Tuesday, December 8, 2009

If you're not first, you're last

Dear Blog,

It finally happened. Aaron told me I needed to dress up more. Now, I know what you're thinking. Something along the lines of "Why on earth would anyone tell Alison she needs to dress up more? Girlfriend dresses up to go the grocery store." I will tell you why. About a year and a half a brand of yoga inspired athletic apparel happened to me. I'm not going to mention the name of the brand for google alerts sake, but I will give you a hint; I work for this company and the fruit "lemon" is included in the name. Does that help? So, over the course of a year and a half I've acquired quite a bit of 4 way stretch, flat seamed clothing that is oh so comfortable and is quite flattering and fashionable if I do say so myself.

I digress. Back to Saturday and the "dress up more" comment. Let me set the scene for you. I go to Spokane for a trunk show with one of my coworkers and Spokane is no hop, skip or jump away from Seattle. It's almost 300 miles away and you literally have to drive through a big ass mountain range to get there. (The Northwest. Sigh. I remember the days when I thought little hills were mountains. I didn't quite know what I was talking about. The skiing is waaaaay better out here. This ain't no Winterplace, WV.) We do a trunk show for these women, go see "The Blind Side" (you should see it!! it's wonderful!!) go to sleep in our cheetah themed hotel room (don't ask) wake up and then begin the 300 mile trek back over the big ass mountain range to Seattle. I drive a European engineered car and I have a size 9 1/2 foot and before I knew it I was topping out at about 95 mph on the way back. I KNOW RIGHT?!? Who drives that fast? Me apparently. I would look down at the speedometer and scream about how fast I was going, slow down and then inevitably speed back up again. Shoot. Now, I know what you're thinking again. Where was the cruise control? Well, I've only had the car for about a year and haven't taken it on too many road trips. When we do go on road trips Reliable Ron drives us there and you KNOW he doesn't speed. And that would be my excuse for not knowing how to engage my cruise control. I was making record time back to Seattle and before I knew it I looked in my rearview and saw a cop car. Double shoot. I get in the right lane and say a quick prayer to Big G that he wasn't going to pull me but who I was kidding? Me and Big G both knew I was getting my very. first. ticket. in about five minutes.

That's right. My very first ticket! I've never been pulled for speeding ever!! And I drive extraordinarily fast all the time! I love driving fast. I want to be the first one to everywhere I'm going. I blame it on my parents, they both have lead feet. Hey, I'm a member of generation y don't we blame everything on our parents? I can't believe I've never gotten a ticket actually. Nonetheless, I was very upset that my impeccable driving record was now blemished. I even mentioned that to cop in the form of; "I have absolutely no reason why you clocked me topping out at 90. It's the German engineering. Have you seen my impeccable driving record?" Big smile, casual hair toss. He was none too impressed by clean driving record but he reduced my ticket to 80mph in a 70. I think it was the smile and casual hair toss.

Then I get home and find out and we're going to dinner with some friends and all I want to wear is my comfy yoga clothes and a casual jacket but noooooooooooo, Ron thinks I need to dress up more and actually wear like real pants or something. What is he thinking?!? Real pants? Blasphemy. So I put on jeans and called it a night.

xoxo,
Al

Thursday, December 3, 2009

It's December 2?? Seriously?

Dear Blog,

Oh my, how I have neglected you. Rest assured, you have never strayed far from my thoughts.

I needed a little reprieve from the blog. I feel like blog world is getting a little...used. Back in the days of dport7 and uncle urb I thought having a blog was so cool and I couldn't wait to have one. And then everyone and their mom (literally, even my mom had a blog for a couple of days--no offense Ma, your blog was legit!) had a blog. And for me, the blog has lost a bit of the old luster. Am I crazy? Am I being a narcissistic, self involved blog elitist? Well, yes. Both actually. My blog needs a facelift. I'm tired of brown. So, this is a public request for my beloved husband, Ron, to give my blog a makeover because you are the best graphic designer in the entire universe to infinity and beyond. Thank you very much in advance. Love, me.

Another reason I haven't blogged for almost two months is because I have LITERALLY had the craziest past 6 weeks of my life. Let me regale you with my schedule. After we got home from Brooklyn/NYC, my mom-in-law came into town. Spent a long weekend with her entertaining our little hearts out. The following weekend I went to Landmark for three very long, head trippy, self excavating days. After Landmark, I proceeded to get a sinus infection and f*ck up royally at work. And for those of y'all who don't know me, I don't f*ck up. I recover from both the sickness and my lil' mistake and am then informed that I'm heading to Miami for two weeks to do some work with a team down there. While in Miami I proceed to turn 29, work my butt off, go the beach, become crazy attached to the team down there, laugh, cry, try to get a tan. I get back from Miami and celebrate Ron's 29th birthday and then am off to Vancouver for a conference where I get to see my work bff Christie! We only get to see each other once a year because she lives in Cleveland, OH and you know, I may travel a lot but I ain't goin' there. Sorry Christie.



I got home the weekend before Thanksgiving and then...you guessed it, it was time to get the store prepped for Black Friday and the crazy holidays that ensue. Call me crazy, but I enjoy the crazy holiday season in the retail world.

There you have it. Those are all of my excuses valid reasons for not blogging for almost the past 8 weeks. However, God is indeed listening and He has told me that there have many, many, MANY prayers for ole' BellaFrenchie to return and I am back and will be blogging more regularly.

In the meantime, stay tuned for BellaFrench's facelift.

xoxo,
Al