think you can avoid the Twilight phenomenon? I'd like to see you twi

This weekend the Twilight craze was in full force for the New Moon premiere. I myself had a moment of weakness as well. Late on Saturday night my friend Cilla and I did what any other girl would do....we drove to two Burger Kings searching for a very important thing missing from our lives: Team Edward water bottles. As we approached the drive through window, it felt like Christmas! In a few short minutes we would forever own our own piece of Edward. Imagine our disappointment when the BK guy told us he didn't have any. Not wanting to give up, we were determined to find a BK that had the water bottles. We NEVER go to BK, in fact I had no idea I lived two miles from two of them, so it was now or never. We get to the second BK and I prepare my speech:

Me: "Um...I was wondering if you guys had the Twilight water bottles?"

BK guy: "Bottled water?"

Me: "No, um, the Twilight water bottles."

BK guy: "Water bottles? You want water?"

Me: "No.....TWILIGHT water bottles"

BK guy: "Come to the window"

The rest of the conversation went downhill from there. It involved me repeating the word TWILIGHT for the 4th time and him going "Whaaaa? I don't know what you are talking about." We drove off in shame/laughter. I mean how can you exist in this world, and especially work at Burger King and NOT know what Twilight is when its plastered all over your business's windows! The employees of Burger King need to take more ownership in their jobs!

This story ends with a happy ending, Cilla ended up ordering us Twilight water bottles online :)

Recipe for Disaster

Here is an update on my life lately. My other friends do a great job of posting recipes on their blogs, so I can't even try to compete because they are way more talented than I ever will be. What I can give you though is a recipe for a crazy night, which will lead to stories the next day.

Ingredients:
- 1 weekday night
- 1 early morning flight
- 1 cell phone with dying battery
- 2 friends willing to be partners in crime
- 1 never ending happy hour
- 2 or more male figures who will be a bad influence on your decisions
- bad decisions, use sparingly or for more of a kick use generously
- free alcohol drinks, for taste

Directions:
Mix all together, stir, shake, taste, and use your judgement. Also, make sure that the first three ingredients occur in order listed.


The story:

So I went to Chicago last weekend. It was a faaaaabulous time (once I got over my hangover from the "cooking" I had done the night before). I will have to blog about Chicago tomorrow. The first part to this saga starts with the fact that I overused the last two ingredients in this recipe, I would recommend a more conservative approach the next time. Because of this, I missed my original flight to Chicago and experienced a miserable morning of traveling.

The night before Chicago happened to be my only night to hang out with my good friends who were in town. We decided to go to happy hour and dinner since we do not get to see each other much since none of us live in the same city. I will say one friend in particular and I have had our moments where happy hour turns into a series of bad, yet fun, decisions.....so we are sort of notorious for that. This night was no different. It started with the decision to get the jumbo margarita at Cyclone Anayas instead of the small, then proceeded with the decision to get another jumbo after the first one. You would have thought we would have been done after that, but no. There was another great idea to go back to their hotel at the W and try out the Ghost Bar. Well apparently the Ghost Bar wasn't open yet so to kill time we ordered a bottle of wine at the hotel. Then, in walked the guys who influenced us to make even more bad decisions that kept the night going until 2am. Then I went to sleep and my phone died. The next morning you can only imagine what happened.....but just picture me walking through the airport with crazy hair, no makeup, sunglasses on, a scarf and hat. People kept staring at me. I'm not sure if it was because I looked ridiculous or if it was because they thought I was someone famous. I'm going to go with the latter option. Paparazzi, go to town!

I Saw the Sign (in a fortune cookie)

I saw the sign. It came from an event that was small and insignificant in itself, but it reminded me of the single most profound thing in life: that God loves me. I am sharing this because it excites me when events that seem extraordinary occur, and I think whatever your beliefs, everyone can find some value in an experience like this.

For me personally, I have a solid faith in God. I could talk about it for a long time, but I feel like it deserves a blog of its own. Tonight my roommate mentioned that she had just started going to Bible study and was getting excited about reconnecting with her faith. I thought it was cute that she was bringing this back into her life, but I never for a second thought about myself and how we all must continuously go through this effort no matter where we are in our faith. She mentioned that her Bible study was talking about the Spirit living in you, and it was a concept she was just starting to grasp. She said she finally started getting the concept of remembering that God is always in your life when right after her Bible study, her brother (who has a strong faith) called her. She was touched by this event because her brother rarely reaches out to talk to her due to a large difference in age.

I was listening to her story, but not really trying to understand the significance the event had to her. Quite honestly I was also more captivated by my dinner I was eating, Pei Wei's Dan Dan noodle bowl, because I had just gotten back from a grueling day of work and airport traveling. I heard her words, but didn't really acknowledge the spirituality of her experience. Just as I finished dinner, I reached in for my fortune cookie. I actually throw away my fortune cookies most of the time without opening them because I just don't really care for them. For some reason today, I thought "what the heck," and I dug right in.

I didn't even care about reading the fortune, but I apathetically looked at the catchy saying. Then I was floored. The fortune read something that directly spoke to the one goal that has been burning on my heart for the past several months. Sure fortunes are always generic and say things that you want to hear, but this one even mentioned a timeline of achieving the goal exactly when I wanted to achieve it. The wording of the fortune seemed to personally speak to my specific goal and though it was short I felt like the words used in this fortune hinted at several different meanings relevant to my life personally. I know skeptics out there could point to several different reasons to convince me that this was not a message from God, but because I do have faith in His presence in my life, I cannot separate an event like this from my beliefs. If signs from God were blatant, life wouldn't be so confusing.

Before I tell you the reasons why I think this is a sign of God in my life, I want to preface by telling you that I'm not going to tell you what the fortune said. :) This is partly because I am not ready to talk about this until (and if) any concrete progress towards my goal materializes and partly because I don't think it is completely important in conveying my main point in this story. There is a greater story out there to tell, and the story of my personal goal is much less important than the fact that God does love us and if you open your heart and your eyes you will see it too in the smallest of things because life is made of the smallest of things.

This is what I will say....this particular goal is something that has been building in the back of my mind for several years. I can think of many significant moments in my life during this time period where my desire for this goal was building. I honestly have never wanted anything as much as I have wanted this. In the past few months particularly, it has gotten to a point where I can't ignore it. I have often talked about my difficulty in being able to tell the difference between my selfish desires and God's plan for me. I have looked for explicit signs and never really looked into my heart. It wasn't until a friend pointed out to me that if it has consumed my thoughts for the past several years, that it must be God moving my heart in that direction. Since that conversation I have already started attempting to make my dream a reality. The fortune cookie I feel like was not quite a sign as much as it was a gift from God. It made me smile, gave me confidence in my dreams, and I really feel like it shows how much He loves us and tries to show us in even the smallest of ways. If you look at the Bible, God finds humble ways to show us He loves us, and it is not always the grand gesture you are expecting. Nonetheless, this was perfect for me, evidence that He is all knowing.

I hope this does not turn those of you who do not share my faith away. I think everyone can appreciate that there are those touching moments in life that you can't always explain why it impacted you. These events are always different for everyone, and can range from the tiniest to the biggest of events. I will keep you updated in the future regarding my dream :) I don't know what the future will hold, but I do know pursuing this is the right thing for me, whether or not it works out.

Stay tuned for my next blog posts.....some pretty hilarious stuff has been happening to me!

Monday Night Grocery Shopping Is Like MNF For Single People

So I've been wondering where all the normal, single people exist in Dallas (you know, the ones that hold steady jobs, don't have mental problems, and actually are reasonably attractive), and I think I might have found a place where they congregate. The grocery store on Monday night. Why haven't I thought of this before??? Probably because Monday nights have been previously reserved for some of my girliest rituals: power yoga and Gossip Girl. I have been single for so long that I have been stuck in girl world, missing out on all of these opportunities at the grocery stores! Screw double coupon days, now there are even better deals at the grocery store!

This all happened by accident (or shall we say fate?), but one weekend I went out of town and ran out of time to go to the grocery store that Sunday like I normally would. The next night I went instead; and voila, men in suits, button ups, and gym clothes galore! On top of that they were BY THEMSELVES with no ring! These looked like lonely, responsible men who actually cook every once in a while and take care of themselves! I was floored.

Now, I haven't actually met anyone at the grocery store exactly yet, but I feel like I am already increasing my chances of finding a decent guy out there. You never know who you are going to find in the frozen pizza aisle. ;) Bye bye married people on Sundays, Monday night is the NEW Sunday in grocery land!

Where are some places you think are good for finding single people?