Tis the Season

I would like to share with you my holiday season by way of open letters to those lucky enough to have vexed me thus far. If it weren't for wine and VH1's "I Love The 80s", I would be unable to laugh off this lunacy that we call "life".

1. If you can't find it in your heart to take a moment out of your life to call, write a letter, email, visit, or simply inquire about your own family all year long, then please do NOT send a Christmas card to me/us after making it crystal clear last December that you no longer want to speak to me/us ever again. (By the way, December to December is an entire calendar year in case you didn't notice.) By doing so, I/we hold the right to publicly mock your audacity for sending "good tidings" after you turned your back on me/us for how long? Oh yeah, A YEAR! I'm sure Emily Post would agree with me on this one, so save yourself the trouble next year, and stick your card right up your chimney.

2. If I am making a purchase and you are my cashier (a.k.a. "Sales Associate"), please refrain from launching into a dialog with your fellow employees about how much you hate customers just as I approach the counter (unless we are at Wal-Mart.) At some point please disengage yourself for a moment, acknowledge your stupidity with an acceptable level of embarrassment, and then promptly thank me, or at the very least say goodbye at the conclusion of our transaction in which I handed over money for goods I bought at the establishment that put their integrity in your rude hands. Maybe you've forgotten, but YOU were hired to provide "Customer Service" and I'm pretty sure you are being paid for such. Next time, I may just have to reach across the counter and stab you in the neck with your own perfectly manicured fingernails.

3. If you decide to take the same lane that I am in while I am driving 75 miles an hour, expect me to honk at you and give you a "thumbs up" for being so careful, you NASCAR wannabe moron! Furthermore, do not thank me for pointing this out to you by showing me your middle finger. Thank your mom instead.

4. If I tell you not to ride your bike before the brace is taken off of your arm, please take that not as a warning, but as fact that not if but when you fall, you will continue to be in said brace for 3 more weeks and do not roll your eyes or I will return all of your Christmas gifts for cash and treat myself to a Michael Kors bag I've been drooling over. Don't think I wont.

5. If you call me on my cell phone and I do not answer, do not get angry, hurt, or offended. I am not ignoring you, I just don't feel the need to have a cell phone attached to my head and constantly chattering into it about whatever. If you have time for that much cell usage, you need to find a hobby - or a job. My cell, though not used as much as most, is not feeling slighted in the least. Oh contrare, it has a good home in the bottom of my purse/tote/briefcase where it is warm, clean, and safe, and can not distract me from my family or job. Furthermore, you do not pay my cell bill. I did not buy a cell so that I can be reached easily by someone who wants to tell/ask me something silly like, say, "what color are my floormats?" or "what did I think of the KFed/Britney break-up?" Oh, and *gasp* I still have a home phone in case someone needs to reach me/anyone there. We still have an answering machine/voicemail/text messaging capabilities/email, and whoa, a physical address where mail still appears... daily. A cell phone does not guarantee I can be reached every second of the day, anywhere. It is in my possession in the off OFF chance I want to reach YOU!

Sugar Plums

Broken

Let the Whining Commence

Photographs of everything we do together as a family, when we get to do something, remind me of what is truly important in my extremely hectic life.



Between putting in 40 hours of work in a span of 20, taking care of a family and a home, attempting to successfully complete 2 classes this fall, and worrying about two ill parents, it is no wonder I can't remember where my keys are, when my homework is due, or even what day it is. Calgon, please, PLEASE take me away... far, far away (with my beautiful family.)

Of All The Dirty Rotten...

I received a packet in the mail the other day from the Graduate college of my chosen university (actually, it's the only one in the state that offers an ALA accredited program but for sanity's sake, I like to pretend I had a choice). In this institution, I will spend the rest of my time between work and family to become a "master" in my field (whatever that means). It was pretty exciting finally learning who was to be my assigned Advisor - someone whose name will be seared indelibly into my brain once I'm finished writing my thesis. It took precisely eight months to finish the admissions process only to read at the end of the congratulatory letter that "this document is not intended as an actual letter of admissions". Wha???

School Zone Ahead

Once more, I have filled the cabinet with school supplies, shopped until I almost dropped for new clothes, and begged/coerced/bribed my son to get a haircut. Both kiddos are happy to be starting and have mentioned on more than one occasion that this summer has been utterly boring. I, of course, didn't see it that way. Then again, I would do anything to sleep in every morning for ten weeks, and then lay around until afternoon whereupon a game of touch football (or something equally fun)would organize itself at the park until either darkness or hunger pangs drove me home.

Ahhh, summer.

Happy Fourth!

We started the day with grand plans to go shopping for our son's birthday, go out to dinner, and wrap it all up with a fireworks display accompanied by the philharmonic. This outting would include several other couples who were looking for somewhere last minute to enjoy the festivities too. By 5 p.m. it was storming with the significant chance that more would follow throughout the night. We sat around bemoaning our rotten luck that another holiday should be ruined by nature when it occurred to me that rain or no rain, we should just go and chance it. I'm so glad we did as we found dry seats 500 feet from the fireworks staging area. The evening cleared long enough for a sunset, and the show went on without a hitch.

As of this evening, I have a new-found respect for pyrotechnics experts after several misfires sent sparks within inches of us, not to mention what landed on those poor guys. Anyways, we actually laid on the ground staring straight up into the fireworks that went on for a full 45 minutes, us giggling everytime a loud boom set off a car alarm.

I'll forever remember laying on the grass between the kids, holding their hands, and wishing that moment would never end.

Vacation

This year, instead of a traditional, tourist destination, we chose to stay home and relax, lay in the pool, and eat out every night. We found this to be a better alternative to spending money on gas, sleeping on the couches, cots, and airbeds in the homes of relatives (who apparently would rather have their toenails pulled out than to open their home to us), and succumbing to the over-priced insanity that is the theme park or attraction. In the end, this usually amounts to a long drive back home where exhaustion and buyer's remorse would be the monkey on our backs for weeks afterward.

Besides indulging in sloth-like behavior, we also attempted some small home renovations one of which included the installation of a HUGE ceiling fan in the living room that runs by remote. That's right, REMOTE!! A flick of the thumb and we have HI. Another flick, and the beautifully lit globe beneath brightens or dims. It's like the 9th wonder right in our living room, and can also double as a flying machine in case we need to relocate our house a la Willy Wonka and the Glass Elevator style. However, the feat of having swirling cool air around our bodies during 150 degree heat outside is truly magnificent, of course.

Though we missed out on the typical tourist consumerism and surreal photos of happy faces plastered in front of every theme park mascot within a 100 mile radius of Houston or the entertainment village of Branson,MO, we did make much more endearing memories; ones of our little family focusing only on each other, not the next distraction.

Once again

One of the many reasons I began blogging (here) again is due to the amount of time I have now that I'm not studying, dashing off to school, taking care of domestic concerns, or working. Even the 40 minute drive to and from campus ate up a lot of my time. Lately, I have been fortunate enough to read or finish 4 books, talk to the kids and husband in complete sentences, and even talk on the phone with friends who hadn't seen or heard from me in months. I still have a long way to go before I can consider myself back to "normal" or caught up with everything I set aside, but it's a beginning. I had my nails manicured the other day, and now have a tan from laying in the pool for uninterrupted amounts of time. I had forgotten such luxuries existed.

College Graduate

Today, the sun hid it's face from the ultra-bright shine of a supernova that walked off the UCO campus at about 2 p.m. Behold a star:



Rena and I just after walking. I don't know what I would have done without her.