Eshe & Nia go to... NEW YOOOOOORK!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE... you get the idea.

12/17 - This was a sad night.  But not like, weepy, cry me a river sad, just... sad.  It started out okay enough.  I was dogsitting this weekend for Lisa and Mike and sat around for much of the day.  Eshe's party wasn't until later that night... so I had a few hours in which I needed to figure out what I was going to do...

I remembered there were signs and talk of a teacher get-together at Dart Bowl on the 17th... accompanied with a message saying, "HOPE YOU CAN MAKE IT!"  Of course, this was on the white board in the faculty lounge and... long story short, after much debate I decided to go.  At first it was super awk... because I only kind of knew some of the people... but eventually we talked some more, and now I feel like I have a slightly better relationship with my fellow teachers!  It was nice :)

I was slightly more dressed up than one would normally be at a bowling alley (due to plans to go downtown with Hannah after Eshe's)... so it was a little awkward bowling in a short black dress... with an assistant principal showing up, but whatever, I had a good time :)

Then I went over to Buddy's and we headed to Eshe's.  When we got there, there was a lot of dancing... mostly done by all the kiddos, who are SUPER ADORBS!  Nia is one lil dancing queen!

So cute!

Most of the rest of the night was spent with Buddy, Kristi, and me hovering around Kristi's buffalo chicken wing dip (if you haven't had it, it's to freakin' DIE FOR).  We talked about all sorts of things... you know, the usual with us.  Eshe and some of her anthropology classmates came and joined us, but for the most part... instead of focusing on how much we'd miss her, we basically spent a lot of time talking about... the same ol' shit... and reminiscing on... the same ol' shit.  :)  We all love her and we'll miss her and her baby girl oh so very much!

And now for a photo montage of moments I've had with Eshe in the past 7.5 years in no particular order :)

Me, Eshe, Nia, Kristi & Buddy 

@ her going away

Eshe & Me 

@ her going away party

Nia, Eshe, Kristi, me & Kayla (aka the Sisterhood) 

@ our very first excursion to Cafe Monet (2010)

The Sisterhood 

@ El Arroyo for Kayla's engagement! (early 2011)

Maggie, Kristi, Eshe, Hannah, Johnny, Buddy, Bryan, me, Luis & Schutte 

@ Hill House's housewarming (late 2011)

Maranda, me, Eshe, Kayla, Kristi & Maggie

@ Nia's Baby Shower (mid 2009)

Jackie, Eshe, me

@ LHS Wine & Cheese (Fall 2006)

Stephen, Kayla, Mr., Oro, Kyle, Eshe, Johnny, Buddy, me

@ Stephen's Lake House in Waco (Fall 2007)

Buddy, Sinae, Johnny, me, Kyle, Byron, Kayla, Mr., Eshe (aka The Seniors!)

@ La Palapa after singing "We Go Together" (Fall 2007)

The Senior Ladies

@ Backstage for the "We Are Family" show before singing Lady Marmalade (Spring 2008)

Eshe, Mr., Kyle, Kayla, Oro, and me (aka Fall '04!)

@ Ken Capps for OU Weekend (Fall 2007)

Eshe, Johnny, Buddy, me, Mr. & Kayla

@ Commencement!  (Spring 2008)

Maggie, me, Eshe, Kristi & Kayla

@ Amy's Ice Cream feeling up Nia (Spring 2009)

Where it all began :)

LHS NUGI Class Fall 2004

This kind of makes it looked like she died.  But no!  She is very much alive!  And in NEW YORK (lucky bitch!)  :)  We can't wait for her to come back but we're so proud of what she's doing!

Girl's Day Thursday

July 28th - I went to the Austin Tidbit's 5th birthday party with LC. I got there early and got a "gift bag" which had some swag... that I will probably never use. However, the idea of swag was definitely on all the women's minds. When I got there, there were a ton of women standing around waiting to be let upstairs. When we were... I was like Simba at the bottom of that gorge... with the wildebeests. I was just trying not to get run over! I had a good time catching up with LC though... and eating free shit.

Later that evening I drove to Gruene to see Najia and Ashley (we met halfway between Austin and San Antonio). We actually met and ate at the Gristmill. A friend of Najia's came and met us too (... I already forgot his name... it doesn't help that he goes by some different name on facebook). Anyway, we had a really good night... and I was glad I got to see Najia one more time before she headed back to NYC.

It was sad... summer was starting to end...

Sarah's Bridal Brunch

July 24th Morning - We started the morning at Chez Zee for a beautiful Bridal Brunch. It was delicious! I spent a lot of the morning sitting and chatting with the other bridesmaids. They're all such great girls! :) Afterwards, I went to get my nails done (some of the girls had their's done and my sad little nails just weren't cutting it for me...) Then I headed back to the rental house where some of the other bridesmaids were getting ready (and obviously Sarah too!)

Tori (Sarah's niece) was SO EXCITED when Erin painted her fingernails!

Not long after that, she passed out on me... when we tried to put her down... she woke back up and insisted on falling asleep on me again. I didn't mind being a pillow... she's too cute to say no to anyway!

Erin's sister, Lindsay came over to do the bridesmaid's hair (Meredith, in this case)... she did mine and she was AMAZING! Note that Tori found herself a new pillow after she woke up from her nap!

Hot Ashlee: The Newest Cast Member of the Summer of Pham

Me & Hot Ashlee on one of her last nights in Austin... naturally we karaoked.

July 23rd: That Night (Pictured Above) - After the Prayer & Worship for Tony & Sarah's wedding, Thomas and I went out to see a few people. The first of the night was the lovely Miss Ashlee. I'm actually slightly appalled at myself for not having mentioned her in my blog sooner. I don't think I have, have I? Let's start slightly from the beginning...

Early early June, after a night hanging downtown for Bobby's bday (have I even written a blog about Bobby yet????), I went over to Hannah's to hang out. It was me, Hannah, Johnny, and Ashlee. I had met Ashlee over at Hannah's before, and I remembered her as the awesome white girl who sang "Say My Name" at an LHS show. Anyway, that night, I spent a good chunk of time retelling a story. A story of one of the weddings I went to this summer. :) It was a good story. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I tell that story (and most stories) decently well, so I think Ashlee had a good time listening to it. Johnny and I had some awesome witty banter going back and forth all night. It's just what we do. We're a good team together.

That night, when I was walking back to my car with Ashlee (we parked near each other) she made a couple mentions of going home to watch Avatar (the cartoon). I immediately said, "Oh my GOD JOHNNY NEEDS TO KNOW THIS ABOUT YOU." Long story short, Johnny and I eventually got home and started squealing at each other about how much we like Ashlee. (Is this something I shouldn't be blogging about Johnny? Part of me thinks no, but the other part of me doesn't really care... because I don't think it's a secret...) ANYWAY...

Long story short, I hung out with Ashlee a bit one night (when Johnny wasn't even around) and we watched... what did we watch? I think it was Goblet of Fire... but I could be wrong? Anyway, point is, I fell in love with her even more. And that just kind of kept happening all summer. Then the girl had to go and get a job (yay!) in Houston (nay!) I'm still super into her though. She was even in town this weekend. She's just too fun. She's going to read this... is this weird? Nah... anyway, here's just a couple of photos from the Summer of Pham (or the Nguyenning Summer)...

Our two last nights together were spent karaokeing... so... she's obviously perfect.

She says she looked like a soccer mom, I said... the hottest soccer mom EVER.

Celebrating the Summer of Pham (The Night of Johnny's 1/2 Birthday)

One of our first nights downtown together... so close to the beginning :)

Featured Photos: Story of My Life - #2

January 2006. Spring semester hadn't started yet, but LC, Fi & I were already in Austin with not a whole lot to do. We hopped in Fi's Jetta and the three of us strolled up and down 6th Street. We weren't 21 yet so instead of a bar, we went into a cigar shop. We pretended we knew what we were doing and picked some cigars for ourselves. We walked by The Driskill and hopped the little wall onto their patio. We sat and enjoyed our cigars and people watched. When it was finally time to leave, we were helped over the ledge by a weird old man... who proceeded to creepily follow us down 6th Street until we crossed the street to walk by cops. Then we all realized we felt really sick from smoking the cigars. And that, my friends, is the recap of one of my first 6th Street experiences!

Sarah's Bachelorette Party

July 22nd - The Friday before Sarah's wedding, she had a bachelorette party. We spent the beginning of our night eating at Serrano's. That was pretty good. I had a mojito or two... not three. :) I had the pleasure of sitting next to Erin Clarke, who's definitely on my list of one of my new favorite friends. She's just one of those really amazing people. Anyway... all in all a good night :)

The Dinner Gang

Sarah wanted a taste of 6th street after dinner so we went for a stroll and a free shot

Afterwards we went back to the rental house that Sarah's family was renting for the week of the wedding. We had a couple more out-of-town bridesmaids join us and we opened up gifts and girl talked and gabbed. Most of the girls were married so it was neat sitting and listening to their marital advice.

Erin does henna for fun at her coffee shop so she henna-ed all the bridesmaids' ankles at the end of the night!

Girls Gone Wine

July 15th - We had another girls wine night at Cannon's. It was a great night! It was a lot of talking. A lot of gabbing. A lot of retelling stories. A lot of food...

The majority of this was made by Cannon. She's a beast in the kitch.

So... I showed the girls a video. You think they liked it?

Our last girls night with Rachel & Sarah... who could possibly replace them?

Kate Whoreman's Crunktastic Birthday Dinner :)

July 11th aka 7/11! - *I realize this happened almost an entire month ago, I'm trying to do my best at catching up. This may mean another slew of blog posts back to back to back. I apologize. But again, this is for me and my memory that will likely deteriorate sooner than later due to how AWESOME it is now. :)

At the end of June (or possibly early July) I got a message from Will Hoermann. He's the husband of an old coworker of mine, Kate. I've referred to her as "Whoreman" before so it's possible you may know her by that name. Or Shawn White. Or Big Kate (which doesn't mean she's big, it just means she was "older" than the OTHER Kate that used to work with us).

Will wanted to surprise Kate with a birthday dinner with JUST GIRLS. So that's what we did. We surprised her at Parkside with a girl's dinner (plus her awesome husband who pretty much paid for everything). I had a really great time with these women. I was, of course, the youngest one of the group, but I think I held my own. It helps that I have so many older brothers and sisters. I'm an old soul... sometimes :)

It's not hard fitting in with this crowd. For example, Will bought Kate (and bejeweled) a crunk cup for her.

Many oysters and a few drinks later, some of us stuck around for a group photo :)

"I can't believe I forgot to motorboat you last night!" -- Najia to Rachel, Vegas: Part 5 (The Final Chapter)

This is going to be the shortest of the Vegas posts. Our flight didn't leave until 8 pm on Sunday. We left our luggage with the good people at THEhotel and headed to the pool where we thankfully still had access (remember, we couldn't go the first day we were there... because the pool was closed... for Godsmack).

The only thing that would make this better is some serious heavy metal.

Don't know if you can tell from the photo or not, but there is a giant looming cloud in the distance. Probably about 15 minutes after this photo was taken, there was, yes, another torrential downpour. Vegas was NOT into us soaking up some sun. Aren't we in the desert? How was it that I experienced more rain in THREE DAYS in Vegas than I have ALL SUMMER in Austin?!

We rushed inside, decided to explore the north end of the strip and ended up at the Mirage. After deciding not to see the tigers ("So what did y'all think of the tigers? ...really? You're just going to ignore me? Nobody? Nobody wants to answer my question? Thanks." Najia tried really hard to get people to give us their opinions on whether or not $17 was worth seeing tigers. Finally the patriarch of the family that ignored us told us... well... no. No it's not worth it.)

What's the point if they're not even there?

We gambled a bit. There was nothing notable about this. Money flew out of my hand incredibly fast. Faster than when Co Huong is dealer during Tet. In fact, my dealer was a nice older Asian woman who reminded me of Co Huong. I should've known better. Question: WHY ARE ALL DEALERS OLDER ASIAN FOLK? Anyway, brightside: Rachel won some money though!

My Gangsta mom and her Gangsta Sister... Who takes ALL my money!

Anyway, we eventually wound up back at our hotel and they girls were so tired they wanted a little pick me up first. We went to the Starbucks in Mandalay Bay. I've been off coffee for awhile, so I sat down (laid down?) on a couch and waited for the girls to come back with their beverages. Not long after they got in line, I heard a cackle of laughter and a few giggles. Somehow I didn't know it was from Rachel and Najia, but I suppose I should've guessed. When they came back to where I was seated, they were still giggling whilst slurping at their straws. Apparently, while Rachel was at the counter, Najia abruptly turned to Rachel and with a look and tone of TOTAL concern and disappointment, she said, "I can't believe I forgot to motorboat you last night!" I believe the barista simply replied something along the lines of, "If this were anywhere else but Vegas, that comment might worry me." Rachel will probably correct me on that since I wasn't at the counter and therefor don't actually "remember" it.

One last notable thing of our last hours of the trip: Boris. Our flight attendant. He cracked jokes. He played songs. He kept talking and talking and talking and talking. But I was just in the right mood to enjoy it. I could tell that he annoyed some passengers (and definitely the other snot-nosed flight attendants) but he was CRACKING ME UP! And I had a great time listening to him! There were three people in the row right next to me who had something similar to a TENS unit and as soon as the pilot indicated we could take out our "approved electronics" they whipped it out and spent the duration of our flight shocking themselves. I spent a lot of my time staring at them and cracking up and their twitching nerves. They asked if I wanted to try it. I said, "Oh HELLLLL no." I guess I didn't say "yes" to EVERYTHING...

Thomas picked us up at super late AM O'Clock and he's the best boyfriend ever, have I mentioned that lately?

Anyway... that is the end of our Vegas Vacation.

Which was better? Us or Chevy's?

"Look at those fly honies. THIS is the line we wanna be in!" -- Rachel, Vegas: Part 4

At some point in the night (during our nap), Nappy texted me suggesting some places we try and that we probably want to get there early if we want to avoid another ridiculous wait. Somehow, I managed to read it, soak it in (maybe?), and ignore it all in the span of about a hot second. I fell back asleep. Eventually I woke up and saw that it was... 1 am. I was torn. I was tired. I was really really tired, and no doubt, the girls were tired too. Maybe we should just sleep and then have a really nice early morning tomorrow? But then I thought... WE ONLY HAVE TWO NIGHTS IN VEGAS, WE ARE NOT SLEEPING ALL THROUGH IT! I was torn. Would the girls hate me or love me for waking them up? Love, right?

Come on, the beds were pretty comfy

Thankfully I didn't have to wait long to find out the answer to that question. Rachel stirred in her bed (Najia was lying passed out next to me). I took this opportunity to say something, "Hey! So... you ready to go out or what?" Silence. Nothing. I thought I had missed my chance. I sat still debating on what to do. I think I texted Nappy saying, "Umm... so we're still asleep... what to do." He assured me that there were after hours clubs that would still be open... "The night is still young," he said. Then... almost a full minute or so after I thought I had officially lost Rachel to the night, she said (with her eyes still closed), "Yeah, okay, what time is it?"

"One," I quietly replied.

She flew straight up in bed, turned toward me and with her eyebrows arched she yelled, "It's WHAT?!"

"Yeah... it's one. We didn't set an alarm, and it's one," I said. This time I let my voice get a bit louder in hopes that we'd "accidentally" wake up Najia with our conversation. It worked.

Rachel got out of bed and went straight into the bathroom saying, "Well we are NOT sleeping and wasting our second and LAST night. Let's GO!"

Done and done

So we did. At almost exactly 2 am, we were dressed (in our Vegas finest) and ready to go in the cab queue. We felt absolutely ludicrous for JUST NOW going out, but we were just really proud of ourselves for rallying. In fact, I think one of the other two said that in the car, "Way to rally, girls!" We made our way to Drai's, the club Nappy suggested. Literally the SECOND Rachel stepped out of the cab, she got the good ol', "Say girl, what's your name?" To which she quickly retorted, "YOU DON'T CARE WHAT MY NAME IS!" Najia and I were VERY pleased with Rachel's dress that night... in case I haven't mentioned that in a previous post. Rachel did NOT want to buy/wear it, but she and I made a deal, she'd get her SLBD and I'd get one for myself.

There is nothing not awesome about this dress...

We walk through Bill's which is the casino the club is in. This has got to be the seediest of all the casinos we walked through. And it wasn't even that seedy. Something about the fact that there weren't doors but a giant opening that led directly to the strip made the place seem less... casino-y. It was no Bellagio.

Like I said, a classy joint
So we find the entrance to Drai's which is apparently underground. We see about 5 or 6 women waiting in a line. They're all bigger, scantily clad, black women, i.e., fly honies. We had talked the night before about how Najia and I were hoping for less club/dance/house music and more... "TO THE WINDOW!!!!" music. :) We felt the demographic of this club may be the RIGHT demographics for the music we were looking for, you feel me? Not long after we got in line behind said fly honies, a giant bouncer man (with a lot of power, no doubt) walked up to us. And by us, I mean Rachel's incredibly hot dress. "Is it just the three of you?" This time we all replied (lest Najia screw this one up too, haha) "Yes," in unison. He asked to see our IDs and once we were all checked out, he opened up the rope and let us pass. Yes, we were the douchey girls who got to "skip" the line... and let me remind you, the line consisted of those fly honies. Oh well. They came in almost immediately after us. And THANK GOD THEY DID because that brought the total of people in the club to about... 15.

I resorted to trying to take pretty photos since there wasn't a whole lot else to do

Apparently we were not quite after enough of the hours, because there was NO ONE THERE. Thankfully it didn't take too long for the place to fill up. I'd say in about 30 minutes (just enough time for us to speak to NO ONE and finish a drink or two) the joint was jumpin'. We made our way back to the bar to get ourselves a drink when we were accosted by a group of gentlemen. We referred to these gentlemen as "cholos." Apparently we were popular with them in Vegas. Anyway, long story short, somehow we got stuck talking to them, and Najia and Rachel even agreed to dance with some. I had not agreed to this, but I also didn't want to be the douchebag that felt she was too good. So I made my way to the dance floor with our expanded group and I caught sight of these two dudes that had been hanging out by themselves since we walked in the club.
Najia with our history teacher friend JamesMe with Phil the poker player
Long story short, I ditched our cholos and bee-lined to the only dudes who WEREN'T pushing 300 lbs in the club. I introduced myself to them and lucky me, THEY HAD ACCENTS! They were from "a city outside of Manchester, you've never heard of it." Eventually Najia and Rachel made their way back to me and the boys (Phil and James) and we spent pretty much the rest of the night chatting it up with our new Brit friends. I know I had to be a BIT drunk because I recall blurting out something like "I love Harry Potter!!!!!!" Because naturally, they not only love Harry Potter too, but they probably had to study A History of Magic & Harry Potter at school. Because they're English. Right? When I told them I was from Texas, one of them actually said, "Oh, from Austin?" I was quite impressed. He said he'd never been there, but he hopes to. The only other place in the states he's been was "Seattle... and it was dreadful. Never go there."

"Raquel!!!! Don't be afraid to TOUCH me!!!!" (Please say in obnoxious Puerto Rican accent)

We were also joined by our friend Paulie D (not his real name, obviously, but the name "Miguel" which we also called him might not be his real name either...), who liked to do a lot of dancing. He got his hands on Rachel and Najia and seemed like they had fun dancing in front of our table. Maybe a little awkward, but definitely amusing. Other things I learned about our English friends:- They were 22 and pretty fresh out of school.- One has a tramp stamp that was the result of a really drunk NYE in Thailand.- The same one has another tattoo that was a result of ANOTHER drunk NYE.- One got a degree in business and hated it (sound familiar) so decided he'd become a professional poker player (hence, their 5 week vacation there).- One was a history teacher.- One loves Taylor Swift.- When Najia asked one of the boys if the other was possibly gay, he replied, "I sure hope not, I slept naked with him last night." Yes. That is a direct quote. And please remember to read that with a British accent.- One paid $100 to get into the VIP room that us girls could freely walk in and out of.- The history teacher did not mind nerding out with me when I told him my love for Queen Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II.- When asked if they've gone out a lot while in Vegas, they replied that it all depended on how well they did at the tables that day. I asked how bad a typical losing day might be. He replied "Umm... five figures or so?" WHAT. THE?! You're 22!- They had a third roommate who was on their journey with them but said roommate found a girl earlier at The Palms and they hadn't seem him since.- They were staying at the LAVISH hotel that I mentioned earlier: Bill's (aka the same place the club was in).

I told you the cholos loved us

Overall, despite more run-ins with cholos and some awkwardness, it was another fun and successful night in Vegas. The drinks were still insanely expensive and could not rival our beloved 6th street, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. By the time we headed back to our hotel it was... 6:30 am. AM. In the words of Najia, it was "daylight as dick." Naturally, what does one do at such an hour in Vegas? Why, they walk (looking like the ultimate walk of shame) through the Bellagio, of course!
"Now that dawn has broken, it's high time we walk through the lobby of the Bellagio for no apparent reason."-- Najia paraphrasing Rachel

Eventually, after traipsing around the Bellagio and part of the strip (getting cat-called at 7 am is a new one), we caught a cab and got back to THEhotel.
Once again, I passed out on our bed.