Boom! Got my taxes done!

Haha! The joys of being a filing-single, low-earning American...an easy tax return! I got it done in about 20 minutes! GIVE ME MY MONEY! Better get some more too, Barack...

Been an okay week at school so far.Classes are still going well and I found out that a quiz I missed last week can be made up at the end of the semester, sweeeet! The weekend was great, my friend Laura was in town to see my roomie Smyer and we all went out to eat with Smyer and her ACU work friends. They only called me a "hopeless sinner" once so I guess things really are changing over at the C of C school! jk!

I hope today I get to sleep in my new house, wait sorry, Smyer's new house (I just rent a room). It will be nice to not sleep on a couch tonight, well...at least one that pulls out. (that's what she said)

Man did the Cardinals get screwed on Sunday or what?

whoa...i had one of those south beach diet things powders in my water and I have so much energy- look at all those exclamation points! Anyway, gotta go-have a great day all! (by all I mean Stacy cause she's the only one who reads this, har-har.)

People are dumb...including me.

So, I go out with a friend last night, Jacob, to play pool and do some dancing. We are having a great time- I love to dance and with a girlfriend it is nice to just dance and not worry about trying to be smooth, which doesn't work anyway- and it started.

I danced with this girl and afterwards she comes up to me and says that a this other guy warned her about me, that I wasn't a good person. Now I know this guy, but I don't know him. I've never said more than 5 words to this guy in my life. Because I was in a different fraternity he hates me. For a good reason probably, I really wasn't a positive person the last time I was around so I prob said or did something offensive to him 4-5 YEARS ago. Now, if you know me I'm pretty laid back, but this flew all over me. It was starting again, my past in my present.

So, I walked by him and...I bumped him. Pitiful yelling and pushing ensued. How embarassing! I looked like a stupid fool, and worst of all I let this guy affect my positivity. I'm 26 years old and I almost got into a fight with a guy wearing a Ninja Turtles hat! (no shit, a F*ing Ninja Turtle hat)

And of course, first thing this morning a KS guy walks up to me and says he heard I had a little excitement last night, Holy Crap! Somethings just don't change.

So, pray for me. Pray that I let negativity out of my life and embrace positivity. I am going to look for that guy today and apologize, I hope.

Hey there country bumpkin, how's the frost out on the pumpkins?

I def had some frost on my pumpkins this morning. It was 22 degrees and it drizzled all night so of course it was SUPER icy this morning. Luckily I put the cover on Trigger last night so she wouldn't be iced over this morning. Thankfully, I am staying with a good buddy who let me borrow his truck this morning, 4x4 people! I didn't even have to be at school till 9:30, (glasses pushed up, I'm stealing that Stockdale) but here I am.

It is nice to be here when it is quiet. Last Thursday, after 3 quarter of rousing women's basketball, GO Indigenious Peoples of the Americas!! (That is my PC way of rooting for the Indians) I went to a "centering prayer" service in the Chapel. This is the same kind of service that I walked in late to on the first day of school. In this service, one chooses a word(s): Love, Peace, Be Still, etc., and listens to a passage read, a gong is sounded, and you...sit in silence. You don't pray out loud and you don't pray in your head, everytime you mind wanders to a thought you simply repeat your word and "center" yourself. I have been increasingly intrigued by meditaion and its power so this was an awesome experience. You are quiet for only 20 minutes, but it seems a lot longer! I am such a loud person, which I love about myself, but it is so soothing to just be for 20 minutes. It is really neat, try it!

http://www.waitingroomministry.com/newSite/centeringPrayer.html

Otherwise, things are good in Big Country. My classes, average age: 19, are really pretty interesting. English 1320 (yes, the 2nd Fish English) is turning into my favorite class. We have a really cool prof Thompson(I've had him before), and all the things we have read so far MAKE SENSE to me now. Part of it is growing up I'm sure, but coming to class helps a lot. He is an old partier (sp?) too, so he says a joke that goes right over the 19yrold's heads and he sees me laughing and says, "Right? You know what I'm talking about!" We made the class laugh on Monday talking about the diff between men and women getting ready for a date after reading The Chysanthemums (re/read if you haven't and have a discussion about symbolism), so now I feel much more comfortable all around.

Pens, check. Book, check. Insecurity, check. :)

Oh, the cleaners. So Smoker is tonight and I took a jacket to the cleaners yesterday and forgot the pants so I went back this morning (thats what she said) and miracuously on this icy morning they were open. I tell the lady that I need to add some pants to my order and she says it might not be done until tomorrow. Why? I ask. Well he, never explained who "he" was, might not be into work today to do the clothes, he lives ALL THE WAY on the Northside. Anyone who knows Abilene knows that the Northside is 5 minutes from the Southside, I really don't know why we even have sides, but I digress... Soooo, you are telling me that all you know how to do is open the door and turn on the sign? Do your job, Madam!

So, tonight I might have a nice suit jacket, shirt and tie, and my fav pair of cargo shorts.

Happy Tuesday to all and to all a good day!

Back to School

So as many of you know I have returned to Abilene to complete 16 hours to graduate in May. Still others of you know of my huge struggle just to get back into school, let alone graduate!

So I moved here last Saturday and I have to tell you, it has been positive in many wonderful ways. I drive a scooter, and it is cold in Abilene this time of year and I didn't have a good jacket. I have owned/lost several leather jackets. Well,my friend Leon had for some reason kept this old leather jacket. He gave it to me to wear...and it turned out to be my old leather jacket! Crazy karma, so now I had a great warm jacket to scoot to school in. I got to school at 7:40 (first class was at 10, excited much?) and I wanted to stop in the chapel and spend a few moments in silence to thank God for my blessings. I walked in and a sign said "enter in silence". Tim Kennedy was doing a prayer service in which you sat in silence, listen to some chimes, and he read some passages. It was exactly what I needed. So far so good. Then it got pretty weird. I was walking across campus and there a guy from one of the local TV stations, I had said good morning to him earlier, and he asked me if I wanted to talk about my first day of school! I had been in Abilene for 48 hours and already on the news!! It was pretty surreal and my family got a pretty good kick out of it. But it didn't stop there, folks. When God decides to talk to ya, it ain't a short conversation.

My first class went great, have an old professor I had my first semester at McMurry, and I go to my second class. And there he was. Now, this guy wasn't the one who punched me started a fight with the day before Coronation '04, but he was part of the whole thing. And I use to have a lot of resentment because he and the other person never got disciplined or anything. I used to have A LOT of resentment. But I looked across the table at him and felt nothing. It was truly an epiphany, to not have that in my heart anymore was just even more of a reassurance that I was where I needed to be. After class I went up to him and shook his hand and walked away.

Then I watched myself on the news at 6 and laughed so hard I cried.

BELIEVE.

A little bit older....almost.

I got to celebrate a good friend's bday last week, which was a blessing! I hadn't seen the ladies for much too long and it was a treat for me to get to see them and hang out, even if I was a little hungover for work! Birthdays always get me thinking about stuff....


I got a little bit older today. Not technically, but it feels that way. My birthday isn't till Saturday, but I aged a little today.

I got glasses.

My eyes aren't that bad (20/30) and of course my LEFT eye is much better than my right (Leftys4Life!), but I have been having trouble for awhile seeing everything at night....did I just write that? "trouble seeing things at night?" Dear Lord, I AM getting older!

Although my swimsuit model days have been long behind me, I haven't felt older for a long time. Early 20's? No problem. 24 was just another year, 25 felt a little bit older, but still c'mon...I am (for another 2 1/2 days, by god) closer to 20 than 30. But with 26, wow, I really feel a little older. And not that that is all a bad thing. Some things about getting older are interesting, you realize things about life that would have never crossed your mind even a couple of years ago (and things that have been crossing your Mother's mind for years).

One thing I don't mind about getting older (and the glasses) is something I actually realized a few years ago, but hadn't thought about since then. This literally happened almost three years ago to the day. I was working in Colorado for six months, after my "break" from McM. I was working in the mountains, the leaves were changing and it was gorgeous. I was sitting in my work truck and looking around and noticed that things weren't as sharp as they could be. "I need glasses," I thought. I said just to myself and realized that I would really look more like Tony, my step dad. It is one of the great ironies of life that my step dad Tony and I look much more alike than anyone else in my family.

As I sat/sit t/here with that realization, that I'd look more like my Dad-Tony, I noticed that it didn't/doesn't bother me. I would welcome that comparison. Tony really is a very distinguished looking guy. I don't know how much more distinguished I look or anything, but I can see better! Three years it took me! Can ya say stubborn? Sometimes just getting things in focus can be a big deal.

A poem, by me. Enjoy:

A Beer Never Bought

Well, the flat top is gone from his head
Replaced with long gray hair instead
and he drinks too much Jack,
and he starts thinking back
He kinda laughs at how it all began

He and his buddies weren't doin well with the college plan
So they went off to work for Uncle Sam
He gave him a gun
Took away his college fun
And sent him off to fight out it 'Nam

The Lt. calls down the order
"Men! We gotta take the hill!"
He takes one last look at his St. Christopher medal
And he goes off to kill or be killed

Everyday he wakes he thanks God
And he curses this jungle terrain
He had girl back home, she hippie now
and he's alone
He misses when life was just a game

Takin' the late night train to Midland
His tears fall on the track
He would been home to his momma earlier
But they called him a baby-killer
So he stopped in a bar and got smashed

He never wanted a parade
He'd-a-said No if you'd asked
Maybe a handshake or a thank you
Hell, a free beer wouldn't have been half bad

Forty years later he's on his barstool
When a young man walks through the door
He takes one look at him in his uniform
and his eyes fall to the floor

"Hey Tommy get this man a drink!
Aw, just put it on my tab
No need for thank-you,son
I know where ya been and what ya done
Hell...I'd take the jungle over sand"

His friends? They all made back just fine
Hell, they're still quite a team
And except for the name of Father
They are proudest to be called MARINE

So everyone raise their glass
I'm going to leave you with a thought
Think of all those carryin' a rifle tonight
And don't leave 'em with a beer never bought
don't leave 'em with a beer never bought



Have you thanked a serviceman/woman lately?

Is EVERYONE a teacher now?

Yet another one of my friends became a teacher lately....and I am jealous. Not angry jealous or anything, but I remember a time where NO ONE wanted to be a teacher! I seriously have over a dozen friends who have gone into teaching in the past two years.

And don't get me wrong, I love my job. I don't know if I'm jealous of the fact that they're teachers or that they have some semblance of where their lives are going (and many of them still might not), or maybe it is because they have finished college and I am 15 stinkin' hours away and I can't seem to find the right way to finish. 3 1/2 years out of school, wow. Anyways:

I was raised by and around teachers, my mother was a PE teacher for a few years, and then worked her way into special ed consulting eventually, and most of my best friends growing up were teachers kids. I mean, I spent more time with teachers in my young life than my parents it seemed like. And I loved school. We moved 7-8 times before I was 10,so I went to a bunch of different schools and had all different types of teachers. I have always gotten along with teachers too. I wasn't a teacher's pet, but if I wasn't good, Momma found out...and quick! I think it really is the most noble profession we have in our society,next to ordained ministry and military service. I really do put it up that high and it should be.

So, pity: party of one. But I am so very proud of all my friends who are starting their first year, I can imagine the nervousness they must be feeling and I know that they will do a great job.