My friend, the TWIP (Trophy Wife In Progress)

Most days, I am blessed to have amazing IM convos with my friend, Jacks (I am leaving the rest of her screen name out for sake of blasting her all over the internet). Jacks and I started chatting via IM when we met while we were both living in Indy! We tend to have some pretty good convos during the day and yesterday was one of them. I call this conversation the Trophy Wife in Progress.

So yesterday, Jacks and I are having a pretty sweet convo. Here is how it goes:

14:02] jacks: i need a new job. stat
[14:03] me: oh yea?
[14:03] jacks: yesssss
[14:03] jacks: ahhhh
[14:03] me: fun fun
[14:04] me: so what u wanna do?
[14:04] jacks: trophy wife
[14:04] jacks: check
[14:04] me: check check
[14:11] jacks: or fundraising
[14:11] jacks: either will do
[14:11] jacks: heh
[14:12] me: just be my tropy wife and we can host social events to raise money for some local art center or some shit
[14:12] me: we=you...i'll just drink and talk
[14:21] jacks: done!
[15:00] me: solid
[15:02] jacks: ok, you'll have to move to kc though
[15:02] me: well, you already own a house...so thats a plus
[15:03] jacks: haha, true. I'll be happy to hand over those payments ;)
[15:04] me: damnit...i didnt mean that part :)
[15:04] jacks: ha! tropy wives don't pay mortgages!
[15:04] jacks: trophy
[15:04] me: well, yea...they pay in 'other' terms...haha
[15:05] jacks: ahhh
[15:05] jacks true
[15:05] jacks: that takes much less than 8 hours out of the day though. I'd say it's a pretty solid deal

So there you have it! If all of a sudden I am up and out of Dallas that is because I have moved in with my friend Jacks in Kansas City. I'll be paying the mortage and she'll be hosting our wine and cheese fundraisers! Looks like I have my life all planned out :) Thanks jackie!

Music...

I have yet to really mention this but one thing that I truly love is music. You can see this through in my Facebook profile. I try to keep an active, up to date, top 5 plays that are hitting my iPod often and frequent.

I really listen to 2 types of music; Red Dirt Music and some Top 40 from the UK. For those of you who haven't gotten into either of these genres you are really missing out. Red Dirt and music from the UK can get you through the day pretty easily and keep your iPod full.

Red Dirt Music has its roots in Oklahoma and Texas, hence the name. An easy way to think of this is southern rock with a little country twang. The music is rebelious and will talk about whiskey, women and weed. It truly speaks and is generally not welcome in Nashville- but hey, thats okay with me! My favorites tend to be Jason Boland, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and the Randy Rogers Band. I do have some other guys that I listen to, Stoney Larue, Eli Young Band and Jackson Taylor Band. The movement is huge in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Kansas. I remember back in the early 2000s, when I was in school, I could walk up to Longhorn's Saloon in Manhattan and see Ragweed for $5 at the door. However, by 2005 these guys were selling out in a few hours of announcing the show and scalping could go for quite a bit of cash. Now that I am in Texas I get plenty of exposure to all of this music- its on the radio, in bars, float trips and Billy Bob's!

Most days I stream a little BBC Radio 1 to my desk. Sure, work probably does not like that fact that I stream to my desk but heck, it keeps me moving! Music from the UK is fascinating and is pretty sweet. It appears to me that music from the UK is at times a month or so ahead of the US. A few bands you should check out include; Bloc Party and Kings of Leon. Check out streaming an online show from Scott Mills or listening to their "Official Chart Show." You know? Its official just like in the move "Love Actually," love is all around us....or whatever the song is.

Some other music that I have picked up include MGMT, Iglu and Hartley, Peter Bjorn and John, Razorlight, Bob Sinclair, etc. Whenever I see a movie or a show with good music (Entourage) I'll usually visit IMDB or the show's website to see what's up with their soundtrack. Also, good iTunes has some great iMixes and recommendations for you in the "User's Also Bought" section.

So get out there! Visit new types of music and see what happens! Music is great and makes the world move- so move it!!

Efficiencies of life…

For those who know me well they know that I love to get numerous things done in the most efficient model. I believe that my knack for efficiencies stem from being extremely busy and then believe it or not but bartending. One thing I learned while I bartended my way thru school was to maximize all of the steps that I take. When you bartend you are always on your feet therefore, you never take a step you don’t mean to take. And when you do take that step do as many things as you can. The following are a few efficiencies that I enjoy.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), www.dart.org: The DART is Dallas’ answer to getting me to work in a timely and efficient manner. When I am not travelling I tend to not drive but more than 15 miles during the week. It saves me wear and tear on my car but also allows me to be more efficient. During my 30minute train ride each morning I am able to answer and respond to e-mails, listen to great music and read. I have read many more books due to my ability to ride the train! I love DART!

Online Shopping- Drugstore.com/zappos.com: These are two great online shops that are amazing. Drugstore.com has any and everything you could want. I tend to get on every 2 months or so and order my supplies (razors, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, deodorant, etc). The prices are great and shipping is free over $25 in purchases. This also helps cut down a trip to a CVS, Target or Wal-Mart for those supplies. Therefore, the only trips I need to take are to the local grocery store. Zappos.com is a great website for shoes- but stop right there. I rarely order shoes- maybe 2 pairs in the last year- but I enjoy this site. I get online pick out the style, size, etc that I want and then they are on my doorstep in 48hrs. This is usually much quicker than it would take me to get to the mall for a new pair of shoes!

BlackBerry: Yep, this is my crackberry and I am addicted as can be. I have my Outlook and Yahoo! Email accounts both synched but I also utilize the Facebook application (which I use as Twitter). I also fully utilize the text messaging and the BlackBerry Messenger. I occasionally use the PIN feature of the phone but only have 1 friend who uses it. From what she says, the PIN feature just goes device to device and not thru your corporate server or wherever else your information sits. She works for the government, so that makes sense on why she PINS ;) I will not have a non-smart phone again. The BlackBerry allows me to triage my e-mails and see which ones I really need to respond to.

Automatic Coffee Maker: I have an automatic coffee maker that I set each night. Therefore, when I rise in the morning I have fresh coffee for my traveler that I take with me on the DART!

RSS Feeds/Synch of my iPod: I have a few RSS feeds set up that drop information daily into my e-mail account. I get industry feeds and a few others- Excel and tech blogs. This is very helpful as I do not have to search from information I just browse thru my email RSS folder. I also enjoy synching up my iPod each evening to listen to a slew of podcasts that are released during the day on iTunes.

Well, these are some of the efficiencies that I enjoy in life. I try to find many more during my day by thinking what I have to get done and my path to get there. It’s my own version of “Getting Things Done,” not perfect…but I’m striving for it!

What are the efficienies that you have?

Those who fly...

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