Week In Review

Ok, so I have about a week to catch up on. First did anyone catch who commented on my last blog post? JAIME from Marathon Love!?!!? I feel famous. Actually, I feel very honored that he took the time out of his day to read my blog and even leave a note. I think he must have found me through some kind of reverse link thing. I really have no idea what I am talking about, but it sounds like something that could exist out there in the world wide web.

Ok, so Wednesday was the date, it went well. I wore a plum sheath dress with a black cardigan with a matching plum belt over the cardi with black alligator skin pumps. We met for drinks at 6 and we were going to figure out dinner from there. We ended up getting some appetizers and hanging out at the bar for a while. By 8:30 we had been there for a while but it was still kind of early so he suggested we get a change of scenery. I was down with that. We were getting along fine and there was never a lull in convo. He lives right by a strip of bars and lounges and suggested we park at his house and walk to one from there. This is not my first rodeo and I knew that was really a pretty convenient way to end up at his house. I was down with that, he was harmless. So we got to his house, it was nice, we had drinks outside, then inside. After a while I pulled the good old, well it's getting late line and that was that.

I know I didn't give any details up front, but things were basically exactly what I expected. The things that I thought would be good were good and the things I was a little wary about, were worth being wary about. We got along fine and had plenty to chat about, but he is very Prada, Mercedes, Pellegrino and I'm just more Gap, Nissan and Canada Dry, you know what I'm sayin? Oh, and as young children he was rockin the Torah while I was being dedicated the Good News Bible at confirmation. Not a deal breaker, just something to be noted. As for any kissy-kissy details, well, a lady never tells!

We've emailed a few times since then. He is on a major case at work right now (mmhumm). I'm sure we'll hang out again, but I think it will be on more a friendly level.

Thursday I had dinner at Collina's with some girlfriends from high school. We try to get together once a month and it's always a good time. When we started doing this a few years ago we had one married girl, one engaged girl, one girl in a serious relationship and me. We have since gone through all the stages that led to one girl married with a baby, one girl married and pregnant, one girl married and me.

Our waiter was totally strung out on something and put our order in twice. After about 2 hours we ended up with 4 huge pizzas, several baskets of breadsticks and only a $15 tab because they comped most of it. This was very exciting to the preggo girl. Between the feast, wine and few laughs that resulted in tears, it was a fun dinner.

Friday night I was going to go home and rest, but I was offered a spare ticket to the House of Blues (thank you again Amber & Nathan!). They are members of the Foundation Room so we got to hang out in the private club upstairs. It was very nice, fun people watching and clouded with incense. There was supposed to be a New Orleans funk band there in honor of Mardi Gras, but they cancelled so it was just some random reggae band. It was nice being able to come and go from the main music area.

I felt a little bad because Nathan brought a friend and I don't know if I was supposed to be chatting it up with him, but Amber and I had some juicy stuff to get caught up on and I barely learned his name. (I would appreciate it not being pointed out that "this is why you're single")

Saturday night I had a lingerie shower/bachelorette party to attend. It was fun. We had a limo and hopped around to a few loungey bars that we had a hook up with, we got free bottle service and champagne toasts, so that was nice. Lingerie showers are interesting, earlier that week Kelsey called me while I was shopping and asked what I was doing. I had to explain the whole lingerie shower and our convo ended with him wishing me good luck on shopping for other people's underwear.

I'll share how I was a little scarred by the first lingerie shower I was ever invited to. It was a courtesy invite to the shower of the fiance of a friend of the guy I was dating at the time. I knew her and her fiance on a social level, but not very well. I got the invite in the mail and I logged on to her Victoria's Secret wish list and the first outfit that popped up was this skank-tastic, raunchy elastic, lace, and satin thing. The lingerie thing was a whole new world to me and I didn't really know that people actually wore the stuff, much less stuff that looked like that. I ended up skipping that shower and not sending a gift. I haven't seen them in years and really think I saved $40 out of the whole thing. From what I hear she is pregnant, so clearly they were able to work things out in the bedroom without the stripper suit.

I have since warmed up to the showers and I think have picked out a few nice things over the years. In October I threw one for a friend and not to leave her husband out, I found this,
Soooo, needless to say I was exhausted by Friday morning and was really just going though the rest of the weekend on auto-pilot. I actually kept thinking I had been out 5 nights in a row, then I learned to count and realized it was only 4. Still way too many for this old lady!

This week I am going straight home and working out Mon- Thurs, no happy hours. This coming weekend I actually have zero obligatory commitments, no bday parties, baby/bridal/lingerie showers, bachelorette parties. NOTHING and I couldn't be looking forward to it more!

4 Weddings And A Funeral (Minus The 4 Weddings And Plus An Almost Date)

I don’t have much to write about today, but I also don’t have much work to do right now so I’ll just run through a few things.

Saturday was Valentine’s Day, I watched Marathon Love and after crying for the last 30 minutes of that show I decided to pop in The Notebook to really top it off. So cheesy I know, but I hadn’t seen it since the theater and it was given to me as a gift a couple of Christmases ago (thank you Christina). I wanted to watch it again because I remember making a pact with the girl I saw it with that we would not let each other get married unless it was “The Notebook Love”. That movie came out in 2004, I was making childish marriage pacts at the age of 24. Seriously, Kori? But for whatever reason I always think of that pact when The Notebook comes up so I figured I should remind myself of what that great love was. And it was SO good. I still stand by my “Notebook Love” pact. I should also mention that I think Ryan Gosling is a hotty-bo-botty and that very well may be what I’m so intrigued by.

This week is a sad one because my dear friend lost his father to a terrible disease on Friday. So I’ll be attending services tonight and tomorrow. I’m very sad for what he is going through and it a reminder of what stage of life I'm entereing. This is the second close friend of mine to recently lose a parent as an adult. I really don’t like to think about being at the point in life :(

I do have a tiny issue that I am selfishly concerned about. See, I have an almost date on Weds night and I am trying to figure out my schedule for the day. The funeral is at 10 and then I’m sure there will be lunch/reception. By mid-afternoon I’ll need to come up to the office to check in on things. Then I’m supposed to meet almost date for drinks at 6. Problem: I’m going to be wearing funeral clothes. I don’t think I should go to an almost date in funeral clothes. I have toyed with the idea of bringing a change of clothes, but that is a huge pain and I won’t want him to think I wore some cute date outfit to a funeral, but I also don’t want him to think I went through the trouble of changing just to meet up with him because it’s just a casual meet up thing. The dress I’m wearing tomorrow is cute and I have also gone through all of the “go from day to night” wardrobe tricks, but I think I am still going to look funeral-y. Any suggestions?

I’m also thinking it’s going to be a lovely kick start the evening when the convo opens with “So how was your day” and I get the respond with “Oh, um, well I went to a funeral this morning, then …” I am not going to explain much about the almost date guy because I know how these things go and I’m not going to waste anybody’s time just yet. Plus my mother and other family read this and I don’t want to get asked about one detail of one date that I went out with (possibly) once.

He wears glasses? All the time? Sometimes? Has he tried contacts? What about Lasik? I think you should wait til your 30 to get Lasik. A guy I know got Lasik but still has to wear glasses. Did he wear glasses as a kid? Do you like his glasses? Didn’t David wear glasses? You must really like boys that wear glasses. You know my co-worker son that we want to set you up with wears glasses, you’d really like him.

Walk Of Total And Complete Innocence!

So just to remind everyone I was in New Orleans about 2 weeks ago for the wedding of my dear friend Ash. Most of this post is just a chronological memory log for me to read in 10 years because by this time next week all I'll remember is who got married there and the color of my dress. Most details won't be of your interest, but so far I have thought that to be the case of all of my posts, and you're still reading. So, there.

FRIDAY
I woke up at 5 to pack and get out the door for my 8:45 flight. I am not capable of packing until the day of a trip, seriously other than having a capable body I can not capably do it. So, up at 5, fold a load of white separating out items I'll be packing and gather other items on my packing list. (See this is my secret weapon to packing procrastination. The only kink in this is that if you can't find something, you're screwed. I like to look at those situations as the travel gods letting me know that I can survive a trip with out my purple suede headband or whatever the accessory of the week is.)

I got to the airport and used my passport because my license is expired (way back on 7/7/08…if you don't see a theme, see: procrastinator). The TSA guy was joking with me about using a fake passport. Isn't that against the rules? I didn't know if I was allowed to chuckle or not. I can't joke about that kind of stuff why can he? I arrived in NOLA and met up with Beth, a co-bridesmaid who came from NYC and landed 10 minutes prior to me in the gate across from mine. We hopped in a cab and headed to the Omni Royal, checked in. Ash was having brunch with family so Beth and I browsed a few shops on Royal, got a cup of tea and learned how to pack our own tea bags. I bought a gold ball-y necklace to wear that night and we ran into some of Ashley's fam on the street. Beth has no luck finding eel skin purse/wallet for her mom.

Around noon we met Ashley and some other ladies in the lobby to go and get our nails done. Finding a nail salon in the French Quarter is not an easy task. We poked our heads in one salon but we had too many people for them to do. I was kind of glad because that salon was scary. We finally found the Relaxation Salon they popped the bubbly and we were set. It was right next to the Aloha Salon which had a locked door and secret doorbell. Hmm...? I went out for Subway and black tights while waiting for my turn and nearly died while illegally crossing the street. I got called out by the "Smile Police" who I thought were real and ticketing me for my illegal street crossing, but he was giving me a citation for being too beautiful. I know I am very gullible and usually find humor in stuff like that, but I had just nearly died and was not in the mood to be humored. Side note, eating subway while having someone rubs your feet is gross. Got ready for the rehearsal, met downstairs, rehearsed. It was very very cold in the courtyard. Walked to Mr. B's for dinner. This was my first official break of WW Points. I had Shrimp & Grits. It was fabulous and the shrimp was wrapped in bacon which was an added diet breaking bonus! Slide show, speeches, wine, champagne. I can't remember dessert?? Wine, champagne?? Headed to Pat O's to meet up with peeps that weren't at the rehearsal. Saw some girls I hadn't seen since Spring Break 2000 in Padre. We did not speak of that trip, husbands were present. Hurricanes taste grosser than I remember. I had also forgotten about those awful spiral stairs that lead to the bathroom. Headed home at a decent hour to be in good shape to perform my bridesmaid's duties.


SATURDAY
We headed to Parker Paris Uptown and were there from 10am to 2:30pm! We had Whole Foods boxed lunches delivered; of course they messed up the bride's order. I was told my eye makeup was "smokey", to me they just looked too gray and kinda like I had two black eyes but still probably better than I could do. Babette got Ronald McDonald hair, they had to wash and redo it.


Got back to hotel, got dressed which was quick and easy because hair and make up were already done. Pics with Ash, then pics with Chris. Ash's dress was stepped on and got NOLA grime all over the bottom, it wiped right off, crisis averted. I ended up putting the flowers and ribbon on the cake, still don't know if I did it the way Ash envisioned, sorry!?

Ceremony starts, one BM down the aisle the speaker playing the live music starts screeching. Gets taken care of , crisis 2 averted. Beautiful ceremony. Officiate had a top 10 ten list and my mind wandered to Letterman. Chris had the biggest smile the WHOLE ceremony, so sweet! At the end of the ceremony I walked down with wrong groomsman, thought maybe I screwed something up, I didn't, whew! Pics again.

PARTY STARTS! Wine, Cajun seafood, champagne, Cajun seafood, vodka, Cajun seafood, back to champagne, red velvet cake.

BOUQUET TOSS! Let's all be honest here, at this point I was drunk off cajun seafood and who knows what else. They did not play my predicted "Single Ladies", but instead stuck with the tried and true "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". I still think it'll happen at one of my '09 weddings. I'll keep everyone posted. As for catching the flowers, Ashley had crushed me earlier in the weekend by letting me know she had promised them to someone else. I don't remember the actual toss but I know the flowers went to my left, my best guess is that I went to the right.

We then tossed flower petals and saw the newlyweds off. And this my friends, Saturday night at 11:45pm, is where my weekend started and I suddenly realized I'm in NEW ORLEANS for Pete's sake. I was officially off the clock as a bridesmaid, and the New Orleans air had finally permeated through the armor I had on to get through this point without screwing up my friend's big day.

So we're all in the hotel lobby everyone was throwing out destinations, Cat's Meow, Tropical Isle, Big Daddy's (don't ask). It was all the same to me so I jumped into an almost full cab with people I half recognized from the wedding. The cab doors shut and I looked around and though, Crap, I totally got into a dud cab. It was me, groom's bro, groom's bro's girlfriend, groom's aunt and groom's former roomie Kyle. Just as I thought the night was going to be a bust because I landed in the dud-mobile I asked where we were headed, and in unison I heard Harrah's. AWESOME. I love casinos and had never actually been the NOLA Harrah's.

So we roll in, lose the groom's relatives at the slots and Kyle and I end up at a black jack table with some old men from North Carolina. The one next to me has major whiskers growing off the top of his nose and I tell drunk Kori not to comment about, or try to touch, them. I am also sitting at the dealers first hand which makes me nervous because that means I control others cards. I announce a disclaimer that, I will not take the blame for any bad hands, to make myself feel better. The following convo ensues,

Them: "Fine but if we get a good hand you're gonna have to show us your boobs to celebrate."
Me: "Um, no."
Them: "One boob?"
Me: "No."
Them: "You'll grab you boobs?"
Me: "Deal."

I thought I was already winning having widdled a flash down to a self-grope.

We sit there and play a while and it's going pretty well, then it's going really well then it is just freaking hot. There was "celebrating" with pretty much every hand. I think the dealer appreciated it and was dealing better because of it. I really did not find it as morally wrong as it may sound. After a while I had tripled my money and Kyle had at least quadrupled his. They closed our table and we moved to a new one, just as hot. Finally we went to play roulette for a while, snore. Back to blackjack. This table was ok, but nothing like our other tables. Someone gets up and mentioned the time being 4:50. WHAT? No way. We decided we had taken our fair share from Harrah's, plus Kyle was about to get kicked out for licking his $500 chips. So disgusting, I reminded myself that he had been drinking, for free, since probably 4 that afternoon and to just let it slide.

We wandered out of Harrah's and back towards the quarter. Kyle was starving and we were supposed to be getting something to eat. (Here is also where everything is going to sound worse than I mean for it to and it's going to sound like I'm hiding something or lying, but I'm not. It's my blog and all about me and yall already know me, so trust me, there wasn't anything that happened that I'm too scared to disclose here.) Since I had no clue where I was I was just following Kyle, yes the guy that moments earlier was so drunk he almost got kicked out of the casino. We ended up at my hotel, and looking back maybe he was trying to ditch me, but we had a drunk conversation about food and walked back out of the hotel and around the quarter for a while. Eventually we ended up at his hotel without eating. I was hitting a wall and wasn't about to try to walk back to my hotel alone. His room had 2 beds, perfect, but Kyle, can I borrow a t-shirt? I don't want to sleep in my BM dress. (Oh, yes and all the while he had been in a tux and I was in a cobalt blue full length bridesmaid dress. Those details come into play soon.) He offers me a muscle tee styled shirt. It was once a basic Hanes Hefty-T, but he had not just cut the sleeves out but had cut huge gaping holes down the side of the shirt. Really Kyle? Is this the only T-shirt you have, I feel like I might be a wee bit exposed in it. That was apparently my only option at now 5am. I crawled into bed and passed out.

SUNDAY

I woke up around 7:30 and looked over at the other bed and saw that it is still perfectly made, I thought That crazy guy went back out last night (last night being 2 hours ago...I was in New Orleans!). I got up to use the rest room and there, wedged between my bed, a dinette table and the wall, is Kyle. Fully dressed, bow tie perfectly in tact sleeping on his back looking like a very dapper corpse. I literally watched him for a second to make sure he was breathing. He was.

After all of that I got back in bed and started thinking, Oh crap. I have to get back to my hotel, I only have my bm dress to wear. The sun is out. Crap! I started to remember what time everyone said they were leaving on Sunday and decided later in the morning would be better because the early birds leaving for the airport would have filtered through by then. I text the bride to update her on whatever ridiculous text I had sent her in the middle of the night and confirm check out time to avoid another big rush of people. (Ash, sorry for texting you on your wedding night, although really the texts were in the morning) I knew I had a late check out so that was no problem for me. I dozed off for a while longer and got up around 11. Kyle had made it into the other bed by then and I decided now was as good a time as any to make a run for it. I got back into my bright cobalt blue BM dress and pulled out the dangling bobby pins from my hair. I found one lonely piece of gum in the bottom of my purse and felt ready to go. Kyle was on the phone making plans to go back out, I threw up in my mouth a little bit just thinking about it.

I got downstairs and there was a lady at the front desk. Front desk? I don't remember a front desk. I ask her what the quickest way to get to my hotel was and she gave me perfect directions. I walk out into the brightest, most sunny, beautiful day and turned left and speed walked straight with my head staring at the ground. I turn left again and I could see my hotel! Yay, so close! I quickly analyze that I could stay on the sidewalk I'm on which is crowded and slower, or go across the street to the less crowded and quicker sidewalk. I decided to stay on the crowded thinking all the people would help hide me, right? WRONG! It was at that point, I had just bowed my head for the rest of my walk, of total and complete innocence, that I hear "Kori? Kori! Koooori!?" On the third call I realized I had to stop and look up and low and behold there was Ms. Lorraine Hughes, mother of the bride. With Ashley's Uncle Moat and Aunt Lulu. Seriously?Really? Could God not humor himself with something else that morning?

Apparently she had heard about Kyle's and my night at the casino and she simply asked What were you playing last night? I had already retreated into being 15 years old and busted for sneaking out of Ashley's house and replied with Oh, uh, Kyle's hotel was closer to the casino! I don't know my way around the quarter! It was all Ashley's idea! I'm so sorry! Are you going to tell my Mom? I really have no idea what else was said but at some point I was able to scurry on towards the hotel, I rounded the corner into the elevator banks and hear Well look what the cat dragged in! Oh how sweet, Chris and Ashley had pried themselves from their bed of wedded matrimony to watch me walk in, don't mind that it was lunchtime. She said she just had to see this one. I got a chuckle out and pressed the elevator button 20 times in a row. Now as a cherry on the top of all of this, you're going to have to follow closely here. The girl on the elevator when the doors opened had really hit it off with Kyle at the reception. I had actually wondered at one point in the night why they didn't go out together after the party. The doors opened she looked me up and down, looked at Ash and said Where did she stay last night? I shoved her out of the elevator, hit my floor and was FINALLY out of the clear.

The rest of my day consisted of lunch with Ash and Chris, helping them move hotels and a painful trip to the airport and back home to Houston.

End of blog, it was a long one, I barely edited it and I'm not gonna do a wrap-up.

Filling Empty Promises

Well so far I owe a NOLA recap and a hair pic. I have great reasons for the delay on both of these. I have been waiting for a decent hair day and today is finally about as good as it's gonna get. So here is the new hair,

As for New Orleans I have a draft done, a very long draft. It's actually a boring read so I think I am just going to share the one big story of the weekend later this afternoon.

Good Morning Monday.

I got a little too excited about my coffee this morning. It was strong Cafe Du Monde brand coffee and on Mondays I tend to guzzle my coffee much like an athlete with Gatorade. I must have thought I was in a marathon running by the drink table because three sips in my coffee ended up like this,After cursing my coffee, my white shirt, my car and the traffic, I called my boss and let him know I had to go by Target. We argued about whether Target opens at 9 or 10. (Obvs it's open by 9!). I quickly browsed all the new Spring stuff, grabbed a white 3/4 length sleeved shirt with vertical rouching, a pair of gold earrings and a pack of gum. I made a quick change in the Target bathroom and was out of there only $19.43 poorer.

I lost 8 pounds and 13 inches!!

Well, those measurements aren't as related as I make them seem, but it's all still true!

I've been strictly following Weight Watchers Points since January 3rd and it has been surprisingly easy. I've never been on a true diet before so I had my reservations. Prior to WW I would just take the temporary eating disorder route. You know, spend a few weeks eating very little and working out alot and melt away the lbs. Oh, to have the metabolism of a 20 yr old again! Anywho, these 8lbs are exciting to me and only leave me about 10 more to go. But no promises to post a bikini pic here like this crazy lady!

As for the 13 inches, I lost those inches up top, er well around back then up top. I chopped my hair! Finally! It all started waaaaay back in March 2006. I was sitting alone and unemployed at The Ranch in Durango, CO while my brother tended the bar. I didn't have much to do or think about and was pretty much just sitting there absorbing the new, much more casual environment I had put myself into. This developed into an internal dialogue ultimately deciding that this more low key world would be ideal for me to grow my hair out in and then donate to Locks of Love. Ponytails and wash and wear hair was the norm and mine was already the longest it had been since I was about 10. So, it grew out the required 10 inch minimum by the end of 2006. Ready to cut. Done, move one, maybe grow it out again to help someone else, right? Wrong. I kept it. I kept the long hair for another 12 months, through then end of 2007. Then, ANOTHER 12 months. Through the end of 2008. Seriously, how selfish could one girl be? I grew my hair out for a good cause. Then I kept it being selfish for almost three years liking it because I could curl it, or straighten it, or pull it back, or wear it down. All while little sick kids were going without. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Over the last few months the guilt hassle of all of this hair started to get to me. I decided it was time for me to follow through with my original plan so I set an appointment a couple of weeks ago. I literally got hot and had my heart beating fast when I called to schedule the appointment. They had a Tues or Thurs appt and I actually considered the Thurs just so I could have it for a few more days, terrible. But, finally decided on the Tues to make it more of a quick process, you know rip the band aid off. What was my big attachment? Why was I freaking out about this. I really didn't even like my long hair in pictures. I've learned from the Duggar's that a woman's hair is her glory. That must have been it.

Anyways, that Tuesday appointment was last night. The deed is done. The final measurement was 13" of glory. I was going to take a pic of the ponytail next to the ruler, but it really is kinda gross and creepy to look at. This whole post is pretty anti-climatic because I don't have a new 'do pic to post. I'll post one tomorrow because I want to wait until it's styled by me so everyone can have realistic expectations of what it will actually look like day to day.

I swear a NOLA recap is coming but it really has taken me a couple of days to recover and process.

Not Quite Dear Abby

Does your grandmother send you articles like this, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25desire-t.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink? Mine does. It is a pretty interesting read just funny when I think of the source. Granni Pat has also requested we call her Glamma Pat now because it's more chic.


I will update on the NOLA trip by the end of the week.