Just Say Julie

Just when I decided to write about my playful pup, he does not disappoint. Since moving into the new house, I have been allowing Maverick to sleep in the room with me. He has a bed in the corner which works out well since he can't jump up on to the my bed because it is too high. So when I put him in his room Thursday night so I could get ready for bed, you would have thought I was abusing the pup based on the noises coming from his room. Of course I let him in the room with me once I was heading to bed and, since I am the well trained human that I am, put him up on the bed so he could snuggle with me. Needless to say Mav doesn't quite understand the concept of sleeping in a bit. At 6:15 the next morning, I felt a cold wet nose on my face. Now I am one of these lucky people who has a flexible work schedule so waking up at 6:15 is not something I that I prefer to do. So I went into a full belly rub attack hoping that would calm P-dog down and he would return to dreamland ...

I had to make a quick trip to Oklahoma City this week for work. Normally when I am traveling I make observations about my fellow travelers and comment on any mishaps that might befall me along the way. However, I miraculously had no mishaps and my fellow travelers didn't provide me with any new material to comment on. This trip did afford me the opportunity to catch up on some reading. You see I tend to do my best reading on airplanes. I joined a book club a few weeks ago and my first reading assignment was Marley and Me by John Grogan. Now I had heard a little about this book but never really thought to read it. But with the movie coming out, the book has regained popularity. Being a proud dog owner and lover, I realized that this was a must read. So I spent my flights to and from OKC devouring this book. I must say that I laughed out loud many times as I read Marley's antics and related them to tales of my own beloved pup. I am sure my row mates were confused by my...

A couple of months ago I stumbled across the website for the LiveStrong Challenge. I decided I wanted to participate for multiple reasons. First, I have felt a strong need to volunteer or do something to give back. The Lance Armstrong Foundation is doing a lot for cancer research. I don't believe there is anyone in this country who hasn't been effected by cancer in some way, shape or form. Just in the last year, I had a friend from college pass away from breast cancer at the age of 29. Also, Maverick and I are in serious need of some physical activity. I figure that having a goal to be able to walk (or run) a 5K by October 25th is a good place to start. I used to walk about 3 miles a day in college. I just got out of the habit and now I am having to build myself back up again. The heat doesn't help but I am trying to find times when the heat isn't so bad (either early morning or late evening). Mav and I are starting out by tackling laps around the block. Onc...

Last night my sister-in-law, Jenny, and I went to see Martina McBride at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Selma, TX (right outside of San Antonio). The drive from her house in South Austin (Kyle to be exact) only took us about an hour so we arrived with about 45 minutes to spare before the gates opened. We wanted to get there a little on the early side because we had general admission lawn tickets and we wanted to make sure we got a good spot on the lawn so we could see the concert well. While we were waiting in the heat (a concert in July in Texas...what was I thinking!), we were informed that they were closing the lawn for this concert and would be upgrading us to actual seats. This was a nice surprise because it meant we would actually be covered and not have the sun beating down on us. However, if we had known this ahead of time we could have waited another hour to drive down and still would have gotten the seats we were given. The concert itself was great. It just made ...

I was not a fan of dating before I got married so you can imagine that I am even less of a fan of dating now that I have divorced to add to my status. I never had much luck in the relationship world and being that I am still new to the Austin area, I have found it hard to meet people. So I have been trying the world of online dating via such websites as Match.com, Yahoo Personals, and eHarmony . Granted while I have had some luck in the form of J and James, the majority of my matches have been misses and it has been months since I have had a real connection with any of the guys I have been matched with. I received an email last week that is a prime example of why I hate dating again. Here is that email, word for word, with only personal information removed: your cute and you sound like a very sweet girl, but please dont take me to a musical, lol . im rob, i work graveyard so i dont wake up till like 3 or 4 in the evenings. and i try to be in bed before the sun rises. hit me up...

I intended to write this post on Friday on my actual birthday. I spent a lot of time in the weeks leading up to my birthday thinking about the last year and everything that has happened. Birthdays are really a good time to pause and reflect on life. I am still amazed at everything that has happened and how much my life and I have changed over the last year. So I decided to do a quick rundown of the last year. July - my 30th birthday; Shawn was at NTC for the big day but took me to Fredericksburg to celebrate August - trip to Hawaii; Shawn moved out; Shawn filed for divorce September - went home for Labor Day; found job listing on Monster for job in Austin; applied for job in Austin; interviewed for job in Austin; offered job in Austin October - started working in Austin; listed Killeen house; secured apartment in Austin; Shawn moved back to Alabama November - divorce finalized; moved into apartment in Austin; Mom and Dad came for Thanksgiving; met J December - dating J; his di...

I started out this morning being a little lazy because it was Saturday and I could. However, I knew I had some shopping I wanted to do so I finally got myself motivated to get clean and head out the door. I decided to head to Cracker Barrel first since it was on my way to Ikea and I was craving some home cookin' after watch Down Home with the Neely's this morning on the Food Network. Being that Cracker Barrel is Cracker Barrel and it was lunch time, it was a surprise that the place was packed and I had to wait 10 minutes just to get a table for one. Shortly after I arrived an older lady came in also requesting a table for one. I thought nothing of it and when my name was called I headed to the hostess stand and reminded the lady that it was just me and I didn't need two sets of silverware. Well, the older lady had requested a chair to sit in while waiting and was perched up near the hostess stand. When she realized I was a party of one, she proceeded to ask if she mi...