BEST WEEKEND...EVER.

I'm completely preparing myself for this post to be stalked...apparently Phil and I dating is more entertaining than a circus sideshow (especially for Dan-villians).

SO...Let me just let you in on the little secret...It was honestly the best weekend of my life so far.  I seriously don't know how it could have been more fun or wonderful or perfect.

The first night I drove to the airport at pretty much the speed of light which for anyone who knows about my driving skillZ... is a scary thought.  I picked Phil up and immediately forced him to take the wheel.  

We went to this awesome Tapas restaurant in Rice Village called Mi Luna that has the coolest atmosphere. It's always buzzing and full of people.  They had a live band that night so we spent the whole time screaming at each other and fighting the urge to get up and dance whilst eating... so fun so funny... lots of hip shaking,spicy food eating, and PG translating spanish lyrics.

ummmm let's see what else. 

We went to a park the next day called The Bayou Walk and just sat, talked (we could both be employed as professional talkers if such a job existed) and fought off mosquitoes.  We both  chose our own favorite skyscraper on the Houston skyline and Phil later informed me that mine "sucked" and he won after seeing how his pick lit up at night...so romantic.  

I gave the U of H school tour. Phil was a fan of the recreational center where we watched part of a fencing and water polo tournament. On Sunday Phil got to see my gigantic singles ward. He also met Lyndsey who housed me for the time I was actually asleep this weekend, THANKYOU LYNDS!  

Basically we laughed and laughed and laughed and stared at each other... in shock that we were actually in the same place at the same time.

None of this can really explain why it was so perfect.  I couldn't be happier or more thankful. It was everything I could even think to wish for and I'll be spending all my days counting down until next time. (some one please remind me why I'm in Houston???)

ok. now pictures

            wierd shrine like mural we found of the Bush-Seniors...leave it to Texas...funny also because I am dying to take a picture with the cool OBAMA mural...and this is what I get

PG high-fiving Bush Sr.

didn't leave this general configuration for all waking hours of the visit.

                   This is a picture from best-day-of-my-life-so-far-day and no that does NOT mean we're engaged or something you crazies. 

Ok lets end with this picture of PG chowing on some Challah bread in the cool mariachi shirt I got him in Austin. Perfect Phil representation.

 So, in a long rambling nutshell that was our fabulous amazing grandissimo weekend visit.

NUMBERS.

good morning. I've never been good with numbers, but here are some interesting ones...

24. I have 24 mosquito bites on my right leg alone right now. I look like I have the pox from my thighs down.

7.5 I woke up at 7:30 this morning with out an alarm clock. I am not usually a morning person so I consider this a miracle.

55. I paid 55 bucks to get my car jumped on Saturday after I ran down the battery using my car for its lights.

10. The hurricane happened 10 days ago. 

7. I've been back in Houston for 7 days. My apartment hasn't had power for more than 7 days. someone pity me. I have never valued electricity more in my life...have I ever valued electricity??

4. This is the number of days until Phil comes! (I don't count friday because it's the day of...thats how you do Christmas countdown right? no one counts Christmas. And aren't you supposed to carry Christmas with you all year?)

5. THIS is how many days Phil says are in the countdown.  He does not follow the Christmas countdown style and thinks we'll just get too excited and when thursday rolls around and there are no days to count I'll be sad. SCROOGE.

2. I always have to check to see if I've locked my car door twice.  It is the most annoying thing in the world.  It's not ocd, although that would make for a good blog, it's just I literally am not sure if I just did it or not. short term memory loss?

0. Zero is the amount of home work I had this weekend. Thanks Ike.

3,000/400.  Phil and I laugh and talk on the phone every day for 3,000 hours. I wouldn't be surprised if he racks up at least a 400 dollar phone bill.

1. There was a time at cmu when I used to eat at least one candy bar a day. Usually reeses sticks.

10. I think this weekend was pretty close to a perfect 10 save my jump start fiasco.

10+ Phil weekend is sure to be a 10+ I can already guesstimate it at about a 15+

VISITOR

To my fellow Danville-ites:

OH MY GOSH PHIL G AND AUBREY O'CONNOR ARE DATING. WHAT??!

ok now that we've gotten that out of the way for those of you who haven't heard it through the very efficient grapevine...  Phil's visiting in 1 week and I could not be more giddy. I am OBSESSED with counting down the days.

you can imagine me right now doing a very excited ceremonial 1-week-till-phil-comes-dance...you can also imagine that I am magically a really good dancer and I look awesome and its a good hair day....k great. Thanks for taking that journey with me.

I think I'll keep all the mushy stuff to myself. It's special.

oh and you can bet your bottom dollar there'll be pictures.

Trot trot to Austin?

Back in Houston with no power, BUT miraculously Lyndsey's house is one of the few and the proud that is lit, cool, and running as if nothing happened.  I'm staying here in her apt and I guess that puts me at sort of secondary jr. refugee status.  I went back to campus for a bit today and the grove outside of the music school looks like it was attacked by hungry vegetation seeking giants.  The trees have been just ripped out of the ground roots and all.

I wanted to update a little on the wonder-filled adventures I had in Austin.  As you may know Lyndsey invited me to escape with her for the weekend to visit her sister Heather.  I seriously couldn't have asked for a better weekend...ok...maybe if it didn't end with returning to powerless messy Houstonia to face rehearsal and class.... nevertheless it was a great time.

Highlights included:

a shopping (it ended up being buy phil a random present and nothing for myself...whats wrong with me??) day along one of Austin's main drags.  We went in all of these funky stores with world home accessories and vintage books and dolls and Austin-made products. Heather informed us that Austin's theme is "keep austin wierd" and it was. and I LOVED IT.  We went into a costume shop that gave me temporary ADD, we saw a cupcake stand with a huge plastic cupcake on top of it, we heard about Austin's huge population of urban bats.  We ended our stroll with a trip to a great little veggie thai resturaunt...with kind of abrupt old lady waitress and a very spicy plate of tofu kung pow with noodles that made me cry but I couldn't stop eating it. 

Going to hill country to hang out with Heather's boyfriend Karl at his Aunt and Uncle's house.  They are amazing potters and they were having a show/sale.  They built their house together and it was just gorgeous with a wrap around walk, stone walls, vines, lots of wood framed windows and spanish terra cotta tiles. Lyndsey and I were exhausted for no good reason but got our spirits back over an amazing barbeque dinner at the house with home made (I MUST learn how to make them yum) tortillas, corn off the grill, avocado salad, and chicken.

Stopping by this incredible vegan bakery where I had a "love cupcake" that was chocolatey carmelly goodness with the word love written in blue on the top.  I think that cupcake stole my heart....AND I also had the best peanut buttercup bomb in the world...if you love peanut butter cups it is worth a pilgrimage.

      Toy Joy home of the vegan bakery of goodness

It was such a lot of fun getting to know each other better. Sharing mint chip ice cream, sitting in the sun, driving all around Texas, being study buddies, and sharing refugee status.

   me, Heather, and Lyndsey

    Did I mention we met some purse dogs?

Refugee Updates

So of course I talk the big talk about Hurricane Gustav and after it never touches Houston...Life thinks its funny to give me a big slap in the face called Hurricane Ike.  I didn't think anything of it after the big anti-climax that was Gusty...that is until thursday at school when I started to hear that people were getting the heck out of dodge.  I thought in this situation it was probably a good idea to follow the crowd and in the spirit of "be prepared" I chose to hit the road... 

I had no food storage...I get it now...people were apparently rushing to the grocery store which was running out of water and bread. Gas stations were running out of gas, there were lines of cars at each and every one. It was crazy and electric and exciting.  

The whole time I had a complete feeling of safety, somebody told me I couldn't die... My only big concern being if I stayed, my cell phone would be the one to go...funny that was one of the main motivators for leaving.

Any how, Lyndsey sweetly invited me to come with her to be refugees in Austin. I seriously feel so lucky to have found such an awesome friend so fast. Austin was the BEST IDEA EVER.  We've had such a girl party, all with air conditioning, clean water, and food. Details and pictures to come!

We were going to be heading back today, but apparently there isn't enough water pressure at school and the water is possibly poopy...literally...like don't take a shower and get pink eye poopy...so gross, so funny, so AWESOME b/c come on every one still loves the idea of school being cancelled. I hope someone gets pink eye...I love announcing to everyone to stay away from the hexed individual.

Basically we're hanging out here in lala land racking up phone bills and enjoying the most gorgeous sunny day in the world.

We've also been watching the updates on the computer and to make us feel all the more lucky its looking like parts of greater Houston got a fairly savage beating. Shout outs to all in Galveston and So. Houston who stayed or left their houses to weather the blow, we up here hope all is well! The parts of the county that weren't flooded and badly damaged are with out power and according to Lyndsey's landlord are now wet and hot with debris scattered along the streets...Im imagining the wide array of yummy meats and cheeses that are now rotting in my fridge...

Ok. sweet moment... I really really appreciate all of the love and concern people have shown me while this all has been going on in the H-town.  It's been so nice to hear from people both in Houston and away, family and loved ones.  

I feel so lucky to have so many people who care to know if I am tethered to a palm tree some where (some of us...might think of this as a blogworthy blessing...ok I'm bad and don't want to jinx myself I take it back). But back to what I was saying, its just great to have such a community of support and love around me.  All the fb messages and texts and calls were such a ray of sunshine. 

It was also so amazing to see how far reaching the church community is, all of the check up emails and warnings and calls, and all of the inquiries from Danville... I feel so lucky to be raised in a group of people who feel the blessed responsibility of caring and keeping each other safe from the physical and spiritual storms of life.  

more on our Austin Adventures to follow...

SWIFF

DISCLAIMER: This is not a happy home-maker post.  If people say they love housework ask them this: more than the beach? more than a good book? more than ice cream? NO. hello. Of course cooking is different and special...but...scrubbing the toilet?! Cleaning a house is a lot of work. It's something to be proud of but I'm no snow white ("yay squirrels come help me do the dishes! get excited!!" ewe. she was definitely missing some screws)...I do clean a mean house none the less...be impressed.

I HAVE A CONFESSION

My swiffer has kind of made me in love with cleaning the floor which I now refer to as swiffing. 

He's...dare i say...the other man in my life.  And YES he is a "he." 

We dance around the house together.  His favorite song is "let me come back you can blame it all on me" ...the one the mariachi band plays in the swiff commercial. 

here are some things I love about swiffy:

I love the smell of his floor cleaner(Thats right watch out ladies he's a wetjet).  

I love that he's not afraid of his purple-ocity. 

I love that he was so darn'd easy to assemble.

I never really new life before swiffy... the mops, the dirty water, the gross spunges...but I'm so thankful to have him by my side when life gets hard and floors get dusty.

SAMBA SAMBA

Tonight Lyndsey (my class mate and instant friend) and I went to a Brazilian Arts festival in downtown Houston and it was A BLAST. It was at this incredible outdoor center and there were yummy Brazilian fried foods and dancers and capoiera fighters. We had such a party time trying out the dance moves, they even had a troop to teach us. I did NOT know I could sweat so much. I probably should have saved the food for after the dancing...So here's what I learned about Brazilians... They have perfect bodies...ie. petite, no waist, big boobs, cute butt...I'm hoping they balloon out when they're old to make me feel better. They have delicious food. They have hips that move like nothing I've ever seen...double jointed??

It was so fun hanging out with Lyndsey and having another Houston adventure. We strolled around and people watched, especially focused on "girl with green-are-those-even-pants girl" i tried to get a picture I swear, thin.as.capezio.tights. with fake pockets on the back...UNREAL.

We might even sign up for Samba lessons ourselves. It was such a fun workout.

Here's me and Lyndsey... I can NOT believe my hair is actually red...I kind of think its an optical illusion because when I look at myself I usually only see my "inner Ariel" not the outer one.

week 2

still in need of a sherpa... also would benefit from:

1. massage therapist

2. secretary

3. personal assistant

soooo tired. mainly from stress and heat! we're going to be putting up the operetta soon so thats so fun! everything is made dreary by the prospect of music theory but im trying to take it day by day.

also in need of...

UNLIMITED FREQUENT FLYER MILES. why you ask? .... :)

BOO! NO HURRICANE...

ok so some of you may have heard me play the damsel in distress over Hurricane Gustav...

"oh no! I may have to evacuate the city!"

"I must run to the gas station to fill up my car incase I need to flee!"

"I hope I have enough water in the house to survive the disaster!"

well it's not coming it seems...how anti climactic. 

Phil gently suggested that maybe I wanted it to come to Houston and maybe I was even a little tiny bit disappointed that I wasn't staring disaster in the face, that maybe I would be somewhat how can i put this... excited to be able to say I survived a hurricane.... what is he talking about??...

ok so OF COURSE he's right.  

When I was little if there was a rain storm Courtney and I would gather all of our stuffed animals and dolls and urgently rush them to my bed which was 

obviously a life raft.  Then we would wait out the storm lamenting about how much danger we had been through and occasionally rescue a bear or american girl doll from the depths of the flood (carpet). 

I am hugely thankful that I am NOT driving my rear to Dallas right now, I 'm relieved that my water is not cut off, that my car is not turned over three blocks away... but what is it about disaster and controversy that makes me swoon just a little? 

Ok... maybe I take it back... stay where you are Gustav.