Nag

I haven't been back from vacation for two weeks and I'm already looking forward to my next trip in August. I booked my flight today to Atlanta (holy canolli, flights are expensive!) and then Joanna, Nicki, and I are driving to Asheville to spend a weekend with our friend Angie. I'm super pumped because a)I get to see my friends again and b)I've never been to Asheville. Angie always talks about how great it is to live there and it's especially great for her because she makes pottery and Asheville is an artist's town.

-------
My brother-in-law has a cancerous tumor in his jaw bone. He's 29. A few months ago, my co-worker found out that she has rectal cancer. She's 38. Admittedly, this freaks me out. Not so much for myself but more for my husband. Cody is 31 and has been a smoker for a very long time. I am not a smoker and never have been and I'm sure many people wonder how I can sleep in the same bed with one every night. We will probably start trying to have children soon, but I really don't want to get pregnant unless he stops smoking. Is it wrong to make that kind of ultimatum? He has said for a long time that he'll quit when we have kids. I just don't understand. Why not quit now then? Everyone says that he has to want to quit for himself, but I don't ever see that happening. I just don't get it. I know it's hard, but people do it everyday. I have tons of friends who have quit smoking. I decided that I would wait a few days and then have this discussion wit him. Not that we haven't had it before, but now that someone so close to us and so young has cancer, I have to bring it up again.

Reality bites...sort of

As I slowly step back into reality after having a week of fun in the sun with the best friends I've ever had, it occurs to me that I really do like having a routine. As much as I didn't want to get up this morning and drag myself to work, I found myself slightly enjoying the fact that I was back doing the same things that I normally do. Don't get me wrong...it wasn't easy. I totally enjoyed not being on a schedule last week, which forced me to lay around by our beach house pool drinking sangria, or taking a stroll on the sunny beach with my girlfriends talking about next year's trip, or, and here's the best one, drinking Absolut Citron pomegranate lemonade martinis and sitting in the hot tub until 1:00 in the morning. But there is something comforting about coming back to a daily routine, even though it's not as much fun.
-------

Get me to a yoga class ASAP! I'm going for a run today for the first time in almost two weeks. We'll see how long I last. And then tomorrow night, I'll go to my first yoga class in over a week. I feel fat and off balance.

Half the fun is the anticipation...

As I anxiously await the start of my vacation-have I mentioned that I'm going on vacation next week?-I anticipated that this week would drag on more slowly than the start to finish of one season of American Idol. And I was right. I woke up this morning thinking it was Friday. Alas, it's only Thursday. Yesterday, we had a staff lunch and I was miserably full for the rest of the day. Sitting at my desk with my full belly, I laid my head down and actually dosed off. I stared at a document I need to finish and I stared at it for quite some time. And I'm still not finished. Tuesday was my three-year anniversary so Cody and I went to eat sushi and of course I drank loads of wine. I could feel the effects of that yesterday so that didn't help. I'm totally rambling.

One of our friends ended up bailing on the trip. We had a feeling this was coming. For months, he and his girlfriend said they were coming, yet they never sent any money, so Joanna kept calling them and they kept saying they were coming and would send money. Finally, about a month ago, we found out that she probably wasn't coming but yes, Brian was still coming and he would send a check. A few weeks go by and nothing. Yesterday, he finally caved and said that he couldn't come. I won't bore you with the details of the many theories that we have as to why he's not joining us, but Angie brought up a good point.

Angie is going to St. Croix in June with her dad and brother and she's really excited about it. I mean, who wouldn't be, right? But she's not half as excited about that trip as she is about this trip and we're just going to Florida. See, our group of friends tries to get together once a year for these trips. We all live very far apart and have made other friends. Angie seems to have made the most and those friends have other friends, but none of them can believe that we all met working at a restaurant in Baton Rouge, LA and we're still so close and make it a priority to get together. It's because it is important to us and the fact of the matter is that it's not as important to Brian and Tracy. And we just have to deal with it.

With neither of them coming on this trip, I am concerned that this is the beginning of the end of our friendship with them. And that makes me sad. I'm disappointed that he's not coming and I'm afraid that he will regret it. But he's a big boy and if he really wanted to be there, he would make it work, especially since he committed to coming a year ago and continued to commit until a week before we leave. We all have choices in life and he could have made the choice to honor his commitment and to join us on what will be a memorable trip. They always are.

Confessions

I catered a party last night at a lobbyist's house. Obviously, he invited members of the Texas legislature, but they were in session, so the guests at the party were only the legislators' aids. It was so boring. So what did I do? I ate. A lot. But, oh my gosh, Word of Mouth (the catering company) has the best guacamole I've ever put into my mouth! It's like they put a little slice of heaven in there. Yes, it's that good!

Because the session was still going on, the lobbyist wanted to keep the party going, ya know, just in case. At 10:30, the House was still debating bills so we got the go ahead to close the buffet and bar. After clean up, which is always more difficult at someone's home, I got home around 12:15. I showered (good God it's humid in Austin right now!) and then got in bed around 12:45. And yes, I woke up at 5:15 to go to yoga. I'm not nearly as tired as I thought I would be, although I have no desire to do any work. Much to my pleasant surprise, Sean was teaching this morning and it was a great class! I so didn't want to get up out of savasana. I probably could have stayed there with my little towel over my eyes for an hour, just resting and letting my body soak in everything I had done for it in the previous hour. But alas, I had to force myself to get up and come to work. Why does work always have to get in the way of life?

-------
I was reading Vanessa's blog the other day and she was listing other people's bad habits that bug her, so then she decided to list her own bad habits. I thought that was a pretty good idea so here are some of mine that I'm sure people dislike:

1-I interrupt people. And I apologize in advance if this happens to you. I'm working on it.
2-I chew on pen tops. It's really embarrassing when someone asks to borrow a pen and it's been all chewed. It's also embarrassing when you take one into a meeting and notice someone else looking at it.
3-If there is a mirror in the room, I'm checking myself out all the time. I'm not sure if people dislike this, but they sure do make fun of me for it.

-------
I could seriously down an entire pitcher of margaritas right now.