What a day!

And it's only 7:45.

I almost hit a dog this morning. If the car behind me had been any closer, I might have caused a 6 car accident. No joke. That was actually really scary. But who cares because MARSHELY'S HAVING A BABY!!!

It's GONE!!!

Ok, well a lot of it is gone. OH! The 'it' would be my hair. I got a lot of it cut off this weekend. The hairstylist said she cut off 5 inches but I have a feeling it was at least 6. It was down to my waist and now it's at my bra strap. It really needed to be cut but it's weird to not have it all there. I feel a bit naked really.

Anyway, I had a decent weekend. I saw The Departed with my mom. Very good movie even though it was loaded with foul language (f-bombs galore and my least favorite word, c*nt) and tons of violence. I honestly don't know how they'll show a clip of it during the Oscars because I don't think there is 2 straight minutes without language or violence.

And how would one pronounce that?

This was in an article that I read the other day about a show on MTV.

“Abcde Shibao, 16, also of Lahaina, said Maui residents come across as one-dimensional in the program.”

Who names their kid after the first 5 letters of the alphabet?

These Oscars are making me thirsty!

In honor of the Oscar nominations my friend Dana and I are going over the menu. She was already planning on coming down the weekend after, something about a Nickleback concert that I might get dragged to... Anyway I'm going to FauxVo the awards and we'll watch it the following weekend. No commercials, no long thank you speeches and all the dresses & jewelry we can handle.

So far these are my favorites:
Helen Beer-in
Abigail Pretzlin
Martini Scorsese
Letters from Iwo Jicama
Cate Blancheddar

The saga continues UPDATED

Ok, so my friend Charlene drove by the sign again and this time noticed the "New/Used Furniture" below the name. Bummer! But of course this got me thinking about the little article from November 2005 about the TJs grocery store being built in that exact location. Since I'm curious by nature, I took a shot and emailed the editor of the Charleston City Paper where I saw the aforementioned article. I basically said that I got my hopes up and then was pretty disappointed to find out it was the dumb furniture TJs. And that basically I just wondered how it went down and if they knew anything about the TJs grocery store pulling out. This was the email I received back:

Ew. That's not good. It looks like we got it wrong, but I'm pretty sure we got a press release about it and called the home office... I'll have to do some research.

That's so sweet that the editor not only responded the next day but that she offered to look into it. No idea if she'll actually do so but it was a nice offer.

UPDATE:

We're getting closer...

Coming Soon
Atlanta, GA (Midtown)
Charlotte, NC (North)
Charlotte, NC (South)
Hillsboro, OR
Irvine, CA (Irvine & Sand Canyon)
Marietta, GA
Templeton, CA

Would I drive to 3 hours to Charlotte just to go to Trader Joe's? No. Seriously, I wouldn't. But once the new Ikea is open...maybe.

Being wrong never felt so good...

Ok, so I found a very small article that said they are building a Trader Joe's in North Charleston. Could it be? I'm going to drive by the Coming Soon sign after work tonight to see it for myself. If I had a camera with me, I'd take a picture of it. My question is, why don't they have it included on their website under the Coming Soon list? Ok, so will it be built in like a year? There's a CVS being built near home that has had the Coming Soon sign up for a couple of months and they haven't even broken ground yet. Also, TJs *claims* to read the emails but how hard would it have been for someone to say in a reply, "keep your eyes peeled when in the N. Charleston area." Whatever. I'm just glad it's going in 20 minutes from my house and not 2 hours. This news made my week.

Someday...

Ok, I'm slightly obsessed with Trader Joe's. I got to go to one this past weekend and was so happy to be there with organic/healthy foods at reasonable prices (I'm talking to you, Whole Foods!). Once a month I shoot an email to the kind folks at Trader Joe's and request that they look into setting up a store here in the Charleston area. There are locations popping up around Atlanta (I think there are 5 now) and one in Cary, NC. Still not close enough. In a cruel twist of whatever, there's a furniture store here called Trader Joe's. They even have radio commercials about how, haha, they're not the grocery store, haha!!! And of course I'm always thinking, "You jerks could never be as great at the grocery store. All you do is sell new and used furniture." Their logo is even surprisingly similar:





So last night, my friend Charlene was driving home and called me with news that made me momentarily happy. She saw a sign that said, "Coming Soon Trader Joe's". I screamed, "SHUT UP!" into the phone. The skeptic in me soon took over. So I paused and thought to myself, I bet it's that damn furniture store. Charlene is going to look very hard tonight on her drive home and let me know. I thought in the meantime I could look online to see if the furniture store's website said anything about expanding. It doesn't. I checked Trader Joe's site to see if the list of 'Coming Soon' stores had changed since yesterday. It hadn't.

The long weekend...

I love a long weekend. It's a special gift once in a while. I also love a good road trip. But I think my driving limit is really 5-6 hours. Anything beyond that is just too much. What was odd is that it took us longer to get home even though we stopped less. We thought it could have been the high winds perhaps.

Our view from the room was lovely and if I remember to download the pics to my iBook tonight I'll post one. We saw all over Virginia Beach, Norfolk and even some of Newport News. The sad thing is that we never stepped foot onto the beach even though our hotel was located right on it. We did, however, go to Trader Joe's and my mother filled up the trunk with grocery bags. That in addition to our very late lunch/early dinner at Cheesecake Factory made for a good day. I got the avocado rolls and mom got the lettuce wraps. Both were excellent. Poor Andrea got the roasted artichokes which sounded good in theory but ended up being kind of strange. We each got a yummy slice of cheesecake which none of us could finish so we brought them home. So I've now had cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory.

Andrea and her son Morgan are doing well. He's developing very fast and should get the casts off his legs in just a few weeks. He's only 6 weeks old but already turned himself over. Andrea thinks the leg casts helped with that but it's still impressive.

Well I still have a desire to live up in that general area so that'll be towards the top of my list along with Baltimore.

My Name is Dotty

That was some good TV last night. My Name is Earl has really been changing stuff up lately. Usually when writers try to change/improve a show they fall flat. I've really enjoyed the variances on their theme though. Good job, writers of Earl.

As far as The Office, that was very amusing. I loved that they kind of tricked you into thinking people are nutty but really there was a method to their madness. The shot of Phyllis and Karen in the car after the 'makeover' was PRICELESS!!! And I can't believe Dwight threw in the towel to protect Angela. He really loves her though I'd assume he's never said those words to her. They truly belong together.

I'm off to Virginia Beach this weekend. Finally. The sad thing is that it's going to be in the 70s. I know, it's odd that I'm complaining about warm weather in the winter but I do love a cold day at the beach.

Uh, um, hmmm...

I can't think of anything to post.

Well, I had my first class and it was interesting. It's basically the history of education. We go as far back as the well known philosphers Aristotle, Plato and So-crates. Sorry, every time I see Socrates or Beethoven (Beeth-oven) I hear Bill & Ted in my head misprounouncing them. Anywho there's a skater/surfer type dude in there who is annoying. He interrupts, answers wrong, leaves class, etc. There's always got to be one, right?

My other class, Human Growth & Development, is tonight. I'm just glad I get to leave work at 3:45 on Thursdays.

I bought my books online and they were categorized as USED. One is in great shape and even has the CD-Rom inside. The other has definitely been read and the back cover is kind of dirty. But neither has highlighter marks. Does no one highlight anymore?

I think I'm going to put my first name and phone number in the book and sell it back. That way John Cusack will find me in like 5 years and we'll fall in love on a skating rink in NYC.

Being this poor really sucks

So I can't do the trip to Europe next Christmas. I'm incredibly bummed. At least I didn't buy any of the 8 travel books I had my eye on...

I went over my budget and there's no possible way I can save $150 a month. It's so sad when every penny of your paycheck is spent before you even get it.

Anyway I'm still trying to think of ways to get out of town that week. I wonder if a hotel/condo on the beach somewhere on the east coast would be cheaper since it's off-season. Maybe something in the outerbanks? I wouldn't have to buy a plane ticket which is good yet it's still out of state, also good. For some reason I love the beach in winter. This is starting to sound like a good idea.

High - wait for it - Larious!

Ok, this is the funniest ad and the only reason I saw it is because I watched this show that aired the funniest ads from this year. Did anyone actually see it on TV?

Thank you for not getting married!

So I hear through the grapevine that Cameron and Justin have called it quits. Unsurprising.