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1) New toy

My new (free-to-me, paid for by my company) work BlackBerry arrived in the mail yesterday. It kind of makes me feel like I have a “big girl” job now, even though I’ve been solely responsible for all my bills and living expenses since I was 17 years old.

I had initially looked into using my iPhone as my personal and work phone, but the tech people at my company don’t support them with our computer systems. In order for me to access my work email and calendar when I’m away from my computer, I need a BlackBerry. Which isn’t a big deal, because it seems like a cool phone and all, but now I’ll be carrying around two phones every day. And I kind of feel just a little bit self-indulgent that I own two expensive phones, especially since they both have internet access (and I never even had a phone with internet access until five months ago when I bought my iPhone).

The upside to the BlackBerry is that I requested service through Verizon, so when I don’t have service in the Metro with the AT&T-only iPhone, I have an alternate source of connection to the outside world.

2) Touchy-feely

I bought a plane ticket to Dallas a few months ago because my aunt Cathy asked if I wanted to meet her there to see a U2 concert. I was supposed to leave today and come back next Tuesday, but a few weeks ago I decided I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t want to take off two days from my new job and also, when I thought about it, I realized that my mom would have a much better time than I would.

You see, my aunt Cathy is her younger sister, they very rarely get to see each other, my mom hardly ever goes on vacation without my stepdad (and usually at least one of my brothers or nephew), and she’s never seen U2. (I saw U2 twice on their Vertigo tour in early 2006, and I saw them here in DC last week with some friends.)

So I told my mom to take off work, and I bought her a plane ticket, and as it turns out I’m way happier about her going than if it were me, because she’s so-so-so excited. And that makes me feel pretty awesome.

3) This weekend

Tomorrow is my roommate’s birthday, and we’re having some people over to our place on Saturday night. We may end up going out to a bar later, or maybe we’ll stay in…it all depends on how we feel, so plans are kind of up in the air right now. But that’s okay. It’ll be fun.

Happy weekend, everyone!

1) About this whole writing thing –

September 1st was my seven year blogiversary. (Seven! Seven! Seven!) Crazy.

Speaking of seven — I went back and counted, just out of curiosity, to see how many times I posted on this blog in August. I posted seven times.

I took a break from my regular blogging gig at BlogHer.com in August — I’ve been writing for them for 2.5 years, and I decided I needed a few weeks off. Did I miss it? Honestly, no, I didn’t. But it was only four weeks, and four weeks goes by pretty fast. It was kind of nice to reclaim those hours on Sundays and Tuesdays, the days I usually have posts due.

I’m resuming my writing for BlogHer this month, but I’ll be posting only on Sundays, instead of twice a week like I’ve been doing since January.

You guys…seven years. That number floors me a little bit. I love writing…I do. But there’s a good chance that I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past few months, which is only updating once or twice a week. There’s just all this other…stuff. Social stuff and job stuff and — well, you get the idea. And there will be no apologies, because this is my life. (If you can’t tell, I really dislike it when bloggers apologize for not posting. You don’t owe anything to anybody but yourself — if you’re writing for free, that is.)

2) Ow!

I had blood drawn from my arm at my doctor’s office yesterday (re: a thyroid-level checkup), and this is the second time I’ve had blood drawn there where the technician had to stick me twice with the needle to find my vein. Usually the problem is with my right arm, though, so yesterday I made sure to offer up my left arm. In went the needle…she wiggled it around…pulled it halfway out and then back in. (Me: “Ow!”) So she took it out and tried again, and luckily it worked the second time. Still, I currently have a bruise on the inside of my left arm that’s quite noticeable.

3) This weekend

I’m not traveling out of town, and I’m very happy about that. I’ve driven to Richmond the past two weekends (and the two weekends before that I was either leaving for — or coming back from — Montana), and I’ll be going back to Richmond in a few weeks for my little sister’s wedding, so I’m happy to stay in this area for a while.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

1) Houseguest

My friend Tripp has been living with me and my roommate for the past month — he had to move out of his last place, so we let him sleep on our couch while he looked for a new one. He’ll be moving out this weekend (just a few miles away, though, instead of 40+ minutes like he used to be), so here’s a look-back at some of the…interesting…times we’ve had while he’s been staying with us.

He hooped with my weighted hula hoop.

He helped my roommate put together a tent in our living room when she needed to practice for an upcoming camping trip.

(P.S. I did not help with the assembly of the tent. Those are my feet on the ottoman.)

Apparently he thinks I’m up to no good when I take pictures of him when he’s on the phone.

He made Rice Krispies Treats earlier this week, even though I asked him not to (but yes, I did eat some).

2) This weekend

I’m driving to Richmond tomorrow to attend my friend Eddie’s wedding. I’ve known him for about 10 years, and I’ll be going to the wedding with a number of friends, so it should be a fun time. Here’s a pic of me and Eddie from back in the day — I’m not sure of the date since this was a scanned photo, but I’m guessing it was probably 2000.

(Yes, I used to have bangs! I grew them out in late ’01 or early ’02.)

Happy weekend, everyone!