We were talking about this at Paige’s bridal shower today.  I’m tempted to copy it!!

It’s been a long two days.  This weekend was finalist weekend for our scholarship recipients.  We started out with over 4,000 applications…Derrick and I went through each to calculate who was in the top 5% of their class…then we had to check all of their admission statuses and pull out the admitted students.  From that point we had 2,385 applications that we sent out to be read…totaled the points up…sent that batch of a few hundred out to be read by the individual colleges…totaled up those points…sent the top 30ish apps out to the interview committee…met and decided on 15 finalists.  Derrick, Eleanor and I were each in charge of 5 students…we called, kept in contact the past few weeks, etc.  So I was anxious to meet them.

They showed up yesterday at the Alumni Center for a little meet and greet and then they were whisked away to the college in which they were admitted.  We met up with them that afternoon in the Stark Library and went out on the balcony of the Tower…I briefly had flashbacks to flag drops.  We then went over to the HRC…I must admit that they have some fascinating things in there.  We only got to see about 15 things, but man I need to go back and look at other stuff.  As much as I hate reading Shakespeare, I was in awe when I saw the Shakespeare folio.  And the letter that Ernest Hemingway’s mom wrote to him was freakin’ hilarious.  And there’s the crazy hair book…locks of hair from Washington, Napoleon, Keats, Poe, etc.  I definitely need to go back…I might go back when they do the Poe exhibit.

Today were the interviews.  Derrick and I took turns sitting outside with finalist, chatting with them to ease their nerves, and then sitting in with them on the interviews.  Man, some of them got asked some rough questions.  I felt so bad and was starting to sweat for them.  For the most part they all handled themselves well.  It was interesting to watch the train wrecks…you could tell they were sinking hard and fast.  I felt really bad for them.

I’m coming to terms with the fact that this is the hardest part of the job.  I thought it was when I was reading all the applications for a first run through and putting them in “yes” and “no” piles.  I was thinking there was no way I could just toss an application to the side.  But I got used to it after the first few hundred.  And then today came along.  I’ve met 15 finalists, some of their parents, spent all day yesterday and most of today with them, and now I have to tell some of them “you’re great, but you’re not getting any money.”  Ugh.  I’m going to have such bad karma.  I am happy to report that of my 5 finalists that I called and kept in contact with, 3 of them are receiving $10,000 a year scholarships and 1 will be receiving $4,000 a year.  The 5th one is one of the first alternates, so if anybody turns us down, she’ll move up.  So I’m proud of my little babies.  I’m super excited that starting in August, these students will be part of my first scholar class, and I can’t wait to see how much they grow over the years.

The great part of this job is that you don’t just give them money and only see them when they pick up a check.  There are lots of scholar events for this group.  They’ll come to the scholarship dinner in September (the first event of the semester), then we go on a boat ride on one of the donor’s private barge in October/November, we’ll have one-on-ones with them at the end of each semester to see how they’re doing, there’s an end of semester party, and then the spring trip where two of the donors fund a weekend getaway for the scholars to various parts of Texas.  I think it’s a close second to being a teacher.  I may not get to actually teach them, but I get to see them grow and I can’t wait.

Okay, I’m seriously slacking in the sleep department, and I have to get up early and head down to New Braunfels for Paige’s bridal shower.

Toodles!!

that’s the total square footage of my current apartment.  For the first home game, my oldest brother and his family, plus some of his wife’s sister’s family, all came down and crammed into my apartment…about 12 people.  It was miserable.  What little hot water I had at the time quickly went away.  I ended up sleeping on my bedroom floor, crammed between my dresser and bed.  People were sleeping in every crevice of my apartment.

I was informed tonight by my mother that my oldest brother and his family, a total of 7 people, will be spending the night at my apartment the Thursday before the wedding.  My mom and I got into an argument when I told her that even though I would love to host them, it will be nearly impossible.  There will be three 6 foot tables crammed in to hold all the cookies.  I will be up late baking cupcakes and washing dishes, and will be up and baking cookies by 8 a.m. on Friday morning.  I don’t really have the space to do all of this with 7 other people hanging around my apartment.

Does that make me a bitch?

I said in the last post that I would stop talking about my brother’s wedding, but I made no mention of Derek’s and Denise’s wedding…hehe.

I don’t really have any drama, but boy was there some at Belle Saison on Saturday morning when Staci went to try on the dress!! I originally didn’t want to go again since I had already been, but then I realized that I would be missing out on some major excitement if I didn’t go. And let me tell you…they didn’t disappoint!!

Let me post pictures:

Originally Denise wanted us to all wear different colors, but the same style dress (the one I’m wearing). I was going to wear yellow, Staci in pink, and her sister Diana in the green.

Denise then decided that it was too much color when put next to the guys who will be wearing blue guayaberas, so Denise decided we would all wear the green color.

Well, there was a bit of drama on Saturday when Staci’s boobs didn’t fit in the dress. They were coming out both the front and side. She wasn’t comfortable at all. She prefers strapless dresses so that they cover all of her boobage, but Denise hates strapless dresses. I tried to intervene and say that maybe we could all just pick a different dress in the same shade, but by that time my opinions were not really an option. Some fighting occurred, there was massive awkward tension, and there was an angry bride and angry bridesmaid in the bridal salon. I just ended up letting them battle it out and went and congratulated Kathy Tapperson (who was shopping for a dress at that time).

I was originally going to stay out of it, but I know that things will get bad if I don’t say something. So I emailed Denise awhile ago with my thought of maybe having us wear different dresses. I made sure she knew that I don’t care about the dress…as long as it fits, I’m good to go. But for the sake of keeping peace, maybe she could at least consider this option. I found some decent dresses on David’s Bridal that are a darker green, but still a beachy color. These are some of the dresses that I sent, which I think will be good for a beach wedding:

I personally LOVE the last one, but that’s because I love halter dresses with cute hem lines and of course I LOVE LOVE LOVE polka dots!! But we’ll see. It’s her decision, and I don’t really care what happens.

In other dress news…I was looking at the Ann Taylor Celebrations line to see if they had any options, and I came across a simple silk duponi strapless espresso colored dress. Originally it was $178 but was on sale for $19!! And free shipping!! I was super excited about my find.

Anywho, I just thought I would post pictures. I’m so glad that I’m not included in this drama. I’m just trying to extend an olive branch in order to keep the peace. Oh, and I go in for my dress fitting for my other bridesmaid dress on Thursday…keep the fingers crossed!!

And I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Congrats on the new nephew, Terri! Julia, I’m super sorry that I missed your housewarming party!! Kashie, it was good to see you, if only for like 2 hours!!

This will be my last post (hopefully) bitching about my brother’s wedding.

The last post I talked about how my bridesmaid dress was completely messed up. On Monday afternoon I embarked on a journey to find someone to alter it. The first place that I went to said that because of the work required, it would be by the hour, at $44/hr and it would take 4-5 hours to do. Once you do the math, that’s the same amount that I had to spend on the dress just to buy it. The next place I went to said they could do it for $170. The next place was back in the $200 range. Needless to say, I was completely fed up. I wasn’t about to spend $400 on a dress that I will never wear again. But at the same time it HAS to be fixed. As it is now, my boobs are not covered up at all.

I looked up some reviews online on Monday, and came across a review for Alexia Gavela. Someone posted that they got alterations similar to what I would need done for less than $100. So I went in today, and before I could say anything, the seamstress started pinning my dress exactly where I wanted (a middle hem, which other places were hesitant to do). She kept pinning, and all I wanted to know was how much it was going to cost. She didn’t speak much English, so I started to get nervous that she wasn’t understanding that I merely wanted an estimate, not for her to pin me up without telling me the cost. She then had me take the dress off and scheduled for me to come in for another fitting next week. At that point I was told that they could do a middle hem, a regular bottom hem, take it in on the sides, and tighten the top all for $80. Needless to say, I left the dress with them, scheduled an appointment to come in next Thursday, and am done with it.

Now I need some shoes, schedule my hair and makeup appointments, work on the slide show for the rehearsal dinner, and finish buying ingredients for the cookies and cupcakes. 23 days to get all this done, and then the 24th day it will finally all come to an end.

But since I’m still on the subject of the wedding…

My mom, aunt and I drove out to the rehearsal dinner site on Monday afternoon so that we could finish buying supplies. It’s out in Steiner Ranch. Then we ventured over to Lakeway Resort and Spa where we will be staying and where the reception will be. I’m super sad that I won’t be able to utilize the pool. It’s amazing, yet I’ll be too busy. I was just informed on Monday that in addition to baking the 600 cookies on Friday morning, I then have to attend a bridesmaid’s luncheon that afternoon. Oye.

Okay, I could go on but I need to stop. I’m probably driving y’all crazy. I didn’t get to take a picture of the dress before I left it, so I’ll have to post one once it’s finished.

Toodles!

I’m in a crap mood.

I went to the salon yesterday to get my hair done. The lady said that she couldn’t dye my hair lighter so that instead she would give me golden highlights. I don’t understand why they say that. I’ve used box dyes before that have gotten my hair lighter. But every time I go to a salon, they always say that you can’t dye dark hair light. So basically dark haired girls are screwed. Anywho, I’m not sure how I feel about the highlights. I’ll post pics later.

Then the lady said she couldn’t tint my eyebrows brown since they are black and you can’t tint them lighter, only darker. Yet again, dark haired girls are screwed. Then she got all huffy about my eyebrows not having shape, and the next thing I knew, wax was on my face and hair was being pulled off. I don’t have much eyebrow hair as it is.  For some reason my eyebrow hair doesn’t grow back, so if I accidentally pluck one too many hairs (which I have done on many occasion), then there’s not really much luck of it growing back. So now I have “shaped” super thin eyebrows. She told me to buy eyebrow product and fill them in…like old people do.

I went with Denise to pick up her wedding dress yesterday. She ordered it in January and it was already ready. I think it was a bad idea to buy so early. Her wedding is in October and she already has her dress in her possession. That is way too much time, in my opinion, to own a dress. I would constantly be rethinking my choice and going back to the salon to keep looking…but again, that’s just me. I got to try on bridesmaid dresses, and I’ll be outfitted in yet another yellow dress. I was really hoping to get the pink dress, but nope. I’m curious as to how the color scheme will play out. I’ll be wearing yellow, and the other two will be wearing a pink color and a lime green color. Then the guys are supposed to be wearing light blue shirts. We’re going to look like Mexican flowers.

Speaking of Denise’s wedding. Let me give you a rundown of the dates/places that the wedding has been “scheduled” for so far since their engagement in early January:

• originally was going to be spring 2009, location TBD (talk of on a cruise or in Vegas)
• set for October 12, 2008 at Casa Blanca on Brushy Creek in Round Rock
• then was switched to Hawaii in March 2009
• then was switched to Hawaii in November 2008
• then was switched to Puerto Vallarta on November 16, 2008
• **at this point they decided that they wanted to get legally married in Mexico (parent’s request) and that Mexico won’t legally marry them on a Sunday
• then was switched to Puerto Vallarta on November 15, 2008
• **at this point we made the save-the-date message in a bottles just this past Tuesday
• as of two days ago, it was switched to Puerto Vallarta on October 25, 2008

Despite my constant telling them that just because you want to get married on a certain date doesn’t mean that the venue will be available, they continued to ignore my advice. Turns out after we made the save-the-dates for November 15th, they THEN decided to call and book the place, only to find that it had been booked. Of course it was! So on Friday night we had to remake the messages that go in the save-the-date (message in a bottle). Ugh.

And while on the wedding subject, I finally got my bridesmaid dress for my brother’s wedding…now that it is 4 weeks away. I had heard that all the bridesmaids were finding the top of their dresses to be too big, so I was expecting that when I tried mine on. However, I was not expecting it to be about 5 inches too long (after I put on heels), the top to be so big that it falls down past my boobs, and for it to be too tight. Had I known the dress was going to be made of silk, I would have added a couple of inches to my measurements. I hate wearing stuff that it too tight. It shows every bulge, every dimple, everything. I don’t even know if Spanx will do the trick. I’m not comfortable in it at all. I’m worried that if I go take it in to get altered (which it will need to be hemmed and the top to be taken in) that if I ask to have it taken out a little in the stomach area, that they won’t be able to do it. Then I’ll look like a fat what in a bright yellow dress. You can even see the outline of my belly button!! Disgusting. Paige’s sister is a fashion designer, and I’ve seen some of her dresses before and they are all super cute, but this dress is ugly. There is nothing special about it. They said it was going to be flowing yellow chiffon. Yeah, it’s yellow, and the only flowy chiffon part is some piece that hangs off the back of the dress (which I think looks dumb). And the top part is chiffon. I was told that it was going to be flattering on everyone, but clearly that just meant the size 2 bridesmaids…which would be all of them except me. I just think for the price we paid for this dress, I could have bought a super cute BCBG dress that I’ve been eyeing lately.

I’m nervous about getting alterations done period. If something goes wrong, I won’t have another dress in time since they were specially made. Maybe they gave me the wrong dress. Maybe I’m wearing some tall, skinny, big breasted girls dress. I should find out. But somehow I doubt that it was happened. I’ll have to post pics of the dress so that you can see what I’m talking about.

Alrighty, I’m done bitching for today.

Toodles!

I’m gonna bitch about my body. Read if you want. I’m just jibber jabbering.

Well, mainly hair issues. I don’t think anyone has ever seen my natural hair color. It’s naturally super dark brown, almost black. I never liked it, so I started highlighting it late in high school. Anywho, a couple of months ago I was tired of the reddish tint that my hair had, so I dyed it back to it’s normal color. It was definitely a noticeable change. Well, when my mom saw me last weekend at the bridals, she said that my hair looked too goth, which is funny b/c it was pretty much my natural color. She wanted me to go lighter for my brother’s wedding, so I complied and dyed it this weekend. Big mistake. It didn’t come out to a nice medium brown like I wanted. Rather, the roots turned a copper color and the rest of my hair only lightened up slightly. I tried to wash it out, so now the copper color isn’t as bright, but still slightly noticeable.

I’m going to call my salon tomorrow and see if they can dye it on Saturday. I’ve never had my hair professionally dyed…just highlighted, so this should be an experience. I’m also contemplating getting my brows tinted. My brows are black, and I hate the way they look. I read that brow tinting can also make the brows look fuller, so I’m all for that. So maybe I’ll get that done on Saturday, too.

And I need the weather to cooperate so that I can start getting some sun before the wedding. A nice golden tan will look good with the yellow dress. I just need the sun to shine and for it not to be so cold. Friday it’s supposed to be sunny and 88…I might just have to stay home from work and get a little sun.

My skin infections from January have left visible marks on my body, which I’m none too happy about. One is on my arm…it’s a bumpy reddish mark. Then there’s the scar on the side of my forehead. I woke up one morning in January and some huge mountain was growing on my face. It wasn’t a pimple…I dunno what it was. It got to big freakin’ huge, so I had to change my part to hide it. Anywho, it eventually went away, but now there’s a horrible scar there. BLAH.

And I need to call my doctor to get a mole removed. It’s on the side of my neck…it’s quite small. But it’s very squishy. And when I sit in the passenger seat, the seatbelt rubs against it and irritates it. This weekend I was using the diffuser on my blow dryer, and one of the prongs accidentally hit it and it started to bleed. I just need to get it shaved/burned/iced off.

BUT…there is one good thing going on with my body. I have always been super self-conscious of the gap between my front teeth. At my aunt’s house on Thanksgiving, I saw my senior picture sitting on a shelf. Damn, my gap was huge!! I was like a slot machine…stick a quarter in the slot and pull the handle! People all the time told me I had pepper or food stuck in my teeth. I begged the dentist to do something, but he said that since the rest of my teeth were straight and nothing wrong with them, that I should just embrace the gap and eventually my teeth might push in and it would go away. I didn’t believe him until last week. I noticed that the gap was definitely smaller. Denise even asked me if I was using invisalign because my gap was almost gone. So yay for that! However, I still wish that I wasn’t so gummy when I smile. Darn having super small teeth. At least I don’t have a horse’s mouth like someone I know.

Okay, that was a snippy snappy comment. I shouldn’t be mean. Time for bed.

Toodles!!!

I’m not sure if anyone can help, but if some of the more computer-savvy people could take a look at this website and offer any suggestions, I would be extremely grateful.

http://www.retrospectvideoalbums.com/albumsampleswedding.htm

I was asked to put together a slideshow for the rehearsal dinner. I am literate enough in powerpoint (and thanks Terri for sending me the info on how to link songs), but I came across this website and now am determined to add some pizazz to the presentation.

Can you tell from the website (particularly the slideshows called “our story” and “plaid” how they did the graphics/animation? Is this some high-tech thing? Is it flash? Could little ol’ me attempt to do this?

It might not be possible at all, but if you have any suggestions on how I might be able to do something like this, please please let me know. And is powerpoint the easiest program to use…or iMOVIE/iDVD? What would be a better option??

Thanks in advance!!

I’m never busy. Well, sometimes. But not lately. Yet the past three days have been the longest, busiest days in awhile. I feel like I’m about to pass out sometime soon.

I ended up looking at apartments with the locator on Friday. Let me tell you that he was a crazy nut. And I don’t mean the good kind of crazy. We rode together, and he ran every single red light. Not like the light was yellow and he was already in the intersection…but rather, it was red for a good few seconds before we even approached the intersection and then he continued right through. Every single light!! When we got to an apartment and the leasing agents were already busy, he would get frustrated and say very loudly “this is fucking ridiculous. what is this…saturday? we’re going, we don’t have time to wait around.” Um, okay. Then when we got to apartments and they weren’t busy, he would say “just show her the model apartment. don’t bullshit around with the tour.” Um, okay. And then when we were looking at apartments, he would cut off the leasing agent and start talking about the complex. One agent finally said “okay, well I’ll let Michael take you around since he clearly knows the place.” Ugh…frustrating. At 5:00 I was ready to go, and he still wanted to show me more. I told him I was done, and then he said “cool because I’ve got a concert to get to.” What a freakin’ psycho.

Needless to say, I still need to shop around a little longer but I only have a couple of weeks to make a decision.

Saturday morning we had a meeting with the scholarship selection committee to decide on the 15 finalists to invite for interviews (for the 5 $10,000 a year scholarships). We each got to call 5 of the students to congratulate them and invite them…I was only able to talk to one student and then one parent. Both were super happy and excited, and it was definitely a high point in my new position…thus far.

Today my mom and I went to help Paige with her bridals. It was me, my mom, Paige’s mom, and one of Paige’s sisters. They were out at Laguna Gloria, and luckily the rain held off. It was really windy, but the pictures came out great with the wind taking her veil up in the air. I took tons of pictures (almost as much as the photographer), but they are all on Paige’s camera. I wish I had taken mine so that I could post some. Hopefully she’ll email so I can see. Then we went and assembled the invitations, which proved to be a very difficult task. I’m still a bit bitter about the rehearsal dinner invitations b/c I had something designed and my mom and I were going to take care of it. We were recently informed that Paige’s mom and sister had an insert ordered and were just going to include it with the wedding invitation. I definitely was not happy. My mom feels like she is not contributing financially and is having a hard time with that. I have a hard time with the fact that people are offering to help, yet they won’t let anyone. Plus, there is nowhere in the wedding invitation envelope for the rehearsal dinner insert to go, so they are just throwing it in the big envelope. Ugh. I had a cute idea for envelopes, too. I hate when I have ideas and then I don’t get to orchestrate them.

The wedding is 6 weeks out and we still don’t have bridesmaid dresses. I’m a bit nervous about this. Particularly b/c when I went to get measured, the person seemed a little kooky and didn’t know what some of the measurements meant, so she didn’t take them. And I’m super excited about going to buy Spanx. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am. Even though I’m working out and eating somewhat better, I’m still not seeing results as fast I would like. It’s quite upsetting. But thank goodness for a good pair of Spanx!! As anyone bought them before? Are they really as good as I hear they are? And what kind did you buy? I guess I should look at their website.

Oh…one last bit of wedding business. So I was asked to bake the cookies for favors. These are special cookies that my brother likes. They only take 10 minutes to bake, but then you have to let the icing harden overnight. Anywho, there are a little more than 200 guests invited. I was asked tonight how many cookies I was going to put in each bag. I assumed one…wrong! I’ve been asked to put 3 cookies in each bag. 600 freaking cookies I have to bake!!!!! Holy shit. See…another reason I should stay at my apartment.

I’m done jibber jabbering. Hope y’all had a good weekend.

Toodles!