Saturday, March 26, 2011

Overheard in my office (and by overhead, I mean read in my email)

Background: I work at a graduate school in the admissions office and I've been working crazy hours for the last six months partly because our process is antiquated and it needs an update. We just started working on our new online application.

Paraphrased convo I had via email at work:
Coworker #1: Hey, could you two edit the newsletter draft this afternoon?
Me: I'm happy to take a look. I have a meeting about the new online app from 1-3 (YAY!) though so any time after that is good.
Coworker #2: Congrats on your meeting. I know you are excited.
Me: uhm, yeah. It's pretty much the most exciting thing going on in my life.

And I wasn't even kidding! How did I become such a freaking grown up?  Or a sad, sad individual depending on your point of view.

It's going to be a lot of work for some of my favorite people but it will be awesome when it's over. I seriously might do cartwheels down the hall when this is all finished. I just hope I don't break a hip and that no one video tapes it and puts it on YouTube because it's been about 15 years since I've done a cartwheel and no one needs to see that.

The only other semi-exciting thing going on is that one of my favorite bloggers, The Bloggess, chose my comment as the "comment of the day" yesterday. I debating even bringing this up because it's probably nerdy and lame to be as excited as I am, but then I remembered I am nerdy and lame and said fuck it. You can read my totally insightful, world-changing comment here.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Shocking news: People on the internet are weird

I love checking my blogger stats. It makes me feel loved if anyone reads it and that actually makes me want to update it more often. Maybe it's because I'm a middle child or maybe everyone feels the same way but I want people to like me. If they don't, that's cool too. But I find myself very funny and entertaining and want other people to feel the same way.

Lots of people get here from comments I make on other blogs (hi!) and from my twitter page because I post a link when I update this blog.

The stats page also shows if people searched on Google or another search engine and the phrases they used to get here. A couple of them make no sense. I am pretty sure I've never blogged about Depeche Mode but someone found this blog by googling it. I did have a dream about David Bowie a while back but I think that's the only music-related post on here.

Someone stumbled upon a post about me accidentally drinking vodka on the treadmill by searching "head hurt vodka." I hope they weren't looking for hangover remedies or explanations of why vodka makes your head hurt.

Sandpaper pedicure is actually a pretty popular search string that leads people here (to a post about how my cat licks my feet). I'm guessing people are looking for tips to get rid of calluses. I do not like feet so there is no way I'm going to google to find out.

I was going to post more about this but I got too lazy to finish.

UPDATE: Another thing people search is "overall jorts" which leads to a post about some awesomely dressed guys at an A&M football game. But if you put that into GIS now, it brings up my profile picture from this blog next to a picture of those guys. HILARIOUS!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Yippee ki yay, motherf***kers! (Or how to enjoy Texas stereotypes)

I've lived in Texas my entire life, always within 100 miles of Houston. I listen to some country music and have ridden a horse a couple of times a few decades ago but I don't have big hair like the TV show Dallas circa 1983 or own a gun. In fact, I've never even shot a gun, so I'm not exactly what you'd call a country girl. But I absolutely love the BBQ Cookoff weekend that precedes the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

If you've stumbled upon this blog from somewhere other than stalking me personally, then you probably know very little about HLSR. It's basically a rodeo competition (bull riding, roping, barrel racing, etc) mixed with a carnival, art show, livestock show, craft fair, concerts and food. Lots and lots of food (turkey leg or deep fried Oreo anyone?). The rodeo is a huge three-week event in Houston and the main goal is to raise money for college scholarships. More than 24,000 people volunteer throughout the year to help facilitate the whole thing. (I was one of those 24,000 the past few years but I just couldn't swing it this year with work being so crazy and me being such a lazy ass. The first show is tonight and I know I'll miss a good time.)

The Friday before the rodeo starts is Go Texan Day and everyone in Houston is encouraged to dress up in their cowboy and cowgirl best. Now, prior to the being on the committee, I didn't own any western wear at all. I bought some boots and wear them with a pair of jeans and a button down. These boots are the most expensive shoes I own, by a long shot. But when you have to be on your feet for hours, you need something that's comfy. I always dress up for Go Texan Day because it's the only day of the year where I can wear jeans to work.

Anyway, the weekend before the rodeo starts is the World Championship Bar-B-Que Contest (referred to as "cookoff" by all the cool people) and it's basically a giant party. It's open to the public but really the only way to go is if you have access to a private party, which are held in giant tents. My awesome friend/Super Woman ReneĆ© is a sponsor for one of the cooking teams and a few years ago she invited all of us internet nerds to go with her. We pay a small fee and it includes all of the food and drinks we can handle in that tent. All of the money raised helps with scholarships so I like to call it "drinking for charity." ReneĆ© lives close to Reliant so several girls and I spend the weekend at her house. It's an insane amount of fun.

The cookoff is what I assume most people think Texas is like. I've never lived outside of Texas but I have come across many people that are from other states and countries in my 32 years and it's kind of funny to hear their ideas of what they expected Texas to be like. Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States, so no, we don't ride horses to work and school. Texas is a huge, diverse state so there are more "country" areas than Houston of course but it's still a very modern place.

Cookoff weekend is stereotypically Texas though. This year, a record-breaking 244,184 people were at the cookoff Thursday-Saturday wearing their cowboy hats, boots, giant belt buckles, turquoise jewelry and jeans. There is tons of yummy bbq to eat and beer and liquor to drink. And there is people watching galore. It is amazing what people will wear and what they will do after a couple of ribs and a few Miller Lites.

On Saturday we walked out to the public stage where they have concerts to see Cory Morrow (who should never, ever rap) and there were several girls wearing late 1980s style denim dresses. No ma'am! And then there were the bumpits .
Bump, bump, bump it up!


There is also ample opportunity to drink too much and act silly. Luckily for me I wasn't on designated driver duty. This picture is from Saturday night. The tent we were in ran out of beer. So, I'm drinking bourbon and vodka (not mixed together but with water in each. Our friend Kristen drove down from Ft. Worth this year to go with us and she at one point decided she didn't want to hold two cups, so she poured the bourbon and water into the vodka and water. She said on Sunday that was a bad idea. No shit?)  I added a retro theme to this picture to cover up the fact that I'm swearing profusely. The last few years it has been freezing-ass cold during cookoff weekend. This year the weather was awesome but it was humid like only Houston can do humid.
Bottoms up, bottoms up!
If you ever have the opportunity to go to the cookoff, DO IT! And make sure to wear comfy shoes, take a camera (I took like 3 pictures with my iphone. I'm not a good cameraman. The other girls took some pictures but haven't sent them/posted them on Facebook yet) and be prepared to wash your hair 30 times to get rid of the BBQ smoke smell. After washing my hair three times, it still smells like a mixture of smoke and coconut shampoo.