Out like the trash on Thursday

This is my boss Lauren. You guys have seen pics of her before.... but not like this. You may be thinking to yourself, "Hmmm... that kinda looks like she's in a dumpster." That's because she is. Whatever your day was like, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't as bad as this. :) Thanks for the laugh, Lauren. Love ya!

Listen up Jack Johnson fans!

I bet you can't guess who has a new single out! (I know, I know. I gave it away already.)

If you have iTunes, you can pre-order the new JJ album that's due to be released in February and you'll get the new single "If I Had Eyes" downloaded as soon as you order. How flippin' awesome is that?! Very. Duh.

Happy Tuesday to me!

Busy busy

I didn't realize it was over a week ago the last time I wrote something on here! Holy cow. I guess that's what December will do to ya.

Last night we had our Utopia employee Christmas party. SO MUCH FUN. I will post pics later. Right now I have to finish Christmas shopping (hopefully).

Oh, we did get our family portraits back and they're wonderful. Maybe I can share a few of those later, too!

Shocked.

As most of you guys know, I am close with my co-workers at Utopia. We have a good time together and we are like one big family there. I have a few people that I am close with, but as a whole, we work well together.

Earlier this week -- Tuesday morning -- I received a phone call from Lauren (one of my bosses). She told me that Kathy's mom had passed away and wanted to know if I could come in for a few hours to help reschedule the clients on her book. No problem, I said. Kathy and I are pretty good friends and she is one of those people that is fun to hang out with. I asked what happened to her Mom (she didn't have cancer or anything like that) and I had assumed she was in a wreck or something. It was not. I don't want to type it all on here but feel free to read the article that the Winston-Salem Journal did. I feel so hurt for Kathy. I don't even know what to say to her, but tonight we are closing the salon early and visiting her mom's service at the funeral home to show our support for her.

Please keep Kathy and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Sick.

Today is the first day I've felt really good in about five or six days. I got sick last Monday and had the WORST sore throat known to man. (Thank you, Houston, for sharing your lovely cold.) At least I was able to take some Zicam, lots of Vitamin C and rest and get rid of it before it got the best of me.

I feel SO behind on Christmas shopping. I've only bought one present so far (Gabrielle's) and I will be going out later to hopefully cross a few more off my list. I feel like I have no clue what anybody in my family wants this year. Maybe I'll get really lucky with all my guesses....

Random note: Really excited to see if this new Tinman show tonight is gonna be any good. I'm usually not a sci-fi person but this is just intriguing. Thoughts?

Happy Thanksgiving

Here are a few pictures for your Thanksgiving Day entertainment. I had fun last night at my friends' house (Ally and Ken) and we might have had a little bit to drink before we took these. ;) Enjoy.

The "Hair" Family

Tonight we had family portraits.

It was interesting.

I had suggested to Mom that we all wear black. It's easy, it coordinates well with backgrounds and it photographs well. (Plus Gabrielle and I wouldn't have to change out of our work clothes and put thought into another outfit.)

You would think this would be a simple process.

Not so much. I would elaborate on it, but I'm writing a blog, not a novel. ;) ha.

So everyone that we worked with in the studio told us we all had "great" hair. :) You know that made my heart smile. We were the "hair" family. And that's OK by me.

Photos to come in about a week to ten days.

In other news, I just ran out to Walmart around 9:30ish and bought the OneRepublic cd. It is sweet music to my ears. Give it a listen. Happy Tuesday.

Just thought...

I'd post a pic of the new 'do.

Just in time for family portraits on Tuesday. Coincidence? I think not!

Hopefully we'll have a hot, young photographer dude.

Well, one can hope...I gotta have something to get me through this crazy family experience.

Whew. I'll let ya know how that goes.

In the air...

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is only a week away! The holidays sure have snuck up on me this year. I feel like it's just in the air.

Monday evening we had a party at Utopia for our "select" clientele. We let them preview all of Aveda's gift sets for this season. Man, there are some good ones!! I have my eye on this one and this one. Anyway, I was there most of the afternoon and the evening setting up for the party and stuff. Then after all the clients left (and we had a lot of wine to ourselves) we did a little of this

and it pretty much turned into Club Utopia. :) That's Lauren on the left, me in the back and Jolene on the right. Somehow we always end up drinking together... Hmm....Moving on....

I heard back from a potential employer yesterday. Not naming any names yet but I reeeeeeeeeeeally want this job more than anything else I've looked at. I had a phone interview with them yesterday morning and *hopefully* I will have an interview at the office next week or the week after that. There's a LOT of competition for this job though. We'll see how it goes.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Oh, and I'll be posting pics of my new 'do soon. ;)

Concert with Coco

I must say that today was one of the BEST days I've had in a very long time. I was kinda going through one of those "blah" phases where I was like "Is anything good gonna happen to me?" And typically I'm not the kind of person that has that kind of attitude but, as of late, things seriously seemed stacked up against me.

It's nice to have a refreshing day when that starts to happen.

That was today.

Jennifer and I thought we were gonna be late arriving to the radio station. When we got there, the receptionist in the lobby told us that Colbie's flight was late getting in so we could just wait for a while inside or walk around downtown Greensboro. We decided to wait inside because it was kinda chilly and Jennifer didn't have much of a jacket on. About 15 minutes later, this guy opens the lobby door (to the rest of the station) and he says, "You, you, you and you come with me." Guess who two of the "you"s were? Yep, you guessed it. We went into one of the empty booths with this dude and he got us to record some random stuff. He would feed us lines to say like, "I love listening to 107.5 kzl on the way to work!" and stuff like that. Jennifer said I had a "good radio voice." I dont know about all that but it was fun. We killed about twenty minutes doing the blurbs.

We went back to the lobby and waited about ten more minutes til they took us back down the hallway and outside to the "courtyard." We all took our seats and then Colbie came out and sang three songs: Realize, Bubbly, and Little Things. The last song is gonna be the new single and she said they just shot the video for it in San Francisco. It should be coming out pretty soon.

They had a question and answer session and then the meet and greet. I asked her if she planned on doing any songs with Jack Johnson soon (because inquiring minds want to know!) and she said "no, nothing planned" but she'd "love to work with him." We'd love that too. :)

We were allowed one autographed thing (a certain Olivia was prepared and brought her cd) and then one picture with Colbie. Complete with a lunch from my new favorite place Panera Bread. Hooty hoo. This girl was in Heaven. Total bliss.

If North Carolina had Aloha Friday, I'm pretty sure this would qualify. :)

Alooooooooooooooha.

Thank God There's Target for Retail Therapy

Usually I try to start out my blogs with a little something cute or funny to say. Something that might intrigue you and get you into reading more. Today I just don't have the creative spark to do that. I just gotta lay it out on the line.

I'm beginning to see this trend in my family that the 6th of the month is just not a great day for us. My dad passed away on July 6th. My grandma passed away on August 6th. My grandma was buried on October 6th and there are other strange coincidences but I think you get the point. Well, we have one more to add to the list as of today. We had to put our cat Tyler to sleep today. It really was a hard thing for us to decide but we knew in the end it was for the best.

My stepdad Michael and I took him to the vet yesterday and they did multiple tests and exams on Tyler (because he's been sick for a while). We got a call this morning saying that he pretty much had multi-system organ failure. Not really what you want to hear but you kinda halfway expect it when your cat's twelve years old. We talked about our options for a while and decided the best decision was euthanasia. A tough decision, but ultimately the right one I think. I held it together pretty well at the vet's office until Gabby started crying and then it was all over. I knew I couldn't hold it in anymore. There's just no cat out there like Tyler.

So at about 3:20pm today, we lost our beloved cat Tyler. He will always be in our hearts. We love you, Ty.

"Bubbly"

is how I felt this morning after Jennifer told me that I could go with her to the Colbie Caillat private concert. Actually it went more like this:

Jennifer: What are you doing Friday?

Me: Umm... I have to work at 3.

Jennifer: Do you wanna go with me to the Colbie Caillat concert at noon?

Me: WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? WHAT?!? ARE YOU SERIOUS? DON'T PLAY! ARE YOU FOR REAL?!? (Jennifer had told me the day before that she had won the private passes on the radio.)

Jennifer: (laughing at me) Yes. I'm serious.

Me: Hell Yeah! .... You're really serious? Wow. I love you.


As you can see, it took a little bit of convincing. ha. Yeah right. Brent was originally supposed to go but now he can't, so I get to be the lucky "bubbly" sidekick.

Now THAT's the way to start off your day.

I'm In Love

With Panera Bread.

I am SO glad that we have one in the same shopping center as Utopia, otherwise, I'd be having problems sticking to my "Skinny Bitch"-ness. They have the most wonderful soups there! Seriously.

And speaking of "seriously" (Grey's Anatomy fans) I haven't seen a single episode yet this season. Is that crazy or what? I have pretty much committed to waiting until it comes out on DVD now and just catching up at the end of the year.

The other thing I'm currently in love with is Nip/Tuck. I went over to Brent and Jennifer's house last night to watch the season premiere of Nip/Tuck from Tuesday and I'm so hooked for this season! Our plan is to record them on Tuesdays and then watch on Wednesdays after I get off work. This should be a good plan as long as nobody spoils it for me before I can watch it. I have really cut back on my tv watching so it shouldn't be too hard. (And there isn't really anyone at Utopia that watches it b/c I asked if people watched it and I have yet to find someone other than Jennifer that is interested in watching it with us. It's okay. Their loss.)

Cheers to good food and good tv!

I Am A "Power Mailer"...

And I'm not sure how to take this.

Does this mean that I'm as much of a computer nerd as I thought I might be? Hmmm...

Yahoo sent me an email and it pretty much said this:
"Thanks for being a Yahoo! Power Mailer. Since you love using Yahoo! Mail so much, and we just love loyal users, you’re one of the select few to receive our exclusive Power User reward.You can now: Send messages up to 20MB Enjoy priority customer careIt’s just our way of saying thanks. So what are you waiting for?"

That pretty much confirms the fact that right now I have nothing better to do with my time than be on the computer and check my email 24/7. Like I said, it kinda feels like a back-handed compliment. Hmmm.... thoughts?

In other news, I watched Evan Almighty the other night. That was pretty funny and cute. Different from Bruce Almighty but still good. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

The "Skinny Bitch" thing is coming along! Last week I cut red meat and soda out of my diet and increased my vegetable/fruit intake (which isn't too hard to do with me). And I can seriously already tell a difference. Fo' real! There was this one pair of pants that I bought at the Gap last month or so and they were a little snug when I bought them. And it was one of those buys where you're like, "Yeah. I should just go ahead and get them b/c I'll probably lose weight anyway." But then, like, how often does that REALLY happen ya know? Well, this time it actually did! Small wonders, people. Small wonders.

I'll keep ya updated as the progress continues.

Oh, and has anyone got the new Eagles cd that came out? It's like the first cd they have come out with (all new material) since I was born. Or something like that anyway. ;) Let me know!

Happy Hump Day and Happy Halloween!

Hangin' with a few new friends

Last night I hung out with some of my Utopia coworkers and their friends. Pretty interesting group. They like to drink. A LOT. Which is fine with me as long as it doesn't get too crazy. Some of them dressed up for Halloween. My friend/boss Lauren dressed up in an orange Dept Of Corrections jumpsuit, sported a blonde wig and handcuffs and called herself Paris Hilton. I thought that was pretty damn funny. She didn't stay in it long enough for me to get a picture of the outfit but we took a picture together later.

(Wow. I just realized that my eyes look really blue in that picture. Ironically, I am wearing this shirt from Abercrombie that says "Blame it on my blue eyes." Anyway...)

And another coworker (hairstylist) Joleen dressed up as some sort of Fair Maiden with this awesome wig and everything, but I didn't get a picture of her costume either! So I just took a random picture after she got drunk. :) ha ha ha ha

Today Mom and I went out to buy a few Christmas presesnts. Kohl's was having the most awesome sale! I picked out some new dishes and other stuff for her to get me for Christmas and you know I had to take a quick look at the new Vera Wang stuff too. LOVE IT! So beautiful, simple and sophisticated.

Then I was checking my email a while ago and I about fell off the bed when I saw this on Michelle's blog. HELLO! I am super envious! How cool is that? I cannot even tell you how much I loved Beverly Hills 90210 when I was little. It was PATHETIC. I had the comforter, sleeping bag, posters, etc.

And I may have crossed over to the dark side. I started playing Madden '08 (a football video game for those that are not of the Nintendo/Xbox/PS2 generation) and I actually had fun!! I can now see why that game is super-addicting for guys. Well, it took me about til 4th quarter to get the hang of all the buttons and plays and stuff but it was totally a bonding experience. :) Next time he's going down!

Skinny Bitch

So obviously I've decided to start posting over here because sometimes Yahoo is just a little too unreliable lately. Besides, I like the format a lot better too. I can post mulitple pics on here.

Anyway, on with the Olivia-ness.

I have decided to become a Skinny Bitch. (Hopefully none of you will say that I already am one. Well, maybe skinny-ish but not a bitch, right?) It's all because of this book Skinny Bitch that I read. Amanda actually recommended it. Then one of my co-workers at Utopia had it too. I thought it was a sign that I needed to read it. Whether it was or not, I'm glad that I did. If you have not read it, I advise that you do so. It's a fairly quick read, funny, well-written and very informative. It'll totally open your eyes about the food that you eat. Seriously. I think you can get it at Target for about $12.55 + tax. Go get it. Read it. Tell me your thoughts.

I am still looking for a regular full time job so I have picked up more hours at Utopia until further notice. This is fine with me. At least it's steady income and it's easy, ya know? (Well, it's easy to me anyway. Some of these other people that they fired, I guess it didn't come so easy to them.) So I've been getting back into the swing of things by doing makeup and what-have-you. Last Saturday I did two makeovers (one at $45 and another at $20 -- I get to keep half of that + whatever tips) and I felt really good about it. I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook lately so at least I can do make-up at work and get paid for the creative outlet. So this evening at work, this girl was having her highlights done and while she was processing, Melissa (hairstylist) brought the client out to talk to me about our make-up because Melissa said she knows squat about Aveda make-up.

At first this girl only wanted me to tell her about our foundations, and I ended up selling her foundation, blush, eyeshadow and I could have added lipstick to the list but we didn't have the color that I recommended in-stock. How about a big pat on the back for me!? I was super stoked. (Cause I get commission on all that! Hello!) I just had to share that because it doesn't happen often and it totally made my otherwise-lame and rainy Thursday.

And now it's confession time. Nothing serious. But I heard a new song by the Backstreet Boys yesterday and I LOVE it. (No, I'm not kidding.) I know what you're thinking, "Olivia, you are 26 and should be over the BSB by now." Well, tough cookies. I'm not! If they keep putting out cds, I will keep buying. (It's called "Inconsolable" if you're wondering.)

Lastly, let us all say a prayer for those that are suffering because of the fires in So Cal. I can't even imagine how heart-breaking that must be for them. One minute you have your home with all your stuff, and then the next minute all your stuff is in embers. Sad. They're in my thoughts.

RECAP: Women - Go buy Skinny Bitch and become one! (Skinny - not so much a bitch.) Listen to the new BSB song. Give it a chance. Pray for the people in Southern CA. They need it.