Month: October 2010

  • Nothing to see here

    I so appreciate that y’all would like to see a picture of my new bangs. However, that is not possible at this juncture because I haven’t had on makeup in twenty-four hours and, even though I’m all about keeping it real, I’m not really sure any of us need that much reality.

    But I promise that the next time my hair is freshly styled and I don’t look like a slightly worse version of death warmed over, I will post a picture of myself with the new bangs.

    In other news, I think I contracted some type of flu-type illness while I was in Houston this past weekend. But I hesitated to write about it because I told P that I was just going to put a quick post that said I wasn’t feeling well and he said I’ve written way too much recently about having PMS and not feeling well.

    So now, not only do I feel achy and tired, I am also extremely paranoid that many of you may think I’m a hypochondriac. Or worse, a complainer.

    Truthfully, I may be both of those things depending on the day.

    But I’m legitimately not feeling well and spent most of yesterday in bed. Which means I have nothing interesting to write about and can’t even make something up. I know this because I’ve been desperately trying to think of anything for the last hour.

    I have nothing.

    Unless you want to hear about how many Advil I’ve taken in the last twenty-four hours. And I’m going to assume that’s a no.

    So why don’t you tell me something interesting in the comments, like maybe the name of a blog you love to read or whether you think Pretty in Pink or Sixteen Candles is the best movie from the 80’s or maybe there’s a question you’d like me to answer one of these days. Whatever. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

  • I dedicate this post to Eye of the Tiger

    On Friday morning I packed up Caroline, my bangs and myself and drove to Houston for the weekend. Yes, I have bangs.

    Again.

    I blame Reese Witherspoon and her perfect bangs that aren’t hindered by a cowlick and an overall spirit of stubbornness.

    And I count the bangs as their own entity for the weekend because I am constantly aware of them right now. Where are my bangs? What are they doing? Have they rebelled and gone two separate directions while I wasn’t paying attention?

    It’s not that I don’t like them. In fact, I’ve been plotting to get bangs all summer long. I was just waiting for the humidity to drop somewhere below 152%. I think I just need them to grow out a tad bit longer which is my fault because my sweet hairstylist cut them perfectly the first time and I said I thought they needed to be a little shorter.

    I bet Reese keeps her mouth shut when she’s getting her hair cut. I bet she doesn’t offer her own amateur opinions to a professional.

    So, not only does she have better bangs than me, she’s also smarter than me.

    But enough about Reese.

    The trip to Houston has been on my calendar since sometime around last February. Several of Sophie’s college girlfriends wanted to get together to celebrate her birthday and decided to have the festivities in Houston where one of them lives. And they invited me to join them for all the big fun.

    I’m so glad they did. Not only did I get to spend the weekend celebrating Sophie’s birthday with her, but I got to hang out with seven other sweet girls that made me laugh until I cried as they told stories from their college days. And you know what I have to show for it?

    A picture of the cupcakes I bought on Saturday afternoon from Crave Cupcakes. I think the banana one may have changed my life. And I’m not even normally a huge fan of the banana flavored baked goods, but I took a risk. A risk that totally paid off.

    Sometime last week I saw something on T.V. that showed how your heart beats after you eat a meal that’s high in fat and I’m so sorry I saw it. Because it’s a wonder my heart didn’t just up and stop after everything I ate this weekend. But there are probably worse ways to go than sitting around sharing massive amounts of the beef fajitas from Lupe Tortilla while singing Total Eclipse of the Heart with eight other girls.

    The whole weekend was so much fun. There were pedicures and cheeseburgers and college football games and shopping. Oh the shopping. We debated the merits of various booties and the practicality of the open-toed bootie. And Sophie’s friend, EK, found a dress at Marshall’s that I’m still thinking about. The only thing that soothed my disappointment over the lack of additional dresses was the fact that I bought a really cute shirt at Nordstrom Rack for $4.00. FOUR DOLLARS.

    In the meantime, I’d dropped Caroline off at a hotel where she spent the weekend with Mimi and Bops. She told me she “wasn’t sure how she was going to make it until Sunday” without seeing me, but I think she felt better after she bungee-jumped at The Galleria for about her fourth time. Bless her heart, it makes me so sad to think of how she had to endure being spoiled rotten all weekend long.

    And so on Sunday morning, I said goodbye to my new friends and went to meet Mimi, Bops and Caroline for breakfast. You’ll be glad to know she survived the weekend and found comfort for her soul by jumping back and forth between the beds in their hotel room.

    We headed back to San Antonio and I was so tired that the only thing that kept me going was a steady rotation of 80’s Hits on Pandora. I owe Eye of The Tiger a debt of gratitude for giving me a little pick me up sometime around Seguin when I hit the wall and felt like I couldn’t go on anymore.

    Now I plan to sleep for about four days. And dream about banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

    And to my dear friend, Sophie. I’m so glad I was able to spend your birthday with you and some of your oldest friends. Thanks so much for including me in all the fun.

    Even though it sounded like we found each other through EHarmony every time we told the story of how we met.

  • Fashion Friday: Edition it’s all in the bag

    I just finished watching the Aggies lose to Oklahoma State in the last two seconds of the game and I’m so worked up that I may never sleep again. And I don’t really want to write about fashion so much as I want to write about excessive turnovers and how it’s close to impossible to win football games when you continually give your opponents the ball. It’s times like these that P likes to give me a lecture about the foolishness of placing my happiness in the hands of a bunch of nineteen year olds.

    He makes an excellent point.

    But my night was not a total loss because I found out a FASCINATING piece of news and now you’re going to have to follow me on a rabbit trail as I tell you about it.

    Back in March 2009, I received an email from a reader named Melissa who lived in Austin at the time. The email explained that she was single and had just reconnected with a guy she knew in high school on Facebook. She was planning a trip out to California to meet up with him for an official first date and she wanted to know what I thought she should wear.

    So I posted her question and responded to it on this now VERY SPECIAL EDITION of Fashion Friday back in March 2009. And many people wanted to know how the date turned out. I’m not sure I ever actually posted about it, but she emailed me and said it went fine but wasn’t sure if anything would become of the whole thing.

    Fast forward to me watching the Aggie game on Thursday night. I was tweeting (twittering?) about the game to keep myself from throwing something across the room and Melissa responded to one of my tweets and said she wasn’t sure if I remembered her but she just got engaged to the guy she reconnected with on Facebook almost two years ago.

    I twittered (tweeted?) back, “NO YOU DID NOT!” She emailed me a link to their wedding planning website which includes a picture of them on their first date and she looked beautiful.

    So, basically, I don’t want to take ALL the credit because I’m sure her personality and what-have-you played a role in the whole engagement thing, but I’m pretty sure this happy ending is at least partly due to some stellar fashion advice.

    Let me have my delusions, please. They are all that’s keeping me going in light of the Aggies losing in the last two seconds. TWO SECONDS.

    Congratulations, Melissa! I am so happy for you.

    Okay, so on a fashion note. This week has been the scene of a fall purse crisis at my house. I have been in desperate need of a new handbag because the handle on the one I carried all last year is shot to pieces. And so I have scoured various websites and stores looking for the perfect bag.

    Then late last week I discovered that ebags was offering 20% off all their Big Buddha bags. I agonized over which one I should order and ultimately decided on the Miranda bag in black. But by the time I made up my mind, it was completely sold out. So I ordered it in red instead.

    But it was an impulse decision and I could hardly sleep that night for worrying about whether or not I really wanted a shiny, red purse. The next morning I tried to cancel my order, but it was too late. However, the 20% off sale ended that day and so I went ahead and ordered the gray Miranda bag as well. Ebags offers free returns and I figured I could look at them both in person and make my decision.

    They both arrived on Tuesday. I opened up the boxes and thought they were both pretty, but was struck by the fact that the gray wasn’t so much a gray as it was more of a brown color. And the red was very bright and made me feel a little bit like HERE I AM WITH MY ENORMOUS SHINY RED PURSE.

    Naturally, Caroline thought the red was the clear winner. I held them both up and asked P which one he liked. He responded, “I didn’t realize my Grandmother Tatum’s purse was back in style”.

    Which wasn’t really the look I was going for.

    So I shipped them BOTH back. Not just because of P’s comment but because I really wanted the gray purse to be gray as opposed to brown and the red was just too much.

    And so I’ve spent the last few days looking at every handbag known to man. Or woman. I’ve debated the merits of black vs. green vs. brown vs. gray.

    Then yesterday I walked into a local boutique and ended up with a shiny black patent bag with gold hardware. I’d show it to you but I can’t find it on the internet and I’m too lazy to get up and take a picture. But here are several other great bags I’ve seen over the last few days.

    (By the way, I’m not adding in any commentary because I believe I have written more than enough for one day.)

    1. Champs-Elysees Bag

    2. Big Buddha Empire Bag

    The Empire bag also comes in green

    3. Fossil Vintage Reissue Satchel

    4. Miley Hobo

    5. Diviney Bag

    6. Fossil Patchwork Hobo

    7. Gathered Frame Satchel

    8. Steve Madden BWarrior Tote

    9. Magid Christiana Tote

    10. Big Buddha Hollywood Bag

    That’s it for this week.

    I hope none of your favorite teams lose their games in the last two seconds this weekend and feel free to let me know if you’d like to get married and need to know what to wear on a first date.

    Y’all have a great Friday.