happy thanksgiving!

thanksgiving. a time to give thanks. im thankful for a lot of things. namely, my family..my friends that are scattered across the US...my job, despite the fact that its not my 'dream job'...and finally being settled somewhere that i dont have to move out of for almost a whole year!

my fam and i had a great thanksgiving lunch with a fried turkey (which i didnt think tasted different from a regular turkey) and all the traditional fixins. we stuffed ourselves and then waddled to the living room to let the food settle. after a viewing of toy story we indulged in pumpkin pie - my favorite. overall, a great thanksgiving.

my cutie niece ellie and i have a fun game that we play. i blow strawberries, or is it raspberries, on her cheek. then its her turn which is always followed by lots of giggling bc she thinks its the greatest thing since sliced bread. ill play for a while bc i just get so much joy out of hearing her continuous giggle. so thats what this picture is of.

thanksgiving was almost perfect. until i came back home to my apt. and was going up the stairs and completely ate it. im not normally too clumsy but now that i think about it two of my most embarrassing moments involve falling on texas a&m campus...hmm. anyways...so yeah, fell up the stairs...the rough cement apt. stairs. got a little scratched up...but heres the worst part...i totally broke my digital camera bc i landed on it and the little thing just couldnt withstand my post thanksgiving feast weight :-/ of course all of the millions of leftovers i was carrying ended up just fine...but the camera - its a goner. but i try to think that things could always be worse, right? i could have broken an arm or leg or i dunno...something. so anyways...i laugh at it now bc i do way too many embarrassing things a day to take them all seriously.

so thanksgiving is officially over, but the rest of my long weekend is definitely not and that is something to be thankful for.

a post devoted entirely to...

CRAIGSLIST!

yes thats right. i like to promote craigslist when i can but i decided that since its been so good to me that i would devote an entire post to it. now for those of you who still dont know what it is then the easiest thing to do is to click on "CRAIGSLIST!" above and check it out for yourself. basically its an online bulletin board divided by city where you can post for basically anything!

craigslist has never done me wrong although when i tried to sell my computer i did get a few hopeful scam artists trying to get me to send my computer to a foreign country and wire tons of money to a random person. however that was not at the fault of craigslist and they make sure to warn you about all that stuff.

so how has craigslist helped me you ask? let me count the ways...

thru craigslist i have sold:
clothes, concert tkts, a digital camera, a discman, a computer monitor, and other random things

thru craigslist i have bought:
my laptop (2months old $750), my bed (brand new queen $199), an slr camera (barely used $125), and an LCD monitor (nothing wrong with it $125).

thru craigslist i hired:
movers to move me out of my last place

and here's the best one..
thru craigslist i found:
my ROOMMATE. this is frightening to some people however it ended up being the most successful thing ever. i just moved out bc i had another opportunity come up however i would have stayed otherwise. she was completely normal and nice...didnt try to kill me in my sleep or steal all my money...and i got to stay on a month to month basis and pay super cheap rent! what more could you ask for?

100% of the people i have sold stuff to or bought stuff from have been completely normal. its kinda like an ebay but everyone lives in your city so instead of shipping stuff you just meet the buyer or seller and make the sale in person. its almost more reliable bc you have their contact info. and you have the ability to check out stuff before you buy it. you really cant lose in my mind.

so be skeptical if you want but i dont think you can knock it till you try it. its been good to me and would probably be good to you too.

and i think the thing ive learned the most is that age old saying of "one mans trash is another mans treasure" is SO true. theres some stuff ive posted thinking no one will ever buy this but no, someone sure will. everything ive posted has sold within in a week or less. so if you just want to make some extra money for the stuff in your house that you never use, its worth a shot.

so thats my ode to craigslist. i think its the greatest thing ever and now you might have a better understanding of why.

christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

thats probably the most confusing christmas song to sing as a kid. it continues on with putting pennies in hats and if you dont have pennies then ha'pennies will do which i think translates into 'half pennies.' but like those exist... yet we sing these songs bc thats just what you do at christmas time.

speaking of...the first tease of winter came last nite and i walked out of my place this morning and was met by a chilly 40 somethin degrees and i loved it! and with that i brought out the christmas cds. had winter come at the normal time a few weeks ago i would have brought them out then. but theres just something about singing 'let it snow' when its 90 degrees outside that just doesn't fit.

and so with that i would like to share with you what i think to be the 3 best christmas cds of all time. although i think if kelly clarkson put out a christmas cd that it would be really good too and then i would have a top 4. hey kelly, can you get on that? thanks. so here goes...in no particular order:

charlie brown christmas - its just real great.

mariah carey christmas - i know every girl my age out there loves singing along to 'all i want for christmas is you'

amy grant christmas - the last song is an amazing completely instrumental medley that i could put on repeat and listen to for hours.

so there you have it. i love christmas time..the coldness and the lights and decorations...good times.

it is the hottest coolest time in texas...

so every tuesday is staff lunch here at the medical institute. some days its entertaining, other times so boring that i find myself nodding off as someone is talking. what brought on tuesday staff lunch is that the company had a big 'strategic planning' meeting a few months ago where basically a guy came in and assessed the company and all the employees and was supposed to figure out how to make us more productive and effective as a company. the greatest part of it was when he went over some survey results that everyone in the company had completed which showed that something like 80% of the group thought that the company as a whole was dysfunctional and had poor communication etc. the results were kinda shocking and slightly amusing to myself. i thought i was the only one that thought everyone sucked at communicating.

needless to say these staff lunches are supposed to be a bonding mechanism where we all become friends and learn how to have conversations with each other. sometimes i think its a complete failure as awkward conversation prevails and everyone is counting down the minutes until we can stop talking to each other. other times, like today, its kinda amusing. we have a christmas party coming up..ill try to contain my excitement about that one...and then people started talking about other get togethers we could plan next year. suddenly everyone had an opinion and all sorts of ideas were being thrown out...potluck dinners..cookouts..picnics in the park...a trip to schlitterbahn... ok, lets just stop for a second and ponder that last one. a trip to schlitterbahn? really?? my boss shawna, who is close in age to me, and i about died when someone threw that one out. let me tell you the dynamic of my company. there are a few people in their 30s..a few...the rest...probably 50s-60s. imagining my coworkers in bathing suits galavanting around schlitterbahn is just frightening. honestly, i think some of them would have heart attacks on some of the rides. hopefully you can see where the humor is in this...just imagine the company you work for on a field trip to schlitterbahn...i think a small percentage of people would find that normal.

bring it on

first off id like to respond to a comment i got awhile back from an 'anonymous' reader. it went a little like this:

Anonymous said...
Are the sixers gd? NONONONO... Iverson to me is gd,
but he is jus a ballhog. Look at the sixers, struggling. The lakers? 3-1. I noe
its jus the beginning of the season, but at least they r performing better. N
why do u think the lakers are arrogant? I think all GREAT teams will make ppl
think they r arrogant. Is Iverson any humble? Kobe is one of the greatest
players on the court now n tts a fact u cant deny. Btw, im a lakers(most
importantly, kobe) fan.

in response i would like to discuss the sixers/lakers game on Nov. 11, 2005. 85-81. Sixers Win.
kobe - 17 pts AI - 34 pts. i could go into the stats further and talk about how the sixers just won their fourth game in a row but more importantly i just wanted to back my team up against the criticism i received. i was almost offended bc i love my sixers so much...

and on a completely different note..yesterday my family had a little get together for my moms bday. and on a side note, i was talking to my friend casey last nite and it occurred to me that i dont know the exact ages of ANYONE in my family...not my mom, dad, sister, brother, or brother in law. i could not tell you how old they are if my life depended on it. i could give you rough estimates but thats about it. if its any consolation, i do know all of their bdays? ok maybe its not a consolation..i suck as a family member. so back to my original story - we're eating lunch and my dad is a big movie buff - loves them and since he is now retired i think thats what he does a majority of the day. so we always talk about movies we've recently seen and recommend ones to each other. so our conversation goes a little like this:

dad: yesterday i watched 'bring it on'
me: what??
dad: yeah...i like
teenage chick flicks?
me: dad..are you kidding me?
dad: no
me: so you
liked it?
dad: yeah..i mean, some of those routines were amazing...
me: *blank stare*

he also had watched 13 going on 30 and enjoyed it except for thinking it was just 'big' with a girl. and just for the record, my dad also watches his fair share of action, suspense, horror, comedy, and drama movies so dont think that he just sits around and watches all teeny bopper high school movies. so yeah..that was a bit entertaining to me..

updates

here are recent updates or thoughts ive had lately:

thanksgiving is in less than two weeks and my family is getting a fried turkey for the first time - that's something to be thankful for.

im moving in a week - arrg.

work has been steady lately which is one of the greatest things ever. and its amazing what a change in attitude can do for you.

im coming to the realization that i might have a small phobia of asians. yeah - more on that later.

basketball season is in full swing and i love it. and for anyone interested, i have added the info. about my fantasy team to the left. rank fluctuates by the thousands every nite but last nite i hit my peak at 1,016 and am undoubtedly proud of myself. lets just call it beginners luck and i know it wont last long, but its still a lot of fun.

and thats that...

trekkies...yes, they sadly exist

tues. nite i had the 'privilege' of watching 'trekkies.' yeah, this is a real documentary - not even made to be a mockumentary but it seems like it bc you cant believe that the people are so serious about their fanatacism as they really are. this here is a pic of the vhs cover - and i bet youre thinking, 'ive seen that before at blockbuster.' yeah, i had plenty of times and probably many times offered it as a movie choice as a joke. but its no joke. did you know that 'trekkies' is the only fan name that is in the dictionary?? its just crazy.

so anyways, i watched it with my bible study group which almost seems sacrilegious bc its seriously like a cult. these people, 'trekkies', hold like club meetings and get dressed in their uniforms and take on roles of 'commanding officers' and what not. they go to star trek conventions and its like heaven to them. they have star trek memorabilia out the whazoo and dress their kids and dogs up in uniforms too - its quite creepy. you feel sorry for the people but then secretly want to meet one of them to really see if its all true. i could go on and on about how bizarre and entertaining and sad the movie was but i wouldnt want to ruin it for you. so if you ever have a free nite where you really cant think of anything better to do, rent trekkies and be prepared to laugh...

weekend in big D

the weekend was nonstop but so much fun. i got into dallas friday nite and went to dinner with christian and 'the denton crowd' as she usually refers to them. we went to a cute little italian restaurant called romas. the best/worst part is that they have raccoons that roam around the outside deck where everyone is eating. yeah, real raccoons - real weird. later we went over to jax's place! we hadnt seen each other since last december!!! needless to say, our hang out was way overdue. later that night we watched phantom of the opera..or rather i watched it and she slept. it was pretty good - i was real tired though so i think i would have appreciated it more if i had been a little more alert.

we slept in like champs on saturday..i think we got up around noon? yeah it was great. we did a little bit of shopping at the galleria and met up with ck and cam. we had a whole lot of fun playing with the makeup in sephora as you can see from the picture to the right. cam went to town with the nail polish. later that nite jax and i went to the mavs game. yes, i know in my previous post i said that i was not a mavs fan. i still dont claim to be despite sporting a mavs tshirt in the first pic. however...when you get free tickets to pretty great seats you wear the matching tshirts and root for the team you're watchin. and the game was great - so fun and the mavs played really well and beat the spurs so that made the game pretty enjoyable too. i love the nba!!!!!! after the game we hung out with kendal at cafe brazil. the highlight of that was probably when it was discovered that jax, along with patin, thought that i came to america on a boat. so just for the record folks, i came on a PLANE. the whole 'fob' - fresh off the boat term that i occasionally throw out there is a joke. i wasnt really shipped to my family via boat. so that was pretty entertaining when i made a reference to not coming to america on a boat and jax asking, "YOU DIDNT?" yeah neat.

all in all the weekend went by way too fast but was so great. i got to see lots of friends and do so many fun things. but now im pretty exhausted so its time to try and get some sleep...

the answer

the official nba season tipped off yesterday which is pretty exciting. therefore this post is devoted to the nba and various players and teams and my love and hate for different ones. i dont claim to know anything about basketball but im slowly becoming a more dedicated and knowledgeable fan. so if you have no interest in this topic then youll probably just wanna stop reading about now...

why do i love allen iverson and the philadelphia sixers? honestly i dont have a great answer for that. im not from philly, although i have been there once, and i dont even really have any connections to it besides a couple of people (jen and joe baker and steph ward) that now reside in the great city of brotherly love. about four years ago though, i followed the sixers thru the nba playoffs and adopted them as 'my team.' and this is me when it comes to sports - i often dont know all there is to each game - all the rules, regulations, what constitutes fouls, errors, etc., however i can strangely get really into it. and im not some girl that tries to get all into sports to impress guys bc honestly you'd have to be able to spout out a lot of statistics before you impressed any guy and even with that they still probably wouldnt care. i just really enjoy being a fan, thats it. all to say, over the past years i have become a lot more interested in pro basketball and all the teams and players. the sixers remain the main team i loyally follow throughout the season but i am also partial to other teams and select players. below is a short synopsis of some likes and dislikes and ill be the first to say that yeah, i like some of the players bc honestly theyre attractive black men...however most of them are pretty talented players too!!

likes:
sixers namely AI bc he's just freakin amazing with a basketball. also love kyle korver and his 3 pointers, andre igoudala whos going to have a breakout soph. season, and sammy dalembert who if he gets better should be good as well. and yeah, im not a huge fan of the webber addition but if him and AI can figure out how to play together then they will be a great duo.
the rockets bc of t-mac and yao...i mean, who wouldnt love a 7 foot chinese guy playing bb?
the spurs, more during the dave robinson days but they still have a rep of being a good team and theres always the texas bias although im not a mavs fan. yeah, despite most of my friends being obsessed, im still not.
might follow the nets a little just to see how fellow ag, antoine wright does - that is if he gets playing time.
other select players im fond of - jermaine o'neal, peja stojakovic, jamaal tinsley, dwayne wade, chauncey billups, and steve francis

dislikes - anything associated with the lakers (mostly the team from 2 years ago) - kobe bryant, walton, fischer, payton, george. needless to say, when they didnt go the playoffs last year i was ecstatic. i think theyre the most arrogant team in the nba...having kobe bryant probably doesnt help.
shaq - yeah he goes in the lakers dislike but i wanted to single him out and say that i think hes just a big dumb animal...although watching him attempt free throws is really entertaining to me. he's only good bc hes massive - put him 10 feet from the basket and hes of no use.

so thats that - my love for the nba in a nutshell. i have joined the fantasy craze and put together a team in the salary cap challenge. im not completely sure how everything works but it will give me something else to occupy my time at work with. i'll let you know how that goes.

go sixers.