February 26, 2016

Taylor is right. I should start flexing my time for Fridays. The oil companies have half days on Fridays. People quit working around noon time and they're gone for the weekend. As for us, we are allowed up to four hours of flex time in a two week pay period. I will change my "go home" time to 4PM on Fridays. It makes a lot of sense. No one is really working on Friday afternoons. I actually woke up super early this morning. I was too lazy to hit the gym so I ran some errands instead. I managed to pick up breakfast at McDonalds, fill up the car with gas, wipe down the car's interior, go to the grocery store, drop off the groceries at home, and drop off dry cleaning. I was in the office by 7:15 AM and still had time to run other errands. It has been a very productive morning so I suspect it will go downhill from here. Too bad Byron's doesn't open until later in the morning. There have been several pleas to get the booze going again. We need to stay strong. We need to stick to the plan. It's all about self control. I'm talking all this smack. Wait until we get to Dallas this weekend and everything will be thrown out the window.

February 25, 2016

February 24, 2016

Cameron is out today so who gets to make coffee? Me!

February 22, 2016

After Friday night dinner at Chris and Sharon's, we headed over to Marci's to pregame. It was my first time hearing about the Quan song. I was perplexed. We made our way to the venue to hear the band. We had to stand right next to the speakers. Jake would not stop yelling. It was a somber night considering no drinks were involved. Rachel finally showed up but she managed to bypass the long line. The next morning, Carrie woke us up to meet her for breakfast at the Guatemalan place on Classen. I continued onto yoga, Super Cao Nguyen shopping, the gym, baking, and frying up spring rolls. Yes, my lent promise to God failed. Fried food came back into the picture. We met up with the usual suspects at Bleu Garten and made our way to Dust Bowl. After finishing a helping of Totino's, we called it a night. The next morning, I went to the store yet again because I ran out of vegetable oil. I gave Taylor's oil back to her because she needed it to cook up her frozen dumplings. I baked once again, walked to the Thunder game, and vegged out until heading over to Sarah's. We dropped off cookies at Charlie and Kaci's before meeting them at their Hempstead project. Girls was good, but Togetherness was ok. They shot the season opener in New Orleans. Racing to see who gets to 19th and Walker first? Ok! Instead of walking to work today, I drove. I'm still too tired from the weekend and my allergies is killing me. My eyes are swollen, the throat is dry, and my nose is super runny. Great start to an awesome week!

February 19, 2016

The solution to me waking up early this morning was to stay up. Do not even attempt to go back to sleep. What's the point? I got up and left the apartment an hour before I usually leave. The walk to the office was pretty quiet. No one was out. The sky was still dark. Guess who is the first person in the office yet again? Me! Minhaj said the Enable team will be working in our office today. Taylor said she is staying back at Enable. There really are no desks for people to work on at the office. We still have this big open space when you walk in. Home office has not given us money to buy furniture. Instead of a fancy dinner last night courtesy of Mr. Bullard, I got banh mi instead. I always get four because when you buy three, you get one free. It was the first banh mi for Taylor. She also loved the box wine and plans on stocking up at Byron's. You just can't go wrong with the $18 wine that will last for awhile. Keep in mind, my challenge to be alcohol free continues until early March. Sarah will set us all free. Friday is already here!

February 18, 2016

I have a problem of waking up before 6AM and thinking it's time to wake up. My alarm is set at 7am, but it rarely wakes me up. I am restless between 5:30AM and 7AM because I think about what I need to do for the day and hoping I don't sleep through the alarm. I rarely fall back to sleep. Why would I even sleep through the alarm? This past Monday morning, the alarm did wake me up. The thing I need to do now is to just sleep on through and not worry about checking my phone every 15 minutes. It really is irritating having to constantly check my phone to see how much time I have left. Why bother checking when I should really wake up because I am not even sleeping. My old roommate on the Upper East Side snoozed every single morning for like three hours. He kept hitting the snooze button all morning. His room was right next to mine. His bed was pressed against the wall we shared so I heard all of his alarms every morning. To settle the score, I got him an alarm clock that vibrates. From that point on, I did not hear his alarm going off. I would hear the vibrating noise from time to time, but it was definitely an improvement to the beeping. Lucky for me, I am the first to get up now.

February 17, 2016

Turks is done and ready to go.

February 15, 2016

I walked to work today for the first time. Yes, it's taken me over four months to brave the cold weather and not be lazy. Funny thing is that I wouldn't hesitate in New York. Well, I didn't have a car there. Here, why walk when you can conveniently drive? Well, I need to step away from that mindset. If it's nice out and the walk is only 15 minutes, do the walk. If there is required driving during the day, then walk. It's that simple. Plus, I need to get rid of this belly that has slowly increased in size. After providing some IT assistance to Sharon, we visited with Tess. I'm glad you are feeling better! She joined us for bagels down the street, which was surprisingly good. The bagels reminded me of the ones on Elizabeth St. Watching Star Wars and any other movie was out of the question at Penn Square. We took the dogs out at Carrie's and stocked up at the dollar store for movie candy. We went south to Crossroads and came across a mariachi face-off. We finally made it to the theater. I ended up not using the movie vouchers because the tickets were cheaper than the actual voucher. $6.50 per ticket as opposed to $8.50 for the voucher. I'll save the voucher for theaters in the north. The movie was good, but I didn't think it was one of the best ever. I like the cliffhanger at the end. Poor Mr. Ford had to die. Dinner was a bit too pricey for me, but well worth it. It's the third time we walked to a business from the apartment. The Queen Bee chocolates were not meant for me and we all know that. Beyonce, here we come!

February 12, 2016

The weekend getaway to Dallas is on the books. The day trip to Frisco didn't really count. It was a quick hello and goodbye. The apartment is coming together. The TV will need to wait until June. The media console is coming later this month. I think that should be it.

February 11, 2016

I ended up not going to mass during lunch time. There was too much going on. I went after work instead. I was on the treadmill for some time. I made it to 5 miles. It wasn't so bad. My goal is to do 5 miles twice a week. For all other days, stick to my usual 3.5 miles. I will not do the full 6 miles until the day of the race. We have about two months to get ready. It shouldn't be so bad. 7PM mass was interesting. It was given in both English and Spanish. For dinner, I ate corn on the cob that Sharon made last Sunday for the Super Bowl. Today I am either doing a lunch meeting offsite or staying onsite for a brainstorming session. The brainstorming sessions can be excruciating. It's pretty much the same topics back and forth until the bigger guy gets his/her way. It's a never ending cycle. "We need to talk it out". I finally hounded NYU for my W-2 since I never got it in the mail. I completed my taxes last night. One provider said I am to get over $100K in federal refund. The other one gave me a number that I normally get every year. I went with the one I use every year for my filing. You really don't get to win the lottery just like that. Minh dropped off banh chung that her mom made. Her mom said to fry it up. Jacqueline used to make us eat banh chung with her picked vegetables. Those days are long gone. I don't think the group got together for a Tet dinner. Alice and Anh Binh were too busy delivering a baby. Chi Mai was busy nursing JL. We didn't make it to the Tet mass, but there are a couple lion dances happening at Super Cao this weekend. We will definitely partake in the festivities.

February 10, 2016

They are still sending to the Nichols Hills address when I keep telling them I am not in that enclave anymore. I can't hang with those folks. All they do is wave to each other and you can't park your cars on the street after 2AM. When I drove the old Mustang, no one waved to me. When I drove the "minivan", they acknowledged me.

February 8, 2016

So I tell everyone not to shower, clean, or wash anything today. Yes, that includes not taking a shower and brushing your teeth. On the first day of the new year, if you do all those things, you wash away prosperity for the upcoming year. You save all of that cleaning for the next day of the new year, which is not as equally important. This year's birthday festivities were not as intense as last year's, but Paul pretty much got his homegrown low key birthday weekend out of the way. Great job on the cupcake decorating, Tess! Paul, you really did requested a pizza cutter from Sharon? His birthday actually ends tonight with dinner in Chickasha. Kim, Brendan, and little Jin will help us ring in the new year...at a Mexican restaurant. This will be my first meeting with the little one. She might be Noah's future wife. We skipped out on mass and post-church van nghe. We opted for house hunting instead. The mac and cheese at West was on point. I like how they automatically split the entree into two separate plates for you. No need to do it yourself. The separate checks deal is also pretty convenient. The servers in New York will definitely give you a hard time if this is requested. I'm getting spoiled here AND getting fat. After Mardi Gras, I am flushing my system out of toxins. Time to get serious! Eddie likes to send his contribution to the group texts as a therapy session for him. Oh and Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

February 7, 2016

Happy Birthday, Paul!

February 4, 2016

February 2, 2016

I am loving my s'well bottle. I did not want to buy it at retail because it's ridiculously expensive. Chi Mai gave me a gift certificate to Bloomingdale's. I had to decide on whether to get the s'well bottle or Kiehl's products. Since I've already stocked up on Kiehl's goodies with Olivier, it was an easy choice to go with the fancy water canteen. The champagne color I chose had to be back ordered. It took a little over a month to finally get it. The only complaint I have is that it does not hold a lot of water. I'm having to refill the canteen several times throughout the day. The plus side is that it keeps my water cold for hours. This will come in handy during the summer months. My last trip to Stillwater was yesterday. I don't think I need to return for quite some time. Tulsa is also on hold for now until the next phase starts.

February 1, 2016

Paul's birthday, Tet, Valentine's Day, and Mardi Gras all take place within a 7 day period.