National Adoption Month

Happy National Adoption Month! In case you didn't know, I am really pro-adoption. I think it is a wonderful way to grow a family. That being said, I am going to use this post to provide a little education. Adoption brings to the surface many different prejudices. For example, did you know that most adoptive parents prefer girls? It's true. Highlighted is an article that I read a few years ago. I found this Slate.com article fascinating and hopefully it will make you think about your attitudes towards gender.

This picture has nothing to do with my post. But isn't my new niece precious? I can't wait to see her next week! (Anna, a restaurant review is next in the queue!)

So funny

Oh dear, the title of this post sounds like a terrible email forward. Whatever, this is actually funny.

The reason some girls stay single - very funny!

This guy is a "class" act!

READ BELOW BEFORE LISTENING

The story is this: a girl was out with friends having drinks on King St (in Toronto ). This guy approaches her and won't leave her alone -saying how cute she is. She finally gives in and hands the guy her business card to get rid of him. The attached is an MP3 file of not one, but TWO voicemails this guy left. This goes down in the history books - especially the second voice mail. After hearing them you can clearly see why she didn't call him back - instead she called in to the Z103.5 morning show & had them play this on the air.

Ladies: He is out there... :)

(download)

Lake Conroe, New Mexico, and Karma

I have recently returned from family vacation. I had so much fun spending loads of time with everyone. This trip was a two parter: Part 1 - Lake Conroe, TX and Part 2 - Red River, NM.  At Lake Conroe there was much Wii tennis, pool time, and grilling. 

Lake Conroe pictures:

An intense tennis match between Roddick and Federer.

Katie playing at the beach. 

Troy and Becky picnicking at Lake Conroe 

Next, Brent, Erin, and Katie went home to Dallas and the rest of flew to New Mexico. Here is where Karma comes into play. Almost everyone I know loves New Mexico. Sadly, I have had some bad experiences there. I had a terrible time at 7th grade church camp because my good friend's grandmother died and when she returned home for the funeral, I was left at camp with zero friends. Then a couple years later, an icy ski trip with my youth group again soured me on the state. Well, instead of keeping my negative thoughts to myself I have bashed New Mexico many times. I have mocked the southwest art, dismissed New Mexico's ski slopes, and called Santa Fe a town full of old hippies. When I returned with my family this month, I really liked everything. Red River was charming, the scenery was beautiful, and I was able to wear long sleeves and shorts (an all time great combo). Well, New Mexico let me enjoy the first two days and then I suffered the worst allergy attack ever. By the end of the trip I had a summer cold (the worst of all colds). Gentle readers, remember if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. There was an upside to the cold. While wallowing on the couch one day, I discovered a Mad Men marathon. Oh my word, that is a GREAT show. It is about a New York advertising agency in the early 1960s. The clothes are amazing and the dialogue is witty.  Season 3 premiers tonight at 10/9 central on AMC.  Check it out, you won't be disappointed. 

Here are some pics from Red River:

Jeep time!

Top of the Fourth of July Trail

Mom cooking dinner

Dad relaxing before dinner

Me and Brooke at the top of the Red River ski lift 

Harry Potter and The Fug Blog

I am very pumped about Harry Potter this week. My tickets for Wednesday are already purchased. To get ready, I have been watching loads of Potter on t.v. as a refresher. I am also loving the Fug's Blog coverage of HP fashion. Lovely Emma Watson gets most of the press, but that makes sense seeing as girls fashion is much more entertaining. Below is a Fug post from a few days ago. So funny! Also, Daniel Radcliffe is super short, who knew.   

JULY 7, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Fug Prince

FUG FILE:

 

• DIALOGUE,
 
• HARRY POTTER,
 
• JUST...WOW,
 
• MAN FUGS

RUPERT GRINT: Dude. Apparently my getting swine flu brought with it a previously unpublicized side effect: I no longer show up to premieres looking like I just rolled out of bed! Now I wish I'd gotten it earlier! 

J.K. ROWLING: I'm a gazillionaire. And this color looks great on me. AND I'm not working on a crazy deadline anymore. How awesome are things for me right now? Pretty awesome.

EMMA WATSON: I am ALSO pretty. Tonight is going SO WELL! What a relief!

DAN RADCLIFFE: Oh god. Am I....wearing a suit that closes with a TOGGLE?

RUPERT: I look charming and Dan's suit closes with a toggle! AT LAST RON WEASLEY COMES OUT ON TOP! Come on, everyone! How about a rousing round of "Weasley Is Our King!"

JO: I wonder who talked Dan into that toggle-closure.  Was he Confunded in his dressing room? I mean, if that were real. 

EMMA: Poor Dan. Someone's going to need to buy that boy a drink. He looks so alarmed. I told him not to go for the toggle. Why doesn't he listen to me? What HAPPENED with him?

DAN: What HAPPENED to me? Is there any way I can blame this on dark magic? Think, Radcliffe! THINK!

POSTED BY JESSICA AT 01:27 PM IN EMMA WATSON | PERMALINK | E-MAIL THIS FUG

Are you there blog world? It's me, Brooke

I think that one of the most unoriginal things a person can say is that they were nerd in middle school/jr. high/high school. News flash, everyone goes through an awkward stage. While I try my best not to roll my eyes when someone says, "Trust me, I was a huge dork in high school," I do I love the stories that follow that line. Over dinner tonight, my friend and I shared some particularly horrible middle school memories. However, I have little sympathy for my friend because she rebounded early and went on to be a cheerleader and homecoming queen in high school. Her suffering was minimal at best. I thought it might be fun to share a dorky junior high story on the blog. Enjoy!

There is so much about my junior high school experience that is comical. I attended John H. Glenn Junior High 7th - 9th grade in San Angelo, TX. The school is now called John H. Glenn Middle School and serves students 6th - 8th grade. The fact that the school isn't named after a Texan or Southern Civil War hero is shocking. However, an astronaut is cool, so I guess the school district thought it was ok to break tradition. The school's space theme boldly goes where no school has gone before. Glenn was built in the 1960s, and San Angelo must have been experimenting with some crazy, new age ideas because the school is shaped like an actual spaceship. It is comprised of three round buildings that resemble the Star Trek Enterprise. I wish I had a good picture to show you, but the best I have this school map. It kind of shows what I am talking about. Also, the mascot: Space Raiders.

August 1994 was a busy time for my family. We were moving from San Angelo, TX to Phoenix, AZ. The move came at such at a terrible time. I spent the first few weeks of school at Glenn and then transferred to a new school in Phoenix. My parents mandatory trip to Phoenix to buy a new house fell during the first week of school in San Angelo. My older brother was starting 11th grade and able to fend for himself for a week. But the thought of getting a 12 year-old ready for her first day of junior high was a bit much. Also, my little sister was only going into the 4th grade. So, Becky and I went to stay with my best friend Jamie, who lived a few blocks over. Planning for the move and everything that entailed made my introduction to junior high a minor event for the family. Oh the woes of being a middle child :)

When I attended Glenn, the vast majority of students were in Athletics. General Physical Ed. was available, but really only weird kids were in PE. Becky and Jamie will back me up on this one. I may have been clueless socially, but I knew enough to know that it was much better to run laps in off season Athletics, than go slumming in PE.

My school required that all girls wear a uniform to Athletics. The uniform consisted of green shorts and a gray t-shirt that said "Glenn Girls Athletics" on the front, and on the back it had your first initial and last name. This shirt could only be purchased from a few stores in town. Well, the night before my parents were to leave for Phoenix and a few days before school started, I realized that I did not have the mandatory gym uniform. I panicked because 7th Grade Girls Athletics was 1st Period. We were required to come to school in our Athletics uniform, even on the first day of class. The thought of facing every girl in school wearing something different was unbearable. At first, when I notified my parents of the problem, my mother said that I would go without for the first week of school and when they returned, the gym uniform would be purchased. Well, I freaked out. Glenn had this crazy policy that if you didn't have the athletics uniform by the 3rd day of school, then you were forced to take PE. My parents did not return until the 2nd week of school, so social suicide loomed on the horizon. My parents were dubious of this policy and didn't see the big deal with being in PE instead of Althletics. After much whining, my father went to the store late at night to buy the goods.

Now readers, if you are ever in the situation where the father of your soon-to-be 13 year-old daughter is sent on a mission to buy her clothes, please give him VERY specific instructions. Sadly for me, my father received no such instructions. My fathered returned with 2 size XL shirts. At 12 years-old, I weighed about 90lbs sopping wet. My father wears an XL shirt. Why he thought that his much smaller daughter could fit into an XL shirt is beyond me. However, my father's error could not be corrected before they left town. It was humiliating walking into school the first day of class wearing a gym uniform two sizes too large. Well, my parents are practical people and they saw no point in buying me a new gym shirt because I attended Glenn for less than a month. When I went to Phoenix, I intentionally left those shirts in my gym locker.

Little did I know that a year later my father would be transferred back to San Angelo. When I returned to Glenn Girls Athletics, I made sure that my parents bought me gym shirts that fit. I never really forgot the 7th grade shirts because if a student forgot their uniform, then they had to borrow a discarded shirt. Well, my old XL shirts ended-up in the bucket of discarded uniforms. All of the discarded shirts were from girls who left their shirts behind when they moved, went onto high school, etc. You knew someone was wearing a discarded uniform because the name on the back of shirts was crossed-out with a permanent marker. Girls rarely wore my shirts because they were enormous.

I almost forgot about this entire disaster, but then I started high school. Somehow one of my old shirts made it's way into the wardrobe of a cool, senior boy. He thought it was ironic and funny to wear a Glenn Girls Athletics t-shirt. I am assuming he chose my shirt because it was big enough to fit him. Needless to say, my name was sprawled across the back of the shirt and this caused everyone to have a good laugh at my expense. Looking back, I think it's kind funny how those drama-filled shirts would just not go away.

4th of July

Greetings from Long Island! I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. My weekend started off pretty perfect because Friday was a holiday :) My co-worker/friend Lindsye and I ventured into Manhattan for a little shopping. Since I have been to New York a number of times, I took the lead navigating our trip. Disaster. Why is it that when I am alone, I am able to accomplish amazingly difficult trips? But put me in charge of other people, and everything falls apart? Poor Lindsye. I was able to get us to Soho, but that was about it. Google led me astray with a wrong address, I got turned around after exiting the subway...nothing went right. Anyways, shopping was a success and lunch was very tasty (we ate at Jane on Houston Street - good food, mostly reasonable prices). I met up with my friend Melody after shopping. For personal growth, we went to the MOMA (free on Friday's from 4 to 8) and ate dinner at Rosa Mexicana. 

The next day I took the train to Washington D.C. to celebrate the 4th of July with my parents and Becky and Troy. Guys, Amtrak is great! The seats are very comfortable and it is so nice not having to mess with TSA. I wish that Texas would invest a high speed rail service. I think that it would do really well. We went to the Mall to watch fireworks and the Capitol delivered. My family tried to get as close to the symphony as possible, but the only thing that we could hear were the cannons during the the 1812 Overture. Becky, Troy, and I took the Bolt Bus back to the city. While the bus was not as spacious as the train, the price was considerably cheaper, $24 vs. $72. Here are a few pics: 

I was a tad bored waiting for the train to leave.

My family in matching Old Navy shirts - I know that everyone envies our swagger!

Becky and Troy

Killing time while Becky was looking for a D.C. Christmas ornament 

Waiting for the big fireworks show

Happy Independence Day!

Housewarming/Job Promotion/Non-Hermit Party

Last night I had a few friends over for a housewarming/job promotion/non-hermit party. If you recall this post from April, I promised to update my blog with pictures of my new place after I was all settled in. Well, I live like a lost boy and I needed a party to motivate me to unpack my last box and hang some art on the walls. When I told Anna that I was thinking about hosting a party, she generously offered to bring homemade egg rolls. I then ran with an Asian theme. I served chicken satay with a Thai peanut dipping sauce, edamame, and fruit. Melina brought a heavenly pear pie, Jill treated everyone to her famous mango pie, and Audrey completed the spread with a chocolate cake. 

Here is a photo timeline of the party. Emma took most of the pictures, so the perspective is that of a 7-year-old:

The party started with general milling about. Despite the presence of wine glasses, Melina instinctively went to pour her wine in a red cup :)

Then everyone sampled the food. I was pretty proud of myself for slicing the limes banquet style. 

Can you see the love in these egg rolls? They were sooo good, thanks Anna!

Next, there was pleasant party conversation. Sorry Jill, only Audrey and Bryan made the cut for this picture. I had to crop you out because your eyes were closed. 

Joe and Anna

Super cute Melina and Chris. Middle class white boys everywhere envy Chris' footwear. 

Here are two pictures of the desserts. Katie, Melina's pear pie is a lot like our apple pie. So, if you want to do a fun twist on the pie try substituting pears (I would cut the baking 

time in half if you use canned pears).  

Emma and I being silly after dessert

James and Lindsye 

Finally, my guests started to fall asleep and everyone went home. Overall, everything went pretty well. I was the only one who spilled anything and only Audrey got lost trying to find my apartment. Thanks for coming guys, I hope you enjoy reading this post at work!