Sex and the City

After the baby shower, Toby came over to play. We caught up, got dinner, and then went to see the Sex and the City movie. We had to go early to get seats- the theater was completely packed. The movie was really good, not at all what I expected. But, true to the show, it was very well written and entertaining. Every woman should see this movie. It gets to the heart of what a wedding should really be about (at least what I think it should be about). Go see it!

Macy's Baby Shower

Today was my friend Macy's baby shower. Macy is a tiny girl and even at 7 months pregnant, you'd hardly notice. She's just got this little round belly but hasn't gained anywhere else. Lucky gal. Bunni planned an amazing baby shower at a little restaurant in Fairfax. I was responsible for balloons. Aren't they awesome (lion, elephant, zebra)? The theme was safari animals / pink because she's having a girl.

This was actually my first baby shower. I have friends with babies but they either live far away or I couldn't go to the shower for some reason. It was fun; we played several baby-related games and watched Macy open a bunch of adorable baby gifts. So many babies on the way- I think I have 4 pregnant friends right now! Here's Bunni, Macy, and me at the shower.

Pedicures

Normally, I wouldn't blog about something like a pedicure, but I have to share my ignorance. I got my first pedicure with my mom 4ish years ago. We went to this really pricey salon in Reston and I think it was about $70 for a pedicure. I couldn't understand spending so much on your toes and have always thought people were crazy when they told me they got a pedicure. The only thing I could think was "who would spend $70 to have their toe nails painted?". I found out this week that I was sold a bum deal.

I went to this little salon with my friend Bunni so we could get cheap pedicures today. It was about $20 and about as good as the expensive one. I got my first french pedicure and my toes look awesome. I see more pedicures in my future......

New York City

I've been quite the traveler lately. I got back from Disney on Tuesday night, worked for a couple days, and then I headed to my mom's house in New Jersey. My mom and I decided awhile ago to do a New York City weekend since neither one of us has spent much time there (I think I've been there for about 24 hours total). We were there for 2 days and managed to do and see a lot.

We started with shopping in Greenwich Village. We went to the Magnolia Bakery for its award winning cupcakes. There was a line around the block for these cupcakes. Crazy. My review: good, but not earth-shattering. The icing was very sugary and while I like my sweets, I've never been a fan of straight sugar. But they were good and a fun experience.

We also found the Coach store and I got the most adorable purse. The purse is exclusive to the NYC store and part of their Legacy collection. God, I feel like such a girl. I normally don't care about brand names and all that but I just LOVE Coach. I usually contain my Coach shopping to the outlet store but I could NOT resist this bag. Below are some pics that don't do my new purse justice. I'm not sure if you can tell, but it's actually a very small bag, and the striped lining is in both of the outside pouches and the center section.

We also checked out some of the boutiques and I tried on a bunch of stuff. But at the end of the day, I couldn't get past the price tags: $300 for a shirt??? Seriously? I do not live in that world. We stumbled on a street fair which was more our style and I found a cute, artsy shirt there (not even remotely close to $300). We also went to a store called Century 21 which is supposed to have great discounts on designer clothing and shoes. It was basically a giant department store where you pick through things and there is very little organization. I no longer find this type of shopping fun, although I might have enjoyed it in my younger years. We also didn't find a lot of truly "designer" clothing. We did however find some nice brands for shoes- Manolo Blahnik shoes for $200 instead of the normal $500 price tag. Would someone like to explain how a pair of shoes is ever worth $500??? Needless to say, we left empty-handed.

We went to see Patti LuPone in Gypsy on Saturday night. She was amazing but the show was, um, "eh". My mom and I both left feeling like it wasn't a very well-written show, was kind of over-dramatic, and lacked substance. We also got half price tickets on Sunday to A Chorus Line. That's an old favorite that we saw when I was a kid and I've grown up knowing the music. That was a lot of fun.

We made sure to get some New York style pizza and also ate at a really good Italian restaurant near Times Square. We walked around Times Square and went to the M&M store. I also spotted the Naked Cowboy and had to get a picture. I also have pictures of him and I together but I am SO not posting those here. In case there's any question: yes he's kind of a pervert, yes hugging him was creepy, and yes I felt a little dirty afterwards. Totally worth it. ;)

One of the most memorable experiences was taking one of the bike carts (as opposed to a cab). It's basically a 2 person cart pulled by a guy on a bike. It was more like a ride than transportation. Our guy weaved through traffic and came within inches of other moving vehicles. This is a great way to travel the city.

We headed back to my mom's house and had planned for a few days at the beach but the weather was crummy. We ended up just visiting and I left a little early for home. Better to save those vacation days for good weather.

My Good Kitty

I'm finding it's still too hard to talk about my kitty. Maumau passed away on April 14th. I thought that maybe by now it would be easier to talk about, but it's not. I'm basically going to repost my email that I sent to many of you for anyone that doesn't know what happened.

In early April, my kitty started just laying in one spot and didn't want to move, eat, or do anything. After about a week it was getting really bad so I took her to the vet. She was in kidney failure and I had to make a decision about whether to put her to sleep or try to hospitalize her and put her on fluids for a few days. Maumau was only 10 years old so this was extremely unexpected. Since she was a kitten, I've known that she only has one functioning kidney. The other one never developed so I knew that if she ever had kidney trouble, we'd be in bad shape. But that's a pretty big "if" so I've never worried about it and there's nothing to be done about it anyway. I decided to go forward with the fluids and meds and hospitalization. I spent each afternoon sitting with her, trying to get her to eat and just petting her for comfort. After 3 days, the vet let me take her home to see if she could bounce back better in her own environment.

It was really nice to have her home. I had meds for her and had to force feed her, since she didn't want to eat. I also learned how to give subcutaneous fluids, which was as hard on me as her I think, since I'm needle-phobic. It's amazing what you'll do for your kids. Unfortunately, she didn't improve. She continued to lay in one spot and while she didn't seem to be in any pain, she also wasn't her personable little self. On April 13th, she seemed to be having more trouble than usual so I decided to sleep in the extra bedroom with her. It was like old times with just the two of us. In the morning I pet her, went downstairs to take a shower, and by the time I got back, she was gone. I pet her and told her what a good kitty she was. Then I took her to the vet to take care of things. I am thankful that she was able to pass away quickly, with little pain, and in the comfort of her own home.

I've done a lot of crying and remembering all the good times we shared. The first few days after she died, I had a flood of memories. I kept expecting to see her and even imagined I saw her out of the corner of my eye a few times. After that, I had to stop thinking about it because it hurt too much. I still miss her a lot and haven't been able to really talk too much about it, other than to restate what happened. I'm sure eventually I'll be ready to recount all the memories I have of my wonderful little cat, but it will probably still be awhile.

Catching Up

It's been a rough couple of months, hence the lack of blogging. Besides school getting unreasonably busy, I had a terrible loss, as many of you already know. But the kitty gets her own post.

I had a birthday in April which passed relatively unceramoniously.

School ended on May 7th. My class on decision theory remained interesting throughout and the professor was great. I did a project where I analyzed how technical (engineers) and non-technical (business and psychology majors) professionals make decisions when presented with various gambles. It was something I was very curious about and I actually found that there is a significant difference in the way the two groups make decisions. Grade: A.

The class on Integer Programming got crazy and I got frustrated. The class started with linear programming and creating models and constraints for various optimization problems. The professor was available for questions and the subject matter was difficult but not impossible. Then suddenly halfway through the class, she started teaching only in theory with no examples and stopped answering questions. I felt like she pulled a bait and switch; had I known the class was going to be like this, I would never have stayed in it. I'm the type of student that needs to understand every detail of a problem to really "get it". I ask a lot of questions along the way but once I get it, I really get it and can apply it just about anywhere. But since she wouldn't answer questions or provide examples, I was sort of stuck with a vague understanding of the subject matter. So the class was essentially a waste of my time.

We had a take-home final that had nothing to do with the course. We're not allowed to discuss the exam but my friend in the class actually called just to see how I was doing- she needed to hear that she hadn't lost her mind either. We were given no resources, no book, no lectures, and I couldn't find any information on the internet to help me. So I turned in my test knowing that I couldn't have scored better than a 50%. Seriously. Not exaggerating at all. It was so hard to hand in that test. Thankfully, I had an A going into the final. Course grade: B. Guess she figured it would be unfair to give me a C after all that work. Needless to say, I will NOT be taking any more classes with her. And that's not due to the grade; it's due to the teaching, or lack thereof.

Work has been busy as always. We finally set the date for our CMMI Level 3 appraisal. It's scheduled for the end of September/ early October. I've been working towards this since I started with the company in February 2007 so this is a big deal. There's still a lot of work to be done so the summer will be very busy. Thankfully, I'm not taking any school classes, so that should help. I've also been working on creating a training program for the entire company. I'm sure I'll talk about this more as I get further along.

My health is a mess. The bad posture due to working at a desk all day, combined with being bent over to study all night and a lack of exercise has allowed my migraines to continue. I'm hoping that now that things have settled down a bit, my migraines will calm down. In general they have been a little less than they were initially and I think with some exercise, I can really reduce their frequency. All of the stress has basically killed my diet as well. I've gained a few pounds back but still haven't quite reached my top weight again. Another couple weeks and I'll be able to concentrate on the diet and exercise again. I realize this should be an all the time thing, but I really broke from the stress and sadness this month. I am looking forward to some downtime this summer to recuperate.