Boston --> Texas --> Boston

June has been an incredibly busy month and it's no surprise that it's quickly coming to a close. The first week of June brought Devon to Boston (shout out for being the first guest!) and we spent the entire trip walking around in the sweltering heat doing the tourist tour of Boston. Here's a photo of us after our duck tour.

I have to throw this shot of us cleaned up at Brian's party because the duck tour at the end of a 95-degree day doesn't do us justice.


The day after Devon left Stephen and I boarded a plane and got our butts down to Texas. Sure, the temperatures were hotter, but Texas has air conditioning! We went for the annual tube trip with all of our friends and I brought Becky and JP along for the ride. There aren't many photos of the tube trip because I don't have a fancy camera that can go in the water, but here are some gems:

We were locked out of our condo thanks to someone (Stephen!) passed out inside.
Becky and me making the most of being locked out of our condo.
JP passed out on the car ride home. Priceless.
Stephen dining on crack noodles - aka "Blazing Masala Noodles" from Masala Wok. This dish is addictive!

The week after we got back, two of our friends from Texas, Bucky and Dusty (yes, I realize those are SUCH Texas names!) came to visit, and we spent the weekend eating seafood, BBQ and playing flip cup at Ashley's Awesome place in the North End. I won't show all the damage we caused, but here's a good photo of the group of us:So it looks like our visits are done for another week or so now. And we're just about done with the downstairs unit, so our tenants will have a nice apartment to move into next week.

Moroch, You Make Me Proud

I'm prefacing this post by declaring that I'm going to start a second blog. When I originally started this blog I wanted to talk about interesting trends, topics and ideas taking place in my industry, but then I opted to focus on getting through grad school and keeping my parents and friends informed of my MIA status. Besides, there weren't that many interesting things I was coming across in PR and Advertising. But now that's changing, and so I'm going to run a second blog focusing on interesting stories and finds related to my industry. I'll let everyone know when it's up and running so you can see what I live on a daily basis.

In the meantime, I wanted to call out a spot that my old agency back in Dallas, MOROCH, just did for the Travel Channel to promote the new show "Great Weekends" with Samantha Brown. They won the TC campaign just before I left the agency, and I had the privilege to see the great work that was going to break for "Bizarre Foods" with Andrew Zimmern, and knew it was going to be special. Well, when I visited last week I got the same pleasure to see the new SPOT and it's awesome. Special thanks to Adrants for letting me know the spot has launched.

BIENVENIDOS A TEJAS!!!

That's "Welcome to Texas" for you non-natives!

Yep, that's right, I'm back in Texas for the weekend and I couldn't be happier. I flew in on Wednesday evening and had dinner with Laurel, then spent all day Thursday hanging with my former Morochians. Today I'm dining on some Bone Daddy's BBQ for lunch then heading to Austin for our tube trip.

It should be GREAT times and I'll post pictures when I get back home.

Adios!

Volleyball, Take 2

I got some good news/ bad news/goodnews regarding summer volleyball. I'll start with the good.

Good news:
I got onto an independent league - yay!!! I'm playing volleyball this summer, after spending my hard-earned cash on lessons and getting my feet wet with the team I played with this spring. I wasn't sure it was going to happen, so I'm glad I get to hone my skills.

Bad news:
Because there were only 3 girls on the waiting list and not enough men, I didn't get onto the intermediate league I wanted to play on. I got put on the intermediate/advanced team.

Ouch! Talk about a fright fest! Playing with "advanced" people - that's a little scary. I've had to pull my PR "everything-is-good-despite-the-bleak-outlook" mantra on myself and say that this is a good opportunity to play at a higher level and improve my performance exponentially. Which is what will happen... I'm going to be a volleyball all-star!

I already feel better. :)

Good news:
My former teammate from lessons, A, and I are playing on the same advanced team! She was one of the other two girls who signed up for our indie play and got put on the advanced team too, so we've got a buddy system going. And we're planning on playing in open play on Tuesday nights, and with another league that does open play on the weekends. So my volleyball calendar card is super full this summer, and who could ask for more?

So wish me luck on my quest to be an all-star. Naturally, I'll keep you posted on my progression.

My Secret Love Affair

Shhh!!! Don't tell Stephen, but I have a new love in my life! He goes by the name of Home... Home Depot.

Yep, you read right. Home Depot is the new love of my life. And I'm sure I'm not the only closet - or out-of-the-closet - lover of HD. Every time I go, I see people just like me lovingly gazing at all that HD offers.

I've been to HD two or three times this week, walking up and down the aisles, pricing needed items for upcoming projects or dreaming about what I would do with an unlimited budget. And it never gets old. I'm frequenting HD so much that I'm becoming a regular face, the sales people knowing who I am and what I'm looking for. One guy even knows my Texas history and teased me about it today.

And it doesn't stop there. My love doesn't hold back, and makes me feel like I can do anything. Yesterday, I walked out of the store almost certain I'm going to be an electrician when we're done installing and updating the outlets in our home. Do you have any idea how cool that is? I've learned how to update our switch boxes, install new outlets, wire the outlet plugs, install ceiling fans and fish wire through the walls. Thank you, HD, for making me feel empowered!

At this rate, and with this kind of empowerment given to me by my love, HD may replace Target as the place I take my weekly me-time trips.

It's so Hard to Say Goodbye

Last night was my last volleyball lesson and it's so sad to know I won't be going back next week. However, I couldn't have asked for a better ending. I'm in the beginner's class and there is an advanced class immediately after ours on Thursday nights. One of the girls in my class, A, and I are both pretty decent players (compared to the others in our class who have never played volleyball) and we usually stick around after class to ask questions, stretch, etc.

Well, last night our instructor was telling us where we could go play during the summer and he mentioned that he needed two extra people that night for the class, so A and I got to play with the boys. I can't tell you how great it was to play volleyball with people who actually knew what they were doing and who cared about doing it right.

Also, I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but I have a HUGE stigma about setting the ball. For whatever reason I've always been afraid of doing it - and as a result I've really sucked it up whenever I tried to do it, and managed to jack up my thumb the second week of play (and it's still so swollen that I have a man thumb!) Last night though, I had some amazing sets. And oddly enough, I felt really good doing it. That's not to say that I'm really good at it; there is definitely room for improvement, BUT I think I may have conquered my fear of setting.

So... it turns out that I REALLY enjoy playing volleyball and I'm going to try and play as much as possible. I'm going to make it my mission to go to pick-up games every week and try to get on a team this summer.

Learnings From Project One - The Carpet

• Tearing out carpet is disgusting, especially when the carpet is 40 years old.

• There's a good chance the carpet pad underneath will disintegrate on contact with air.

• Always have fun - it makes things so much easier

• If it seems too easy, brace for the hardship, because it's coming (and it came... in the form of a stairwell runner)

• Plumber's crack is funny, even when you're not a plumber and ESPECIALLY after 9 hours of removing carpet, tack and staples from 4 rooms and 15 stairs.

• Shop vacs are the greatest invention known to man - they pick up the biggest piles of disintegrated carpet with the greatest of ease.
  

• When all is said and done, and you've actually completed your project, you feel pretty good.