Today is my one-year anniversary with my pet fish, Captain Sea Jay Lewis (he's a pirate). He was one of my birthday presents last year, and has become my favorite companion to talk to at work. Captain Sea Jay is a beautiful betta that lives in a bowl on my desk at work. He's pretty much the coolest fish on the planet.

The captain spends his days exploring the less-than-vast expanse of decorative rocks and plastic vegetation that make up his watery habitat. He's also very attentive to life on the other side of his glass-walled rotunda - he loves to play and chase my finger up and down and around and around his 2.5-liter bowl. He curiously comes to the surface to check out objects just out of his reach, and if something catches his interest enough (like food), he'll jump right out of the water like a breaching shark for a bite!

To celebrate my birthday (and our anniversary), my co-workers decorated my cubicle with shiny purple and green garland and Hawaiian leis. Captain Sea Jay and I feel like we’re at a luau! We’re going to listen to Radio Margaritaville all day long and have the best person/pet fish anniversary ever.

Tags: birthdays, captain sea jay lewis
This crazy trip has got me feelin': cheerful
And I'm singin' along to: Losing Lisa - Ben Folds

It's my last day of being 26 - my birthday is tomorrow. I'm sitting alone in A Latte Cafe in downtown Norfolk, working on what will hopefully be my first novel (nine pages so far!) and waiting for 8:00 to roll around, so I can head over to The NorVa to see Ben Folds with Michelle. A new friend of mine asked when my birthday was the other night while we were at dinner, and I told him I'd rather not say. He keeps texting me every night, "Happy Birthday? Maybe today?" because I wouldn't tell him the exact day - only that it was this week. Turning 27 as a single girl with two cats and half a condo seems a little traumatic. I think it's official. I'm getting old.

Tags: birthdays, books/music/movies/tv, concerts
This crazy trip has got me feelin': artistic
And I'm singin' along to: Better Together - Ben Folds

I'm supposed to be packing (Did I mention I bought I condo? Probably not since I currently suck at updating the LJ.), but I have no boxes and my apartment is a mess because Tom is the most disgusting roommate I have ever had. (I can say that because I tell him to his face.) Tom went out of town for a week and left the trash overflowing, a bunch of dirty dishes in the sink, and a week-old Kentucky Fried Chicken container full of congealed mashed potatoes and chicken bones on the counter. That is so gross.

Anyway, yeah, Kristina and I bought a condo together. (I know. We fucking rock.) It's awesome. Tom's not going to be allowed over. Just kidding.

It's on the third floor, it has cathedral ceilings, and it has two bathrooms, which means I get my own bathroom for the first time ever. Well, for the first time since my brother was born in 1985. He was actually born exactly 21 years ago tomorrow in 1985. I guess that means I should say, "Happy 21st Birthday, Stephen! Get wasted!"

Right, the condo. It's at Hilltop. It's near Panera and Border's and the new Qdoba that's being built on Laskin Road. Qdoba is amazing. I had it once at Short Hills Mall. Amazing. There's also one in the Seattle airport, but the line was too long, so I didn't get to eat at that one. I went to Seattle for my cousin's wedding.

Sorry - where was I? The condo also (obviously) has two bedrooms - one for me and one for Kristina. Hers is going to be white with brown accent walls. Mine is going to be green. I hate painting.

I painted my bathroom. I painted it three different colors. It's gold on the bottom and light blue on the top with a dark brown stripe separating the two. It's interesting. I always love it when I'm looking at it, but whenever I picture it in my head, I think, "Why did I go and paint my bathroom all weird and shit?" It's cool though. Seriously. Everyone thinks it's cool. (Except for Tom, but he's not allowed over anyway.)

I really wanted to find a dark brown shelf or cabinet for the bathroom. I found one at Target. Chris helped me put it together. I thought it was awesome. Then Tara came over and said it was too big. So, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought a cabinet that's a little lighter brown. I lugged it upstairs all by myself (three floors, remember?), put it together, brought it into the bathroom and decided I liked the first shelf better. I brought it back into my room, took it all apart, put it back in the box, struggled downstairs with it, and put it in my trunk. I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to return it with Tara. When I opened the trunk and she saw it, she said, "That would look awesome in your room!" She was right, so I sighed and closed the trunk. It's still in there. I guess I'm eventually going to bring it all the way back upstairs and put it back together. Busy tomorrow?

Okay. I'm going to go pack something. So far, my attempt at packing has involved going through my CD collection and deciding it's finally time to get rid of Drew's Famous Party Music, Ace of Base, Ricky Martin, The Jock Jam single, and also Drew's Famous Party Music Volume 2 along with several others. I also threw everything from the bathroom cabinet into a box and spent a half hour in the hot tub with Rich. Oh, and I took out the trash. That's pretty good, right?

Tags: birthdays, books/music/movies/tv, boys, condo, food, life-changing purchases, packing, roommates, shopping
This crazy trip has got me feelin': thoughtful
And I'm singin' along to: Crawling Towards The Sun - The Hush Sound

Hi, my name is Lisa. I never update my LiveJournal. I take ice skating and belly-dancing lessons, and I have a cat named Mele that I adopted from Chesapeake Cat Rescue a few weeks ago. I work full-time as a marketing assistant (which means I work on Fridays now), and I'm about to receive an A (as far as I know) in my first graduate-level course, Modern Rhetoric. My ex-boyfriend lives in Alabama now, but we watch "Love Monkey" together on Tuesday nights. I kind of started a business a few months ago with my roommate, Allison, but we hardly talk right now because she has a boyfriend and never comes home. I spend a lot of time reading and watching my TiVo. I'm currently reading How to Make Love Like A Porn Star...A Cautionary Tale by Jenna Jameson - it's her autobiography and it's awesome. Sometimes my military friends call me from other countries, like Bahrain, Iraq, Spain and Japan. I hardly listen to cool music right now because my Malibu just spits my CDs out and says "E r r" (short for "Error") when I try to play them, and my iPod is never charged. Most nights when I don't feel like running, I use "My iPod isn't charged" as an excuse. I tried to go back to Weight Watchers recently, but found myself very un-motivated to lose 2.8 pounds. I recently got a raise at work, but I keep trying to get another one without success. I usually put off food shopping as long as possible because it makes me lonely. I've been drinking a lot of water and my hair is highlighted, so it's pretty blonde. My digital camera was stolen on St. Patrick's Day, but my mom got me a new one for my birthday and I love taking lots of pictures wherever I go. That's about it.

Tags: birthdays, books/music/movies/tv, boys, employment, food, lj, mele the kitty, roommates, school, skills, the malibu
This crazy trip has got me feelin': hyper
And I'm singin' along to: Hips Don't Lie - Shakira

I just had the best birthday weekend ever in Vegas. I definitely crammed as much stuff as possible into the past four days. I'm never drinking again. Until at least Wednesday.

Thursday
I had lunch at Chuck E. Cheese's with my aunt and Franky and Sammy. Then I took Kristen and Courtney to the mall and bought myself a new pair of Diesel jeans. Later on, Robbie and I picked up the white Malibu he rented. Then we drove to out to the Green Valley Ranch where we drank Crown Royal and danced and played some pool at the Whiskey Bar.

Friday
I did my best to sleep in and then I went food shopping with Aunt Kim and Sammy. Sammy bought a new Tinkerbell watch with her birthday money. I hung out by the pool all afternoon and tried to get a decent sunburn. Robbie and I went out to dinner at Shuck's where I didn't try any raw oysters, but I did have the best salad ever. Then we hit up the Treasure Island -- we drank mojitos and got into Tangerine for free after I randomly found some VIP passes while we were waiting on line.

Saturday
I lounged around outside all morning making a list of the songs that were on the CD I made for my roommate (he was complaining he didn't know who any of the bands were). I went to Toxicity and had Holly cut my hair, then I came home and had some tacos for dinner with my cousins. Robbie and I went to In-N-Out Burger (dinner number two) and then we headed over to the Luxor where we spent the night dancing and celebrating my birthday at Ra. I won $20 on a hand of Black Jack before we left, so that was nice.

Sunday
Robbie and I took a little trip to Red Rock Canyon and I stopped at Jersey Mike's Subs for some lunch on the way there. We climbed some rocks and drove around that long scenic one-way road enjoying the mountains. "Such Great Heights" by Iron and Wine was playing when we stopped at the highest point on the scenic drive, so that was a nice movie soundtrack kind of moment. We didn't talk much all day because we were both exhausted from staying up until 5:00 this morning. I had dinner with my aunt and uncle and cousins and Jimmy and then I attempted a nap. I didn't really get a nap though; I was too busy catching up with friends that called to wish me a happy birthday. Robbie came back around 8:00 and we all had birthday cake. My cousins got me a Build-A-Bear and I named her Hualapai (after a cool street name here in Vegas). After my cousins went to bed, my aunt and uncle and Jimmy and Robbie and I all sat outside for a bit and then Robbie and I hung out in the hot tub for a few hours. We decided we're going to open a Jersey Mike's Subs in Virginia Beach. He gave me the best birthday hug ever before he left and I promised to cook him a huge dinner when he comes home in May because he definitely helped make this the most awesome birthday weekend I've ever had.

Monday
My flight leaves tomorrow around 3:00 p.m., and I'll be flying non-stop to ORF on Southwest. I land around 11:00 and I'm pretty sure Allison is picking me up from the airport. I am so exhausted. I can't wait to go home and sleep in my bed. It's going to be a busy week.

Tags: airplanes/airports, birthdays, las vegas, little cousins, partying like a rock star, roommates
This crazy trip has got me feelin': sleepy
And I'm singin' along to: Holding Out for a Hero - Frou Frou