What I've been doing for the past 30 days in pictures:

(Click on pictures to enlarge)


Viva Las Vegas!
I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate one of my best friend's birthday with him in Las Vegas this March. Even though Scott had invited me in back in December, I had forgotten (damn you, alcohols) and it was a last minute trip. I booked the flight three days before the trip with help from an old Coex coworker and the most expensive SWA flight I've ever taken. But, I love my Catfish and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Because there isn't enough going on in Vegas, we created a new game called "Vegas Slugbug". It basically involved picking a tourist sterotype a day (Nascar jackets, hawaiian shirt, etc) and punching the snot out of your friends if you're the first one to spot an infraction. Unless you're me. Then you squeal and point and get punched on both arms by your friends.

The Bar & Niteclub convention was also in town, so we took advantage of that and went to the Flair competetion and drank free (nasty) 3 Olives Vodka. Seriously, grape flavored vodka? They're just doing it wrong.

Johnson Wedding/Rhondy & Brother Visit Weekend
I was already BFFs with Sarah when Ben was born, so I've literally known him his whole life. I remember him crawling around our house in his little Superman onesie, so it was amazing to see him all grown up standing at the alter.

The best part about my brother coming into town is getting together with all of his friends. The worst part about my brother coming to town is that I always gain about 10 pounds from all the food and booze. As an added bonus, Rhondy was also in town for a different wedding, so I got to spend time with her, too!





Seattle

Seattle has been on my short list of US cities that I really want to visit but haven't for years. One of my other best friends Robin lives up there and when I saw that SWA was running a "Super Seattle Sale", I called her immediately to invite myself up for a visit. I flew up during her Spring Break (Woooo!) and thus began Robin & Ceci's Northwest Adventure.

Robin is the best tour guide ever! She points out everything, things I didn't even know to look for. Like hot dogs with cream cheese. Don't knock it till you try it. They. Are. Amazing.

I got to meet Oscar, the cutest weiner/chihuahua mix EVER, and some of Robin's awesome friends. We had an early morning fire drill, saw the Deadliest Catch boat, Space Needle, met Sammy Drain, and did I mention hot dogs with cream cheese?

Also, I got to catch up with two of my Houston friends! My friend Jana lives in Ballard and a few days later we met up with Jeff, who was randomly driving through Ellensburg while I was there. Small world, huh?

















Opening Day(s)!

You all know I'm somewhat of an Astros fanatic, so I shouldn't have to tell you how ridiculously excited I was for Opening Day. So exited that we showed up at Minute Maid Park about 8 hours before the game.

After the Opening Day festivites we waited in line and were the first to enter... and I was the first to pee! The game didn't go very well, but we had fun because we are champions.


Oh, and I met Paul Wall. Does anyone know who he is?

Puuuuuuuuuma suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuit!

Short back story... as you all know, I'm a tad fanatical about the Astros, but not as fanatical as the Little Pumas. I befriended them about a few weeks ago at the Astros/Dodgers game.

All but one of the Puma's had other business to attend to, so after MUCH febreezing, my friend Rick and I were more than happy to 'Puma Suit Up' and represent the Big Puma at Saturday's game vs the Cubs.

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, and I was getting over a pretty nasty stomach virus, but it was so much fun!

I can't even count how many pictures we posed for, and we only made one ankle biter cry. Minutes later, the Chik-fil-a cows scared the snot out of me, so I guess that evens out.

Apparently, the Chicago school system failed to teach the difference between large cats and baby bears, as we confused quite a few Cub fans... but, we're good sports and posed for pics with the Illinois Nazis. (And that concludes today's random Blues Brothers' reference.)

OK, be honest. Does this suit make me look fat? ;)

Base Hit Guy

Back on April 21st, my BBF (inside joke) Jacey hooked me up with some really spectacular seats to the Astros game. The best part was this dude a couple rows behind us that would yell "Base hit!" almost every time we came up to bat. The first time we took note of his rally cry was Berkman's first at bat which resulted in a three run homer.

This is probably one of those stories that is only funny if you were there and created a game in which you must take a sip every time he yelled 'Base hit', but we just thought it was hilarious that all it took to make this guy happy was a measly base hit. If you listen carefully, around 6 seconds in you can hear a little boy yell "Home run, Miguel!" seconds before Base Hit guy counters with a very special wish of his own.



Oh, and in case you're wondering- the little boy's hope was answered- Tejada hit a two run homer. It was an awesome game, we batted around in the first, and won 10-3, but when I think back on that game I'll think most fondly of Base Hit Guy. I bet he's That Guy that yells "Freeeeeebird!" at every concert he's ever been to.

Dear Astros,

Thank you for winning your home opener. I'm so glad I could be there.

Keep it up,

c

Does a Body Good

So, I popped into Kroger on the way home from work tonight and the expiration date on the "milk flavored water" (skim) that I bought is December 1.

Hoh. Lee. Shit!

I haven't even started shopping yet, and that's not a good thing. I always stress myself out about giving "good" gifts that it takes me months to decide on something. Except last year when I was flying 6 days a week and had no time... and this year is going to be kinda hard to shop for my brother because whatever I get him will have to be shipped because he's too important to come spend a weekend with his family. No, I'm not upset, why do you ask?

Speaking of family... I'm really starting to miss Houston. Probably because I just got off the phone with Jay Diddy and just got invited to a party I probably won't be able to attend by Jacey. I never thought I would want to move home so soon, I think it's been 4 years since I've lived in Katy/Houston...? I thought I'd want to go live more exotic places before throwing in the homesick towel. Although, technically one flight attendant year is equivalent to 7 indigenous years. So, there ya go. Wait. I'm thinking of dogs, aren't I? Regardless, it's gotta count for something. All the while I've been thinking about moving home, my parents are thinking about getting out of Dodge. WTF?

I still have a couple of months to decide where I'm going to go next, but now would be a good time start giving input. But, really... I'd love to go be an Astros groupie while I still have my looks... and at my age... the sooner the better. YaknowwhatImsayin?

And you can quote me on this...

Thing I would like to go on the record about (I'm sure most of this won't come as a surprise to anyone):

• Donald and Rosie had relations. I'm pretty sure about this. Why else would they be so passionate in their hatred for each other? (And by 'relations', I mean sex)
• WTF is going on with Sopranos?!? Seriously, are you going to be able to tie this together in a few precious hours?
• Ditto Entourage. More Ari, less Vince.
• If you don't know what you're doing, don't just stand there. Jump in or leave.
• Elvis= Jesus.
• The Simpsons haven't been funny in about 3 years.
• Arrested Development should have never been cancelled, but will not come back, silly pointless activists.
• Axl Rose should do more heroin. Some people just aren't meant to be sober.
• Michael Jackson should put out a new album. *
• Crazy from the heat is a true cliche. (Does that even make sense?)
• The Spurs might looooooooose. Damn Steve Nash and his Crazy Canadian Basketball skills.
• There's one born again every minute.
• I don't care who you are or what you do; you are part of a team. There are a (large and intense) group pf people that feel loyal to you and will be disappointed if you betray what you are expected to do. I'm talking to you: Jerry Rice, Hakeem Olajuwan, Micheal Jordan, Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon, Anne Rice, Eddie Murphy, Willie Nelson (4th of July outside of TX?!?!?), Andy Pettite and most recently... the man that literally brought a tear to my eye... (ok, tearSSSSS) I can't even say is name without obcenties. Some people call him the Rocket. 7 time Cy Young winning mofo. Signed, sealed delivered to the HOF. FROM Houston. Lives in Katy. Son plays for our minor league team. Came out of retirement to play with the Astros. Signs with the GD Yankees. Leaves us. LEAVES US! Eff you, buddy. Eff you.

*And stop having sleepovers. STOP!

ASTROS!

I can't believe how happy I am that the Astros are on TV right now.

I can't believe you peed in the parking lot of Good Times

Week in review:

Drove to Austin Saturday night to see my Rhondy! Rhondy and I got some alone time before meeting her friends for her Birthday party and had dinner at Champions where we sang along (loudly) to the Queen ringtone of the guy who didn't like to answer his phone at the next table. From our table, and without acknowledgement, we also joined their conversation about Buzzard Preservation. (We're Pro-Buzzard) This is before we started drinking.

Enter Sixth street, a magical land where pretty ladies are corralled into bars for free shots. The smoking ban doesn't bother me in Austin because you spend as much time outside deciding which bar you're going to next as you do actually in the bars. At least it doesn't bother me now, last summer when it was a hundred and ten degrees at midnight, it was unacceptable. A few of the bars seemed desperate enough to keep people in to buy another drink that they let us dirty degenerate smokers light up. Cue Iron Maiden. "Breakin' the law... breakin' the law".

Sunday, the weather was crappy for driving and I was all hopped up after watching the Texans/Titans game (Woooo!) so I decided to stay another night. Monday I drove to the OKT, repacked and made it to the airport just in time to grab a seat on the last plane to Denver.

Tuesday we had lunch at a really good pizza place on Broadway. If I could remember the name I would recommend the spinach pizza. Weido and I met my good friend Scott at Wymans for a few drinks, where Scott hurt my feelings, no my soul, by saying that Good Times is better than Whataburger. I'm afraid Weido and I weren't good company as we were both easily distracted by ESPNs year in sports countdown and then running from TV to TV to determine what the hell the Astros were trading Willy Taveras, Taylor Buchholz, and Jason Hirsh for. Two pitchers from the Rockies, as it turns out. Boo. Then Weido took me to Good Times because I had never had one of their burgers, even though I had just been involved in a lengthy dispute about them. Whataburger is better. Good Times has awesome fries, though. But no one goes to Whataburger for fries! Either way, the rest of my time in Denver I had to listen to Weido tell me how awesome Scott is.

Then we met Travis back at the house to watch Talladega Nights because everytime I told someone that I hadn't seen it yet, they yelled, "You have to see it! You'll love it." Eh. Raquela, Rachel, and Erin met us and we went in search of my friends and found some of them at Cheers. No, not that Cheers- although almost everyone knew my name. Our group immediately commandeered all the gaming tables- I spent most of the night throwing darts, but took a break to let someone else win and played pool with the kitchen guys. Travis made a new friend in some crackhead that spontaneously yelled "WAAAAH!" at the beginning and end of every sentence and my sweet rear end made a new friend that followed me around buying me drinks. He was annoying and at one point I think someone told him Weido was my boyfriend so he would quit slappin' my ass. Goodbye free drinks.

On the way home we stopped to get doughnuts for the girls and found the greatest breakfast burrito EVER. EVER. I want to go to Denver right now to get one. Then we watched Talladega nights again. Ha! (it's funny when you've been drinking).

I didn't do much on Weds because what good is a vacation if you don't actually take some time to relax. We (and by we I mean Travie and Kenny G) did get a futon for Weido ("That's pure comfort right there") and I picked up a pizza and watched Talladega Nights with Kenny G. The kids in that movie are phenomenal.

Thursday, Travie was kind enough to wake up at 5:30 to drive me to the airport before his class and I finally made it to the OKT just before 4pm after a two hour divert to Austin due to fog in Houston. Laundry, repack, back to the airport. I'm in Chattanooga now. Some day I will spend more than 12 hours in the OKT. And thanks again to Travie and Mark for taxiing me around all week and to Scott for meeting us and for the drinks! (my tab was pretty cheap, so I'm assuming you paid for some)

Day Seven-Drugs. Day Eight- Smoke

Day 7, Gaby and I napped all day... finally getting up and heading to Kohls that evening because there are eight thousand things we need for class- watch, black pumps and flats, plain black purse. Of course e can't afford to buy any of these things because we aren't working, but we can't begin working without them. Ain't that a bitch? Anyway, we had fun looking at things we'll buy "later".

We put off going to Wal-Mart to buy food (they're feeding us crap) because we've been on the list to get a refrigerator for a week and haven't heard boo from anyone about it. I decide that it's my new mission in life to acquire one... so when we get back to the hotel, I call from the phone in the conference/study room and ask how long the list is and when they anticipate one becoming available. Oh, not for a while, they don't have any guests scheduled to check out in the near future. Not good enough. I go up to the room and call again. I tell the lady I just wanted to make sure that our room was on the list and asked how much longer she thought it would be. Same answer. "Hmm, is there anyway I could get moved to the top of the list? I have medication that requires refrigeration, and I'm concerned that the ice chest I"m leaving it in isn't keeping it at the proper temperature." She says she'll see what she can do, I thank her and go down stairs to smoke.

I catch up on the weekend gossip for about 10 minutes- that's my limit- and head back upstairs to share the interesting stuff with Gaby. "Marco had a prisoner transfer on his observat- HOLY SHIT! Hehehehehhehehehehhehehehe!"

We got ourselves a fridge! Bwahahahah!

Day 8. Holy shit. First of all, is this daylight savings time crap is unnecessary. Seriously. We set our alarm for 4:30 new time so our poor body and minds was convinced it was 3:30 and neither was very pleased about the situation. Class started at 6:30 with FlightDeck (we're not calling it a cockpit anymore, I can't imagine why...) Fixed Oxygen Mask Demo. Pretty nifty little contraption that thing. It literally suctions itself onto your face... funny thing about wearing an oxygen mask- for some reason you think it's going to breathe for you. It doesn't. Our trainer kept yelling, "BREATHE! INHALE!" and we would all laugh... until it was our turn and we forgot to breathe. Ehh... it happens. I would have remembered eventually.

Then we took an exam. I already forgot what it was. I only missed one question, though.

Then we all boarded the simulator, closed all the windows and got smoked out. Seriously smoked out. You couldn't see a thing but the exit lights leading you to the closest exit- I went out the Galley Service door, surprisingly didn't twist either ankle jumping out. I kinda wished I had gone through the exit window cuz it looked kinda fun to slide down the wing. Oh well... maybe next time.

We practiced emergancy evacuation announcements, but it was incredibly hard to get it straight because you listen to 95% of the people doing it incorrectly and get that stuck in your head. I'm still not entirely confident that I've got it down. We also have two aircraft exams tomorrow, which are hard as hell. Very confusing to learn two at the same time. Although, Jason just taught me his version of the 'mickey mouse club song' that he uses to remember what is stored in the compartment above the wardrobe closet. I don't think it'll work for me, but it is fun to hear him sing it.

Just walking around the hotel, you hear people screaming, "Bend over! Heads down! Bend over! Heads down!" It sounds like something you'd hear in Stipper 101. Which incidentally is the next training class I'll be attending if I don't pass this test tomorrow.

Oh, could I please take a moment to say Go Astros! Hells yeah. Speaking of my boyfriends, I met someone at the airport that had the Astros' star logo silver stud earrings. They were a gift so she doesn't know where to find them... I'm thinking Acedemy? If anyone sees them, I need them. NEEEEEEEEED them. I'll pay you back in 2 1/2 years when I pay off my uniform...

I suppose that's all I've got to say for now. Everyone wish me luck tomorrow, it's gonna be a doozy.

Word to your mother,
-c

At this point my brain is too tired to study anymore, so Gaby and I decided to set the alarm for 4:30 again and study before class.