On to the tagging:

1.  Clothes Shop

I buy most of my work clothes at Express.  I love Banana too.  And I have two shirts from Anthropologie that I always get compliments on.

2.  Furniture Shop

Costco Home Store!  

3.  Sweet

Pumpkin stuff this time of years, a clean dog, and a thoughtful husband.

4.  City

Mesa.  Lived here my whole life, and I don't think I'll ever be anywhere else.  :-)  But to visit?  Bath, UK of course.  It's one of my favorite places in the world.

5.  Drink

Shot and a beer!

6.  Music

Funk, Beatles, Barenaked Ladies, Crosby Stills & Nash, Broadway show tunes...

7.  TV Series

Lord.  I watch too much TV.  Heroes, Grey's, Ugly Betty, Ghost Whisperer, Chuck, Top Chef, Psych, I could go on...

8.  Film

Goonies is my fave of all time.  Guilty favorite:  Ever After.  In general:  comedies when Ryan's home, chick flicks when he's not

9.  Workout

At least 4 time a week at the gym.  Cardio and weights.  Also walk the dogs lots.

10.  Pastries. 

Love to bake them, try to ignore them

11.  Coffee

Ick.  But if Ryan's having some, I'll get something like a non-fat latte, and this morning I had a pumpkin latte from Coffee Bean (Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is TOOOO sweet)

Since I'm not in the 'blogging world' any more, I'm not even sure who I would tag.  Let's just let it die with me, shall we?

Today though, I saw a woman.  But not just any woman, this young-looking thing dressed like she was going to a club in Scottsdale.  In MY workplace.  Filled with men.  Engineers.  I cover up as much as possible and when I go to the store, anything that pulls even a teeny bit in the boobage area, it's out.  And here's this woman.  Let me describe:  teeny dress w/ a top that sort of wrapped around the important areas.  I assume there were no sleeves, but it was hard to tell because I think she was cold.  She was wearing a coat with a huge fur collar in the office.  But wait, there's more!  The shoes!  Super tall stilettos in an oh so professional leopard print. They were AWESOME.  But I swear, there's MORE.  I asked around, and she's a manager.  Of people!  Wow. 

Back to the men.  Most men in general don't notice things that are important to women.  After being at the United Way for 3 months, I got used to someone noticing my shoes.  Or a new pair of earrings.  It makes a girl want to wear nice things when people notice.  But at my work?  I could chop 10 inches off my hair, and they might not notice.  So today I wore a brand new pair of yummy shoes, all tall and brown with an adorable buckle, and no one noticed.  So I told them I had new shoes, and that they're supposed to ohh and ahhh, and because they're awesome, they did just that the rest of the day.  My guys are great.

Which is why I have to take care of them!  So tomorrow I organized a Fall Food Fest.  We do food spectaculars a few times a year, but this is going to be a good one.  I even got decorations!  It's going to be great.  Well, as long as I can keep an eye on the double-dippers and hoverers.  

I hope you're all having a nice, short week of work!  Almost time to do the requisite "What I'm Thankful For" post.  Contrary to how sad I've been the last few months, I have so much to be thankful for.  So let's practice.  Here's one thing I'm thankful for:  my coworkers.

I'm back to my "real" job.  I miss the United Way so much I can't tell you.  I'm not usually a "woe is me" person, but this last week I've been trying really hard to talk myself into being positive about my future.  I'm an engineer.  I chose to do it.  Went to school knowing full well that's what I was going to do.  So here I am, and I will figure out a way to make this a good career.  I will do it.  But just like a million other things in my life, this hurts because I know that if my mom was here, I could call her and talk it through.  

My brother's birthday was this week.  He's 27 and he is so independent, and he's still one of my best friends.  He had a really hard time on his birthday, and I wish I could have made that go away.  He called my mom's cell  phone to hear her voice, but my dad had changed the greeting.  My mom is feeling more gone every day. 

But not completely!  When he told me he'd done that, I told him that I still have a message from her savaged from last Fall.  I don't know why I kept saving it all this time, but I feel so lucky to have it.  So even though I can't call my mom, I know I can always hear her voice telling me how happy she is because the doctor called to tell her she was in remission.  And I like her sounding happy.  So I forwarded it to Kevin, and he has it too.  Amazing the small things that make it feel a little better....