halloween ball

alternate title: never get stuck in a sphere at the top of a tower with 275 people and two one-stall bathrooms.

i regret to inform that i have no pictures of my halloween costume. my camera's batteries died because my camera hasn't been plugged in to charge since the last time i officially occupied my home in nashville. and, i only had triple-A batteries as backups (if you know me and my profession, you will understand).

the party was held at the top of this:

that is, the sunsphere, the monument to the 1982 world's fair celebrating energy and the icon which almost singlehandedly makes knoxville cool (almost). the 'sphere closed to the public something like 15 years ago and only recently reopened. upon my first visit, i was disappointed to find that the 'sphere in fact was not full of wigs as bart simpson once told me it was.

the view from the top is breathtaking, again almost making knoxville cool. the observation deck as a party venue sucks. it's a ring with elevators and a kitchen in the middle, so when i go to find my boyfriend after he failed to return from the bar, i can't find him because we are, in fact, both circling the 'sphere in the same direction.

also, consider this: 275 people + 2 one-stall bathrooms = misery. i found myself in line in front of a drunk 21-year-old wearing a very short marie antoinette-esque getup. her boob was hanging out the top. literally. another girl better than i had the decency to approach and pull her dress up over her boob, telling her to cover up because she was embarassing herself. i did not have this decency. i had to pee, therefore could think of nothing else.

this was a party of law school students, obsessive compulsive, bombastic folks who all went over the top with their costumes. it looked like a costume party scene out of a movie or tv show. i could not believe how fantastic some of the costumes were: spinal tap; ms. pacman and blinky the ghost; the price is right showcase showdown complete with light-up showcase showdown contestant booths; and mormons (distasteful, yes; funny, yes).

see for yourself here (click chilla). you might even find me dressed in my favorite rock star video game get up.

you want to do what?

boyfriend says yes when girlfriend asks if he wants to go out to dinner + boyfriend decides to have a cookout with his guy friends
= very unhappy girlfriend

diary .... uhhhhh

i'm about to head to knoxville for the third time in a week, and i can feel the calories and fat content of my past few meals going straight for my waist. sigh. i'm trying to motivate myself to go workout before i leave, but i'm so tired (and have such a big headache) that it's not going well.

this is how my fall will be. trip after trip after trip to knoxville + exhaustion - physical activity = pounds adding up. i've been through this before in the spring and last fall with my long-term out-of-town assignments. i know i have to do something now or risk yet again gaining the unwanted pounds.

so here goes. i've got a food diary. i hoped to not have to resort to obsessing over every single thing that i eat, but i have few options. and, when i have to start weight watchers in a few months (i know it's coming), it won't be such a challenge to track my points.

lets see, first entry

weight: more than anyone would guess

food eaten today: (so far) some milk and cereal, a handful of honey-wheat pretzels, a ham sandwich and an apple

physical activity: walked dogs, sat on couch, about to sit in a car for three hours.

i've got some work to do.

crank it up

working 'til 9 p.m. on monday + working at 9 a.m. on tuesday = cranky gal

Stop, pedi time

Pedicure this afternoon + Running 5k tonight = duh

observations, oo la la

_ any establishment whose soul business purpose is to sell bagels should not be allowed to exist if it chooses not to be open on sunday mornings.
_ 1/2 normal amount of sleep = 2x annoyance by bratty teenyboppers.
_ IT'S RAINING!!!!!!! (halelujah, rejoice)
_ this is spin lizzy's 200th posting

daily observations

some random thoughts of the day all rolled into one:

_ school started this week = crazy soccermoms back on the roads in droves = wrecks and other unpleasant traffic issues = me late for work after spending twice as long on the road as usual
_ while stuck in traffic this a.m., i observed this car tag on the back of a lexus: LCNZPL8. hilarious ... so obvious and generic and therefore hilarious! mad props
_ (temperatures >100) + standing outside Graceland in hopes of seeing the King's tomb = very, very, very bad idea. people, i love elvis too, but seriously, get a brain.
_ and my last ob du jour is a bit more serious, so take heed: remember you are your brother's keeper. i'm watching the relationship of two friends go on the rocks because one isn't reaching out to the other in her time of need. it's not fun to watch and it's an unnecessary place to be.

in this day and age of facebook and bloggers and ims, i think we sometimes forget to take that extra step -- make the phone call, swing by the house to say hi in person. you might not know your friend is needing an ear to talk to or a face to smile at them, so just make sure you check in on everyone from time to time. you never know when you'll need them to check in on you.

and ... scene

reinvention

realization #1 of the day:
it's f'ing hot

realization #2 of the day:
everyone is especially testy

correlation #1 of the day:
it's f'ing hot, therefore everyone is especially testy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

after spending the day of listening to my boss snap at the slightest disturbance and getting an earful out by the secretary of a mayor of one of the more pretentious towns in the state for merely suggesting that an elderly woman died from heat-related causes while gardening NEAR (not in) NEAR her precious town, i've spent the evening languishing on the couch in avoidance of the heat and reading a book about a girl who bitches all day about the idiots around her.

and, i've thought of these additional things:
3. i've been working out and running religiously for the past couple of weeks and i have not lost weight, but rather gained weight. and before you point out that muscle weighs more than fat, i shall point out that i don't feel any skinnier either.

4. my dog is crazy and needs her ears cleaned out

5. corn puffs probably aren't the best thing to have dinner. i should have tried to actually cook dinner, but it's too f'ing hot.

6. it's too f'ing hot to go out and exercise. this above-100-degrees thing has got to go.

7. i need to do something different with my blog.

don't ask me how i got from No. 3 to No. 7, but the point is i'm there and i'm (slightly) reinventing my blog. i think it first popped into my head as a tool for helping me to once and for all lose the 20 pounds i've been struggling to lose for the past year and a half. if i vent and/or brag on my blog i have a stronger method of accountability by including anyone who reads it in my weight loss efforts. sweet. but don't worry, this is not a weight loss-focused blog.

plus, lets face it, my blog in its former state was fairly boring. i got better feedback on my myspace rants likely because they were more intimate and more like me.

so, the result of my lame evening is hopefully a more interesting blog with more intimate ramblings about the insignificant-to-the-world (yet fucking important to me) struggles of a 20-something working gal living in the kinda big city. i'm sure there's not a single blog out there like it. ha. i'll still post some of the things i would have posted before, but i'll try to use more discretion in doing so.

i'd love to make you laugh a little bit, but i certainly won't gurantee it because i'm not so vain to believe i'm actually funny. but even more important to that, i hope to give you something to relate to.

feedback and suggestions much appreciated

oh, and P.S. i'm trying to find a blog design that reflects my blog's new personality, so forgive its current state of ugliness. it's going to have to do until i have some time to sit down and relearn me some html code. by the way, the template system on blogger is wieldy, annoying and f'ing sucks.