Last post today I promise

You Are an Omelette

You are an outrageous and bold person. You enjoy taking risks, even if you end up falling flat on your face. You are very open to the world, and you love to mash up the different things you love. You leap before you look, and you try to leap as often as you can. You believe in embracing opportunities. You are a fascinating and colorful. You've lived an interesting life, and you have lots of stories to tell.

What Kind of Eggs Are You?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Texas Stadium

I miss the old Texas Stadium. I think the new one is a tad overkill. It's sort of flaunting how big the Dallas Cowboys' budget is. A huge, and I mean HUGE screen hangs above center field (which, by the way, cost like $60 million...the stadium cost $1.2 billion), and in addition to cheerleaders, there are dancers on platforms in the stands. I miss the old one. It was more modest, and original, and I have these memories of going there for the first time when I was 10, and being awed by its glory, and again when I was 19, yet again appreciating how glorious it was, this home of my family's beloved team. And, when some players during practice and pre-season had gone to punt the ball and it hit the ridiculous screen, Jerry Jones refused to raise the screen. Not cool, Jones. So I guess it's not a tad overkill, it's REALLY overkill and I miss the old ways. It's like it's not about football anymore, but how cool the stadium is. More about the show, less about the game.
:-(


RIP old Texas Stadium....you are missed.

Do-It-Yourself

http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-home/staticslideshowrs.aspx?cp-documentid=21889122

I'm mostly posting this for myself. I came across this on MSN this morning and really like using everyday items for other purposes, so I'm saving this link :)

At work this summer I learned how to recycle glass bottles...mix Elmer's glue w/ water, brush some on clean, dry glass bottles of various shapes and sizes, stick on torn-up pieces of colored tissue paper, let dry, and VOILA! You have a cute flower vase. :) Decorate w/ stickers, ribbon, glitter, etc.

:)

All the ants in my apartment are dead.
Aggies beat the Lobos on Saturday.
Cowboys beat the Panthers yesterday.
A + on my Spanish test.
Got my car in to get fixed.
Saw my family over the weekend.

Life is good.

The ants go marching one by one....

....and they don't know they'll soon be dead hoorah! hoorah!
A couple weeks ago I noticed a few ants here and there in my kitchen, and I started seeing at least a few at a time consistently since then and saw them coming out from some floorboards in the storage closet by my kitchen, so yesterday I bought some ant traps and set two in my closet and two in my kitchen. They have poisonous bait within them, and the ants are drawn to it, and take some of it back with them to the queen ant, wherever they live. Then they all start dying one by one, hoorah.... AND THE ENTIRE COLONY IS DESTROYED MUAHAHAHA. Anyway this morning when I woke up and went to make my much-needed coffee, I saw lots and lots of ants in a line going to and from one of the traps. At first I admired them for their communication and never-ending work hours, then I sniggered to myself and said to them, "Little do you know..." then felt a little bit evil. It's tempting to squish them all as they trek across the tile floor, in easy destroying vicinity, to save them from suffering from the poison, and to save me from having to see this infestation in clear view, where I cook and eat, but I'm pretty sure that that traps will only work if they are consistently taking the bait to their home, and lots of it. I hope that they'll start dying soon, because I'm not sure how long I can stand to see yucky little creatures in the area where all my food is.

The second story of my day is that I got an estimate on my car finally, and will be taking it in to get fixed on Tuesday. This weekend I am going to visit my brother, and we're going to the UNM-NMSU game. Battle of I-25. Dun dun dun. Both teams kinda suck this year, so it will be interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Have a great Wednesday!
:)

Cowboys lost.

Therefore I will be depressed for approximately..............................until they win again.

Leave me alone.

Take cover!!!!

I was thinking about going to the NMSU-UTEP game, as UTEP is one of our two big rivals, and could not for the life of me decide if I really wanted to or not or not. God decided for me and has cast an epic thunder/lightning storm upon Las Cruces in the last ten minutes. There is thunder every 5 to 10 seconds. SO awesome!!! In fact, the lightning is starting to scare me cuz it's so close, so I think I'll get off the computer for a bit.....

*several hours later*

I had bagel bites for dinner this evening. Bagel bites (the pepperoni kind) are my favorite midnight snack ever. This craze started about two years ago, not long after Jake and I started dating. One night we were hanging out at my apartment really late at night watching cheesy ghost hunter/most haunted shows and got the late-night munchies, but couldn't figure out what sounded good. We opened my freezer, saw a Sam's club bulk pack of bagel bites, looked at each other and simultaneously said "BAGEL BITES!!!" Since then bagel bites have been the ultimate go-to in the wee hours or just when nothing else in particular sounds good.
I went to go visit Danielle for a little while, and the rain was so bad that even as I was going 50 mph on the interstate (15 under because of the sheets of rain), my car started skidding around a bit. So down to 40 mph I went. It probably would have been smarter just to stay home, but I'd been home all day and needed a friend break. The lightning was awesome though, a handful of ginormous flashes straight across the sky.
Thank God for the rain.

I started to do homework...

...then I realized it was the weekly two-hour Friends marathon on TBS. Moral of the story, I didn't get any more homework done.

This is very random, but I really cannot stand those Geico commercials, with the stack of money and the big eyes, and the annoying music, and the "That's the money you could be saving with Geico." I think those commercials are not funny at all.

However, the At&t Rollover minutes commercials crack me up every time I see them. Here are my favorite two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmIj7_0-1kg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUyUvq3dsKc

Hehehe....just thought I'd share what makes me laugh :)

The other day Jake and I had a total know-exactly-what-you're-thinking moment. We were walking to Spanish together on a nice sunny day, and this girl was walking toward us with an umbrella. Now, this umbrella was bright pink and had lots of pink and purple sequins on it, so as she held it over her head to block the sun's rays, the glare of all the sequins hit Jake and I in the face. Immediately, without even looking at him, I could feel the tension of both of us trying to hold in our laughs. As soon as we were out of hearing range, he looked at me and saw the strained look on my face, and we both just broke down as cause of the overkill umbrella.

:)

Monday's Musings!

My grandma is already back at her home, thank God. She is doing better, but I'm sure she'd appreciate it if prayers are being said for her for her still :)

Tennis was super fun today. We've been playing doubles the past two classes, and I'm finally getting the hang of serving the ball into the correct area (more or less). I love having that class first thing in the morning, because it wakes me up and gets me energized for the rest of the day. However, this class has been a friendly reminder to me that I do NOT like being corrected or told what to do unless, a) I ask for it, or b) the person correcting me is an actual instructor. Jake kept innocently trying to help me on how to make my forehand swing better, and telling me what I was doing that was messing me up a few times, and I would glare at him through my sunglasses or grit my teeth and say something like "I know" or "I'm trying" or just flat out ignore him. Poor guy. I later explained the reasoning behind my irritation toward him, and said that's just how I am, and he was like, "Yeah, I've noticed that." Ha. Sigh...oh well. I think he'll forgive me of this flaw.

I made two loaves of zucchini bread the other day...and all I have to say is that I live alone, and yet both loaves will probably be gone soon. It's so yummy for breakfast with yogurt and Costa Rican coffee :) I think I'll go nibble on some now...

Happenings

My grandma had a mini stroke last night. The doctors says she seems to be fine now, but please pray for her. I love her very much.


I have had a few desperate urges/longings lately:

Own a dog
Go ice skating
Go backpacking
Go fishing
Travel (well, I always have that urge)

And I understand that ice skating is the opposite season of backpacking and fishing. Oh well.

Plus I would really like to sleep through the night. Last night I had the worst insomnia. For about three hours I would start dozing off, then kept getting startled awake by nothing. The last time I slept soundly through the night was two weeks ago, when Jake and his buddies were here and I had juice w/ vodka, and boy did it relax me; I slept hard as a rock that night. And before that the last time I slept through the night was the night after I got back from Costa Rica. I hadn't really slept for about 48 hours, because the night before the flight home we were at a bed and breakfast in a really noisy part of Heredia that kept me from sleeping much, and we had to get up at 3 AM for our flight at 6 AM, and I didn't sleep at all on the 5 1/2 hour flight back, nor on the flight from Denver to Albuquerque, nor on the drive from Albuquerque to Las Cruces, when my dad brought me down to move me in. I went to bed about 11:30 that night, and woke up the next morning (extremely stiff) in the exact same position I fell asleep in. Oh how I long for that right now...

laundering, coffee, and doctors

I spent last night driving Jake around Las Cruces until we found an urgent care that was still open, and waiting for him til he was finished, then at Walgreen's getting his prescription. He had been sick since Thursday, then yesterday he was feeling flu-ish, so just to be on the safe side, he asked me to take drive him to one just to be sure it wasn't swine flu or anything. We went to four urgent cares before we found one that was open. Some "urgent" cares they were. Anyway, the doc didn't really know what it was, but gave him prescriptions.
Before that I was at Brian's apartment doing laundry. He offered to let me do it there so I can save some quarters. We watched 300 while my laundry was laundering, and I have to admit, it was pretty cool, and the graphics are incredibly gnarly. Before going to Brian's I spent a few hours with Danielle, which was really great because I hadn't seen her since going to the water park a few weeks ago, and had barely talked to her since. So we went to Starbucks and chatted for at least an hour, maybe more, then went to Wal-Mart got some necessities.
She and I decided that we really need to go on a spring break trip this year, ideally somewhere beachy. Last year we vaguely thought about going to Corpus Christi but none of us really had the money. And as of right now, we still don't really have the money, but if we get jobs and are able to save up, then hopefully we can. It's our senior year after all, and I really want to go on an actual trip for spring break, not just home (which I enjoy nonetheless, but I want beach!). It would be super if we could rent a beach house for a week, and split between several people, they're really not that pricey.
I just wish I could find a dang job already!

Happy Saturday :)

Eight Years Later

Here's a wonderful article from msn.com this morning:

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/09/11/my-9-11-a-personal-account.aspx

Take a moment to stop what you're doing, whether it be working in your office, drinking expensive coffee, worrying about your social plans for the weekend, and remember this day eight years ago... remember those who died in the wake of the attacks and the war following the attacks, those who are risking their lives this very minute so that we remain free and safe...reflect on what really matters in life, give your loved ones a call, play with your kids, resolve that petty fight with your significant other...and look deep inside to find that you're not the center of the world, but we're all in this together, as equals, as a country, as a world.

The day when most mothers go into labor....

When I was in 4th grade, our teacher asked the class if we knew what Labor Day was. One of the boys in our class answered with the title of this post. He was serious, too. It was funny. Poor thing, the rest of the class giggled in response.

This weekend was good mostly, with a couple not-so-good happenings. As you can see from my previous post, my family's dear old friend passed away Saturday morning. She will be greatly missed; she was such a treasured person to us. I am rather upset because I don't think I will be able to make it to the memorial service. It is on Wednesday in Longmont, Colorado, and that would mean I'd miss at least two days of school, maybe three, just for driving there and back, and plane tickets this last-minute from El Paso are very pricey. There may be a service in Santa Fe eventually, so at least I could make that. Please pray for her family.

Another not-so-momento de felicidad was that my car got backed into at Barnes & Noble yesterday. My mom was with me, and I had just backed out of my parking spot and was getting ready to shift into "D" to move forward, when I realized another car was backing out, heading straight towards me. I honked, but she kept going; she couldn't hear me and apparently not looking. I laid on my horn, and at the same time was trying to put my car into "D" but my anxiety was so heightened that I panicked and couldn't do it, then gave up because she was obviously going to hit me anyway. My mom and I braced ourselves, then came the hit and the crunch. Then I said the "F" word in front of my mom. Oops. I do not typically have a foul-mouth, I just couldn't control it at this moment. So we got the woman's insurance information (who happened to be elderly and unable to hear my honking, not to mention not able to see anything behind her car or maybe just not even looking), and now there is a crunched-in part between my front left tire and my door, therefore my driver's door opens less than a foot wide so I have to squeeze myself in and out. It is GREAT. I just got the title for my car, too. Not that that really changes anything. It was after the ordeal that I vaguely recalled saying the F word, but couldn't be sure if I had actually said it out loud, especially since my mom was there. So I asked her, and she was like, "Yeah, you did. That shocked me more than the event itself." Hahaha. We both laughed about it, because we both know how much of a non-cusser I am.

Other than these two things, I had fun with my mom. We did a lot of shopping around, and saw two movies, Julie & Julia and All About Steve. Both were very good. I also held a $40,000, 3 carat ring. I was waiting for my mom in the mall while she went to the bathroom, and happened to be right outside Gordon's. I started looking at the necklaces closest to the main mall, and the salesman came up to me, struck up a conversation, and asked if I would like to take a look at the Celebration diamonds. Sure, why not. So he pulled out this way-too-big-for-my-taste engagement ring, and as I held it in awe, he told it was only one of five in the country, 3 carats, $40,000. I felt pretty special, and I told him that. He said I should feel special. Then I said "Ok, I'll take it" (joking of course). I didn't try it on though, I'd feel like a dork. Or something.

I need to get some reading done for my classes. Have a good day off.

Peaches Patsy Hughes

Saturday morning we lost a very dear friend. She became part of our family when my dad began working at the lab 25 + years ago, and a man named Floyd, also working at the lab, took him under his wing and soon introduced my dad to Floyd's wife, Peaches. It took no time at all for the couple to consider my dad their son, and when my dad met my mom, they were two of the very first people he introduced her to. Of course, they flipped over my mom as well. Peaches made my parents' wedding cake, and many years later taught my mom how to decorate cakes, a business my mom is now doing very well in. Once my brother, sister and I were in the family, we were immediately considered their grandchildren. They took us boating and camping. When I was about 5 or 6 years old, Floyd fell off a roof and was paralyzed in his legs, and died shortly after in the hospital. Peaches moved back to California, and each time we traveled there, we would stay in her cozy house. Eventually she moved back to Colorado to be with her daughters and son. The past couple years she had been ailing. A week and a half ago she had open-heart surgery, and the typical procedure after having this type of surgery, the surgeons need to jump-start the heart. This wasn't necessary in Peaches' case...her heart started back on its own.
In the middle of last week, she developed an infection from the surgery and died very early Saturday morning.
She always told us she loved us. She always wore bright colors and wore pink lipstick.
We'll miss you Peaches, but we know you're in a better place.

Peaches Patsy Hughes
Spetember 6, 1924-September 5, 2009

WOW it's windy

This blustery weather makes me wonder if a storm is coming? Las Cruces experiences many days like this, in which the weather becomes overcast and windy and there are storm clouds in the distance. It teases us into thinking there will be rain, and then OOOH fooled again! There are some days when it actually does storm, though, and those days are wonderful. I hope tonight will be one of those times. I learned a few years ago that rain smells different, depending on where you are. I learned this my very first evening living in Las Cruces. My dad and some of Shanda's friends had helped Shanda and I move into our apartment, and literally about ten seconds after we moved the last piece of furniture in, it started raining. We drove over to Dion's for dinner, and the parking lot was literally already starting to flood. I vividly remember the smell; it was definitely (and obviously) the smell of rain, but it smelled differently from the rain in Los Alamos. It was like rain mixed with desert mixed with city. I actually like how the rain smells here. And going back to a previous sentence about flooding, Las Cruces has a terrible drainage system. There are certain parking lots that resemble a shallow lake after a good 20-minute downpour. The parking lot of the apartments my sis and I used to live at was like that, as well as all the areas between the dorms on campus, and the park near those apartments. The roads become temporary rivers. It's great.
If it rains tonight I will have me a legitimate excuse not to go running ;)

I'm playing hooky tomorrow. Don't tell on me. I only have one class on Fridays, and he doesn't take attendance. I figured I'd treat myself to a four-day weekend instead, with Labor day. Plus I can use the time to get caught up on reading before mi mama gets here.
Okay earlier today I had a brief thought about Thanksgiving and Christmas and I got excited. Pathetic, right? The holidays are still three months away! I probably yearned for that time of the year because it's so brutally hot here and the thought of lounging in my flannel PJ pants by the fire while it snows outside and relaxing from a hard day of being out in the beautiful whiteness or ice skating, sounds utterly appealing.

I suppose I'll go do some reading now. Until later, Merry September 3rd! :-)

This blog post is lacking in title

I turned in my application to Ruby Tuesday, and was a little sad because I got all dressed up for nothing. Yesterday when I went to get an application, the girl working at the time told me that if I turn it between 2 and 5, I might get an interview right away, therefore I should dress professionally. So I put on the most "professional" looking attire that I own, redid my makeup, fixed my hair, and went to turn in my app., but no immediate interview :( But the man there did say that the hiring manager will be looking at it soon and making some calls. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
I was reminiscing about Costa Rica today (is two weeks afterwards too early to reminisce?), and decided I really want to go back someday. It was just so beautiful and so much fun. It seems like it was all a dream, just because it's so incredibly different here than it is there. Even though I was technically "in school" there, it was like a vacation. It's like the honeymoon's over ;-) Back to reality. Oh by the way, if you want to see my pictures from the trip, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=2069527&id=49009247

I think I'm going to make spaghetti tonight. Not just any spaghetti, PEPPERONI SPAGHETTI! Mmmm...if you've never tried it, substitute ground beef for pepperoni (yes, the pizza type) in the sauce. It's my favorite.

My mom and sister are going to come visit this weekend! My mom will be staying with me, and of course Shanda will be staying with her new husband (he's still finishing school here while she teaches in Los Alamos). I'm looking forward to spending time with my mom because I only saw her for about an hour in Albuquerque after getting back from Costa Rica, and before heading to Las Cruces.

Swine flu is now circulating in Los Alamos...several students have tested positive for it. I'm praying for my hometown!
I wish I had more interesting things to write about. I need more Costa Rica-esque ventures to happen to me.

Until that happens, stay healthy, y Vaya Con Dios.