"Oh when the day is BLUE, I'll sit here wondering about you..." - Eisley, "I Wasn't Prepared"

I love Sherri Dupree. She is my inspiration for a lot of things. Do y'all find her face familiar? Perhaps it's from many of the thousands (exaggeration? Yes.) of blogposts that I've written about Eisley (the band she's in). Anyway, she's constantly changing her hair color and she's constantly blogging about it on tumblr and I'm constantly finding myself wanting to BE her.

She likes her hair
Anyway, I guess she inspired me. Also, I've been bored. I want something different with my hair, but I'm too chicken to make any drastic changes. I also kind of want a tattoo, but I'm too scared for something too permanent. At least this is only semi-permanent, I can change colors eventually or just dye it back to black... it won't be exactly the same as my natural hair color, but the way I see it, it'll at least grow back and I can start from scratch again! :)

Look at all the colors!
Thomas helped me bleach it. That was actually pretty fun to do with him! I want to go ahead and dye it blue... but remember the days when I used to do it in high school, the color tends to stick to the tub a bit for a week or so. I don't really want to freak out Thomas's parents with a blue tub. Which reminds me of a HILARIOUS story about Jenny.In high school... Jenny and I both made all state choirs so we were in San Antonio for the convention. She decided that I was having too much fun coloring my hair and she wanted to do it too! So, one night, in our hotel room, I started the process of dying her hair purple. I can't remember if we just did streaks or tips, but either way, we bleached it and then dyed it. She hopped in the shower. About 5 minutes into her shower, I hear her say something, probably an expletive and then my name. I heard the water turn off and out of the shower sprints Jenny. She was wrapped in a towel and I think her hair still had some shampoo in it. She looked like she was ready to cry. She gestured for me to go into the bathroom so I did. I was semi-horrified about what I might find. She looked like she was going to be sick! She pointed to the tub, stained a light purple, and shouted, "AM I GOING TO HAVE TO BUY THE MARRIOTT A NEW TUB?!" I remember clutching my stomach and falling to the floor almost to tears. I probably sarcastically answered her, "Yes, Jenny. You're going to have to pay to replace this tub," before reassuring her that the dye is not permanent and will wash off after subsequent showers. (And in case you're wondering, it did).

Hairspiration
So anyway... yeah. Blue hair coming up soon! :)

A Skinny Bitch and A Skinny Bastard

Oh yeah, we got that cash money!

Back in March, Thomas and I entered into a bet with my siblings. 7 people total. $100 each. The person who lost the most percentage of weight wins half the money and the person who lost the most percentage of body fat.

Well I lost the most weight percentage and Thomas lost the most body fat percentage! :)

Yay for us!

"I'm really glad we came to Vegas to go to Aldo." -- Me, Vegas: Part 3

We slept all morning. I, having a body that just naturally hates me and wants to wake up early, woke up at 8 am, despite the fact that we went to bed at 4 am. Funny note about falling asleep that night... I apparently got into our hotel room and laid, face down, over the covers on my bed. When I woke up around 6:00, I looked over at Najia and Rachel, nice and comfy in their beds, and thought to myself, "Why do they look so comfortable?" Oh, maybe it's because they don't have their necks stretched at a 90 degree angle face down on a pillow. So I got under the cover (just the comforter, yes... the CLEANEST possible thing on earth) and laid on my back. Once again, my neck was at a 90 degree angle... but in the opposite direction.

About 30 minutes later, I woke up and AGAIN looked over at the two girls. Again, I tried to figure out why they looked so much more comfortable than me. I finally realized that they were sleeping on the comfortable WHITE pillows and not the decorative pillows. So I finally threw off all of the pillows onto the floor and found the comfy white pillows. I FINALLY was able to go to sleep. Until I woke up at 8. I woke up at 8. Yes. I looked at the pool, no one was there yet. So... somehow, I kept myself busy until we finally got ourselves out of bed around... oh... 1. :)

I wanted crepes. That's all I wanted. So... we headed towards Paris and finally settled in le cafe...

Najia had some french onion soup and chicken salad croissanwich ad :)

Rachel had the samesies... sans soup

My scrumptious crepes... mushrooms... yum...

Anyway... we wandered around the strip for awhile (which feels a lot like wandering 6th street in the middle of the day) and had to duck inside one of the malls once it started raining. And not just raining... like... torrential flow-rains.

So... we started on our search for Rachel's shoes. Not that she lost her shoes... she just needed new ones. Not long after she exclaimed, "You guys, these shoes are SO COMFORTABLE and they were SO CHEAP," Rachel could be found shoeless along the strip. Turns out, they were not so comfy, and instead, created 20 blisters on her feet. So... we were looking for some decent black flip-flop/sandals that wouldn't look absolutely ludicrous with her LBD... SLBD. (Slutty little black dress... FYI). We found some other interesting things on the way.

Here's Rachel's foot OWNING yet ANOTHER shoe...

The world's most wonderful sweater EVER!

And who WOULDN'T want a possum stuffed animal on your head?

Eventually, we wandered back to Mandalay Bay and... took a nap. And we kept on napping...

and napping...

and napping...

"Umm... yes, hello. We would like to attend the club." -- Najia Dar, Vegas Part 2

So after arriving in Vegas, we found our way to the taxis. We got in the car and the driver said, "Where to?" Rachel replied, "Mandalay Bay. The hotel." Our driver said, "The hotel OR THEhotel?" Okay, maybe he didn't QUITE say that... but we did have to make a distinction. Seriously. I want to know what brilliant person came up with the idea to name it "THEhotel." I'm convinced that someone was supposed to come up with a bunch of names for the meeting, got really drunk and forgot and the first thing he came up with was... "Uhh, dude... how about... THE hotel?!" And it worked. Stupid stuff always works.

Anyway, Rachel and I did a mini fashion show for Najia and the three of us started to get ready for the night. While we got ready, we got to enjoy the sweet sounds of Godsmack doing a soundcheck. From our window we could see the entire pool area... which for that night was closed due to a Godsmack concert. We meant to ask if there was a crowd, because there definitely was NOT one when we left our room around 8 that night.

So there we are, the three of us all dolled up. Ready for a night out on the town. I'd say something about it being "Sin City" but even referencing to the fact that it's called "Sin City" makes me feel incredibly... eww. Anyway, we asked our concierge for a good place to eat (we were those annoying people who had no preference whatsoever) and eventually settled on Sushi Roku (I think that's what it was called?) which was in the Forum shops by Caesar's Palace. This is where we realized we were walking in a glorified mall. With ceilings that are made to look like you're outside (because apparently Vegas is really into that).

So there we are. Outside while inside. Getting a picture taken of us. We felt a lot more dolled up and *ahem* slutty than we actually were. In actuality, we were just nicely dressed. It was just a really stark contrast between us and the families in their fanny packs and neon tourist shirts. We found the restaurant and saw it wasn't all too crowded so when I told them we needed a table for three, I asked if we could have a pretty window view. Our concierge said the sushi was good there, but that it had nice window seats with a great view of the strip. So... the manager said he'd see what he could do... and then... asked if we were celebrating anything special. Why yes, yes we are...? The girls looked at me, and I made a slight gesture to show my "engagement ring" which is... a really good fake that I once found. :)

We got a great table, and we even got some free dessert! We tipped well, cause I felt bad/guilty about lying... but it was kind of fun that it worked!

If you look carefully you can see my ring...

Rachel's doing the Japanese Tourist & Najia's busy doing the Dar pose

Not long after this fountain picture was taken, we were joined by Napoleon (aka Nappy) one of my brother's friends that had been (apparently) living in Vegas the past few years. We strolled down the strip, through the Bellagio, and eventually (after some Rachel's-feet-hurt and Bellagio fountain stops) made it to our final destination: Marquee... which is in The Cosmopolitan. Which is... apparently the most bumpin' club in Vegas. We waited for 1.5-2 hours to get in. Najia famously told the doorman-dude that no, she was not on the guest list, but that she would, in fact, like to attend the club. That got us straight to the back of line. The back of the line that we THOUGHT was the front of the line... but turned out not to be. As loquacious as Nappy is(n't), I think he still had a good time listening to Rachel, Najia & myself be incredibly ridiculous in line. We finally got in, and after $20 covers and $15 drinks... we were finally happy.

Really really happy (or at least, we had to fake it for the price we just paid!)

We spent the bulk of our time just hanging out, talking, dancing, looking ridiculous, looking at ridiculous things. I spent a good chunk of it catching up with Nappy. Eventually we made it to the dance floor... where Rachel found some dudes who were just DYING to share their bottle service with us. I had hit my limit, so I passed off my drink, but continued to have quite a good time :)

All in all, I think we all had a great night! Especially at the end of the night when...

"So... You Wanna Go to Vegas, Guys?" Vegas: Part 1

The title basically describes how that whole thing played out. Rachel came back from Portugal with a voicemail that basically said, "Hey, don't go to [I already forgot which school it was that she almost went to in Fort Worth] and come to Texas Tech's med school instead!" So she did! Which means she actually got a few more days of unexpected and unplanned vacation before school started. So... once again... my life and responsibilities fell to the wayside as I continued my summer romance (there's really no other way to describe what happened between me and Rachel other than a Sandy-Danny Summer Lovin' kind of thing).

So... we said we need to go somewhere. NoLa was done. We needed the next thing. So... naturally we came up with Vegas. We looked up tickets for the weekend of July 8th (the only weekend before she left and that I didn't have a wedding or something else ridiculous going on) and bought our tickets that night. (This was... a week before...) We almost didn't buy them that night but I insisted to Rachel, "WE HAVE TO BUY THEM NOW, or the ticket prices will DOUBLE!" So we did. Sure enough, the NEXT DAY when she bought a ticket for Najia (her bff from forever ago), tickets had jumped up 50%! See? I have to jump into mom-mode and tell Rachel to do things. It benefits us.

So, Rachel and I went to Forever 21 to buy Vegas-appropriate dresses (Read: Slutty... what? I'm just being honest!) And that is LITERALLY all we did to prepare for our trip. I talked to some cousins and siblings and got some advice. For whatever reason, I was very intimidated by the gambling aspect of it all. Probably because we're pretty intense at home, but also informal, so I just didn't know what it would be like in a casino. Maybe I've watched the Oceans movies too many times.

Anyway, July 8th... the day finally comes and Rachel and I get dropped off at the airport by Thomas. We get inside through security and on the other side is Miss Najia Dar. Keep in mind, I was about to spend an entire plane ride and WEEKEND with a girl whom I had never met before. I've been on trips with people I HAVE known and have learned quickly that we were NOT compatible travel buddies... so this is kind of a tricky thing to do. We definitely had nothing to worry about. Rachel was a good judge of character. Najia and I got along EXTREMELY well. On our second half of our trip to Vegas (we had one stop in El Paso), Najia and I ended up sitting next to each other and Rachel sat in front of us (this is what happens when you don't CHECK IN to your flight online and you fly Southwest). We shared ridiculous stories and basically we totally got and understood each other within hours. By the time we arrived in Vegas, I felt like I had known her my whole life...

And that is the end of Part 1 ;)

Doesn't she just LOOK like someone I'd get along with?

Fireworks!

We celebrated Austin's bday and also went to Chi Thu's office rooftop parking lot to see if we can spot some fireworks. They were few and far between this year as there's a giant ass burn ban that's pretty statewide. We did at least get to see some professional fireworks!

The Birthday boy crammed into the very back of the family car!

Austin's 17! Surrounded by his younger brother and cousins

Hayden seemed to enjoy the fireworks... and scaring us to death with his non-fear of heights

Master Thomas!

July 3rd - Months after his actual graduation, my family and I finally were able to celebrate it with him! And we celebrated by going to his FAVORITE PLACE in Houston: Dim Sum Kim Son. We had quite the feast, and some of the siblings ended up picking up the tab. It was really sweet and I think it meant quite a bit to Thomas that my family likes him enough to take time out of their busy schedules to come together just for him :) He's pretty likeable, that Thomas.

Yes, there was a lot of food

And yes, there were some drinks, and yes, my mom participated

No, my dad was enjoying himself a LOT more than it looks...

Sweet Bella Lina

And the crazy youngins

After the dinner was over... some of us went back to Anh Vien's for some karaoke... :)

Boating with the Nguyens

July 4th Weekend started off GREAT! We went to Lake Conroe with Chi Trang's family and did some fun boating, cooking and tubing. I... was sore for a week. It was fun/NOT fun. :)

Johnny & Austin enjoying the cool breeze

Aaron & Adam ready to get REALLY SORE

More of the gang!

Diana Brown Hopkins!

Try and tell me this is not an adorable picture

Diana's wedding was held on July 1st on a Friday night in South Austin. It was held in Mercury Hall and it was really pretty! Apparently (unbeknownst to this North Austinite) it had rained a bit in the middle of the day before the wedding in South Austin. This is a good thing for Austin in general, but not good for an outside wedding. Thankfully everything didn't get gross and muddy and aside from having to put a sheet over a patch of wannabe mud, I don't think it shifted plans too much. It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding! Shana officiated, which made it even more special. All of the bridesmaids were beautiful and the groomsmen were quite handsome. The food was delicious (some kind of cheese & mushroom quesadilla... oh man SO GOOD). The musicians were REALLY good. Live band with a female lead singer who had a great lovely voice. Anyway, it was a great night and she had GREAT photogs!

The Choir Directors :)

Me having a little fun with the bride

You can't see the sign Joe made up but it says "You guys suck at break up!"

It took six tries, but Thomas FINALLY CAUGHT A GARTER! :) Umm... it miiiiight have something to do with Steven turning around, looking RIGHT at Thomas and then flinging it in his general direction.

NoLa with Dr. Z's Daughter

Rachel. I don't even know where to begin. Rachel had been working at CPI with me for awhile, but I was starting to phase myself out when she started working full time. I knew her, we talked, we joked, I poked her large boobs, but we never really hung out outside of work. I barely had time to, what with the juggling of the jobs and all. Well, school was over and I was spending a lot more time at the office this summer. Rachel had just gotten into med school and so she put in her two weeks and was making plans for her to be able to have one last summer before school started.

Enter: ME. One day she said, "Hey Mel, since you're the only person I know who technically doesn't have to work 9-5, you wanna hang out with me on my week off before I go to Portugal?" I said, "DUH." And somehow plans started to snowball. It started with "I just want to drink wine on patios and go to happy hours and lay by the pool all week," and somehow got to "Maybe you should just come to Portugal with me and my sister." We landed somewhere near "road trip to Marfa" and "let's see what specials American Airlines has for this weekend and maybe we'll go to Ontario or something."

So the Saturday (May... 21st? Yes, May 21t... aka Judgment Day) comes along after her last day of work and I call her at 9 am and say, "Okay... do you want to go to New Orleans or not?" And her answer was, "... yes...? Do... you?" And I said, "... yes...?" and she said, "Okay well... come over...?" It was almost as if we were playing chicken with this road trip, and it turns out, neither of us were too chicken... so we went with it!

We hopped in the car eventually and road tripped to New Orleans where we stayed at... man... did I already forget? Royal St. Charles. It wasn't a shithole, but it wasn't exactly the best place on earth... we again, did not have windows. Why can't NoLa throw me a bone and give me a window?! Well... they gave us... SOME kind of window...

I don't wanna talk about how strange this "window" was

Anyway, Rachel and I had an incredibly good time there. We did the Bourbon thing which... was... fun. Lots and lots of fun. More fun than two girls should have? Maybe? Haha, and then the next day we spent much of it at the Bayou Boogaloo which was also lots of fun! We drove back to Houston and stayed the night at Chi Thu's which was a much needed break after all the driving that day.

I wish I had more pictures, but between Rachel and I... I think we LITERALLY took 7 pictures.

Diana's Bachelorette Party

June 29th - Diana had a bachelorette party on a Wednesday. I assumed this was going to be tame. It. Was. Not. It was awesome and amazing and lots and lots and LOTS of fun! I got to meet her best girl friends from back home in Arkansas and also some others. The only one I really knew was Shana and she and I of course had tons of fun that night.

The lovely bride-to-be

The Party... and yes... we had a stretch hummer limo.

Getting sassy at the State Capitol

Shana & I toasting to the bride with some champagne (for free, yo!)

Rachel Guthrie Johnson's Wedding!

June 25th - Our dear friend Rachel got married! :) It was a beautiful wedding outside in Mathis, TX (just north of Corpus) and it was at the same place (their families' lake houses) that the Fluornoy girls got married. The weather was great and everything was just perfect! And I cried... a lot.

Rachel got hitched! And she looked so beautiful!

Best Friends

We're sisters :)

I mean, we're pretty cute when we want to be.

Thomas spent a lot of time playing with Luke and Lucy the next day.

Whine & Cheesin'

Cannon, Harm, me, Rach, Jessie & Sloh

June 24th - Cannon hosted some girls over for some Wine & Cheese. We spent most of the night gossiping and girl talking... the kind of thing that you'd probably expect a bunch of girls to do.

We had a GREAT time. Too good a time, perhaps? I don't know. We're going to be doing this again this Friday.

Only thing we know for sure is that Harmony needs a facebook--and by that, I mean, she needs to STAY on facebook longer than 16 hours.