I just realized I never chronicled the graduation party!!!

I'm such an idiot. I just realized that I promised I would write about my fantabulous graduation party, and I've never gotten around to it. What was I thinking? Obviously, not much, seeing how I forgot about it! I know I'm rambling, but I'm sitting here at Paradise Bakery, killing time.

Ok, here goes... My mom and I spent literally six hours getting the house, food and yard ready for the party. That's in addition to all the stuff we did the night before... including my dad putting up the lights around the patio. I had told everyone to come over at 7:30 so as to avoid as much of the heat as possible, and the guests started arriving at 7:15. Yes, I took a long time to finish cleaning the basement and that caused me to not have a lot of time to shower and get ready. However, I got my makeup done, my hair pulled up, and my clothes on in a reasonable amount of time.

Once I got upstairs, my mom and dad both started barking out orders. So I'm running all over, trying to help them finish getting everything together and sweating my ass off. The whole point to getting ready at the very last minute was so everything would be ready to go, I'd be ready, and avoid sweating! Yeah right, like anything ever goes according to plan. After much running around and multiple mini-fights with my parents, things settled down and everyone had a drink in their hand. Angie and Phil arrived first and I think Rose, Noelle and Jen arrived last, but the order of everyone in the middle is jumbled. All of my closest friends and family were there... well, the ones who could make it were. There were a few people that were either out of town or had prior arrangements that were apparently better options than my party (I'm kidding, of course). I couldn't invite everyone I wanted to because we had to stick to some kind of budget... and we just don't have accommodations for THAT many people.

From this point on, I can only offer tidbits as I was schmoozing with everyone and drinking. I know that everyone had dinner and dessert (except for me), along with a few drinks (save for those who were driving), and good conversation. The first highlight I'd like to point out is that I took a shot of Patron with Paul. Actually, I took two... not sure why, either. The first one almost made me gag; the second one made me dry heave. Why I toture myself, I will never know. After the two shots of Patron, I think I had one shot of Malibu, and followed that with a Fig or two, (it's a drink and I love Figs). The friends continued to do shots of Patron, and by the end of the night, we went through two bottles. My dad was even doing shots, which in my 28 years, I have never witnessed. I probably had another shot or two in there somewhere, but I couldn't give specifics if I tried.

More to come in a day or two...

What do you think?

Zak, Jessica & I went to get ice cream at Cold Stone last night and I grabbed a cd to listen to on the way. As we were driving, Zak informed me that my taste in music is like that of a 17 year old girl! Naturally, I told him he was a jerk! I think it's an unfair accusation because I feel like I have one of the most diverse tastes in music out of anyone I know! Some of the songs on the cd are included in the player on this blog. Tell me what you think!

Summer Reading, and Then Some

I'm not sure if any of you are really aware, but I love to read. I love getting lost in a book and feeling every emotion as if I were the main character. (Maybe because my life is so boring - at least in the love department). As requested, here are some of the books I've read so far this summer, along with other books I've read by the same authors:

-Author: Plum Sykes
Bergdorf Blondes - Didn't love it, but didn't hate it, either


-Author: Meg Cabot
http://www.megcabot.com/

Queen of Babble
Queen of Babble in the Big City (finished this one last week)
Queen of Babble Gets Hitched (finished this one last night)


-Author: Stacey Ballis - LOVE HER!
http://www.staceyballis.com/index.php

The Spinster Sisters
Room for Improvement
I've also read her other books:
Inappropriate Men - One of my faves
Sleeping Over


-Author: Jennifer Weiner
http://www.jenniferweiner.com/

Certain Girls (which is the follow up to Good In Bed)
I've also read her other ones:
Good In Bed
Little Earthquakes
In her Shoes
Goodnight Nobody
The Guy Not Taken - which is a collection of short stories that I'm not quite done with


I've read these within the last six months to a year:

-Author: Emily Giffin
http://www.emilygiffin.com/

Something Borrowed
Something Blue
Baby Proof
She just released, Love the One You're With, which I'll be reading here very shortly.


-Author: Lauren Weisberger
http://www.laurenweisberger.com/

Everyone Worth Knowing
The Devil Wears Prada
She just released, Chasing Harry Winston, which I'm starting tonight


-Author: Clare Naylor

Dog Handling - Possibly my favorite book of all time
Catching Alice
The Second Assistant
The First Assistant
Love: A User's Guide - I'm not sure if I finished this one - not one of my faves

I may have missed a few, and if I did, I'll update the post! And yes, it's all "Chick Lit," so if you're not into it, don't bother picking up the books... but honestly, they've all been VERY GOOD! And, like I said, I like to escape, and these are wonderful stories to escape in!

Karma

After bitching about the curdled creamer in San Francisco, I had another run-in. Last night I was helping my mom make dinner and was making some cornbread. I emptied the boxes into a bowl and added the eggs. I got the milk out of the fridge, unscrewed the lid, and what did I hear fall into the measuring cup? "Plop, plop!" Gross! I think curdled milk is following me!

Quotes

"Even when I know it isn't true, some little part of me always clings to the hope that everything would be different if I just had a new color of lipstick." - Cathy Guisewite

"A woman scorned is a woman who quickly learns her way around a courtroom." - Colette Mann

Curdled Milk

Noelle reminded me that I forgot an integral part of my recount of our San Francisco trip. Hotel Diva offered continental breakfast with our room because we stayed on the Salon Floor. We partook of the breakfast on Saturday morning and quite enjoyed it. Pastries, coffee, and juice were offered and were all really good. On Sunday morning (Remember: Saturday night consisted of heavy drinking) we got up and decided to go get something to eat. Neither one of us was hungover (amazingly) and we felt fine straight out of bed. After getting our food, we came back to our room and got situated on the bed so we could eat. Noelle opened her creamer to dump into her coffee, and all I heard was, "plop, plop" and Noelle saying, "Oh my God," followed by some dry heaving. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the creamer was curdled. Keeping in mind we had been drinking HEAVILY the night before, that was about all Noelle's stomach needed to get sick. I grabbed her coffee from her, careful not to look at it, while she ran to the toilette. I don't think she actually hurled, just dry heaved for a few minutes. I dumped the coffee down the sink (again, not looking at it) and suggested we take a trip to the Starbucks adjacent to the hotel for some fresh coffee. Another reason we love Starbucks. Insert this section right before we took coffee up to Rose and Jen and it will all go together quite well!

Hmmm....

I started this post two days ago and totally forgot what I was going to write about. Something to do with....? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, I'd like to report that the credit cards are officially paid off, and I will be paying my parentals back for the rest of my life. But that's ok, I'd rather pay them than the credit card companies. What else? Oh, I'm wanting to buy a book case but I don't really have anywhere to put one, and I don't want to spend more than like $40 dollars. Anybody have any suggestions on where I can find one? On the same subject of books, I was reading the other night out on the patio, which was very relaxing, I might add, and I finished my book. Well guess what? It ended as a cliff hanger. Who ends a book like that? So, naturally, I had to go to Barnes & Noble to get the next book in the series. (Lucky for me, it has already been released). The stupidest (I know that's not a word, but I'm not writing a novel here people, and I'm not too concerned about grammar) thing about the situation was that I had bought two new books at Costco the day before. While at B&N I found the newest book from another favorite author and picked that up as well. While browsing through the sale items I found a book on dogs for my mom for her birthday, a Family Guy comic book type thing for Zak, and two books for the coffee table in my new house (when I get it). And no, I don't have a shopping problem. So yes, I have a lot of reading to do over the next little while and I'm very excited to get to it.

Pants

I went through the drive-thru at Starbucks this morning to get my daily chai, and after I got my drink, I drove around the side of the building to leave. There is a garbage can at the end of the driveway so I got out of my car to throw away some garbage. As I got out of my car, I realized the seam on my pant leg had come undone and, I had a 4 inch hole in the outer and upper left side of my left thigh. Nice, huh? I had to go home and change... and of course, none of my pants are clean, so I had to pull out the capris from last summer (and I totally forgot I had them)! I feel a little under dressed for work, but oh well, what choice did I have?

The Dark Knight

Another movie review...

I went to see The Dark Knight with my bro last night. (He had already seen it on Friday). I was looking forward to seeing it, but I figured if it took me a few weeks to get to the theater, then no big deal. Zak was pretty funny... when the movie started he asked me if I had turned off my phone. I said I did before we came into the theater. He replied with, "Good, cuz you don't know what you're in for!" Anyway, the movie was about 2 and 1/2 hours long, and it didn't lose my interest once. I really enjoyed it! Now that I know how all of the characters are intertwined, and by whom they were played in previous renditions, I have to go back and watch the others again. I think I'll have to see this one again so that the whole story will make more sense.

Mamma Mia

I went to see Mamma Mia on Friday night and absolutely loved it. I had no idea what the story entailed other than the mini synopsis I got from the movie previews. I was very pleasantly surprised with the story and the movie as a whole. Lots of fun - dancing, singing, and a fabulous locale. For anyone who is hesitant about it, I definitely recommend it!

Orange pee, anyone?

Can I just say that bladder infections suck? I know, that's more information than some of you want, but I'm just putting it out there. I'm in pain, my pee is bright orange, and I have to go every 10 minutes. Not fun!

A little clip of Ferg

Taryn

This is Taryn saying, Oh cuuute!

German Coast Guard

I changed the name of my blog...

You may have noticed that I changed the name of my blog from "The Adventures of Ms. Salti" to "Things, Thoughts & Tales from Tata." The main reason for the change was the fact that the original title was pretty generic, and the second reason being I know someone else who has a similar title... For those of you who know me, the title makes sense. For anyone else who doesn't know, just ask!

Graduation Party

Here are some more pics of the party... I'll try to follow them with the story either this evening, or tomorrow.

Sensual Massage Kitty

San Fran Part 7 - The End

Ok, back to the story. The seven of us get to the restaurant and are seated downstairs in the main area at a large table. Our server was the other one of two that were working the first night Noelle and I ate there. I ordered the same thing... Gnocchi... Noelle had the special, but I can't remember what it was. Colleen had the chicken with Vodka sauce which was to die for, and I don't remember what anyone else had. I had some major heartburn after we sat down, so Rose and I ventured out to find me some Tums. We ended up walking all the way around the block, and stopped at the convenience store, two stores down from the restaurant. Oh well. We got back, had dinner and then the servers turned down the lights, turned on the disco ball, and brought out dessert to Rose and Maddie for their birthdays. We all sang happy birthday, and then the disco music came on. Maddie, Colleen and Taylor all got up and started dancing while we cheered them on... guys walking by were stopping to watch the show they were putting on. We ended up closing the place down and I don't even know what time we left. We started walking down the street toward the "Titty District" (which is what Noelle and I named it), and ended up in a "novelty store." I don't think the younguns had been in one before because they didn't stop giggling from the time they stepped foot in the door to the time we left. Nothing too exciting though so don't get your hopes up. Apparently, (for some reason I was oblivious to this) there was a group of guys standing outside the store waiting for the cuties to come out. Being the mother hens we are, we escorted the girls out the door and up the street to catch a cab. So, originally I said here that we split into two groups, but I lied. We all piled into one minivan... although, this time, we were a bit smarter... I got in the back with I'm not sure who, and the rest of them spread out accordingly. I honestly don't remember the seating arrangement. I do remember that the floor of the minivan in the very back was carved out, so there was a big area below my feet that was very much like an empty plastic container. Trust me, it was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the previous minivan experience.

We reconvened in the girls' room and tried to continue drinking... I think. I was feeling pretty awful about this time, so I don't recall many details. I wasn't even drunk! I just felt like crap. I think it was my liver telling me to lay off or it was giving out on me! About half an hour later we all headed to our rooms and Noelle wanted to start packing... I had every intention of packing, but didn't quite get around to it because I was trying not to puke. Honestly, I have no idea what it was, but I got in bed with my makeup on and still wearing my bra, sat upright, and slept until about 8 AM. Sad, I know, but I felt fine when I woke up. I hurried to get ready... and it was fortunate that I slept w/my makeup on because I rinsed off in the shower and touched up the makeup and hair from the night before, and I was good to go. I had to pack pretty quickly, and considering how much shopping I did, I'm amazed I did it so quickly and got it all in my suitcase and carryon. Noelle and I said goodbye to Rose & Jen, and the girls and checked out of the Diva. We grabbed a cab down to the BART station and bought our tickets. Good thing we left with a little extra time because we were special and didn't realize what train we were supposed to get on until the first one came and passed. About 15 minutes went by before another train came, and we got to the airport with some time to spare. We grabbed some pizza for lunch because we were both starving and as soon as we finished eating, it was time to board the plane. I wasn't particularly ready to go home yet, but I don't know if I would have lasted another night!

I realize the details may have not been as particular towards the end, but give me a break, it's been over a month and I'm starting to forget things. Hope y'all enjoyed my trip as much as I did. The four of us decided we're doing an annual girls' trip to San Fran every Spring from now on. I'll let you know when we're going again.

What a weekend!

I have had the BEST weekend! Here are a few pics with a narrative to follow shortly...

Plea to the UN

My mom sent this to me and I think it's worth watching... She makes a lot of interesting points.

Scottish Bar Stool

For those of you who wear kilts

Gas, Oil & Hydrogen

I was looking back at my blog and read my post about the H3 and the man who is converting its engine. It reminded me of another article I read in Fast Company about Hydrogen-powered vehicles. This is happening in Iceland as we speak, and here is the link to the article
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/124/hotbed.html
We need to stay current on world news and educate ourselves as to how we can make a difference!