfying would it be to work with your hands and have beautiful results! Okay, so really I want the Rehab Addict's job... restoring old homes... but I'd settle for a construction worker. I mean... I already know how to braid my hair for the hardhat.
• Since I'm not a construction worker, I'll settle for saving the planet. Friday I get to go tour a water treatment facility in Sarasota, Florida. Water treatment is soooooo cool. No, seriously. I'm not being sarcastic at all. I'm so excited about this tour. I'm sure the non-disclosure I signed doesn't allow for me to say much else so I'll stop there. Also, I get to a visit a state I've never been to before! Hooray!
• ANOTHER dream job I spotted the other day... I saw this headline on my bloglovin' and I thought... no... it can't be.
  
  
  
  But it WAS! It's a story about a woman who partners with senior living centers to redecorate, organize, declutter and make overall more usable spaces for senior citizens! Look at this!
  
  
  
  
  
  Ahhhh don't you just want to HUG that little old lady in her wheelchair in her pretty teal bedroom?! I just want to be best friends with every senior citizen I run across... to say the least, when the senior water aerobics class gets dismissed while I'm changing in the locker room at the gym, I'm in heaven. I end up chatting WAY too long. I love them all.
  
  
  
• I'm not good at makeup. Every time I see a picture of myself next to any of my friends, it looks like I'm not wearing any at all! Even my 'going out' makeup seems to vanish when I see the pictures. I look so undone! I need help :( 

• Obligatory cute puppy picture.

• Answer to the riddle: Spurritos! bahahah get it. Eating burritos while watching the Spurs? Spurritos!

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Weekend Update

Friday High: That hyper-productive gear you kick it in to you when you're leaving a little early for a three-day weekend? No? No one else seem to wait until the Friday before a three day weekend to decide to get ish done? Well, regardless, I got ish DONE at work Friday. A wonderful feeling before you shut your brain off for a few days.
Friday Low: The tale of the terrible traffic. There was a wreck on Ranger Hill (A semi carrying a bunch of cars to a dealership slammed in to the median and spilled cars all over both sides of I-20). Traffic was literally at a minimal crawl from 8pm to 3:30am according to the news story I read the next day. There was a cable fence on our left and cars on our right and no feeder road and we were TRAPPED. At times we didn't move for 30 minutes at a time. We'd just turn the truck off and sit there, seething. Thank goodness I'm not a pees-a-lot girl. Anyway, eventually, after three HOURS of being stuck, they got us turned around, sent us back to the town before the wreck and we had to take little back roads around the accident. We were supposed to get to Trent's house at 10pm, we made it around 1:30am. D was such a prince though. He drove us the whole way, let me nap at the very end because I was getting tired, didn't lose his temper. I just... I like that kid.
Saturday High: Extravaganzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! We had Corie's baby shower from about 1pm to 3pm and after that, it was sunning our buns, floating in the pool, catching up with old friends and glorious relaxation. At 8pm, I insisted the Spurs game be turned on inside so at that point it was me and a few of the guys screaming at people who stood between us and the TV (Spurs won in overtime) at which point I took my vodka and coconut water and happily went to bed. It's kind of my thing. I have a great time for a seven or eight hours but around 11pm, I feel like I've had a sufficient amount of fun and I brush my teeth, change in to pajamas and go to bed. And I rarely miss anything THAT exciting. And it's pretty dang awesome, other than the random people who come try to wake me up and bring me back out to the party... the hazards of sleeping where you party.
Saturday Low: D's injuries! hahahaha I got woken up around 1am with requests to drive the guys to a bar a few blocks away, which I refused but I did get out of bed to make sure none of them tried to drive themselves. At which point, one of the guys challenged D to a wrestling match. Why do boys do this?! There was a wrestling match in the back yard earlier that night. It's very caveman-like but also great entertainment. Well, D's challenger was a 21 year old little brother of a friend that D had by about 40 or 50 pounds so when they got close to the TV or a lamp, I'd just warn D and he'd pick the kid up and move him to the middle of the living room floor. It was a very responsible drunken wrestling match with sober supervision. We really are turning in to adults. Anyway, D ended up with some of the nastiest carpet burns on his elbows and knees I've EVER seen and it seemed like I had a real knack for bumping in to them for the rest of the weekend. He clearly won the wrestling match, conceded by the opponent with the sentence, "okay, we're done, I'm going to go throw up now!" but the next morning, D definitely had more carpet burns.
Sunday High: The baller hotel D and I stayed at for our anniversary Sunday night! We stayed at the Omni. If you've ever driven in to Dallas from Houston, it's that hotel with the colorful lights that make patterns and shapes and you think to yourself, that's beautiful but it seems like maybe it's a distraction for drivers and how is that legal? Yea. We stayed there. The lights were in the pattern of a waving American flag this weekend.

After spending the early afternoon sunning our buns at Trent's pool, we got there just in time to make good use of the Omni's beautiful pool with a perfect view of downtown Dallas. Lots of pools for us this weekend.

Then we went back to the room and got ready and then walked the Main Street District for some Mexican food at an Irish pub (only in Dallas). Strolled back to the hotel and proceeded to promptly fall asleep after too much fun this weekend!

The pictures came out a little grainy for this post for some reason... I'm blaming the blogger app.

Sunday Low: Not one darn thing. It was the perfect mix of friends, food and boo time to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

Monday High: IKEAAAAA!!! I had been needing a trip to Ikea in a bad way for a month or two now and so D conceded to hauling my butt up to Frisco for a trip to Swedish furniture heaven with the stipulation that we hit Cabela's after. Deal! He even was pretty enthusiastic about Ikea. He didn't just follow me around like a puppy. He participated and goofed around with me in the showroom. But after the showroom, we started winding our way through the marketplace and knew we still had the warehouse to go and we both were like, Okay. Yea. Ikea is exhausting. And there are a TON of people here. And we're done now, thanks. So we checked our list, made sure to grab the necessities and then made a b-line for the checkout. Cabela's was fine, too. I'm sure it would have been D's high for the day... but this is my blog so we're only covering Ikea here.

Monday Low: Mismanaging our time (at Ikea, I can admit) and getting home late. Normally we try to get home early on Sunday for a little time to get ready for the week but not this time. Also, we ran in to traffic on Ranger Hill AGAIN (no idea why, this time) but luckily, we saw it early enough to cut across the grass and get on the feeder road before we got trapped. So, after a late start and detours, we didn't get home to pick up Kanye until close to 10pm. Then, of course, there was the Spurs game to watch. I'm very thankful for the sweep. I need a week off from overtimes almost as much as Duncan does. We were so tired this morning that we forgot it was our anniversary!!! I didn't remember until I saw it on my calendar when I got to work! Woopsie Daisy. Before I left for work I was all, "yea, tonight I'll make salmon and we'll finish unpacking and get the house back in order and blah blah blah, business business business" It just felt so anniversary-ish Sunday that I forgot we had our ACTUAL anniversary still to go. I mean... it's just a dating anniversary so it's okay, right? <3 you D!

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Working for the (Memorial Day) Weekend

D and I have just been traveling fools here lately! And it's not going to end ANY time soon. Last weekend while I was at Mel's Garden Party he was... somewhere... it just hit me that I don't know where he went... to go hog hunting. And raccoon and squirrel and cactus hunting. And fishing. Our weekends really couldn't have been any different.

Hahahahahaha complete polar opposites, no?!

This weekend we will be together though because this weekend is.......

THE BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZAaAAaaAaA!!!

Errr year (I think this is year five or six), one of D's friends throws a joint birthday pool party at his house in the Fort Worth area because it seems like most everyone's birthdays are in late April or May. So instead of a ton of mini bashes, he goes all out for THE summer kickoff party. He sent out the Facebook invite for this thing on February 4th. I'm not kidding. And everyone committed instantly. It's non-negotiable, like Mel & Andy's Halloween party and Justin & Paige's Christmas party. 

Two Extravaganzas ago, D had a free pass for this party. Background: The weekend prior, he was in Houston visiting me and we were hanging out at my apartment pool where I met a lot of really fabulous gay guys who kept giving me jello shots. Yup. I took jello shots from strangers. But they weren't strangers! They were my new friends with jello shots! (See what I did there? With the SATC quote?) ANYWAY, I ended up getting accidentally drunk at like 6pm and D had to drag me back to the apartment. No really. Drag me. He tried to carry me but I was just sober enough to freak out and jump out of his arms every time he tried. So he literally, arms under my armpits, holding my entire body weight "walked" me back to my apartment. But not before I threw up in a random person's trash bin in the hallway and a little on D. Oh yea. Rainbow throw up on the boyfriend. Classy. What the heck was in those Jello shots!? He tucked me in to bed and slept on the couch. Yup. He drove himself four hours to visit me for the weekend and I was only conscious for like 10 hours of it. He ate leftover pizza for dinner. 

ANYWAY! I felt SO SO bad I told him that Extravaganza weekend, it was his turn. I'd babysit and he could get sloppy with all his friends. Little did I know, he planned to completely return the favor. He drank like, a whole handle of Jack, anchored the flip cup team and ended up passed out in the game room where his friends proceeded to pose his lifeless body so it looked like he was cuddling with the vacuum cleaner and took lots of pictures. It wasn't quite fair because after he passed out, I was still at a raging party! So it wasn't nearly as bad for me. I did have to empty his puke buckets lots of times though... so... that almost evens it out. 

I'm pretty sure neither of us has been that drunk since. It was not our finest month.

We're a lot older and wiser these days. Actually, this year we're combining the Extravaganza with a baby shower! hahahaha yea. Things have changed a little. Not quite the drunken mess it started out as. These days its more about barbecuing and relaxing. The girls are going to do a baby shower while the guys get things set up for the party. Win!

Also, since Trent decided to throw his party on a three day weekend, we're going to bail on Sunday afternoon and go to Dallas for the night. Our anniversary is Tuesday so we're going to make a little getaway out of it. We're staying at a baller hotel in downtown Dallas with a rooftop pool and we're NOT going to take jello shots or play flip cup. There's also a trip to Cabela's and Ikea in the works along with Torchy's Tacos & possibly some Coldstone Ice Cream if I happen to spot one. It'll just be one night but we are still excited about a little boo time.

Don't drink and drive this weekend! Actually, don't even DRIVE this weekend. There will be crazies out there. Buckle up, have a DD, you know. Be an adult, k??

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Currently

Get 'em, Pop! I don't know what he was mad about but he is clearly about to say a word that starts with an 'F', no?

Watching: The Spurs!!! So... a little story of how I came to love the Spurs. I had a roommate from hell in college who just LOVED the Mavs. She watched EVERY game which is just an obnoxious number of games during regular season. For the record, she was miserable for many reasons other than her obsessive basketball-watching. Obsessive basketball-watching could have been charming if it had been someone nice. Anyway. In 2007, the Mavs were kind of unstoppable all season and won the Southwest division and Kelly would not SHUT. THE. HELL. UP. about how they were going to win a championship that year. However, God sent the Spurs to answer my prayers. The Mavs got knocked out in the first round of playoffs and got to sit in the bleachers and watch as the Spurs went on to win the Championship everyone assumed the Mavs would win and my miserable roommate was CRUSHED. Theretoinfore... I loved the Spurs. Perfectly logical. I even got multiple boxes of their Championship Wheaties to keep in the pantry to irritate her. While this is a petty account of how I started loving the Spurs, these days I'm a much more respectable fan. Ginobili jersey and everything.

Eating: Avocados. Before Whole30, avocados made me break out in a rash and my tongue and lips swell. But now that my insides are in much better shape and I'm eating 90% 80% 75% healthy foods, I have had an entire half of an avocado with no reaction. Holy health foods, Batman!

Thinking About: Framing my moon print from Agent Gallery Chicago! D text me this morning to let me know it had arrived and I already have the perfect frame and matting waiting in the office and I just can't wait to get home tonight and see it in person! I've been on a bit of an art-purchasing rampage lately. But, I mean, my inspiration was this installation at RH but EACH of those pieces is $355. Each of them. That's... $2130 gallery wall. I mean no. That's loco.

Mad About: The tight tolerances around our new king size bed! I mean, I saw it coming. I knew. But man. It's time to get creative on the nightstand front. And yes, I know none of our furniture matches and D's dresser is a complete mess and we still need to paint our doors. #realtalk #bachelorpad #babysteps

Reading: Silver Linings Playbook. S'okay.

Celebrating: Mine and D's "2 Year Anniversary". It's a week from yesterday. D and I dated each other and no one else for a good while before we admitted that that's what we were doing. We were playing it all casual and grown-up but really we didn't want to see anyone else. So after close to a year of that, we decided to get official. So this is really the celebration of us admitting we loved each other. Totally worth celebrating, right??

Craving: Cheesecake. Maybe I'll give the paleo version a try although something tells me it will fall well short of real cheesecake. Especially the crust because that's the best part of cheesecake. Am I right?!

Making me happy: My new Texans hardhat that D got me!!! How hilariously adorable is this 'just because' gift?! Now multiply the adorableness time 10 because he's a Cowboys fan. New Mission: Get it signed by #99 J.J. Watt. Stat.

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Mel's Garden Party

My Mel. Ohhhhh My Mel. Just days after returning from our seven day cruise, little missy sends out a Facebook invite for a Garden/Slumber Party. And I'll admit it for all to hear, I thought, "I just can't. I am too tired." And I even told her, if it was a normal slumber party, full of yoga pants and wine, I'd be there in a heartbeat but I just couldn't theme it up. I was themed out. In my defense, we had a LOT of themes on the cruise. So I RSVP'd No. 

But then, I took a bunch of naps, got back in to my routine of life, work got busy and I thought, you know what I need? A good girls weekend. I'll get a pretty dress and go drink mimosas with my ladies. That's exactly what I need. I flew down to Houston Friday. And boy howdy, am I glad I didn't miss this party.

It's not like I thought Mel was gonna half-ass it. I knew this party was going to be over-the-top. Especially when she informed me she bought a canopy bed off Craigslist for the sole purpose of putting in the yard for the party. And then the planning details kept coming. And then I ordered my dress off Craigslist and it arrived with the sweetest note from the seller informing me she wore this dress as a bridesmaid in her older sister's wedding and was glad it was being given a new life. And I just got really really excited for the party!!!

After the party, I sent the Etsy seller the picture above, thanking her for this killer vintage piece, promising to hunt down more occasions to wear it. She's going to send me pictures of her at her sister's wedding in it. Don'tcha just love Etsy?! 

The icing on the cake was that Mel convinced her hubs to dress up and be our butler/photographer. He refilled drinks, brought us food, and waited on us hand and foot in the SWELTERING HOUSTON HEAT in a bow tie and cumber bun, no less. He was all bubbly and enthusiastic about it, too, even though he admitted each time he went in to the house, he unbuttoned his shirt and stood by the freezer! hahahaha In the picture above, it should be noted, he's showing the champagne to the preggers girl at the party.

Mel had every minute of the party planned with activities, games, crafts, ect. She even printed out agendas for us to review at the beginning of the party. Because we're classy ladies, one of the games was drawing an almost nakey stud muffin with his man bits covered by a baby cheetah! Yes. (Also, I'd like to mention, Andy judged the drawings after to choose a winner and he picked moi! Boom, baby!)

It was the perfect afternoon. Everyone had a blast, the weather cooled off just in time for us to enjoy the fact that Mel hauled a bunch of her girly furniture out on the lawn. We relaxed on the sofas and bed and chatted. We drank champagne and pink lemonade punch (and jello shots... but in a very classy way) and it was so, so perfect. 

It was very much like what you imagine being a twenty something will be like when you're a little girl. You'll get dressed up with all your friends and eat cucumber sandwiches and drink and chat with your girlfriends. It was a childhood fantasy come to life and I'm so glad I got to share it with this lovely group of ladies.

But the reality of the fact that we're all kind of on the hot mess express was pretty evident all day. The jello shots didn't help. There was a whole lot of dresses up around our waists at the table, letting the breeze refresh us, a significant amount of swearing, less than lady-like competitiveness during the games and just an overall comfort with your besties that no amount of flower crowns and fine china could prevent. And who would want to?!

After the garden party, the slumber party commenced. Mel sent Andy to a friends for the night and we started up a hilarious game of Dare or Dare. Mel wrote all the dares herself yet still somehow seemed to kind of lose. I ended up with ice cubes in my bra and a couple unsavory texts sent to a friend! hahaha Sorry Shawn (as if Shawn reads my blog. As. If.)

For the record, that's a picture of Sandy's elbow crease! But it was hilariously tan!

The only other appropriate picture captured during the slumber party. Sandy trying to guess people by feel alone. She went straight for our most identifying assets.

Overall, a helluva party thrown by Mrs. Krenz. As always. Now to try to lose the hundred pounds I gained eating pizza and cupcakes before the next party (in T-minus 4 days). Cardio Cardio Cardio!

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Photo Dump Friday!

Ch-ch-ch-check me out! New Beautiful Mess app, baby.

My trainer was trying to convince me my form was horrendous because the mirrors don't go all the way to the floor and I was like, no, this feels pretty perfect, bro. When he showed me the pic, I was like, uhm, all I see is how fabulous my butt looks. 

Gripped pushups... much less fabulous booty and still struggling with form

Put the phone down. We're done with pictures for today.

I finally got some boxwood balls for my bookshelf! Now it looks weird because the globe is kind of the same size and it just looks busy. But just try to focus on my new ballz.

How dope is this earring?! I need it right meow!

It's official, straight from winter to summer again. Gotta love West Texas.

How cute is his teensy paw print in the mud?! Kind of obsessed with my dog.

The prince likes to perch upon pillows while chewing on his dino.

Obsessed with how cute this picture is. K did NOT like me paying more attention to Peyt. Very Lady and the Tramp

Shut up, Kate Moss. Coveralls are NOT cool. Just. No. 

The clipboard at Ashley Furniture with their meeting agenda on it. Sure glad they covered "Probing" this week but "Overcoming Objections?"... it should just say "learning how to not listen to the customer and shove stuff they don't need down their throats"

Aw shucks, Yogi Tea. #affirmations 

Look! They sleep zzzactly the same! hahaha #mymen

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Friends with a Capital F: Part 3

As a part of an ongoing series where I just spew love for my bestest of Friends (Katie&Lori, Mel&Ashley, D) each month, I thought my my next installment should be for my oldest and dearest Friend of them all.

MY SISSY!

At her bridal shower that I forced her in to letting me throw for her :D

Christmas morning 1998 2011

My sister and I met... when I was born... obviously! She's 4 years older than me and did not like me for a very long time. We fought like beta fish our whole childhood. One time I beat her with a hanger. Another time I smacked her across the back with a glow necklace thing at a street concert and left a GIANT welp. And another time, when I was older and should have known better, I threw an empty Dasani bottle at her face because I wanted her to shut up.

One time she punched me because I wouldn't stop saying the word 'one' over and over again.

All things considered, we should NOT be friends. But we are. Because that's the law. Family law. We're sisters so we have to be friends. But lately, we've become REAL Friends. Like... grown up, share everything, talk every day, miss each other when we don't see each other, rather run errands together than alone FRIENDS. Here are a few reasons why I just luhv my seester.

One of my favorites from her bridal shoot

1. She's setting a second example of the kind of mom I want to be. Obviously, our mom set our first and most predominant example of the kind of mom I want to be someday but now, watching Jenna, I'm learning with an adult set of eyes the kind of mom I want to be. She's so COOL about parenting! She's not fussy or hovering constantly, she's balancing a career with being a new mom, she still has her hobbies and projects and likes to work out. I hope someday I can be so cool about being a mom. And hope she's near enough to help me when I fall short.

Oh, just the two of us, being best friends <3 <3 <3

2. She's hilarious. We have really similar senses of humor and obviously a lot of history, so our back and forth banter is just plain riotous.

The day she got engaged!!! Hooray!

3. She's in tune with what makes her happy. She knows what she likes and doesn't like, what she wants to do and what she doesn't. I guess she's the most self-actualized (did I use that right, Jen?! haha) of my friends.

4. She has excellent taste. And by that, I mean we love all the same things. We fight over which celebrities are "ours" because we find the same people fabulous, the same bloggers funny, and the same hobbies fun, the same clothes cute. In some ways, we're total opposites, but when it comes to our taste, it's twinsies for sure.

5. She's got my back. When I was younger, having two mommies (and not in the cool, modern way) was the bane of my existence. She was not the cool older sister sneaking me booze or anything like that. She was the older sister that when I asked her to drop me off at a party instead of at the movies, she laughed in my face and told mom. And I'm so thankful for that. Now, two mommies is pretty swell. She's one of my best Friends, yes, but she's still my big sister. And she's still going to ALWAYS watch out for my best interest, keep me safe, love me unconditionally and pick me up when I fall down. Because she's the BEST kind of best Friend. Sister friends rule!

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