Can I Stop with the Awkward Today and Start the Awesome Already?

I haven't done Awkward and Awesome Thursday in awhile, but this day merits it.

Brittany from Cycle 4, one of the members of the ANTM Cycle 17 All Star Cast (Source)

Awkward

• Checking my blind spot while driving and pulling something in my neck. Now, whenever I turn my neck to the left at all, it hurts.
• Accidentally dragging the toe of my shoe, thus walking like a doofus as I walked by someone at work.
• Family dynamics and the mixing of two families. Awkward AND stressful. Bridget's Baptism is coming up Sunday, so planning for it is starting to stress me out.
• My work email not sending or receiving anything yesterday. That issue resulted in me giving people blank stares as they talked to me about emails they had sent.

Awesome

• The ANTM All Star Cycle! I would've liked to blog about the cast, but you can just read about it and see pics at A Blog About Things and compare it to my predictions. A couple girls that I really liked that were in my original 20 before I pared it down made the cut (Brittany and Laura, yay!). Then, there are a few that I think were just thrown in for the drama aspect. I am shocked that Heather from Cycle 9 isn't on the list.
• Wine tasting tonight! I will hopefully blog about that this weekend at some point...
• Birthday dinner tomorrow for one of Nate's friends. That I'll hopefully blog about, too, 'cause it's at a very tasty and kind of unique restaurant.
• Bridget's Baptism! The event is awesome in and of itself, but she'll also be wearing the dress I wore when I was baptized. Doubly awesome.
• Cookie dough was the flavor of the day yesterday at Kopp's! Pretty sure I had a cone while there and then a scoop later with the fam from the 1/2 gallon I bought. Clearly, the diet is going really well this week...
  

Crunch Crunch Crunch

Random picture of my mug I use at work.  How true.

Awkward

• Eating Corn Nuts at work.  They're so loud!
• Standing on the street outside the parking structure, taking 30 seconds to open my umbrella with one hand plus two fingers (I was holding a Starbucks cup), only to realize that it's not really raining.  Upon closing the umbrella and putting it in my purse, I turned the corner, and it started raining more.  Instead of opening it for a block and a half walk, I just walked faster.
• Sounds my stomach is making right now. 
• When my glasses slide down the bridge of my nose slightly, and I have to tilt my head up to look at someone (you can see evidence of me doing this a lot on the vlog).
• I just found a Corn Nut in my shirt down by my stomach.  Uh...that's not how digestion works. 
• Trying to say something optimistic but realizing right away that it was more insensitive.
• Not remembering where I parked my car. 

Awesome

•  Encouragement from hubby to get a sewing machine.  I see matching mother-daughter dresses in my future!  Hahaha, awkward.
• Someone at work reading my fun mug that I got for Christmas a couple years ago (pictured above).  It doesn't really qualify as awesome, but I like my mug and didn't know what else to have a picture of on this post.  It was either the mug of the bag of Corn Nuts.
• Hopefully this DIY project I'm gonna attempt.
• Scrapbooking day with friends Saturday.

Awkwardly Awesome

Meeting Zac Hanson again on Tuesday was both awkward and awesome (mostly awesome).

Awkward

• Not being able to start my husband's car (it's keyless), thus being stuck in the daycare parking lot until he came from work across the street to trade cars with me.
• Having a too full purse that can't close.  As much as I love the purse I'm using right now, I gotta switch.  It's just too small for all my crap.
• My down jacket that leaks feathers all over me.
• Wearing a maternity dress while not pregnant.  They're slightly longer in the front...

Awesome

• Having the opportunity to flex my matchmaking muscles again last night.  I think we'll at least get a first date out of this one.
• Playing Dance Central last night with sis-in-law and friend.  So fun! 
• A cocoa cappuccino from Starbucks.  It's like a mocha but not as fatty!
• Having a stock pile of cheesy reality shows to watch on my DVR.  I can't wait to watch me some Millionaire Matchmaker, America's Next Top Model, and What Not to Wear.  I watched Idol last night--Pia still for the win!
• My weekend plans: shopping with a couple friends tomorrow and a friend's baby shower on Saturday.
• Jeans day at work tomorrow (not every Friday is casual Friday here).

St. Paddy's Day Edition of Awkward and Awesome

Happy St. Paddy's Day! I am not Irish, but I am told that everyone is Irish on St. Paddy's Day. So that's as good of a reason as any to wear green and drink beer today! Both of which I will be doing in the comfort of my own home tonight.

We kind of matched today with our gray shirts and green tights/pants.

Awkward

• Being concerned about jaywalking and walking all the way to the corner to cross the street.  There was a cop nearby, but come on.  It's St. Paddy's Day.  He's looking for drunks, not people in business attire getting their morning coffee.
• What my evening has in store for me: it's my turn to pick up dog poop, and the snow just recently melted, so it's going to be a mess.  
• Randomly saying hi to someone as I'm walking by his desk, then he abruptly turns back around, so I mumble something and scurry off.  Really any unplanned encounter generally sends me into awkward mode.
• Almost awkward: nearly angering the Irish by spelling it "St. Patty's" until I saw Paddy, Not Patty.  After reading that, I went through this post again and corrected my mistakes.  It looks wrong to me, but I don't make the rules--I just follow them.  Probably should've just stuck with St. Patrick's and called it a day.
• Tugging at my skirt throughout the day because I keep thinking it's a little too short. 
• Tripping in the infant room at daycare.  Luckily, I wasn't holding my daughter at the time, and I didn't actually fall.
• My husband dropping two different forks on the floor when he was trying to get dinner ready. 

Awesome

• Green tights.  At least today.  Any other day, I feel too out of place wearing colored tights to work.
• The Tripel Karmeliet beer I bought tonight.  It's probably my favorite beer although it's Belgian, not Irish.
• Irish accents.  The morning show I listen to was broadcasting from the Jameson Distillery in Dublin today, so they were talking to someone who works there.
• Obviously, the warm weather we've been having.  I think it's going to be back in the 40s tomorrow, though.  Lame. 
• Doing a model walk down the hall when there's nobody around.  Also, posing in the bathroom mirror.  Either of which could quickly turn awkward.
• Enjoying samples at a grocery store.  And then buying something as a result of trying a sample (which is how my Irish Stout cheese purchase came to be).
• Noticing someone else having an awkward moment, like a lady at the grocery store accidentally ramming her cart into the checkout lane.

Check out everybody else's awkward and awesome moments.

Awkwarrrrrd

What's with this hair??

Awkward

• These weird wispy bang things I have.  What are they??  All I know is I didn't put them there, but they've been there forever, and they never cooperate.   
• My parking situation.  Let's review, shall we?  Monday, I forgot my keys at my desk and didn't realize it until I walked the 8 minutes to my car.  Tuesday, I parked in a different structure for the first time, and it took me 10 minutes to find my car.  Wednesday, I turned too soon and ran into construction.  Today, I missed my turn to get on the freeway and turned back around after a half mile.  Tomorrow, I'm going to get it down, dangit!
• Minimizing windows on my computer when someone walks by at work.  No one who works on a computer actually spends all day working, so no one would care if I'm taking a break.  But still I minimize. 
• Walking in heels.  At least, it often gets awkward for me, like when my ankle suddenly turns as I'm walking, and I just hope no one saw.
  
• Feeling like I was stealing ice cream sandwiches at the grocery store today.  I accidentally grabbed an open box, so I told the dude at the self checkout lane that I needed a new box.  Since I had the baby with me, he suggested I finish scanning everything, then go back for the ice cream sandwiches.  Well, when I went back, the kind I wanted was gone, so I sat there conflicted for a minute.  Then, I grabbed a different variety and wandered out of the store, hoping no alarms would go off although I did pay for the merchandise.
• Hearing my cube neighbor talk to another coworker about knee socks in the 90s and wondering if they realized that I was wearing knee socks today.

Yellow knee socks--both awkward and awesome.

Awesome

• Hearing "Peace of Mind" by Boston on the radio and belting out the chorus as I drive home from work. 
• Wearing glasses to hide the fact that I didn't put any eye makeup on.
• My daughter smiling at me when I picked her up from daycare.
• The Ask section on Polyvore.  Potentially hours of fun.
• New Milano cookies.  Soooooo goooooood!  I can't find a link or picture of them, but the chocolate in the middle is creamy.  I ate a whole bag of them last night *hangs head in shame*.
• Dance Central!  I miss playing it.  I'll have to do that more often.

Check out everybody else's awkward and awesome moments.

Somewhat Refreshed

I don't plan on doing Awkward and Awesome Thursday every week, but I happen to have some awkward and awesome things to mention today, so I'm going for it.

Awkward

• Going to the gas station this morning and realizing that the pump hose is not attached to anything and just dangling from the nozzle.  Even more awkward, considering trying to pump it anyway.
• Tights that don't fit.  Target tights just don't work for me, and I think I've finally learned my lesson.  My 8-minute walk from my car to work was definitely getting more and more awkward with each step.
• Too-full coffee that spit up on my hand as I walked.
• Not being able to hear what someone says, so just guessing and being wrong.  Pretty sure I do that almost every day, but I did it again this morning.
• The Tom Fuller Band.  Or, a man old enough to be your father with blond hipster hair and skinny jeans.

Awesome

• New shoes!  See below for a picture.
• Having some time to hang out and feed my daughter before work today.
• New followers and comments from strangers on my blog yesterday--yay!  And welcome!
• Getting to relive some pre-married days fun by going to an Ingram Hill concert (pictures below).
• The fact that tomorrow is Friday!
• Cooking for my in-laws for the first time.  I'm hoping this will be awesome, but that is yet to be seen.
• Sister-in-law's birthday today!  I don't know if you read this, but happy birthday if you do!

I got a 20 oz. coffee from the gas station this morning, and I'm ready to go! After only getting 5 hours of sleep last night, I'm surprisingly chipper. Last night was definitely what I needed to recharge. Plus, I got to spend 45 minutes with my daughter this morning, so I was really happy about that.  Even though I'm physically exhausted, I'm ready to take on the day! 

Yesterday, the work day kind of dragged, so I was very happy when 5:00 came. Also around that same time, I started getting some stranger comments and followers--hi all! So that put me in a good mood.

Number 1 on my to-do list for the night was to stop at Shoo and use my groupon to buy some springy shoes.  Hubs and I are very soon going to re-establish our budget, so I wanted to get all the spending I was going to do out of the way.  I'd been to Shoo once or twice before, and the selection was really fun and unique, but the prices were always a little too rich for my blood.  So when groupon had a deal for a $100 coupon for $45, I snatched it up.  Unfortunately, the shoes I wanted ended up being $43 additional, which makes this definitely the most I've ever spent on shoes.  But then again, I'm pretty cheap.  I'm banking on them lasting for a very long time.  Anyway, admire them!  Aren't they cute?  I'm already trying to plan an Easter outfit around them.

All Black Snake Tie

After stopping at Shoo, I hurried over to Pizza Shuttle to meet some friends for dinner and a concert.  I did take a picture of the pizza (and it was very tasty pizza), but you all know what pizza looks like, and the picture is currently trapped on my camera anyway.

Once we were all sufficiently fed, we headed over to Shank Hall for the Ingram Hill show.  It was fun to let loose, listen to some good music (and some Tom Fuller Band...), and hang out with some fans and the guys from the band a little bit.  Justin, Phil, and Zach are super nice guys even though Phil does look like Luigi these days with his mustache.

Phil and Justin

Zach

(All photos taken by Katie...except for the one she's in...)