Top 10

7. I need somebody PHELPS, he beats everybody PHELPS! It was a proud moment for the US & A when big ears, chiseled body, 6'4" swimmer Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal for the American team. Not only that but watching the women's gymnastics was another one of my favorite events, as well as the marathon. It is always a special year when the olympics come around, and this year, the Americans did well in China. Congratulations and thank you Michael Phelps, Nastia Lukin, and Shawn Johnson! "Those chinese sons of a b-tches are going down" The End of Zee World

8. Keepin' it Weird. I moved to Austin in January and it has been such a great and interesting city to live in. Barton Springs, Lake Travis/Austin, Spider House, Cain & Ables, Pho!, TIFFS TREATS, Amy's, downtown (enough said there), ACL, Town Lake, and the list goes on. Not to mention all the psychedelic and rad people that compose the city, without whom it wouldn't be weird. 

9. "I get by with a little help from my friends" Austin and UT would be nothing without all the hot, a bit wild, and amazing people that I have met. A couple that 2008 brought that deserve an honorable mention are the Womanizer aka my husband Dustin O'neal, and of course my loves Cristina, Cara, Michelle and Ingrid! Without which I don't know how I'd get by. 

10. Last but not least, the Big Apple. I'm not talking about New York, but I am talking about my 2008 purchase of this adorable little macbook which I sleep next to, eat next to, practically live next to. I don't know if I will ever go back to a pc, I'm a mac girl now. 

My 08

2008 brought much more than anyone could have predicted. Change, history, a recession, a different pace. Good and bad, lets look back at the good the bad and the very very good!

1. Ye Shall Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Make You Free. The first day as a Texas Longhorn I truly felt inspired, to be greater, to be the best I could be. Corney but true and I am truly blessed to be at such an amazing school. If you go to Texas, you should be too!

2. Shock Me Like An Electric Eel. My first Austin City Limits was more like Christie without limits, after a couple hits, a couple bottles of wine, and a couple amazing shows. I had become obsessed with MGMT formerly known as Management this summer and had the priviledge of seeing them at ACL. They are responsible for the musical orgasm that I had. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngarden rocked ACL and drew one of the biggest crowd seen during the festival. Ben Goldwasser I'll be your electric girl.

3. Change? The United States will never be the same after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama shook up the political world with the first ever female presidential candidate and African American. In a surprising outcome, charismatic president elect Barack Obama took down the republican vanilla frosty John McCain in what might consider a landslide. Come January W is out and Obama is in the Black House.

4. It's Britney bitch. This year we were all witness to the return of the fallen pop princess with her Womanizer single and the new release Circus. Two kids, a divorce, an atrocious haircut, and a trip to rehab, I'm sure Britney fans worldwide will hope that she learned from her previous poor choices. I wonder what we get from the pop princess in 2009.

5. Why So Serious? This year did not bring as many blockbusters as the previous years but there were a couple special ones that entertained us this year. My personal favorite "The Dark Knight", "Wall-e", and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" were some of the best flicks of 2008. The Dark Knight takes the cake and I am just amazed at the incredible acting, filmatography, visual picture and writing. Rest in peace gorgeous Heath, you sure put a smile on our face.

6. You Know You Love Me. Chuck Bass, Nate Archibald, Serena VanderWoodsen, Blair Waldorf, Jenny and Dan Humprey all gave me a new guilty pleasure to watch on Monday nights. Enter the world of the priviledged upper east siders and you get = sex, drugs, alcohol, drama...repeat. The next show is Jan 5 Monday night at 7 and I cannot wait!

Longevity

With a new year approaching, let us hope that we will live to see many more to come. On my first night home, while at dinner with my dear Dad and one of his oldest friends I began to think about the things we do in our life that keep us alive. So to make things nice and easy I compiled a list of things we should all try to do everyday if we can...

1. Laughing (and/or smiling) wrinkles only go where the smile has been

2. Play time ...and I don't mean outside with your friends

3. Dreaming...dream big and dream on.

4. Drinking (I mean think about it, drunks always live long lives) preferably red red wine

5; Running (alone or outside with your friends) 

OMG Santa's Coming!

Coming soon...the best of 2008, Madonna review, and wish list! 

Miles Away

I came to Texas (UT from Tech) in such a rush and before I could fully understand all that uprooting my life would entail I left because I knew I had to. I was meant to. I'm not sorry and what it was the best thing to happen to me. And now I am going to back to face what I left behind. Even though I am better off right here where I am I have unfinished business to attend to, being some friends that I left before even thinking about saying goodbye. Even though I have seen them again I need to make my peace with what once was the only life I knew (independently from my family) and leave honorably as a Texas Longhorn. So I will travel miles away...to revisit my old life as if it was a fuzzy dream. 

Snow, Eggnog and Gucci Oh My

Gucci recently just came out with a new version of my favortite hobo (that I do not own yet but hopefully I will soon, and the real one too) Compare. I personally love the classic better than the attempt at a reinvention of one of Gucci's most popular handbags, the large hobo.

Womanizer, Womanizer Baby

The ultimate womanizer ...Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald if you count ladies over 30. If you are not already seen and become addicted to the CW's newest hit show, you are missing out mon petit ami. Take Cruel intentions and combine it with the O.C and you get the ever so dramatic and juicy Gossip Girl. Watch it and love it every Monday on the CW at 7, too bad the next episode does not come out until Jan 5, 2009! I don't know if I can wait that long!   

Cutting Your Losses

I know the last few posts sound like I am either obsessed with money or think about everything in terms of financial worth...well what is it all worth? Sometimes, even I am guilty of it we invest in something, have it be a friend a significant other and that investment of time, emotions, and energy we fail to foresee the ups and downs of that relationship. We keep at it hoping that it will get better when it declines and will be worth it in the long run. Unfortunately there have been multiple relationships that were some of the best investments I ever made that when down faster than they went up. Sometimes, we have to stop looking in our rear view mirror and simply cut our losses now. I fear that if you don't, you will blindly miss out on new opportunities because you were putting all your energy or eggs into one basket. Life's too short. 

I want to wake up in a city that doesn't sleep!

Technically I have never been there, unless movies and the entire collection of Sex and the City counts. Goodness if I thought about it how many of my favorite movies/shows have taken place in NY... I Am Legend, Gossip Girl, Center Stage, Elf, Serendipity, Breakfast at Tiffanys...

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving on the 28th of December I am going to the very heart of it, New York New York! My intenirary includes the empire state building (how Sleepless in Seattle) the statue of liberty with a little green hat, Central Park, ice skating at Rockafeller center, the Sex and the City tour, the Met, and possibly a Broadway play. What a perfect time to go to New York, and I will be there for New Years to see the ball drop! 

We were fated to pretend...

Finance teaches us that in terms of stocks, the greater the risk the greater the return. Small cap stock funds are more volatile than Large cap stocks and especially more than investing in a index fund. Growth funds, particularly aggressive growth funds typically invest in IPO's and start up companies. How risky is that, the company is just entering the stock market for the first time and you decide to pour your money into them. They must have done something to convince you that it was worth it. See the thing is that like risks in our daily lives, the ones with the greatest risk have the least supporting evidence convincing you that you won't just loose it all. The greatest risks in our lives are called dreams. Unlike the stock market what we are risking is more valuable than money, its emotions, time, and it all comes down to an opportunity cost. I think we all need to dream on...and if it's bitter in the start then its sweeter in the end.    

What's it all Worth?

While studying frantically for Finance on a sugar Starbucks latte high I came across this quote..."I always knew I was going to be rich. I never doubted it for one minute" Warren Buffett. One of the richest men in the world always had his mind on the prize and even though not everyone may strive to be billionaires, we should do the same. Someone once told me that when you discover your passion, what makes you sizzle, excited, the thing you love to do that will actually feed you and put a roof over your head, you will inevitably become successful. Passion=drive=innovative thinking=success=$$ and in that case $+passion= even more success. If the things we invest in makes our worth, well what other investment to put effort and money into than ourselves. The you that is furiously typing finance notes on your macbook, the you that is drinking that $4.50 pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, the you that is up at 7 lifting weights and running on the treadmill and the same one that is out on the town downing dirty martinis in a dark bar. What we do makes us what we are worth, and only the choices we make rise or lower our own stock.    

Fakes Are Never in Fashion

I myself love a designer handbags and I wish I had more but I don't. When I was walking to the Trevi Fountain in Roma I saw groupings of Italians selling fakes, anything you want, Gucci, Prada, Fendi, LV. Most people do not think beyond their own desires, and see these bags that mean status, wealth, style, and they purchase. The common person would not be able to distinguish an authentic Louis Vuitton monogram canvas speedy 30 from a fake impostor made practically of plastic by some child in China. The fakes are cheap for a reason and according to an article in Harpars Bazzar "sales from counterfeit merchandise go to fund drug cartels, terrorist acts, money laundering and child labor" now is that where you want your monies to go? No, think! Be a good girl, and go to Saks or Neimans and buy things the way they should be bought, from a store and not off the streets or the back of a van. If you can't afford them, buy what you can afford. According to an article by LV, the brand is highly counterfeited, and just over 1% of the items bearing the trademark  monogram are authentic! What! 1%! Most people think, well no one will know, but you yourself will know. If you are carrying around a fake just for the pleasure of tricking people into an image you would like to portray, you are doing the brand (the designer), and yourself an injustice.  

"Do you think the other ones know he's white?"

If you go to UT you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. None other than the most highly sought after creature on campus...the albino squirrel. For a semester and a summer I looked for this furry creature, obsessed about seeing it and even forced a friend to constantly show me a picture of it as proof of its existence. Well it does exist and it took me 1/3 way into the Fall semester to see it on Whitis. It is adorable and I think seeing this UT phenomenon is something every student should put on their "list of things to do before I graduate" along with being promiscuous in the library (which has been on my list since...freshmen year and is still on there). Anyways the squirrels, they are so adorable but very crazy. The bums feed them shrooms most likely and the students feed them anything, well they will eat anything you give them. Walking down Whitis, (the location of the original sighting), with my french classmate we noticed a particularly plump squirrel eating a nut. And it wasn't just one. The adorable campus creatures are preparing for the winter by putting on the poundage as we are with our scarves, vest, turtle necks and North Faces, not to mention the ever so popular Uggs. Winter is finally here, yay!