some of you may know that i really don't like to cook that much...it's not that i don't like the outcome of cooking, i think it's just kind of a pain. lol it was great when aimee and i lived together in college because she LOVES to cook and i really don't...so she would make dinner and i would clean up. fair trade, right?

tonight though, i did actually make something! this was so monumentous, it warranted me sending an e-mail to my mom about it. here is the exchange:

me: mom i made a *real* dinner tonight! chicken with some seasoned rice!! it was good! arent you proud of me?!? lol LOVE YOU!

mom: yes I'm very proud!!! just add a little veggie something and fruit and you've got all the food groups-wash it down with some milk...yummmm
Love you

aw, mom is so cute!! :)

story!

this guy lost both his legs and his arm while in Iraq...and he has such a great attitude. i'm sure he has his moments, but it's still good to see...and he and has wife now have a free home

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-30-0014.html

a funny text i got from one of my friends at 3:15 a.m. today (yes, in the morning...she is up that early because she has kids and apparently gets up around 3:30 every morning!!)

"Hello, Lauren. It's God. You up?"

the reason this is funny is because i have been working as the morning reporter yesterday and today. that means getting up at 2 in the morning to be at the station by 3. exhausted does not begin to describe it!

i was supposed to have a bball game last night at 6:30 p.m. but said i probably wouldnt be there because i had to be at work at 3 a.m. the next day and would need to get to sleep early. in my e-mail i said "even God is not up that early."

nice of the Man Upstairs to check in on me this morning, huh? lol

after all, he's a pretty busy guy!

has he lost is dang mind?!?! lol

here is the link to a blog about the guy who is running across NC in 18 days (i did a story on him earlier this week) this blog tracks his progress with text and picture updates. it's really good.

his run started on tuesday and he has run 40+ miles each DAY!!! honestly, he's out of his mind (like i said in my story lol):

http://runnc2008.ning.com/

but it's for a good cause!

what?!

CLAY AIKEN GOT SOMEONE PREGNANT!

technically, it was artificial insemination...thank goodness!!! lol

http://www.tmz.com/2008/05/29/clay-aiken-impregnates-someone/

a story :)

gas prices hit 4 bucks in chapel hill!

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-29-0003.html

this guy is running 750 miles across North Carolina to raise money for the American Cancer Society...enjoy the story!

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-27-0011.html

incase the above link doesn't work, click this one: http://orange.mync.com/site/orange/news/story/2885/chapel_hill_man_to_run_744_miles_in_18_days

you all know i am obsessed with my baby cousin, nola, so i have more pictures to show you. i seriously don't think i'm being biased when i say she is the cutest baby on the planet! look at her face!! SO CUTE! she is going to be DROP DEAD BEAUTIFUL when she gets older! i can't wait! :)

showing the cat some love...that cat better not be scratching her pretty face!

see? the boys are calling her already! lol

having fun in the wind with dad!

can you believe how long her legs are already?! lol i think she's going to be tall! a girl after my own heart! ;)

having fun in the wind with dad...part 2!

how much do i love this child?!

What a wonderful story!

i think this is my favorite story that i've ever done...these people are seriously awesome!

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-26-0010.html

here is your motivational song for the week! it's by john mellencamp...i love how this video ends!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9gCH1RYWlE4

i feel like certain things in life just don't need to be improved.

for example, candy bars do not need be fried (hello, North Carolina state fair!) . they are delicious enough on their own!

i also don't think it's really that necessary that the makers of shampoo bottels, body washes and perfumes get all clever with what they're writing on the back of those bottles.

let me show you what is written on the back of a Victoria's Secret pefume that i have called Pure Seduction:

"You'll imagine you're standing in a lush garden of sensual fragrance with out silkening body splash. it lightly moisturizes and soothes skin after the shower or bath, or anytime you want the enticing scent of pure seduction."

did anyone just laugh out loud reading that? lol i did! the stuff does small amazing...and i love it. it does not, however, make me feel like i'm standing in a lush garden of sensual fragrance. lol

a simple, "this stuff smells good" would suffice. then again, if it's from freakin Victoria's Secret...well, only they would call a perfume called "pure seduction." lol

i have one more example...and even though this one is pointless too, i think it's actually funny. i bought a new bottle of herbal essences shampoo today and they have begun writing little fun facts on the back of the bottles...they are called "herbal head games."

here's the one written on the bottle i got:

Question: "what word, when mouthed, looks like 'i love you?'"
Answer: Colorful.

did i test this by mouthing the word "colorful" while looking in a mirror. absolutely.

lots of other shampoo companies have starting doing fun stuff like this too. is it necessary? no. kinda does make it a lot more fun though!

sigh.

i guess there IS something to be said about a fried candy bar after all!

first off, CONGRATULATIONS, AIMEE!!! she and adam got engaged last night!!! YAY!!! for those of you who don't know, aimee is my best friend since we were juniors in high school...went to UF, lived together and have done everything together until i moved away to WV in 2005 and now to NC. it would be awesome to live near each other again...basically, she and i are the exact same person. lol so yes, she is amazing ;) they'll be getting married on June 20th, 2009. i know, a june wedding in florida is going to be unbelieveably hot!! i cannot wait though! i know i will cry!! isn't it sad that my best friend doesn't even read my blog?!?!?! I KNOW! lol i think she has once or twice...she probably won't even see that i just wrote a paragraph about this. thanks, aim!!!

anyway...

what a fun time last night!! me, jackie and one of her friends who was in town for the weekend from L.A., courtney, made the rounds in downtown raleigh ..so fun! we danced our little butts off all night! it worked out well too because we paid 5 bucks to get into this one place called High 5, but that 5 dollars also pays your way into the Bogart's and the Red Room. gotta love that! here's the review: High Five, good music, good crowd. Red Room, crappy music and we pretty much the only people under 30 there (don't read into that...i'm not saying 30 is old! lol jackie would kill me...she's turning 29 this year. lol ) we gave red room the 3 strikes rule...once there's three bad songs in a row, you leave...which we did. so we were there for about a grand total of 15 minutes. Bogarts was fun...also good music and good crowd. i'm irritated that i paid 10 dollars for a martini last night...granted it was the only drink i had the whole night, but that's a rip off!

all in all, i give the night a 9.5 on a scale of 10! (my shoes were kinda hurting my feet after a while so i had to take some points off for that!). now, i will have to take a few weekends off from the going out excitement...lol it's kind of sensory overload for me and i can't handle it!

This is kinda cool! found this article below...

Raleigh ranked 2nd best city in country


Raleigh, N.C. — Raleigh will be ranked second in June when Kiplinger releases its list of the 25 top best cities to live in the United States.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine evaluated 167 metropolitan areas by a standard editor Bob Cook described as unique: "How is this city going to benefit you financially?"
Houston, Texas, beat out Raleigh according to that standard. Omaha, Neb.; Boise, Idaho; and Colorado Springs, Colo., round out the top five cities.

Part of a city's ranking was determined by its population of members of the "creative class" – such as scientists, engineers, artists, writers and teachers – Cook said in a podcast on Kiplinger's Web site. The magazine believes that type of person helps a city to prosper economically as well as culturally, Cook explained.

The top 25 cities will also be broken down into the locations best for those in different life stages: young singles, mid-career professionals, married with children, empty nesters and retirees.
Whatever your life stage, you can benefit from knowing more about the city where you live, Cook said.

"If you chose the right place, you're going to be happy and successful," he said in the podcast.
The rankings will be the cover story in the June 10 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.

yick!

my nomination for the world's least important fruit?

cantalope. eck.

the only reason cantalope gets put in fruit salad is because it's cheap...of COURSE the good stuff like the kiwi, pineapple and grapes hardly make it in there at all because they're more expensive.

i bought a fruit salad this morning and as to be expected it was overflowing with nasty cantalope and hardly had any of the fruit i like. i think i'm in the wrong field.

i should be working as a fruit salad maker...if i did, i would ban all cantalope.

and the world would be a better place for it! :)

ah, i am off today! i ended up working this past sunday so today is my comp day!

i'm going to grab lunch with a few people and then try and track down a new place to live when my lease is up here. i love where i live right now, but it's a rip off. almost 900 bucks a month for a on bedroom! granted, it's in a very nice area and the ammenities are very good but still...i really want a two bedroom. it would be really great to have an extra room.

i think my lease is up in october, so i have a little bit of time...but it's never as much as you think!

pop up video!

so could you hear the jingle when you read the title of this post? lol i could!

does it get much better than VH1 Pop Up Video?

i don't think so.

they were running some old school pop up videos on classic vh1 today and i'll be honest, i could have sat there all night watching them. lol it havent seen one of those in years so i was pretty excited about it! there are only about 2 other shows i could spend hours watching:

1. America's Next Top Model...i know, completely lame of me to like this show, but i can't help it! and mtv usually runs marathons on the weekends so i can catch a few episodes.

2. Law and Order...but only SVU because I love Olivia and Elliot...they are my favorite detectives...and i also want them to get married!! they are perfect for each other! don't they see that?!?! although, they are both a little too on the serious side...one of them needs to lighten up a little so they can balance each other out.

maybe in the series finale one day the writers will make them get married...that would be a great ending!

ugh, speaking of endings...remember back in the day the final episode of Dawson's Creek? when Joey and Pacy ended up together?! so mad about that! (for those of you who don't know...Joey is a girl...just so there is no confusion there! lol) Joey should have ended up with Dawson...those two were made for each other!

and now that i'm done analyzing ficticious relationships, let me know if you'd like my assistance in real life, ok? :)

not a great story for the North Carolina Highway Patrol...

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-20-0005.html

since sunday, a 3 year old boy has been missing from our area. early this morning, police found him unharmed. police are doing a presser at 11 a.m. to talk about the details...rumor has it the mother may be involved. hm. we'll see. someone posted a comment on the story on the website asking why God lets terrible things like this happen. i would like to post the response someone posted to it:

"God does not orchestrate evil, we as sinners do. God does not test or trial or indeed orchestrate evil. The adversary lives in this world, and it is he who does this. Thought: If it were indeed God who put us through trials and tests, who would we pray to to get us out of them? Temptations are the tool of the adversary, not God...and until the churches teach this right, we're praying into air for deliverance cause we're praying for the wrong thing. Praising God this child has been found. I pray that he is healthy and well. God bless. Rev. RB"

this guy nailed it 100 percent.

wow

oh. my.gosh. there is actually a drink in existence with more than 100 grams of FAT!! i would qualify it more as a milkshake then drink, but still! i mean, don't get me wrong, i'm sure it's amazing, but COME ON people...America does not need a drink with 100 grams of fat in it! lol

check out the list of the unhealthiest drinks:

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/5027/americas-unhealthiest-drinks-exposed/

sorry, another sad story today....an insurance auditor was killed by the owner of an agency she was investigating

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-19-0014.html

from foxnews.com today about the 7.9 earthquake that hit china last week:

"In the disaster zone, efforts appeared to shift Sunday from searching for buried survivors to clearing corpses from shattered buildings as the government said the confirmed death toll rose to 32,476. Another 220,109 people suffered injuries, according to a statement from the State Council. The government has said it expects the final death toll will surpass 50,000."

i literally cannot wrap my mind around this

this is sad! be careful if you are running outside with lots of traffic around

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-16-0021.html

gas prices and pawn shops...check it out :)

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-15-0022.html

Jewel

i'll be the first to tell you that i am totally not one of those feminist women...however, i really love this new song by Jewel. i think it's very sweet and this video is really good...she looks super gorgeous too!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6EPyWfrqwXc

i'm a little confused...

is it mid-may or november? it's about 50-55 degrees outside today.

global warming. hm.

lol

i am actually home in florida right now...getting ready to leave for the airport to head back to north carolina.

i went home this past weekend...flew in saturday and leaving today. mother's day and my birthday both falling on sunday seemed like a good occassion to be home for a couple days :)

we went to go see Riverdance at the Kravis Center in downtown west palm beach last night. it was...good. don't get me wrong, i could never do what any of them were doing, but it kinda felt like we had the B team performing, know what i mean? it seemed like they were missing a few of their starting players or something the second part of the show was better than the first...apparently they're a second half team (like how i just related dancing to basketball three separate times? lol hey, you can take the girl out of basketball...) overall....i give it a C plus...maybe a B minus, if i'm feeling generous. it was still fun to be with the family and we had pretty good seats too.

i must have forgotten how HOT florida is when it gets near summer! i mean, this is ridiculous! you walk outside and feel like you just hit a freaking brick wall! i must have become partially nothern-ized after living in WV for a few years. NC apparently gets just as hot as FL in the summer, but it only stays that way for a few months. in Florida, it will be hot now until the end of november. how did i manage to live here almost my entire life?!?!? lol

all right, we're about to head to the airport...back to the Triangle i go! (and for those of you who don't know, the raleigh-durhma-chapel hill area is referred to as the Triangle)

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-08-0001.html

new president elected at UNC today

hm. glad that thought this one out so carefully....lol

"Mariah Carey, 38, married her boyfriend of one month, 27-year-old actor Nick Cannon, on Wednesday, according to reports"

i ended up working today...here's the story. last day of one stop voting before NC's primaries on Tuesday....it should be pretty big!

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-03-0004.html

a couple stories

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-01-0012.html

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-05-01-0022.html