The Next Day

(I thought I posted this yesterday but must have forgot.)

Since we've lived in this house, Alan and I have attempted to have parties. On Super Bowl Sunday, one person showed up. So we've never really had good turnouts until last night. About fifteen people came, and the last ones left around 2:00 a.m. The margaritas went quickly and very little food was left. And oddly, this morning I found our nerf football across the street in a neighbor's yard.

Unfortunately, as some people well know, Alan doesn't always pace himself too well. He began coming back to life around 5:00 this afternoon. Sadly, I think he's allergic to alcohol. He's now finishing a bowl of chicken noodle, and we're about to go get me some Taco Villa.

I was fine this morning -- cleaned up the kitchen, the patio, mopped, basically did e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g while Alan slept and puked intermittently. I even worked out. I also made Alan a hangover cure smoothie, but he couldn't eat it. People with nausea are such babies.

So that's basically it - good party and hopefully some new people to hang out with this summer.

It's Official!

Not pregnant, just done with school. As I left my last final today, I walked down the stairs with this mischievous grin on my face, as if I were getting away with something. But I think it'll really sink in Sunday night when I have no reading or studying of any kind.

Tomorrow night we're having a par-tay. I'd like to say it's in honor of me finishing school, but it's really an Oxy thing. Although, I have warned everyone why I will be celebrating and that I better not be celebrating alone. I'm hoping for a patio-thing, but it's forecasted to be 97 with 20-30 mph winds (springtime in Midland, Texas). I also hope to have a good story (at least one) to share the next day. Heather, I wish you were here to offer your party-planning tips.

And as if all of that weren't exciting enough, DeeBee and the kids are coming Sunday - woohoo! This will be the first time Alan and I have had a house, and therefore the first time they'll all get to stay with us. Go to the "Rain or Shine" link to the right and see recent pictures of them all. My niece and nephews are soccer phenoms. Also, if you're in the mood to visit the warped mind of a teenage girl, check out "Life is Like a Dance" sometime.

I feel the sofa pulling me near. And the remote control. And a little bit of watching Food Network to get me in the mood for lunch. Aaaaah, I'm spoiled. Thank you, Alan. :-)

Junior's Treasure

This posting is courtesy of Alan. The items below were found while Tanya was cleaning out behind and under the fridge:

4 bottle caps
3 pieces of candy
3 catnip mice
2 ink pens
2 batteries
2 clothespins
1 wine cork
1 whole pecan
1 ponytail holder
1 screw
1 screwdriver

Inexpensive cat toys...$6
Your cat losing crap under the fridge...priceless

Latest craze

The recital was fun - Addison did GREAT. Addison's dad and stepmom sat next to me and Alan, and we all had a good laugh about one of the last recitals Addison was in when she was 6 or 7. $150 on costumes and recital fees, not to mention the monthly tuition for 9 months, just to watch Addison stand up there and roll her eyes. :-) Anyway, she did awesome Saturday. About half-way through, Alan had reached his limit on ballet dances, but he was a trouper and stuck it out. I thought he was going to excuse himself though when they played "Wind Beneath my Wings."

My latest endeavor that I'm excited about is yoga. The workout is 60 minutes, so I've got to figure out how to work this into my day. It's going to be next to impossible to do when everyone's home, which I discovered yesterday. I thought the closed and locked bedroom door (and the fact that I announced I was going to work out) would be clue enough not to disturb me. First interruption was Addison:

"What?"
"Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"What'd you have for breakfast?"

Next was Alan needing something out of the bedroom. A few minutes later was Alan again:

"Yes?"
"Sorry to interrupt......(long pause).....Whew!!! It's hot out there!"

Yoga isn't something you interrupt. Have you seen some of the poses you have to work yourself into? Anyway, I really like it so far. I like the crazy directions the instructor thinks you can follow, like, "Now, widen your thigh bones and press them against your hamstrings." Or my favorite, "Extend the lower ribs away from the buttocks flesh."

Wish me luck.

Recital Day

So pretty.

Am I happy or scared? What is up with my eyes. Anyway, more later on the recital.

I got nothing

Even though I have four days of school next week, I consider it finished. After getting through the group project and presentation, I'm done. Next week is just going through the motions.

I celebrated yesterday by taking a nap after I got home. Then I took another brief one on the floor today after weedeating. I really hate that job. That was three hours ago and I'm still tired. I might do my new yoga workout next. Got the DVD in the mail yesterday. Alan looked at the male instructor on the cover and concluded, "Gay" and something about there being no visible "package."

I'm not only bored today, I'm bor-ing. So I'll end here and maybe have something to post about Addison's recital tomorrow. By the way, she says my blog looks like an old lady's when I post pictures of flowers. I so love the wisdom of a teenager.

Ole!

Thank God. Junior has just retreated to his spot under the armoire. That means for the next two hours I will have freedom from having my legs and feet attacked while sitting at the computer or being ambushed from under the dining table as I walk through my own house.

Seems that Elizabeth and I had the same idea - I just had to post a picture of the flowers. Now, if you saw our flower beds as a whole, you'd be thinking "white trash." I also had to post the one that is just a stalk, because I can't figure out what it's going to be. An iris maybe?



It doesn't seem right that something grown naturally from a tree, like an avocado, should be so fattening. It's like a prank Nature wanted to play. Anyway, made some yummo guacamole just now. Never a good idea to take the whole bowl and whole bag of chips to sit down and eat. Should have scooped out a small portion of each, but I guess I'll just consider that my lunch. I didn't eat ALL of it - Bailey would have died.

Back to work now.

Monday Shmunday

Not much in the mood for a long blog today. My brain is overloaded with how in the world we get a group presentation together by Thursday morning, when we just received the assignment today. Ah, but that's the joy of group work. (sigh) Not to mention everything we need is on microfilm at the library. Have you ever sat for more than an hour at a time scrolling through microfilm? It can literally be nauseating.

Some days my body cannot handle even one cup of coffee (although it was a large one). I'm sitting in class during the break and at least three people come back in, open up their bags of chips or whatever and all start crunching at the same time. The room was dead silent except for the crunching. So I think it was the caffeine that had me jittery enough to want to scream. Anything to drown out all that CRUNCHING. And here's something I want to throw out - please, please, please avoid eating fritos or nacho cheese doritos when you sit inches from someone else! If you're not the one eating them, the smell is just gross.

You're welcome.

"Serenity now, serenity now!"

No class today - this and that happened, so we lucked into a take-home exam instead of a classroom exam. Anytime I've mentioned to someone what class I would be taking (Civil War & Reconstruction), people would groan. Myself included. Actually, it's really interesting and I'm enjoying it. Four straight hours of lecture everyday sucks, but the class is over in two more weeks. I won't remember half of it once I've taken the final, but hopefully some tidbits will remain.

Went to Alan's softball game last night, and they lost again. It never fails with these supposedly "fun" co-ed company teams. There is always someone on the team who shows up to win and win ONLY, and if things don't go well then everyone's going to hear about it. I was biting my tongue, particularly after my recent blow-up. Anyway, the pitcher is a jerk. He was freely giving unwanted advice to team members, except his advice comes off as "do it this way, you moron." My favorite part was when he threw his glove towards the dugout after a particularly sucky inning. Look dude, you have to WORK with these people. Think about it.

And then there was the very obese man on the opposing team who while w-a-l-k-i-n-g out to his spot at third base, commented oh so proudly about how his team wouldn't have to work too hard. So after he grossly missed a grounder and stumbled to his fat knees, someone from the stands might have made a comment about his having to work after all.

Alan tells me there are Beer Leagues in Midland. In Midland, I say! Is it possible that there exists a group of people in Midland who are not afraid to admit they drink beer, and then go so far as to do so in public? Surely you jest.

Alright, I'm going to work on my test now so that mine and Alan's weekend will be free. Right at this moment I wish I had Addison's camera. Junior is sculpting the perfect napping spot out of the pile of laundry on the dining table. Guess I should get to that laundry or find a better place to throw it.

Not my best

I'm generally a nice person and most people who know me, know that. But one of my heroes is Leah Remini, aka "Carrie" from the King of Queens. I'm not sure that says good things. I like being around people who are extremely honest, brutually if absolutely necessary, and unless the feelings of little kids or little old ladies need to be spared, they tell it like it is. I like this in other people, because I can't be that way. I so aspire to be like Carrie, but only in my daydreams. I never planned to act on it. So when the Carrie in me unleashed itself onto a perfect stranger over the weekend, I was unprepared for the afteraffect.

Although I preface this by saying that I am NOT proud of how I reacted, I must admit it was funny. Basically a lady accused me of hitting her door with my door as I was getting into my car. I think it was the initial look on her face ALONE that set me off. I went off on this woman, but when she said "And STAY OFF your cell phone," I went way off. This was all taking place in the Albertson's parking lot, and I was so enraged I was oblivious to who was around.

Here's the worst part. At the split second that she accused me of this, I was absolutely certain I never touched her car. Afterwards, I wasn't so sure. And it was no small nick. I didn't feel my door hit hers, didn't hear it, the wind wasn't blowing wildly, nothing. I was so sure I hadn't done it. Still, why not just take a different approach, see if the nick matched up to a point on my car door, and admit it if it did? I really don't know what came over me.

Two other times in my life I felt similar rage. One was when I was fifteen and one of my good friends just pissed me off royally. I was ready to smack her at the carnival in front of everyone. (Her name was Carrie - weird.) The other time I was several months pregnant and apparently was having a hormonally-induced temper tantrum. I threw something at Matt.

I'm going into an industry where you just can't act that way. That woman could have been a future student's grandmother. But something about the smug look on her face just sent me over the edge. She had an eldery lady with her, probably her mother, and it didn't stop me for a second. I was an ugly "B." So although it was suggested that perhaps I don't share this with anyone, it's sort of self-punishment to tell people what you did. It's embarrassing and you wish you didn't do it, yet you did and it's kind of funny. That's so wrong. But it's the truth, and isn't that what this is about?

Everything under the Sun

What is the matter with someone who is pissed off if she's too busy and annoyed if she's bored? The matter is that she is irritating. So although I have a class every day for the next three weeks, I am anticipating the need to fill my summer with things to do. Since Alan built up a little dough in our PayPal account, I've been shopping for books on eBay. Shopping is so much more enjoyable when you're competing against people, kind of like the auctions. Speaking of which, there's another auction this weekend. Alan's been wanting to (finally) take that trip to Fort Worth, but seemed to decide last night we really didn't have the money. Here's how it works - since we were considering taking a weekend trip that would have been a little costly, what with hotel, gas, eating at Papadeaux's, La Madeleine, and Krispy Kreme, etc., that means we can spend a fraction of that at the auction. That's how I like to rationalize spending. I don't do much spending (to which Alan will attest) but given the right circumstances and go-ahead from the spending Gods, I can do it well on occasion.

My blog is getting picturelessly boring. Addison didn't have the USB(?) cord for her camera last week, so I couldn't share anything. Of course I really haven't had much to take a picture of, unless you count my new hairdo in which I've recently lost 8 inches maybe? And I might have taken a picture of how I found the kitchen when I got home from class today. Junior had some fun with a roll of paper towels he found under the sink, as well as some fun knocking refrigerator magnets and the papers they were holding onto the floor. One of the magnets is a Turkish "Evil Eye" that some friends recently gave us to ward off negativity and bad feelings in the household. Junior does not approve of such silly intentions.

Time now for homework and not eating Oreos. Not eating Oreos. Not going to do it.

It's paint day

I have to take advantage of this short break before the Maymester starts next week. So I'm finally painting the back wall of the den. I'm pleased to say the palm tree wallpaper border came off in a snap - actually about 60 seconds. So if this house wasn't colorful enough, it's going to get colorier in about an hour. I wonder if the state of Texas will frown upon me allowing my future students to make up words? Why can't "colorier" be a word? Everybody gets what it means - that's the beauty of English. It's like Bush's "strategery." We know what he meant.

I need (want) more blogs to read. I like when people have links on their blogs to other blogs. I've found a couple that I read regularly but don't know the people at all. I just like what they have to say. So if you are a blog hog, meaning you are not sharing your friends' blogs with the rest of us by linking them on your site, shame on you! Some of us are not above admitting we want more things to waste time on.

Good to be home

I'm going to be disciplined today and write one of my finals instead of blogging. Going to listen to a little Gene Harris and the Three Sounds that Alan turned me on to a few years ago and get after it! Then I'm going to study for the other finals. Although I did get a little sidetracked this morning when I weedeated the front yard instead of working. Trip was fine - more about that later. See? No blogging whatsoever.