Alan and I are officially one of those nauseatingly cheesy engaged couples. Check out our wedding site! ;) It is amazing how one can spend years making fun of other people's cheesiness...and then one day, join the dark side!
Speaking of the dark side...you have NO IDEA how excited I am about Alan and I getting tickets to the Nascar race this Sunday. Yes, I have an inner redneck and I LOVE IT!! Alan is not nearly as excited as I am about this...but hell, I go to one TCU lilly pad jumping contest a year...he can come with me and see a bunch of really freaking loud cars make an ass load of left turns! Alan's aunt hooked us up with the tickets...they are even in a suite! Rednecks in the lap of luxury...that can get dangerous!
3.28.2004
FUN WITH PEEPS!! This is what teachers do when they are left to their own devices over Spring Break...we try and explode PEEPS in the microwave.
Well, I have had a hellish couple of weeks...but I have just 8 more weeks of school! Then 4 weeks of summer school...I see the light! I just realized that we only have 6 months until our wedding...dude! Going from a point in my life when my sister would only consider buying houses that had garage apartments for me to live out my old spinster life...to being 6 months until my freaking wedding...it pretty cool!
I took Alan out for his birthday last night...nothing special, but he got to have a good ol' fashion Texas Steak...something we dont often find at the restaurants we go to together. Then we bought his birthday present! I know it may not sound all too exciting, but he is thrilled! I bought him a small table and 2 chairs to go on his porch. We are just going to use it as our new dining room! We sat out there last night and enjoyed a bottle of wine, then this morning we enjoyed our breakfast and coffee while admiring last weeks gardening handiwork. It is a very relaxing experience!
Well...boring ol' emaroo doesnt have much more to say...too tired to think these days!
3.24.2004
3.17.2004
It's amazing what a seemingly insignificant purchase can do for one's wellbeing. When at the Radio Shack outlet store last week, I found a nice pair of audiophile-style headphones for $15. This was significantly lower than full price, so I picked them up to replace my blown-out old Walkman headphones I use at work. I bring them to work, and I am amazed at how much more productive I am when I've got good music to listen to on high-quality equipment!
In related news, I finally got the new burner up and running, so I made a mix CD of some of my favorite tunes (this particular disc is half covers, half original tracks). Featured artists include Ben Folds, Siouxsie, Eisley, Social D, Air, and a very fine new track by Magnet. If you want a copy, just hit me up with a comment and I'll send one your way.
3.15.2004
Well, it's back to the grind after a nice 5-day respite.
Emaroo and I left the D-FW area last Wednesday morning after a brief meeting with the church's wedding coordinator, and headed down 281 through the hamlets of Glen Rose, Hico, Hamilton, Lampasas, Fredericksburg and others en route to our final destination of Mo-Ranch (see last blog entry). We arrived to find we were the only people in the entire campground, which actually turned out to be kind of nice. Wednesday night, we set up camp and cooked dinner (a delicious stew, slaved over at home by Emaroo several days before) and then crashed.
Thursday was beautiful - a hearty breakfast, hiking, wading in the rapid, clear waters of the Guadalupe and a trip to Kerrville that included a stopover at the James Avery compound and visits to several cool little shops (Emaroo even got a Kinky for Governor sticker).
Sometime around 1am Friday morning, it began raining. Hard. By 7am, it was still raining, there was a little bit of water coming in the tent (though not much, thankfully) and everything outside was soaked. So, we hauled everything into the small building containing the bathrooms and proceeded to cook breakfast in the ladies' room while everything dried out under the industrial gas heater in the mens' room. We finally got everything (mostly) dry, loaded the car and headed south on the twisting, turning Highway 16 through Bandera to San Antonio (I highly recommend this drive rather than boring old I-10). Friday night was spent on the Riverwalk at Cafe Ole and a somewhat-cheesy piano bar; Saturday was spent at El Mercado and a brief tour through the Rivercenter Mall, and then we headed north to New Braunfels, or more specifically, Gruene, for a nice meal at the Grist Mill with Jamie and Susan. After a night's stay at an EXTREMELY crappy hotel (I won't do them the honor of a link), we headed home for some rest and recovery before returning to work.
Pictures of the trip (a whole Memory Stick and four-and-a-half film rolls' worth!) should be posted next week.
3.08.2004
Wow, I'm up to begin my day at 7:15am on a Monday morning; I can't remember the last time that happened. I was supposed to have this entire week off from work, but I was called back in to work Monday and Tuesday nights for the Texas Primary. I ended up keeping my Sunday night vacation day, though, so Emily and I went and had a lovely dinner at Cosmic Cafe and then came home to watch the Sopranos premiere (which was rather uneventful, but very ominous). I ended up going to bed early - I was probably asleep by 9:30 (can't remember the last time that happened, either).
I also spent some of the weekend sorting through my past, as I went through several large boxes of stuff in my garage, throwing away most of the stuff and saving the items that still mean the most to me (primarily project and radio show tapes and pictures). It feels like a rite of passage, sorting through all the remnants of my life that I (as a former packrat) kept over the years. It was weird (and tough) at times, but I realize it's a necessary thing as I close out one phase of my life and move on to the next.
We leave Wednesday to head southward for several days of camping and R&R, including dinner with the Oxleys in New Braunfels. Should be a blast - Em and I both need a getaway, and the forecast (so far) says we're in for beautiful weather.
Em has some tests today at the doc, so keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
3.05.2004
Well, I havent posted in a while...cause things have kinda sucked. 2 weeks ago I got crappy test results from my Dr. and have a biopsy scheduled for Monday. I had serious migraines all last weekend, makes it hard to function.
Thursday I literally CHUCKED in the middle of my class! Kids were all around! OMG! At one point, I believe a kid just about stuck his head in the trash can with me to ask, "Miss, are you ok?" My reply was, "Not really, hon...can you please go away?" I came home only to get the worse case of the aches and chills I have ever had...had over a 100* fever after 3 Tylenol. Life sucked last night...
This morning my migraines came back...I still feel like ass, but as least I can sit up straight.
Thats all...I am just pitiful...oh well, at least I am now on SPRING BREAK! I just want to spend it well! Alan and I have a great Hill Country trip planned for this week...