Catching up for July

Whoa! Summer is dwindling away right before my eyes. I can't believe we're rolling into August this week. Cuh-razy.

Let's see. Week one. Pretty much tried to frantically get work organized before we left for Florida for ten days. That didn't really happen...work stuff fell through and I left in a frenzy, so the laptop came with me of course.

We left bright and early on Friday, July 3rd. After dropping the black mess off otherwise known as Shadow at Dee's Doggie Den, we hit the road. Kevin drove the entire trip and I either read about Edward or worked. We hit the outskirts of New Orleans around 4pm. Our reservations were at The House on Bayou Road, but it was in the middle of the ghetto and took us a while to find it. Frank, the bank employee managing the house since it has been foreclosed, greeted us. Turns out our cottage was the VERY SAME cottage that my friends Candace and Curtis had stayed in a year ago to the date and where he proposed to her. I think Kevin felt a little discomfort over that because I nudged and winked at him as I told him about it, but it was all in fun and games. Sort of.

House on Bayou Road

That night we went out to dinner, strolled Bourbon Street and went home fairly early. It was Essence Festival, so the crazies were out (or is that NOLA in general) and we didn't want any part of the late-night festivities. The next morning, Kevin insisted we have breakfast at Cafe du Monde...a mouthful of cafe latte and powdered sugar later I thanked him. Delicious, I wanted to stuff a whole order of beignets in my pocket and take them on the road!

At Fritzels on Bourbon St.

Now here's where the fun REALLY begins! We drove into Florida mid-afternoon on July 4th. The condo that we had rented was phenomenal.


That night we met up with Mike, Holly, John, Melissa and their two boys, Chase and Austin. They all rented a bigger house a few blocks away. We all watched the fireworks go off from different towns along the beach for a while, which was totally neato. The rest of the week was a blur of movies, beach, wine on the beach, seafood, beach, sunburn and food. Lots of food. We rented a beach cruiser bike, because that's the mode of transportation for most of vacationers there, and rode up and down the coast a lot.

Watching the 'works

Trust him. He's Lifeguard Ken.

Dinner at Fire

Holly and Mike

John and Melissa

Or should I say, Lifeguards Skip and Ken

On Thursday, John and Melissa and their boys rented a pontoon boat to take to Shell Island, and they invited us to come along. I thought Rosemary Beach was white and blue...it didn't even stand a chance to the waters of Shell Island. We sure do live in a beautiful country. On the boat ride back in, we stopped at several spots to anchor and enjoy the wildlife. John caught a few angry crabs, starfish and hermit crabs. Testy little sons of bitches!


On Friday night, we went out to Seaside to have a date night, if you will. It more or less turned into a night of drunkenness, celebration and food. No different than any other date night in our book!

Shrimp Shack in Seaside

We were sad to leave on Saturday, but the vacation was long and relaxing. We drove straight through and arrived back in Dallas around midnight.

Three days later, I left for Phoenix for another 3 days to help Gabi (the Phoenix Yelp CM) with her July Elite party. Her style was very different than Farrah's but I definitely enjoyed the fresh outlook on Elite parties and picked up some new tips.

Since then, I'm trying to get caught up before the month ends. Tomorrow night I'm throwing MY first Dallas Elite party at Fuse. I've booked some fabulous entertainment that I'm sure I'll be sharing in my next post, so look forward to pics and a full-on review of how I did. Kevin, the Austin CM, is in town to lend a hand...which I will definitely need.

I supposed that's it for July. You probably won't hear from me again until August. I know...life's tough. Right, Mom?

Has it really?

It has. It's really been a month since I blogged. Gawd, I'm terrible! I never thought I'd be that when-it's-convenient blogger.

You must understand, so much has happened to me in the last 30 days. No excuses, but I've never had my life whirlwind in front of my eyes quite like this before. Wait, let me back up...that's a lie. When Kevin and I first started dating it was exhilarating, much like this. For those of you who know me...

I started a new job.

Not just any job. The one job I prayed for every night and day for 45 days straight. Thankfully I'm extremely cocky when it comes to applying for anything I truly want, because I always get it. Maybe that showed through my personality and that's why I landed it. Just sayin'.

I'm now the Dallas Community Manager for Yelp(.com).
Perks: I work from home, travel for the job and set my own hours and have my own freedom. However I'm learning with passion for a job comes dedicated commitment, no matter what time of day. Example: Right now, I'm sitting the Houston Magnolia hotel lounge working (well, blogging..duh) and probably won't go to bed before 2am. But most days I get to "sleep in" until 8:30am (HEY, it's sleep in to me), so I consider it a trade-off in my favor when compared to the usual 5:45am rise time at my old job so I could get to the gym before work.

No cons. Really.

Just a recap:
- I started with Yelp on my birthday (June 1st), in Chicago for a Regional meeting for the week (wooo! I even got cupcakes!). But was third in birthday present rankings...1st was my mom coming down for a weekend to spend time with me, and second was the Tiffany's ring from a certain someone.
- My boss, Andrea, came down to Dallas from Chicago for the second week of June to show me the ropes of my new job. My head might still be swimming in information...
- This week I've been in Houston, helping out the Houston Community Manager (Farrah) for her June event. It was an awesome time, check it out at http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-elite-squad-event-flemings-prime-steakhouse-and-wine-bar-houston#hrid:TguZHDigGEJHM81uIXQI7A/src:self
- Next week we head to Florida for 10 days for vacation. Shhh...I'm taking my laptop. Can't live without it now.


I PROMISE promise PROMISE not to let my faithful readers down again like I have. I'll make time. I swuuuur.

Here are a few pics from Chicago's Regional meeting. I like my coworkers :)

Andrea, Collen (Chicago CM) and me at Yelp Eats: Tapas Valencia

Crazy Collen, you and your champagne! Oh wait, I'm holding a glass too...

Kevin (Austin CM) as the surprise birthday boy

Gor-ge-mous: Mariah (Detroit CM), Farrah (Houston CM), Sarah (Minn. CM), Maria (Miami CM)

Weekend Update: Meat, State Champs and Cowboys

It's been so crazy around here lately that I've slacked on blogging. Terrible, I know!

Okay, let's start with Friday night. We had the Annual Lookout Software Christmas Party, this year at Texas de Brazil. Kevin and I aren't a couple publicly yet in front of the other employees, so I took Leigh as my date. Everyone else, excluding Kevin, also brought a date and we all had a good time. Leigh and I attacked the salad bar like we hadn't eaten in days and downed enough Freixenet to float the entire restaurant, so you KNOW we had a good time!

The company handed out great gifts to us all -
warm fleece jackets (for employees only) and personal coolers (for everyone) with Lookout Software monograms on them.

Miss Finney and me, happily drinking our bubbly

Jeremy and his girlfriend Stephanie

James and his wife Courtney

Niya, Cathy and her partner Gwenn

Kevin, Ryan and his wife, Niya and her date

After dinner Kevin, James and his wife Courtney, Jeremy and his girlfriend Stephanie, Leigh and I went out for drinks. Unfortunately my camera didn't make it out, but I do recall seeing a terrible band at Sambuca and playing quarters at the Loon.

After we closed down the Loon, Kevin tells me that he's taking me somewhere for a "surprise." And I was all like, "Sweetheart, the only 'surprises' open past 2am are restaurants and rave clubs. And neither sound enticing right now."

He ignored my drunken request to go home and drove us to Buzzbrews, this breakfast joint that's attached to a La Quinta and only busy from 2am to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. It's the same place that I discovered Kevin had gone to on his joy ride with my car at 3am a few weeks ago. And where had he been previous to the joy ride? The Loon. Shocker.

We sat down, got menus, and I promptly told him I did not want to be there, that our bed sounded like a much better place to sober up. And didn't we JUST eat a plate full of meat like three hours ago? He thanked me the next morning for pulling his head out from under a menu full of omelets and pancakes.

Saturday we used our kidless freedom (Shadow was at "camp" - or at least that's what we tell him when he goes to the kennel) to move some things to Granbury. I had hoped a greasy burger at Village Burger Bar would help my hangover, but all it did was make matters worse.

But I pulled myself together later that afternoon and we made it to the Muleshoe vs. Kirbyville State Championship Playoff game at the Gopher Bowl in Grand Prairie just after kickoff. The stands were packed from end to end. I got to see a few old classmates and cheered on the Mules. We left at halftime, but I got text updates from Megan and we won 48-26. For the first time in school history, Muleshoe captured the 2A State Championship title! Go Mules...GATA!

Me, Megan and Kayla

After we off-roaded through several fields to get out of the cluster-eff called 'parking' we drove up to McKinney to have a small party with some of Kevin's friends - John, Melissa, Holly and Mike. You might remember John and Melissa from our dinner at MiCocina a while back. We all played Rock Band (I'm terrible on the drums, by the way) and had a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing the molestation Christmas Card pictures from Holly's camera. I'll post them as soon as I get a copy.

Sunday, I cooked lunch and we just hung around the apartment. Leigh took me to second-to-last home Cowboys game in Texas Stadium against the Giants that night. Traffic was a NIGHTMARE but we made it in, finally. We were greeted by a 350 pound man wearing a homemade Cowboys cheerleader outfit holding a sign that read, "Tony, will you marry me?" Although whoever fitted him for the bottoms didn't measure right - his 'Joe the Plumber' was in full view of everyone behind him. I tried to get some good shots with my phone without looking too obvious. But seriously, would you dress like that and not expect to get your picture taken?

Yes, that is a large tattoo running down his side

The blonde wig was quite nappy looking

Leigh got the tickets from a friend of Katie's (Leigh's sister) - he bought a block of tickets with one of his friends but couldn't make it back to Dallas in time for the game so Leigh bought them. The friend that he bought the tickets with sat next to us never introduced himself (he didn't look a day over 19), but apparently he and Katie's friend were texting through the whole game about how hot we were. How cute!

Thanks Leigh for taking me to yet another great Dallas sporting event!

Great seats!

Apologies for the close-up - the girl behind us zoomed in with my phone

Tag...I'm it!!

My friend Kelly tagged me on this game. Unfortunately I only have one friend who blogs and hasn't been tagged thus far, but if you blog and haven't been tagged and I'm forgetting you, feel free to play along! So here it goes...

Rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people & posts their names, then goes to their blog & leaves them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged & asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

10 YEARS AGO I...

1. was finishing my first semester in high school
2. was trying to come out of my shy clamshell
   
3. met my first "serious" boyfriend
   
4. went to my first party with Rhett Green and Amanda Bell
   

5 THINGS ON TODAY'S TO-DO LIST

1. Finish blogs on Kevin's birthday dinner and Candace's bachelorette party
   
2. Go back to Walmart for paper towels and laundry detergent
   
3. Catch up with Fringe online during lunch
   
4. Finish coding the OfficeCalendar v5 preview web page for work
   
5. Spin class at 7pm
   

5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE

1. Secure a good amount in my 401K (or hold onto it until the markets are back up, ha)
   
2. Buy a home in Uptown
   
3. Put enough away for two college educations for my someday-kiddos
   
4. Buy a new car...mine is gettin' up there
   
5. Put some away to help pay for my wedding someday
   

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED

1. Muleshoe, TX
   
2. Denton
   
3. North Dallas
4. Uptown Dallas
   
5. That's it!
   

5 JOBS I'VE HAD

1. summer nanny for a family in Muleshoe
   
2. server at Leal's Mexican Restaurant in Muleshoe
   
3. server at Fox & Hound in Dallas (my favorite "non-career" job)
   
4. advertising intern for The Hall Agency in Dallas
   
5. marketing/pr/ad guru for Lookout Software in Dallas
   

Jennifer...your turn!