ukrops update

so i went back to ukrops. i was happy to find that the bakery makes yellow cake with chocolate forsting (my favorite) and it's delicious. they also have precooked whole chickens. this is one my favorite things in the entire world. however they insist on taking your groceries to your car and i HATE that. i can never find my car when i walk out of a store and it's only made worse by the pressure of a stranger following you with a cart of your food. plus what do you say to them? are you supposed to tip them? it just makes me uncomfortable.

random things i claim are my favorite thing in the entire world:
precooked whole chickens
reggaeton
easy cheese
jeopardy
samba

garbage collector?

so i was just taking out the garbage and there was this sign about how you shouldn't get in the dumpster and it reminded me of that time laurel was taking the trash out and there was a man standing in the dumpster reading the newspaper. i imagine that story is a great ice breaker at parties.

i went to ukrops for the first time in my life today. i was only there briefly b/c i needed ears of corn and potato salad for a bbq i didn't go to. anyway, it seemed pretty amazing. like whole foods but not as cocky. i abhore whole foods b/c it's not a grocery store it's a life style. there is one in the same shopping center as my work and some times i am forced to go there by my boss. i always suggest going to the kroger across the street but rarely win b/c 1. whole foods is closer 2. whole foods carries weird ish in bulk 3. he likes his groceries with attitude. the orginal point i was trying to make is that i enjoy ukrops and i will probably go back there later to check it out more thoroughly... even though they employ weirdos en masse.

i have attached a picture of me with my umbrella. this is the first time i've used the umbrella b/c i'm usually out doing something and it randomly starts raining and i don't have it with me. funny thing, when i stepped out my door it was raining but by the time i got to my car (about 50 feet or 15 seconds later) it was totally done raining and i'm standing there using my umbrealla for the first time and it's not raining. thanks virginia.

i watched run fat boy run this morning. that movie is hilarious. omg i watched heroes today for the first time and i almost vomited. it was the first episode of season 3... there's this one scene... if you've watched it, i'm sure you know what i'm talking about. SO nasty. bah.

so last night my gm and i went to this party thing. it was a charity event that we were given tickets to b/c d&b gave a lot of money. charity event complete with live band, silent auction and awkwardness. yay! the woman running the thing found us at one point and asked about how things were going and such and when she walked away james said something along the lines of how do you think she recognized us... do you think it's b/c we were wearing shoes for crews? which was totally hilarious if you were there. but hey at least someone was going to pay for our medical bills if we had happened to slip and fall. i think it was b/c we were the two people not dressed up standing in the corner looking totally uncomfortable and out of place.

at any rate, he is a good boss and i enjoy him greatly. i'm very lucky to have such a good gm. they don't come around too often. makes my job a lot easier. never any references to monkies doing things to footballs or attempts to kick my shoes out from under me. additionally, he knows i do a good job. that's one of the nice things about sharing an office with him. he knows what i'm doing all the time. gives people less chances to start thinking you aren't doing what you should be. ::hahaha:: anyway. (sorry i had a moment there) he told me yesterday that he was talking to my agm and said 'i don't know what it was like where you came from but elaina works more than any other special events i've ever seen.' it just made me feel good to hear that b/c no one ever says anything about whether or not i'm doing a good job (actually people mostly just yell at me a lot) so it's good to hear that i am doing a good job.

he's just not that into you comes out on tuesday!!! SO excited.

heads up californians- i'm going to try to make a trip out in july. keep your fingers crossed!

the hair i call pink

so here are some pics of the hair. i asked for a warm brown and got red. this is day two... after being washed 4 times last night when i was on the verge of a 'my hair is PINK' break down. sorry to anyone who got text messages from me freaking out at 1 AM. anyway, i'm getting used to it. next time i'll just ask for more brown less warm.

ps thank you jessica for texting to make sure i hadn't intentionally dyed my hair pink as part of a quarter life crisis. it's good to know someone is looking out for my sanity... i know it's out there some where.

happy memorial day!

sylvie is running around in her ball now. it worries me that she runs into the walls so much. i'm afraid she will give herself shaken baby syndrome. shaken hamster syndrome. something. at any rate she spends an hour or more every night cruising around the apartment running into things. i give her free reign of the house since she can't get into much trouble inside a plastic ball. some times i wonder if she likes having it as a mode of transportation or if it actually scares her and that's why she runs. who knows. at least she isn't stuck in the cage! i was worried b/c she has been acting funny so i thought maybe she got the disease the lady at the pet store warned me about but she seems to be doing ok now. my favorite thing about watching her run away is when she builds up enough speed it really looks like she is just running on her back legs... like a tiny furry human. hilarious.

this last weekend was spent in north carolina. this is still amazing to me. the idea that i can spend a weekend in north carolina just confuses me to no end. i went to kitty hawk. while we were outside touring the monument was the only time it rained the entire weekend. and it poured for the 30 minutes we were outside.

in north carolina they try to sell fun a lot. there was one store that said it sold ice cream and fun. lazer tag and fun. every where you go they're selling fun. i thought this was quite ridiculous until i realized that i also sell fun at my place employment and then it all seemed quite reasonable.

last week giant bug creatures attacked my home. it was one of the most frightening and disturbing nights of my life. i am not used to bugs the size of my fist. i now keep a can of bug spray near by at all times. when i think about the bugs my lips start to tingle. i'm not exactly sure what that's about but i'm certain it's not a good sign. so anyway i noticed a giant bug on the ceiling and i freaked out and didn't know what to do. and my friend dan told me to get it with a broom. i have included a picture of this bug. so anyway i go to get the broom and who should be on the broom? an even bigger black bug of doom so i shut the door to where the broom was (yes, the broom has it's own private room) and began running and screaming around my house. i attempted to trap the ceiling centipede bug under a pot (at this point it had become a floor centipede bug) but it got out and eventually went into where the water heater was and i was too scared to open the door b/c it just seemed to horror movie-esque. anyway the next morning i go to take a shower and the nasty centipede was in the shower! i seriously almost vomited. needless to say i went to work unshowered that day. ::shudder:: a few days later a washed a GIANT cricket down the shower. VOMIT. that's enough of that.

tonight we had dinner at 5 guys! dear friends, please come visit and enjoy this fabulous place with me. love, elaina.

pamster

ok so first, season finales of both the office and 30 rock were ah-mazing. i just wanted to throw that out there before i forgot.

next, i am afraid to go to work tomorrow b/c when i left tonight i had 7 voicemails from the time i went off the phones to the time i left (5-5:30). YIKES. i'm hoping it was all the same idiot calling and hanging up over and over again. knowing my place of employment, it probably is. people are so dumb. :)

speaking of people being dumb... I BOUGHT A HAMSTER TODAY! Her name is Sylvie and she is brown and white. I bought her one of those plastic balls to run around in but she just sits in it and looks at me like 'what an idiot.' i'm surprised at how light and fluffy she is when i pick her up. like a little cream puff. except a hamster. a ham puff.

so last week my boss and i went to this businss expo and i got two new parties from it today! !!! !!! that's amazing! talk about an roi!

oh so today when i was buying sylvie the lady at petco was telling me about how hamsters get some sickness and they die. and that if it happens within the first 15 days to bring her back and they will take her to the vet. and i'm like by take her to the vet do you mean give me a new hamster that looks like her? b/c seriously, who takes a hamster to the vet?! i'm an adult, the petco people don't have to lie to me. sheesh!

i'm going to north carolina this weekend. how crazy is that? as a californian, it is very odd to me to drive for two hours and to be in a whole new state that isn't mexico. not that mexico is a state. uhmm. you know what i mean.

i bought a gps!!! most amazing thing ever. i don't have to spend my life lost anymore! everyone should get a garmin! unless you're one of those lucky people who never gets lost and always knows where the local sonic is located. in that case have fun not having jane (my british gps bff) tell you where to go!

when a stranger calls

i got a phone call the other day and this is what popped up on the caller id. it was almost as good as that time santa called... he just wanted to know how things were going. he worries, you know how he is. lets see if i can find the picture of that... there ya go!

at any rate, i have now begun the hunt to find this place known as manville and to figure out what exactly goes on there. i would imagine it would be a lot like living in an espn zone (burgers, beer, video games and, of course, espn). that would be ok with me because i practically live in one now (except, you know, way more awesome).

speaking of the awesome place that i am employed by, did everyone watch the office this last thursday? yes? great! then i'm sure you heard the dave & bust'ems referrence and were just as delighted as me. it went something along the lines of michael saying he runs his office like a dave & buster's... people just hanging out, having fun, eating apps. totally tops seeing my buddy as the crunch the numbers guy three weeks ago.

speaking of tv shows that make me smile, i looooove 30 rock. i want to be tina fey when i grow up. i'm seriously considering dying my hair brown in a wish i was tina fey effort.

star trek tonight!!! rotten tomoatoes says it is 96% fresh. "On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind. " How can that not be the best thing ever?!? pinch me!

and then i was like... uhm for sure.

so i was thinking about some random things that happened over the last day or so. here they are.

yesterday this guy came up to me at work and asked where i live. i told him i lived just down the street and made a gesture meaning out there in the world, beyond the place where we are employed. and he got all excited and asked where exactly, so i told him my cross streets and he got all angry and said you live over there and pointed in the opposite direction of what i had just pointed. and then i explained to him that the hand gesture wasn't meant to actually indicate the direction in which my home was, but just to say 'hey i don't live right here... i live some where else.' today he told me i smelled good.

i've once again realized that i'm a lot like a 7 year old. don't worry friends, i'm not watching the 'how does she know' scene from Enchanted on repeat for hours again. (Sorry Rachele... i know that was a miserable week at work with that soundtrack.) nope, the latest thing i am obsessed with is this new hat i bought. i really wish i could wear it to work but dave & buster's, oddly enough, is not the kind of place you can wear a hat to. it's not even the kind of place you can wear a jean skirt to... or open toe shoes... or even red shoes (without being mocked at least, and hey lets add retainers to the list while we're at it, but i digress). anyway, i get home from work today and put on my hat. next thing i know i'm waking up from a nap, still wearing my hat. and now it's a quarter after midnight and i'm still wearing my hat. i just really love this hat.

so about two weeks ago the locking mechanism in my car door fell out. weird, right?

i got my eyebrows waxed today. guys will never understand the terrible things we do to look nice for them. but i have to admit my eyebrows look FABULOUS. i really hope someone notices. ha. and when i say someone, i don't mean anyone in particular. i really mean someone... because someone aready noticed.

so i went to wendy's tonight because i love frosties. the woman working at the drive through didn't have hair she had a sculpture. i really wanted to ask how she got her hair to do that but, you know, i was at the drive through and she's a very busy woman. at any rate it was incredible. much like a lip ring, i know it was something i could never pull off but i can still dream!

my new bff works at mimi's cafe. i called there this morning to place a to go order for one of my coworkers. this is how the conversation went:

him: what kind of car do you drive?

me: oh i'm going to walk-in because i work over at dave & buster's

him: is this miss elaina?!?

me: YESSSSS!!!!

i louvre him.

feliz siete de mayo a ti

well, its been a little over a month and a half since i arrived in virginia. oddly, it feels as though i've been here for much longer than that. i think it's the whole opening a new restaurant thing. anyway, today i am wearing my party planner hat... because this is what i do. all the time. today i pulled my sales numbers and i'm already out pacing tulsa for this month and next month. which isn't that great of an accomplishment because tulsa is in oklahoma and oklahoma is sad (have you seen the movie?!) but hey it's something. a couple days ago i got this nice letter about how awesome i am. it went something along the lines of "dear dave and/or buster, elaina is awesome. you're lucky to have her as an employee. love always, someone elaina sold things to." just thought i'd throw that out there. if anyone would like a copy i'm getting it printed on shirts.

here are some things i don't like about virginia:

- there are no street lights on the side of the road. when virginians are quizzed on this they claim it's to cut down on light pollution because they like to see stars

- i have not once seen stars since moving to virginia because it is always cloudy

- it is always cloudy because it is always raining

- the people here have no respect for the white limit line. if the city took the time to paint lines on the ground to indicate where you should stop, you should stop there... or maybe they can't see them because there aren't any lights

- richmond doesn't have it's own baseball team and so i have no where to go to get a hot dog! and you know how i feel about hot dogs

here are some things i like about virginia (i probably should have started with this so i don't seem like i hate virginia... because i don't)

- the air here feels like velvet. i know this will soon move to the hate list when it stops feeling velvet and starts feeling like a brick wall

- it's very lush here

- there's this great mall down the street from me where they have a new york & co, h&m and a godiva

- i'm less than two hours from the smithsonian institute

- some days it smells like heaven here

- i get to pretend i'm mary tyler moore when no one is looking

well that's enough of those lists.