Lace up the Hiking Boots...

I just RSVPed for an overnight hike this weekend. It's out near Chattanooga, 10 miles a day. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a teeny bit nervous. At the same time, I'm really excited about it. It's an overnight hike specifically for newbies to backpacking. I've done long day hikes before, but have never gone overnight. I'll probably borrow gear from my neighbors. OOOh I've got some butterflies about it. Exciting exciting!

Wish me luck and that I go up and back in one piece. We head out Friday night, get up early and hike 9-5, camp, get up, hike back the next AM and drive back. And I don't know any of the people going, which should be pretty fun! New people and new experiences! Yeah!

Girl Scout Goodness

I so just ordered 6 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I ordered 1 box of Samoas (Caramel DeLites), 2 boxes of Trefoils (Shortbread Cookies), 2 boxes of Thin Mints, and 1 box of some new lemon variety. Hope they don't come in til after Lent!

Oh Happy Day!!

AWESOME News!! My landlord called today. I had emailed her over a month ago about a new lease since my current one expires.. oh.. next week. She's going let me renew!! I was kind of worried she wouldn't, I know there had been talk with my neighbors about possibly selling and I was a little nervous about a possible rent increase, which I really couldn't afford. BUT no rent increase and I get another year in the coolest area ever for a flat $700/mo. Oh Thank You God! Seriously.

And I know my neighbors are house-hunting. My landlord said if they move out she'll look for an attractive single guy about my age to rent the place downstairs.. cha-ching! haha.

Oh I am so so SO happy!!!

Bonnaroooooo!

Hey kids, who's going to Bonnaroo? I am! I was originally going to fly home the week before for my sister's graduation, but instead my mom is buying Nikki and her bf tickets and Shelbs is buying tickets and they're all coming down here :-) YAY! I just bought my tickets this afternoon.. quite a bit more than I paid 2 years ago! I paid $208 the first year, and this year? Try $277! Holy Crap! It'll be an awesome show though! I'm definitely stoked. If anyone else is headed down here from the North, let me know!

Furious. Fuck Continental.

SO my two best friends, Kim and Karen, were supposed to fly in tonight. Unfortunately Continental is run by a bunch of douchebags and they decided to up and cancel the flight. Wouldn't give a good reason either. The flight was full, plane was fine, weather perfect. Just felt like cancelling I guess. I guess they really hate their customers. So now Kim and Karen had to shell out over $100 more for Southwest tickets but aren't going to get in until tomorrow afternoon.

Yeah, I'M FURIOUS! BEYOND ALL REASON! Ugh. I have been looking forward to them visiting for months and while yes, they are still visiting, that's a full 13 hours I won't see them. A full 13 hours less time at a more than $100 cost. BULLSHIT. That's what that is.

Love Today!

Happy Valentine's Day! You can't listen to this song without getting a smidge bit cheerful. It's just too fun!

kittens and metal detectors

The kittens punctured holes throughout my exercise ball with their oh-so cute claws of theirs. Argh. They must have put a lot of holes in it because I can't get it to stay fully inflated for a whole workout (when I pulled it out of the closet it was a droopy mess). Kittens, you are both on my shit list.

In other news, two dudes (one tall and lanky and bald and one overly hairy and fat) with a 4-ish or 5-ish year old girl were wandering around the yards of two empty lots next to my apartment. Fully clad with huge honking metal detectors. I could hear the beeping noises in my bathroom. Creeped me out, but I also found it very amusing. It's interesting to see the hunger and passion for exploring and discovery of ages past has dwindled and morphed to metal detectors in empty lots. The little girl seemed to be having a great time though! Turns out they were Civil War buffs searching for old bullets. Pretty neat, but creepy nonetheless. I'll bet deep down, they like to pretend they're pirates.

You say Tornado I say Tornah-do

This sucks. Nashville's been hit and is going to keep being hit by some really pathetic weather tonight. Severe tornado weather passed right through my area. The kittens, my macbook and myself hung out with my neighbors and their dog under the stairs in their basement for a half hour. Not my ideal evening, but things could have been worse. We had hail, green lightning, and some crazy-ass wind. It touched down around Vandy (which is like, a mile and a half from my apt.) and Bellevue which is about 15 min. west of me. They kept talking about "rotations" passing through Nashville (right through my area) and stuff about the "tail hooking" or whatever. The weather was bad, that's all I know.

Unfortunately, while things are in the clear right now, tornado-y goodness is supposed to make a second stop through town around, oh, 1AM!!! UGH. All I want to do is go to bed, but the weather dudes keep saying no. I'm debating going to sleep or taking a nap, but I know me and I know that I can sleep through the heaviest of thunderstorms. That would definitely NOT be a good thing. So instead, I'm blogging.

Anyway, tonight is Fat Tuesday. And since I will be giving up ALL sweets until Easter, I dubbed tonight the "Last Supper" and splurged on some Coldstone Creamery for dinner. The last time I enjoyed their ice cream was last Fat Tuesday. And it was funny, because when I went today the guy was like "WELCOME BACK!" and I was confused. I couldn't figure out how he remembered me after a whole year. Guess I looked familiar. Anyway, if you're looking for a good combination, I figured out a particularly delicious one: Sweet Cream Ice Cream, Oreos, chocolate chips, peanut butter and fudge. DELICIOUS! Last year I made some strawberry shortcake concoction, but this was far superior. Try it out sometime.

Also for Lent this year, I've decided to start doing devotions everyday until Easter. I haven't done them in a long time and not regularly since being in Africa. I think it will be really good for me. It's a perfect time for spiritual growth. Tomorrow I go for my ashes. I can't decide if I'm going on lunch or in the evening. Probably the evening service.

For any of you kids interested, Bonnaroo looks frigging fantastic this year. Pearl Jam, Iron and Wine, DeathCab, etc. I will be definitely buying a ticket, credit card debt be damned.

The weather man keeps talking about Bucksnort, TN. It makes me want to laugh. Bucksnort. haha.

Oy. I really wish I could just go to bed! Stinking weather.

O is for Opportunity

I may have landed myself an exciting freelance opportunity doing some print work for a research company. I've worked with them before with emma doing their email stuff and they're a really a fun bunch. So far things are looking really good. I made a pricing offer and they want me to call tomorrow to discuss ideas/direction/next steps. I don't really know how much I'll get to do for them, but I've been looking up their company and a new medical marketing research branch they've just started and am REALLY hoping for some big fun.

I forgot how much I love advertising and coming up with concepts and ideas. My sophomore, junior and part of senior years at KU I LOVED advertising design and was convinced that is what I would do post-graduation. And while I got to do a smidge at my last job, for the most part every idea was shot down and all hopes of creativity were stifled by a not-so-wonderful boss (even ideas that the client really loved, my boss would still shoot down, with me at the table, in front of the client, for an idea he would come up with that looked like crap). I digress. Just sitting at Borders tonight with a stack of design and advertising books and a whole bunch of regular magazines for research purposes, I just went nuts with ideas. Sigh. It felt really good. I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE what I'm doing now. Absolutely 110% love working with my clients and the fast-paced creative freedom my job allows, but the idea of getting back into print via freelance, and dipping my feet back into the advertising pool is really exciting.

I try not to get my hopes up too high when things like this come around, but I just can't help it. My hopes are hovering somewhere over Mars and I have no intentions of reigning them in.

Anywho, wish my loads of luck! I'm going to go work on a Valentine's Day custom campaign for work. I'm just chock-full of creativity and need to let some of it out. I feel like I've got a second wind tonight. Time to bust out the Wacom!

P.S. To all you kids in areas where Primaries are tomorrow: GO VOTE!

My job kicks ASS

Three reasons why working at Emma is AWESOME:

1. Kegerator + Kegs (plural)

2. Air Hockey Table

3. Guitar Hero/Rock Band

Yup. It's a good time.