It's time for Houston trip, part deux. In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I didn't crash -- at least not on a plane.

It was an interesting trip to say the least. I'd almost managed to convince myself not to go, but I made everything work out. I got the rental, I got travel-size toiletries and I drove myself to the airport.

The trip held a lot of twists and turns for me. There were moments where I was wishing that I had just stayed at home. Houston wasn't a very welcoming city.

It's a working city but an up-and-coming one at the same time. I quickly discovered that it could basically be divided into two areas: "the loop" and "outside the loop."

My friend lived within the loop. It circles around downtown Houston and its surrounding area. The only time he ventures out of it is to go to the airport or the beach. Otherwise everything he would ever want to do is within that loop.

I will admit that he has a shorter drive to work, but he still has a bit of a snobby attitude toward the "outsiders".

In fact, I discovered a lot of elements of my friend's new life and Houston have a lot of snobbishness to them. I even told him he was snooty and superficial at one point. Yes, I know that's not exactly the best way to spend time with your best friend from college.

He'd already told me that I needed to bring "nice" going-out clothes for our nighttime adventures. Apparently what I would wear to a Knoxville club might not be appropriate or nice enough for a club in Houston. After all, the club he wanted to take me to is frequented by Houston Rocket basketball players. You have to look nice for them, right?

So, snooty clubs. Check. Snooty loop? Check. And it doesn't end there.

Yes, my friend has snooty friends. It's not that I hated them. They were nice enough and made an effort to talk to me. Kinda. But they were very superficial. I didn't want to talk about electrolysis or shopping at Neiman Marcus or the definition of cute or the fact that sneakers are meant only for the gym. Get my point?

So, snooty friends? Check.

Houston itself was pretty snooty. Do you realize that parking is so horrible that you have to pay at most things? We went to a movie and had to shell out $3 to park then turn around and pay $9.50 for the movie! When we went to a mall, we had the option of parking underground, where it's apparently impossible to find a spot, OR we could pay to park OR have a valet do it for us. Yes, valet parking at the mall.

Snooty parking? Check.

Don't get me wrong. He and I had some good times spread throughout the weekend, too. It's just there was some nastiness to work through.

He and I argued over all the snootiness that I detested and a little bit of everything else that we could find. We've gone such different roads that I found myself wondering if those kids that we once were are dead and gone or just buried in these shells that we call adults.

Worse yet, I feared that our friendship was something that was just as cold and dead as those kids. It broke a little piece of my heart to think that we'd grown so far apart that our relationship couldn't be salvaged.

It wasn't until my last night there that we had a moment that rejuvenated what I had given up dead. Our friendship wasn't dead or gone. Sure, he and I have changed drastically in some ways, but somewhere in me, there's a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed girl that still has an idealized vision of the world; and in him, there's that guy that always helped to keep her feet on the ground.

It was nice to see that we still had it ... even if he lives in Snootyton.

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The world is full of injustices. It really is. There doesn't seem to be an end to them.

Children are starving in Africa. Puppies and kittens are being euthanized because they can't find homes. Soldiers are fighting wars in which they're supported, but not their cause.

Then there are the personal injustices. The dog eats your favorite shoes. Your significant other dumps you for the next best thing. That cute outfit at the mall that just happens to be on sale also happens to not fit.

Or if you're Amanda Greever, the cat is eating your flip flops, you're never someone's next best thing and the cute outfit is always too small.

But for me, I discovered an injustice even worse. Bad drivers are a serious threat! Whether it's eating behind the wheel, talking or texting on your stupid cell phone or just not paying attention to the road, dumb drivers are a menace!

A month ago, I was driving along and, as MOST drivers do, I stopped at a red light. The chick behind me decided that wasn't the best idea in the whole wide world. So, she didn't stop until her car connected with mine.

No, it wasn't a good night. No, I wasn't a happy camper. No, I didn't slap her silly when she told me she just wasn't paying attention to her driving and didn't realize the light was red.

I thought about it, though.

I thought long and hard about it when the police officer asked me if my car had a license plate. I told him that it did once, but it also had a bumper once, too. I thought long and hard about it as I made my dumb driver walk with me on Cumberland Avenue looking for my tag.

But I restrained myself. I restrained myself when we saw random pieces of my car along the highway. I restrained myself when we had to actually take a piece off my car to keep it from dragging.

However, this week, I'm not sure I would restrain myself from at least smacking her once. The insurance company totaled my car, and I discovered what it feels like to have someone write you a check and buy you off.

I'm going to drive my car that looks like something salvaged from a junk yard. I'm going to take my buy-off check and put it into savings so that one day I can afford a car with all its parts. And I'm not going to hunt down a driver that didn't pay attention to the road.

Yes, I'm bitter, but there's something wrong with the fact that my car is "totaled" and drivable junk due to no fault of my own. I was stopped at a light and following the laws of this land. My fate was taken out of my hands.

That's a scary and sobering thought. It also makes me very bitter, can you tell? However, it also makes me work harder to take other areas of my life into my hands. That's something, at least.

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What is it about the lives of other people that hook us to the point where we can't turn away? Reality shows are slowly -- okay, not so slowly -- taking over the world.

I'm becoming obsessed with them. Working a night shift for the last few years at the Times had drastically cut into not only my social life, but also my TV viewing schedule. The switch to a day shift has opened up whole new doors, though.

Sure, the fact that I can actually go out on a Friday or Saturday night is great, but I can watch "American Idol" or "Top Chef" or any of the other 500 shows on TV.

Take tonight, for example. I watched "AI" and saw the contestants tackle the songs of the great Dolly Parton. I wasn't overly impressed with some of the performances, but then again, I'm a tougher critic than Simon Cowell at times. My friend Chris said that it serves me right if the performances were horrible.

"That's what you get for watching 'American Idol,'" he said. "You know that stuff is rotting your brain."

Or you could go with what another friend, Steve, had to say, "Do you actually feel the brain cells leaving your body?"

After "Idol" I watched a little "Dancing with the Stars" but mainly just wanted to see who would be going home. I finished off the night with "Rock of Love 2" with Poison's Bret Michaels.

What makes me watch these shows? Especially shows like "Rock of Love." Lord, there's a lot of slutty, trashy women on that show. It's not hot yet Michaels thinks they're fabulous. If skimpy clothing and cattiness equal hot, then he's got a perfect set to choose from.

Or perhaps I should touch on my most guilty pleasure of all: "The Moment of Truth." For those who don't know the premise, your average person is asked a series of scandalous questions that can earn big bucks but could also end friendships and relationships. They are hooked up to a lie detector that measures their level of truthfulness. This show is insanely popular! I'll be the first to admit that I'm addicted to that show. There's just something about watching people squirm on the hot seat that reels you in.

I can think of a person or two that I would want put up against a lie detector. I have a feeling they wouldn't last past the first question or maybe the second. And I'll be honest and say that I wouldn't want to be on it, either. I'm not saying that I would lie, but I'm a person that prefers to divulge information on my own time.

So are these shows truly rotting my brain or sucking brain cells out of my body? It's possible. Are there better things I could be doing with my time? Of course. But don't we all need guilty pleasures of some kind, and as Stockard Channing said in "Grease": "There are worse things I could do."

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New Kids on the Block is scheduled to make an appearance on NBC's "Today" show to announce that they are reuniting to record brand-new music. I can't even begin to express how stoked I am over this! And before anyone starts laughing, I'm not the only one. I've heard other women getting just as excited at the thought of seeing the band reunite, record new music, and best yet, GO ON TOUR!

New Kids take me back to a simpler time: Second grade. I had a major crush on Joey (McEntire), while other girls were bigger fans of Jordan (Knight). Amazing how most girls went for one of those two rather than the other three members.  Donnie (Wahlberg) was the bad boy that just seemed to have too much of a bad attitude. Danny (Wood) was just there.  Jonathan (Knight and Jordan's brother) didn't seem to hold much appeal either. Sure, there were girls that probably made one of those three their favorite, but Joey and Jordan stole the most hearts. I remember sitting in Miss Hyder's second-grade class green with envy because another girl in class had a big button featuring Jordan's head propped up on her desk. I was jealous of the fact that she had a constant reminder of her favorite New Kid, while my desk didn't bare any image of Joey.

I had plenty of other New Kid items though. They had a crazy merchandising campaign for the band, and I made sure to get Mom to buy as much of it as I could. I had pajamas, dolls, posters, videos, and most importantly, New Kid sheets!  I could lay with my head next to theirs on my pillow and wrap up in their warm goodness. Phrasing it that way makes me want to go buy Hugh Jackman sheets. OOH! I wonder if they ever made Magnum P.I. sheets. ...

Okay, to get back on track, the musical return of New Kids is huge. Women are remembering the days when it was cool to like a boy band.  We still remember the words to "Step by Step," "Hangin' Tough" and all the other pop hits and ballads that made us swoon, whether we were 10 or 20.  The knowledge that knowing this reunion comes 20 years after the album "Hangin' Tough" was released is pretty tough to swallow. I'm only 26 but hearing that something I remember happened 20 years ago still makes me feel old.

Every female I've talked to is excited about the New Kids coming back. All the men that have heard us mention it have laughed. Or heckled. Or jeered. So sure, maybe New Kids are past their prime. They ARE pushing 40 now. But at the same time, they're New Kids on the Block. And if they're looking for a second chance, then who are we to say no? So I'll be out there supporting them and yes, I'll go see them when they hit the stage. Be a rebel and get out there to join me.

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I'll ask you two questions. Do you have goals? They could be getting married, having children or maybe climbing the career ladder. Or maybe they're smaller like quitting smoking or buying a new car. Got your goals in mind? Then read on.

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I promised a friend that I would touch on this topic for her. What is it about someone's interest fading in you that makes you want to rekindle it? I'll tell you a story to illustrate ...

Take this guy she knows. They met, they clicked, they talked ... a lot. Theirs was a long-distance thing. I don't know that I could call it a relationship, and it was rather short-lived.

The boy was fun at first, but he slowly stopped being fun. 

It seemed her interest wasn't the only one waning, either. His calls and texts, which had been daily, suddenly weren't coming every day anymore. And she wasn't that upset over the loss of constant communicating.

He would throw her a bone (aka: a text or an e-mail), but she didn't care anymore. Although, I'm not sure she did a whole lot to begin with, but that's another column for another day. She either chose not to respond to his half-baked attempts at saying hello or she would take her sweet time. We don't rush for anyone, after all.

Here's the funny thing, the more she disregarded his feeble attempts or didn't jump when he wanted her to, the more he tried. He started pointing out she hadn't responded. He started trying to get her hooked all over again, despite the fact that I think they had both realized they were a passing infatuation (aka: fling).

So it's odd. When he started losing interest in her, she was both relieved and a little annoyed that her appeal had died off. And when he started trying to reel her in, I'm sure it stroked her ego a little bit, but she was done with him at this point.

Here's the part that piques my interest. He's doing the bare minimum to fake communication with her. He obviously doesn't want to talk to her or he would try harder. Yet when his efforts are ignored, he picks up the pace and does, in fact, try harder. It's like being ignored or disregarded has made him want her attached again.

It's not a matter of he likes her. It's not that he misses talking to her. No, I think he wants her hanging on. We never like it when we're brushed aside, but even if she'd taken his bait, it wouldn't have lasted. A leopard doesn't change his spots, and a guy doesn't change his attitude.

Why is it that sometimes we want to keep hanging on, even if we have little to no interest? Is it an ego thing? Or, is it that we like to keep our options open? We'll throw out just enough bait to keep someone hooked, but we never truly reel them in. They're just left dangling.

It's a situation I've been in, on both sides of the coin. It's not fun or fair, regardless of the situation. So why does it happen? Give me your thoughts because I don't have a clue.

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