It’s 2:17 AM, can’t sleep and I’m 36,000+ feet above the ground..in a plane!  Don’t worry, no snakes on this plane, just a whole ton of people, and one in particular who can’t sleep, me!  It’s been a really bumpy ride, and my ass is fast asleep.  If only my brain and eyes could follow.

Airplanes now have wi-fi.  Who knew?   Of course this service isn’t free.  it’s one of those, “open your web browser to a payment page” type things, but creating a first time account is free on Delta so I had to give it a try.   Hench how I am writing and posting a blog from the air!  Woohoo!   There is a first time for everything.  If only my friends were still awake so I could have someone to g-chat with, or to swamp FB status update comments with, but oh well.

I should be sleeping and resting for the big VT game, but I just can’t seem to sleep in a tiny uncomfortable seat on a bumpy plane ride.  I used to sleep on planes like it was my job.  I’d be passed out before we even left the run way and wake up when the plane hit the ground again.  Sometimes over hte past year, that changed.  Perhaps it’s the crazy long flights (which seems a little backwards) or the amount of times I’ve flown over the past year after moving to Seattle, but somewhere along the way my body forgot how to sleep on a plane.   It could have something to do with the overcrowded flights now, and no extra space to spread out, but who knows.  Either way, I’m wide awake at 2:30AM posting on my blog from 38A.  Wonder if my typing is kepeing people awake…oh well.

Questions for all 2 of my readers….why are red-eye flights always filled with young kids and babies??

The increasing price of airplane travel is ridiculous!   The amount of flights available this holiday season seem to be cut in half and with that the prices have more than doubled.  Last year I paid a whopping $232 including all taxes and fees to fly to VA for the holidays and today I just spent $625!!   Granted a portion of that paid for Lane’s ticket.  Yes, I bought my dog a plane ticket home, it’s cheaper than the cost of boarding her in a tiny cage for a week.   That said plane ticket cost me $250!!!   Now you would think I’d be paying for her to have her own tiny seat in first class for that price, but no, no, no!  $250 merely bought her a roundtrip ticket to sit crammed in a bag under the seat for the entirety of each flight segment.   How that is any different than bringing my laptop bag and stuffing it below my seat for free is beyond me, but leave it to the airline industry to charge you for something you normally get for free…carry-on luggage…just because it contains a living thing.

I am bitter about paying such a high price just to shove my dog in a bag and carry her on a plane where she’s stuck on the floor under the seat, but the alternative was having her sit in a cage for a week so I bit the dust with little arguement to the reservation agent (cause I knew I couldn’t win) and paid the fee.  Ugh!   Poor Lane, I should start putting her in the bag now to get her used to it.  It’s gonna be a stressful first day of travel for her come Dec 21st, but hopefully she does ok.

Early this year I was able to cross off one of the items on my “Things to do before I’m 30” list.   This list doesn’t actually exist in a physical form, but it’s all in my head.  Either way, ever since high school I always wanted a few piercings, nothing crazy but more than just a hole in each ear.  First it started with my second hole in my ears, which I got done for free while I and other 18 year olds trained each other to pierce ears at The Limited Too.  Yes, I was a certified ear piercer while working at a children’s store in the mall…there are so many things wrong with that!  My mother was not happy.

Then I went and got my cartilage pierced.  This was a big rebellion.  My mother didn’t notice for a few weeks, but when she did, she was not happy once again and this time forced me to remove it.  I was mad because I had paid for it and of course it closed up quickly being only a few weeks old.  Either way, a few months later I was in college and got it pierced again, and without my mother around she didn’t see it till it was too late.  She did force me to remove it for my sister’s wedding…as if anyone would see it.  My mother was not happy.

What my mother didn’t know is that I always wanted my nose pierced.  Nothing crazy like a bull-ring, but just a simple little “sparkly freckle” as I like to call it, on my nostril.  I never went through with the piercing in college, although I got close a few times, but see as how I was still financially dependent on my parents, I just knew it would end badly so I resisted.

Then I moved to Northern Virginia and although I still wanted it done I felt it wouldn’t be the most appropriate thing while working in a corporate office environment and having government clients, so again, I restrained myself and just put it on my “list”.

Then I moved to Seattle!  Wonderful Seattle…land of way too many body piercings, tattoos, and who knows what else.   I would say 1 of every 5 females under the age of 30 living in downtown Seattle has some kind of piercing other than ears and a LOT of them are nose piercings.  Either way, I figure, this is the perfect time!  I’m still barely young enough to pull it off, and I knew no one in my office would care.  I up and went on a Thursday evening, all by myself to get it done.  It wasn’t painful at all.   I like it, it’s small and classy and exactly what I wanted, just a “sparkly freckle”.  I immediately posted a picture on Facebook after I got it done.  My mother was not happy.

]]> http://mariajd.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/holy-hole-batman/feed/ 1 Maria 4670_744513631613_6201998_42339834_4229433_n http://mariajd.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/inconsistency/ http://mariajd.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/inconsistency/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:21:24 +0000 Maria http://mariajd.wordpress.com/?p=247 ]]>

I love college football season, as you can see from reading any one of my numerous blog posts about Virginia Tech Football, but each season I lose years off my life when VT insists on winning games huge one week then narrowly winning games the next.    It only Oct 3rd and already I feel I lost a 5 years off my life at the Nebraska game alone, even though it was one of the best comesbacks and endings of a VT game I have ever seen in my life.   Today I lost another 5 years off my life while spending 60+ minutes of being thoroughly nervous while VT played at Duke.  Yes, DUKE!   VT stuggled all game defensively and although we got almost 500 yards of offense, it makes no difference when our defense allowed almost 400 yards of offense from the opposing team.

We should’ve rolled into “Lane Stadium South” and steam rolled Duke and won by a margin of 40+ points and finished out the game with our 3rd string.  Instead we played hard and tough the entire game and escaped with a 34-26 unconvincing win.   I love my Hokie Football, no matter if we win or lose, but why can’t we just be an consistent team!  Just one year, one season I want to win games back to back without fearing that we’ll lose to Duke!   Although, if I had my wish I guess it really wouldn’t be college football.   I guess the unpredictabilty of college football is what most of us love.

Just one thing though Hokies….let’s not even play a game that close against Duke again.

On a side note UVA finally one a game!  they are now 1-3…blah blah blah.  I hope we run circles around them in November, but we better get our act together and play better than we played against Duke.

GO HOKIES!

Lazy and procrastination that is.   I have probably written a dozen posts wherein I mention something about me being a procrastinator or just prove to be a procrastinator just by writing them (hence this blog post).

I am sitting for Sections I and II or the NCIDQ exam this Friday (it is now Wednesday) which is the certification exam for Interior Designers.  There are 3 sections total to become certified.  Of course I opted out of the 3rd section for now for one it’s a practicum portion which means drawing and actual designing, which is my weak link and two it takes place on a Saturday and there is nothing that would have me sitting in a silent test room for 8 hours on a Saturday during college football season.  I have priorities!

People spend months to years studying for this exam, but as I wrote in a previous post, “I don’t Study!” so of course I’ve waited till a few days before the test to even open the book I purchased a month ago.   I was glancing through the “Introduction” which includes some helpful study tips.  It list 6 steps to successful studying and when I read #6 I had to just laugh out loud.

Step 6:  Stop studying a day or two before the exam to relax.  By this time, no amount of cramming will help.

hahahhaha….I’ll show them!  I am working in reverse and only beginnign to study a day or two before the exam.  531 total pages of study material.  24 down 507 to go!!   Wish me luck!

…these are a few of my favorite things!

I am not normally one for plugging products or the such, but I’ve been enjoying some of my favorite things lately and even found a few new ones so I thought I’d share with the rest of the blog-o-sphere.

1. Virginia Tech Football – this is a no-brainer.  Some might say this isn’t really a tangible “thing”…but when you get the chance to fly clear across this great country to attend a game in person it definitely become tangible.  I used some hotel points and airline miles to get myself to two games already this season and thanks to a well-timed work trip to DC will be making it to at least one more game.  I love Hokie Football!
2. Theo Chocolate – Chocolate is so yummy and when it comes from a local factory in Seattle that is the only Ceritfied Organic, Free-Trade, Bean-to-Bar factory in the country it makes it that much sweeter.  A little peice of dark chocolate every now and then actually contains some good stuff.  I love their 84% Ghana Dark Chocolate and their Bread & Chocolate bar is just to die for.   
3. EOS Lip Balm -  I’ll put on a little lipstick for special occassions, but really I’m a gloss and chapstick girl.   The past few years I’ve migrated from old school Chapstik brand to Bert’s Bee’s, which is more organic and just seemed to work better…but by accident I happened upon a link to get a free lip balm from Evolution of Smooth (EOS) so I submitted my address and 3 weeks later I had my cute little sphere of lip balm in my mail box.  This lip blam not only comes in awesome flavors and in this awesomely cute little sphere but it is by far the longest lasting lip balm I have ever used!   Even after eating lunch there is no need to reapply.  My lips are soft and smooth and just loving this little sphere of balm.  The added bonus..it’s organic! which of course is all us Seattle people care about.  Buy it now! 
4. Rainbow Flip-Flops – I used to be strictly a “Reefs” wearing, but my senior year of college I caved in and made the $45 purchase of Rainbow Sandals.  Still Ioccassionaly don my black or pink Reefs for old time sake or if the outfit deems it necessary, but I would say 95% of my summer is spent in my faithful Rainbow flip-flops.  Sure my feet have left permanent feet prints on the leather footbed and yes I have spilled beer on these shoes more times than I care to admit, but they are still the most comfortable flip-flops I have ever put on my tiny little feet.   As the summer weather comes to an end here in Seattle I am saddened that my rainbows will not see as much wear time.  The cold weather in VA was never a reason to keep my feet from my rainbow flippie floppies, but the wet rainy months here in Seattle has me placing my rainbows on a self until the ground dries.   Mine almost look like this but I love them anyway.
5. iPhone – sure I don’t exactly have oneof these yet, but it’s only a matter of weeks maybe days till I head to the nearest Apple store to pick out my brand new iPhone.  The hardest part will be deciding which App to buy first.  The Ikea app has caught my attention…but I have a feeling a whole post will form once I finallly get my iPhone that I’ve been dreaming about since the first day they were sold a few years ago.
6. Pandora Radio -  sure they have started to limit your listening time to 40 hours/month but a mere $30 payment let’s you listen unlimited for an entire year and download a cool little Pandora player which means no more cursing when you accidentally close your browser or having to click “I’m still listening” every 1-3 hours.   I admit to being obcessed with a few certain stations such as “Adele” for my calming days and “Lady Gaga” and “Flo Rida” when I need some dance music pick-me-ups, but no matter what my mood Pandora is there for me.  Even when I’m needing some Disco to get me through the day.  Oh yeah.. Pandora will be my first download from the Apple App Store!

Ok…I could on and on with this list, rambling about my Coach Sunglasses, my Chi Flat-Iron, my Nintendo Wii, my unadulterated obcession with Chick-Fil-A and blah blah blah blah, but I’ll stop while I’m ahead.   Besides…I’m sure you’re bored to tears by now.   I’ll end with just one last thing and this may just be my most favorite thing of all…no descrption needed…..

How I ever made it through college, let alone High school, middle school, and even elementary school is a miracle.  I hate studying.  Sure in 2nd grade I was the only student in the entire grade who went the entire school year with nothing but straight A’s, I even have a trophy to prove it, and in 5th grade I got another trophy for getting straight A’s the entire year..but those grades were easy.  Starting at the age of 2.5 I encouraged my sister to set up a “play” school and teach me everything she learned at school that day when she got home so I guess I was always a few years ahead of myself.

I’m not trying to brag, but I’ve always been told I had natural smarts, and I’ll be the first to admit I never worked hard at school, honestly I barely worked at all.  If it wasn’t for all the stupid graded homework I would’ve graduation high school with a 4.0!  Stupid homework!   In 11th grade I asked my math teacher why we needed to do 30-40 math problems every night?  It seemed so repeatedive and just a plain waste of my time.  Her response was that is was “practice” and if I didn’t practice the problems I would never pass the tests.  Being the lovely smart-ass 16 year old I was at the time (…and sometimes still am! haha) I told her I was not going to do the homework and still get an A on the test just to prove her wrong.  So I didn’t do a ounce of homework for an entire 9-week grading period and then got a 99% on the test.  It would’ve been a 100% if I hadn’t forgotten to put the “units” on an answer to a silly word problem.  Either way, I had proved my point and therefore thought she would excuse me from my homework…ha!  I was wrong i got a 0 (zero) for my homework average and a 99% for my test average, but even though the test was worth more in my grade it still only averaged to like a 65!  I got a D!   I was mortified, but I knew that it wasn’t because I wasn’t smart, it was as my mother would later say, “I was bored”.   I was bored to tears at school, everything just seemed like common sense and easy so I slept my way through classes, skipped school to go to the beach, and was just plain lazy.  Through all that I still graduated high school with a 3.4 GPA and then went on to college to be even more lazy and graduated with a 3.4 GPA again!   I can even recall losing a bet with friends for being the first one to miss/skip a class.  It was only the first day and by 10am I had already skipped my very first class of the semester.

Either way,  at the ripe age of 26 and a little more than 4 years out of college I find myself studying again.  This time for a certification exam for Interior Design, which I haven’t really practiced in 2+ years!   People spend months and months preparing for this test, hours each day studying, and taking prepartory classes just for a chance to pass and here I am on Monday evening, a mere 4 days before test day and all I’ve done is read through one chapter in my study guide, which I don’t remember a bit of today, got sunburned while studying and I’m sitting on my couch typing a blog post rather than studying.  What can I say…I just don’t study.  I don’t have the motivation, I never have.   I’m not sure my natural smarts will get me by on this test…but we’ll see.   I was never destined to be a student.  I don’t study.

This post is basically a week overdue, but I have to jump on the bandwagon and throw in my two cents about the miraculous win Virginia Tech pulled out of thin air last Saturday against the Nebraska Corn-Huskers.  I had the amazing opportunity to be in the stands in Lane Stadium for this game.  It was the best $$ I have ever spent for a flight from WA to VA.   I was convinced that the Hokies had all but lost the game with 2 minutes left.  Let’s face it, we are NOT a “make big plays and come back” team.  Heck when we were down and the tuba line took the field to play the Hokie Pokie I was already thinking how long my flight back to Seattle would be while having to mull over another loss, but no matter what I NEVER leave the stands early (or leave the tv for all the times I’m in Seattle watching a game).  No matter if my team plays 58 minutes of the worse offense in college football I still support my team and refuse to leave the stands till the clock hits 00:00.  Those dumb-a$$ people who left early, poor sapps who missed what I think is the greatest ending to a Hokie Football game in my generation.  One week later I am still unsure if it really happened and I still get goosebumps watching the replay.  I’m fairly certain my heart stopped as the ball was in the air on that 81 yard pass to Danny Coale in stride down the side-line..then I cheered more than I have ever cheered in my life…he was called out of bounds at the 3 yard line.  Again my heart stopped…the stands went silent and from the 11 yard line the ball was snapped and I think I lost 5 years off my life while Tyrod Taylor scrambled for what seemed like an eternity before throwing a bullet into the endzone for a last minute TD to win the game.   Ok…enough of my lame attempt to recap the game, just watch the video after the jump and relive it for yourself.

And if you think that is amazing…check out this amazing stunt to score a touchdown and win a game with only 2 seconds left on the clock…now how they got this entire dance sequence done before the shot-clock expired is beyond me…but if our offense doesn’t improve greatly this Saturday against Miami we very well may need a stunt like this of our own to pull our another miraculous win, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can win the old fashioned with Lunch Pail defense and Beamer Ball special teams…

Oh the humanity!  The world is coming to an end…. (*gasp!)   I know it’s hard to believe, it’s almost unfathomable, yet it has happened.  My lovely inexpensive warehouse of a sweidish furniture store has gone and done the unthinkable…(doomsday music begins to play)…they Changed Their FONT!

That is right folks…Ikea switched their font for the first time in 50 years from Futura to Verdana in their new 2010 catalog (which I already have 2 copies of…why 2? cause I’m special like that).

Seriously thought people…who freakin’ cares if Ikea changed the font in their catalog.  I didn’t even notice!  Apparently some people did though..

A week ago, Romanian design consultant Marius Ursache started an online petition called “Ikea, please get rid of Verdana.” On Sunday, the campaign had more than 2,700 signatures.

The move to a simple, modern-looking font also fueled Twitter posts such as “Ikea, stop the Verdana madness” and “Words can’t describe my disgust.”

Apparently folks are up-in-arms about this font change, even using Twitter to express their feelings…but seriously people get over it.  That is at least until Crate & Barrell changes their font to Tahoma…then the world will just stand still!

Well loyal blog readers (mom!) it’s that time of year again!  If you know me in the slightest bit you should know exactly what I’m referring to….College Football Season!!  More importantly Virginia Tech Football is starting in a mere 9 days, 49 mins & 18 seconds from the time I’m typing this post (not to be exact or anything).

This marks the first time in 7 seasons that I will not be headed to every game.  I managed to only miss a few in 2008 due to my big move to Seattle thanks to my client the IRS who kept me coming back East every week during the fall.  It’s gonna be a rough season, not neccessarily for the Hokie Football team, but for myself as a fan.  I honestly think one of the few reasons I stayed miserable and lived in Northern VA for 3+ years was because at least I was close to Hokie Football.  It took me a long time to realize I couldn’t live my life for football alone (I am still trying to convince myself of this) and move 3000 miles away from my beloved Lane Stadium and my second home of Blacksburg, VA.  I love Seattle and moving here one of the best decisions of my life, but I know I left a big chunk of my heart up in the nosebleed section 123 in Lane Stadium.  Hopefully my parents will still feel my pressence during games this year.

Ok…enough whining about missing football games…what I am excited about is already having Plane tickets and plans to hit up two games this season.  Two games in a mere 2 week span!  Yes, I am crazy!!   This is how crazy I really am…

• Thursday Sept 3rd – 9am movers show up at my semi-ghetto Belltown apartment to move all my stuff and boxes to my lovely new condo apartment on the waterfront!  Hooray for better apartments and paying the cheapest rent since $300/month at the bomb shelter in Blacksburg…RIP 502 Roanoke Street, you smelled funky but I loved you.
• Friday Sept 4th – Hop on a 6:58 AM direct flight to “hot”lanta, GA for the 1st Hokie Game of the season versus Alabama…Roll Tide?  What the heck is that??   We’re gonna gobble gobble all over that crimson tide or water or whatever the heck they are.  GO HOKIES!
• Sunday Sept 6th – Arrive back to Seattle after a Glorious VT victory over the rolling water red thingys and what i know to be an fantabulous weekend with family, friends, and hokies galore to a new apartment of boxes…ugh!  Now I know why they call it Labor day…cause I’ll be laboring over those boxes all day!

<Fast Forward 2 weeks>

• Friday Sept 18th – Hope on 7:10AM Flight to Richmond, VA where I’ll be picked up in the infamous “Hokie Mobile” (yes, my parents really refer to their car as the Hokie Mobile…no joke!) and head straight to Blacksburg!
• Saturday Sept 19th – Welcome some of the best and most respectful fans of college football (in my opinion), the Nebraska Cornhuskers, to Blacksburg, treat them with respect, invite them t tailgate, then we’re gonna gobble up all that corn and spit it out on the field.  We’ll be huskin’ corn all the day through or whatever it is those people in Nebraska do…Hokie Victory is a must!
• Sunday Sept 20th -hitch a ride with a cousin or friend (whoever is headed my way…) to DC where I’ll try to meet up with my lovely Jacobs ladies to undoubtedly drink our IRS stress away with margaritas (If I’m not still hung-over from celebrating th humungous VT win on Saturday!…sorry mom).
• Monday Sept 21th – Cry a bit that I’m leaving Virginia (Not Northern Virginia…good riddens, but the home of my Hokies) as I hop on a FREE (thank you IRS once again) 8am flight back to Seattle.

True fans travel…true fans move their entire apartment one day and up and catch a 6:58AM flight the next morning to fly completely across the country for a game.  True fans gobble gobble!!   I can hear the music now…

Can you hear it???….you better be jumping……here we go………..LET’S GO!!!!!…HOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you’re still not pumped up (which is almost impossible)  check this out—->

……..oh yeah, my whole body just got the chills from watching that, goosebumps and all…I am a true fan!

GO HOKIES!!!!