Accomlishments

In the spirit of bogging about getting things done, I've accomplished quite a bit at work today. Though my list doesn't look as impressive as Amber's list, it's a lot for my job:

-Got to work, and waded through several e-mails full of information for the day's calculations
-Sized a Process Safety Valve based on Liquid Thermal Expansion for a heat exchanger, complete from start to finish in a mere 3 hours (this normally takes all day)
-Had a nice lunch of veggie burgers with carrots and celery on the side.
-Sized another PSV in about 2 hours, and even ANOTHER in another 2 hours. They both need more info before I can call them complete, because I need to look at drawings and decide if these pieces of equipment are at risk for overpressure due to fire, so they are either 90% done or 50 % done. I also need to look at the same drawings and calculate some pressure drops.
-wrote design summaries for all the PSVs with plans to go bakc and edit the two later ones with a line or two once I have more info.

And now here I am, accomplishing roughly 2 days worth of work since 7:30 am. I got to work about a half an hour late today, so I have to stay until six. If I had work I could be working on, this wouldn't be so bad, but, alas, I've used up all my given information for this project, and must await another batch of Information from Texas before I can press on. So, I blog.

I know that a workday in my life seems dull to most; a 10 hour shift of math, chemistry, process simulations, and excel. But to me, well, I can't think of anything I'd like to do as a career more. I come in every morning, and make this plant a safer place, I prevent major plant explosions with these calculations, and that makes me feel so important. It gives me a sence of worth that few other things can.

Plus, it helps that I'm a total dork for this stuff. Seriously. I like math. And I really enjoy the time I spend working on these projects.

Gym Membership, Money, and Motivations

I'm thinking about biting the bullet, and joining a gym.

I'm thinking about this place:
http://www.foxysfitnesscenters.com/index.php

It's very close to my apartment, and seems to have everything I'm
looking for, including a Cardio Theater (which is pretty much the
coolest thing I've ever heard of, I joined a gym one summer in college
in Cincinnati that had one, and it was a big motivator because I'm
nuts for movies, and I get engrossed and don't want to leave).

Any input, ladies(or gents i suppose, I'm not sure who reads this after all)?

I'm still not sure on the pricing structure, but if it's any cheaper
than the 70 bucks a month Anytime Fitness is trying to charge, I'll
take it.

In other news, I have spent entirely too much money latley. Starting
after i pay for the gym, I'm going to start saving my pennies for my
looming summer trips (because afterall, there WILL be at least one
splurge-a-rific trip when I'm in Ohio, and Vegas a'int all that cheap,
baby). Boyfriend and I actually got into a fight about it yesterday.
He's bitter that I keep spending while he's trying to save money for
what he said was QUOTE "a major purchase" (I think, RING), and pay off
debts at the same time, while I'm paying off debts, pulling my weight
with other bills, and still spending tons of money at the same time.

So, in an effort to help out his ego, I'm just going to cut back
spending on myself, and save it all for one giant trip to the mall at
the end of April. Can I get a hell yea?

Ugh

So, you know how I poseted about a new diet?

I'm gunna eat my left shoe in about 30 seconds.

I packed this seemingly huge lunch:

Homemade Mac n' Cheese with tomatoes, chilies, and corn
Yogurt
Sugar Free jell-o pudding snack pack
celery and peanut butter

and I even threw in an afternoon snack of apples and grapes.

I finished off the apples and graps about a half an hour ago, and now,
I feel like I never even had a lunch.

THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING.

What's more frustrating is I know why I'm like this, and there's
NOTHING I can do about it before August. I have an insullin problem,
and I've put off finding a new doctor down here, well, I finally found
one, and he's got a 5 month waiting list. So, I can't get back on my
medicines until then.

The basics of my problem by the way, is that the cells in my body
don't respond normally to insullin, and tell my pancreas that there
isn't any around, and to make more. So it does. Then I get
overloaded with insullin, and get low blood sugar, so my body signals
to my brain that I am tired and hungry. So, I eat... then, repeat.

I need to work on eating fewer carbs, because the higher the carb
count, the more severe the insullin crash... But how do I lower my
carbs, AND avoid meat? any suggestions?

Spring Break…. Or, How I learned I’m too old for this shit

For the past few weeks, I've been yearning for a Spring Break. That
week of sand, fun, and (naturally) alcohol. When my Brother came into
town this weekend with his girlfriend and their friend, they posed the
idea of spending a day in New Orleans. I suggested that we instead
get a hotel room, and spend a night.

So we did.

We got into the city around 8pm, checked in, and then started walking
over to Bourbon Street. First order of Business: Hand Grenades all
around (remember when I said I wouldn't drink one again? I lied).
After two rounds of Hand Granades, we are all feeling pretty good, and
danced away the rest of the night. Around 12, Brett and I realized,
we were too tired to go on, and left the younger half of the group to
head back to the hotel.

All day Sunday it was like a game show called "Rachel's body makes
strange noises, and she doesn't know what that pop was! Care to
guess?" I'm still feeling the effects of sugary liquor and doing the
Solja Boy Tell 'em dance.

When did I get so old? I remember going out with Amber and drinking
so much that she puked in her mom's bathtub. We woke up the next
morning feeling downright chipper. Now I wake up and go "oh shit, did
I get hit by a bus? And who turned on the fucking sun?" What
happened to me?

In other news, I'm starting to diet again. Yes, again.

Starting today. My new diet is called "Don't stop at McDonalds in the
morning, or Taco Bell at night you dummy" I looked at where my
calories are coming from, and a lot of it is that I'm in a rush in the
mornings, and stop for an egg and cheese biscuit, then I don't eat a
big enough lunch, get hungry at work, and get Taco Bell on the way
home, but then still eat a dinner once I get home. It's too many
extra calories, and I don't need em.

Well, I suppose I should get to work. The plant isn't going to engineer itself.

So, here's the thing about me. I'm kind of a nerd. I know that's hard to believe, because I am after all so utterly fabulous. But I'm actually totally a closet geek.

Evidence:

1) I'm a Chemical Engineer, and work in a Chemical Refinery. I think chemicals are totally neat, and I've decided to make a living by making them.

2) I enjoy video games. I can easily waste an entire Saturday playing Super Mario Galaxy, Dr. Mario, or Altered Beast.

3) I totally love Star Trek. Because, I mean, honestly, William Shatner is amazing.

4) I watch the Science Chanel, History Chanel (but only the engineering shows, and history of engineering type shows), and Discovery more often than I watch HBO, ABC and the others.

5) I'm a master of Microsoft Excel, and organization. I use spreadsheets for everything, I keep track of bills, Sephora Purchases, food eaten, all in neatly organized spreadsheets.

6) I get almost every single joke on The Big Bang Theory. They pepper in jokes that relate to people who know physics, engineering, and math in a depth that most of America just hasn't studied (i.e.: Leonard's spherical chickens in a vacuum joke)

7) And the most recent development: I love comic books. This one I've been hiding for some time, but I'm ready to admit it. I love them. I actually spent 60 dollars on them last night, because, well, I'm a huge nerd.

The reasons I'm blogging about this are:

1) I recently decided I was going to be me. I'm too old to be hiding who I am. And the fact is that I'm a smart, comic book loving, designer bag carrying, Star Trek watching, make-up loving, stiletto wearing, fabulous woman.

2) I have nothing exciting going on right now. My life is boring. But I'm trying to fill up my last two hours of the workday, and I wanted to blog.

3) That's it. Those are all of the reasons.

I hope everyone is having a great day!

My Wednesday Night purchase extraviganza... as promised.

So, Wednesday after work I headed to DSW in search of new tennis shoes. I’ve had the same pair for about 2 years now, and as anyone who knows me in real life can attest, after about a year and a half, my shoes start to smell like “dank basement”

Right off the bat, I found a really cute pair of Rocket Dog shoes for about 30 dollars. To celebrate the great find, I decided to check out possible new work shoes, but after about an hour decided that I was not going to have the same luck twice. I bought my shoes, and headed out of the store…

Then, I heard something from the distance; Sephora was calling my name.

I looked across the street and spotted that familiar comforting black and white entrance. “I promised myself I wouldn’t go to Sephora this month” I thought, and then I realized something. I had run out of eyebrow wax and gel, and I need some anyway, plus Tarte’s toolbox (a fabulous kit full of tools needed for brows) was on sale via the website, and I could just pop in and grab that and go. Oh and also, I’m going to need a palette of eye shadows for my upcoming spring and summer travels (hopefully a trip to Ohio next month, Cancun in May (for my birthday!), and Vegas in June), since I’m completely unsure of how to manage all of those loose shadows. However, I remained strong (for the moment anyway) and decided instead to pop into ULTA which happened to be right next door anyway. I mean, after all, I made no promises about shopping at ULTA, and I definitely get into less trouble there than at Sephora.

I browsed for a bit, and then realized that they do not carry Tarte cosmetics. I had selected a palette of shadows specifically made for blue eyes, and suddenly remembered that Amber had bought similar palette from the same company years ago, and told me she was not pleased with the colors (too sheer), so I put it back, and left ULTA empty-handed, and empty-hearted. The thrill of my new shoes was already gone, and I wanted the thrill of new makeup too!

Then I glimpsed that soothing black and white entrance again… calling me. This is when I amended my March-long Sephora ban to say, that from now on, I will only visit Sephora once a month, and I will spend less than 100 dollars on each visit. And I drove very quickly to the mall across the street and parked right outside the Sephora, and sauntered my way in.

Once I got there, I saw that the Tarte kit was on sale for $18 dollars! I picked up two.Next, I began browsing for a palette of shadows. This is harder than one would think. I had rules in mind for what I wanted.

1. Must include at least 6 shadows.
2. Must include a mirror.
3. Must contain a variety of colors.
4. Must contain at the minimum 1 gold, 1 brown shadow.
5. Must be under 50 dollars.
6. MUST (and this was very important) actually snap closed.

There were dozens of palettes that would’ve suited me fine, but they all seemed to be made from cardboard, and have magnet enclosures. I don’t trust magnet enclosures. I know that’s strange, but I just wont do it.

Eventually, I wandered over to the Kat Von D section. I’ve seen that she had a Sephora based line the past few times I was in the store, but never really looked at it assuming it would all be makeup that would be better suited to be sold at Hot Topic to teenagers clutching copies of Twilight.

I was wrong.

The colors are all vibrant, and the two palettes were stunning collections of color. One featured several shades of golds, shimmery tans, and a couple greens, with a matte black shadow and brown shadow as well. Eight colors in all. This is the one I ultimately picked, thinking it could get me the most day to day use, and had shadows I could work into night use as well. I liked the other palette too, and may eventually go back for it in April, but only time will tell.I also picked up Urban Decay’s Shadow Primer in Sin. I liked the way it worked with the Kat Von D shades to make a richer color. All in all I spent $94 dollars, so, I think I did pretty well. I got a deluxe sample of Fekkai Dry Shampoo, which I’m pretty sure is just repackaged baby powder. I tried it out last night before bed, to see if it really could make my hair look cleaner, but what I would up with was hair that was just as greasy as before, but now it looked like I got in a fight with a changing table as well. So ladies, don’t fall for that one.

Bad Blogger, weekends, and St. Paddy's.

So, I've been a bad blogger lately, but, in my defense, I've been so busy at work that when I come home all I want to do is veg out on the couch and not think.

Anyway, Wednesday I went on a shopping extravaganza (more on this later tonight, I promise, I've even scheduled in the blogging on my calendar!)

Thursday after work, I came home and did as little as possible. I watched TV, and then eventually went to sleep. And then my weekend started.

Friday morning, I woke up and did a little cleaning then waited for my cousin Brit to call me. She lives in Alabama about 7 hours away but was in town for weekend festivities with her husband and two children (did I mention she's 4 years younger than me?). She got into town Thursday afternoon and we had made plans to hang out on Friday. Anyway, she calls me around 9am and says "what's your address, we want to stop by" Well, I looked around my apartment and immediately thought "uyh… no" I told her that I'd rather not because my apartment was a total mess (I usually clean on Friday afternoons, and well, I hadn't cleaned all week) but that I could gladly meet up with her in town. We decided to meet at the local Old Navy to shop for St. Paddy's day T-shirts for the kids. Then we headed to The Olive Garden, where the 3 year old demanded that I sit next to her and color with her, and refused to drink milk on the claims that "I don't need to be strong, because I have my mommy!"

After that we took the kids back to my uncle's house and put them down for a nap, left them with Daddy, and went out to have some fun. We stopped at my Mom's house and captured her for some Mani-Pedis. Then eventually made our way to my Grandmother's house for a small Party.

For those of you who don't know, every year, my super rich uncle (who seriously, has more money than he knows what to do with) purchases and spot for his family and friends to be in the Baton Rouge St. Patrick's Day Parade. The parade is on a Saturday, and we always get together on Friday to decorate the float and have some Gumbo and Meatloaf.

After the party, Boyfriend and I headed home to rest up for the next day.

Saturday was loads of fun. I believe I posted a picture of Boyfriend in all of his costumed glory. I opted to walk alongside the float this year instead of throwing beads, and didn't realize that 3 miles is a lot longer than I thought. Still, I walked the entire way and had a blast. After the parade we had some Jambalaya, and relaxed. Brett and I headed to the house and napped and relaxed for a bit, then I cleaned and My cousin brought over the family to spend the night with us.

Sunday was a whole bunch of nothing. My mom invited Boyfriend and I over for dinner, but, I couldn't remove myself from the couch.

So now, I'm back at work, and I'm not exactly loving it. On Thursday I finished the work I had planned to take me through Tuesday, so I don't really have anything to work on at the moment.

Anyway, look for another post tonight about my shopping trip! (ps- I'd write about it now, but I want to include pictures, and that's simply too much web browsing for me to do at work.)

IMG00109.jpg

This is Boyfriend at the St. Paddy's Parade. He's totally thrilled that I put that wig on him, y'all.

New Orleans ina nutshell

So, this weekend, (well, on Thursday night) I went to New Orleans to spend some time with my cousin and her boyfriend who had rented a room at the swanky Maison Dupuy (http://www.maisondupuy.com/) hotel, a mere 3 blocks away from the Bourbon Street.

I got there around 6:30, and was handed a drink. after we finished off a hurricane in the hotel room, we took the second out for a stroll. First thing to do in New Orleans: See Some B-Boys. And these guys were SKILLED. The show they put on was funny, entertaining, and jsut the right length. Then we headed to a restraunt where the three of us split two very delish entrees, and a bottle of wine. After the restraunt, we hit the bars. several redbull and vodkas later, I decided that I had to try a drink called the "hand grenade" The thing about the handgrenade, is that it's a total tourist drink. As many times as I've driven down there, I've never tried it because I wanted to avoid looking like a tourist. Well, after trying it, I probably never will again. I'm not sure what was in it... but it looks like toxic waste, it's a neon green, almost glowing drink; it tastes like sour watermellon, and not to be too graphic, but it turned my shit dark green y'all, and that's scary. Anyway... after I had that, we did some more dancing, and started heading back down the other end of Bourbon street. As we started to get away from Canal street the bars got more and more dark (and less and less, LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS). We spotted a loungy looking place and decided to step in. Rose turned to me and said "Rach, I think we're the only girls in here." to which her boyfriend said "Sweetie, turn around" we both turned to see a wall of half naked men looking back at us... so, from that we deduced that we were in fact in a gay bar. We used the bathroom, and then headed out when the Macho Man spotted a suitor coming his way. On our way out we noticed the rainbow balloons and flags decorating the outside of the bar. Then i saw what I can only assume was two businessmess propositioning a lady of the evening... or a croke deal... or both... either way it was going down right in the middle of the road. That's when we decided to head back to the hotel to make use of the hot tub. After that we all piled into a king sized bed and fell asleep pretty fast.

The next morning Rose and I had planned to do a tour of the garden district, but both of our stomachs were saying "oh, no you don't!" So we wandered the French Quarter and waited for her boyfriend to finish work, then headed back to Baton Rouge. It was an all around fun time.

Saturday I sat around a bit, then Rose and I put together a dinner for a small family get together at my parents house, and Sunday I did a whole bunch of nothing. I slept until 1, thanks to the 1 hour jump forward, and my crazy thursday and saturday nights.

I've been dragging all day. I got to work an hour late, so I have to stay until at least 6 tonight. so, I've got 20 more minutes, and I'm filling those minutes with blogy things, because i did work pretty hard today.

In other news, I think I may be breaking y nailbiting habit. I've been trying to do other things with my nails instead when i'm bored or nervous, like rub cuticle cream on them, or buff and shine the suckers. It seems to be working out pretty well, and for once in my life, my nails are looking healthy and growing. Any tips for other things I can do to keep my hands busy while I'm working or sitting around?

So, I got pretty busy at work the past two weeks, but now that I've finished all of those tasks, I'm back to twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my next assignment.

1 hour into the work day and I'm already bored.

At least though, it's my Friday, and I have so many exciting things to look forward to this weekend:

1) I'm going to New Orleans for the night tonight, and get to spend the day down there with my cousin Rose tomorrow.

2) My cousin Rose is in town!

3) My Aunt Stacy (Rose's mom, my mom's sister) is going to come into town on Saturday, and we're gunna have a little get together.

Now, though, I need to start getting amped up for Aunt Stacy being in town. I love her, I really do, but OH MY WORD the woman knows how to push my buttons. She's very good at telling me exactly what problem areas my clothes don't help (and, seriously, she's been a size 2 her whole life, so I doubt she can really help me with my problem areas). And she talks to me about my mom's recent 75 pound weight loss like I'm a failure. My mom and I went on Jenny Craig together back in July. I lost 10 pounds, which is 10 pounds less than were I was, but in the same amount of time my mom lost 45. I was incredibly strict, and ate the food, exercised and didn't add anything to the menu. My mom cheated almost every day. The fact of the matter is that, it is harder for me to loose weight than it is for other people. I'm not trying to make excuses for myself, it's just going to take me a lot longer to get there, and I'm okay with that. But I need to prepare for a week of condescending tones and phrases like "you're too pretty to carry around that weight" and "doesn't your mom look so good now?" I know she means well, and that she wants for me to loose the weight for my own well being, but… I just don't it rubbed in my face by my own family members, because, in all honesty, I get it enough from strangers as it is.

So, I'm going to spend the weekend, boosting my self esteem, so that when she get's here she can take it right back to a healthy level.

Another Monday, another Dollar.

So, at some point this weekend I pulled a muscle in my chest, and while it's not the most painful things I've ever experienced, it's definitely the most painful thing I've experienced lately. The muscle is "underneath" my boob. Not the part where I can lift up my boob and place a heating pad on it, but rather, in the inaccessible area blocked by my boob fat. This is preventing me from using ice or heating pads to relieve any pain. Plus anytime my boobs jiggle it pulls on the muscle a little more, and hurts a lot more. I have big boobs. They jiggle anytime I move. So I have to be as still as possible. Also, I'm all out of sick days at work thanks to that nasty flu, so I'm kind of stuck here unless I want to work on Friday, but I certainly don't want to do that. My cousin Rose is coming in from Boston this week, and we are spending Thursday night in New Orleans.

I also did a little bit of math this morning, and Over January and February I spent over EIGHT HUNDRED dollars at Sephora, and visited the store 7 times. They need to move it so it's not on my way home from work anymore. I'm also going to place a 2 item per visit limit for now, because clearly, banning myself from the store doesn't work. The reason I spend so much is that I'll "drop by" to pick up a mascara, and then I'll go crazy picking up eye shadows and lip glosses, and dior moisturizers. I mean, I don't regret any purchase… I just have enough eye shadows for now.

Speaking of which, I've collected a substantial amount of loose powder shadows lately… anyone know of a good system when I can keep 7 or 8 (or even 9 or 10) loose shadows in kind of a refillable palette? Something that would be easy to throw in my makeup bag. I've searched the internet, but can't seem to come up with anything that doesn't involve adding alcohol to the shadows and pressing them into regular style eye shadows. I prefer the loose powders, and I'd like to keep that… just, in a smaller container, grouped together with other smaller containers. I've even considered buying a paint by numbers kit, and washing out the paint pots to use that…