6/29/2006

I have joined the ranks of the chemically dependent. No, I didn't just take up pot, but I did just have an exterminator come and spray the inside and outside of my house. And I've set it up so he'll come out here quarterly. I may have mutated children, but by golly, they won't have to spend all their time Raiding cockroaches like I have the past few weeks! Ahh, the joys of SETX . . .

In more exciting news, I am leaving tomorrow for San An. Yay! One of my friends from college is getting married, so I'm going to the wedding. The best part is that a bunch of my friends from college are coming down for the wedding as well, so I'll get to seem them. In some ways, I think this'll be better than when I saw them in April, as they won't be stressing out over school. Plus I'm taking a day off of work, so I get to feel like I'm playing hooky. Woohoo!

Finally, a sad piece of news . . . I recently discovered that my cousin Westin is growing and may in fact be taller than me now! I'm hoping that doesn't mean pay back for me when I come home for Christmas . . . at least I can take comfort in the fact that there will always be certain members of my family who will be shorter than me (*cough* Mom and Aunt Cyndie *cough, cough*) . . . ;)

6/21/2006

I was chatting with my mom tonight, and she kept mentioning how she was going to "the gathering" this summer. Upon my questioning her, she revealed that she is going to North Dakota to meet up with a bunch of Where's Georgers and (get this) swap money! (For the uninitiated, Where's George is a place the slightly wacky (sorry, Mom ;) go to to track money movement. The entire family thinks Mom needs an intervention.) Besides the faintly illegal sound of it (after all, she does launder and deface legal U.S. tender (although, in her defense, the laundering is to get the bills clean and the defacement is not with the purpose of making the bills unusable)), her continual reference to the meeting as "the gathering" sounded faintly, I don't know, horror-movie-like-ish? Mom thought I was thinking of The Shining, but no, sure enough, there truly is a horror movie called The Gathering. So see, Mom, you have lost it! :)

6/18/2006

I love dancing! I love salsa! I love swing! I'm so upset that I can only go once a month and next month is during turnaround! . . . So yeah, I went dancing a lot this weekend. On Friday I (and my roomie) met up with a bunch of people from that rival refinery ;) to go salsa dancing in Beaumont. On of the live music clubs puts on a salsa night once a month. It was tons of fun (aside from the drunken Navy minesweeps who kept hitting on me and Katrina. You'll be happy to know, Peter, I did try to minister to them by teaching one of them how to salsa, but after one too many times of his hand 'slipping' from my shoulder blade to my extreme lower back, I had to call it quits . . .). Afterwards, a few of the people came over to see the house and attempted to keep me up. I don't think I've been up that late since my freshman year in college!

Saturday night was swing dancing at Taft Street Coffee in Houston. When we were waiting in line to pay, I noticed the books that were displayed had titles like Orthodoxy and Faith of My Fathers. I was starting to get suspicious, and my suspicions were confirmed when I walked in the room and saw large crosses on the walls. Sure enough, Taft Street Coffee is also the meeting place of a Houston church, Ecclesia. I thought (because of Orthodoxy) that it was a Catholic ministry, but upon looking at it's website, it's a non-denominational outreach church. Probably not one I would enjoy, since I'm rather traditional and intellectual in my style of worship, but none the less, it was cool to see a church reaching out to a group (as I know from my swing days in Denver) that does not necessarily have much of a Christian influence.

Anyway, swing dancing was a blast. It's been so long since I have been and it felt so good. Frank and I even tried a few small aerials, although I told him we'd have to practice the ones that consist of me being flipped a few times before I consent to doing them on a concrete floor! :)

Good night!

6/11/2006

Well, another hurricane season is upon us. June 1st was the official start, and we already have a named storm, Alberto (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/). Fortunately, it looks like it won't be too bad and however bad it turns out, it's headed for Florida, so SE Texas doesn't have to worry. Although, I have a good friend who will be moving to that exact area in July, so of course, I will have to start worrying about Florida storms now too . . .

Oh, and I do have a new roommate. In the time I've spent with her so far (all 2 hours of it), she seems nice. She is a junior in mechanical engineering at University of Houston and also part of a ballet company. The nice thing about her being from Houston (that's where her family is as well as her school) is that I think she'll go home most weekends. Which means I'll still hopefully have Saturdays to laze around and not get out of my pajamas. :)

Well, I must finish cleaning the kitchen. Now that I have a roommate, I can't be a slob!

6/9/2006

Great news! My eyesight has not changed from my last check up. This means I can continue to use the few pairs of contact lenses I have left as well as the new ones I ordered. Which is good, considering I'll be changing them more often. The eye doctor chided me on my lax schedule in changing them, which is about every six weeks. Apparently they are only supposed to be worn for two weeks. Of course, I thought they were four week lenses, but I guess that still doesn't excuse my laziness . . . and according to the eye doctor, my eyes are showing the telltale blood veins of too little oxygen, although I can't seen them. No matter, I hereby do declare my intention to religiously change my lenses every three weeks! (The doctor said I could wear them a little longer since I don't sleep in them).

In other news, I may have found a roommate. Or rather, she found me. Well, to be quite honest, some of the guys at work found me for her. Is that quite clear as mud? The story is that she's one of the interns at work, and, just like my internship experience, she was given very little help finding a place to stay for the summer besides being given the name of hotel where rent (if you can call it that) is $320 a week. A male intern was also staying there, but some of the guys at work who live together offered up their living room futon. He was hesitant to leave the girl at the hotel by herself (apparently some "interesting" characters reside there), so I was called upon. Of course, I am more than happy to oblige, especially as it will help with paying off my mortgage, but . . . it means I have to get the house cleaned up. I have to admit, there are many benefits to living on one's own, and a big one is not having to worry too much about housekeeping. Anyway, she's going to come by tomorrow or Sunday to check the place out and probably move in the same day . . .

The last little tidbit is small, but warms my heart, especially now that I live far away from my parents' garden. I had a wonderful lunch today, consisting mainly of a delicious BLT, complete with homegrown tomatoes. My back door neighbor was out while I was mowing my lawn the other day and offered me some of his bounty, which I gladly accepted. Although, he must think I pack away a lot more than I do, because he gave me quite a stash. Not that I'm complaining. Oh no, home grown tomatoes are nothing to sneer at! I'll just have to make some salsa . . . :)

Have a wonderful day!

6/2/2006

Well, I bit the bullet today and scheduled some doctor visits. The first is to see an eye doctor, which shouldn't be bad, but the second is for (as my plant physician so delicately put it) a "well-woman" checkup. Ugh. This will be my first "well-woman" checkup and I am not looking forward to it. The worst part is that the earliest I could get it scheduled was near the end of June, so I have an entire month to dread it . . .

In other, happier news, I visited my local library today and got a library card. They actually have a quite decent selection, considering the size of the town and library. Of course, nothing to compare to good ol' FCPL, but satisfactory none-the-less. The only thing that threw me for a loop is that I was supposed to provide a local reference. I had left my cell phone at home, so I didn't have any phone numbers, plus I don't know the address of anybody down here. I ended up putting in a friend's work phone number and leaving the address blank. Hopefully they won't come hunt me down . . .

Well, I am anxious to get to my books (almost all cheesy Christian romances, my favorite junk food for my brain ;) . Have a wonderful day, ya'll!