Oh, What a Night...

So a couple of weekends ago, I went out for Dance Party USA with my new Go To Girl, Hanna. Once again, it was an official girl’s night out which includes bar hopping and amazing dance moves by all girls. The night started out innocent enough with us racking our brains to figure out the perfect dance party outfit and then it was off to dinner at Gloria’s with her and her five friends. Unbelievably we didn’t have to wait for a table and there were plenty of people to judge while we ate and drank.

After dinner we lost two girls to a random party and the rest of us trotted back to Hanna apartment for some pre drinks. In shocking form, Hanna didn’t have any vodka, or mixers… just my mortal enemy Tequila. Now Tequila and I have not been on speaking terms since my sophomore year spring break. If you were there, you know why. If you have seen me drink tequila after that episode, then you know why. For those of you who are blessed to not have been at any of those events, let’s just say it ends with me projectile vomiting the minute the liquid touches my lips.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. So we got back to her apartment to drink and for Hanna to change outfits. Just like an after school program, I succumbed to peer pressure to shoot the vile Tequila. And in shocking form, it stayed in my stomach! Score! The night was off to a good start for me… That was until round two of tequila taking which I was smart enough to not partake in… because of a simple little comment from me, I had one girl spitting up her chaser onto another girl who then projectile vomited in the sink. Oooops.

With a quick clean up we were off to drink at the Loon. Known in Dallas for its extremely strong drinks it was a great pre party location for us. While at the Loon, we happened to run into a Santa Pub Crawl where all of the guys were dressed as Santa. Badass. So after some conversation with them, we were invited to join them at their next location. Since we had drinks to finish, we let them continue on and told them we would meet up. Sure enough when we were finally leaving the Loon, we went to their next bar and they were on their way out. That didn’t stop them from ushering us all on their party bus for the next location of fun.

After downing a Dos Equis (seriously who was I?) in the party bus we ended up at Teddy’s. This is one of Hanna and I most frequented dance party locations in Dallas and in true form, we got straight to business. After a couple of awesome moves around the floor, I noticed that Hanna got her hands on a Santa Hat. After some of her awesome moves, she then gave me the Santa Hat. Of course not wanting to wear it, I thought about twirling it around. Then in what I thought was my greatest idea ever, I grabbed a second Santa Hat. And started dancing… like a rave kid with glow sticks. With Santa Hats. The worst part about it, I thought I was awesome. Sure enough the dance floor cleared and I continued my hopping and Santa Hat swirling. Finally after becoming breathless form the exertion, I gave up the hats to their rightful owners and walked to the side. Once I went to the side, some random guy looked at me and said “That just happened.” Yeah, it did. And a smart girl would have retired her awesome moves for the night…but not me!

After a few Santa Hat free dance moves, I saw the most glorious thing out of the corner of my eye. The head Santa had pulled out a package of GLOW STICKS! Yessss! The club was in for a treat. Sure enough, I grabbed two sticks and started wielding them around like a crazed Star Wars fan. Once again, the floor clears. And what I learned later was not to watch my awesome moves, but rather to avoid getting whacked in the face by my glowing whips. Trust me it is not a great feeling, since I whacked myself multiple times in my dance routine. Ooops.

To avoid further embarrassment, the pack of girls and I left Teddy’s and went on to another club. Once again I tried to re-live my glow stick dancing ways. Except this time the club was extremely packed and I know I hit a lot of people. Next thing I know. I am getting a stern talking to by one of the bar workers. It went something like this…”It’s not that I care that you have glow sticks. It’s that I care that you are hitting people with them. So if you aren’t careful, I am going to have to ask you leave.” Yeah, let’s just say the night just went downhill from there for me. We finished the night with a few more dance moves and then hanging out in a hotel lobby with fabulous drunk gays. Oh what a night…

Wha? I have a Blog!?!

Woah! What’s this? I forgot completely about this website. As you can probably tell since I haven’t posted in forever. Honestly, it’s not that I forgot about it, so much as I have never been so busy. Since the awesome trip to Cancun, I have been running around non stop for work it seems…

So here is a quick recap:

August: Went as saw the Toadies again. Fantastic as always. My little boy got his boys taken away. Went to my first Burlesque show. HOT!
September: Woohoo! A&M football game with a win! My Cancun friend Jessica came in town and we ran the Jailbreak. Pics on Facebook of course. Tore apart my house and had Ben build a new wall.

October: Haunted weekend in Jefferson, TX. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any ghosts, but we definitely drank plenty of wine and cocktails. So just imagine us running around a small town at 3 AM looking for ghosts. Good times. I also went to Vegas for work and play. Wore Extra Small and partied my ass off with old friends and new friends/coworkers. Then home for a week, and then off to Orlando for another show. Met the ‘I Love You’ guy. Ridiculous.

November: Month started off with one of the best concerts of all time: Mumford & Sons. Completely blew me away. One of the best shows I have ever been to. Thanks, Erych! Then it was off to New Orleans for another show! Awesome dance party and awesome drinking with more coworkers. Then back home for the Margarita Ball where I became the world’s greatest Craps player. Which I am not sure if that counts since the dealer was making all of my bets and giving me free money. :) Then Austin for Thanksgiving. Great time with family and the discovery of one of the greatest shows: Lie to Me.

Parts of December: Clap turned 29! We celebrated with drinks and bar hopping with a little drama added in. I also came up with the greatest work schedule ever….no working on Fridays. December has also been filled with tons of Dance Party USAs as well…

Stay tuned…

Road to 29: TWENTY-NINE THURSDAY

It was here. I made it. I only had one more year to enjoy the fact that I was young and in my twenties. Mind you, I would have liked to have started it at little later than I did, but my Mom had to be the first person to wish me a Happy Birthday….by calling at 6:10 AM. Noooo! I still had 10 more minutes before my alarm went off. Oh well, this being my favorite day of the year I guess I could enjoy it for longer then I had anticipated.

After finally getting ready, I made my way to work where rather than just walk around and have everyone say Happy Birthday, I had to get straight to work. I put in a very productive 4 hours with no time wasted on reading stupid stuff on the internet or chatting about nothing with one of my coworkers. But you better believe when the clock hit 12 noon, I was out!

After my strenuous ‘day’ at the office, I went downtown to have lunch with Angel. Being the fantastic friend that she is, she took me out to lunch to a cute little diner/café. We gossiped, ate, made plans for future happy hours and Girls Nights Out. The next year was already looking up.

After lunch, it was time for Me time. I went to the nail place next to my house, got a pedicure (which as Angel so lovingly pointed out on Tuesday was much needed) and manicure. It was glorious, until the woman tried to cut my pinky toe off. Oh well, at least the nail polish remover didn’t hurt….oh wait. So after my kind of relaxing pedicure, it was time to shop. So I jetted around my housing area and but not so necessary clothes and shoes. Woo Hoo!

Finally after a couple hours of that, I made my way home. Where I was greeted with presents! Ben bought me some square bowls that I have been saying were needed for the kitchen. After that, I got ready and we headed off to Eno’s Pizza in the Bishop Arts District. Since we were super early for the reservations, we went to the soda shop across the street and had a Cherry Soda.

Then it was off to Eno’s where we waited at the bar for everyone else. We finally went up to our table for more wine, awesome appetizers, salad and pizza. It was soo good. I was so happy that Jessica, Brent, Randy, Erych, Jon and Mary Beth all joined me for the festivities. The food was great, the wine was great and the people were even better.

Later on Brigette met up with us and we made our way to a bakery for some milk and cake! Perfect birthday! Although it was a very non rowdy celebration, it is exactly what I wanted. I finally made my way home where I had to pack for the weekend… that I planned on spending in Cancun!

Road to 29: WINO WEDNESDAY

I had one more day to relish in my 28 year old status. So I figured I would enjoy it like a grown up. After work on Wednesday, I headed off the best wine bar in Dallas, Veritas. When I arrived there happened to a party/happy hour in full swing. Lucky for me, I know the bartender and without even having to utter a word, he had my glass of Reisling for me within minutes. Thanks, Ben!

Since the standing space around the bar could only fit heroin-esque models, I scooted myself outside and made the obligatory phone calls while I waited for the rest of my friends. I spoke with my sister for a bit and got to her how she was jealous of my upcoming vacation to Cancun and caught up for a bit.

After a few minutes, my coworkers arrived. So we made our way back into the bar and posted up around the fireplace with the big chairs. We split wine and, of course, had to bitch about work. Then we bitched about everything and anything that came to mind. I also got some advice from Rachel and Finula about what I can expect when I actually turn 30. Some of it was promising and the rest of it just sucked. What do you mean I’m not going to look like Jennifer Aniston in 10 years? Hangovers get even worse than they are now?

So after our bitchfest and doom and gloom you are almost 30 talk, we headed across the street for some Mexican food and margaritas. At least the conversation became more hysterical and less PG-13. It just makes me happy that not EVERYONE could hear us. After dinner, we all parted ways and I went home to prepare for my last year of being in my 20s.

Road to 29: TOP GOLF TUESDAY

Tuesday was Top Golf fun for my birthday week. After work, we headed over the driving range and prepared for awesomeness. If you have never been nor ever heard of Top Golf, here is the run down. It is a driving range with a bar and kitchen. What makes it special is that all of the balls have sensors in them. There are also huge holes out on the range and when said sensor ball actually goes into a hole, you get points! So for crappy golfers like me, it becomes more of a game rather than practice for hitting balls. :)

All the other times I have been to Top Golf, my game has been horrible. I would get excited when the ball fell off the tee, fell from the second story and then miraculously would go into a hole so I could get points. This time around, the ball hitting gods were with me.

So after we grabbed our free golf clubs, we met up with Angel and Andy in their golfing slot. Since they were in the middle of a game, Angel let me get in some practice swings. Unbeknownst to me, I had acquired professional golfing arms! At least in my head I did. The ball actually flew towards the middle of the range…in the air….and we weren’t even on the second floor!

After their game, we waited for Clap, Mary Beth and Sam. In the meantime, Angel being the fantastic person that she is, bought me 2 dozen cupcakes (don’t judge, I love cake)! She grabbed those and we annihilated about a half dozen in 2 minutes.

Strawberry goodness!

From Top Golf

Chocolate…yum…

From Top Golf

Once everyone arrived, the games began. Since Top Golf is stupid and only let’s five players go at once, the competition was amongst Andy, Mary Beth, Clap, Ben and I. Yep, apparently I lost all skill. I came in last place. Sometimes it looked like I knew what I was doing and other times, it was just embarrassment. Although the best play of the night came from MB, after 4 missed swings she finally made contact with the ball where it flew straight up, hit the ceiling and fell 10 ft in front of us. It was so close that not even golf ball collecting car came near.
On to round two, Sam, Angel, Andy, Clap/Ben and I competed. I am also happy to announce that I came in second place this time with a whopping score of 64! My all time before that was 40, so I am improving! I am thinking maybe Bar Golf helped out too! Watch out LPGA!

Me seeing my future as a professional golfer…

From Top Golf

Ben making a shot…

From Top Golf

Pretty sure this one got MB points!

From Top Golf

Angel this isn’t backwards golfing! She just looks evil.

From Top Golf

We had a lot of fun and I am thinking we should incorporate some Top Golf fun in every month. Let me know if you ever want to join!

Road to 29: MOVIE MONDAY!

I thought I would give my liver a break so I planned a movie Monday for a birthday celebration. After work, I jetted off to the theater to buy tickets. There was no way I was going to let the city of Dallas buy all the tickets before I could. With tickets in hand, I met up with Whitey for some pre movie cocktails. Huh? What can I say? I was thirsty.

We went to Mi Cocina where I indulged in two margaritas and some not so awesome chips and salsa. That’s right, working hard on my Cancun body.  We stayed there for a bit until we walked over to the movie theater bar with Ben. Wait? Wasn’t I supposed to be letting my liver rest? Oh well, Ben and I bought a bottle of wine. By that time, it was time to get our seats.

So all day long I tried to avoid any talk about Inception. My coworker Courtney tried to talk to me about it and I had to banish her to her office and then reviews were popping up all over the interwebs. So beside one headline on CNN, I was able to go into the movie with an unbiased mind. Needless to say, I liked it… a lot. I actually don’t have any complaints whatsoever…which as we all know is quite strange. Leo was fantastic and I actually liked that kid from 3rd Rock too! So if you haven’t seen it yet, get to the theater and check it out! I recommend going in with a sharp mind though and not a hazy one from wine and margaritas. :D

Road to 29: SUNDAY FUNDAY!

What better way to rest your aching bones from a Dance Party then to laze around all Sunday in a craptastic pool? Well, that is exactly what we did… besides , of course, having to rest our aching bones.

So I bought one of those huge blow up pools for my backyard. After weeks of trying to get the thing operational, we finally were able to hang out in it. Whitey, Ben and I all jumped in before anyone got there. It was like hanging out in a huge bath tub. So thinking we were geniuses, Ben went off and bought 10 bags of ice to throw in the pool to cool it off. Genius! Yeah, that worked for all of 30 seconds and it only cooled you off if you were clinging to the bag of melting ice for dear life. Oh well, it was still pool fun.

Ben also fired up the grill and made the rest of the fajitas that we have had at the house. Once the food was ready, we all gathered inside around my mini kitchen island (because the table had too much room), ate some awesome food and enjoy another installment of “Hilarity of Clap’s Life.” We got to relive his playa days, his most recent mugging at a bar the night before (the bum stole his drink and ran off) and other captivating stories.

So after plenty of drinks, food and entertainment, everyone went their separate ways. We picked up the house a bit and called it a night by renting Alice In Wonderland…

Road to 29: DANCE PARTY USA!

My birthday celebration week began last Saturday. My first event was going to be a Dance Party USA. I figured what better way to get ready for Cancun, then busting out some awesome dance moves. Well, I guess in my old age and everyone else’s old age, Dance Party isn’t as exciting as it used to be.

So I opted for Roller Derby fun. There was a bout happening that night and figured a lot of people haven’t gone to one before and some people might consider girls body checking each other on a slick surface a dance party, right? So I go online Saturday to buy some tickets and lo and behold, everyone in Dallas must have heard I was thinking of going, so they bought all of the tickets before I had a chance. :(

So Plan C, hmmmm slick surfaces, awesome moves….let’s go bowling! Not as exciting as an actual dance party or girls skating around in circles, but it was a lot of fun. We started the night with some pre drinks at my house and then drove out to Main Event in Plano. Lucky for us, we got some lanes pretty quickly, not so lucky was our very slow waiter. We decided to bowl for two hours. Yay for me, I wasn’t the worst. That title actually was bestowed on Angel’s boyfriend Sam. It is good to know he isn’t good at one sport! With about 15 minutes left on the lanes, we all decided to end the night with trick bowling. I am pretty sure I tried the not so graceful split while hurling the ball down the lane (woo hoo dance move!) and I know I saw some soccer moves and backward throws. It was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with some great friends and even my Dad. :)

After bowling fun, everyone left but Ben, Whitey and I. So we decided to play the games. Whitey and I each ended winning a random stuffed animal in the grab machines, we all raced motorcycles and had basketball hoop shot fun (what! What! I won. Twice.) and pretty much wasted money on anything with a bright shiny light. Whitey and I also got a great workout playing the Japanese horse racing game. We even got some awesome picture fun.

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

After all of the playing around, we all combined our points and bought a crazy hamster to let Sylvester play with, flashing mouth guards and some random foam disc gun. Yay presents!

After that, we went home and gave Sylvester most of our winnings. Only to get ready for the next day…

Ryan Turns a Year Older, Bar Golf Edition

The weekend after July 4th we all decided to celebrate Ryan’s 27 birthday with a little round of Bar Golf. Before the festivities could be begin, a couple of girls and I had a burlesque party where we let our inner sex kittens come out and play. So we all met up at the Burlesque studio, pulled out our slutty heels, put on some long gloves and prepared to learn the art of seduction….on a chair. Not going to lie, it reminded me of my very younger days and watching some Madonna video on MTV (I told it you I was young, there were still videos!) and trying to duplicate her dance with a chair while my sister and brother rolled around on the floor laughing at me after they caught me. So of course when we were asked if we had ever done a chair dance, I denied it! We learned an awesomely sexy dance to some blues music complete with pulling off the gloves, slowing hip rolls and even leg kicks while on the chair. It was soooo much fun. I really want to go back and learn some more moves.

Afterwards I went home, c hanged into my golf attire and headed to the ‘golf course’. So if you have never played here is a rundown: Just like golf you want to have the lowest score. At every bar you have to have one drink, each drink is a certain amount of points. So a shot of vodka counts as 1 point, a mixed drink is 2, a light beer is 4 and so forth. You can also get points by accidently breaking a glass (1 point), losing your putter (5 points) or not wearing the proper attire (10 points). Needless to say you need to have a good score keeper.

So our first stop was Primo’s in Uptown where we thought we would be smart and actually eat some food before the challenge. We also thought it would be smart to warm up our bodies to the idea of drinking by having pre drinks…yeah. I think I would have been better at the end had I just stuck with food.

Anyway, we hopped to 9 different bars. I started off strong walking in a straight line to the bars, having a vodka shot at 3 of the bars, speaking in coherent sentences and all in all having a good time. I obviously took a lot of pictures and managed to look sober…ish. As the night progessed, I got louder, broke a glass, stumbled around, broke my putter, lost my hat, gained a new one, yelled about losing the original and somehow agreeing with Ben and some point that we needed to go home. Oh yes, I also managed to send out text messages, forget I sent one out and then send the exact same one an hour later. And to make matters worse, it was “where you be?” …so we all know my grasp of the English language wasn’t very good either.

I hope Ryan had a great birthday, I know that for the celebration I had a great time. Now as for the passing out in my bathroom, not so sure if that means it was a successful night. :0 Feel free to check out Facebook for documentation and make your own judgements…

Happy Birthday USA!

I broke from tradition this year and started a new one in regards to my July 4th plans. Instead of venturing out to the Simpson Lake house, I went down to Austin to spend time with my family. After work, Ben and I hopped in the car and made our way to my brother’s place and had dinner with the fam. It was quite uneventful, which is good, considering we were a little tired from the trip. We were supposed to stay at my sister’s for the weekend, but in a turn of events that even shocked me…we stayed at Jason’s. Why? Because we planned on working out with Jason and Theresa the next morning….at 6 AM. On Vacation. Huh?

Exactly. Needless to say, Ben and I woke up early, changed into work out clothes (not too sure how those bad boys jumped into my suitcase) and headed out into the neighborhood for some interval training. We walked 45 seconds and then ran 15 seconds for 2.5 miles. Surprisingly it was a really good work out. Directly after our jaunt around the neighborhood, we changed into our swimsuits and jumped in the pool. All before 8 in the morning. The rest of the day consisted of going to some garage sales, buying fireworks, eating, blowing up fireworks, buying some more to replenish our stock and begin the creative process for the Greatest Movie Ever Made. Oh, and then we blew up some more fireworks. :)

That night after gorging ourselves on lasagna, we went out to a random little bar and watched the UFC fight. Then back home, all before Midnight. Seriously, this was turning out to be the strangest vacation ever.

That next morning, we woke up early again….and guess what we did? You are right! We worked out again. This time we went on a 5 mile jog/run. What kind of vacation am I on? Then back in the pool and probably blowing up more fireworks. We did some last minute shopping for the party for that day and began drinking around 1. Jason and Theresa’s friends started coming over around 3 and by 6 the party was in full force. Also around this time, we started filming on GMEM.

It all started when I bought a firework that shoots out 10 parachutes at the same time. Joking around, I said when it went off I would dance around while all of my little soldiers flew around me….which then started Jason and Ben’s minds working. They decided it would be funny to film a 4th of July version of the 50 ft woman. We would have some of the tanks attack me and missiles go off.

So after eating tons of food and drinking copious amounts of liquid fun, my movie career began along with Morgan and Augie. It was a glorious fight of the US led by Augie against the 500 ft Woman (what? I’m a big girl!) and Mothra (Morgan with a towel wing.) Lucky for Augie, the US won and we were defeated. Needless to say, good times! Once my brother is done editing, I will post so you can make fun.
The rest of the night was spent in the pool, across the street at the neighbors’ huge blow up water slide and in the front yard watching about an hour of fireworks being blown up, both by the neighbors and our party. It was a great night. Needless to say, I will be coming back next year for more fun.

The weekend ended with brunch and Ben and I heading back to the Big D. And this time, we managed to make it home without a flat tire. So all in all, a very fun weekend.

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So another busy month has passed and I have once again neglected to update my blog. And to think I was doing so well the last couple of months. So here goes nothing.

Warrior Dash – Wow, probably one of the most fun days of May. If you hadn’t heard about Warrior Dash, you missed out. It was a 3.8 mile obstacle course out in Forney, TX. The obstacles consisted of mud pits, jumping over fire, swimming through a pond and other ridiculous things to make you get dirty. A big group of us ran it… or if you decided to keep pace with me, you ran, walked and photographed almost every step of it. Afterwards, we drank free beer and sported our muddy outfits. After washing off the mud, my skin was super soft. It felt like I went to the spa.

Quote of the ‘race’: “F*ck you, mud!” then .3 seconds later the mud took it’s revenge and I slipped and landed on my butt…once again getting my white tutu even dirtier.

Veiwing pleasure:

From Warrior Dash

From Warrior Dash

Party Boat - Some of Ryan’s friend decided to rent a party boat for a collective birthday celebration. It was decent weather that day, but by no means was it hot. That didn’t stop us from getting in the water. Mostly because we were warming our bodies with Riot Punch and beer. We also played beer pong, flip cup and ‘nourished’ ourselves with cake and pizza. So much fun! Angel and I even escaped for a bit on a speed boat and got in on some random gossip/drama. Funzies!

Viewing pleasure:

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

After the boat, Clap, Ben and I all headed over to Garland to help Katy celebrate turning 29. She picked an awesome place where they serve you mini pitchers of Sangria with a straw. Don’t mind if I do! We hung out there for a while and then all went our separate ways. Which consisted of Ben, Clap and I passing out the minute we walked in the door.

More boat fun and Roller Derby - This is definitely a contender for best day in May. Early in the afternoon, Ben and I headed over to Ryan’s house so we could go back out to Lake Lewisville and enjoy some lake fun. Of course the weather was crap for most of the day. It was overcast, but still warm enough to hang out and get in the water a little bit. Then we decided to try some wakeboarding fun…and lucky us the sun came out! So after a long day of boat fun, we all decided to check out the local Roller Derby bout that just so happens to be 5 minutes away from the house! It was bring your own beer and chair. We set up shop on one of the turns where proceeded to form the rules to the drinking game… Everytime the announcer said Lead Jammer, you had to drink. Every time he announced one of our favorite players, you had to drink. Did he just say Strategery? Yep, drink! Since we aren’t the slyest, nor quietest groups of all the announcer soon caught on to our plan. Needless to say, they repeated Lead Jammer everytime. It was fantastic! It also helped with us making the largest beeraymid at the bout! Afterwards, we hung out at the after party and planned to go again in the near future. So much fun!

River - Another week of work and we were off to New Braunfels/Austin for some river floating fun. We celebrated Whitey finishing finals and the beginning to summer. The river was freezing, but we had some pretty decent weather. We also had the worst dinner ever while we were there at Daisy Dukes… but then again, that place never seems to bring me luck. The rest of the weekend, I hung out at my sister’s house. It was surprisingly a relaxing weekend. Good times, nonetheless.

Memorial Weekend - The weekend started off wonderfully! Ben took me to go see Avenue Q at the new Opera house. It was gorgeous and their drinks are awesome which you can have in the auditorium! If you have never seen Avenue Q and you get the chance, you have to go. It was hilarious! Ben and I are still laughing about it. We then ended the night at Veritas for a bottle of Reisling and then back home. Fantastic date night.

On Saturday, we attended Adult Field Day. Yep, it is exactly what it sounds like… we reverted back to our elementary school selves and played games all of course while drinking. :D Some of the events were: Three Legged Race (Mary Beth and I kicked ass!), Egg Relay, Egg Toss, Tug of War, Tricycle Race and more. After all of the games, everyone played a round of kickball. It was a lot of fun. Then we went to the pool and grilled out. I am hoping we do it again!

Sunday I barely left the house. I went a got a pedicure and that was the most of my exposure to the outside world that day. Great day of relaxing.

Monday Ben and I went with my Mom and her friends to the new Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma. I lost all of my money, but we had a great time. The rest of the day was hanging out on the couch with Whitey and Ben making fun of the awesome acting in Pearl Harbor.

Kickball – And last but not least, I have revived the Balls and Snatchers for another season. We have actually won games this summer! We even got our act together and got shirts. Here is hoping with can continue to kick ass and win another championship!

Viewing pleasure:

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

Housewarming Fun

A couple of weeks ago, Ben and I threw our housewarming party. Miraculously, everything came together at the last minute. Even the guest bedroom that I decided had to be painted 2 nights prior. Not much really to tell except that I had so much fun and enjoyed seeing all of our friends a family. I did get multiple requests for the recipes so here they are:

Black Bean Dip

--1/2 onion finely chopped
--Cumin
--Paprika
--Cayenne
--Garlic Powder

--Pureed Beans in blender w/onions w/ liquid
--two tblsp of oil in pan
--pour beans in pan, add seasoning to taste
--reduce on low heat, stir occasionally

Avocado Sour Cream

--2 pints of sour cream
--1 bunch of cilantro
--2 fresh jalapenoes
--juice of 6 limes
--2 avocados
--puree all i blender
--Seaon garlic powder and salt to taste

We blended everything in the blender. Serve with Santitas!

Salsa

--8 Core tomatoes
--1/2 onion medium chop
--4 de-stem jalapenoes
--drizzle with olive oil
--roast in oven at 375, until tomatoes are charred
--let cool for 15 minutes
--peel tomatoes and jalapenos
--1 bunch of cilantro chopped
--Dice and mix everything
--Add leftover juice to mixture
--Season with salt/pepper

White Sangria

-- White Box wine
-- 2/3 Cup Sugar
-- Peach canned drink from Mexican Supermarket
-- 2 Gala Apples Chopped
-- 2 Granny Smith Apples Chopped
-- Couple of Drops of Vanilla
-- 3 cans of Sprite/7 Up
-- Strawberries for Garnish

Chop up all of the apples and add to white wine. Also, add sugar, peach drink, vanilla. Let sit overnight. When ready to serve, add Sprite and serve over ice.

Let me know if you guys need any other recipes! I am sure I can get some more out of Fernando.

Fort Worth Zoo Run

In two days I will be partaking in the fun known as Warrior Dash. If you know nothing about it, look it up. To prepare for said fun, a group of us decided we would participate in the Fort Worth Zoo Run. It is a 5K that takes you through the Zoo and the surrounding neighborhoods. I have participated in one other 5K before this. That was the Susan G Komen 5K about 3 years ago. I wanted to run it, but I wasn’t in the right area and walked for most of it.

This time I decided I was going to run and not stop. Mind you, the farthest I have ever run nonstop has been 2 miles and that was for boot camp. Did I mention I haven’t really worked out or even ran since I stopped in November? So yeah, the 5K was going to be fun.

I asked Ben about a week before how long a 5K was. He told me it was 2.5 miles. Awesome! I could totally do that. So I met up with my team the morning of…we were called the WolfPack and had all planned on getting fantastic wolf shirts to run in. Since my team was also made up of slackers, we never got the shirts. So I decided to make my own, at 10 o clock the night before...true slacker style. Yeah, apparently Michael’s does not sell Wolf patches or anything of the such! So I was stuck with a shirt that said Wolf Pack with two painted paw prints (I thought they were glittery patches, but ended up being stencils). Me so SMRT!

Needless to say, I got out there early with my perfectly made Running Fun playlist and stood around in the rain while we waited for out turn. It is always so exciting right before a run. There really is a weird energy of anticipation, fear (at least for me) and all around good spirits. There were also a crap load of kids...some parents are geniuses. Little Susie, this will be so much fun...here eat all of this sugar and go run to your hearts content. Make sure you annoy all of the other people here and not me though. Damn, those parents.

Finally, we lined up and started the ‘fun.’ I put my playlist on shuffle and was pleasantly surprised by the perfect first song: Animal by Miike Snow. That’s right, people! I am an animal running through the zoo! Watch out…

That was until I got to the first hill. Sweet Jesus! Where did that thing come from? I used to work at the zoo and I didn’t remember a hill. I magically got over it without stopping my run and continued. I passed all of the water areas, mostly because I figured I would never run again if I stopped. I even came to another awful hill, even bigger than the first. Once again, I made it over and didn’t stop.

I weaved through the neighborhoods and honestly thought I wasn’t going to make it. I kept my pace the entire time. Now mind you, an old man on a walker could have passed me but I still didn’t stop ‘running.’ Finally, I got to the best thing of all. The downward hill. I seriously almost started crying. I saw one of the volunteers shouting something so I took out my headphone and heard that I only had ½ mile left. Once again, tears almost came. Now I know this is nothing like a marathon, but it really is a big thing for me. I am not a runner and my body does not want me to be a runner, but somehow we both got through it.

Finally, I am almost to the end and I can see the finish line and that is when my iPod changed to the most perfect song ever….. Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio. At this moment, I thought of my awesome friend Tara who finished her second marathon recently and had the most perfect song for her play at the end. This was mine. Without even knowing where the energy came from, I increased my speed to Old Man on Scooter and finished my first running 5K. And it only took me about 40 min! Haha, I told you I was slow. Later on that day is when I actually learned that I ran 3.1 miles. Had I known that going in, I probably would have walked.

So in true Warrior Dash training mode, I soon sped off to Dallas for the Pub Crawl for Cancer…

Ugh, Why Me?

When I was in high school, I worked at the Zoo for a bit. While there I formed a crush on one of my coworkers. Nothing ever came of it and I went off to the glorious world of College. While in college, my Zoo Crush got in contact with me and we ended up going on a date and in true Stephanie style I never talked to him again.

Fast forward to after college… with the beauty of Myspace and putting all of your information out the web, my crush found me when I was working at Neimans. We emailed back and forth for like 2 days. He wanted to go out but I was already in a relationship…so it wasn’t going to happen.

Then I don’t hear from him for another year… then the same story. Out of the blue he emails me and I try to have nice innocent conversations with him and he wants to meet up. Once again, not gonna happen.

So almost every year, I randomly hear from him. The last time, I think he hit me up on Myspace through his friends account. I asked him what he was up to and he said he had gone into the world of dancing at private parties. Oooook. I , of course, laughed it off. He then proceeded to say he was serious and asked if I wanted to see pictures. At that point, I stopped responding.

Tuesday while I was taking a break from working, I checked my personal email. I saw that I had my random, yearly email from my ‘friend.’ That is when I did the worst thing you could ever do….I opened the email. Only to have my eyes accosted by a man standing at his bathroom mirror……BUTT NAKED!!!! AGH! How is it possible that now I have a cyber flasher!?! I mean really…who does that?

Needless to say, I immediately starting hyper-ventilating that I just accidently looked at porn at work. Then I told my coworker, called another coworker and told her….then we called another coworker and told her. I then got on the phone to Mary Beth (didn’t want to have an HR violation) and told her. Then, of course, I called Ben.

In conclusion, my inbox is now clean from said flashing incident. Everyone I know now knows about it, including my poor Mom.

Although, it makes me wonder….could this have been my flasher from the downtown parking garage? Thank God, I moved. :D


And you are very welcome that this post did not include pictures!

Laura's Married - Wedding Day!

The day of the wedding, we woke up early. We had a few things that needed to be accomplished but it was actually a very smooth day. I had breakfast at the hotel with my Mom, brother, sister and Auntie Bea. We sat around for a bit and talked. We even saw them setting up for the wedding below.

Afterwards, my brother, mother and I all set out for some last minute errands. We picked up a cake topper for my sister, a card box and a pineapple. Now why in the world would you need a pineapple for the wedding? Well, my cousin got married a couple of months ago. At her wedding, she reserved a seat for my grandmother who passed away. My mom was chosen to set some lilies on the seat for her. It was a very emotional time. My mom was crying, I was crying while trying to take pictures… Anyway, for my sister we decided to pick up a pineapple (my grandmother loved them and collected them) for her seat. So while we are talking about it, my mom starts crying while we are trying to check out at the grocery store. That makes me start crying…and of course, believe it or not, my brother starts crying too! All while trying to buy a pineapple.

After that fiasco, I ran the rest of the errands with Ben and my mom and brother went to shuttle people around for hair appointments. I then went to buy decorations to make the pineapple pretty. Soon enough, the day was becoming more about the pineapple than my poor sister.

Finally I got my hair done, went back to the hotel, got ready, set up arrangements for the pineapple (my uncle got to drop it off this year) and helped my sister get ready. We pretty much hung out in the room and a glass of champagne. Finally it was time for the big event…

It was such a pretty ceremony and everything went perfect. I even almost started crying when my sister walked down the aisle…

The pineapple!

From Laura's Wedding

Waiting to walk out…

From Laura's Wedding

They’re married!

From Laura's Wedding

Then it was off to cocktail hour and the reception!

My Dad and I at the cocktail hour

From Laura's Wedding

Drinkie!

From Laura's Wedding

At the reception, I definitely showed off some of my awesome dance moves. Morgan and I even brought back the signature dance move from the bachelorette party. I even gave an AWESOME Maid of Honor speech. Maybe I will even post the video one day…

Awesome dance moves?

From Laura's Wedding

The pineapple is on the dance floor!

From Laura's Wedding

My sister’s dance moves!

From Laura's Wedding

When the reception was over, we decided to end the night in the hotel lobby bar. I showed up with a practically empty bottle of champagne and finished off at the bar. In true Stephanie style, I also decided to let the entire hotel know how loud I can get. Which eventually led to me being cut off by the bartender… Yeah, I wasn’t even drunk. Thanks to my brother though, he talked to the bar manager and got me put back on! It was awesome wedding and night. Can’t wait for the next wedding! Although I can’t promise to control the volume of my voice…

Last drink of the night after getting back on the drinking list

From Laura's Wedding

Laura's Married - Rehearsal Day

About two weeks ago, my sister got married in Austin. It was an amazing wedding and more amazing to see how happy her and Jimmy are. I got to spend a lot of quality time with her and my family and it was fantastic.

On Friday night, we had the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner. If you didn’t know any of the family members from either side, there was clear divide at the table we had. That divide was volume…..as you can guess my family is WAY louder than my sister’s new in-laws.

It was such a great dinner. We ‘hated’ on my Dad while he gave his emotional speech to the couple, we drank, ate and drank some more all the while trying to be funnier than the next person. I pretty sure Jimmy's family wanted to take him and run. Although after awhile, I think they finally got used to us.

I, of course, was looking at the painting the entire time and commenting on how freaky they were just looking at me and judging me while I ate. So I decided to join the painting…which of course Jimmy, Laura and Theresa all joined me.

From Laura's Wedding

From Laura's Wedding

Afterwards, we went to Sixth street. We stopped at Pete’s Piano bar. If you don’t’ know, this is my least favorite place of all time. I was super excited to be there…

From Laura's Wedding

Finally we left and made it two doors down to Touche. Oh man, does my family love shots. Especially when they are 1 dollar! Ugh, soooo much drinking.

Flaming Dr. Pepper’s…and they were more than a dollar

From Laura's Wedding

Awful dollar shots…

From Laura's Wedding

After another bar, I set off for home so that I could wake up at 7 AM for the big day. :D

Move Over, Martha!

A couple of years ago, I decided to make a scrapbook for my parents’ anniversary. Having never delved into the uber crafty world of scrapbooking, I immediately took lessons from my good friend Tara…a master of the art. She taught me the tricks of the trade, let me borrow her supplies and even took many trips with me to Michael’s to get fun material.

The book seriously took me months and it was a great hit. Since then I haven’t scrapbooked but I have used scrapbooking materials to personalize gifts and cards. All thanks to Tara, I am an even more amazing gift giver!

For one of my gifts to my sister, I decided I wanted to make her a personalized guestbook for her wedding. Since her colors were blue, black and white, I made sure that was the only theme I went with…the hardest part about making the book was having my sister take pictures of her and Jimmy. It is amazing how different we are…

Anyway, here are some shots from the finished product!

Cover (FYI – The bridesmaids held bouquets of hydrangea)…

From Guestbook

First page. Her and Jimmy met on an online game…here are their avatars sitting by the fire…

From Guestbook

First time using fun stamps!

From Guestbook

I love the flowers that they have come out with…

From Guestbook

Heart Cut Outs…these sucked to glue…

From Guestbook

More game pics…

From Guestbook

Fun paisley thingies… yes, that is the technical term for the blue things

From Guestbook

To see all the pages, feel free to click on a picture.

It was so much fun to make…and I finished it all in two nights! Yay me. :D

Viva la Whitey!

Not two days after I got home from New Orleans, Ben and I hopped on a plane to Las Vegas to help my friend Whitey bring in his 30s with a bang. Our Vegas fun started at 8 AM in Vegas. So Ben and I got some breakfast and walked around until everyone else showed up. That is when the gambling began…as many times as I have been to Vegas, I don’t think I have gambled this much.

Our first night we gambled and we let Adam make the worst decision for us. He convinced us all that we needed to drink those awful frozen drinks out of the yard glasses. NEVER AGAIN. He then redeemed himself by introducing us to Slots A Fun. Awesome and cheap gambling. And I won! Only to then walk across the street to Riviera and give them my winnings. So first night… gambling and awful drinks.

Ugh, worst drink container ever…

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

The next day we gambled some more. I think I took a much needed nap in the afternoon, just to wake up and gamble some more. Ooh, I also rode the roller coaster with Whitey at New York, New York. So much fun! Then it was off to the Whitey’s birthday celebration at the Spearmint Rhino. Yeah, not much to report on there. A couple of us, left early and passed out.

Limo fun on the way to the Rhino:

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Then it was gambling AGAIN. Walking more, eating some and of course more gambling. On the last night we decided to hit up Studio 54 at the MGM. FUN!!! I showed awesome dance moves and made random friends for the boys. Mostly though, I danced. Then after getting all liquored up…we gambled some more! Finally passing out around 3ish.

Pre party before Studio 54:

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Maybe it is an angry dance move?

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Still at Studio 54..

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Finally leaving the dance floor…

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

The next day we took it easy. I gambled a little bit more (what? Vegas is struggling…I am just trying to help.) We screened a new show – Inside Nascar. Worst 90 minutes of television watching ever. Walked around some more and finally went to the airport. All in all it was a great trip. I love that people are going all out of their 30th birthdays….and just so you know, mine will be in Aruba. Start saving now….

Huh? I live in Texas?

Ooh man, it has been a crazy last two weeks. Rather than bore you with details, I will bore you with highlights and a few pictures.

I went to New Orleans again for work. I went for an entire week, Sunday to Sunday. It was a much busier, more painful (3 inch blister on the side of my foot), a lot more educational and interesting trip. I worked hard (one 13 hour shift walking constantly) and played hard (Oh Bourbon, I judged you the entire trip til I was forced to participate in your drinks.)

A few highlights:

We took a Ghost Tour through the French Quarter….tons of fun!

From NOLA...again

My first official Hurricane:

From NOLA...again

My coworkers and I unwinding after a long day on Show Floor…

From NOLA...again

Firemen! Yum!

From NOLA...again

The THREE phones I HAD to sport on the floor. All for work…

From NOLA...again

One of many…

From NOLA...again

I was home for TWO days until I headed off to Vegas…stay tuned! Just let me say, two huge party cities in two weeks…I think my liver is non existent at this point.

The Day After..

So I threw my sister and Jimmy a Couples shower the day after the bachelorette party. It was fun, laid back and a perfect remedy to a night of drinking. I didn’t get any pictures, but I do have one of the cake that I had made. Once again, my friend Jon made the perfect chocolate/raspberry cake.

If you couldn’t guess, Laura and Jimmy met online…..

From Blogger Pictures

Laura's Getting Married!

Two weekends ago, I threw my sister’s bachelorette party. We had soooo much fun. First we started the night off with a Lingerie/Dirty Bird Fun Shower and drinks. We then all piled in some cars and made our way to Highball in Austin. Miraculously and without a reservation, we were able to bowl in one of the lanes for an hour. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go back for some karaoke fun.

Then we had a limo (thanks, Mom!) pick us up and parade us all around downtown Austin. We drank, we danced, we were obnoxious and we danced some more. I am hoping everyone had as much fun as me.

Here are some fun pics:

The Girls!

From Laura's Bachelorette

Jessica and Laura

From Laura's Bachelorette

Morgan and I are obsessed with the star glasses. As you can see, we make sure we are wearing them when no one else is…

From Laura's Bachelorette

Yay, we took them off our face! Morgan, my sister and me!

From Laura's Bachelorette

Theresa in full on dance mode…

From Laura's Bachelorette

She hates the paparazzi.

From Laura's Bachelorette

I kept forgetting the night wasn’t about me…

From Laura's Bachelorette

Someone is getting drunky…

From Laura's Bachelorette

5 minutes later the camera died…which is probably good for all of us.



Random drunk tale from the night:

At the end of the night we were at some club and while we were making our way out, I heard a salsa/samba/fantastic Spanish beat start playing. It just so happen that I was walking across the open dance floor at this point. So I looked around the crowd and grabbed the first (what I believed to be) hot Latino man and started to show off my awesome (I am always the best dancer when I have been drinking) dance skills. While dancing I couldn’t help but notice I was the far more superior dancer and almost felt as if I was teaching… Oh well, I rocked.

At the end of the song, I leaned over to my partner and told him thank you for the dance and something else….all in Spanish (Yes, yes….we all know I have been drinking quite a bit if the first language I choose to speak in is Spanish.) At which point, my buddy said to me “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Spanish…”

All I could think was… “Man, my Spanish is so good right now! I totally understood what he just said!” To which I respond, in Spanish, “Thank you again. You are a great dancer.” To which he says, “I don’t understand Spanish.” FINALLY it clicks in my vodka drowned brain. I then ask him what he does speak (in English this time!) and he says English (really? Is that why I understood you?) and Arabic (I think.) So I said thanks in English and pushed him away.

So my lesson of the night was just because he looks tan does not mean that he is Hispanic.