You win this round, City of Austin.

Well, I got my first parking ticket. I, actually Brendon and I, parked in a obviously marked no parking zone (I swear we didn't see the sign) because two cars (which Brendon parallel parked beautifully between) were already parked there, so we thought it was cool. NOPE. It's hard to be observant in the wee hours of the morning. 30 bones to the city. Could be worse, I'm just glad I didn't get towed.

One of the things I really can't stand about city life is the parking situation. It's not bad everywhere, mainly just central Austin were I work and Brendon goes to school, of course. Free parking is hard to find and if it's available it's usually on side streets where there are a gazillion rules, very few spots, and being able to parallel park (which I am terrible at) is a requirement. Parking garages/paid lots are the alternative but they are ridiculous. But I've only had to pay to park once, $12 down the drain, and I plan on continuing to park for free, legally (I WILL pay more attention to signs), regardless if I have to walk 15 blocks to work. So you can suck it, City of Austin. This will be the only parking fine you get out of me. Hopefully.

The bangs are back

 Before and after!  

First of all I want to apologize for looking like a grumpy cow in both of these. I swear I smile in real life. And obviously the hand on the hip thing is my go-to for mirror shots, although I'm not sure how well that's working for me. Just tryin' to keep it classy y'all. I decided it was time to bring back the bangs for fall. I got my hair cut at this place in NB called ProdEdgy Salon, which is a training salon for the fancy pants William Edge salon. This place was legit! Head and neck massage, wash, cut, and style for $27 and you're not allowed to tip (I had a hard time with that part, I wanted to tip but they said no). The lady who did my hair was so sweet and did such a great job, she even touched up my makeup for me after. Very awesome. This is the straightest my hair has been in months, and probably the best it will look for a while. I'm so lazy when it comes to my hair. Actually I'm lazy about everything.

After getting my hair cut I had lunch with my mama at China Kitchen. If you're from NB, you know what's up. Yum. Then I hit up a couple thrift stores in NB searching for pyrex but I had no luck. On my way back to Austin I stopped and visited my sister and her boyfriend at her place in San Marcos. They have a snake! I freaked out about it at first but it's actually a pretty chill snake. She had it around her neck at one point, that chick's brave. It was kinda weird but kinda cool. And a little bit cute. I touched it like twice.

The snake!

Once I got back into Austin I hit up another thrift store and this time had some luck! I found a nice piece of pyrex and this cool silver bowl I'm going to use to put on my night stand to keep jewelry and other random objects in. I got both of these for $7.50!

 Snowflakes! So cute! And it's in great condition!

I had to scrub this bad boy down a bunch, it was tarnished as hell. Now it's nice and shiny!

And that my dears, was my day off so far in a nutshell. I'm about to go pick up the husband from school and then we'll have some dinner. It's been a pretty dang good day off if you ask me!

Happy Labor Day, laborers!

Hope you have a lovely 9-5 Mon-Fri job and got to chill out today or do something outdoorsy in this absolutely divine weather. I had to work today, at 5:30am, but I sure don't mind that time and a half.

Burns. They keep happening to me.

Recently, I have been burning myself on various things like crazy. I'm pretty accident prone as it is, but this is getting excessive. This recent burn is from the edge of a cookie sheet that I somehow managed to touch with my arm. Last week I burned one hand with the espresso machine and poured freshly steamed milk over the other hand. A few weeks ago I burned my arm on the top of the oven while taking something out, and a week or so before that I burned my inner arm on a pie pan. What's wrong with me? (a lot.)

Now let's talk about this fantastic weather. It feels aaaamazing outside today. Yesterday we had some killer winds blow in some cooler weather, thank goodness. My walk to work this morning was actually a little chilly, granted it was like 5am and still dark. I spent my lunch break today sitting outside soaking in the sun and enjoying the breeze. And listening to the UT tower play the fight song (Brendon told me that there's an old man that actually plays the bells up there and has been doing so for decades. I don't know if it's true but every time I hear the bells I like to imagine he's up there playing). It's 87 degrees right now with a cool breeze, such a dramatic change from stuffy 106. Thank you September for bringing cooler weather our way. And thank you Texas for giving us this beautiful pre-fall day after a hellish summer, you owe us. Thus begins my favorite time of the year! I LOVE YOU FALL.

I tried to take a picture of the trees outside our apartment blowing around yesterday, trees blowing in the wind creates the most wonderful background noise, but this really doesn't do it justice. At all. I'm still very new to taking pictures in manual mode, but slowly I'm learning. Should have taken a photo class in college.

Yesterday my momma came up and spent the day with me, it was awesome! We had lunch, hung out on the couch with the cats, went to see the Help (so good), and then we made this feast:

 See my little pyrex baby holding our garlic bread? Put that bad boy to use.

My mom has some serious skills in the kitchen. I steal all her recipes but they always taste better when she makes them. Must be those mom-powers. I'm looking at this picture and seriously considering tackling some of those leftovers we've got in the fridge. Yes... I think that definitely needs to happen.

Tailgatin'

Today for work I got to tailgate at the UT game and give out frosty samples of our ice blendeds. It was fun! It was very hot, but there was this wicked breeze and luckily we were in the shade. Traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I thought either. It was a little nuts at a couple points (people just walk down the middle of the street, apparently UT fans are not afraid of being hit by cars), but really much better than I imagined. It was a neat experience, there were soooo many people there. It was like a Cowboy's game or something. Probably even crazier. I want actually go in and watch a game sometime. We drove by the stadium and it looks so intense all filled up. Even my little cynical self was feeling some team spirit.

So to counteract my desire to attend a football game, let's talk about something that irks me about UT. From my short time working by campus, from what I've gathered via Brendon, and my tailgating experience today, I've come to a conclusion about UT students: everyone likes to match. Dressing the same is a "thing" at UT, like an unofficial dress code. Girls and boys are both guilty of this, but girls do the bulk of it. The most interesting matching phenomenons are: cowboy boots and shorts/skirts/dresses and the nike running shorts with baggy t-shirts. I encountered the former today for the first time and was pretty astounded. I think it must be a football game thing because almost every single girl was sporting cowboy boots. Don't get me wrong, I love me some cowboy boots every now and then, but it was super hot and all these girls are wearing boots. With shorts/dresses. And walking long distances too. Their feet must hate them afterwards. And everyone has these burnt orange t-shirt material dresses (some of which are not cute, some aren't too bad). Matchy, matchy, matchy. And the nike running shorts baggy t-shirt combo is my biggest pet peeve. It drives me crazy. Sooo many girls wear this everyday on campus. I will see seriously like 8 of them walking together and all wearing the same thing in different color variations. Do they realize they're all dressed the same? You know those girls don't run. And it is not a flattering ensemble. Plus those shorts are not cheap, how can they afford so many pairs?? (daddy's money) I could go on for years about how much this bugs me and how silly it is. It makes no sense.

Buuut, I guess I can't really talk because I basically live in the same four sundresses, denim shorts, and v-neck t-shirts. We all could use with a little mixing up of our wardrobes. But at least I'm not trying to coordinate with my amigos. I think that went out of style in 2nd grade.

Last night Brendon tried to teach me some pharmacy school stuff. He was drawing amino acid formulas and trying to get me to guess them. What? I barely even know what an amino acid is. He's so smart it scares me sometimes.

Sorry for the lack of pictures lately, I've been a lazy blogger. I've just been such a sleepy head this past week. All I think about is sleeping. Mmmm my bed sounds like a good place to be right now.

So long August!

Hello September! I hope you bring us good things and cooler weather. August was a fun month but I'm ready to see it go. I sweat a lot, opened the new store, Brendon started pharmacy school, and we watched a lot of movies on the couch. Time seems to be going by slowly and quickly at the same time. We've only been in Austin three months but it seems like it's been much longer. And what an interesting few months it's been! So many things turned out not at all how we planned, but I'm loving it. Austin, I guess you are growing on me.

Oh and the husband started a blog! I think he started to have blog envy and decided to create one of his own. He's documenting his pharmacy school experience. Check it out! No promises on how often he'll update, but it should be interesting.

Today after I got off work and Brendon got out of class we ventured into the Co-op (it's a UT store?) to get a UT shirt for me for work. That place is insane. I've never seen so much burnt orange in my life. UT is seriously into itself. They have UT everything. Even grilling supplies. And the bad news is I look pretty terrible in orange.

After venturing into the wild jungle of burnt orange we went into this little place called Varsity Bar that's on top of a pizza place to grab a beer. They have $1 (ONE DOLLAR) Lone Star pints during happy hour. $1!! That's insane! We totally found our new place to chill after class/work. And you can't smoke in bars or restaurants in Austin, hallelujah. There is absolutely nothing worse than coming home smelling like an ash tray. So gross.

I am sleepy. I plan on going to bed tonight verrrry early because 4:15am will be here before I know it. I apologize for the lack of interesting things in this post, the content will be more entertaining next time I promise (maybe not).