We are family

Blogger World, in four hours my family and I will be traveling to The Lonestar State. This weekend marks the annual shopping/mini-family vacation. A few years ago my mom came up with this grand idea of spending one weekend, before school starts, shopping in Dallas. I know, my mom is super wise; and my dad is even wiser because he comes along to hold our shopping bags. Ok, not really. He usually reads books and drinks coffee in book stores. He makes us hold our own shopping bags, which is fine because I’m independent and stuff.

This year’s trip comes with good news and bad news. The good news is this year my family is in for a special trip. See, a few months ago my dad played in a golf tournament and won a big prize. He won a free night stay at a fancy hotel in Dallas. When I say fancy, I mean fan-cy. I’m pretty sure my Okie family will stick out like a sore thumb, but who cares it’s free. I’m planning to lay out by the fancy pool and receive a fancy tan!

The bad news about the trip is my mom is making all of us ride together in a car. Let me repeat the part you should care about…ride together in a car. As I have mentioned in previous post- I do not do road trips. I have this car sick problem. It usually flares up when I have to sit in a hot crammed car! Pretty much my whole life my parents have owned either mini vans or suburbans. And can I just say that was the smartest decision of their parenting life! Not only do I have the car sick problem, my sisters and I have this rule when we travel. We cannot touch. I’m dead serious. There is NO touching in the car. Even today, the 28, 25, and 18 year old cannot touch each other. As you can imagine, 5 adults in a car will be a bit crammed, and its 100 degrees outside! Folks, I don’t know if we will make it to Dallas. This just might be the end for my family. Who cares that we’ve made 67,189 trips to Arkansas; this dinky trip to Dallas just-might-kill-us! Stay tuned for fun stories on Monday morning.

I left my heart in San Francisco…

Ok, not really. I actually brought my heart back, along with the rest of my tired body. And oh how I was tired! Yesterday, I overslept and arrived to work an hour and half late. I kid you not. I was so embarrassed. I have never been late to work after a vacation. Never. Not even when I’ve flown across the world. But I guess that is a sign of a good vacation- being dead dog tired when you return to normal life. Blogger World, until I have time to post more enjoy the pictures from the city.

The first night I had dinner here. It was good. However, I only had the In-n-Out Burger experience once. I'm sorry, I had other things to do...like shop at H&M and North Face.

It was a great trip and I had loads of fun. I ate great food, saw all the sites, walked across The Golden Gate Bridge, and even tasted wine in Napa Valley.

I'm Off....

My bags are packed! I'm off to San Francisco for a long weekend. I have never been to San Fran. I'm pretty excited about all the fun things I will be able to see while there. What's at the top of Ok Chick's list of things to do? Eat at In-n-Out Burger. That's right, food! I've never experienced the In-n-Out Burger experience. If it's as good as people say, I might eat a burger a day.
Well Blogger World, hold down the fort while I'm gone. I will return!

Ok Chick

Japanese Pancake Night

Last week, The Roommate and her husband invited MrT and I over for dinner. We were the newly married couple’s first dinner guest. I must say, being someone’s first dinner guest is quite an honor. The Roommate made a superb meal for everyone and the conversation throughout the meal was great! Sidenote: I would add the picture of MrT and I, from that night, but it wasn't good. Actually, MrT looked fine. I on the other hand, looked like death. Really, I did.

Anyway, one of the dinner conversations from that night was about our friend ML. He’s the guy that’s currently living it up in Japan. Someone at dinner had the great idea of visiting ML’s favorite Oklahoma Pancake establishment, Bev’s. We thought it would be fun to eat at Bev’s and have a Japanese Pancake Night; which Japanese Pancakes are just regular pancakes eaten with chopsticks. Yes, we totally made that up!

Monday night, The Roommate, The Roommate’s Husband, MrT, and I all ate at Bev’s in honor of ML. Here are some pictures of Japanese Pancake Night…..

MrT and I eating our Japanese Pancakes. See, this picture is much better! And look at MrT's cool glasses! Aren't those cool? I wish I would have woren my cool glasses. No, I really have cool glasses...they're red.

The Roommate and The Roommate's Husband enjoying Japense Pancakes. Actually, The Roommate is eating Eggs Benedict. I guess she didn't get the memo that it was Japanese PANCAKE Night! I kid, I kid!

I must say it was a fun night!

Life as a single

Today I received this mass email from the Singles Minister at church…..

Class,
…. is co-hosting with us a cookout and devotional at the Park on Sunday. I have just received a call from a single from (another church in town) who is about your age wondering what age singles would be attending. Please come out that Sunday evening. I think there will be a good group your age attending.

Ok, I don’t blame the minister for this email because he seems like a nice guy. And I'm aware that he is trying to get people to attend the cook-out, but really? REALLY? He wants my singles class to attend a cookout because there might be a good group your age attending. See, this is why I take Single Trips! Right here is a good example of the dumb things people say to singles. When I read the email I laughed to myself, and immediately emailed my friend Suzy... to make fun of the email. WELLL, funny thing is I didn’t hit forward, I hit the reply. My lovely Singles Minister received my email poking fun of his email. Now, normally I would feel bad for this whole thing. You know, making fun of someone to their face. However on this occasion I don’t.

Here's my resply that I thought went to my friend Suzy....

Did you get this email? If so, what does he mean by....single from (another town) who is about your age. I'm sorry but this sentence made me laugh out loud!

In the summertime when the weather's high...

Another busy weekend has come and gone. Monday is always so depressing, but it seems worse in the summer. I’d much rather be playing at the pool, than sitting at a desk wearing a sweater. Yes, I’m really wearing a sweater. Ok on to the Weekend Updates.

Friday
I hung with two great friends, Krista and Tara. Krista is one of my oldest friends. Krista and I met when I was in 8th grade at church camp. Since then we’ve gone to High School together, been college roommates, and gone through the whole college/real world transition. And after all those things, we’re still friends. Anyway, Last week Krista celebrated a birthday so Tara and I celebrated with her. We enjoyed a home cooked meal, and then ventured downtown to meet OK Dude. He had a new girl he wanted us to meet. IT Girl, as he calls her, seemed nice but she didn’t overly impress me. BUT, she did inform me that there is an H&M in Dallas; which as you know…excited me beyond words. Actually, I was speechless. All I could say was…SHUT UP!

Saturday
This was an exciting day. Sister #2 and I went to see Harry Potter. I was very impressed with the movie. I highly recommend the movie, and its $9.00 worthy.
After the movie Sister #2 and I went to the pool. I love the pool! I love reading and lying by the pool. It’s great. If I ever become a millionaire, I’m going to build a pool. I might even get a pool boy!
Saturday evening was spent eating hamburgers and visiting my favorite cupcake joint. I took my parents and Sister #2 to my favorite cupcake place. My dad was impressed that people actually pay $3 for a cupcake. I quickly reminded him that Sister #1 and I had a dream of owning a coffee/cupcake place; a dream that he shot down. Yup, he’s eating his words now!

Sunday
After church my friend, Teresa, and I decided to walk around Lake Hefner, which is about 11-12 miles. We were doing great until the last mile. I had to stop because the world started going black. Then when I stopped my friend got a bit sick to her stomach. As you can guess, we did not have enough water in us to walk 11-12 miles. But luckily a random nice man, who was fishing, offered us a ride to our car and some ice. I could have kissed this man! Of course, I didn’t because I didn’t know him, he was old, and he had a big bucket of crickets in his trunk. Yeah, we won’t talk about how I ate ice out of his ice chest that I’m sure he touched with his cricket hands. Really, we won’t talk about that!

Anonymous Truths

This is an experiment to see how honest people can be if they don't have to identify themselves. A question from one of my favorite blogs- Anonymous Truths.

The Rules:
1. All comments should be left anonymously.
2. Just because the comments are anonymous is NOT an excuse to leave an inappropriate or judgmental remark.
3. It is fine for a healthy dialog to take place in the comments section, but keep it clean, impersonal, and on track.
4. If you recognize someone’s answer, please keep it to yourself.
5. This is in NO WAY intended to be offensive or hurtful to anyone.

The Question:
Confession is good for the soul, so...

Baby got back!

Dear Judi Jazzercise,

I would like to thank you for keeping me in shape these past few months. You see, I haven’t been running for almost 3 months. I have solely been Jazzercising every evening. Judi, you have developed some great routines that work my muscles very hard and I always walk away from class feeling great. But you see, my butt is starting to grow, and my pants are starting to get tight. I just can’t have this happen. So due to the enlarging butt, I have made the decision to start running again. Now, don’t worry I will continue to Jazzercise, but I just wanted to let you know that I will have another workout program in my life. Trust me, it’s for the best. I get cranky when my pants are too tight.

Ok Chick

Tip of the day

Today, McDonald’s is giving away free hot or iced McCafé mocha. Gotta love McDonald's! Not only are they giving away free coffee they are giving it away all day. Well, not all day but for 12 hours (7am-7pm). If I loved coffee I would rush over to McDonald's and get one, but since I only like nonfat Chais....I'll stick with Starbucks.

So, so what, I'm still a rock star

Today, my lunch partners are MIA. Again, I come to you, my blogger friends, to entertain me for the next thirty minutes. My Lean Cuisine just doesn’t cut it on the entertainment side, and I’ve already looked through the pictures on People.com.

Blogger World, I have a major crisis at work. No, none of my office supplies were high jacked; which she is still missing her wire basket. For the love of goodness, someone give this lady her wire basket! Anyway, my crisis is about food. It’s the candy bucket. I have a candy bucket on my desk. No, not a candy jar, a bucket; and my lovely coworkers love to fill it with good candy. Currently, I have Snickers, Twix, Hersey Bars of every flavor, jaw breakers, and suckers. I have to tell you, you can only resist the candy bucket for so long. Today, I cracked. I cracked like an egg. It was ugly. Apparently, I have a weakness for Twix Bars. Really? Do you know it’s been 10 years since I’ve had a Twix? I didn’t think I liked Twix. Oh, but I do now. I can't stop eating these things. I believe I need to regroup and walk away from my desk. Yes, I will walk away. I will walk across the street to Starbucks for a nonfat Chai. Oh stop judging me!

Bad Day?

You think you are having a bad day? Be thankful you are not my coworker. Today, I received this company wide email from her….

I came back to work today after being on vacation for 2 days & my wire basket is missing...no note or anything - does anyone know where it went?

I don’t know why, but this makes me laugh. I guess the thought of coming back from vacation to find your office supplies high jacked, just cracks me up!

No boss, no clock, no stress, no dress code

Due to the fact that I'm too lazy to do a Weekend Update, I thought a couple highlights would be just as good. Enjoy!

1. I experienced my first Turkey Burger, and it was yummy. You guys know I’m all about low fat stuff. I’m so into low fat stuff that I usually over look the fact that it taste like crap. However, Sister #1 made some fabulous Turkey Burgers! I think I’ve been converted to a Turkey Burger lover.
2. I attended 4 aerobics classes in one day. I’m sure to you this is idiotic and boarder line crazy, but to me it was loads of fun and great!
3. I went to the movies by myself. Oh wait it gets better. I went to see Hannah Montana- The Movie by myself. The positive part to this loser moment, is the movie guy let me in the theater for free. At first I thought this act of kindness was because of my good looks. Then I remembered I was a 28 year old watching a kid movie, by myself. I am now giving you permission to judge me.
4. Sister #1 and I volunteered at our town’s 4th of July festival. It was fun until a huge thunderstorm blew through with 50 mph winds, thunder/lighting, and rain. A security guard mentioned tornados and the place cleared in 30 seconds! Lord Gary would have been proud.
5. My family had birthday lunch for my mom. It was an excellent lunch!

Blind Date Update

Well, as Ally pointed out my blind date was over 12 hours ago. I apologize for not keeping you in the loop. I know everyone likes to have updates on my exciting life. No, I’m not being sarcastic. I know you really do.

If you are just tuning in for this special Blind Date Update let’s look back to how we got here. A few weeks ago, a friend asked if I’d be willing to meet one of her coworkers. I informed her that I have no standards. I just ask that they are breathing and have health insurance. I’d like to say I’m kidding, but I’m kind of not. Last week Blind Date Guy, who I will not name Guy #6, emailed to see what night I would like to get together. I replied to his email with the night that best fit my busy, hectic, crazy schedule; which as luck would have it, this week I was free 5 out of the 7 days.

Tuesday Blind Date Guy, who I’m not calling Guy #6, met me at a fun outdoor bar. Since I had no idea what this guy looked like, I had to reply a description of his work clothes for the day. It’s a good thing he was wearing Gray Slacks and a White Shirt, because I don’t know if I could have spotted him in anything else. Kidding…
The evening was pretty enjoyable. He seemed like a nice guy. He didn’t talk about work the whole time. He didn’t make me pick out where we met, and he didn’t annoy me to the moon. All around it was a nice evening. I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, but if he doesn’t call/email then I’m ok as well. SO I guess we could rule that this blind date was a success. I had fun, met a new person, and had chips and salsa at one of my favorite places. A success!