Do what your Mother tells you to

Before I went on vacation I gave my mom a food journal of everything I ate for one week. I didn't think it was THAT terrible, but she disagreed. We met last Saturday at Starbucks to discuss a plan of action. I know I've said this before, but I've been battling my weight since high school. I'm now 26, so at least 10 years. Wow. When I put it like that it's almost like WTH?! What's your problem? Why can't you get this taken care of. I am an extremely motivated person when it comes to other aspects of my life, but here. Why can't I get it done? Yeah, I like food. But it's almost like I won't LET myself get too thin. Why? What's the deal? Anyway, I asked my mom to interfere and she did. And I'm afraid my petite lil 5 ft barely over 100 lbs momma is gonna kick my ass if I don't listen to her this time. 


One soda per day. 100 calories of chocolate per day. Limit the cheese. Limit calories! Veggies! I have really been eating too much to lose weight. Empty calories too. It would be ok for maintaining weight, but not losing. These are the rules. I have to think of my mom sitting on my shoulder saying "Really?! You're gonna eat that?" every time I reach for something bad. And I need to be exercising. Cardio. Yoga. 


She told me that it hurts her when I call myself fat or anything along those lines.  And the fact that I might be missing out on things because of my weight, how I don't like to be in a swimsuit. It's just upsetting to her as it is to me that I'm not as happy as I can be. If I don't do it now, before my 20's are over, I might as well call it a day, because as you age it becomes harder, and with a family it's even harder. I think this what hit home the most. I'm not just hurting myself leaving myself in this condition. It hurts my mom, and probably my dad too. I need to take care of this ASAP. And it CAN be done. I've lost 30 lbs before, now to just drop the other 30 and I'll be at an "ideal" weight. I honestly don't know if I'll make it, but as long as I can get to a weight where I'm happy with myself. All I know is that it's not here.


I tried pretty darn hard this week. My mom didn't make me promise, but said she wanted me to "make a concerted effort" to do my best. I managed the one soda per day without much problem. I bought some of that new MiO water enhancer stuff. It's calorie free and one squirt will flavor one glass of water so where I would usually drink soda, I have some water with MiO. I only drink a soda at lunch to get my caffeine fix before the headache sets in. I managed to reduce the cheese also and up my veggies. I'm pretty sure I can stick to 100 cals or so of cheese, and not have multiple servings throughout the day. The chocolate has been the hardest. I haven't done so well in this department. I've tried to stick to 100 cals and some days are closer than others, others have not been. But I have been watching my calories more and tried to stop snacking so much. I'm not sure how to eliminate my chocolate cravings and I have such little will power to say no to chocolate. But if this is my only vice and I try my best to always limit it to a reasonable amount, I should be ok. A*D suggested I get chocolate flavored things like pudding cups, so I get the chocolate fix with less calories. I will pick some up next time I go to the store. 


On the exercise front, I did an EA Sports Kinect work out on both Sunday and Monday, and was sore after both of them from the resistance portion. I got my heart rate up and pumping during the cardio and burned a decent amount of calories for 30 minutes. Tuesday I took a break and we went to the movies, where I did NOT get candy. Wednesday, T and I were going to go to spin class, but didn't make it in time. We decided to stay and work out anyway, so I asked if there was another class going on. We were told there were still spots in the body pump class. Have you heard of Body Pump by Les Mills? It's intense. The girl at the front desk was not kidding about that. We were jello. Literally I was doing some barbell exercise and just standing and my legs were vibrating hardcore. And let me tell you. I. Am. Sore. At least I know I got a good work out! I'm debating on going back next week. Tomorrow I plan on running before our family dinner, and Saturday T, Rik and I are supposed to be going to hot yoga. Beginners, of course. I think having a buddy has helped. S is too easy on me, letting me say no. I need to ask him to make sure I work out, whether it's going to a class, or we go to the apartment gym or do a Kinect work out together. Also, I'm going to try and use my parents pool and do some swimming and really push myself. 


I guess the point of all that babble above is that I had a good week and I really really REALLY hope it shows on the scale. I'll be really disappointed if it doesn't, and that usually makes me lose my motivation. I must keep at it. Enough with being overweight. I can be at a good weight by my 27th birthday, and I really need to achieve this goal. Not doing it isn't an option anymore. Quit being lazy, Emma!

Transformers 3 - Dark of the Moon

Transformers 3 started showing at 9pm on Tuesday, and of course, S wanted to see the very first showing. No one can see his movies before him!! We had reserved seats in row 5, which in any other theater would have been fine, but not in the XD theater. I don't think I could take in the whole screen at one time. Waaaaay too close. So we got moved back. Oh, keep in mind we were seeing it in 3D. I think it looked much better nearer the back. 


So the movie. I like Transformers. The first one was great. The second one was just ok, but I had heard good things about this one and was looking forward to it. 

The autobots have been living amongst the humans and helping out on missions that humans couldn't take care of quite as quickly and without opposition. We see video footage from the past where a space craft wreckage has been found on the moon and come to find out another autobot called Sentinel Prime, their previous leader before Optimus Prime, is still alive (or at least can be revived by OP). It all boils down to Sentinel Prime had made a deal with the Decepticons to bring their destroyed planet to the earth's atmosphere to rebuild and are basically going to either kill or destroy the humans. So, of course Sam and the autobots have to save the world!


I'll be honest, it was a bit drawn out in my opinion. They could have cut a lot of the machine fighting machine scene at the end. That's where it got boring for me. BUT the rest was good. It was interesting, funny, action packed. It's not the best movie ever, but I'd watch it again. 


Another thing, McDreamy was in this movie. . . as a bad guy!! I just couldn't quite believe Patrick Dempsey as the jerk bad guy who's kind of a wimp too. He'll always be Derek to me! Since Megan Fox is no longer with the franchise, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley took over as Shia LeBeouf's love interest. I like Rosie a lot more, but S said he preferred Megan in the role. Either way, she's 100% his sugar mama, which was amusing to me!


I'm curious to see if they are going to stretch this franchise out to a fourth movie. I guess we will see!

Ninjas!

Who doesn't love ninjas?! Who wouldn't want the symbol of stealth on their dinner table?! Check this out. . .Ninja salt and pepper shakers!!

Are these not the cutest things ever?! Sorry, hardcore and deadly. Yes.

Orlando Vacation Planning

S paid for the hotel today, so it's pretty much certain! We're going to Disney! And Universal. And Sea World, lol! I'm VERY excited. We're also taking mini S, who's on summer vacation, and hasn't really had a chance to do fun things. He's 15 now, but I hope he'll still have fun acting like a kid and just enjoy seeing things he's never seen before.


We are driving out there on the Sunday, a 20 hour drive in an SUV with nowhere to escape to! Just kidding. I plan to make it fun, bring snacks and games and whatnot. It'll be long, but I believe it'll be worth it. And considering how much this is all costing, saving money by not flying is a good thing. 


I think S decided on the Hyatt Grand Cypress - you wouldn't believe how many hotels we read reviews on and they had roaches and bed bugs!! Gross. This was the best one that wasn't too pricey. I hope it works out well! 


So we plan to spend two days doing Disney parks. Probably the Magic Kingdom and the Hollywood Studios park. S didn't care for the Animal Kingdom or Epcot, and I guess I agree. I don't know if mini S would find looking at those things interesting. S seems excited about Sea World, and that's something we have never done. I'd like to pet the dolphins! The main thing I'm super excited for is Harry Potter World at Universal. I love Harry Potter and my brother went over Easter and said it was great, so of course I have to go. 


We'll do the trek back home the following weekend and then take mini S back home because he starts school on the Monday, and of course I have to go back to work. But anyway, that's the plan so far! 

Who is N*Sync?

Talking to S today, and he tells me how a freshman/sophomore girl in his summer class said she did not know who N*Sync was. Or is? I was a little bit shocked, then I did the math. If I've been out of college for 4 years and she's a freshman, that's an eight year difference. So when I was a freshman in high school, prime N*Sync listening time, this girl would have been 6. Eating paste or something. I guess she doesn't bother listening to "old skool" music. I thought "Bye Bye Bye" was, like, classic?! "I Want You Back"? "This I Promise You"? No? Just me then?

Well, everyone, if you want to date yourself, mention what music was popular when you were in high school! This chick makes me feel OLD (at age 26).

I miss having a pet

I co-owned a cat when I was in college. It was the sweetest cat ever, although it had some stress issues where it would lick all it's hair off. . . but I loved her, Jinxie, aka Winxie. My ex took her and let her loose in the California mountains. Not on purpose, but still. She's either dead after being eaten by coyotes, or she's taken over as pack leader. I like to think the second. She was several shades of white/gray with blue eyes. Half Siamese, half something else I don't know because she was adopted from a shelter. She used to sleep around my head. She was pretty well behaved, only acting out occasionally like when I didn't clean out her litter. Poor Winxie.

My first year out of college, my bff Car brought me a kitten, a tabby, who had been rescued from a vet's office by Car's current boyfriend. They didn't know what they were going to do with her and somehow she ended up with me. I named her Lizzie (Hillary wasn't cutting it). She was a slightly badly behaved kitty. She clawed my roommates bed to pieces. She meowed constantly. I tried to train her but it was HARD - she wasn't having any of it. She took a bite out of my strapless bra (still have it) and ate all my hair ties. She had a hiding place underneath the cabinet which she eventually became too large for - we found this out because her dumb kitty butt got stuck. She was mischievous, but she was a good companion. She did like to snuggle and lie on me while I was sleeping. Unfortunately a few months after S came into my life, she started seriously misbehaving like pooping on the floor. Multiple times. I knew it was because I was too busy and never home and couldn't give her the love and attention she needed. I had to give her up. 

I miss the companionship of an animal. I liked petting either of those cats while doing whatever else like watching TV, reading, studying. It was somewhat relaxing. It was nice to be 100% depended upon and 100% loved no matter what. And they always knew when I was sad and would come sit with me. It's nice to hug something when you're crying. I've always said I wouldn't get another animal until I had my own home and could be there more to take care of them, but I miss having a pet. S isn't the biggest fan of animals so I'm not sure how that would work out. In a house, is it big enough where they wouldn't run into each other much? Maybe? Perhaps I just like that something needs me unconditionally. Just wait until I have kids and I'm needed 100% of the time, all day, every day. Maybe I won't miss having a pet then.

Writer's Block

I've had writer's block for the last few days, hence no posts. Usually I'll just write about any old thing that crosses my mind, is going on, or I find interesting. Maybe I just haven't found anything interesting? Maybe I don't feel like writing much =(

I feel tired a lot. My mom says it's to do with the bad, empty calories I eat. I'm trying to change that, and I've worked out the past few days to try and boost my energy up. I've been getting plenty of rest too. Is there such a thing as too much sleep?

I'm just going to bullet what's been going on and maybe later I can expand on them

• Planning a vacation to Orlando in August for S, myself and mini S!
• Looking at nursing schools - funding has pretty much been sorted.
• Created a debt free by the end of 2011 plan.
• Work is work. No raise in sight.
• Only six more months left on the lease of the roach infested apartment.
• Family get-together this weekend. Looking forward to it.
• Mom made me almost promise her to eat right and work out. 
• Going to see Transformers 3 tonight, in 3D and at the IMAX!?

Yes, I think now that I've written everything down I can write out some posts. Most of this is good stuff, so yay! I should stop being lazy and get to writing!

Sunday's Random Tidbits

• We created a plan for me to be debt free by the end of the year. It's do-able, but I'm going to have no life =(
• My mom scolded me over my eating yesterday. I had to basically promise her not to eat chocolate more than once a day!!!
• Must.find.willpower.
• More roaches were found in the apartment last week - GET ME OUT OF HERE!
• We've been watching Avatar 3D on the new TV with the 3D glasses. It looks really good, and I don't feel that nauseous like usual. yay!
• I bought a deal on Living Social for 20 sessions of hot yoga. I'm not entirely sure about this, because I'm really bad at yoga. 
• Next weekend is a four day weekend too - yay July 4th!
• We're trying to plan a vacation to Disney so we can take S's little brother to have some fun this summer. Ok, 15 isn't very little, but he's never been so we thought it would be fun to do all the parks out in Florida. 
• Disney is 'effin expensive.
• Is it naptime yet?

Texas is hot

Obvious statement, really. But I didn't consider that much when planning our day out to the zoo. I figured when we got there it wouldn't be SO hot. And I wasn't as impressed by the dinosaurs as I had hoped. We didn't stay long, and I didn't waste time taking pics of animals we have already seen. S actually liked my pottery painting idea, which I wasn't sure he'd go for, so we went over to Sunshine Glaze in Southlake to check it out. We were contemplating making a mosaic photo frame, painting a chip and dip bowl, and then we spotted the piggy banks! We have a lot to save for in the coming months, vacation, school, paying off debt etc. so painting piggy banks seemed to be some good symbolism. We can display them on the bookshelf in the living room reminding us to save! And maybe even put money in them?! 

My piggy! What? Pigs can be turquoise!

S's dragon

Cute, no? Can't wait to pick them up later this week! We were in there a good two hours - perfection takes time! We then battled rush hour all the way home, stopping off at Smashburger for dinner. Totally healthy, I know. It was nice to spend the day together doing fun, different things. 

Date DayI

I took off from work today and planned several fun things for S and I to do. It did involve getting up a tad earlier than I would have liked on my day off, but I decided it was worth it. So, I'm here waiting for S to get ready. It's 9:15am and really we were supposed to leave 45 mins ago. I always forget to account for the fact that my darling is never, ever ready on time. I blame myself really. So I'm thinking I might cancel our breakfast plans, and just head on to activity number two. WE'RE GOING TO THE ZOO!! Yes, at 26 I still love going to the zoo. This year especially because there's a DINOSAUR exhibit!! So, I'm hoping we still get there around opening time, which is 10am. . . if we left NOW! we'd make it. Looking at the state of things, that ain't happenin'. Patience is key in a relationship. Lots of patience. Oh well, regardless of the time schedule being off, I'm looking forward to a fun day w/ S! Pictures to come later =)


Sidebar: I put my contacts in for the first time this week and I'm praying that they don't turn red. I'm armed with eye drops to alleviate any dryness. Now that I've worn my glasses all week, I feel like I look odd without them. 

You gotta see it to believe it

Ya'll, people in China are dyeing their pets to look like other animals. Not even kidding. Look! Panda! Or is it? Retrievers looking like tigers! More "pandas"! The crazy that exists in this world is at a whole new level, I just don't even know.

Horocrux Chart

Geek In Heels found this chart via I Love Charts, and I had to share.

I am so excited for DH II. S and I will be seeing the midnight showing on July 15th!

Beezid

Going through my blog roll at lunch time, AdFreak had posted a commercial done by Lindsay Lohan for Beezid. Since she is under house arrest, it's interesting that she's still working (although was she really doing much of that before house arrest?). What's even more interesting is this site. . . I don't think I should ever spend time on it. Because you can buy things for CHEAP. It's an auction, like eBay, but it's a penny auction site so bids go up in penny increments. I just saw some guy buy a $600 Home Depot gift card for under $20!! Yes, I think I shall stay away lest I spend my life savings buying crap!!

In N Out

Another In N Out Burger restaurant is opening in town today. The last time one opened up in Frisco, a fight broke out! I hope people are a little more civilized this time. . . after all, it is just a fast food burger joint. 

We haven't made the trek up to Frisco yet, but now this one opened a little close I might drag S over to that one. He has never had In N Out before, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure he'd like it. He's so picky about his burgers!

Anyway, I'm happy the chain has come to Texas and am looking forward to stopping by soon, perhaps after the madness has died down.

Food Invasion

Yesterday lunchtime was slightly traumatic for me (ok, not really, but I did not enjoy what happened). I brought one of those Amy's bowls for lunch that I had picked up at the store thinking mmm cheesy, mmm pasta, mmm veggies, done!

So I eat it up, and I'm eating it and it's pretty yummy. I came across some chicken and thought "hmm, I don't remember seeing chicken on the box". And it didn't exactly SEEM like chicken either. . .

There isn't chicken on the box, because there is no chicken in the dish. As I continued to read down past cheese, pasta, potatoes, and veggies, I found the culprit. I had been eating TOFU. I don't like tofu. It's shady. It tries to be things it isn't. You are NOT chicken, Tofu. How dare you parade around pretending to be delicious food items when really you're a funky texture-taste absorbing block of coagulated soy milk. No, thank you.

I've had tofu a few times, and it has failed to please every time. So I'm not saying I don't like something when I haven't tried it. I have.  

Sunday's Random Tidbits

• Here's to a semi relaxing Sunday, with a few chores and homework thrown in for good measure.
• Had coffee with my parents, which turned into lunch. My parents are awesome.
• Watched the Green Hornet last night. It was pretty funny.
• No Strings Attached rented for tonight. I hope it's funny.
• Must.Work.Out.Today
• Already planning my next vacation and getting very excited.
• I'm even more excited about Emma and S's day of fun on Friday! Can't wait!
• I wish our balcony wasn't infested with bugs so I can sit outside and get some fresh air and color on my legs.
• I also wish our interior wasn't infested with bugs. Stupid roaches. Stupid apt complex. 
• Unfortunately, leftover Potbelly isn't as good as fresh Potbelly. Oh well.

Hope everyone had a great Sunday, and Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day

My Dad is awesome. My mom is awesome. My parents are both just incredible people, I can't even describe. 
Happy Father's Day to the best dad a girl could have. I love my Dad!

I'm very blessed to have such great parents who continue to drop everything to help me, still give me their hard earned money when I need help or a loan and just support me in every decision I make, even when it might not work out so great. I feel so lucky, and a bit spoiled, to have such a great Mom and Dad. My Dad has helped me with so much, whether it be fronting the cash so I could do an activity, go to the university I wanted to, have a car to drive on my 16th birthday, or advice when making big decisions like how to be smart with my money (although I might have failed him a bit here), job and interview advice, any job related decision like 401k and health care choices and many other life lessons he helped me learn and guided me through. I am 100% a Daddy's girl, and proud of it. I hope everyone is as lucky as me! 


We met my parents for coffee this morning and then they came over so Suleman could show them the upgraded TV's. We hung out for a bit and then headed to Potbelly for lunch. S tried something new and I can't even express how proud I am of him. It was nice to spend time with my parents - I think they're fun people and love them to pieces =) 


Happy Father's Day, everyone!

Smashbox Eyeliner Collection

I saw this on Outblush the other way, and wanted it instantly. The Smashbox 8-Piece Pro Eye Liner Collection includes one wand and seven different attachable heads to create different effects. And since I love doing different things with my eyeliner, this would be perfect for me. 

The lines below the brush demonstrate the line you'll end up with. This is currently $39.98 on QVC and I couldn't seem to find it anywhere else. I've never bought from QVC. . . but I'm sure it would be fine. Anyone purchased from QVC? Problems? Easy? 

Essie Summer Collection

Browsing the web the other day, I stumbled across the Essie Summer Collection. I like the word "Braziliant."  

The shades in this collection are:
Absolutely Shore - a very pale greeny shade

Brazilliant - hot, shimmery orange shade

Meet me at Sunset - deep orange shade

Smooth Sailing - lavender with pearl sheen

Super Bossa Nova - bright fuschia

Too too hot - red/coral shade

I'll be sure to post finger shots of the polishes I buy, to show how they look on and not just as a bottle color. I'm really leaning toward Smooth Sailing, Brazilliant and Super Bossa Nova, but all of these shades are something I would wear. I didn't feel that way about the Spring Collection, because I don't tend to wear blue nail polish. Although some of the fashion blogs I've been reading, the girls have been wearing minty shades and it's very cute. Getting off track. . . will probably pick up a bottle today. My obsession continues!!

Date

I like celebrating things. I especially like anniversaries and birthdays. S and I have been dating for 2.5 years now, and we still like to acknowledge every month that goes by. We only make a real big fuss over the year anniversary, but it's still fun to say "Happy Anniversary" every month and go out on a date and celebrate our relationship. 

Like my AC-wind blown hair?

We went out for Mexican and then headed to the movies to see the Green Lantern. Food was ok - I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon. No worries, there are plenty on Mexican restaurants around us! 

I really liked the movie, but Blake Lively really irritates me. I only see her as the whiny spoilt rich girl from Gossip Girl, or the trashy, equally whiny girl from the Town. Or as the idiot girl from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which she ruined for me. Anyway, ignoring her, I liked it. It wasn't the most riveting plot ever, but it was good enough to where you wanted the main character Hal, played by Ryan Reynolds, to overcome his problems and succeed. Another thing I found interesting was all the different alien life forms that are members of the Green Lantern Corp. Humans are the only race that believe they are alone, and in this movie they are considered the youngest race and because of this there has never before been a human Green Lantern. Hal channels his powers given to him by the Green Lantern ring and overcomes the bad guy and proves his worthiness to the corp. And of course he gets the girl (ugh).


I keep getting the Green Lantern and the Green Hornet mixed up. Not the same movie. I haven't actually see the Green Hornet, but I think we are going to rent it tonight. It was nice to go out and relax and just spend some time together. We're doing homework most of this weekend, so we definitely make the most of our free time!!

Back on the weight loss wagon

If you've been reading my vacation posts, you obviously saw and read about all the delicious and ever so bad for me food I enjoyed that week. I expect to gain some weight and unfortunately, I was right. I gained 5lbs. Luckily, just getting back to regular eating last week help me shed 2lb's right off the bat. Now, it's game time. S said he would help me, work out with me, and motivate me. 

We haven't been doing so well with this - isn't it always easier to relax on the couch with some ice cream? It's hard to get back into a routine, but summer is the time to do it, for me anyway. I don't have an intensive class to study for, there is no excuse that "it's too cold" when a) it's 100 degrees out and b) I have enough work out games and/or DVD's to alternate for two weeks without repetition. 

I used to have hardcore motivation. I guess since I'm right on the boarder line of comfortable, I have nothing to really really push me. I do want to win A*D's money in our competition, so that's a little motivation. And I would like my clothes to fit better, so that's a little more. But I feel like I need something big. After 15lbs I get my shoes. . . perhaps I should make a list of all these things to keep myself motivated. Post it on the fridge and pantry along with pictures of how I looked when I was very overweight. 


I feel as though I'm in a constant battle - Me vs. Food.

Friday Fun Facts

• My left eye is completely bloodshot. It looks like pink eye, but its been going and coming, and from my experience with pink eye, this isn't it. 
• Due to the red eye, decided to leave my contacts out and wear my glasses. Which means I can't wear sunglasses. Which means the Texas sun blinds me while driving. Sweet.
• It's our 2.5 yr anniversary of dating. Apparently we're doing something, but I'm not in the loop.
• I'm excited for next Friday which I have off from work and have planned a whole day of activities for us. I'll tell you after the fact, because I don't want S snooping and ruining the surprise! 
• I don't think I've mentioned my new sugar love - the Taco Bell Fruitista. Yes, it's all sorts of bad for you. . . but it's fat free. Does that count for something? 
• We watched "Just Go With It" earlier in the week, with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. I definitely recommend it. Very funny - even S liked it and he's not a big comedy fan!
• Do you ever feel like all your clothes look terrible so you have nothing to wear? I've felt like this all week. It's frustrating. And you can't resort to jeans and a hoodie in June in Texas. 
• I've been watching Bridezilla's lately, mainly because once I turn it onto that show, I can't turn it off. Those train wreck girls are insane. I can't believe anyone would marry such a spoilt tyrant. 
• I'm getting impatient that In N Out has not started construction on the location near me yet. Don't they know my SF visit has only worsened my desire for it!?!
• Is worsened a word?
• Did you know "khat" is a word? Words with friends says so. I think this game is flawed. 

Happy Friday!

Super 8

I feel like a movie critic over here! We go see a lot of movies though. . .
Super 8! Ok, these previews were not at all enticing to me. I had already decided I wasn't going to see it, it looked stupid, it wasn't going to be good. Then, the morning it opened I was driving to work and listening to the radio (Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, of course) and I heard the movie had received really good reviews from critics, so that piqued my interest. S and I talked about it later and how we had both heard good things about the movie we had never wanted to even see. . . and the next morning ended up at the movie grill watching Super 8!

A train crashes at a station in a small town, which is then overrun with military personal. Everyone is kept in the dark but the main character Joe and his friends (and later on his father) know something is up and discover the truth. If you've seen the previews, you obviously know some kind of creature escaped from the train, something the military was trying to keep under wraps. The military are having a hard time recapturing the creature, and decide to torch the town forcing all the residents to evacuate due to a "wildfire". I like that it was set in the 70's, although S isn't a fan of the "older" decades, and the soundtrack was like one big flashback (not that I grew up in the 70's, just like the music). 


So throw in some action and a little love story, kids making a zombie movie whilst discovering a real alien and phew! As usual, I'm doing it no justice here. It ended up with a really good rating on IMDB, 8/10. I don't know if I'd rate it that high, but it was definitely a good movie and worth the time to watch. 

New Rules

We recently implemented some new rules. One in particular being when I get home from work we put our phones in one place and leave them there until bed time. They're on loud so we can hear them ring in case of family emergencies, etc. But this way when we are eating dinner, and watching a movie or TV or just spending time together, we aren't distracted by electronics and make the most of our time. I really like this idea. I think we all get caught up in our own routines and especially in our electronic devices and who just updated Facebook, or played a word or who just tweeted?! This way we make sure we are focused on what matters most - spending time with each other. And I like it =)

Arrested

Yesterday morning I'm texting S who isn't responding so I keep texting because that's what I do because I'm majorly impatient and demand responses instantly. 

Finally, he gets back to me with "Love you. Just got arrested."

Wait, what?!?

I reply with a frantic "What!!! Call me!!!"

It didn't occur to me that he was texting during the whole ordeal, which I'm pretty sure they don't let you do. . . But anyway, I continue to freak out seeing his future as a doctor go down the toilet and all sorts of things, because I like to over dramatize everything and panic. 

"Give me a minute. I need to sign a waiver for an attorney."

OH! OK. While I sit here and panic and wonder how long it would take me to get to where he is so I can save him. . . 

He finally calls. "Yeah, I got arrested." For? What is going on?!

My darling jokester of a boyfriend had been participating in a study for school over Miranda rights or something and had been fake arrested after fake attempting to fake steal a fake gold watch. And I took the whole thing seriously. Really. Gullible definition? Picture of me.

We have now decided that S will tell me all about these studies before hand so I don't think he's arrested, or dying, or being chemically tested on, or who knows what!

Return of the eye twitch

Remember when I posted a link to a site completely for eye twitching because mine had been acting up? Well it's back in full force. I feel like a freak. It'll happen for no reason at all. It happens every time I sneeze. There is no rhyme or reason, and I'm just glad no one is looking at me when it's in the middle of a psycho spasm. It must look quite odd. I'm not stressed, and I'm trying to get enough sleep so what's the deal?! Am I destined to live with an eye twitch forever?!

X-Men: First Class

S and I went to see X-Men: First class at the movie grill recently. S actually saw it when I was in San Francisco, and he hadn't seemed that impressed by it but he still wanted to take me to see it and of course I wanted those darn chicken nachos. I wasn't expecting much since S hadn't been raving about it, but was pleasantly surprised!

This is a prequel to the other movies - all the X's are young adults to middle aged. It begins with how Professor X met Mystique when they were children. I remembered from the previous movies that Mystique was on the "bad mutant" side so it was interesting to find out how that came to be. We also see how Magneto came to be and how he went from a relatively good guy trying to get revenge on the man responsible for the death of his parents, to the bad mutant we know from the previous movies. We are introduced to many different mutants with different abilities, which  I thought was neat. There is also a cameo by Wolverine which was hilarious. I'll be honest, January Jones bothers me due to her whiny housewife role in Mad Men, but she was decent enough in this movie. It's definitely not a bad summer flick!

This makes me want to watch the previous movies again. Maybe we'll have an X-Men marathon!

San Francisco - Day 5 - Heading Home

Starbucks for breakfast! We woke up early (again) and just got ready, packed and headed out for caffeine. I didn't sleep well after having a nightmare about planes not taking off and ending up in water, and also not being able to buy the t-shirts I wanted. I think I may have been more concerned about the t-shirts. . . 


It was raining (shocking) but I couldn't be bothered with an umbrella and just donned my baby pink ghetto zip up hoodie I'd bought the other day; A*D wore her hot pink gangsta hoodie too. After coffee, we walked across the street to the souvenir shops for the t-shirts. I bought 3 for $10 - practically a steal! They were all black (maybe it was the weather putting me in a depressing mood), one with "San Francisco" in white font for S, and two with "Alcatraz penitentiary swim team" in white font for Rik and myself. I thought they were amusing. 


It was still only 930am at this point, but instead of just hanging around the hotel in this dreary weather, we decided just to go ahead and get a cab to the airport. In no way, shape, or form where we taking public transportation again. After getting our cases, checking the room and double checking the room, we headed downstairs for the last time to check out. We asked the front desk to call us a cab. It didn't take long for the cab to arrive and when we got outside it was a nice, fancy town car! Oh, the leg room! And the driver was all dressed up in a nice coat and everything! 


It poured the entire way to the airport, so much we could barely see the sights around us. We got there fairly quickly given the bad weather, and for the price we paid, it was totally worth it not to have to fight public transportation (I think I'm scarred for life). Security wasn't too bad and since we weren't in a hurry, we had no issues with waiting. We had about 3 hours to kill before our flight, so we went shopping and eating of course!

Katie waiting at the gate

Prices for food in the airport aren't cheap - there was no difference between the grill-type place and the Cat Cora restaurant. So in keeping with our Food Network/Bravo theme, we picked Cat Cora. 

Prettiest lemon I've ever seen

The food was yummy, and not too big of a portion! I got some sliders with sweet potato fries and it was all very good.

Yum!

Terminal 2 in SFO is new and modern, and best of all, clean!

There's a Pinkberry in the terminal and I'm determined to get A*D hooked on fro-yo, just like me so I dragged her over there to taste the deliciousness.

Coconut and tart fro yo, with a Nutella crunch concoction, strawberries and a wafer!

Our flight ended up being delayed an hour due to the crappy weather in San Francisco. We sat in these big comfy red "evil villain" chairs just waiting. After getting there early, we ended up spending something like four hours in the airport! We finally boarded and luckily there was no one sitting in the aisle seat, so we got some extra room. Love that! The major down side was the demon child sitting behind us. I understand upset babies and upset kids who cry with the change of pressure, etc. I don't understand parents who let their kids just holler and holler and kick BOTH the seats in front of them. He did this the majority of the trip, and OK, his mother tried to get him to stop, but he didn't. And it was annoying. Very annoying. The only time we got some peace and quiet was when he fell asleep! Anyway, we played the anagram game again, and ordered chips through the TV. It was pretty cool that all I had to do was swipe my card through the TV and when the attendants brought the drinks, our chips came with them! 

It was nice to feel the heat when we exited the airport. The CA weather had really let me down and even though it didn't spoil the trip, I would have liked some nice sunny days. My parents had left for Seattle that morning, so we had a car waiting for us! Highway robbery was committed when I exited at the tollbooth - $19 to get out! Geez. We got back to my apt, where S had been taking a nap (lucky) and I sat down to start Spanish homework =( A*D ran out for some Pei Wei, which was delicious and at around 11pm, we all crashed. 

The next day A*D had to go home to Austin =( I miss having her close by to hang out with!! We went to The Egg and I for breakfast, which was really good. I had a Greek frittata with lots of veggies and feta. Oooo and some ranch potatoes. Yum! A*D had a Mexican omelet type thing and it was all really good. I plan on taking S here soon, I think he'd like it. I also dragged A*D to Yumilicious before she left. Must expose her to all delicious fro yo!!!

I definitely recommend San Francisco as a vacation spot if you are into sightseeing (and walking). There are a lot of things we didn't get to do, due to lack of time, but I can't wait to go back with S and show him the city. It's so different from Texas, but it's nice to get away to something different. I'm already planning my next trip!

MAVS!

The Mavs are the 2011 NBA Champs! I'm so glad they beat the Heat, and took Bosh, James and Wade down a couple pegs. Sorry if you're a Heat fan, but they talked big game and couldn't follow through, especially James. The Mavs played like they wanted it more and definitely deserve it. 

JET

It's a good day to be a Mavs fan. Congrats, guys, ya'll really deserve the win and the trophy! Go Mavs!!

San Francisco - Day 4

Today was our last full day in SF. We decided to try something new for breakfast today and headed to place famous for Irish coffees, Buena Vista Cafe. It was overcast, but not raining, and the breeze coming off the bay was a little chilly. Since we planned to walk the Golden Gate today, I wore my North Face. (Tangent: this North Face jacket has been the best investment I ever made. I got it on sale Spring Break '06 and it is still in great condition and literally is a "Windwall". It blocks ALL cold. Not even kidding).


Breakfast! Buena Vista Cafe doesn't open till 9, and we weren't the only ones standing outside waiting. This gave me hope that the place really was all it's hyped up to be. We didn't end up ordering Irish coffees. . . probably too early to be drinking, and then walking across a bridge over water. Yeah. So eggs and toast it was! After breakfast we walked to the bus stop to get route 30 to a Chestnut and Laguna where we would catch the 28 bus to take us to the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw a 30 bus approaching, so stood up to get on it. The door opened and the driver asked us where we were going. A*D replied "Laguna". 
"Next bus!"


Ok, so we sat back down to wait. We finally got the correct bus to Laguna and then the next bus to the Golden Gate. I was pretty darn excited. I love bridges, especially cool bridges. I think it's pretty amazing how suspension bridges can be held up without supports underneath. Anyway, moving on from my nerdiness. . . we got off the bus and walked up a small hill to this view! If only it had been sunny this picture would have been perfect. We started to walk the 1.7 miles across. 

My favoritest bridge

This basically became an "Emma and bridge" photoshoot. I took so many pictures of this darn bridge. But, you have to admit it is pretty cool!

The Golden Gate Bridge is a "popular" suicide point. There were several of these signs, with phones direct to a suicide hotline, along the bridge. I think this is a smart idea. There is always someone to help!!

While this did somber the mood a tad, we still had a good time walking the 1.7 miles across the bridge and back! Now we can say we walked the Golden Gate Bridge, a grand total of 3.4 miles. Phew!

View of SF from the bridge

Hook 'Em

Look, the bridge is burnt orange!

A*D!

The bridge was pretty busy - lots of pedestrians and bicyclists. Almost got ran over a couple times!

Surprise!

Here comes the story I teased during Day 3. . . the public transportation hiccup. After hitting the gift shop, we saw bus 28 at the stop and rushed to jump on it. We had been traveling for awhile when A*D suggested we get off. I asked why and she said we should have been close to our stop and instead we were going the complete opposite direction. We hopped off the bus at Golden Gate Park to check the map. . . and yep! we had been going completely the wrong way! This route would have taken us hours or so to get back to the hotel. There must be two routes with the same numbers; very easy for newbies to get confused! We checked out the bus map again to see if there was another bus, but weren't convinced we would get where we needed to go so we started walking and looking for a cab at the same time. We walked quite a few blocks before we spotted a cab. Tired and hungry, I was really happy to see that darn cab. I decided right then and there, no more public transportation for me!


We decided to try out Citizen Cake for lunch, Elizabeth Faulkner's restaurant, since we were so far out of the way to start with and it was the halfway point back to the hotel. 

I ordered a lamb/ hummus flatbread concoction, and it was So. Good. SOGOOD!

Amazing

Ah-May-Zing! I can't rave about this enough. We followed the main course up with some petit gateaus. I chose a pistachio mousse creation. It was light and pretty good. A*D got a chocolate cake, which I wish I had tried being the chocoholic I am. 

Moussey

We were pretty beat from a) walking the bridge and b) our accidental detour, so we crashed for about an hour before getting up and walking over to Alcatraz Landing to take the ferry to Alcatraz for our night tour. It started to rain as we were waiting in line, which wasn't fun. Luckily the journey over wasn't too bumpy. We disembarked and walked up a hill (enough with the hills already!!) to meet our tour guide. 

Sign at the dock. Graffiti from the Indian occupation

We walked up more hills to the cell block, where we headed to the shower room to pick up our audio tour. 

Cell block

Sign before the entrance of the shower room

Cell

The audio tour was neat - past correctional officers and inmates were commenting throughout. It led us all around, telling stories and discussing the aspects of the prison. Isolation was really creepy. I walked inside and got claustrophobic instantly, and that rarely happens to me. There is a solid door outside of the bars so prisoners would literally be in darkness. 

Isolation

We were led into the dining hall and the kitchen - see the white cabinet with the knife shadows? That was so the officers could see at a glance if a knife was missing! I thought that was smart. 

Alcatraz kitchen

After finishing the audio tour, it was starting to get dark and we had thirty minutes before the first ferry back to the mainland. We headed down to the theater which was down a majorly creepy tunnel to listen to a guide tell a murder story.

Does anyone else see the sunburn??

Creepy tunnel

I was pretty much ready to eat my arm by the time we got back to the the pier. We had debating on going back to In N Out or the Hard Rock on the pier. Since we were starving (and dying for the bathroom) Hard Rock came first along the walk home. We saw another table order the nachos and they looked incredible, so we ordered a platter ourselves.  

World's largest platter of nachos

I'm not kidding when I say we were starving. 

And gone.

It was a very nice last meal in SF and I was a little sad to be going home already, even though I missed S. We headed back to the hotel to make a plan for the morning. I still had some souvenirs I wanted to buy and we needed to make it to the airport by 1130am. 


One more post to wrap up my trip!

Sunday's Random Tidbits

• Excited to watch the Mav's tonight with S and some BWW. Mmm, wings and buffalo chips.
• Today is a food related day - I believe we are going on a hunt for the Frisco In N Out. 
• I really love not having homework to do.
• Well, other than Spanish. But that takes like 3 hours tops!
• I need a new pair of shorts that aren't two sizes to big. This could be bad - opening the door to other purchases!
• I'm trying to brainstorm places we can go for a weekend getaway with S. That's the problem with Texas. It takes too long to drive out of the state.
• Watched Gulliver's Travels last night, the one with Jack Black. Pretty much no relevance at all to the book (read: destroys literature), BUT it is a funny movie and I'm a big Jason Segel fan. 
• I should probably do some cleaning, but why ruin a perfectly nice weekend?
• Totally just dropped my mascara onto my cami and t-shirt dress. Ugh, fail.
• Why is it that I always want Chick Fil A on a Sunday? I wanted to avoid this by going last night, but we were too late so wen to Whataburger instead. Bad idea - Whataburger failed me last night. I probably won't go again for a long time.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

San Francisco - Day 3

We got to sleep in this morning. . . for a whole extra 30 mins! My body clock was so out of whack! We headed to Starbucks for breakfast (surprise!) and relaxed with coffee and a croissant. I heart croissants. Lombard Street and Chinatown were on the agenda for today, so we planned to take the cable car up the ridiculously steep hill and avoid flogging ourselves to death again. We walked the few blocks the the cable car stop only to realize earlier in the week we had seen signs that there was to be construction on the underground cables Wednesday through Saturday. There was no other option but to walk! (Ok, we probably could have taken the bus up the hill, but it's not the same as the cable car, and you'll see why I don't take public transportation tomorrow). So we set off to tackle what seemed like the world steepest hill.

Midway rest point. Do you see that incline!?

Perfect view of Alcatraz, and the steepness

Woohoo! The top!

We finally reached the top, huffing and puffing quite a bit. Texas really doesn't have many hills, especially where I live, so we were just not used to it. We stopped at the top for a bit to take pictures and look at the view, and then started walking down the steps at the side, stopping to take pics of the curves and cars trying to maneuver their way down. This street was in an episode of America's Worst Driver and those people hit everything on the way down! Luckily, that wasn't the case today and everyone drove down safely =)

The crookedest street

It started to rain on us again right about this point, so we busted out our umbrellas and headed for Chinatown. I'm going to be honest. . . it really didn't smell so good the first couple streets. I don't know if we walked by bad smelling fish, or just an unclean area of town, but it wasn't pleasant. Thankfully, that went away the deeper we got into Chinatown.

Gates of Chinatown

We walked from one end to the other to get pics of the "gates", then we headed back through, checking out shops for gifts before heading to the Oriental Pearl for Dim Sum. A*D had never had Dim Sum and I hadn't eaten Dim Sum for years, so I was definitely looking forward to it. A*D chose most of the dishes because the only thing I really wanted was the sweet bbq pork buns! 

My attempt at artistic food photography

As we were leaving we saw an article on the wall - Rachael Ray had eaten her during her $40 a day in San Francisco show!! Glad to know we got a good deal!

Happily stuffed we wandered back to the shops where A*D picked up a gift for her sister (Hi B!) and I found a gift for my brother. Rik's gf, T, managed to get him to go to a hot yoga class so I decided to pick him up a jade Buddha to go along with his new zen lifestyle. Haven't given it to him yet, but I'll let you know his reaction. 

Looking at the map we were pretty close to the Cable Car Museum and since we couldn't ride one, we decided we might as well go look at them in a museum! Unfortunately, this meant more hills. And because I'm so awesome at reading maps, I took us the wrong way, up an extra hill. I thought A*D might kill me. She didn't =D

Entrance to the museum

The museum is free but accepts donations. It was pretty noisy because this is where the cable car line starts and people were working down below. The gift shop was selling Christmas ornaments, the best I'd seen so far, so I bought a ceramic one for myself and my parents with colorful hand painted sights of the city. I also picked up another shot glass to add to my collection. We left the museum and started the long trek home. There happened to be a candy store on our way back, so of course we had to stop! 

Taffy and fudge and all sorts of delicious, sugar filled, bad for you, treats. We bought a few items (and by a few, I mean a lot) and continued on to the hotel where we relaxed for a few hours before heading out to dinner. We picked Alioto's Italian Seafood restaurant for dinner. A little more upscale and fancy so we could get dressed up. I say it was pricey, but to be honest our tab at Boudin's wasn't much less.

Dressed up!

We walked over to the pier and luckily the weather was fair - no rain! There was a short wait for a table, so we went to the bar for a quick drink. After we were shown to our table, we quickly decided on the Dungeness crab cake to start. 

It's half gone. Don't judge. 

Oh my, it was delicious. I had previously looked at the menu online and was set on the Dungeness crab baked cannelloni. 

A*D ordered a plate with various fish - swordfish, stuffed calamari and something else I can't remember - with some veggies. All looked and tasted delicious. I had read a review on the restaurant by someone who didn't care for it, but I completely disagreed. We had an excellent view of the bay, boats and Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, the waiter was pleasant and quite attentive and the food was yummy!

Practicing my swirling technique

There's always room for dessert! Tiramisu recommended by the waiter. A*D got a sampler with a mini cannoli, some seriously intense sorbet and a creme brulee (I think? Am I right A*D?) Whatever it was, it was all delicious! 

Tiramisu for dessert!

Very delicious

All gone!

Back to the hotel once again. These days just flew by!


*The Mavs and Heat series started the Tuesday we left, so Thursday while getting ready for dinner, Game 2 was on. When we left for dinner, the Mavs were losing. I get SportsCenter alerts to my phone, so when the final score popped up showing the Mavs had won, I pumped both fists in the air and yelled "Yeah!" just a lil too loudly! I'm so classy.