Fruity...

...awards are the best and so very fitting for me (since I'm a little fruity at times), don't ya think? 

TB over at Year 31 has given me the Cherry on Top Award! YAY! Thank you so much, TB!

To accept this award, here's what I must do:

1.  List three things that I love about myself

2.  Share a picture of me, and

3.  Nominate five other blogs for this award.

Seems easy enough!

Three things I love about myself:

1) I have no problem laughing at myself. I mean, let's face it, I do a lot of stupid stuff that results in me embarrassing myself....if you have this quality, I think it should be a requirement that you know how to laugh at yourself. Don't get me wrong, I haven't always been able to laugh at myself. For a long time there I took things waaaay to seriously. But, I've learned that fully experiencing a situation with an open mind and heart is much better than closing myself off because I've embarrassed myself AND I end up having A LOT more fun that way too!

2) I'm VERY easily amused. It's definitely not hard to make me laugh and I tend to have a good time no matter what I'm doing.

3) I try to practice self caring rather than selfishness - always. Most of the last 10 years of my life have been centered around me trying not to be selfish. Strange? Maybe. The reasoning for it was that I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by some very selfish people growing up. I say "fortunate" because I learned a great deal from these people, unfortunately most of it was how I didn't want to be, but I still learned a lot from them. However, in trying to be soo different and not be selfish at all I, many times, forgot to consider myself. That's where self caring comes into the picture. It allows me to consider others, however, not at my own expense. I've just recently adopted this perspective and I'm a much happier person because of it!

Here's a recent picture of me:

What?! I was just helping the man with his rod. Geesh!

Bloggers I'm passing this award onto:


Bernie at One Mixed Bag
Climb2nowhere at Climb 2 Nowhere
Gina Dollface at Georgina Dollface
Missed Periods at Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares
Vince at Reeds

Later gators! I hope you have a great day today!

Have you ever...

Who doesn't love monkeys? 

1. Threatened to swallow that little piece of a cell phone that fits into the battery charger outlet (you know, when the phone isn't being charged) because someone (read: Binderclips) was neurotic about putting it back in his phone when it was done charging?
2. Tripped over a cord during a meeting at work (where 30+ are attending) to catch yourself prior to falling, but have your hair (that you straightened meticulously) draped over your face so you look like Cousin It?
3. Blasted "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" (at the highest volume) in a university computer lab on accident because what you thought was the headphone outlet was not?
4. Met a girl... ok, so I really hope that song is in your head now because it's totally in mine. Sorry I had to do it with "Have you ever.." as the blog's title. I'm sure you understand.
5. Decided that the guy who asked you out that had a girlfriend (I found out after he asked me out on a date and I accepted) needed to learn a lesson? So, you showed up at his house at the time of the date WITH his girlfriend and when he answered the door said "I think you guys have some stuff to talk about" then left?
6. Tried to convince anyone that "sneakily" and "apedness" are real words?
7. Lost your entire desk?

No? So I guess it's just me?

I have plenty more where these came from (which, I'm sure you all are aware of), however these are just the ones that came to mind this morning.

Probably my favorite of all of these is #1. The look on Binderclips' face when I picked the piece up and threatened to swallow it was priceless. Plus, I wish I would've had a tape recorder because the argument that ensued was hilarious. It went a little something like this:

Hulabuns: "What's this?" I say as I pick up the tiny piece of the phone deviously

Binderclips: "You know what it is" he says suspiciously

Hulabuns: "You don't NEED it do you?" I say while glaring at him

Binderclips: "Yes, actually I do" he says  glaring back at me and reaching for it

Hulabuns: In that moment I realize just neurotic he is about this thing. I look at the tiny piece of phone and think 'If I ate this it would totally not hurt me', then look back at him (he's still glaring at me).  "You know, I'm kind of hungry...." I say.

Binderclips: "I have some food in the kitchen...want to put that down and go into the kitchen?" he says frantically and still reaching for it

Hulabuns: "Nah, I think I might just snack on this" I say evilly

Binderclips: "You wont' really eat it" he says, then follows it up with a worried "Will you?!"

Hulabuns: "Yep" I say as I start to dangle the piece over my mouth

Binderclips: "What is wrong with you??!!" he exclaims as he and I start wrestling over the piece (I continue to dangle it over my mouth every chance I get)

After about 2 or so minutes of wrestling and dangling the piece over my mouth I finally just stop. I look at Binderclips and he looks defeated and confused. I decide I've put the guy through enough for now, however now I know how to really get to him. The piece of the phone mysteriously disappears for the rest of the night...We don't talk about the incident again until just a couple of days ago when Binderclips found the piece of the phone. He kept it in our memories box. He pointed it out and we both started laughing hysterically.

You ever do anything like that? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Have a great weekend everyone! Later gators.

Cruisin' & Confusin'

How IS everyone out there? I've really missed you guys!! I cannot wait to get all caught up on your blogs!

Since we got home from the cruise I haven't felt that well, that's why I haven't posted. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, however I'm hoping I'll start to feel better soon. Anyways, something happened on the cruise that I MUST share with you guys. I'm sure you noticed the title to this blog: "Cruisin' & Confusin'"....well, that is exactly what we did, like it was our j. o. b. This is how it happened:

First I should mention that Binderclips and I took this cruise with another couple who are some of our best friends - Nancy and Kurt. Any who, on the very first day of the cruise we all decided to do some much needed "hot-tubbing". So, we headed to the adult deck and found a hot tub that had some people in it, but not many, so decided to hop in.

Little did we know that there was a reason there weren't many people in the hot tub - one of the guys in it was pretty intoxicated. He was sharing his name, his room and other personal information with all of us and that's when we decided he was not going to know who we were or what rooms we were in. So, we made sure not to mention any of our information to him. Eventually, it was time for dinner (we were scheduled to attend the formal dinner every night at 8:15), so we all got out and left the man in the hot tub.

After all of us got ready for dinner we started walking up to the formal dinner deck. On our way we decided that if there was anyone else at our table, we'd use fake names, just in case they were crazy like the guy in the hot tub earlier. We decided that Binderclips was going to be Allen, I was going to be Sandy, and our friends were going to be Kara (aka Nancy*) and Kirk (aka Kurt*).

When we got to our table there was another couple sitting at it already. I thought 'Fake names coming at ya' to myself about what was about to go down. We sat down, the couple introduced themselves to us and that's when we decided to introduce ourselves...We should've known it was going to go downhill from there because of how it started out:

Nancy (who was going by the name of Kara) decided to introduce us all, however when she got to me we looked at each other for a brief moment then simultaneously looked at the couple and said:

"This is Crista" and the same time I started to say "I'm Sa..." The couple across the table looked at us in confusion for a moment, however Nancy continued on and introduced Allen (aka Binderclips) to them and that snapped them out of her confusion momentarily.

Not too long after that I noticed Nancy giving me funny looks. I had no clue why though, I tried to mouth to her "Is there something in my teeth?" but she just shook her head at me. Finally, Kurt leaned over to me and whispered "we all keep using our real names an accident". 'That must be why the lady across the table also kept giving me funny and confused looks' I thought. 'We can turn this around, we just have to use the fake names from here on out' I thought, then told Binderclips what was happening to remind him to use the fake names instead of our real names.

Immediately after that, the waiter came up to our table and asked Binderclips "Are you Mr. Binderclips?**"

The couple looks at us, obviously confused.
We look at them thinking '$hit, $hit, $hit! Now our cover is really blown!'

Because he has no other choice - Binderclips responds with "yes" in a somewhat defeated tone.
The couple looks at us even more confused than ever.

The waiter proceeds to wish Binderclips and I a "Happy Anniversary!" (It totally was NOT our anniversary.)
Confused, we look at Nancy and Kurt wondering if they did this.
Nancy and Kurt look at us with confused looks on their faces thinking 'Crap, we missed their anniversary!' Then, 'Wait, it's not their anniversary!'
The couple across the table continue to stare at us with confused looks on their faces.
We all sit genuinely confused, just looking at each other as the waiter brings cake for Binderclips and I. We look at Kurt and Nancy, they look at us, and the couple across the table continues looking at all of us with, what is becoming a very familiar confused look on their faces.

After the waiter left we explained that the names we gave them were not our real names and proceeded to tell them why we gave them fake names. Thank goodness the couple had a great sense of humor and found it funny also. We actually made friends with the couple and hung out with them during the cruise.

Anyways, the lesson is that you should never lie (well unless it's absolutely necessary, like you are about to die or something). I hope you all are doing well out there. Have a great day!

*The real names that I list are also fake names. You might be asking yourself "COULD Hulabuns be anymore confusing?" I assure you, the answer is "yes". As a side note I should also mention that the fake names thing kind of originated from me calling one of Binderclips' friends by the wrong name when we first met. After that, his friends decided to come up with alternate/fake names for everyone as to confuse me even more.

**He didn't actually say "Mr. Binderclips" he actually used his real name, just FYI.