GEORGIA

So my last post dropped the bomb that I got a new job. Big news for me, especially considering I have only had one job since college. Cintas was all I knew, and the unknown left me feeling a bit uneasy. And then I came to training in Covington, Georgia. It's been 48 hours, and I can tell you this: I made the best decision of my life.

Besides the fact that I'm sicker than a dog (sinus infections get me every year!), I'm more focused, reenergized, and actually ENJOY what I am learning. I'm not dreading the 8-5 training sessions each day, in fact I can't wait to get there. Oh, and the doubling of my pay? Doesn't hurt... one bit.

Covington, GA is just about the cutest town I've ever set foot in before. Movies like Driving Miss Daisy and the tv show Vampire Diaries were filmed here because of their picturesque town square. We saw VD being filmed on Monday night, complete with gunfire and a funeral profession. I don't watch that show, but if you do, beware- someone's gonna die. As for the homest along Floyd street- gaping open mouth kind of pretty. Stunningly gorgeous, and since it's xmas, you can only bet there's a neighborhood bet as to who can deck the halls the best. Here's a link to pics of some of the homes:
http://www.lasersol.com/covington/pages/a_9360_o.html

I'm here with just 2 other girls, and thankfully they're both great! We're staying here this weekend and have plans to get some xmas shopping done and of course study hard for our upcoming final. More pics to come I'm sure!

Also, Happy birthday to Christina Reinerman today! I cannot believe it's already December. Tomorrow is Brian's 27th, and that means I'm just a mere week from being 28. Wow.

Birth Control

So I have to admit that only 4 days into my "mini vacation" in between jobs and I'm already bored! I spent most of Monday and Tuesday occupying myself with hanging new curtains in the house, catching up on about a dozen loads of laundry, and playing endless amounts of games of hearts on the computer. I rock at that game :) Tuesday I talked to Jen Pinkel, a great friend of mine who I worked with at Cintas once upon a time and now lives about 90 minutes south of STL in a little town called Cape Girardeau, MO. She has 2 of the cutest kids around, but 2 year old Taylor had a fever and her 2 month old baby Kellan refused to take a bottle. With her husband traveling for work all week, it sounded like she was at the end of the rope! I offered to come help and of course catch up, and what transpired might have been the best 24 hour dose of birth control ever!

Kellan had his 2 month old shots during the day, and about 6pm developed a mild allergic reaction and while it was cured with a little dose of tylenol, the normally even keel baby cried for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT. Poor Jen was so sad to see her baby inconsolable, so Aunt Katie to the rescue to get the little babe to settle down! Combine this with Taylor puking in her bed from coughing so hard, and I gotta admit I'm doing just great as a mom to Jack and nothing else! Here's a cute picture of Taylor:


It was great to see Jen of course and catch up on our now crazily different lives. We used to be quite the dynamic duo in the bar scene, but now it's just in pj's with wine and trashy MTV shows that we do our best work! The below pic is taken when Kellan was like three days old, so he's a little bigger now, but look how cute! Love their precious family!

The Cup Game

Yesterday was my exit interview from Cintas, so I'm officially free until my start date of November 29th. That's in EIGHTEEN days people. I need to create a list of things to do so I don't spend all of my time watching SVU reruns. But let's face it, my dvr is getting emptied in the next 2 1/2 weeks!

Last weekend we went out on Saturday to celebrate the new job. We went to the Good Pie in Midtown (good, but over priced pizza and horrible draft microbrews), but then after struggling to decide where to take the party to next, enter The Cup Game. Apparently I'm really behind the times because the guys have played this for years! Everyone writes down the name of one bar on a napkin, receipt, whatever... then you place them in the cup (or hat, or whatev) and we had the waitress pull out three bars and you're supposed to go to them in that order. We went first to Broadway Oyster Bar, where we attempted to play quarters. Here's a pic of me trying and Adam laughing (note the dark hair!):


We failed miserably at quarters. Something about that purple table smeared with years of nastiness didn't make for a suitable surface! The live band was good, a little too hippie for me, but we stuck it out and finally headed to the 2nd bar pulled from The Cup Game... a little place called Humphrey's!

For those of you who don't know, Humps was our college bar. I essentially lived there, knew the bartenders, doormen, and might have spent my 21st bday in the secret back bathrooms. Pics are starting to get fuzzy by now, but notice the stairs and the guy at the top of them in the red hat? He works at Humps, and his main job is to make sure people don't fall down the stairs. Trust me, sometimes he fails at his job. Below is Mike, Dana, and Copple and the infamous large plastic cup in the bottom left of the screen (that we all used, hey might still use, for water in our appts):


The 3rd bar was the new dance club on campus, known as the Library. I always chuckle at colleges who have a bar known as the library, as if you are really gonna fool your parents. Report cards don't lie, kids. Thankfully I have not ONE pic from my time there. Not sure if this was because it was so short lived, or because I was embarrassed to be there and felt extremely old and taking pics was only gonna draw more attention to us. Either way, I'm glad there is no "evidence."

Good times though- glad to be done with my first job, excited to move on to the next chapter in my career, and sure did have a fun time celebrating!

Fall Photoshoot

In prep for my annual Christmas card, this weekend Julie snapped some photos of me and Jack in the leaves (after her Save the Date photo shoot with Bern). You see, I've been getting some heat for my past xmas cards because they are only of my four legged son and not of me too. So this year I jumped into the leaves with him. What developed is nothing short of hilarious. Here's a couple to make you laugh:



I'll save the winning pic for when you receive my actual Christmas card, but know that about 20 pics were taken to get the perfect shot, and that vest I'm wearing is still covered completely in leaves that will have to be hand picked off. Labor of love I'm telling you!

I can also now announce proudly something I've been working really hard to make happen: I have a new job! It's with Bard Medical, and I'll be in the medical/urological division selling really
cool things like catheters and feeding tubes. After 5 1/2 years at Cintas, it's very bittersweet to leave the friends I've surrounded myself with, but I know this is the best career move for me and I'm so excited!!

I'm soaking up my final 2 weeks with the 'tas before I enter "medical school" basically and training will be intense- something tells me I'm gonna be staring at bunch of weiners and hoo-has with all this catheter training. Yippee.

Lots of change- new job, new darker hair (see pics above), and colder weather! The end of 2010 is shaping up nicely :)

It's November??

What happened to October?! I usually throw a Halloween party, but this year I chose to "take my talents" to the south- Ole Miss that is. Kacey's cousin is a senior there, and we joined her brother and one of his friends for a weekend of tailgating in the Grove- also called "the center of the universe." I loved my time at SLU, don't get me wrong, but seriously... why didn't I go to school in the south?! I LOVED IT. Here's a couple pics:

Kacey & I under the tents!










Tent city below!










The Colonel himself!













View from our seats!










And even though Ole Miss got crushed by Auburn, it was such a fun game and the free tickets from the random boys we met tailgating didn't hurt either :)

It's Fall!

I love fall. Don't get me wrong, warm weather is great and all, but the consistent 90's temps are a bit much once October gets here. The leaves are turning finally, the temps have cooled, and I haven't had my A/C on in over 3 weeks! As summer winded down, one of my fav events took place:















How presh is he?!! The Webster public pool lets dogs swim the very last day of the year, and Jack is killing it with the doggie swim move, right?! He tried to keep two tennis balls in his mouth at all time too- let's just say he has issues with sharing.

And then Labor Day hit and my friends visited for the Cards/Reds game and then an epic party of flip cup on the deck. Here's a little proof of the weekend:










And then all of a sudden it was time for Oktoberfest... and boy did we do it right this year! Hermann was never put into action, so we ended up at the Soulard event. I will DEFINITELY be back! Check out this crowd:





























Needless to say, I'm tired from this month! My brother and dad will be here this weekend, and then Halloween I get to head to Ole Miss with Kacey to visit her cousin Greer! Pics to come :)

Sick Computer

You're probably thinking... oh there she goes again, dropping off the blog bandwagon! Well no, my friends, it's not gonna be that easy to get rid of me! You see, about 3 weeks ago during an epic Labor Day party with my best friends from college, my relatively brand new Dell decided to wipe out it's hard drive. Done. Gone. Forever.

The good thing is that the warranty is still covered, but of course I was always "getting around to" backing up my files. I only had the sucker 6 months, ya know?! I never anticipated this to happen so quickly! Everything is G.O.N.E. I should have it back from the Dell hospital soon.

Again, good thing we have social media like facebook to retrieve my photos, and email is a wonder these days with saved and deleted messages folders to get those precious emails back that I couldn't live without... like the recipe for white chicken chili, which I needed today!

September has been a serious blur. I've been babysitting/housesitting/dog sitting for pretty much the whole month, and wrap in 2 work trips and an out of town wedding (that I was in... congrats Keri Wilkie Claybourn!), I've been a little busy. October won't be much quieter, but I have to admit I like this pace. My inches of dust on my furniture and lack of underwear b/c I don't have time to do laundry... well those things are just a price I have to pay for being social :)

I'm excited for fall to get here. Our record breaking summer of scorching hot days is leaving me yearning for hot chocolate, apple picking, and Halloween costume shopping! I will kick myself come February when I see that I admitted this, but... I'm over summer. Bring on the cooler weather!