"...no dead end in sight..."

home sick

So I am home sick today with fever. I fluctuate between having icky faucet nose and achy body and I can't hear out of my ears very well and a cough that will just knock your socks off. Gross.

I'm watching Vince Vaughn on Regis & Kelly and he is just hysterical. Plus Kelly Ripa used to be cool when she and Mark Consuelos were on AMC, and this may just be the fever talking, but I think she's kinda annoying?

 
These are all the Kleenexes I've used in the past twelve hours.
GROSS, ISN'T IT.
This photo does not adequately capture the height of this used tissue pile.
(Also, the dirty dishes are pretty gross too, btw.)

ON TO PHOTOS.

We stopped at this place to get some sandwiches for lunch at HSB. (It appears they have a website here, and I also found more information here) Also the little lemon pound cakes were delish!

 
This is me being happy I've got SPF 34867359680 sunblock on. No sunburn like last year!!

 
HOLY CRAP LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE HERE.
Seriously. The only drawback to this weekend was that everybody and their flippin dog showed up this year. And it seems Californians are inconsiderate, rude, smelly people when gathered in large numbers.

This is Steve Martin playing the banjo, btw.

Canadian geese flew overhead like last year!

When we got back Saturday my auntie's cats had stolen one of my chenille socks and hidden it upstairs on her bed.
 

Gray Kitty likes looking out the window.
 

I took this photo for Jay :) I thought he'd get a kick out of it.


Grace Cathedral!
 

Boccalone has a spot at the Ferry Building! (Website here, and more info here) 
 Heck yes, don't disturb the meats!! 

   
Folsom Street FTW XD

Today is another appointment with the gastroenterologist, because you know they can't actually fit me in when I'm having agony bloating. My guts pretty much feel awesome today, a week after I called like HEY IT HURTS RIGHT NOW AT THIS VERY SECOND COME TAKE A LOOK, so woohoo for wasting the $30 for a co-pay. I'm pretty sure he'll tell me to keep taking the pill and that he has no idea why it hurts.

OH ALSO - I found this book ON SALE at a bookstore in Burlingame.
(It's on Amazon here.)
The perfect souvenir - city-centric AND half price. AWESOME.
I am totally making some of these recipes in the days/weeks to come.

friday five

1. Will or did you go on vacation this summer?
Yes, a little bit.

2. Where will/did you go?
I went to San Diego for a weekend last month :D

3. What do you like about the place?
It's perfect in most every way.

4. What don't you like about the place?
While I was there it was freakishly hot :(
 
5. Where do you want to go next summer?
Tokyo~ but I said that last year and it didn't happen XD Someday though!!

busy busy

So the first third of September is over and things in the last month have been nuts! Every weekend has been something.

First off, Jay graduated in the middle of August. I don't have any photos of this because they all turned out dark. And there was a railing blocking his face. Photo FAIL.

Then we drove out to Lubbock to see little brother in plays! Note the crazy windmills off in the distance.

 
...and then I went out to San Diego to visit my Mammaw + auntie. This was after we had lunch at Coronado. It was freakishly hot outside :(

This is the lobby at Coronado. Somewhere there is an old photo of me and my baby sister standing in front of this table. OH and SCARY WHITE FIGURE in the upper left-hand corner totally was NOT THERE when I took this picture, I swear. ~haunteeeeed~

[token sunset picture XD]

Labor Day weekend we went down to visit my parents. Shocker, I know. It wasn't great - they were more than willing to just pretend nothing had happened, which made us both go WTF, but whatever. Nobody was hurt or arrested, which in my mind is a pretty good visit considering we were both on edge for a lot of it. But anyway.

I woke up yesterday and had this feeling that something good is going to happen. I mean, good. I stepped outside and the sky was beautiful and I just had this moment of peace, like everything was okay. Then later yesterday afternoon Jay called and said a location maybe 20 mins from my office is hiring. I don't want to jinx it by hoping, because that's how things go apparently, but omg. I am keeping all extremities crossed in the hopes that it pans out. Location, location, location.

Now I have to get ready for work, which involves lots of self-examination. Thursday is filing day, woohoo!

lightning outside

The storm rolled in about fifteen minutes ago. It's loud and stormy, and I hate lightning. Sure, it looks amazing, but growing up in Houston with spindly pine trees outside my 2nd floor bedroom window makes me really uneasy when it happens at night. I remember one time it was particularly bad and I grabbed my comforter, walked into the game room (away from any windows) and made a nest on the floor and slept there for the rest of the night. Thankfully the sirens in Grapevine and Coppell haven't gone off yet. That's when I grab the rat ladies and Rudie and head into the bathroom and shut the door.

Today is the third day of my grad school introductory workshop, and I have to say, I really hope the actual master's degree classes are a little more intellectual. I have really big problems with them lowering the bar so that stupid people with no grammatical knowledge are allowed to pursue higher education. Granted, by the same token I feel education should be available to everyone; I just don't think some of these people are running on all cylinders if you know what I mean. I now know why Jay was so frustrated so much of the time with the caliber of his online program.

Also, I am morally opposed to any institution of higher learning that allows you to run your paper through a computer program to instantly edit your grammar and spelling. I am also insulted that I spent four years dissecting and devouring the English language as a part of my bachelor's degree only to be asked as a part of a module: "Tell me what you learned from [this grammar-checking program]". I didn't learn anything, you git, other than in spite of the alleged self-masturbatory glories of this program it failed to detect and eliminate an extra superfluous comma in the sample paragraph.

I call massive bullcrap on an educational program that endorses and glorifies a tool that eliminates students' desire to review and objectively edit their own work. I KNOW YOU'RE IN GRAD SCHOOL BUT TURN OFF YOUR BRAIN AND LET MAMA COMPUTER DO IT FOR YOU, MKAY KIDS?!?! Whatev. My sixteen-year-old sister is smarter than half these grown-ass morons - but then again, I am going to stop right there with my criticisms and I'm not going to judge people. In fact, rather than go down that road and start ranting, I rather applaud all of them for wanting to better themselves. And that's all I'm going to say about that, other than I REALLY wish I could have taken a proficiency exam and tested out of this module, which is insulting to my intelligence at best.

I am hoping that once I'm in the master's program and away from all the undergrads present in the orientation forums that things will pick up and I will have the ride of my life. I'm hoping!! If not I am going to quietly get my master's degree then do some independent study of the CPA exam before subjecting myself to that particular torture.

On a better note, I am taking today off because we are going to see little brother in not one, but two plays this weekend! Jay's car is being a huge POS so I'm driving. I don't mind at all - I'm used to being in my car (actually I rather like driving my car if we're not in stop-and-go traffic and we're moving the whole time) - and I'd rather have us in something reliable with me driving than take the Mazda Methuselah and have it break down an hour and a half into the trip. The car is a tank, no joke, but it needs a break after its tribulations yesterday.

So now I am going to turn on Freedom for an hour and get some housework done. Our rented washing machine is being ghetto and the spin cycle is broken and they're coming some time today to fix it (or replace - hopefully replace - can you tell I'd rather just have a new machine? lol) and I'd rather not come home from a long weekend and find a repairman has tripped over the clutter, fallen, and lethally injured himself while we've been gone. Happy quasi-weekend, lovelies!!

what's for breakfast

So I've been on this yogurt + granola kick lately. It's delicious. I could eat it for breakfast or dinner. Lunch even. They sell it in the bulk bins at lovely Market Street and I've been stocking up on the raspberry variety. It's got a great texture and makes a great compliment to fresh strawberries.

Jay is graduated!! Now all he needs is for someone to hire him, which I'm sure will happen shortly. Last weekend was fun-filled and action-packed, in which we ate dinner at Luigi's in Denton followed by a trip to Recycled Books, in which I bought too much and coveted even more. We already have a crapton of books :( I don't even want to begin to think about moving allll of them.

This weekend we are going to see (pookie's) little brother doing what he does best - theatering (theatring? o.o). This will involve another Friday off, plus tons and tons of driving. Ideally I'd like to use the car ride to work on upcoming article(s) for the Examiner. This week's I believe is due tomorrow and while I've got an idea, it's going to take some research to be able to get something even mildly professional cranked out tonight. Oh, delicious lovely research...*droool~

Speaking of breakfast, I should probably obtain some and continue on with my morning. More later if I have time. Lunch today is going to be spent in a workshop for U of P - it looks like my newfound extracurriculars are slowly eating up all of my free time!! (Not that I'm complaining, you know.)