Boring Update.

Well I fell off the no caffiene wagon yesterday and had a diet coke (with refill!!) at dinner yesterday evening. We were at one of those restaurants with few drink options so there ya go. I'm going to try to climb back on again today.

Yesterday Justin and I left the house at 6:15 am and headed to Muleshoe to judge at a speech tournament. We had a really good time. Because we never get out of the house anymore, going to stuff like that is sort of like a date for us...so it was fun. My back is killing me today though from sitting in those awful highschool desks. How on earth did I ever do that for 8 hours a day?? I must be getting old.

We had an extra day off, so we didn't have to go in last night which was nice, but now I'm dreading going to work tonight. I really need to get a new book...

Also, anyone who likes historical fiction should check out Jester by James Patterson/Andrew Gross. I just finished it and it's quite good.

Addiction


I generally do not think of myself as someone who has an addictive personality. I've never really smoked, never done enough drugs to mention, and one martini knocks me flat... Because of these things I've never been able to muster up much empathy for those who are trying to stop smoking, drinking, drugging or what-have-you. Until I have unearthed my own addiction: caffiene.

It sneaks up on you really. I'm not a coffee drinker and haven't ever said the words "wait until after I get my caffiene," but the addiction is there people! And it's freakin' hard to give up. I've tried to stop drinking anything but water and other clear or naturally occuring liquids only, since my ugly kidney infection from a few weeks ago. But it constantly calls to me "go find a diet pepsi..it won't hurt...only one...if you don't we'll make you a huge angerball with a raging headache." So far I've survived about a week and a half. And I now have more understanding of what Justin is going through. (He stopped smoking, practically cold turkey in February, I'm very proud.)

The thing is though, I think it's easier to stop smoking. They (whoever those experts are) say that caffine is more addictive than heroin or something, and people just push it all the time! At restaurants, it's practically impossible to get anything to drink that's non-caffinated and diet. I know they make these beverages, and that they are available in stores...but I don't know why restaurants never have them. (Yes, I know that water is always an option, but it's almost always tap water, which is truly disgusting and way more likely to give me some sort of disease.)

So here I am, chuging bottled water, and green tea (yes, I know green tea has caffiene, but it's a different kind or something) and wishing that I had a diet pepsi. I think my dad is taking us to dinner tonight. I think it will be to Savannah's which has great Mexican food, but only tap water or soda to drink. Perhaps we'll make it BYOB.

To Come In From The Rain

Our dog does not enjoy the rain. She gets very confused when she steps off the porch and her feet get wet, and when she realizes that it's hitting her head it's a total breakdown. Thunder is worse. Like me, she is jumpy about loud noises. This is cute and all until you really need her to do her dog thing...you know...that one. I know she needed to go because she's been crated for the last 9 hours that we've been at work...for your viewing pleasure, a slide show about not being smart enough to come in from the rain. (me not her).



RockYou slideshow | View | Add Favorite


Some of the pics are blurry. It's hard to snap a dog running for the door like a maniac.

The Fruits Of No Labor

We have a pomegranite bush, because I don't touch it with my plant assassin fingers, it grows fruit. I took a picture:

Ta dah

In an effort to keep all of our pictures from looking exactly the same, we changed the angle from which Justin snaps the picture...I call this, "the view from below." Not great, but it's a little different from the norm anyway...Justin says "this is how our child will see us someday..." God I hope not.


{Editor's Note: Please be aware that at this time I am not, nor do I have any plans to become pregnant, so everybody just keep your panties on.}

Family Ties....or Shackels?

This is so frustrating to me...So, Justin is working his butt off in school, he's studying really hard and learning really quickly and I'm really super proud of him. Today he spoke with his mom and was telling her about it and she was just like "well you better not fail." What the hell?! I mean first of all it's not any of her business to begin with. It's not like she's paying for any of it. The only reason that he had to wait until now to really get involved in school is because they wouldn't help him financially, even to the point of giving him their tax information so that he could apply for grants etc. He wasn't even asking for money for school, just basic information so he could get some help from the government and besides that, would it kill her to say that she's proud of him?! What kind of parent watches her kid start college and doesn't even have the decency to show some kind of support?

Don't get me wrong, my parents aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I never had to wonder if they were proud of me. I never had to wonder if they would help or support me when I needed it, and I sure know that they love me.

I can let the shit that they pulled with the wedding pass, but I don't know about this. Justin should not feel like I'm the only one in his life that loves him. Someone besides me should tell him that they're proud. Everytime he calls his parents they say something that's hurtful to him...or don't say something that would make him feel good. It's like they're making a genuine effort to make sure that he knows how disappointed they are in him...and I just don't understand it. I'm completely at a loss for what to do. My only instinct now is to scream and pull out my hair. *sigh*

If It's Not One Thing...

It's sure to be something else equally upsetting. I haven't posted in awhile because everytime I feel like I have something of interest to report, it's something bad. This makes for a really whiny, stinky blog. However, this is a matter of some importance, and perhaps I can make it mildly entertaining.

We have a massive water leak under our house. I think it must have started off small, but our water bill has been steadily increasing by about $40 a month, every month for about 6 months. Looking at the bill we received yesterday, we owe the City of Levelland $140 for water and our monthly usage is 38 thousand gallons. This is a lot of water people. Apparently there's a small resort town under our home...I'm sure it's teeming with lots of lovely guests like mold, algae and bacteria. Buy your tickets early, the busy season is just beginning...

We also seem to be having some electrical problems...This house is basically wired to ignite at any moment, and we've lived quite happily with this eventuality for some time now...It's sort of like knowing that you're going to die...it's a fact, but you try not to think about it too often. Until today. It's been raining for the better part of 36 hours, and in the middle of our much needed beauty rest the electricity went out. We discovered this by waking up to a very quiet, hot house. We called the electric company and the guy came out and told us that we do in fact have power on his end...but somewhere in the house there is a short, and perhaps in the next week or so we should have an electrician come out, good luck until then. Very helpful.

Luckily, my dad knows most of the people in the civillized world, and most of them owe him a favor of some sort, so we did, in fact find an electrician who could come out on a holiday weekend in the pouring rain. I'm not sure what he did, as I was hiding out at my aunts house, but 3 hours after the emergent crisis, we have lights and fans and a working refridgerator. The short seems to be in the air conditioning which is lucky only in that it's supposed to be unseasonably cool for the next week or so. Hurray for divine intervention!

I also have a very painful kidney infection...perhaps some kidney stones. We were out of bottled water for the better part of a week, and apparently it is unwise to subsist on Diet Pepsi. I'm now taking some antibiotics and something called Azo Standard to numb my urinary tract, this wonder drug has the added bonus of turning my bodily fluids a particularly enchanting shade of neon orange.

If you need me I'll be in the corner contemplating Murphy's Law.