Bella

I'm off to Italia...super excited about sun, fun and loads of wine! I'll be back in a little over a week to tell you all about it.

Remind me to tell you of THE HOTTEST guy I've ever seen at Wimbledon last night. I wanted to jump on him right there and then. My friends and I were drooling. For serious.

Arrivederci!

This past week I...

• have moved into my new flat and love it! Pics soon. The roommate situation was touch and go at first mainly because I'm in the smaller room so that I can pay less money (hi I'm about to be poor and because I'm never home). We hadn't agreed on each of our amounts and my interpretation of paying 100 pounds more a month and her interpretation were different. My interpretation for a 1800/month flat: 800/1000 hers 850/950....We compromised in the middle but I'm still slightly annoyed. I've chosen to be the bigger person even though my flatmate is still on expenses and will basically pocket $1200 a month after paying rent from her living allowance. Whateves. Other than that things are good with us.
• have been asked about by my crush to one of my friends. She's moving to Italy and had a leaving party on Thursday and my crush #2...will have to think of a new name...earlier in the week asked if I would be there. Unfortunately #2 had to work late on Thursday and doesn't live in town and therefore couldn't make it but HM and I are having a flat warming party in a month so there are other opportunities for me to get to know him!
• have been counting down the days until I meet my parents in Rome before heading to the Amalfi Coast with my mom for a week. I can't wait for the beach and work on my tan or lack there of!
• went to Amran's leaving party last night and thankfully no drama occurred with Skully and the girlfriend because they were out of town. I did meet some really cool people and had fun.
• totally organzed my life and am settled in.
• feel like I'm coming into my skin and that's a really really good feeling.

On the Move

Tomorrow, I move out of my cute one bedroom flat into a two bedroom with a friend of mine, HM, one tube stop over. We are complete opposites but I think the arrangement will work out just fine.

I'm sad to leave this great place I've called home for the past year but excited to start fresh and decorate! Here are some pics of my place now (when I first moved in - pre-decorating) and I'll be sure to add pics later of the new place once it's all fixed up!

We've hired an "Aussie Man with a Van" to assist and I know the accent will be great motivation to get my ass in gear and carry boxes while watching the Aussie's biceps flex. It doesn't get any better than that! :)

Sightings of the Third Kind

I've been back a week and hadn't had a Work Crush #2 sighting until yesterday. We were at the same restaurant for lunch with our own work colleagues. My friends and I were ordering ours to go so I chatted with him while we waited. The conversation was good and somewhat flirty. It just so happens that The Shadow was also dining there and got a table with his friends next to #2. My friends and I left and I said a platonic goodbye to The Shadow and then a flirtier goodbye to #2 before leaving. I can only imagine if #2 (on the off chance) said anything to his friends about me that The Shadow would pipe up and tell him I had a "boyfriend".

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Last night, I met my friend Amran for drinks and dinner in Notting Hill. He's moving back to Australia soon and is having a leaving party in a couple of weeks but wanted to have some friend time with him before he leaves. He gave me a warning that Skully (they are now friends) and his girlfriend would probably be at his party and that he didn't want any drama. I told him there wouldn't be any drama from my side as I was totally over Skully. Just as long as the "psycho" (as described by Skully) girlfriend didn't do anything, the night would be cool. Not an hour after saying these words, who do we bump into on Portobello Road? The girlfriend. And I have a feeling she totally knew who I was when Amran introduced us: Texas. Blonde. American accent. Work mate of Amran's (and Skully's). It doesn't take a rocket scientist. After leaving her, Amran agreed that she seemed a bit flustered. She did seem very normal and actually nice and I don't think there will be any drama unless Skully stirs it up in which I will not be participating.

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At lunch today, we went to grab a sandwich from the local bakery and I saw Mr. Bean out of the corner of my eye. I calmed my blood pressure down and as we were walking out I said hi to him and asked what project he was on since I hadn't seen him around. He told me and then what floor in my building. I'm so relieved because I thought he had moved to the other building where I would never see him but now I have greater chances of bumping into him. My friend thought he was hot and asked who I would choose between him and #2 (who is also hot).

I'm just lucky I have the option to potentially, maybe make that choice. :) Being single does have its advantages!!!

Embarrasing moment: While walking to the bakery, my friend was giving a detailed account, if not way too much information even for me, about her sex life. I proclaimed rather loudly that "I hadn't had sex in forever" thinking that no one was around. Just then a guy that sits on my floor passed us and I can now no longer look in his direction. Mortified!

Needed: Permanent Spare Tire

This weekend was chill. I won 6 tickets to Redbull's Flugtag in Hyde Park and invited Harris, Morgan and her husband and Caroline and her boyfriend of 4 years. It was very entertaining and the weather was nice - always a bonus. And today I finally went to see Sex and the City with Caroline and her boyfriend (I asked Caroline earlier in the week and for some reason the BF wanted to tag along..wtf?). It was cute but not as good as I thought that it was going to be. Some parts were super cheese and me, ironically, being all about the cheese, just didn't like those parts.

Can I just say, that I never want to be that couple that fights in public. Caroline and her boyfriend bickered both afternoons and then they would go the other extreme when they "made up" and be all over each other. Either way, it was highly uncomfortable. It just seems sooo unhealthy. Yuck!

At least I'm seeing what I don't want in a relationship.

I also know I want a relationship. Especially after Harris (I invited him to balance out the guy/girl ratio and things are back to just friends) went home before the others, leaving me with the marrieds (which are cool and not all over each other) and the uncomfortable couple. I just felt like the 5th wheel...again.

When will I become part of an official pair with my very own built-in buddy system?

Case in point update: I just found out that Joshua Radin is playing in London on Tuesday night and I need someone last minute to go with me. Someone that isn't tied to boyfriends, husbands or even girlfriends but tied to me, because we're a "team". I really want to go and can't unless I feel like being that creepy girl ALL BY HERSELF!!!! I've asked everyone and no dice. Argh!

Can I just tell you...

• Wearing a thong for the first time in 3 weeks is brutal...especially when you're in "healing" mode. But panty lines are a no go when working with dirty old men.
• Dodging the Shadow proved to be somewhat successful. I think I'm in Phase Out 2. While I did get the morning email today (which I did not respond to), he asked me later (when he stopped by my desk for the 10th time) what I was doing this weekend and I told him hanging out with Nate (I'm not). Hopefully he's starting to get it already.
• I've had cramps all day and not those kind of cramps. More of the Mirolax kind. My doctor put me on a little regime to keep me regular but it seems I took too much today. Oops. Need to dial it down.
• I got this little gem while I was home and my feet are uber soft, which is a huge fete (no pun intended, really!) especially in the summer months. Freaking genius!
• My boss is hilarious. In his manager's meeting today he told everyone, "Texas had a successful surgery and would now like to be called George". This is all day people!
• I'm feeling good about life in general.
  
  Things are grand! :)

The Works

I'm back in London after voluntarily torturing myself for the past 2 weeks. It went something like this (note: too much information definitley shared):

May 15th, Thursday - I had my deviated septum surgery and everything went fine until I woke up from the anesthesia and my world was spinning. Needless to say I threw up the blood that had pooled in my stomach during the operation and didn't think I could make it getting into a moving car to go home. I sat in the recovery room for an hour and the nurse then wheeled me to my mom's car. I had to get out of the chair and walk to keep from vomiting more. The nurse kept apologizing for the "movement". She said that word one too many times and I said "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to not say that word anymore" since I was definitely feeling the flipping movement.

I wasn't in any pain, only very uncomfortable and couldn't breathe since there were splints in my nose...this continued for a week before I got them out. I had some bleeding from my nose as well but just kept a tissue handy to wipe it up. I had to take antibiotics the size of horse pills and this then lead to a raging yeast infection. I didn't think things could get much worse down there until my monthly visitor decided to make an early appearance. Awesome!

I kept a low profile during the weekend except for a trip for Mexican food with my old roommate and her fiance with my blood catcher taped under my nose...so cute. Other than that, I felt extremely light headed and stayed indoors.

Tuesday, I had an appointment with the butt doctor. A little back story (no pun intended!), I'm a "strainer" so instead of having an internal roid, I instead had an external roid that was the vain of my existence. Very painful and so I got it removed. The doctor initially walked in with his hot doctor son but quickly exited and came back with a female nurse. Can you imagine spreading my cheeks in front of hot doctor son?!?

Holy mother effer! If that wasn't the worst pain I've ever experienced! I called my mom to tell her I was now bleeding from every orifice! Lovely.

This procedure caused me to walk extremely slowly and I was very cautious of how I sat. I won't even tell you that every time I had to drop the kids off at the pool, I had to brace myself for the pain. Oh the pain. It's now healing nicely, thankfully, and I don't feel like I'm shatting knives.

Wednesday, I shuffled into the dermatologist office to get a few moles removed. He decided to take off 2 extra ones that he was concerned about. This irked me more than it was painful. Just the thought of having 4 sliced off skin areas gave me chills.

I asked him if there was a cream for under eye circles, to which he examined my face with those magnifying glasses and proclaimed I had "lots of wrinkles". WTF? I get mistaken for a 23 year old all the time.

Earlier that day I got my splints removed from my nose which finally let me breathe through my nose instead of being the mouth breather I was for the week. Holy hell those splints were long and HUGE...no wonder I couldn't breathe!

Thursday, I had to sit in the car, with all of the above problems, for 5 hours to go to Louisiana to visit my grandparents. My parents dropped me off in Baton Rouge while they went to New Orleans for a couple of days for a wine festival. Bastards! :)

I was stuck with my 80 year-old grandfather (whom is one of the funniest people I know but was in a bad mood because he had surgery a week before on his heel and was hopping around the house on one foot) and my blunt grandmother. An example of her bluntness: We were shopping and ran into some of her friends. One of them was looking at a pair of pants and my grandmother asked if she was going to try them on and the lady said they didn't have her size. My grandmother picked up an XL and said it would fit her. The lady protested and my grandmother looked her up and down and said she thought they would fit...since they ran small -great save grandma. I was mortified. Luckily she thought I was "tiny" this trip and was force feeding me.

My parents and I came back after the long weekend and I was finally starting to feel much better.

I met up with my best friend for shopping and sushi on Tuesday and did way too much damage!

Wednesday, I went to the dentist (family friend - my mom's best friend's son-in-law) for a cleaning and a filling. I always get the nitrous oxide and for some reason with his stuff I get effed up. He had asked me about a project in Australia that I could some day get on at work before giving me the goods. Five minutes into the gas, I was in the flipping Outback. After a while on that stuff, I started to get nauseous and took the mask off my face. The rest of the day I was out of commission with dizziness. Next time, I'll tell him not to crank it up. Oops. My mouth was so numb 12 hours later. I hate that feeling!

Thursday, I went to my family doctor that I've been going to since I was 7. She hooked me up with my Xanax and called me a junkie.

That night I got my friends together for happy hour at a local bar in midtown since I hadn't seen them all 2 weeks. I loved hanging out and catching up my peeps but I'm super glad about my decision to stay in London. I'm not invisible here. I can't explain it but that's how I feel when I go out there.

Friday, I got a Brazilian wax and told her not to wax the back door like she normally does. Oh the pain that would have caused! Then, like a dumbass, I drove around Houston with the sunroof open to get some sun before I left -my flight wasn't until 10.30pm. (I could have had a killer tan but I felt like crap so I didn't lay out like I wanted over the 2 weeks home). I ended up with my right shoulder and arm burnt to a crisp. So sexy...a one-sided tan.

Then I hopped on the plane (read: passed the eff out and don't even remember take off -thanks Xanax!) and came back to Londontown. I'm looking forward to being back in the office...well sort of... and not working from home anymore...as much as I thought I would like that. I felt so unorganized and out of the loop with my colleagues being 6 hours ahead.

I'm excited about starting my "new and improved" life!

(I got all of my "treatments" done on US insurance before I'm officially on UK insurance July 1st).