Monday, February 28, 2011

Day 9-- Ethiopian Dinner

You know those days where you do a lot of things, but don't feel overwhelmed of having to accomplish anything? The kind of day where you don't have any down time, but feel contently productive. I had that day today.

Woke up, made breakfast, watched Lost in Translation (for the billionth time) while eating breakfast, got dressed, took Drew and Milton to the dog park, scooted to the Houston Public Library, I went to the gym, took a shower, got ready went to my great friend's, Sara, home for an Ethiopian dinner her father's girlfriend made for us. I'm home now and happy about my day.

The dinner was absolutely delicious. I still have an aftertaste of seasonings used in the dishes and it's pleasant! A couple of Sara's friends brewed their own beer-- it was amazing! Conversation and company was more than pleasant. I laughed a lot. I just love being around Sara, so I always have an amazing time after I've visited her. I love having friends like that. Intelligent, funny, interesting and fun. :)

Bryce and I need to find a new series to watch on NetFlix!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Day 8-- Children's Museum

This afternoon my mother and I took Tristan to the Children's Museum. He's almost 20 months old, so he couldn't really participate in many of the exhibits, but there is a "Tot Spot" where 35 months and younger can play. We were all instructed to either take off our shoes or put on sanitation covers around our shoes to enter the tot zone. This was good for me because upon arriving the museum I managed to get a stick lodged into my left foot, so there was a bubble of blood on my foot, gross. There was a slide, which Tristan absolutely loved going up and down. His little knees were so red from frogging his way up the slide, managing to defeat gravity. I think he felt accomplished. It was clear the 35 month old rule wasn't in place, as there were several 4-5 yr olds running around in there. Tristan enjoys all the toy cars, colored balls and walking through an uneven walkway which made several toddlers fall. My mother and I took Tristan around the entire museum via stroller and there were so many different interesting, fun exhibits all the children seemed to be having fun with. I think in a year he'll be able to enjoy more of the Children's Museum, but for now he'll just have to spend hours in the Tot Spot.


My mother and I went to Mardi Gras (restaurant) to get ceviche and oysters. Too bad, they were out of both.

I woke up at 4:03am today  to visit Houston's monk psychic, Cau Chin (finally saw him around 11:30am). It was interesting. More just of the fact that I finally got to experience a reading from him. Everyone got a number, up until 60. There's a sign saying he takes 60 people a day, but ends up taking a lot more because he feels a lot of people need healing. Apparently 65 people were in line yesterday, Saturday, at 5am, but he ended up taking over 200 people. He's quite bizarre. He counted a lot of money in front of me, answered calls and went at Bryce more than telling me things like which parent I looked like, how many siblings I had and what my favorite colors are. He says I need to talk less so my stomach will stop hurting and I'll sleep better at night. Oh, that I should be a humanitarian. Not to mention, he told me I was "on a different level than most people" so that's why he talks to me differently. Sweet.

Goodnight.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Day 7-- Dog Park

A bit tired, but wanted to type up a little something.

Milton and I went to the dog park. Milton is so good! Just plays fetch and minds his business. A Cardigan Corgi I've seen before was there today. I WANT! He loves me. His owner is a bit nuts (borderline senile man) says Stan must be trying to scout for a new master. Ha. Aww...

Babysitting Tristan this evening. He's spending the night with Bryce, the boys and me. It's about 10pm so it's wind-down time. I hope he falls asleep soon because I woke up at 7:07am. Zzzzzz.

Goodnight!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Day 6-- Scooter

Today was my first day on Bryce's scooter!!!! Or any scooter for that matter. WOW!!!! I never imagined they could be so much fun. How to describe... non-queasy roller coaster! Haha. We first ran a couple of errands then went for a nice hour-long ride. I couldn't stop smiling. It is possible I kept screaming, "I LOVE SCOOTERS!!!!" When we returned, I got my laptop out and started googling for scooters in Houston. Then "hello kitty scooters for purchase" Ha. My next big savings goal after Chicago is a scooter! I think it'll be nice to have as an alternative to my gas-guzzling car. I rarely leave the inner loop, so I think it's safe to say that my future scooter will be my new best friend.

Went to Sushi Raku with my mother, Nicole and Tristan. It was good .Got tipsy on the pinot grigio. When I got home I insisted that Bryce and I take another ride on his scooter, but this time I wanted to go all the way down Memorial/Briar Forest, to where it dies off intersecting Highway 6. For Houstonians you could imagine riding from Waugh to borderline Katy. EEEK! My knees-- my legs in general were so tense and I'm still feeling the burn as I sit here in my bed (the comfy one).

Oops, forgot I was heating up my leftover mashed potatoes from a couple nights ago. That'll be a doozey to try and scrape off the pot, ha.

Scooter love!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Day 5-- Cleaning

Don't you looooove the feeling of freshly cleaned house (apartment or whatever living quarters)? With my bedroom having a wall of sliding glass door out to a backyard, I often leave the glass open  to let the dogs in and out as they please throughout the day. The boys and the breeze constantly leave dirt and leaves all over the bedroom carpet. I try to vacuum once a week, if it's not too bad or I'm too lazy I'll go two. I just love seeing vacuum lines on a carpet!!!! Am I mental?

My hamper was pretty desperate for an emptying. But not as much as my sheets were! Bryce and I did 5 loads of laundry. I have a closet full of clean clothes. And two beds covered in fresh sheets, pillow cases and blankets (yes, two beds*). I love clean sheets!

Today was such a beautiful day. It was a little too warm for my taste, however the breeze was nice. We had all of our fans running with the front door open protected by a baby gate and the back door (sliding glass doors) open. The fresh breeze ran through the apartment. It was nice and calming.

Unfortunately for me not only do I have carpet with two dogs, but I also have cloth in my car and like to port the dogs to dog parks. My car smelled of dog central to me, so I figured out a brilliant plan for cutting the pet odor until I can be assed into getting my car shampooed. Arm & Hammer carpet odor eliminator!!!!! I shook out all the floor mats and dust busted as much as I could then sprinkled a little under and on top of all the mats. An hour later or so I dust busted the top of the mats. My car smells great for now! I hope it lasts awhile. I thought it was quite brilliant! Haha.

With all this cleaning going on, I had Bryce store most of his paintings in the hallway closet he's made solely his own. It got me to thinking we have our living room walls painted, we need to get the art up. After our Chicago trip we need to paint our bedroom so we can hang up paintings in here, too. I'll go into ponderings about what to do with art on the walls another time.

Another great day! :)

*Bryce and I have two beds because the first one we had, which is very soft, is only a full size. My parents got us a queen size, but is a bit firmer. We decided to 'test' out the firmer bed to see if we wanted to give up the fluffy bed. It just so happens we like both and switch up which bed we sleep in every few nights or every week, haha. Good thing our room is big enough to harbor such ridiculousness! ;)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Day 4-- OPI Black Shatter

I got my hair done today! I had it very dark with a single color blocking of pastel pink. The pink was such high maintenance and so damaged that I decided that it was nice while it lasted. Today I had it filled to match my base color then had bronze highlights put all throughout my hair, leaving my t-section out. I'm so thrilled with the results!!!! I can't wait to curl it and wear it wavy so the soft highlights show through more. :) Quite pleased, quite pleased. Bryce and I napped Tristan from Nicole and took him to for a stroll in Menil Park. It was nice and green. We're returning him tomorrow. I hope he sleeps since he did take a like... 3 hour nap!

I'd recently tried gel on my nails and LOVED it! The cost, however, wasn't something I felt I could realistically keep up with every 2 weeks. So, for the past couple of weeks I was just wearing OPI's Nail Envy to just strengthen my nails. I've felt very man-hands/ugly-hands since I haven't done anything pretty with them. I'd been hearing about OPI's Black Shatter which is being promoted by Katy Perry and I believe Serena Williams. I googled some images and NEEDED IT!  Completely curious as to how it works, I purchased it. It was paired with a pretty, glittery chartreuse, which I have yet to use, but plan to in the near future.

When I got into the car I fished into my purse to see which nail polish colors I had-- Essie's Splash of Grenadine was my final choice! It's so to the end of the bottle that it was that gooey lumpy application. It didn't help that Bryce was driving on Kirby where it curves a lot, ha. It took about 20 minutes for my nails to dry. I almost decided to start fresh since there were bubbles and the application was just horrible. I decided to just test out the OPI Black Shatter to see how it works!

So, the instructions say to choose a bottom coat and let it fully dry. The next step is taking the OPI Black Shatter and applying only one coat to each nail. And for protection and extend its longevity, use a top coat. I was amazed! The Black Shatter dries fairly quickly and starts to split in front of your eyes!  I tested one finger on my sister who wasn't wearing any polish, and it just looked like Sharpie marker.


I can't wait to try hot pink, reds, turquoise, etc.! I'm impressed by this idea! I'm going to try and see if I can do something cool with my Hello Kitty nail art sitting in my purse some time soon, too. ;) I love when my nails are painted and pretty.

Ja mata ne!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Day 3-- Interview

I had a really good today! It was relaxing, plus I ran a few errands. I went to Beautique and bought OPI's Shatter nailpolish! Review to come!

I was supposed to have an interview today with a possible new employer, but she was pretty pressed for time so she suggested we have an interview over the phone. I sent her resume and was excited when she replied saying it looked great. Interview rolls around at about 5:30pm. WOW! I'm so amazed at how sweet, positive and sincere she is! She has a gorgeous salon to boot. I'm so happy to get the chance to work with her. She definitely sounds like the type of boss you want in your life because she can make bigger and better things happen for you in the future. One, of many, differences I have caught onto with this salon owner is that she's still very active and PROGRESSIVE in the beauty industry. I feel like I have a lot I can learn from her. She says she feels really great about bringing me on as her manager, she needs to just figure out when we need to start training me and check my references, which are great! I'm so happy and excited. I feel extremely fortunate for me to have gotten to my breaking point at the last salon so I could venture out and be reminded that there is better out there.

I went to dinner with my mother and Bryce tonight. Fajitas, ceviche and beer at Cyclone Anayas. Yum! Too bad right before my mother called to invite us out, I started making mashed potatoes! So, I'll just have to reheat them tomorrow. The bit I sampled was SO DELICIOUS! Butter, rosemary, GARLIC, and sharp cheddar. It's a good thing I'm full right now.

I have a hair appointment tomorrow at 10am, so I suppose I should get some rest. I'm so glad I didn't have to stress about money and a job! I'm so excited for Chicago coming up... eeeey!

GOODnight! ;)

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Day 2-- A Sunday In The Life...

I woke up fairly early today, 7:03am, to be precise. Ha. I sat in a bath while replying to messages and reading some news on my Blackberry. A client (my favorite) of the salon phoned me and really made my morning. I talked to him for about 20 minutes then hit up YouTube and caught up on my subscriptions. SHAYTARDS and various beauty gurus. I hopped back in bed with Bryce then we cuddled to sleep. So, we officially woke up and did our separate internetty things and talked about what dreams we had. He had a Batman dream and I had a work nightmare, haha.

Ate. Watched 30 Rock. Bryce and I took a nice, relaxing walk with Milton and Andrew. Went with Kyle to Blockbuster to rent movies. Monsters, Unstoppable.

Bryce and I made a quick stop at Kroger.

We went to Kyle and Karina's to watch the movies and eat pizza. Monsters was terrible. Don't watch. Just do not watch! It's a long dragged out "trek" that ends up turning into a romance. Let's just say the climax of the movie was a crazed, homeless woman "cack cack cack woof"ing.

Home now, tiiiired. My face is washed. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I have my first interview! ;)

I apologize to anyone who hates the "I did this, then this. I also did this, after that I did this" type of entry. It was just such a nice and relaxing day. Maybe I'll have exciting news or something tomorrow!

Goodnight, Moon.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Day 1-- pt. 2

WOW WOW WOW!

I enjoyed an amaaaazing dinner at The Original Ninfa's (Drooool)! I got my Blackberry out (which was crazy all day to the point I had to charge twice and it's low again!!!) Anywhoozles, I had this very interesting e-mail from my ex-boss, who is also the owner of the salon and reason why I left after dealing with his unprofessionalism since November! So here's my "unprofessional" act now to give me entertainment with all this time I have until I have a new job. Here goes:

Monica,

Your check will be mailed to you.  Your presence in the salon is not only discouraged but not permissible.  Really? I'm banned from the salon because I left when he told me to leave if I wanted to leave? You shouldn't say things you don't mean.(<-why won't this turn purple?)
You have shown that you lack not only decency but any credible appearance of professionalism by creating a scene in front of clients and walking out and leaving your co-workers in a unbelievably unpleasant situation. I'm 25 he's 40, so I'm going to guess his memory is lacking. When I came downstairs about to cry saying I was going to leave once the other receptionist got to the salon, he started yelling, "YOU CANNOT LEAVE" well, yes, I can. I offered to stay until your other receptionist showed up, but then continued to yell at me IN FRONT OF CLIENTS listing all the people I was letting down and how I was making it all about me. He started up the stairs and immediately stopped to raise his voice again, "Monica, if you want to leave, then leave!" I said "OK" and left. I lack professionalism? As an employee, I never spoke ill of other co-workers to any clients, accusing them of being pill poppers, drug addicts, drunks, fat, crazy, etc etc. The owner did, but receptionist did not. Patterns people, patterns. 
Your behavior after the fact shows you to be petty, immature, narcissistic and spiteful. What my ex-boss failed to realize was several ex-employees of his kept in contact with me and I remained friendly with them, so when I shared the same title of "ex-employee of Best Salon Owner in Town*" I wouldn't think twice about hiding the fact that I quit the place I've been saying I was unhappy at for months. I'm always vocal. I don't "internalize" as Best Salon Owner in Town* also accused me of. Along with this being my plan all along... blah blah blah. I had no reason to stay other than a sense of loyalty to him.
Do not use Salon Full of Talent Ran by a Manchild** as a reference As if I'd be dumb enough to have my possible future employer contact such a... what were the words he used to describe himsel-- um, I mean me? "petty, immature, narcissistic and spiteful."  

and do not enter the property for any reason.  If your address is different than the one we have on file you may call and give your new address to [now sole receptionist] at the salon. Sole receptionist being the receptionist he pitted against me today. And in the past by claiming I was worried about his pill use and about things not being good at home.  Oh, and claimed was firing and was out to sabotage and/or spitefully throw away retail product and create fake appointments to screw the salon. Delusional? Paranoid? Probably missed his "crazy pill."
Please do not respond to this email as it will automatically go to the junk folder. Best Salon Owner in Town*, I won't reply to the e-mail. Don't worry. I'm using it for my entertainment for my bloggy blog. And well, entertainment for the family and friends I fwd it to.

"Best Salon Owner in Town*"


*My new name for the most childish boss I've ever heard of.
**Ex-place of work.

So, since I wasn't sure if his last receptionist actually still wants to work there, and I obviously wasn't able to tell him, the person who is in charge of mailing me my paycheck, based on his decision not allowing me to just drive 3 minutes to pick it up, I had to call his partner to provide him with my address. The same partner who admits that my ex-employer does not listen to anyone except for his ex-boyfriend, who is a client at the salon. So if I wanted anything to get through to him I should have told that said client. Yes, now THAT would have been professional. It really amazes and amuses me how there are some people out there who spew out so much shit and when they're in a jam they blame the whole world and deny ever being a bad guy. Not to mention told my boyfriend to get out while he still could. HA. I'll miss my co-workers. It's an amazing salon in all ways but one, the owner.

I guess I'm done entertaining myself. Let's see what day 2 will bring! ;)

Day 1-- Unemployed

In a nutshell, I was extremely unhappy with my job (receptionist at a great salon and spa) and my boss made it the perfect situation for me to quit today. Luckily for me my mother told me a bit ago she'd help me out since she knew how unhappy I was daily. ANYWHO--

Today is day one of being unemployed! I haven't had more than a week-ish off in 3 years! I'm taking this opportunity to make sure I blog daily! I have a vacation to the Windy City the beginning of April, so that gives me 7 weeks of unemployment and daily blogging. Light at the end of the tunnel.

This morning was obviously a shitty one. When I got home and went through the pouring of incoming texts and facebook messages my day started to look up! "Crunched numbers" and discovered that I have all my money I'd planned on having for Chicago. Sweet. Then before noon I already was given the opportunity to meet with someone tomorrow (or Monday) to talk about a new job! I can't help but think, "PERFECT TIMING!" Posi-thinking! I think this potential job would be perfect for me.

After many conversations with my mother, I finally started to charge up my Blackberry's battery then ate pizza with Bryce and watched Season 2 of Kimora Lee Simon's failed show. Guilty pleasures.

2 o'clock rolled around so we took the boys, Milton and Andrew, to Levy Bark Park in Upper Kirby. What a lame dog park!!!! Milton was harassed by by several dogs, especially this little rascal who I suppose thought Milton was his bitch. After deciding that the park was lame and unshaded (and the only humans without cold beers in their hands), we went to get rootbeers and landed our way back home.

Bryce hurt his tailbone last night, so we're lounging in our fluffy, soft bed (yes, opposed to our firm bed....). It's nice. We have the backdoor open with the blinds open, which acts as a wall to our bedroom, Drew is outside enjoying the weather. It's calm. I'm happy.



We're going to The Original Ninfa's tonight for fajitas and flan. I'm so excited... I'm so excited... I'm so.... SCARED! Name that TV show. ;)

Listening to Belle & Sebastian, itunes is playing "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying". I feel like, "I got away".

Happily living and breathing.