work.

Today there was a fundraiser breakfast at work with made-to-order omelets, biscuits and gravy and donuts. Not to mention breakfast burritos, bloody marys and mimosas. That’s right — bloody marys and mimosas at work. At 9 a.m. After breakfast was had, my team watched an hour of Predator. The movie. At work.

We worked today, too. Of course. But it doesn’t really feel like working. Not the way that I’m used to working feeling like — like a slow, drawn-out, suck-the-life-out-of-you process. Instead it’s refreshing and revitalizing and energizing and ridiculously fun. And when someone barks down the hall (which is what just happened) someone else yells out “What the F was that,” and then someone yells back, “A monkey.”
This is where I work.

the pillow of my dreams

on a recent trip to chicago on business, i stayed at a marriott hotel. the bed was insanely comfortable. best. sleep experience. ever.

i researched what type of pillow was on the bed, so that i could claim one for myself. here is what i found.

i'm totally getting one.

1-866-idol-06

chris freaking rocks.
but what was paula on tonight?
did you see it? she got stranger as the night went on. first, tears from elliot's song, then strange words, jumbled a bit and finally, standing on her feet, fist pumping, proclaiming how much she loves, loves, LOVES chris.

anyway.

catching you up

I am obsessed with Smucker’s natural peanut butter in the chunky variety. Obsessed. I go through a jar a week. It’s good on soy crisps and in a spoon by itself. So nutty.

Last night, I cooked with mole. I am obsessed with mole. I thought about eating it straight out of the jar, but I stopped myself.

Although I didn’t vote, I’m thrilled America picked Guy as the Next Food Network Star winner. Sorry Reggie, but Guy is better than you.

I’m also relieved that Ace was kicked off of American Idol. I was getting really sick of his confidence. He should be in a boy band. But he’s not a stand-alone star.

In other Idol news, I thought I saw Chris driving down Shawnee Mission Parkway last Friday. I think I have a problem.

I can’t get enough of My Super Sweet 16 on MTV.

And finally, I saw Counting Crows at The Legends Saturday, and can someone please tell me what happened to Adam Duritz? He’s totally not cool anymore. But he still has a rockin’ voice, which is really all that matters.

mistakes.

i have this picture frame that i got as a gift for my high school graduation. it's white and says "mizzou" all over it. it also has tiger paws on it. it's old. the tiger paw isn't even the cool mizzou thing anymore. i miss it.

there is a really old picture of nick and i in the frame. from when we were dating. my 21st birthday. behind it is an even older picture of my high school boyfriend and i. it was taken when i was up for rockhurst homecoming queen. i think i was 17. at one time, the picture hung in my locker in the senior hall. later, it went with me to college and served as a reminder of my life before columbia. i used to like the picture.

looking at it today, i realize much about it was a mistake. for starters, my hair (naturally a nice brunette) was copper. yes, copper. i went crazy with a bottle of sun-in and a hair dryer. i wanted to be blonde. i didn't understand that it wouldn't be that easy. i also had really bad straight-across, curled under bangs. yes, bangs. and to top it all off, my eyebrows were the size of those big fat red pencil erasers and i don't think i was wearing an ounce of makeup.

i also hadn't yet transitioned away from Gap "classic fit" jeans, which really just mean "make your butt look as long as your back and your legs look short" jeans. let me just tell you, they were stylin'.

i didn't win homecoming queen the year we took that picture. i came in second. i lost to a blonde girl who was skinnier and wore lots of makeup and had really cute flared jeans with a low waist, which made her tiny, perfect butt look even tinier and more perfect.

after that, i spent years wanting to be blonde. i covetted it. i hated blondes. i wanted it. the sparkle, the glow, the appeal. only recently have i really learned to appreciate my hair and its natural red highlights. only now have i learned to love me the way i was made. only now do i realize that the biggest mistake in the picture from highschool was that i was about to go away to college to learn to hate myself, to compare everything about me to perfect sorority girls and to petite pint-sized, tanned blondes - but only for a little while. i would come around. and i did. i love my hair color now. but it's so much deeper than that. i'm finally able to love myself.

let's make everyone freak out!

hurry up and panic. "fatal contact - bird flu in america" is set to air may 9 as ABC takes on the "what ifs" and the "worst-case scenerios."
one quote from the preview i saw goes like this :
scene: piles and piles of bodies
woman: "20 million dead and there's no stopping it!!!"
scene: empty fridge
woman: "what are we going to do?!?!"

okay, so my quotes may not be exactly accurate, but i'm glad that the producers claim that while the movie is fictional, it contains really valuable information that the public needs to know.

what i've learned this week.

I need to own a few more pair of jeans.

I’m pretty much loving that I can leave the house for work at the same time the old job required me to arrive.

I get much more accomplished when I don’t have rigid structure and rules.

I prefer half cubes to full cubes and natural light to florescent light.

Free soda is always a good thing.

Free animal crackers is an even better thing.

Free lunches and breakfasts are nice, too.

I have a new found affinity for children’s meal toys.

“Hey Whipple, Squeeze This” is a good book.

Being happy at work is possible.

not dead, just sleeping.

I'm still here. Just getting used to the new job. I'll be back soon. Keep checking.

being awesome.

my friend brad (bottom left) made this. he is all about being awesome. i'm glad i made the cut.

strip me again, please.

the knot in my leg is gone, and so is my aversion to having things stripped out of my body. the fifteen minutes i spent on the massage table yesterday was perhaps the best fifteen mintues of my week. and today i ran five miles mostly pain-free. the only problem is that now i'm all uneven. my left leg is crazy relaxed and tension-free, but my right leg isn't so great. and then there's my back and my neck and well, i'm scheduling a 45-minute session in two weeks.

in other news, i start my new job on monday.
and i got sucked into this show "the real housewives of orange county" on Bravo the other night, and while i'm ashamed to admit it, i think i'll watch it again. it was so rediculous.

finds

last night, i found a horde fest cd from 1996. ten years later, i still like the same songs.
they remind me of my high school boyfriend dave. i often wonder how he is. collective soul also reminds me of him. recently, a friend made me a mix cd with a bunch of new collective soul songs on it.

my friend from college, brad, friend-requested me on myspace today. i haven't heard from him in four years. nick and i were just talking about him last night. in his picture, he looked so much the same. i guess i look the same, too. i've just changed on the inside. a lot.

in two hours, i am going to go get a deep tissue knot in my leg "stripped out." it sounds horrible and the only thing making me go through with it is the fact that i've found running to be incredibly difficult lately. the other night, i couldn't muster enough pain free strides to pound out even three miles. i'm falling apart. so, i'm going to take three advil, go to my appointment, grit my teeth, shut my eyes and invision finishing the marathon. i really hope this stripping it out stuff isn't a bunch of silly talk that doesn't work. i'm sure i'll post a full report tomorrow. for now, i've got to go kick on the air. that's right. it's 90 degrees today. i'm not so sure i like it being 90 degrees in april. i hope we don't skip spring.

not so kosher.

helping

in august, i posted about billy. billy had cancer and had to get one of his legs amputated. although it takes five years to be considered cancer-free, all current tests show no traces of cancer. this is a good sign.

billy is a drummer and is in need of a prosthetic leg, which after insurance, is still going to cost around $38,000.

this link is about a benefit that will be held here in town. billy and his band, blackpool lights, will be playing. jason sudeikis from SNL will also be doing improv. if you can make it, come check it out. good band, good comedy and even better cause.

thanks.

don't laugh if it's not funny.

I have this Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live CD that’s pretty amazing. I love the fact that, unlike a lot of mainstream music, Matthews and Reynolds can actually play. And when they play, boy do they play well. But the problem I have with the CD is that Dave Matthews really likes to talk to the audience between songs, before song and during songs. This would be fine if he wasn’t such a mumbler. So it goes like this: The music to “Two Step” starts up, guitar playing, drum beating and then Dave decides to say something. Only instead of speaking in complete sentences with discernable words, it sounds more like this, “So, I was mmmmm and then hmkelaopopo and you know.”

Okay, so it’s gibberish and totally annoying. But the part that kills me is that the entire audience acts as if they can understand what he is saying. It goes like this:
Dave Matthews: “So, I was walking up the street the other day and I mmmm yadadadad blah blah blah.”
Crowd: “ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha.”

In my opinion, uncontrollable laughter at something you can’t possibly understand is just not called for. All it does is encourage the mumbling. So audience, please encourage mumbling at concerts for bands like The All American Rejects and Everclear. They can’t play live. They can’t even fake it. So maybe then, mumbling would be a nice buffer for the realization that you’ve paid a pretty penny for a ticket to hear a band play that can’t really play. But please, audience, when it’s Dave Matthews and guitar genius Tim Reynolds, don’t laugh at the mumbles. Just don’t.

me, mr. woof and a red bud.

Take two. Eyes open, a bit more uncomfortably personal.
Take one. Someone forgot to open their eyes.

me n' da boyz

keeping it real.

and now, we realize we've reached information overload.

nick has been studying for the level two exam for the CFA designation for quite some time. the test is in june. last night, i woke up to go take care of some business. when i came back to bed, nick was sitting up. though he appeared to be awake, it was clear that he was not when he said to me "jessi, what percentage of people use hedge funds?"

i said, "i don't know honey, 9 percent?" and went back to sleep. i think he needs a break.

best. idea. ever.

not that i'm sprinting to sign up for this or anything.

more emo than screamo

so, i listen to music on myspace all day long. it helps me work. it gives me a beat to follow, a pace at which to type. it also makes time pass more quickly. kind of the same reason i listen to music when i run.
anyway, bands are classified on myspace as to the "type" of music they play. i'm mostly an emo girl. but i am somewhat shocked and proud to admit that one of my favorite bands, the used, is classified as "screamo." maybe i am more hard core than i thought.

it's all about the pimp

thanks to joe, check out these rims.

i think they would look awesome on the element.

this happened to me

After an exhausting but nice weekend of 50th anniversary activities and a four-hour drive back through the windiest conditions I’ve ever captained, all I wanted to do was go on a relaxing run. I mean, I earned it. Seriously. Because driving I-70 on Sunday afternoon was basically an exercise of me facing my fears in a head-on game of chicken.

My goal was to get to Kansas City fast enough to beat the storms and the tornados. But the wall clouds were hanging low and the lightening was hitting the ground and the hail was hitting the car and then there was the wind — let’s just say that after two and a half ours of white-knuckled driving, I made Nick take over. I just couldn’t do it anymore. And as soon as he took the wheel, I fell fast asleep.

Despite my mouth that spewed several mumbled cuss words as the element was blown to and fro, we made it home safely. And what a blessed return it was. In the two days we were gone, everything decided to bloom. It was sunny and warm and the perfect weather for a run. I was excited.

Brad and I headed out on our 5.75 mile run at about 6 p.m. The fact that at that hour it was still brilliantly sunny was enough to put a spring in my step. I love the first few days after daylight savings time. I love more light and more time to do things like run and walk and grill.

After a pretty challenging, hilly course, we were in the home stretch. My breathing was relaxed and I was listening to a really good song on my nano. And then, out of nowhere, a light blue, late 1990s model Honda Accord full of teenagers drove by, yelled something, and threw water on us. What? Yeah. I was pissed.

But I kept running, and so did Brad. And now, I can tell the story of the time we were running and this car full of kids threw water on us. It pretty much makes Sunday the awesomest day ever.

what we did last weekend.

Nick's grandparents had their 50th anniversary last weekend. This is a picture of Nick, his dad, his brother Tyler and his brother Ian. Last weekend was the first time I met Tyler. They looked so much alike to me.