well

I ate three meals today again too! And I did all last week as well. Sunday and Monday I wasn't feeling well and only managed I think two each day, however, each meal has been well-balanced (except for Saturday) and contained not only fruit but leafy green vegetables. And meat. Yes, it's kind of been the same meals over and over again, but I still say that's progress.

I love Texas Summers

I'm not joking. I LOVE Texas in the summertime. Maybe I just love summer. I love it when it rains and steam comes off the cement. In summer, the air looks different. The sun is different. Sunsets in Texas in the summer are awesome. Heck, I even like the occasional Texas sunrise (when I happen to see one). I love road trips with vinyl seats and peeling your leg off to take a rest stop. I love memories of driving out to the ranch and watching the buttes spring up from the ground. I so want to take a long road trip down one of the winding country roads (I35 may be convenient but it made us bypass some awesome scenery.
I love sitting outside on the porch watching fireflies until I can't take the mosquitoes anymore, and grilling corn right on the cob (even if corn is so overproduced and over-modified that it has almost no nutritional content) and cooking out with ANYTHING. I love toad hunts (just find them, catch them, and after looking at them a lot and wondering at finding them, let them go.
I love how music seems different in the summer. I want to make mixes of all my favorite happy tunes and just drive forever. I want to lay out on a blanket and stare at the sky until I fall asleep in the warmth of the afternoon sun. I want to roll down the windows as I cruise down the highway on my way to yet another awesome event in my favorite city. I want to leave my windows open and read in the patch of sunlight that hits my room in the mid afternoon. I want to go to the river and freeze at the cold of the water only to crawl out onto the rocks and air dry. I want to go waterskiing (which is the skiing I think of whenever someone just says "skiing") for the first time since last year. I want to go to the zoo. I want to watch a play in an outdoor amphitheatre.
And I get to do them all and more.
I love Texas summers.

houseguests.

This weekend one of my room mates got married. I was not invited (I think) but got to stay at the house alone while about six other people came and stayed over. One is a major creeper. He and one of the others got drunk, and one of them had stomach troubles in my bathroom. He used all my toilet paper.
Tonight, it is 2:20, and they are loudly and drunkenly talking downstairs. I will not sleep for awhile I think.
Houseguests, I know this is hard, but think about the proximity to bedrooms when you are speaking rather loudly. And think about the amount of alcohol you've consumed and MAYBE cut yourself off when you find you can't...um...think. Or function. Or perhaps don't drink at all if you're rather creepy to begin with. And ask if we recycle the BILLIONS of bottles you put in our trash can. Because we do.
In addition, homeowners, think about your room mates when you have house guests. If you know that your guests will get blindingly drunk and creep her out, suggest she go elsewhere for the weekend. I would have.
I already have been told that the weekend one of my room mates turns 21 is a good weekend to be absent. I think Penny and I might go to the beach or something. Gulf of Mexico KIND of passes for the beach. There's sand, there's water, there's a point where the two meet. There'll be drunk people there, too, though, I warrant. Nowhere is safe from the drunkards.
Also, I got an email my mom forwarded from her cousin. This cousin lives in western North Carolina (beautiful) and owns a pottery shop. Since I found out they had one (at a very young age) and especially after I decided to minor in art, I have wanted to ask if I could spend a summer with them and learn the wheel. Mom had been talking to her about something else and happened to send her some pictures of a few of my pieces. I now have a standing invitation to stay with them and work on pottery. In addition, I am invited to volunteer at/just go to their pottery festival, and she said she would love to see what I'd do if they set me loose with their resources. Now, of course, a lot of this could just be familial placation ("oh, you are so right. your child is SOOO talented...) but still, a standing invitation is a standing invitation and I'm eagerly searching for a date that might allow me to stay with them. I may be able to make it work in August. If not, I know where I'm spending Spring Break 2011!

sorry!

I know you are all reeling from the dearth of blog updates I've been doing lately. I mean, I must have clogged your readers or something with ALL the updates and posts I've done in the past few days! Whew! No? Strangely silent? Yes.
Because I don't really know what to write.
Yeah, things are going on but what I right at night time isn't true in the morning. I'm trying so hard to figure out how to deal with this whole ADHD business and frankly I'm not doing a spectacular job, but I'm making at least mental to-do lists if not hard copies, and I'm accomplishing at least some of the goals on the list. And I'm not completely organized yet but I have a shredder to forever get rid of some papers, and I got a new trash can to keep Penny from digging through it, and I got some of that Snapware stuff to organize my pantry shelf (it looks awesome) and I got and prepared some fruit and berries so all I have to do is pull them out of the fridge for a snack. And today I had three meals. I know that sounds like nothing special, but remembering to eat three separate meals is a huge deal for me. And apart from breakfast (greek yogurt with honey in it), it contained portions from all the food groups (a turkey sandwich with cheese, spinach and arugula, cantaloupe, strawberries and blackberries for lunch and dinner because I have limited fridge space). So that's a good start. And I made some awesome bookshelves all by myself, finished them, and mounted them on the wall. THEN I actually put things on them and organized the remaining books on the other shelf. I finished a project I started where the only stakeholder was me! In two days!
In addition, I took Penny back to the river. This time, we were in a shallow spot and it was just the two of us. Penny got in and walked around in it and even started trying to catch the plants that floated by (the river plants with lots of leaves? what are those?). At parts her feet swept out from under her because the current was kind of strong, and she actually GRABBED onto her leash, pulled herself to a less strong area, went to the bank of the river and started trying to pull ME out of the river. I told her she wasn't done yet and she did SO well. She was taking treats and everything. I want to do it again soon but my schedule would have me doing it early in the morning or rushing home after work for MAYBE an hour of sunlight, then send us back to the car in the dark through a park that is already secluded enough to lend itself to prowlers.
Anyway, class being out has been so great but I truly would have preferred a proper break from work as well. I don't really get a vacation of any sort except maybe national holidays and then the summer semester ends only a week before classes, meaning I would start my other Graduate Assistantship (whichever I may get) the following week. No rest for the weary, eh?

nevermind.

sad.

Wish me luck

Just luck.
More later. :)

can't keep a good (wo)man down

So, today was going to be important: the first day back in two weeks absence from teaching Sunday School to the fourth and fifth graders. I got up early, left with plenty of time to spare, and arrived at 9:30. Only to slam my finger in my car door. For a few seconds I just stared at it dumbly, wondering how to get it out. Then I opened my car door. I got it right at the base of my nail and it started bruising up. And bleeding.I crumpled to the ground for a bit holding my finger. It HURT! I realized I needed to do something and that no one was going to see me out there. I went into my car and found the blue shop towels (paper towels but stronger) I got when my car was considering a mold farming career and applied pressure while walking into the church. There, the first person to notice I was hurt was Irwin, probably one of the most awesome old men I've ever met. He got the head pastor and she took me to her office and personally applied a band aid. Then Irwin took me to the kitchen and got me a bag of ice. One of my kids was in there and asked if he could see my finger, and I told him if I changed the bandage he could take a look at it. Then I headed to the Sunday School room. My co-teacher was there and when he saw the ice and heard what happened and I started crying again, he sent me home.
I got back to my car and it started hurting in earnest. I ran a redlight because for some reason I thought it was a stop sign and drove myself to...you guessed it...the emergency room. For the second time in two weeks. Only this was a better hospital. They drained my fingernail and gave me a tetanus shot, x-rayed my finger (it isn't broken) and sent me home.
And I have a paper due at 9 AM tomorrow. Dumb timing. I'm figuring out nine-fingered typing (which is made more interesting by the fact that my computer likes to click randomly, moving my line of type to another line). On Wednesday this horrible semester will be done and I will have four and a half weeks to recover from it. I'd go somewhere but my job has me working through the summer.
I'm shooting for 175 points out of 200 on this paper. Fingers crossed, everyone! My working goal for the next two weeks is to avoid going to the ER a third time. If I'm there again this time on the 17th it'll be really ridiculous and I'll no doubt begin entertaining theories that I'm under some sort of curse.