the case of the broken plate

Our office is cleaned weekly on Saturday. On Monday morning, a co-worker came to me and asked if anything in my office appeared to be broken. We looked around, up and down and found nothing. She told me when she was working over the weekend, she heard a crash, followed by a stream of four-letter words. She swore it came from my office, but after a lot of inspecting everything seemed in tact.

Flash forward to the end of the day. Someone was in my office, sitting next to a coffee table I have in the corner. They asked if I had broken my plate. The plate was a square, ceramic plate my sister had painted for me as a gift when I graduated from Samford. It has sat on a stand in my office ever since I started my job.

Upon inspection, I find that the plate was what fell to its demise on Saturday. Never fear, however - cleaning co. to the rescue! They very, very meticulously glued my plate back to where it looked good as new. However, where the plate had chipped (it is painted yellow), they took a yellow highlighter to cover their boo-boo on the front, and even in the tiny cracks on the back. That's right, they used a marker to try to hide the accient from me. Hopefully, the following pictures will explain better.

A note saying "Sorry, my bad." would have worked just fine. Accidents happen. Their little sneaky cover up worked, though - and would have worked longer had someone else not pointed it out!

I have since received a voicemail from our cleaning company. I called them back, but have yet to actually speak to a live person. Could a formal apology be in order? Do they know that I know?

a book, a sandwich, a nun, etc.

At the urging of my aunt, co-workers and friends, I finally got a copy of The Help. If all books could be like this, I would have done a lot better in my high school and college lit classes. I'm halfway through and I am totally enthralled with this story. Kathryn Stockett does a wonderful job of weaving together three different perspectives and depicting life in the South back in the 60's. I definitely recommend this book, and I can't wait to see the movie.

Last week I had the best sandwich of my life. I couldn't help but tell everyone I know about it. It was turkey (like the pulled, leftover Thanksgiving turkey, not deli meat), brie (favorite!), green apple and honey mustard on pumpernickel. It was fantastic. If you live in Nashville, you can get your very own at A Matter of Taste on 8th Ave.

I have had a fairly stressful week at work. It started Monday and just kind of went downhill from there. Anyway, today I was needing a pick-me-up. Ask and you shall receive! I look over and pulling up next to me was a nun, in a Smart Car. Those cars make me laugh - add a nun, and you've just made me laugh out loud by myself.

I've said it before & I'll say it again. I AM SO READY FOR FALL. I am pretty much done with summer after July 4th. Give me cooler weather, football, scarves and chili any day.

O.k., that's all for my random thoughts of the day.

friendly friday

I am still alive. Ever since I got back from my trip, I have been running 90 to nothing between my new position, weddings, showers, repeat!

Background: Missy came to FRA in the 5th grade. When she came on a visit, I was her "buddy". We've been buddies ever sense, even going to the same college! She even asked me to read scripture in her wedding, which was such an honor.


Celebrating her because: By total coincidence, Missy and her husband Andrew were in San Fransisco the same time Carla, Whit and I were! We went to dinner, and also ran in to each other at a vineyard.

Five things I love about Missy:
1.She has twirled her hair the same way since I've known her. I'm glad her hair was up for her wedding, because I am sure she would have done it then too.
2. I love Missy's laugh, and I love how easy it is for her to laugh at herself.
3. I wish I could raid her closet.
4. At her wedding, she asked Carla and I to also open the doors before she walked down the aisle. Such a special moment.
5. On my 21st birthday, which was on the 1st day of my junior year of college, she posted pictures all over campus of me with Happy Birthday written all over them. You can imagine my surprise walking to class!

Five things that Missy loves/random facts:
1. Gets Chick-Fil-A breakfast every friday on the way to work
2. Loves chocolate, white wine, and asian food
3. Loves a girls lunch at Neiman Marcus with their strawberry butter, shot of chicken broth, and popover (author's note: we did this when Carla & I went to see Missy in Dallas. You could eat the strawberry butter with a spoon. I know because I did.)
4. My favorite date nights are doing progressive dinners around dallas with andrew
5. I once superglued my pinky to my eye.

i think i can, i think i can

Just one more day of this...


...until a week of this...







This week at work, I have been preparing to leave the position I have held for close to 6 years. I have a week off starting tomorrow afternoon where I am going to tackle a whirlwind of sight-seeing with dear friends in the North West part of the country. When I return, I will take on a new position within my company. While at times I have told myself the timing could not be worse, I actually think it works out kinda well.

I hope everyone has a great time celebrating the 4th of July! Be safe!

have it your way, right away

...a post guest from Laing :)

As I have mentioned before, my grandmother is CHEAP, like embarrassingly so. Her favorite place to eat is Burger King. Not because it's good, healthy food, or because the service is great; but because on the back on the receipt they give you you can call a 1-800 number, take a little survey and then get a code for a free Whopper (with purchase of drink and side item).

Well, apparently they have recently changed the system to an online survey that tracks your IP address, and you can only do it once every 30 days. This just about sent her into a tailspin as she has a stock pile of receipts at the ready for a nice BK meal 4 times a week. So, I am working in her office and she asks me to fill out the survey online. I go to the website, and can't do it as someone has already done it from that computer. She is now full on freaking out as it is lunch time, so she has me call me aunt, cousin, husband AND mother to have them fill out the surveys online from their respective computers.

The next week it got even worse when she realized all her resources were tapped and I was left to call my 80+ year old great aunt and try to walk her through getting on the computer AND the Internet all in one day!

word to your mother

I've been at the same job since college, and therefore have not had many interviews in my career. Well, just one actually. But I would think I would know what to say and not to say in an interview, a phone conversation or an email correspondence with a future employer. And I just have a silly undergrad degree.

Check out this story from my friend Carrie. Professional or not, I like this girl. She seems to not take anything too seriously.

We interviewed this young lady, a recent MBA graduate from Vanderbilt University School of Business. We sent her an email on Thursday to come in for a second interview next Friday. She responds the following day with an email that said...

"OMG...my email has been down and I didn't know I had an interview."

We reply telling her that she was not suppose to come in today, but rather that she was suppose to come a week from today. She writes back and the only thing the email says is...

"Word..."

I have a crush.

A girl crush. On her.





Have you ever been asked who you would invite to dinner, if you could ask anyone, dead or alive? Well I haven't.

But if someone did ask me, I would choose her and she would sit at the head of the table.

She is fabulous. Just fabulous.