Ok, so let me tell you - other than a bit of cold, rainy weather, and my sinuses not liking our Summer-to-Fall weather change - I have had one of the best weeks since I started at ATA.
No drama in our office.Michelle, Marissa, Mr. Jacobs, and I went to lunch on like Monday or Tuesday - it was a nice lunch. (I was really happy because I got to steal everyone's checks and pay for lunch. I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing that! hehe!!) After lunch we all stopped and bought lotto tickets, i won like $8 (after spending $10) lol! I don't mind the lottery because it means that when my nieces and nephews or, God-willing, my own kids go to college, they will have access to the Arkansas Challenge scholarship. Tom had that scholarship when we were in college, his
second or third year they ran out of money - but they still paid him his scholarship money, Thank God! Hopefully, this will make the scholarship more wide-spread and be able to pass out more money to high school graduates to help them go to college.
Anyway, so great week at work. I only have a couple more applications for Fall Nationals to take care of. Then, I can do my score sheets, and print my numbers! Yay!!
This weekend has been really good too. Friday night, Tom made dinner, and we watched our first Netflix dvd - Wanted. OMG! What a weird/awesome/gorey movie!!! Then, we watched a couple episodes of Dexter on Netflix (PS. I love Netflix!!). I wound up crashing a little early with a sore throat.
Saturday, we woke up kind of late (i needed the sleep!) and got dressed and headed to Pine Bluff to hang out with Tom's mom at an SCA event. SCA is an organization that, for a very short and subtle explanation, likes to recreate medieval armor, weaponry (out of pvc pipe and rattan), and clothing, and like to reenact certain battles and/or scenarios of wars. To me, to begin with, it sounded like a lot of hype for a hobby. But, some of these guys take it really seriously, definitely to a higher level than other participants. It is a game. They all refer to it as a game. Some of the clothes are cute. I'm a big cloak person (Probably because of Harry Potter lol!)
It was definitely an interesting experience. The event was named Diamond Wars and held at a camp in Pine Bluff. Here are some of the photos I took:
Can't go wrong with a pic of us two, right??
Here is a pic of them fighting - the guys on the outside of the fort have to fight their way INTO the fort. easy enough right?? No!! Even though their weapons are made out of PVC pipe and rattan, they can be pretty brutal!!
Here is Tom's mom in her period garb. She looks cute, doesn't she??
Nick and Tom, "Bottle Jousting". What you can't see is that they are each standing on a piece of PVC pipe that is about a foot long, and you have to balance on it, while trying to off balance your competitor. Also, you aren't supposed to hit the other person - just their stick.
Tom, trying to keep his balance while Nick kicked his butt at Bottle Jousting.After we watched a couple more fights, we all went up to "Merchant's Row" and checked out the shopping. It was cold, muddy, and miserable, so there were some shops closed. But the ones that were open held some of the neatest stuff. It was almost like walking through Toad Suck Daze in Conway. I think my favorite little shop was selling all sorts of jewelry, earings, pendants, bracelets - even a THONG - made out of links of chain-male. Like the Knights from that time period wore! It was neat. I thought it was a very ingenious idea to use the links as decoration instead of protection.
After that, Tom and I headed out to meet up with Ashley. But, come to find out, the cell tower in White Hall was down, and so we couldn't get in touch with her. We tried calling a few times, but couldn't get through, so we went to The Pines mall - it was a good sized mall, but it looked like a lot of people had closed their stores. Tom and I discussed the death of the "mall" setting. I enjoy malls, but I don't shop enough at them. I like going to Dillards, and Pennys, and sears, but some of the smaller shops, I won't shop at. I'll go and look around, but very rarely do I ever actually BUY something there. I'm the cause of the death of the mall. Maybe not me, specifically, but people like myself.
I also saw Senior Master Anderson's studio in the mall:
Not a great pic, sorry, it was on my phone lol!!
Anyway, at the Dillards in the mall - lol, yeah I know - I'm a nerd. Tom bought me a new Fossil purse!!! Super super cute!! It was originally $98, marked down to $29.50, on clearance with another 50% off, PLUS, Tom's Employee discount. We got a $1o0 Fossil purse for **drum roll please!!!** $16.04 AFTER TAX! haha! Yay us!! I love Dillards.
We decided for Christmas, rather than buying for each other, we decided to spend money on us. We are going to buy us a kick ass coffee maker from Dillards. AND, i think we're each going to get a new pair of jeans. Then we're going to do like $40 or $50 a piece for our stockings, but other than that, we're not doing anything for each other for Christmas. We always get each other a new ornament for Christmas - so that's a given. I've already got Tom's picked out! yay me!!
Anyway, so we wound up not getting to meet up with Ashley - because we couldn't get a hold of her because the cell tower was down in White Hall. We drove around for like an hour and a half looking at random apartment complexes in White Hall, trying to see if we could spot her car. But we could never find it! We tried! I promise lol!
After that we headed back to Bryant, and wound up eating at our favorite little mexican place. Then, we decided we were going to go walk around Best Buy to work off some of our dinner. lol! We wound up picking up a new laptop mouse for me - wireless! yay!! And we picked up Halo ODST for Tom. I think he likes it. He played last night for a couple of hours, and has played for a good part of today on it!
Oh! yeah, with it being blistery cold and windy yesterday at Diamond Wars, I seem to have knocked this "sore throat" into overdrive. I'm having sinus issues and drainage and a sore throat. So, today, I'm relaxing, resting, lots of fluids, Tom's even got me some Drunken Chicken Soup going for us tonight for dinner in the crock pot!!
I'm off to check my facebook and to do some more photo editing! Plus, I've got to load all the pics from Diamond Wars into my facebook and tag the snot out of them!!
Here's to another great week! We have a couple of softball games (hopefully!), some good shows on tv, possibly heading to my parents house for dinner one night. ALSO! We should get the first disc of season 2 of Hotel Babylon from netflix!! yay!! Plus! Monday is Columbus day! No mail, which means that we should get a little caught up on some piddly stuff at work! YAY!!!
Next weekend is going to be cram packed too. Friday night, Nikki's going to spend the night, then my sis is going to pick us up and we are going to do the Walk for the Cure. Then, we're probably going to go to Conway so Kandi and I can work on our costumes for Halloween! I'm trying to talk her out of Wilma and Betty and do something a little, i don't know, WARMER?? It's going to be COLD!! I love this weather though.
Sorry for the long post, but dang it's been good. I hope you guys are all having a great October!!
<3 you all!!
Jessica
Here are the girls in front of the stadium at the Miley Cyrus concert!
Here they are in front of a green screen! Aren't they adorable??
