Month of January, 2004

Weekend Recap

It was a really good weekend. Not long enough, but they never are.

Friday night I had class. Luckily, this is not a normal occurrence, because finance class every Friday night would make life really suck. It was a make-up class because Monday was a holiday (MLK day). I was so exhausted from the week that I barely made it through class. Then in the car on the way home, I found myself suddenly crying about silly things in my head. I realized I was emotionally exhausted and needed to eat. Things were much better after I had Sonic grilled cheese and tumbled into bed.

Saturday afternoon I participated in an improvisational acting class. It was rainy all day so it was perfect to be inside. Dan is working with a group of teachers at Scarborough Faire and needed a test class. Leia, Tina, Jenni, and I were test students. It was a lot of fun and something I'm glad I participated in. Now that I've had an inside peek at the preparation people go through, I'm looking forward to going to Scarborough.

Saturday night I hung out with the girls. Steph, Sparkler, Never, and Michele. Oh my gosh, I had more fun than I've had in months. We made salad, drank, and stayed up until 5am talking. There's just nothing in the world like good girlfriends. We've got to get together more often.

Sunday I struggled out of bed to have lunch with Grandma. Just hung out with her at her new home, the assisted living place. She was slightly grouchy when I arrived, but after awhile she loosened up. Lunch was good. Everyone I interacted with was very nice. Grandma seemed a little more confused than normal, but after we talked for awhile she was back to her usual self. Getting old is so tough. Before I left, she said the nicest thing. She said she had the best afternoon with me that she'd had in quite awhile. It made me very happy to hear it.

Now the week is in full swing. I go to the corporate office in Scottsdale, AZ tomorrow. I come back late Thursday night. Early Friday morning I'm on another place to NYC to see Kevin. The timing of the two trips together isn't the best, but what can you do? It'll be an interesting week and I'm looking forward to both trips. I just love traveling.

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Creepy Email

Just when you begin to think the internet is a safe place, some weirdo sends you email.

From: Jake Davola
To: erica@ericalucci.com
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 10:37 PM
Subject: your mouth

Erica,
I am a 32 yr old sexy male who desires a woman with a retainer...nothing is sexier than a woman with an exotic and sensual mouth like yours. can you send me some pictures of inside your mouth, with and without the retainer?!?
Eros

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Great Lecture

Just got home from a fabulous lecture at school tonight. It seems that the university has changed the instsructor for this class mid way through the module. It's a strange one, but not something I'm complaining about. The first instructor was really, really bad. Now we have a tenured professor who is the head of the whole department and is the author of the textbook. He's incredible. I learned a lot about strategy tonight and the importance of value minus cost. It was one of those lectures that makes me feel really good about being in school.

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Work Stress

Over the course of only a few hours, work just became very, very stressful. I'm near freak out stage. We suddenly have five very important database issues piled on top of us. Not good. I can't believe I have to go to class tonight when I should be staying here.

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Case Study Writer's Block

It's midnight and I'm almost brain dead. What am I doing up, you ask? Homework. Ahh, the life of an MBA. (Why did I get myself into this again?) I'm writing up a case study for class tomorrow. Yes, I should have started days ago, but why start days ago when you could spend all that time laying in bed and watching TV? I should feel guilty about that, but I don't. I was SICK!

Anyhow, I'm frustrated with this case study just like I always get frustrated at case studies. I'm frustrated because I don't feel like I'm a very good writing. Sure, I write here just fine, but this is just like talking. Goodness knows, I'm good at talking. I think I need to take a writing workshop. But right now I just need to quit goofing off and finish this darn paper. Only two more pages to go....

By the way, I'm feeling much better. Seems that the cold is over and all I have left is a lingering cough.

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Still Sick

Yesterday I left work early, put my PJ's on, and crawled straight into bed. Nothing seemed to help, I felt all around awful. Even my sleep was awful. I woke up every hour and flopped around in the bed quite a bit. It seems like one of the medicines I took made me restless. This morning when I woke up, I didn't feel a whole lot better. Still had a strong headache, my sinuses hurt, and this pesky cough. My throat isn't as sore today so that's a good sign.

Anyhow, I made the executive decision to stay home. There's going to be some things later this week that will make it a busy week for me. So I figured it would be best to just rest up today and get well. I already took a two hour nap this morning which helped. Now I'm hungry. Moving around makes my head hurt worse so I'm going to shuffle slowly into the kitchen and get something. Being sick sucks.

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Sick

I'm sick, and am trying to convince myself that I'm not. I got up and came to work. On the way to work, I stopped at a drug store to pick up Zycam and cough syrup. I probably looked like an idiot doing nasal sprays at the stoplight. I rushed this morning because I thought I was going to miss a conference call. Only to arrive and realize it isn't until next Monday. Silly details like dates allude me too often. Right now I feel pretty crappy, but I'm moving as little as possible. (Luckily, moving my fingers to type doesn't feel bad.) I'll probably do another round of drugs shortly. Then I'll see if I can make it the rest of the afternoon. I know I'll be spending all of tonight in bed.

On a different note, have you seen the show Everwood? I watched it for the first time last night and I'm totally crushing on the 16 year old character. I'm not quite sure what I'm thinking, but he's the perfect character. He's young, cute, passionate and yet he acts like an adult - something that never exists in real life. It's totally silly, I know, but that's what crushes are for. Besides, I have a wonderful man who IS an adult. (And who I'm looking forward to seeing in two weeks!)

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Lucci House No More

Kristen and I decided to move out of Lucci House after Karen gets married and moves out. After two and a half years, it will be very sad to see it go.

About three years ago, our parents made an offer we couldn't refuse. They would buy a house and rent it to us. It would allow all of us to save on rent as well as the chance to live in our own house instead of apartments. Lucci House was the first house I was shown by the real estate agent. I only looked at a handful of others before I called the family and said they had to see it too. A couple days later, my parents bought it.

The original agreement was my sisters and I would live together for one year. It was a verbal lease. My parents wanted to own it for a year so it would be a good investment for them. I don't think any of us thought it would last as long as it did. We worked so hard on this house the first year we lived here. We painted, we tore down walls, we did landscaping, we built things. It was quite a lot of work but always satisfying. In the end, we had a really, really nice house.

Like any house, this one holds a ton of memories.
- Painting all the ceilings in one weekend
- Tearing out the garage wall with karate kicks
- Lucci House Christmas parties
- Painting the dining room plum against everyone's wishes (and pleased to find it looked beautiful)
- Three dogs on the couch looking out the front windows
- Christmas lights
- Walking to the park
- Kristen's 21st birthday party
- Karen's engagement
- Blogging and bloggers
- Washing machine flood
- Squirrels in the attic
- Walking the neighborhood during the ice storm
- Tiger racing around the backyard
- Karen's graduation with her Masters
- Kristen going to school and going to school and going to school
- Switching jobs
- The 70's bathroom
- Lots and lots and lots of laughter

It's going to be so sad to see it go, but Kristen and I decided that having a roommate who is not our sister was less than optimal. We quickly figured out we couldn't afford this big house all to ourselves. If things were different (ie I wasn't in school), I might think about buying this place and living here forever, but it's just not the right time. There's a lot of good in all we've experienced over the past two years. Most importantly, the relationships I've built with my sisters. I never imagined I would be as close to them as I was allowed to get over these years. My dad said it best, we got to experience each other as adults and really know each other. Something I will be eternally grateful for all my life.

These years have been something else and I'm always going to remember how special they have been. This house is a very special place to the Lucci's. We'll be sad to see it go.

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Picture from the Shower

It's a lazy Sunday. I should be studying since I have a finance midterm a week from tomorrow. But it's more fun surfing the net and reading about Dave Elsewhere, a dancer. His dancing style is quite amazing. I'm also not feeling particularly well today. My throat is still hurting, I've got a bit of a headache, and my neck hurts. Classic signs of getting sick. I should get in bed, but I would probably end up watching tv or playing video games.

My dreams last night were very strange. I was at a U2 concert and Adam Clayton called me by name. He brought me up on stage to dance. Why he was at the front of the stage instead of behind the drums is beyond me. Then it turned out the stage was a trampoline so I was turning all sorts of crazy flips in the air. When in reality, I'm pretty scared of flipping on trampolines...you know, twisted ankles. Then the concert turned into a church service and I was deperate to get out, but I couldn't find my video camera. I don't even own a video camera. Weird, but I guess they're always like that.

Yesterday was Karen and Jason's wedding shower. Tina was gracious enough to have it at her house and everything went off smashingly. I think everyone had a good time, which is what it was all about.

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Tomas from the UK

Last night Kristen and I took out our co-worker, Tomas, who is visiting from the UK. First we went to a Fort Worth Brahmas hockey game. Then to dinner and later to a couple bars. Too bad it was raining all night so we didn't actually get to walk around downtown. Oh well, we all still had a great time.

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Getting Sick?

Uh oh. I'm really not feeling well today. I woke up with a sore throat and a slight headache. Now I'm feeling dizzy and tired. It's really not the best timing for me to get sick. Tonight Kristen and I are taking Tomas, a co-worker from the UK, out to Fort Worth. Then Saturday is Karen and Jason's wedding shower. Sunday is hard-core studying for Finance. Just not good timing at all.

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Leia's Famous

Leia, a fellow blogger, has an article about her in the newspaper! Here's her link about it.

Customer Surveys

I'm reading written responses from our customer surveys here at work. It's totally depressing. Normally, I feel like we're doing a fairly good job; of course there's room for improvement. But after reading these comments, I feel like a big loser. There are so many unhappy customers out there. I don't feel like I'm doing a good job. Obviously I need to be doing something differently.

On the up side, a lot of comments are positive. And some of the comments were written without any consideration of a real human being reading them. (People will write things in a much more vitriolic tone than they would say them.)

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Quote of the Day

"What's an honest day's work for someone who thinks for a living?"
- John Jordan, CTO at Cap Gemini Ernst & young

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HS Reunion Realization

It occured to me this morning that I will have my MBA by the time my 10 year high school reunion comes around. Wow.

Do I Really Have It Down?

Today I felt like I had everything together. I got up early. I walked the dog. I put a load of wash in before work. I looked good. I conducted the chaos. I had all the right things to say. I even ate breakfast. Everything just came together so well.

Then I was reminded by a song on the way home...
"so what so i've got a smile on
its hiding the quite superstitions in my head
dont believe me
dont believe me
when i say ive got it down"
- John Mayer

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Charlie's Birthday

I went out last night with a group of friends from school to celebrate Charlie's 30th birthday. Last night was the most fun I've had out in quite awhile. I'm so thankful to know such a neat group of people. I hope these are people I keep up with for a very long time.

(Left to Right) Gloria, Charlie, Adam, Aaron, Lisa, CJ
The boys are throwing the "West Side" sign...we live on the west side of town so we're in our own gang.

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Pictures from the Past

I was going to post some pictures from the holidays, but then Karen found a couple old photos while cleaning out her closet. So I'm posting these instead. Oh the memories.

This photos is of Summer and me when we were 16. I'm shocked at how young I looked. Makes me realize why I don't get carded for cigarettes anymore.

This photo is of Brian Capps and myself when we were in college. I must have been 20 years old in this photo. Wow, black was a bad hair color for me. Speaking of Brian...I wish I had his email. I heard he got married about a year ago. I'd like to congradulate him and hear what he's up to.

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Zachary Thomas

My cousin's wife gave birth to their first child, Zachary Tomas, on January 2 at 10:01 pm. He was 8 lbs 4 1/2 lbs 21 1/4" long.

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Are the holidays over already?

I started back to school today. After a luxurious three weeks off, it was a rude awakening. I feel like I've been jolted back to reality. Monday nights I'm taking finance and Thursday nights I'm taking strategic management. This finance professor is already better than the last one. Too bad his speech patterns are already driving me crazy. On well, only 7 more weeks to go.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Talking about the future already when I really just sat down to talk about the recent past.

Christmas
This year Christmas was very low key. I have to admit I prefer Christmas like this. The family put a cap on the amount we could spend on Christmas gifts so we could give more to people who needed it more than we did. I chose to donate to an organization in my town which helps the poor with health care, food, clothing, job training, etc. My parents chose to donate to an organization that helps people all over the world. It was cool to start out Christmas morning not by opening our gifts but talking about the gifts we gave to other people. (Even though we will never directly know who we affected or how.)

Anyhow, Christmas was just a good time to be with the family. Mom really out did herself this year with Christmas dinner. It was the one place we splurged. She cooked a turkey and a ham! Mr. and Mrs. C, some good friends of the family, came to eat with us. It was so neat to catch up with them.

The Most Amazing Christmas Gift
The best Christmas gift was definitely seeing our friends, Becca and Jason, adopt their daughter only two days after Christmas. These people are some of the neatest people I've ever known and am so excited they are finally parents. I know they will make an excellent mom and dad! It's been so long since I've been around a baby, it was really special to see a new born.

Work
I worked through most of the holiday week simply because I knew it would be slow. There's no better time to work than when no one else is working! With all the peace and quiet, I caught up on a lot of things.

New Year
Kevin came to visit. We drove to Lubbock new years eve and ran in the new year at Kris's house. Nothing over the top...we ended up watching a bunch of episodes of Sex in the City. (Soooo not our experience in NYC.) We spend a lot of time with Kevin's parents, Jay and Carol. We did a ton of shopping. We watched lots of movies; including the Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. WOW, great movie.

Kevin is here one more day so I'm not going to work tomorrow. I was going to take care of a couple doctor's appointments as well as hanging out with him. Now a couple more things have come up so my day off is going to be spent super busy. Minor - I need a plumber to come since I've got toilet issues that a plunger just won't fix. Major - Tiger is limping...bad. Upon further investigation his toe is turned in the completely wrong direction. This means a very expense visit to the vet tomorrow. I have no idea what he did or how, but it's got to be fixed.

So, yeah, it already feels like the holidays are over and life's speed is picking up again. I wanted to write some resolutions, but I haven't been able to slow down and really think. Here's the beginning of a list.

Resolutions
- Live without regret. (Which means don't regret the things you do and don't do things you'll want to regret.)
- Slow down.
- Save more money.
- Visit Kevin more often.

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