First – background. I stumbled across the joint AskMen.com/Cosmo survey online yesterday. I knew I only had 2 blocks booked today, so I emailed the segment producers I work with to let them know I might throw something together.

While there were plenty of raunchy, completely not morning TV-friendly questions, there were also some fairly tame, interesting facts: 46% of men would dump their girlfriend if she got fat, but if the roles were reversed, only 20% of women would ditch their guy. 1 in 5 men and women would track their partner with GPS if they could. Most women would be upset if their boyfriend friended an ex on Facebook – but 3/4s admit to checking out past boyfriends’ profiles fairly regularly.

Probably most interesting to me though – how each sex measures social status. For women, a beautiful house topped the list, followed by a good-looking partner. For men – family came first, seconded by a high-profile job. It was worth a few convos at work, a few Facebook responses, and a decent segment, for being completely driven by anchor banter and full-screen graphics.

Fast-forward 3 hours after my show is over.

I’m on a plane to Baltimore, and somehow find myself surrounded by all the kids that are flying alone.

After takeoff, I crash (not like plane crash, obviously) and catch some sleep draped over the fold-down tray in front of me. I’ve been awake since 1:30 am, and have gotten a collective 6 hours of sleep since Sunday morning – I think I could sleep anywhere at this point.

I’m woken up about an hour later by the idiot in front of me ramming his seat into my head while he tries to recline, and to a chorus of kids whispering.  Once they realize I’m not dead, and am in fact conscious, I see the girl next to me holding my cell phone, asking quietly if I dropped it.

I thank her, and immediately the two boys behind us begin clamoring for attention – making sure I know that THEY saw it on the floor – and are responsible for it being returned to me. I thanked them all, and momentarily thought these are times I should carry candy on me – because let’s face it, I don’t really deal well with children, then lay back down.

(Did I mention they’re calling me ma’am the entire time? I’m not that old. Really.)

This is where the Cosmo survey ties in. Apparently we’re all obsessed with social status – even at age 8.

They immediately being compare their cell phones. The girl next to me wins out – hers is touchscreen and has YouTube. From there, it’s on to her watch. She wins again. She ups the ante, asking if they have laptops. Part of me is thinking – seriously, you’re 8 – but of course, they all have laptops. Next up – iPods, then “DS.” (At that point, I realize maybe they should be calling me ma’am, because it takes me a few minutes to remember what a DS is, because I’ve never actually seen one in person.)

So, women compare their houses, men compare their families, and tweens use technology to determine social pecking order.

It’s all almost enough to make me begin to actually LIKE children.

Now they’re calling each other “Bob” and “Barf”. Moment ruined. Backing away from relative ambivalence toward children, returning to complete lack of desire to procreate.

Oh – slightly off topic – but classic moment. The flight attendant in charge of wrangling the solo-traveling kids is also doing beverage service. She looked at me like I killed a kitten when I ordered a vodka/cranberry. Whatever lady. It’s my 9 p.m., and it’s not like I’m planning to offer the kid next to me a sip.

Newsflash, Neighbor, your bass-heavy music does not lull me to sleep.

Granted, this has been going on for a while. Before my schedule changed, I could come home at 8a, sleep while my neighbor was at work, and wake up to shaking picture frames in the evening. Now my bedtime falls pretty much right when my neighbor gets home.

I’ve tried earplugs.

I’ve tried knocking on their door.

I’ve tried post-it notes, explaining I work off-hours and need to sleep in the evenings.

I’ve tried calling the courtesy officers, and getting them to deal with it.

Nothing. Works.

I’m seriously tempted to aim my speakers at my neighbor’s bedroom wall, and blast the Glee soundtracks on repeat next time I go in at 4a.

I feel like I’m stuck in the yuppie, grown-up version of West Campus. But it was slightly more acceptable when Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was playing live at the frat house next door during Round-Up Weekend, versus blaring over a stereo in the apartment next door on a Tuesday.

So, I finally got around to using my tumblr account.

If you’ve read my About Me section, you know I have Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even Foursquare (which I refuse to link to, because I DO buy into the idea that it’s a giant flashing sign saying ‘hey! come break into my house!’ Again, another topic for another post.)

Some of the accounts are used more than others — this neglected blog is proof of that — but I really see how tumblr can be useful. There are tons of things I come across when I’m searching for stories or just avoiding sleep. Most of the time, I post them on Facebook, and TRY to cross post to Twitter… but honestly, my attention span is too short for all that work.

So, now I’m trying tumblr, to link everything together. It’s more convenient than this blog for quirky little things I stumble upon… and that’s why I’m calling it MoonLite (get it? Not funny? That’s what I thought). So I’ll still be posting long diatribes about random, completely useless topics here (just as infrequently as ever)…. but for a better look into my daily life, what makes me laugh, and what makes me pay attention for more than .5 seconds, check out my tumblr account.

Sun, Skyline, Sofia

Not gonna lie. Kind of love doing the 8a/12n. Work at 4:30… off at 12:30… perfect time to sit out on the roof or by the pool…..

No really, that's Foreigner. On the other side of the monitors.

On the bright side, I watched Foreigner perform yesterday (and realized I actually know a lot of their songs!). Plus — my apartment is finally clean, and I’m headed southbound on 35 after my show is done tomorrow (yes, there will be Pat Green). Time for a weekend of beer, bbq and drunk brunch.

One day weekends are rough… there’s enough time to totally mess up your sleeping schedule– but not enough time to get back to work sleep schedule before Monday.

I guess I’ll grab a Sugar-free Red Bull from the overpriced Shell station on McKinney before I head to work…

Thank God I’m writing today?

…and it rained the whole time. Fitting right?

Boyfriend’s cousin was getting married in Tacoma, and I decided to be brave, and meet the family. All 50 million of them. Okay, maybe not 50 million, but it’s definitely a much larger family than mine.

A lot of the weekend was family-centric for him — but we did manage to sneak away to do a few touristy things. We tried going up to see Mount Rainier,  but because of the weather, we couldn’t ever get a peek of it.  Kind of funny actually — a few months before the wedding, I mentioned that was something I wanted to do. Boyfriend told me there was no time, so I don’t pack tennis shoes or any form of nature-friendly clothes. I sort of wanted to smack him when I mention it wistfully again while we’re there and he says “Oh yeah, we should do that!” A quick, crack of dawn trip to Target later, and I’m now the owner of bright red canvas Keds knock-offs and a white hoodie (size XS–victory!) So, decked out in that, we tried to make it to Mount Rainier — instead we stopped at a look out with a waterfall — gorgeous. While the clouds sucked because we couldn’t see Mount Rainer, it was amazing the way they wound around the cliffs and mountains.

At the Temple. Notice the wooden Shabbat set (top right) and the Israeli Army kit (bottom left)

Later that night we went to the wedding – my first Jewish wedding. (For some reason, all my friends who get hitched are Catholic?). It was different — very small and very quick. Even given the fact that everything was said in Hebrew AND English, it took 20 minutes from the bride walking down the aisle, to “Mazel Tov!” That is an efficient ceremony!

The next morning, nearly everyone else headed home, but Boyfriend and I stayed in Seattle to be touristy. We started to take I-5 into town… but halfway there, I made him double back, so we could cross the sound by bridge over something called “The Narrows” (according to my map at least?). Turned out to be a fun drive. We hopped the ferry across — about a 30 minute ride.

Want some rubber alligator for dinner? Sorry, he's guarding the shellfish...

We headed straight to Pike’s Place after we got into town. I picked up a some lemon-garlic infused olive oil for my mom/me. (She has custody of the bottle at her house, I have visitation/cooking rights?) We wandered around — saw the original Starbucks. I thought about going in, but the line was ridiculous, and I can get Starbucks by walking out my apartment door and through the parking garage…

Then we checked into our hotel — The Edgewater. Gorgeous, overpriced, right on the water, with a view of the Space Needle. Thank you Hotwire. The place used in-room fireplaces for heat. Rustic? Best part — the bar. You felt like you were on top of the water — and the happy hour was pretty good — 6 dollar martinis and wines, 3 dollar drafts, and 8 dollar appetizers. Let’s just say I took advantage of it.

We went up to Edmonds (Edmond? Edmunds? Edmund? I guess I could google it, but whatever…) to see Boyfriend’s grandmother for dinner. (It’s all about brownie points… plus, she reminded me of my Granny, in a good way.) I apparently fell asleep in the car on the way back — I blame the seat warmers — and after an hour of Boyfriend driving in circles as I alternately yelled “Space Needle!” and “No, Sleep!” we went up to the Space Needle. (For the record, I have no recollection of this conversation. Then again, I also talk in my sleep, and have been known to sleep-call people…) It was pretty.. but.. eh. The P-I globe was probably the coolest thing to see. We gazed, I snapped pictures, and a short time later, we were back at the hotel, crashing, to wake up and catch flights at 7 am.

It was a fun trip overall — definitely someplace I’d go back to visit — even someplace I’d love to live. Not sure if I could take the rain and cold though.. I guess I like the dry, oppressive heat here in Tejas? Some things would take getting used to — like the Trees. Yes trees with a capital T. Living in Texas has made me forget what a lot of trees looks like. Most of the drives reminded me of the interstate we would take between Virginia Beach and Busch Gardens in Williamsburg — gorgeous. But man, my allergies hated me after a couple of days there. Instead of snowball stands in strip mall parking lots, they have coffee stands. Forget your hurricane evacuation route — check the one for the volcano, and most importantly — learn what to do in case of an earthquake!

I don’t really blame them. I’ve been that neighbor. No one really thinks, “Hey, it’s 6:30 at night, I bet that girl who lives next door is totally asleep!”.

No, they’re thinking, “Hell yeah, I survived another hell-ish week at work — Wooooo!”

I have ear plugs, but I always worry about using them — what if I don’t hear my alarm?

Any suggestions?

(On a completely unrelated note — I made a bigger dent in my apartment today…. but I’m going to be lazy and sit by a pool tomorrow with wine, instead of cleaning more. There’s always Sunday?”

Part of it is my work schedule (or lack thereof?), part of it is poor planning on my part.

I’m still on overnights — which really should give me all day to clean my apartment — but somehow that’s not really working out for me. A little over a month ago Work launched a new newscast. While they were working out who would produce it full-time, I got to be a guinea pig. That meant moving my schedule up by an hour and a half — just as I was getting the whole sleep routine down pat.

So for the past six weeks, I’ve lived off of about 4 hours of sleep a day and Sugar-Free Red Bull. Now, I know you must be thinking, “But Bonnie, doesn’t that give  you MORE time to clean?” Technically you’re right. But I spend most of my day completely exhausted in bed trying to sleep. Trying is the key word — apparently I’m not dedicated enough to my REM cycle.

Luckily, on Monday I get to go back to my old writing schedule. Mixed feelings about it, but overall happy.

Still, I can’t completely blame the schedule at Work — I’ve gone out of town WAY too much. I’ve taken something like 5 trips in the past 8 weeks — granted, one was a funeral, another was to spend time with my sister and aunt, and another was a wedding. Boyfriend also came to visit one of the weeks I stayed in town, and I spent the other two doing laundry at my parents house. I have three half-packed suitcases, and 2 baskets of clean clothes lying around my apartment — the largest currently creating some sort of deathtrap in my entryway/kitchen. Thank God I’ve hoarded enough clothes to last me a good six months without doing laundry, and the seasons changed.

I was really looking forward to this weekend — no flying, driving or entertaining. Perfect weekend to spend cleaning and relaxing.

Instead, I work Saturday and only have Sunday off.

When it’s been this long in between cleaning marathons, I really, really like spending a whole day cleaning when it’s been this long — and also go through closets/bookshelves to get rid of junk I don’t need. But it’s sort of hard to fathom giving up my One Day Off to cleaning… so I’m going to do something Scary — listen to my parents.

No really, if they read this, they’d say, “Bonnie, just do a little each day. It’ll be easier.”

So I’m dedicating the next hour before I have to get ready for work to unpacking and straightening up.

Tomorrow I’ll tackle trading sweaters and pants out for tank-tops and shorts stored in boxes.

Saturday I clean out closets and bookshelves, Sunday I CLEAN.

Then again, I also swore I would update this blog regularly. And we can see how well that plan is going.

I was talking to a friend the other day — and she said something that made me think — the cleanliness of your apartment affects your mood. Or maybe it was that it reflects your mood. Whichever — she’s right. I’ve been feeling stressed and scattered and generally blah for the past few weeks. So, maybe cleaning will change that?

Dallas decided it’s jealous of Denver. We got a foot of snow in one day. I took a million pictures, then decided sledding on a boogie board was a good idea. Rookie mistake?

I drove to Shreveport for a Mardi Gras parade. Lots of Beads, lots of beer.

I turned 24. Ack.