Giddy Girlie

I kicked off my weekend in the worst way possible : a trip to the tanning booth. Why? Well it's a lame story involving tan lines on my shoulders that I thought could be corrected with 15 minutes on a Level One bed. Unfortunately not. Instead, what I got is NO COLOR CHANGE on the front and sweltering burn on the back. Lovely.

I look like I am living in a neopolitan ice cream box -- facing the vanilla with my back to the strawberry. Seriously, the dividing line on my side is a crack-up. But all the same, the backs of my knees may never stop aching. So pretty much Saturday was a bust -- laying in bed with aloe vera snot lathered all over my back, in front of the fan watching movies (Capote was ok, The Squid & The Whale sucked).

But we did get our vacation to Mexico all planned out with John & Rosey and now I am counting the days...

Yesterday we had a great party with our neighbors. It was the 2nd annual "Cool Neighbors Grillfest" which involves a lot of food, many drinks, hijinks, and hilarity. Seriously, have you ever met YOUR neighbors? They're way weirder than you thought. But it was so much fun! Finally, someone else has seen the neighbors and their projector screen sex show (plays nightly after 11:30pm and is visible from most of the courtyard)! I tell you I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!

We ended up staying out in the courtyard until really late -- someone brought out their firepit/chiminea thing so we were happy and warm and smokey... no reason to go inside! Plus, we had to hear about all the scoop! What's going on with who...who had their kid brought home at 3am by the cops?...which wines is your local store stockpiling that you might want?...which celebrity's wedding is she planning now? (this was funny, because the husband was sworn to secrecy, but after a couple of drinks couldn't help himself and spilled the beans, which then snowballed into a whole client list and a peek at her portfolio!). It was definitely a cool meeting of the Cool Neighbors for sure! I'll be in Chicago for Part Deux of the meet-up which is scheduled for Wednesday night, but I will be back for the Movies on the Lawn event that we're pulling together (TVs on extension cords, firepits, BBQs, and comfy chairs everywhere!) for the next couple of weeks. It's kind of a funny thing, when I tell people about our BBQs and stuff, most people say, "you know your neighbors?" which is such a foreign concept these days, but it's actually really nice to have people that you know and like and enjoy living around you. So when your surround sound is too loud, they'll call you instead of the cops.

I am off to Chicago in the morning for another exciting round of trainings and general debauchery. It should be good -- I at least have a good group of pals that I am going out there with and some of my bestest work peeps will be there for a separate event that we plan to crash. A good time will be had by all!

Posted by giddygirlie at 12:20 PM | Permalink

I feel about 20 years behind the times, and probably I am. I have an MP3 player (whom I love dearly) but so far have only added 4 CDs to the 1g drive, so I keep listening to the same Oingo Boingo riffs over and over... not that I am complaining, but geez lady.

So yesterday, I made myself think up 3 songs that I needed to add. I decided I needed high-energy, something to get me motivated at the gym (although maybe that's assigning an unfair task to a simple song). This is what I came up with (and am subsequently OBSESSED with), I present to you my shame :

Justin Timberlake, "Rock Your Body"
Rhianna, "Pon De Replay"
Missy Elliott, "Work It"*

*side note : I am ridiculous with this song. If you see me driving and shaking my badunka-dunk-dunk, please don't point and laugh.

Posted by giddygirlie at 4:08 PM | Permalink

every. single. time.

10 days ago, I was at the end of my rope. Literally. Sizing up a good slash pattern across the wrists while typing my resume ("how do you make 5 years of being a whipping girl sound like good corporate experience?") and wishing that in the morning I would get a phone call that our building imploded and so there would be no reason to ever come back to work again. I was focusing all my energy on an alien abduction or sunken city of Atlantis thing to happen... but no. Instead, they send me out on the road for 6 days in a hotel bed with food poisioning and exhaustion and a 3 hour time difference and fake smiles and high heels.... and yet... I came home unexpectedly refreshed. WTF?

See, that's how they get ya. They push you to the brink then pull you back ever slightly by surrounding you with nice people. People nice enough to where you think "I can't just quit - I'd leave her all alone to handle this, that's not fair" (or where you're at least hoping that the east coast office simultaneously evaporates and saves your new friends as well). How do they do it? How did they make me care?? I feel so spineless and used and slutty somehow... just another trick in the corporate Little Black Book. But just the same, I do care. I care about what happens to my job, my programs, my colleagues above all.

Dammit -- where is this voodoo coming from anyway??

Posted by giddygirlie at 7:53 PM | Permalink

Man, it's good to be home. I think I was coping pretty well all week with the fact that I really missed this place, but now that I'm back it's hitting me more. I'm so glad to be back to my boys. And so I am going on double hyper mode, trying to squeeze a week's worth of missing them into my 2-day weekend and I'm fairly sure that I am making them crazy. I'm blabbering on incessantly about my trip in excrutiating detail -- although I swear that I am trying to stop myself. I just have diarrhea of the mouth... once my lips open it all just starts flowing and I can't. shut. up. I told Ryan if it's any consolation whatsoever, I did the exact same thing to everyone on my trip, talking about him.

Another thing that I realized about my incessant chatter is that I tend to ramble about not only boring crap, but give too much information. At this point I think everyone in my group is thinking that I am some incredibly huge stoner that just can't keep her yap shut. *le sigh* Don't you hate it when that happens? When you let out just a little too much info and then you totally give out the wrong impression? Even worse, I am back on the road with some of these people in a week and I would hate to think that they're all gritting their teeth in anticipation of the boredom or are already hatching schemes to ditch me. Although, in fairness, I deserve it. So I am trying to stop myself now, so that maybe by then they will be able to see how much I have improved. :-)

Posted by giddygirlie at 11:01 AM | Permalink

After stalking around the hotel s'more, I decided I had 2 options : get up or stay in bed.

Figuring that if I took a nap that I was essentially done for, I opted to stay up and stroll out through the city and entertain myself (everyone else was sleeping or catching a flight home). Across from the hotel is the City Market, which is a little tourist trap shopping area that is pretty cool -- good way to spend strolling time alone. After the guys woke up, we met up and had some pizza at Vinnie Van Go Go's, which was pretty great. We were already full, but decided to go back to the Lady & Son's for key lime pie (to die for!) and homemade lemonade (delish!). I felt like such a square, laughing at the signs that invite you to "take one to go -- you can drink on our streets!" instead of obeying orders, but seriously...

After successfully landing Don into a food coma, we sent him off to bed (early flight out tomorrow) and Mark & I set out on a ghost tour of our own (there are about a million to choose from, but they're all $20 or whatever). We went over to Colonial Park Cemetery which was locked, but we could still peek in the gates. Plus, some of the graves are right up against the fence which was good for us, but kind of... sad? I dunno -- what do you say about 'uh, sorry confederate guy who died of typhus 100 years ago and have a fence at your feet?' Anyway, it was interesting to see and one of Mark's picture had a legitimate streak of light that I *swear* we didn't enhance... ghosties? ooooohhhhhhh Shortly after we got the shit scared out of us by a squirrel climbing the tree and shaking the leaves next to us. That was pretty cool.

We took the long way back to squeeze in as much city time as we could, chatting it up about bands and tatts and the merits of electronic tickets (so that when you lose your keys in a bar and can't get into your car or house to get your luggage, you can still make your flight). Mark's a (more than) sufficiently rad guy and you can tell just by the fact that he didn't break my jaw or slit his wrist from boredom after being stuck with me this whole trip. For that, he deserves mad props. Seriously people, I should be assembling a gift basket RIGHT NOW. Or buying him 500 stink lizards (boys like swarms of lizards, right?*).

This has actually turned out to be a pretty good trip, despite the work factor and the vomiting and the being away from home and missing my hubby and kitties and friends and the pacific time zone. I can't wait to get back to it all for the one measly week that I have before hittin' the road to Chi town. If anyone is breezing into the Windy City, hit me back... we need to know where to go out and if you want to come meet up with The Crew we can get all gaybo up in your shit (Chops, I'm lookin' at you!).

Alrighty -- it's 2:15am and I gotta be up in the morning for some breakfast chow and procrastinator packing, so I'm outta here. Text me in the airport if you need me...

*lame TV reference

Posted by giddygirlie at 10:12 PM | Permalink

Sadly, tonight is my last night in Savannah... it's been actually pretty fun (aside from the work part of it). I'm lucky that my peeps are AWESOME so we have fun, even during the boring work part.

The trip out here was rather uneventful, except that on the flight out the sound didn't work in the coach cabin, so we couldn't listen to the movie - which was Big Momma's House. Shit bitches, I need me some Marty Martin in a fat lady suit! Daaaaaaamn. So instead, I had a bookgasm reading the new Augusten Burroughs book Possible Side Effects. Side effects may include chortling through your nose while the guy in the center seat tries to peek over your shoulder and wishing that you had a French bulldog.

Once I got in, I was pretty much drained, so I took a quick peek at River Street (our hotel is on the river) and had some room service. The food was ok until I got FOOD POISONING, for the love of zombie pirates. I spent all day Monday in my room, projectile vomiting. Of course, everyone thought I had just been lushing it up at the bar and was hung over... hung over, I wish! At least there is an end in sight when you're puking booze. My fever broke around 9pm Monday night (that's about 16 straight hours of alternating barf and dry heaves, for those of you counting along at home) and I started to feel better. Tuesday, I still didn't dare eat anything... I think I had 1/4 piece of bread all day. By Wednesday (yesterday) I was starting to feel somewhat better and had a tiny bit of dinner. Then the Boys wanted to go out drinking. I'm not a drinker, but gladly tagged along for the festivities. We went down to Sorry Charlie's where we saw a terrible live band, a drunk family (ages 4 - 50), a drunk old lady bitch fight, army dudes drunk and virtually making out, drunk army dude fights (x2), and endless amounts of 'what the fuck' people -- you know the ones. The ones where you're like WTF is wrong with that dude??

The rain that was due on Monday finally came in while we were hanging out on the patio and we held an impromptu wet t-shirt contest. Awesome. Sadly, I didn't bring any 'cool' togs so I just ended up wearing my sweater from work and once it was wet, it was cleavage city. But whatever. I don't live here - I don't have to dress hip. And then came the drinks. I told them I don't drink, which is true, I really don't. But at their insistence I had a sapphire & tonic... then 2... then a grey goose & soda.... after that, um yeah. I was fucking TOASTED. No food + lotsa top shelf liquor = trouble. The Boys were having a great time - I was the only girl in our group left after about 11pm and the Boys kept wanting to go get chicks, but were afraid that they'd offend me somehow with their sleazy games of love 'em and leave 'em. I think I shocked them all when Mac was hitting on a chick and she brought her friend over... one guy asked if he needed a wing man and I said "hell no -- that's 2 for the price of 1!" They finally knew I was down and were totally amazed. "Take 'em to the Hilton and treat 'em like a Hilton!!"

I stayed 'til about 1:30am and then stumbled my tanked ass back to the room. The Boys begged me to stay out, they wanted to chase more tail into a 3rd bar, but I declined. I ended up watching Adult Swim 'til 3:30-ish (bad idea). Getting up at 7am was no picnic, but hey -- when in Rome, er, Savannah... hoping to go catch more action later tonight. Can't wait to post my pics...

Posted by giddygirlie at 12:40 PM | Permalink

I'm about to shove off for my around the world across the country trip. I technically leave Sunday morning, but Saturday is going to be chock full of comic geeks and nerdy freaks (mostly our own friends). It's Free Comic Book Day and Ryan has 2 autograph signings (with Crimelab Studios) and then the post-signing hoopla... it's going to be fun.

Sunday I set out for the ol' south, skipping through the ATL (don't worry, I am sufficiently bad-ass for a layover), then off to Sweet Ol' Savannah. It's mostly going to be meetings and trainings and boooooorrrrring. But we're going to try to squeeze in some fun. If anyone has any Savannah specialities that they want me to pick up, send me an email. I'll try to update my Flickr pictures too as we go along.

Side note, I sent a surprise for Styro who is NOT supposed to view my Flickr pictures until she gets it. But for the rest of ya - sneak preview. Ha!

Love ya kids -- keep in touch and watch the mail for some peachy postcards.

Posted by giddygirlie at 10:36 PM | Permalink

...but only for a moment. So many things that I want to say, but just never have the time! So I am jumping ahead a little to ask for a favor.

I am leaving on Sunday to spend 6 days in Savannah, GA. It's a work thing, so I'll be pretty tied up during the day, but I do have some pockets of free time that I want to use to get out an see the city. Has anyone been? Can you recommend places for me to go? If you're anywhere near the area, holla back, and I'll bring you a power point presentation (woot!).

The only thing that I have committed to is going to Paula Deen's restaurant, because a restaurant where every recipe starts with a stick of butter is EXACTLY my kind of place!

Posted by giddygirlie at 4:59 PM | Permalink