AUS 87-88: Wedding Mania Finale

The past two weeks seem to have been full of dinners, parties and celebrating of special occasions. Last Saturday Paul's neighbors across the street had a Tie Dye party. Apparently this is an annual event that they host each year and invite the neighborhood to come over with food to share and items to dye. They had 20 or so dying stations set up and I was amazed at the amount of people who attended. There were many who used to live in the neighborhood that return each year just for this party. It was an entertaining group with dyed items ranging from underwear to pillow cases! Paul and I each made two shirts and they turned out great. Who thought that tie dye could promote neighborhood unity? Only in Austin.

Work has been going well. I am trucking along, trying to keep to myself and stay focused as much as possible. I am working on three projects that are looking positive. Two of them have a very good chance of panning out in my favor and I am just praying that they do. Right now I am just trying to make enough commission to cover my draw so that I stay square with my boss. Commercial work is less than vibrant and I am thankful to be involved on these few state government projects. The commission is significantly less, but it seems to be all that is available right now. Some money is better than no money. I can only hope that the relationships I am building will be strong moving forward so that the future may hold better opportunities and income.

This weekend Paul and I attended the last wedding of the year! My friend Rachael, who is a good friend from my interior design program at UF, was married to her fiance Matt last night. They have known each other since middle school and have been a couple since high school including 2 or so years long distance. Upon graduation, Rachael began her career in New York designing retail spaces for an architecture firm and Matt moved to Austin to achieve his master's degree in advertising at UT. Matt finally joined Rachael in New York and began working for the ad agency BBDO. He is a copywriter and has written many well known commercials. The most familiar is probably a commercial for Cingular (before they were bought by AT&T) with the young girl who talks in text-speak to her Mom about her "BFF Jill" and her Mom attempts to reply in text-speak to her daughter. Rachael now works for Liz Claiborne designing Juicy Couture stores across the U.S. Needless to say, they are both very talented in their work fields.

Rachael + Matt's wedding took place on the pool patio at one of the art deco hotels on South Beach in Miami. They aggressively saved and paid for their wedding on their own and it was a great series of events from the rehearsal Friday night through breakfast this morning. They are both from Jewish families and it was the first Jewish wedding I have attended. The wedding setting was gorgeous and the party was a blast. My good friend, Michelle, was also a bridesmaid which made the weekend even more fun. We had just enough time to watch the Florida Gators squeak out a win against S. Carolina before the ceremony began last night.

The weather cooled down to perfect low-70s for South Florida. It was nice to have some time to touch the sand and the water again at the beach. Paul and I had fun watching the glammy people of Miami and the man with the ring-tailed lemur on his shoulder...and the man with the boa constrictor snake wrapped around him as he rode his bike down Lincoln Road (who was talking to Mr. Ring-Tailed Lemur, of course). So far, I know of no weddings for 2010. I love my friends very much and clearly would not miss their weddings for anything. However, my wallet will be happy to have a break!

I am looking forward to the holiday season. I love this time of year!

AUS 80-86: Quick Sand

The last post that I wrote was nearly complete when my laptop decided to shut off with 60% of my battery power left. I was writing during my lunch on a very busy week and Blogger’s auto save did not save a word. Between my Gramma’s “I give up” comment and my Dad telling me last weekend “You know, you’re blog has really gone to hell,” I almost did not write this post just to irritate them both further. Anything for pay back for all those years I gave up my bed for Gramma and Grampa to sleep in and all the house and yard work that Dad had my sisters and I miss days of school to do. If all I have to do is not update my blog to upset them, then I am getting the sweet end of the deal.

The past six weeks have been very busy. Work continues to challenge me, not so much with the content of my job but the personalities encountered daily. I think that working with different types of people will always be more challenging than the actual work itself. After all, they are the variables in the equation. Sometimes the variables are wonderful, other times they are unpleasant. A new sales person recently joined our team and although we will be competing with each other, I am excited to have him on board. He has a great reputation in the Austin market and many years of experience in the furniture niche. It is amusing to watch how prickly the rest of the team can become when a new sales person arrives. And, honestly, our sales team is rather large for the Austin area. I am not sure what our owner’s master plan is but I just hope that it is something good and productive.

We have been enjoying some periodic cooler temperatures lately and lots of rain in Austin. I think everyone is ready for fall or winter as a break from the hot, dry summer. Last weekend, Paul and I traveled to Orlando for my friend, Holly's, wedding. Holly is the only other person besides my friend, Jeanine, whom I have been friends with since the beginning of college. It was fun to reunite with some classmates that I have not seen since graduation over five years ago. I am collecting an assortment of bridesmaid's dresses and just acquired my third pair of silver shoes (all due to participating in wedding parties) this year. Holly's wedding concluded number three out of four this year. My friend, Rachael, will be married in mid-November.

After Holly's morning wedding, Paul, my friend Michelle and I watched the Gators barely win their game and then proceeded to dinner with my family. Mom, Dad, Merrill, Jeff, Cath and my Uncle JJ caravaned to Orlando just to meet for a few hours which was great fun. So, yes, Paul met the family. Although there was not very much time to spend together, I was so happy that they drove all that way just to see me (or as Paul would say, they drove all that way to meet him).

Last night Paul and I went to see the movie Where the Wild Things Are at the Alamo Drafthouse. Since that is my favorite childhood book, I was hoping that the movie would do the book justice. I found it to be very different from the book (a safe approach). It was good but somewhat melancholy with complicated relationships and some humor sprinkled throughout. I am still not certain if I liked the movie and feel like I may never be sure one way or another. I think I did...

Back to the rat race tomorrow. *Sigh* I am still having a hard time balancing work, boyfriend, friends, gym time and Laura time. Will it ever get easier?

AUS 79

I'm tired.

AUS 78: That Which Doesn't Kill You

As I write this, "Off the Wall" by Michael Jackson is playing on my iPod.

Last week at work was a constant race. I have barely kept up with personal correspondence or the rest of the web world. I noticed today that my Facebook status had not been updated since last Tuesday, which is uncommon for me. I typically update my status once per day and try to spend a few minutes seeing what my family and friends are up to. I feel a little detached right now. Nevertheless, busy is good...or potentially good. I worked for a few hours on Saturday and today as well - anything to make next week a little easier.

The boyfriend factor squashes my ability to be able to respond to my friends' spontaneous hang out requests. I have been booed at least twice this weekend. They are half serious boos but still, a boo is a boo. Paul's schedule is much more open outside of work than mine is. Yes, he has friends, but he works with many of them so sees them plenty during the week. All of this has made me realize how much my life has changed in the past two years. When I was in Atlanta, many of my good friends were also at work. I miss that type of work community. Most of my time here has been spent working with one other person, Debra, who of course is a very good friend. But, there's something about having a really good group of people who click well inside and outside of the office. I am one of two twenty-somethings at my current job and the other twenty-something just began two weeks ago! Everyone else is married with children, live in far off suburbs and are extremely competitive with each other. What camraderie exists seems somewhat uncertain and untrustworthy. It is very hard to tell when sales people are being truly sincere, even with people they have worked with for years. Or maybe I am just not used to the environment. I am the antithesis of smoke and mirrors, drama and envy - I just don't get it.

This weekend it rained non-stop. It was awesome! I think God saved up all of the rain that we have been needing and let it pour all at once. It was that perfect, soaking kind of rain and we could probably use more. I made it to the gym and around the hike an bike trail a few times over the past 4 days which has been nice. Paul and I ate brunch this morning at Austin Java. We split migas and farmer's french toast so that we could each have the best of both worlds. Thank you, Austin, for great food!

AUS 76 + 77: Not Enough Time

I have not felt like writing very much lately. I suppose there is nothing super exciting or interesting that comes to mind. I am plugging along and am just hoping to close some business in the next few months so that I can at least maintain a necessary base line of income. Last week, two projects that have been sleeping came to life. Both will be competed for heavily but we are in a pretty good position to win. One thing about my industry that is always consistent is its inconsistency. You can be bored to tears for weeks and then so busy that you are not sure how you will accomplish goals in the alloted time.

Another person was let go in our company and a new person was hired in their place. The person hired is a couple of years younger than me with a similar professional background. I have no doubt that she will do very well and hopefully help us to continue to propel this company into a stronger position in our market.

Things with Paul are still great. I continue to learn and adjust to sharing more of my time with another person.

I am thankful to have a 3 day weekend, although will probably be working tomorrow so that the remainder of my week is less intense at work. I am excited that it is officially college football season!

Please pray for my sister, Catherine.