Month of May, 2003

Escaping to the City

I'm off to NYC very, very early in the morning. It will be perfect to escape from work and school and all the goings on in those places. I worry so much about work and school that I worry very little about myself. This is an odd change of events.

The house is quiet tonight. I'm all alone. Well, the dogs are here so I'm really not. I like having the house to myself; it doesn't happen often enough.

I should smoke a cigarette and get into bed. Getting up before 5am will require some sleep.

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My Poor Dog

I am such a bad mom. Look at my baby! He's all bandaged up!

Tiger had a cyst on his right ear so I took him to the vet to have it removed. I naively thought that it wouldn't be a big deal. They convinced me to leave Tiger with them all day long and see how they send him back! All I know is they took off part of the ear and stitched him up. The bandages are supposed to stay on until Monday (if we can keep them on that long). Poor thing is on pain meds and everything! I snapped this picture as he was sleeping on the couch (which is why his tongue is sticking out - isn't it hilarious?). I hope he'll spend a lot of the weekend sleeping this off. I can't believe I thought it wouldn't be a big deal!

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View from the backseat

My mother took this pic of me during our trip this weekend.

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It's that time of year

Congratulations, Mia, on your marriage!

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Villain

I haven't ever thought of being a villain before. For some reason this makes me think of Kevin.

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Erik's Wedding

Went to San Antonio this weekend for Erik and Tiffany's wedding. My family has been friends with Erik's since we were very, very young. It was so special to see him get married to such a wonderful woman. The weekend away with my parents and Kristen was quite fun and good for my spirit.

Now I'm back in the groove of things here. Work is killer at the moment, but I'll somehow get through it. I'm actually pleased with my ability to keep perspective today when I had a tough client breathing down my neck. We'll see how much I'll be able to keep it together as the week progresses.

Went to class tonight instead of going on Saturday. I'm really loving my organizational behavior class this semester. It's completely fascinating and extremely applicable to my work life. When ideas align in both work and school, I know someone is trying to tell me something.

I went to school tonight because I'm going to visit Kevin in New York City this weekend. Found a really great last minute rate and jumped on it. This way I get to see Kevin now instead of in a month like I had thought. There's nothing quite like immediate satisfaction...well, almost immediate.

Congrats to AB for selling her house!! I can hardly believe she's going to be gone so quickly, but I'm really happy for her.

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Arizona and Back

I got back in town Thursday afternoon. I spent the first part of the week in Arizona where my company is headquartered. I attended a leadership meeting with other managers in support services. It was an incredible time.

I barely had enough time to catch my breath before I'm out of town again. This weekend I'm attending a wedding with my family in San Antonio. It will be a great time to see old friends so I'm really looking forward to it.

Leaving you with a picture from my trip.

Whistle

Email from Karen that I overlooked, "Hey I stood in the kitchen and blew the whistle and tiger came running from the front room! Yay!"

We're teaching Tiger "come" with a dog whistle. It seems to be working.

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Congratulations, Karen

We are so proud of you!!!

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Birthday Luau

Happy Birthday, Tina & Bryan!!

An incredible cake by Connie. (She should start her own business, don't you think?)

Tina deserves all her wishes coming true for blowing this one out!

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Dinner with Justin

Had dinner with Justin, www.stinkbug.net, who I probably haven't seen in 5 or 6 months. How does the time go so fast? After dinner I considered the idea of seeing The Matrix Reloaded opening night, but decided I'm too old to stay up so late on a work/school night.

Justin awed by downtown Fort Worth.

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Semester 2

And another semester of classes starts. I'm excited. I love the beginning of the semester. This time around it feels really good because I'm far more comfortable.

Observation:
There’s a woman in my class with a few strands of grey hair. What diversity - right now I still look 16 – ten years younger than I really am.

Accomplishment Feels Good

This week has been really productive for me just like I planned it. Since I only got a week and a half between semesters, I decided to spend it wisely. Doing all sorts of boring things like cleaning house, throwing things away, etc, etc. The only exciting thing all week was having dinner with Gary. However, just because it wasn't exciting, doesn't mean it was bad - it's GREAT! I feel like I've gotten a ton of things accomplished and I have my life in order.

Today's activities have also increased my sense of accomplishment. Karen, Kristen and I spent the morning working on the lawn. Kristen mowed and trimmed while Karen and I rearranged the rock wall in the backyard. Digging up and moving big-ass rocks isn't a whole lot of fun, but it's something we've been needing to do for awhile. Now that it's complete and I even planted some wild flower seeds, all the hard work was worthwhile. But I had better go eat lunch before I pass out from exhaustion.

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Haircut

Kevin wanted to see my haircut.

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Answering my own question

Ok, time to answer my own question. I've been hearing tons on news radio about what the government is trying to do about taxes. Billions and billions of dollars reduced in taxes to stimulate the economy. I'm skeptical. Sure, I'd like to hold onto more of my money just like any sane person would, but I'm not convinced it's going to help the economy enough.

Though, at this point, I don't know what could possibly help the economy right now. Yeah, I'm a pessimist. We're in a slump. I heard these things come in cycles of 7 years. All I know is it had better be better 7 years from now or I'm in trouble.

But I'm off subject. Money is made to be spent. So either the government taxes me and they spend it. Or they let me keep it and I spend it. Isn't it all the same thing?

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Tax Relief

How do you feel about Bush trying to lower taxes?

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GREAT News!

Hey, good news! I passed my first semester of grad school! They're not going to throw me out afterall!

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Weekend Review

Kevin and I had a great weekend together in Lubbock despite a bumpy start. Kevin's flight was delayed 13 hours. Yep, US Air is solely responsible for keeping us apart Thursday night. Stupid-heads. So maybe it wasn't entirely their fault - you know how flying goes. It was a mixture of bad weather, an over-worked crew, and a connecting flight. He got stuck in NYC Thursday night where they put him up in a little hotel instead of delivering him to my house like they should have. He finally arrived around noon on Friday.

The whole reason Kevin and I were going to Lubbock was to attend his mother's retirement party Friday evening. Since he got in so late, we immediately left for Lubbock. It was an uneventful drive and we managed to arrive only 30 minutes late to the party. The party was so sweet. It was amazing to see all of the appreciation Kevin's mother received after having taught for 20 years. I know she's touched a lot of people's lives. It was really special to get to be apart of it. Pictures from the retirement party.

The most interesting part of the party was hearing people tell Kevin and I how wonderful the other person is. For example, Dr. H who has known Kevin's family for a long time pulled me aside and told me what a great guy Kevin is. Later, Kevin's great uncle told him how much he liked me and how he'd better hold onto me. Of course, we both know how good we've got it! It was extremely cute and we had a good chuckle after the fact. Almost as funny was the looks people gave us when they found out we live in different cities...they couldn't quite figure it out.

After the party, we had dinner with Kevin's parents and cousin. Then we tumbled into bed after a long day of traveling. Saturday was a nice slow day beginning with breakfast at IHOP around lunchtime. We drove out to Kevin's great aunt and uncle's cotton farm in the afternoon. There we learned all about drip irrigation, which is the new rage in farming. Basically it's running pipes with tiny, tiny holes about 20 inches below ground to water the roots of the plants. The first time I heard about it was in 1998 when I lived in Lubbock and I had a friend who helped install these systems. I was under the impression that at that time, it was really, really new and ingenious. From what Kevin's great uncle said, it sounds like it's gaining popularity. In West Texas, because it is so dry, water is very, very precious. Since this method loses less to evaporation, it's gaining popularity. Of course, the down side, is it's very expensive to install. Learning all of this was completely fascinating and I'm confident I don't want to be a farmer due to all the risk involved. As Kevin's great uncle said, "Vegas doesn't have anything on farmers."

Saturday night Kevin and I saw X-Men 2, a really great movie. After the movie we headed over to my old college hangout to see Kris. While there, we also got to see Mom (not my mom, but that's what everyone calls her), Jason, Mike T, and Corey. It's always cool to go to Lubbock and run into friends. On the way to the car, we walked by a new barbeque stand and stopped to try it. The guy running the stand even recognized Kevin! (I swear the whole city knows who he is.)

Sunday we slept really late before our drive back to Dallas. Once we got home, we had dinner with the whole Lucci family! It ended a really cool weekend together. Monday morning, I dropped Kevin at the airport and headed to work. Since then it's been a pretty normal week. Just catching up on a lot of little things while I have a break from classes.

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Work, School, Eat Out, Repeat

AB finally updated so I'm feeling the need to write something substantial. But really, I should be cleaning my room...it's a mess. Ok, I'll be quick and get both done!

First, let me say how good it feels not to be going to work this morning. Today is a vacation day and I needed it. Second, let me say how happy I will be in 3 hours when Kevin arrives. Damn airlines kept him in NYC last night instead of getting him to Dallas like he paid them to. Something about bad weather and a crew that had too many hours on the plane (you know there are rules about how many hours a crew can work which is probably a good thing but in this case a bad thing because Kevin got stuck). Anyhow, he arrives soon and we're heading off to Lubbock for the weekend. Twice in one month, I know, but I love that town. Plus his mother is retiring and the party is tonight. Since she's only going to do this once in her life, I decided we should be there.

So you now know where I'm going, but you're probably wondering where I've been. In some sort of crazy haze of a life. Things have all blended together recently and I don't feel very good about that. All I know is I've got to make some changes in order to survive grad school and a full time job.

Work has been plenty busy as well. I like my new position, but I'm juggling a lot of things. And I'm not very good at juggling yet. Yet.

School was really wearing me out by the end of the semester. Finals were tough, but they're over. And, no, I'm not telling you how I did (because I'm very, very concerned that everyone will find out that I'm really quite stupid and don't belong in this program). Yeah, finals were bad. I'm just hoping the Grading Curve God smiles upon me in the end.

The one good thing that came out of finals was the drinking afterwards. Lots of people in my class went out afterwards and commiserated. I think people are finally relaxing and are interested in getting to know each other. This is super exciting to me because I love this part of group dynamics. Getting to know new people is probably one of my favorite activities of all time.

You know how our washer died recently? The dryer passed on last weekend. Does anyone think this a bit strange? Twenty-six year old washer and dryer die together...weird.

I've been a huge consumer recently, mostly because I eat out all the time. But I also recently purchased a GameBoy Advance SP. (Kevin made me do it...he bought one and I was so envious I had to have one too.) At the store, Kevin and I talked about being adults and having the freedom to buy a GameBoy just because we felt like it. When I was a kid, I would have waited until a major event (birthday, Christmas, etc) to get anything as special as a GameBoy. Growing up is so cool.

I hate to end on the consumerism note, but that's what my life has felt like. I've been running around super busy, eating more fast food than my arteries can handle, and suddenly it all stopped. I have 2 weeks of complete freedom before the semester starts up again. (Actually, that's not entirely true...I've got a "short" reading assignment of 200 pages due before class starts and a Meyer's Briggs to take, but that's peanuts.)

So I'm going to clean up and pack my bags now. Then I'm going to the airport to collect the most wonderful guy around. Then I'm going to talk Kevin's ear off as we head to Lubbock, which in case you didn't know is the pure center of the universe.

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BMW for Sale

You know that friend who let me drive his BMW once and I fell in love? Well, he's selling it. If I only had the money!

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It's Over

My first semester of graduate school is over. I took my accounting final tonight, went drinking with classmates, and now will tumble into bed. It all went too fast.

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