Swirling around in my head...

In the past whenever I've blogged remotely, it's always been from the coney island restaurant, usually during or after one of their scrumptious veggie omelettes w/extra onions. This is a remote blog post, but I'm not at the coney island. I'm at Panera. (Come to think of it, I have posted from here before.) I think I might make Panera my new favorite out-of-the-house wi-fi spot, because I've discovered they have outlets to plug my laptop into. I've glanced around for some at the coney island and haven't seen any. My laptop is getting to an age where the battery just doesn't have the juice it used to.

Anyway, I'm so content right now. I don't have to worry about my laptop's battery life. I've got my iPod on shuffle as it charges. I have a bottomless cup of coffee beside me...I'm on refill #2. The only thing I would change is to make it just a hair warmer in here right now. I haven't eaten anything yet today, and I'm trying to decide what kind of soup I'm going to order...broccoli cheddar, or cream of chicken & wild rice?

As you know, I'm a proud native of Midland, TX, and I follow a handful of blogs that originate from the area. Check out what I just found over on Jimmy Patterson's blog for today. That's at the Midland International Airport. That's pretty damn cool.

As you might've guessed, the IX took the boys this weekend. How else could I be relaxing at Panera with my laptop? Wouldn't happen if the boys were with me. So I find myself in that position of trying to figure out what to do with myself for the weekend. There's always stuff to clean, that's for sure. My options in this category are:

• finally get my bedroom cleaned out
• sweep & mop the kitchen & dining room floors
• mow the weeds
• work on my front room/office to make it functional
• clean my bathroom (actually, bump that to the top of the list. It's NASTY.)
• reconcile my checking account on my Quicken and pay a couple of bills

Let's see if I actually suck it up and do any of those things.

The Longhorns are in action tonight in Colorado, and since it's on FSN, I'm rather confident I'll get to see it. I slept in until after 11:00 this morning, and it felt so good. Got up, jumped in the shower, and even put on makeup today. I'm figuring out that I'm more motivated to accomplish other tasks if I clean up and make myself presentable. Let's see if it works out. At least I'm out of the house right now...that's progress.

I'm quite proud of my last post. One of my better ones, I think. However I had forgotten that I spoke of 'thangs' just a few days before. I'm losing my mind, I think! Whatever...I'm still proud of that last post.

When following high-profile crime stories, I'm extremely slow to pass judgement. I have no direct knowledge of what actually happened; thus, I don't feel like I have any right to label the accused as guilty or not. However, there are two stories in the news right now which I am finding myself with my own opinion and speculation of guilt and innocence.

My judgement of guilt goes to: O.J. Whether or not he actually did this crime he was just convicted of, I'm glad to learn he's going to jail anyway. I truly think he got off scot-free from murdering his ex-wife fourteen years ago, and it's nice to see that now maybe he'll pay the price for his actions...however recent or long ago they were. Throw the book at him. Let him rot in there. Since the death of his wife and her friend, he has behaved in ways that have proven to me that he's got nothing good to contribute to this world.

And my judgement of innocence goes to: Helio Castroneves. It came as a huge shock to me to learn of his indictment for tax evasion. I feel like I've known him for years, and would never, ever imagine he would or could do anything like this. To read of him in handcuffs and leg shackles?!?!?! weeping in the courtroom breaks my heart. It really does. Of course, he'll be given the chance to plead his case before the court, and hopefully the real truth will come out, whatever it is. But oh, I will feel so hurt and betrayed if it turns out he really did what he's being accused of. Whatever the verdict, his life will be forever changed by this, perhaps unfairly. I'll still be a fan of his until then, and hopefully beyond.

I guess that's about it for now. I ultimately decided on the broccoli cheddar soup since they didn't the cream of chicken today. I've been sitting here for more than two hours, and my butt's getting numb. I hope everyone out there has a wonderful first Saturday of October...

Oh no, here she goes...

I have so much to be thankful for. I happened upon a statistic today that was quite disturbing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the July 2008 unemployment rate in the state of Michigan was 8.5%. That's 51st out of 51. The unemployment rate for Texas was 4.7%, which, shockingly, ranks 20th. I would've thought it would be much closer to the top. South Dakota has the top spot with a rate of 3.0%.

I also found a chart with historical highs and lows for each state. For the historically highest unemployment rate, Michigan once again takes the prize, with the shocking number of 16.9% back in November 1982. WOW. I'm glad I wasn't around here then. I've heard stories that there used to be a sign on the interstate heading out of Flint that said something like, "Would the last one out please turn out the lights."

I've also been keeping up with the rather contrary state of existence in my much-beloved and much-missed hometown of Midland, TX. According to the July 2008 Unemployment Rates for Metropolitan Areas, Midland ranks 11th in the nation with a rate of 3.1%, and Odessa is 20th with 3.7%. Ann Arbor, in comparison, is 272nd in the nation at 6.9%, which is higher than the national average of 6.1%.

Oh, how thankful I am for my job! Because of my own little microcosm of turmoil and upheaval, I was forced right out into the biggest economic turmoil and upheaval in the nation, with no degree and no recent job experience to speak of. But God took care of me. My job certainly isn't glamorous, and I certainly don't get paid very much, but it's still a good deal more than min. wage. My house isn't in foreclosure. My babies' bellies are nice and full as they sleep in their warm little cozy beds. My debt, while more than I care for it to be, is not beyond hope, and is not substantially growing. My budget to keep my tank full of gas is nominal (relatively speaking), since I have all of a four-mile round-trip commute.

God takes care of us everyday.

Watching the news these last couple of days has definitely started the wheels turning in my head. These giant financial brokers on the brink of disaster is quite....umm....interesting. As is the decision of the fed to bail them out. Gah. How did this happen?

Before I delve into that, I'm going to tell you a story.

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Once upon a time, a long, long, long, long...OK, it was March of 1973...a little baby girl was born. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and the apple of her parents' eyes. She had no idea of the prosperity that blessed the region into which she was born known as the Permian Basin. Oil was spewing out the bland, dry, mesquite-covered land like fountains on the Las Vegas strip . And money was spewing out of banks and savings & loans. Her father was right in the middle. Life was good. Great. The bubble was growing.

And then one day, the bubble popped. The little girl was now about 10 or so. The fountains ran dry. Once-sparkly, busy, prosperous office buildings that defined the city's skyline, were left to the elements. Even the legendary cornerstone of the local economy, The First National Bank of Midland, went belly-up. Her parents worked really hard to shelter her from any hardship that might be coming her way, but she still knew enough to understand that things were going to change when she overheard her father utter the word "bankruptcy" to her mother. Her father made a change in direction for his career, and as she entered into teenage-dom, she wasn't able to have all the cool designer fashions as the other kids at school...Guess? and Z Cavaricci jeans, five Swatches each complete with SwatchGuards on her arm. She didn't get a car for her 16th birthday and was forced to share her mother's hopelessly un-cool 1978 Oldsmobile which was so monstrous, it barely fit in the garage. She didn't know it at the time, but her mother's plans for her be a Symphony Debutante were nixed.

While nothing was being handed to her on a silver platter, she was a happy girl. She was actively involved in her high school's marching band, experiencing thrilling things such as traveling to our nation's capital to march for our new President. She got to spend three years at The Greatest University in the nation, The University of Texas, until once again, these financial pressures brought it to an end.

Today, she is a well-rounded, responsible woman with children of her own, who has been blessed with a unique and useful perspective of feast vs. famine. She has gained much wisdom through these experiences. She has learned how not to live beyond her means. She has learned how to find happiness in other places than Stuff. And she is so thankful that while she is in the midst of another terrible and destructive economic recession, she has enough for the time being. And she is at peace.

The End.

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Back to the collapse of the country's financial giants: Just how did it happen?

My theory: Sub-prime mortgages and other frivolous lending tactics. This country is driven to have Stuff, whether or not we can afford it. And when things are going good, the banks and financial brokers will dole out money to people, who at the time don't have any adequate means to pay it back. They all just assume things will keep heading in the same direction, and it'll just fall in their laps. Then when that doesn't happen...

How in the world did this society get to a place where it became totally acceptable to borrow so much dang money? What ever happened to cash on the barrelhead? Yes, I have a mortgage. And no, I would not have this beautiful house without being able to borrow the money to purchase it. At the time I purchased this house with the IX, I was fully planning on living in it with him, and not having to pay for it on my own. It's not a big fancy über-luxurious place. My neighbors are almost right on top of me. It's covered in...ack...siding. And it pretty much looks just like every other house in the neighborhood. We probably could've been approved for one of the sub-prime mortgages for a much grander dwelling, but we didn't even go down that road. We got a standard, 30-year fixed mortgage. We purchased what at the time, we could afford. And now it just so happens that I find myself facing a lot of hard work to keep it that way.

Anyway...we are a nation of borrowers. We don't like the concept of delayed gratification. And look at where it has gotten us. AGAIN.

I want a deck on the back of my house sooooo bad. But I'm not going to borrow to get it. I haven't bought a stitch of new clothing since I started going on job interviews. (And boy, do I need some new clothes. I dropped four sizes during my divorce and just about everything in my closet would either fall right off of me or swallow me up.) My boys don't have tons of clothes, and what they do have, are hand-me-downs, came from a resale shop, Target, or Meijer. I can't remember the last time I set foot in the mall.

I have no intention of becoming one of the casualties, and I'm thankful that my life experiences have led me to understand a little bit about how it happens. I'm not afraid to buckle down and do what it takes to maintain my 'meager' (by some standards) way of life, all the while thinking I could just about be the richest woman on the planet. Oh, I've got big plans for the future, don't get me wrong. And no, I don't know exactly how I'm going to bring them to fruition.

But let me put it this way...I know how I'm not going to do it.

Kinda sorta random

Go visit In_spired's post for today. She shares with us some really interesting factoids about the great state of Texas. While I already had heard most of them, it didn't fail to give me some internal pangs of homesickness. We native Texans tend to be a little obnoxious about where we hail from, but for good reason, I think! How does that saying go...

It ain't braggin' if it's the truth!

And being reminded of the wonderfulness of Texas makes me all the happier that I decided at the age of 30 to get a little Texas flag tattoo'ed on my ankle.

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I went to the RK's parent/teacher conference last night, and I left there on cloud nine...he has made amazing strides since I last attended a p/t conference, and his teacher sincerely expressed how much she enjoys having him in her class. He's very well behaved, takes responsibility for his stuff and getting his work finished, and is respectful. THAT'S MY BOY! He's still a little bit behind on his level of reading, and I know this could be easily remedied if I buckle down and start reading with him more here at home. It's mainly because we don't have the same taste in reading material. I want to read something with a story, and he wants to read something informational. I get bored with informational reading. Guess it's time for me to act like a grown-up and SUCK IT UP!

I have to wonder how much of his improvement might actually be a result of his dad not being here anymore. I've totally taken over every aspect of the RK's schooling, and for good reason. The IX has no concept of how to talk to the RK on his level, or guide the RK to figure something out for himself. He talks over his head, imposes methods for doing homework completely different from the way RK was taught at school, and usually ends up frustrating the RK to the point of tears. Ummm...yeah. We're glad that's over! So I've taken total charge of the RK's schooling, helping with homework, and am trying to implement have implemented a strict homework schedule and regimen for the evenings.

So last night, I decided to take the boys out to eat. We went back here, finally. The RK certainly deserved the treat after the glowing reviews he got from his teacher! And the IB had fun, too. Except for the fact that he didn't like the mac & cheese I got for him and his dinner consisted solely of french fries.

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I got an interesting text this morning. It was from a number I didn't already have programmed, but given the fact that I can remember phone numbers way too easily and for way too long after they're relevant to my life, I noticed that it was one digit away from the homewrecker's number. Yup, the IX got a new phone number, just one digit away from hers. And what's funny is I have a sneaking suspicion as to what prompted this right now.

I had to buy a new cell phone a week or so ago. I managed to toss my old phone into the washing machine with a load of laundry! I fished it out right away, and as time went on, its functions steadily returned. (Caution: Shameless rationalization ahead.) But given that this is my main phone, I wasn't comfortable depending on a phone that had been compromised in such a way, no matter that it appears to be working just fine. Besides, I hated my old phone, and was thankful for the excuse to get rid of it. So off to the cell phone store I go, ready to put a big ol' charge on my credit card since I'm not willing to renew my contract or change my plan. I pick out one that's AWESOME. It functions just the way I want it to, and I'm very happy with it.

So the IX sees my phone. And he's one of those who has the mindset of "Well, if you get something new and cool, I get to, too!" He was actually that way through our entire marriage. I know for a fact he wouldn't admit to this particular instance, but I know my new phone is more than likely what at least indirectly prompted this. And how amusing is it that he decided to change his phone number so that it sits right next to her number like that? Again, my response: PUKE.

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All right...gotta get some stuff done before the RK gets home around 12:30. Hope y'all are having a wonderful Thursday!

I'll take potpourri for $200, Alex...

I finally did it. I called my vehicle's dealership and got it in for its 40,000 mile maitenance. I never got its 35,000-mile oil change, and right now the odometer indicates I'm right in between the two maintenance milestones, if you will. So I just decided to get it all done a little early.

I'm driving an old beater p-o-s loaner car. These types of cars make me appreciate my Honda all the more! The three hours I must wait to have my car returned to me is all I need to have the love for it fully renewed.

So I took off in that little p-o-s to the local Panera. And here I am. I miss my babies. There are kiddoes all over this cafe, and just makes my heart yearn for my boys!

Let's see...what else...


Oh yes. I had to take the IB to an appointment at the hospital yesterday morning to check if his left testicle has descended over the course of his first year or not. And we found out it hasn't. So that means...gasp...surgery. It's an outpatient thing, but still. So the date scheduled for that is Oct. 1. Oh, the dread.

Ummm...

The Longhorns are playing today! Yeehaw!!! And it's being televised on ESPN2, so I'm a happy camper. I should be getting my car back just in time to cruise home and flip on the game. I'm hoping that the 'Horns get the rout against Central Florida today that I was expecting against Arkansas St. two weeks ago.

So I finally got my resume all in order, and have begun the complicated, red-taped, pointless and frustrating process to start applying for jobs within the University of Michigan system. The first part of that is submitting my resume for a pre-employment screening. That involves waiting half an hour from submission, then calling this number for a brief phone interview. A face-to-face interview is then scheduled, and I'll be off to the races. So I got my resume submitted, waited the half-hour, and called. Whaddya know...voicemail. So I left my message, and didn't let my phone get out of earshot for the rest of the day. And....nothin'. And nothing again on yesterday. I'd better get a freakin' call on Monday, or I'm gonna be pissed. I'm also going to apply for the temp pool at U of M, but I can't apply for that online. I have to print up the application and either mail it in or drop it off. And my printer blows. So I think after I'm done with this post I'm gonna go climb in my little piece and head to Best Buy to get this HP all-in-one printer I've had my eye on. Remember I got my computer paid off, so the balance on my Best Buy card is now $0.

I'm craving Whataburger right now. That'd be so good. That has to be one thing I miss the most about living in Texas. McDonald's....blech. BK...blech. We don't even have Sonic! Michigan sucks.

OK...I guess that's all I have. For now, anyway. Off to my favorite store in the whole wide world...Best Buy!

GO 'HORNS!

Yeah, whatever, Eric.

In the spirit of one of the greatest rivalries between American universities, I must fire back at Eric and his little gloat about Texas a&m being ranked #1 in some strange, and by default, highly questionable ranking from Washington Monthly.

I recently came across this article from the Houston Chronicle. While it declares that UT has lost its#1 ranking as Biggest Party School, taking the long and shameful slide all the way down to #3, (and I especially love the headline labelling it as 'former party school' due to this demotion), it also states that it has been determined by a survey conducted by The Princeton Review to have the best career and job placement services for its students.

From the article:

Lynne Milburn, director of the UT's Career Exploration Center, said students have access to "very personalized and professional services" starting early in their collegiate careers.

Students also appreciate that, as the state's flagship university [emphasis added], "the best recruiters are coming to hire UT students. They have access to higher quality job opportunities," she said.

So basically, what this means is students who attend The University of Texas are indeed so smart, they can party like it's 1999 and still get outstanding grades to be recruited for stellar careers upon graduation.

I wonder if the Co-op is planning on resurrecting the t-shirts that were abundant around campus while I was there that say, "I go to UT... Someday you'll work for me."

The long hot summer

I hate it when this much time gets away from me between posts. I've been coming up with all kinds of things to talk about on here for the last three days, and now I feel like I'd be up all night long typing it all in here. What I can remember of it, anyway. Argh.

One thing I wanted to mention on Sunday afternoon was that amazing, amazing men's final at Wimbledon. Classic! Legendary! I've already mentioned how tennis fans all over the world right now are so blessed to have such a great rivalry for this particular era. And y'all know who I'm talking about: Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal. For the first time, Federer didn't wipe the court with Nadal in a steady, textbook, boring three sets. Nope, it took five. And two of those went into tiebreaks.

I found myself rooting for Federer. And afterwards, in reflection, I realized why. I'm not ready for Nadal to reach that goal yet. This rivalry is still a bit new, and I want the excitement and anticipation to build a little bit more. Let's keep Nadal winning on clay, and Federer winning on grass. It just seems that once one of them gets the upset, the denouement begins, and it just won't be as exciting as before.

This seems to be one of those healthy, friendly, rewarding rivalries. They're each other's toughest competition, always motivating and driving each other to improve their game. Thus, improving the entertainment value for us, the fans. It's so rare that these rivalries are born, and us sorry shmucks who get their jollies from watching the pros play rather than playing ourselves, benefit exorbitantly.

And as for the players themselves, twenty or thirty years from now, they're going to appreciate having had each other to keep driving and pushing the other ever closer to perfection. And they're going to look back on their extraordinary careers, and be thankful. And content.

OK...that's the end of my tennis soapbox soliloquy.

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We've been suffering in 90+ degree weather for the last couple of days, and my poor A/C has been coming on starting before noon. My poor flowers and burning bushes are in sad shape. I gave them a good dose of water and plant food tonight, so hopefully they'll perk back up. And I have no idea where they're coming from, but my house is overrun with flies. They are so nasty. As for me, I'm actually enjoying this heat. It reminds me of home. This would be considered a cold spell this time of year.

We haven't been going to the pool any, though, because the poor RK came home from his weekend with his dad with a horrible sunburn on his back. So he's not exactly in pool mood while his skin is in such pain. Thank God the IB obviously got slathered up with sunscreen. But I'm really quite miffed that the IH wasn't more on top of it with his elder child. And not only that, the IH broke one of the wheels on the IB's stroller. He called me yesterday to let me know that he's ordered a new wheel, and it'll get here in 7-10 days. Thankfully, I knew that SH recently got her two-year-old a new stroller, so she's letting me borrow the old one until the new wheel comes in.

The IH is taking the kids again this weekend, and then we're going to start our alternate weekends routine. I requested this from him because this will coordinate my weekend parenting schedule with that of another neighbor of mine, who has also recently gone through divorce. Her older son has the same name as the RK, and they've become quite good buddies. So this way, they'll be with their moms on the same weekends, and then their moms will both be free on the same weekends to accompany each other to various nightlife establishments. Which I'm so looking forward to. I love to see and be seen, and this past weekend just sitting at home really sucked. I almost decided to go out for a bit by myself, but decided I wasn't exactly in the mood to look quite that vulnerable.

All right, it's approaching 12:30, and I'm gonna cut this off here and go to bed. Nighty-night!

A meme, a dream, and more blowin' off steam

Woohoo! Yeehaw! The Silver Lining's first meme! I've been tagged by my new bloggybuddy Ba Doozie. So here we go...seven interesting facts about me.

1. I have a tattoo of the state flag of Texas on my right ankle. I didn't get it until I was 30 years old, and I had lived out of the state for more than six years. It seems the longer I'm away, the more homesick I get. I'm still very proud of this tattoo, and still very glad I got it. Should I ever decide to get another tattoo, it will be something Texas-related. Perhaps a bluebonnet. Or given that I bleed burnt orange, perhaps something Longhorns-related.
2. I'm very partcular about how I unload the dishwasher. For those items that I have a lot more of than what I can use between dishwashings, the clean items go in the back, or get stacked on the bottom, so the ones that weren't used this particular wash cycle will get used the next time around. It just seems pointless to have eight really cool ginormous polycarbonate cups when I can only use two or three before I run the dishwasher again.
3. Although I live in the capital of American automotive manufacturing, I drive a Honda. And I love it. It's the very first brand new car I've ever bought, and although it's only three years old, it's already paid for. I plan on driving it right into the ground. The domestically-made cars I've had in the past have all had numerous issues, and with the horrible road conditions around southeast Michigan, I believe only a foreign-made vehicle has been designed well enough to stand this kind of abuse for its intended lifespan. I feel bad for not doing more to support the local economy, but as soon as the engineers that work for the Big 3 can design a small SUV that will hold up as well as a Japanese-designed small SUV, I'm sticking with the import. Sorry.
4. I was a bigtime band geek in high school and even college. I joined the band in the seventh grade, and found my niche. I learned so much about setting a high standard of excellence, gaining success through hard work, working together and cooperating for a common goal, and it was some pretty darn good exercise that took care of my P.E. credits through high school. Around the state of Texas, being in band is cool...you get out of a lot of days of school to take some pretty cool trips. I loved band so much, I went to the University of Texas and joined the 350+ member-strong Showband of the Southwest. That was pretty cool. I'm hoping I can get the RK to follow in my bandgeeky ways.
5. Let's see....three more...oh, I have one. My mother was 47 years old when she gave birth to me. Yup. That's right. I have two half-brothers who were already in their twenties when I was born, and I even have a niece that's older than me. Unfortunately, though, I'm not really close with either of my brothers, given that I didn't grow up in the same household with them. But my mom rocks. She's fast approaching her 82nd birthday, is still in relatively good health, and she and I are closer now than we ever were. Love ya, Mom! (I'm giving her a shout-out here even though she has no idea this blog exists.)
6. I hate cleaning house, but I'm getting better at it. In a twisted way, this directly relates to Interesting Thing About Me #5. My mom always wanted a little girl after having two boys, and she finally got her 22 years after her second boy was born! So I grew up a princess. I didn't receive very much discipline growing up, because as it turns out, my will was often a lot stronger than my mom's. So I'd get everything done for me after being able to dig in my heels and hold out longer in our continous staring contest of life. So now I'm having to kick my own ass and I'm finally learning how to take responsibility for my own domain. And I'm also now using my strong will to make sure my sons don't grow up like I did.
7. I'm a huge fan of the Looney Tunes cartoons that Warner Bros. produced through the majority of the 20th century. My favorites are the ones from the 50's, when Chuck Jones was in his prime. I've always loved Looney Tunes, but as I grew up, I appreciated them even more, because I began to realize that they were created by grown men. I own the four-disc Golden Collection on DVD. "Rabbit season!" "Duck season!" "Rabbit season!" "Duck season!" Hee hee...gotta love it.

So there ya go, Ba Doozie! Thanks! That was fun!

I had a weird dream this morning before I got up. I dreamed I was at a pool at some sort of athletic center somewhere in Texas. I was practicing my diving skills off the 3M board (which in reality, I'm terrified of the 3M board). I remember coming up from a dive, looking over at the edge of the pool, and seeing my boyfriend from college. I had to do a double-take to make sure it was really him, since I haven't seen him in more than ten years. He saw me too, and we started talking. His wife was there with him, and just as I always thought, she's a mousy, insecure, mom-type, and when she sees us talking, she gets pretty upset, even though at this point she has no idea who I am. So CB (College Boyfriend) ditches the wife somehow, and he and I start in on pretty deep conversation. His side of it basically has to do with how his marriage is a mistake, and how seeing me makes him want to try to revisit our relationship. We spend the better part of the day together getting reacquainted after all these years, and reviving our attraction for each other.

I learn about why he's there at this athletic facility. And this is funny. It turns out there's going to be a big pool party there later that day, and he's been hired to set up the music system. The company he happens to work for specializes in sound systems acoustically designed for areas with swimming pools. Crazy, I know.

That's really all I remember of the dream, except that we did hold hands from time to time throughout the day, and I could practically feel electricity flowing between our fingers. It seems to me that the only time I've ever felt this kind of mutual attraction has been in my dreams and never real life. In fact, I've started to wonder if anything of this level is actually possible in real life.

OK, so now I'll fill y'all in on the real side of CB. He was in Longhorn Band, and that's how we met. We dated for almost two years, and when we broke up, it was a mutual decision between us that we would be much better off as friends. So basically, how it went was we decided to break up, we both cried a little, then decided to go get some lunch. We started seeing other people, and here's why I dreamed of his wife like I did. His first girlfriend after we broke up HATED me. She was so intimidated by me and the friendship CB & I continued to have. But CB wouldn't let her come between our friendship, which I think only hurt their relationship. The amount of time they dated could be measured in years, though. She just couldn't get it through her head that I was absolutely no threat to her or her relationship with CB. Now don't get me wrong - I totally understand why she had this type of issue initially, but it just seems that over time, she'd start to understand the nature of my recently-revised relationship with her boyfriend.

So after I left college and moved back home, we kept in touch, and even after I met the IH, we actually took a weekend trip to Austin and stayed with CB & his roommate. And it worked out great. IH & I basically did our own thing the whole time we were there, and the IH saw that what I said about my relationship with CB was true. Nope, no threats there. Unfortunately, I don't think he ever really saw it that way, though.

CB and I continued to keep in touch even after I moved to Indianapolis with IH. CB was still dating the same girl that hated me, and I remember getting phone calls in the middle of the night a few times when they were having some problems. They eventually broke up, and the last communication I received from him was a wedding invitation right after we had moved to Michigan. To another girl, of course. And I didn't recognize the name. I continued to send him birthday and Christmas cards with never receiving any response. We even emailed some the last year or so of our contact, but his address was on the UT servers, and after he graduated, he had to forfeit his account. I never found out a new email address for him after that.

Over the years, I've always been so curious what has gone on with him, and have tried multiple times to get in touch with him again. Luckily, he has an unusual last name, so Google actually turned up some clues. One thing that was really funny about his profession in my dream was that he's not anywhere near inclined in the sound/electronics industry. He got his degree in botany. He loves plants, trees, etc. And I learned a lot about botany from him. Anyhoo, my Google hits included a couple of pages from a website talking about certain plants that had his name on the credits. I also hit on his Amazon.com wishlist, which included a potty training book for little girls. So from that I gathered that he was indeed working in the botany industry, and that he had a daughter. Cool.

He grew up in an area of Texas that was hit hard by hurricane Wilma (or was it Rita? The second one that hit the gulf coast not too long after Katrina, anyway) a couple of years ago, so this got me thinking about him and hoping his family were all OK after the devastation. He was named after his father, so another site I came across on my Google search was a high school reunion site for his dad. This included an email directory, so I tried sending an email to his dad. Never got a response. I think that might be the last time I tried to get back in contact.

And now that I had this dream, it's gotten my curiosity peaked again. I so want to hear what he's been doing the last decade of our lives. But now especially with what I've been going through, it might not be very appropriate to try again. Another Google search couldn't hurt, though.

This post has taken me way too long, so that is all. For now.

Remembering my hometown's 15 minutes of fame

Has it really been that long? Yeah, I guess so. I was but a young lass of 14 at the time. A freshman in high school. And for those two days, I sat just as riveted in front of my TV set as the rest of the world. But why is this so notable for me? I was just across town. A mere 3 miles away.

Oh, the passage of time never ceases to amaze me. Here I am, a grown woman of 34, living 1500 miles from this place I still think of as home. I'm doing such incredibly grown-up things that back when this was happening, I was completely incapable of imagining myself in such a position. And now, she's 21, a married grown-up herself. How in the world did this happen? How is it that the seconds ticking by all of a sudden add up to two decades?

Anyway, you know I'll be setting my DVR to make sure I don't miss this. Here's what I'm talking about.

Thanks Jimmy, for spreading the word!

Homage to my Home State

Thus far in this blog, I have failed to fully portray a very important side of me. I am a proud Texan. To the level of being rather obnoxious about it, in fact. I have a Texas flag tattooed on my right ankle. I can think offhand of at least 5 t-shirts up in my closet right now portraying the greatness of the state of Texas. And that's not counting my University of Texas t-shirts...there's quite a few of those, too. I have a Longhorn steerhead sticker on the back window of my car with the state flag superimposed on it, along with a UT Longhorns license plate cover surrounding my Michigan license plate. I already have it all planned out how I'm going to make my downstairs half-bath my Texas bathroom. During football season, I have a Longhorn banner that I fly over my front porch on UT game days. I also have a Texas state flag that flies at the same time, usually, and also on March 2nd, Texas Independence Day. I'll talk and talk and talk about Texas to you until you're crying for mercy.

So imagine my delight when I found this wonderful little video today on YouTube. Enjoy!