Facebook....sort of

I was going to write a post about the addition of my 50th friend on facebook, but think I'll take a different route. Plus, I know having 50 friends on FB is nothing. My cousin's 15 year-old son has something like 600 friends and Kristi has more than 50 friends and she has been on FB for only a couple of weeks!!

Today I received a friend request, not from some random foreigner, but from someone I haven't heard from in practically 5 years! I got a little frustrated waiting for my background check for this job and decided in early winter of 2003 to go to Prague, Czech Republic and get certified to teach English as a foreign language. It was a 4 week training/certification course in November/December. After going home for Christmas, I moved back to Prague to look for work. I shared an apartment with two other girls who also taught English. I actually never found a job and ended up with a 3.5 month vacation in Prague. I did a lot of reading in coffee shops, exploring of the city, more coffee, taking pictures, and watching crappy American tv shows dubbed in Czech. My favorites were 21 Jump Street and Walker Texas Ranger. The Czech version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire was also entertaining. Unfortunately I wasn't there long enough to develop any real language skills.

Anyway, the friend I received the request from I met through my roommates. We actually didn't know each other for very long but I always thought he was a cool guy. The last time I had any contact with him was sending him a text message on my way back to the States. I had to stay the night in Frankfurt and was having coffee and a pastry in the hotel lobby. That seems like ages ago. So much has happened since then. Wow.

I left Prague in April, right after Easter. Even though it was such a short time, it will always have a fond place in my heart. I would share photos of Prague with you, but my old computer crashed a few years ago taking all my photos with it. Gone. And I had taken some cool photos of the city that I was really proud of. I'm no photographer, but I thought these photos had an "artsy" quality to them. I really want to go back!!

Cha-Ching!!!

Today at work I was talking to someone who had recently gone out to the casinos and lost some money to the one-armed bandit. I have been in Las Vegas for 4 months now and have yet to go gamble once. In fact, I have never gambled in Las Vegas or the state of Neveda - ever! Now that is not to say I have never gambled. I have been to a few Indian casinos and have found myself in international waters a couple of times as well. I think I won $9 on a cruise once. I know that's not a lot but I was 16 and two years too young to be gambling on the ship. I'm not a big gambler by any means, but I would like to say I've played the slots once. Part of me though is disillusioned because you no longer get to pull the arm of the slot machine. That was most of the fun!! The other part also wants to see how long I can live here without ever betting a penny. I mean Smiths grocery store even has slot machines!! How crazy is that?? But I have never played any of the other games - blackjack, craps, roulette, etc.. and I would like to give those a go just once. I know I won't win anything substantial, I just want to quote Wesley Snipes once and say "I always bet on black." Well, that's a paraphrase really, but the other person in our group who most likely knows the answer doesn't follow my blog. So as far as you all know - that's the really quote! Oh wait, I told you it wasn't. Nerts. I guess I'll just have to go spend my money at Town Square instead. :-)

A Penny For Your Thoughts....

About 15 years ago I started collecting flattened pennies. You know, where you spend 51 cents to get a penny flattened and embossed. I'm not some serious collector, but generally if I see the penny machines, I stop and get one. Maybe two if the designs are good. I know I have gotten more over the years but I didn't always try and keep track of them. A few years ago raine_days gave me a nifty folder to hold my pennies.

It holds 36 pennies and after my trip to Universal Studios last weekend, I have finally filled it up! I have pennies from the Pacific Science Center in Seattle; the Space Needle; the Mariners; Leavenworth, Washington (a "Bavarian" town in Eastern WA); the Mall of America; Wild waves (water park near Seattle); Lake George, NY; Kings Dominion (amusement park in VA); Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum; American History Museum; Natural History Museum; the White House; the National Zoo; the Washington Monument; Oregon Zoo; Chesapeake Bay, MD; Detroit; San Francisco; Sacramento; Redondo Beach, CA; Route 66; Cherokee Nation, OK; and Cedar Point (an amusement park in Ohio). I also have two from London, one from Prague, and one from Rome. Technically those aren't pennies but they are flattened pieces of metal nonetheless!! If anyone took the time to count all the places, you'd realize they don't add up to 36. I do have some duplicates. Anyway, when you are out and about, you now know you can get me a souvenir for 51 cents (sometimes 76 cents at the more pricier locales) and I'll actually be happy!

Of all of these, there is one I wish I would have gotten when I had the chance. At one travel plaza in Maryland you had a choice of a couple designs. I believe I chose the Naval Academy and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I foolishly skipped over the one with Frank Zappa. It was so awesomely bad!!

Third Time Is A Charm

So this is my third attempt at writing a post tonight. My first two tries both went down in a blaze of glory in magnificant shame spirals. They started out alright but then took a turn for the worse. For whatever reason I am feeling a little emotional. (NOTE: it would be a very bad thing for me to watch "Field of Dreams" or "Delta Force" right about now. I would be bawling. And yes, you read correctly. I really do mean the Chuck Norris / Lee Marvin movie from the 1980s.) I think my self-esteem flatlined around 4:12pm because something very innocuous brought me on the verge of tears. I think my self-esteem is lying in intensive care somewhere. Thankfully there is no DNR, so it will be able to recooperate and get better before I have the chance to completely pull the plug!

Anyway, before the other posts went bad, they were about Facebook and about me wanting to have a party. I was thinking a game night would be fun. I'm just not sure if anyone would be interested in that. I don't won't to delve too much further into the details of those posts for fear of resurrecting the negativity!! Hopefully this hasn't been too much of a Debbie Downer post either!!

Feeling a Little Ho-Hum

I'm glad my friend came to visit but now I am the midst of a post-visit funk. You have no idea how great it was to have someone to hang out with and talk to! I wasn't a hermit. I was being social!! When people ask me what I did over the weekend, I will actually have something to share other than simply saying "it was good" or something to the like which is code for "I didn't do jack except go to Starbucks, Town Square, the grocery store, and maybe Target so I won't bore you with the lack of details." Now it is back to just me and Mandy.

Food Glorious Food...And Some Shopping Too!!

My visit with my friend was great! It seemed like the last 5 days have been nothing but eating and shopping....not that there is anything wrong with that! Friday we went to CPK. Mmm....red velvet cake. The last time we went to CPK was in the ABQ. We were on our way out to Vegas from DC and stopped for lunch in the ABQ (that was also the name of the shopping area) on our drive from Amarillo, TX to Winslow, AZ. That day we both were wearing sweats and t-shirts. It wasn't until we got up to leave CPK that we realized how severely underdressed we were and most other people realized it too! Thankfully this time we were appropriately dressed! Saturday we drove out to LA (well, Pasadena really) and met up with my brother for dinner. We went to the Yardhouse. Now before raine_days arrived, my mom told me that if we met my bro for dinner I could use her credit card to pay for dinner. HOWEVER, that is only if my bro was unaware of my mom's potential generosity. See, if he knew, he would order 4 or 5 imported beers and the most expensive item on the menu without hesitation. Since the bro remained unaware, he ordered clam chowder, crab cake sanwich, and one beer (he had two before we were seated but he foot that bill). But here's the best part! When the check came, he asked me "you still have mom's credit card, right? Why don't you use that?" LOL!!! Oh yeah, my bro is 33 years old - not 13! We also went to a few places I haven't been to before: Kona Grill, the Elephant BAr, and some Mexican place by my house.

When we weren't eating, or visiting Starbucks, we were shopping. We went to the outlet mall by work, Town Square, the outlet mall in Primm, Fashion Show, and the District. Phew! We found some great deals. Raine_days got a blazer/jacket from Ann Taylor Loft, originally priced at $100, for $7!!!! You read that correctly! I got a few tops from there for under $11. It was so cheap we almost felt bad....almost. We bought a few other things here and there. Banana Republic sucked me in once again. Why does blue have to be the "in" color this season??? Don't be surprised if I start wearing blue every day of the (work) week. I think I could go almost a month before repeating a blue shirt. What can I say? It's my "signature" color!

Booty call? I don't THINK so!

So I picked up my friend today and we had a nice afternoon shopping. We went to the premium outlets by work and then to Town Square. We stopped for coffee at one point and I was telling my friend that when she called when her plane landed I was talking with one of my case agents and he was obviously intrigued about who I was talking to. He heard me say how I'd leave work soon and pick this person up at the airport. But then I didn't mention anything about who I was talking to. Then I recounted how I told another guy that "my friend" was coming to town and that we were going to LA for the weekend. That's when it dawned on me - I bet these guys think I was discussing a booty call! I wish! I'll have to make sure I discuss hanging out with my girlfriend (as in a friend who is a girl) when I come back to work next week! But then we joked, knowing the kind of guys we work with, they will be even more intrigued if they think the booty call was from a girl!! I don't know if the humor translated to what I just wrote, but it was funny when we were talking about it!! And FYI - if I had a booty call flying into town, trust me, I would not be discussing that visit with these guys!!

Anyway, we had lunch and went back to my place before heading out to go shopping. When we got home, Mandy was waiting as usual but was NOT purring! She actually shunned my friend and spurned attempts at friendship. And Mandy has met her before! Thankfully though after we came home from dinner Mandy had adjusted her attitude and now wants to be friends. Phew! I thought my litte girl developed an attiude problem!!