Being Domestic

I got home early today and had the urge to cook, cook, cook! First I made some salsa. Then I made lunch for tomorrow: curry chicken salad sandwiches, garden salad, and this fruit tart:

I thought the tart came out great and very picturesque, so I had to document it for posterity. Of course this is WAY too much for me to eat by myself, so I guess I'll share with Dean.

Can't wait til summer so we can have Monday night culture dinners again!

Stop Your Whining!

I was watching the nightly news with Brian Williams on Tuesday. At the end of the broadcast he was reporting on high gas price and the pocket book pinch that people were feeling over this holiday weekend. On the NBC website they asked people to email in the adjustments they made over the weekend to celebrate on such tight budgets. Everyone is making adjustments due to high gas prices these days, but I was just appalled at some of the responses. One person said that they had to eat "regular" hamburgers on Memorial Day instead of the usual barbqued ribs. Another person said they had to buy discount ground beef for their "regular" hamburgers. Yet another person was complaining they only got to go to the beach right by their house instead of the one several hundred miles away due to the price of gas. Really? This is your biggest problem? That you got to eat hamburgers instead of ribs? What is this sense of entitlement about? I just don't understand it. These days there are so many successful young people that have so much at such a young age. So you feel like you worked hard and deserve some ribs? Well, there are a lot of farmers in Africa that work hard, too, and I'm sure they are just happy to have anything to eat at the end of long day. Have people become so jaded that they are able to loose their perspective of the world over a stupid hamburger? Really? Most of our generation's parents were much older and had to work much harder to have the things that most of us have so young now. They all wanted things to be easier for us, and they are, but do we really need to complain about going to the beach and being able to eat anything? Have you turned on the news lately to see the devastation in Myanmar and China? Perhaps you heard about the 100's of tornadoes in the midwest? You should be so fortunate to have a roof of any sort over your head and any sort of "regular" food to eat! I quote John Stossell - GIVE ME A BREAK!

Happy Birthday, House!

My house is one year old today. I've been celebrating by hanging out in it.

Everything is Better in Austin

When Natasha and I were in Austin last week we went to the downtown Whole Foods twice. It was so awesome!!!! It was huge. Everything about that place was a kadrillion times better than the Central Markets in Ft. Worth and Southlake. I can't even describe it - it was just awesome. I decided last weekend that I would go to the one in Arlington this weekend to grocery shop. Huge let down. It was (not surprisingly) a lot smaller and a lot less impressive. I didn't have all the cool fancy desserts, the huge coffee bar, the aisles and aisles of fun stuff. My local Central Markets have a lot more choices in every arena. It was a very anticlimactic trip. Perhaps I'm idealizing Austin, but I really love that place and want to live there. The January trip was awesome, the May trip was awesome, and I'm sure that all trips that follow will be awesome!

Random thoughts:
-The people that live across the street from me are always in their garage. I don't get it. They've been living in a brand new house for 6 months, yet the spend most of their time in their garage. They have a middle school aged little girl that comes over to ring my doorbell after she sees me come home and invites me to hang out in their garage. I have spent a lot of time decorating the inside of my house so I didn't have to hang out in my garage. I'm very perplexed by this.
-I can't believe the school year is almost over, yet I can't believe that we still have a week and half let of school.
-I really thought I had more random thoughts to share, but I don't!

Feeling Accomplished

Now that I've got all of the stress of the year behind me, I've spent most of the weekend reflecting on the school year. I wouldn't say that this last semester has been easy. I've never poured so much of my energy and heart and soul into something as much as I have over the past year. I guess all the anxiety I felt was because I thought that not succeeding would cause all of that spent energy to be in vain. I feel a real sense of accomplishment after the past week. I'm really glad that I didn't let the kids down and that they were able to feel the same sense of accomplishment. I finally feel like 'yes, I can do it; yes, I have done it'. Instead of feeling like I have to prove myself to 20 different people, I feel like I have proven myself. I feel like I have jumped over a big career hurdle last week. I finally feel like I'm on the right track and I can take it to the next level next year. And really, we kinda did this by ourselves. That's what is so rewarding, I think. I guess I'm just so pumped that we ACTUALLY did this. We were ACTUALLY successful. Not that I doubted myself, but I felt like I've been walking through the dark for two years and now I've found the light! I can see the future a little better now. I can see (and I truly hope) that this is the start of something great. This really must be what new moms feel like because despite all of the sleepless nights, the anxiety, the tears, and the worry - I want more.

One Year Later....Things Are Looking Up

I wrote this blog a year ago on May 8th, 2007. I remember thinking things couldn't get worse. I don't really think they did, but it seems like I had another set of problems to deal with over the past year. I makes me wonder if I'll ever be satisfied. Is it that I can't get no satisfaction or is it that I'm always striving to make things better? I guess I need to continue to strive, but maybe be a little more content with my life in the process. Here's how things were going a year ago:

I'm officially sick of my apartment, so I'm having a festivus to air all of the grievances I have against the Hidden Lakes Apartments at 5333 Fossil Creek Blvd. There are so many grievances that I will have to make this into a series of blogs.

1. There is a very bright light right outside of my bedroom window that is impossible to turn off. Update: My room is now very, very dark!
2. The apartment above me is apparently reserved for sorority party girl college drop outs. (see several of the following grievances for these particular tennants)
3. The girl upstairs usually has one extremely loud verbal altercation with her fraternety party college drop out boyfriend once a week. It usually consists of her screaming, "WHY? WHY? WHY DO YOU TREAT ME LIKE THIS?? WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME??" Get a clue and dump him, ya retard.
4. The girl upstairs has a dog that barks incessantly, day and night. I've awaken in the dead of night to this stupid dog a countless number of times. I hate it. I want to smoosh its stupid face every time I see it.
5. The girl upstairs comes home from parties with other college drop out friends in the middle of the week, in the middle of the night, acting like stupid drunk college sorority chicks, all the while her stupid college drop out dog is barking like a maniac.
*****I hate the girl that lives upstairs. I hate her stupid dog, too. Moral of the story - don't drop out of college.*****
6. The guy that lives next door to me likes to play his guitar at night while I'm trying to sleep. Update: I have not been awaken ONCE from loud noises, loud people, or loud dogs ever since I've lived in my house. It is quiet here. Ahhhh.
7. For the past three Saturdays, I've been awaken between 4:45am and 6:00am to this same guys alarm radio that is playing tejano music so loud that I swear he's trying to raise the dead. This guy's not even tejano. He's white and nerdy.
8. I'm tired of people parking in the spot that I pay for. Update: Having a garage is awesome!
9. I tried to open my fridge the other day and the handle ripped right off. Update: New fridges made from quality materials are awesome, too!
10. There is a frog that lives in a drain pipe in front of my parking spot and it ribbits very loudly at night while I'm trying to sleep. Update: No frogs, just crickets.
As a continuation of my previous blog, I would like to continue to air more of my grievances against Hidden Lakes Apartments and the residents of building 7.
11. I'm sick of having to roll down my window in tornadic weather to punch in my gate code.
12. I'm tired of getting my mail from the little building at the front.
13. I'm tired of paying for other people's water. Update: My water bill is a fraction of what it was in the apartment, even with the sprinklers!
14. I'm still tired of the stupid dog upstairs!!!!!!!!! It woke me up at 3:30am once last week and I listened to it bark until the alarm went off at 5.
15. I don't really have any water pressure in my shower.
16. I'm tired of walking up the stairs. I'm not against exercise, but I am against walking up stairs when I'm tipsy or tired or both. Update: It's nice not to have to carry several bags of groceries up two flights of stairs in the rain. Again - garages are awesome!
17. I'm tired of my 20 minute commute. (also see #18 for other reasons I hate my commute.)
18. I'm tired of the bad part of the Old Denton Road that has pot holes the size of moon craters. My alternative is the stupid unnessarily curvy ass part of extreme North Beach/Ray White for two feet/Alta Vista Rd that is an oil top nightmare, only to culminate into a major traffic jam thanks to the City of Ft. Worth that decided to let developers build 5,000 houses in two square miles before they widened the road. It makes every morning a test my wills. Update: The commute is MUCH shorter now, but Old Denton is in worse condition now. Luckily I only have to drive on it for about a half mile now. The traffic is still awful by the school because the City of Ft. Worth still hasn't widen it yet. They started the process a few weeks ago.

I guess looking back over the last year a lot of things have gotten better. This year has been no cake walk - just different battles to fight. The last two days were spent at band contest and both days went better than I could have hoped. It feels so good to have experienced this success after all of the pain and stress of the past four months. This must be what it feels like right after you have baby - you're so happy to see it that you forget about the pregnancy and labor pain! That's how I feel right now. I only have to work two days next week and then Natasha and I are off to shop til we drop in Austin and San Marcos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!