Texas State Fair

Retrospective Post 1- Back to October 14

Back in October, my father took my sister, two of my sister's friends, and I to the Texas State Fair out at Fair Park in Dallas. The Texas State Fair typically lasts around 3 weeks in October, and is very popular, and crowded. The place is full of arcade games, some small rides, exhibits, a planetarium, an aquarium, other such buildings, and of course many, many food stands that include a slew of fried foods (we're Americans- moreover Texans...is that surprising?)

This was probably one of the most exciting days in October. The first thing we did was peruse a hall that had exhibits of exorbitantly high cost items, with a man who was a "one-man band"- he played 12 instruments all on his own, including using his feet, head, knees, and everything! It was quite amusing!

We went to the "Midway" next, the loudest part of the park, where all the games were located, as well as the rides. My dad, of course, talked me into going onto a ride which I was horrified of going onto. The ride pivots you around a fulcrum while at the same time spinning you front to back in circles, often times leaving you facing upside down. Freaky! He took pictures. *glare*

For a while we just walked the midway, looking at what they had to offer, including marvelling at all the fried foods that were possible, including fried pop-tarts, fried cheesecake, fried Oreos, fried Coke, and fried Snickers, among other things. There were so many food stands that someone with the pickiest taste could find at least one stand that would serve something they'd like...I did! I had a quesadilla for lunch, with a frozen margarita.

We next stopped at the huuuuuge ferris wheel, from which I got a great shot of the Dallas skyline. It was a short-ish ride, but nice to see such a large part of North Texas. The line wasn't as long as we expected it to be, so it went quick.

Our next stop was the aquarium, where there were some awesome- and some strange- sights to see. They also had stingrays you could pet (I did not take that chance!) and displays of fish from around the world. There were also lizards, a crocodile turtle (I have NO idea how that was conceived....), and other interesting aquatic creatures. Wasn't my choice, but my sister was there with her friends, so we met her there.

Once they left, we looked around some, then they called us down to the pond where they had some swans.....the boat kind! First time I had seen them that I remember. This is where I had my food, and they had some food too, although we ate at different places- we ate closer to the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl is the place where the "Red River Rivalry" takes place- Oklahoma plays Texas (Texas won!)

After that, we proposed going to the planetarium for a show, but the shows were sold out, so we wandered the park for a while longer, just taking in sights and taking random rides. We sat down for a while and talked some, and we spent some time in the gift shops, looking around.

The last thing we did, to get rid of the last of our "tickets" was go on a anti-gravity ride, which was a complete blast (I've always loved the ride! I've been on it in other fairs). We finally went to a taffy stand and bought some taffy to end out the day, and stopped at another gift shop on the way out.

After that, we caught the Texas Rangers game on the ride home. They were in the middle of the 11th inning, and tied, vying for a place in the World Series at the time. It was an amazing ending to the game, with a grand slam (a home run hit when the bases are loaded, for the non-baseball fans) putting the Rangers winning 7-3...amazing! We got home and I was so tired, I went to bed pretty quickly. It was a pretty much awesome day. Absolutely loved it. My first time to the State Fair, and I'd love to go again (but it's very expensive). Still fun though!

Grateful For Recently

Whilst I absolutely love blogging, I am absolutely grateful for the break that I took when I wasn't feeling so great in October, then extending it to complete the month and give myself some time to think. I'm grateful for the ideas that this leaves me, although some of the posts will be writing in retrospect to October.

I'm grateful for my parents, whose anniversary was Tuesday 1st November (Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! 25 years together).

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to finally interview for a job, and actually got it (I got the background check back clean today, no surprise there)

I'm grateful that I have a blog where I can share the things I'm grateful for and people actually give me feedback and appreciate what I say (sometimes anyway)....and the 10,000 people that have viewed my blog as of today. I love all of you!

Grateful For Corky

I know you hate when I call you that, if you're reading this.

Corky (Courtney) is my sister. She turned 16 this past Saturday, the 22nd. I'm grateful for my sister this week; I should say, this month, as this is the only "grateful" post of the month.

Rewind to 1995. My mom found out she was pregnant, but she kept the gender secret from both my brother and I. Both of us secretly yearned for a younger sibling of our gender- I a sister, he a brother. I got my wish. As much as I pick at her and tease her, I love her. I wouldn't trade her for anything.

A mother and her daughters- me (left), Courtney (baby), and mom (right)

She was born late in the evening on October 22nd. I was so happy to have a younger sister, even though I had to share a room with her. I was almost 8 years old, and a beaming older sister- I finally had the sister I wanted! I remember playing with dolls in the crib area before the crib was moved in, as it was a big space. I don't think I realized what big change was coming in my life.

Watching her grow has been an adventure. It's a little bit different with such an age gap between us. i got to watch her kindergarten graduation as a high school student, so I remember it. I got to bury her in the sand at Cocoa Beach, Florida, although she doesn't remember that. I remember teaching her how to swing on the old swingset in the backyard when she was younger, and helping teach her how to swim. Helping her with her homework has been a challenge at times, but it's something I enjoy because I get to spend time with her.

I remember when we moved, and finally got our own bedrooms, how empty it felt to finally have my own room, even though it was great to finally have my own space. I remember helping at her school when she was in elementary, during her field days, when her classmates adored me, and I'd get random hugs in the hallways at the school.

I remember sitting next to her in her carseat, either getting yelled at for tickling her, or stroking her hair behind her ears whilst she was sleeping. I remember the nights where she would crawl into my bed and sleep next to me, or my childhood friend, if she was over for the night. I sometimes secretly wished that those days had lasted longer, but they didn't. She kept growing, that's what kids tend to do. I'm in envy, though, that she kept those beautiful, entrancing baby blues. She's the only one in the family who got them.

Corky created this one herself- creative!

She's in high school now, but it's been wonderful watching her grow up- from an older sister's perspective. I got to watch on as she grew, although we never gained the same bond as we may have had we been closer in age. Perhaps when we're older we'll be closer, but for now, I'm still watching her grow. Now it's time to watch her get her license.

She's a clarinet in the marching band, and is quite opposite of the type of person I was in high school. I was very school oriented, always wanting to do more, because it was never enough. I didn't take a whole lot of time having a social life. Corky is a social butterfly, with a growing list of friends, half of whom I can't even name! One of the teachers we both have/had says that the two of us are like night and day, and our brother, who is in between the two of us, is...well, in between.

She rocks that clarinet well!

I admire her outgoing personality, her looks, her ability to stand up for herself, her creativity, and her in general. I love her for who she is. She may not be the most academic person in the world, but she's just who she is, my younger sister, a beautiful, wonderful, quirky, outgoing free spirit who is growing up so quickly. Oh, and she's helping me cheer for the Rangers :) so that's good too.

I am grateful for my younger sister. I'm grateful to have watched her grow through her life, from a baby, to a young child, to a teenager so far. I'm grateful for the time I've gotten to spend with her, and the things I've gotten to see her do and achieve.

It's a little late to say Happy Birthday, but alas, I'm saying it. Happy Birthday, Corky, and I love you. I know we pick on you and tease you a lot- like calling your penguin hat the "angry bird" hat- I won't post the picture- that's because we love you ;) all out of love. Even if you don't acknowledge it, I just wish that someday you'd realize how grateful I am to have you in my life.

I love you, little sis. 

October: an update

I know I've been gone a while, so I thought I should give a brief update:

Things were quiet around the first of the month. I watched the American League Championship Series (baseball) because the Texas Rangers were playing. They're now in the World Series playing the St. Louis Cardinals. Seeing as my mom was born and raised in St. Louis, and her half the family lives there, this has led to a house divided. My mom is a die-hard Cardinals fan, and my brother is supporting her. We live in Ranger territory. Since I was born in Florida but have lived most of my life in Texas, I'm rooting for the Texas Rangers. My sister is born & raised Texan, so obviously rooting for Texas. My dad is born and raised Texan, but his wife is rooting for the Cardinals, so mostly keeping his mouth shut....although he did make a nice quote tonight when a Cardinal caught a nice hit to the outfield- that it was a Cardinal sin. The looks my mom gave him were priceless. It's really led to a house divided, and even some battles amongst the family members. I think it'll end up being the Rangers winning, sadly, in St. Louis, rather than in their home field. *sigh*

My sister has been having marching competitions because it's marching season, and she's a clarinet in the marching band. They've done really well, advancing to area competition. If they do well at area they'll compete at state for the first time in school history. She also turned 16 on the 22nd, my baby sister is growing up so fast! She got some gifts she liked, and got to hang out with friends. If I could rewind and have a sweet 16 like that, I would. I went and saw Elf, and had to separate my "friends" because they hated each other, even though they barely knew each other, and neither of them even talks to me anymore...I don't know if that's good or bad. We went and had Red Lobster (and got stuffed, so much to eat), watched Paranormal Activity 3, and I think she had a good time.

I'm also in the transition period between dropping university services and finding outside services. In other university news, last week, I picked up my cap, gown, tassels, and degree. I'm in the process of getting tickets- I've signed up, and tickets will be released soon. I'm anxious. I'm still trying to pick a place to temporarily hang my degree in my room.

I'm also on the hunt for jobs, still. I have an interview at JCPenney on Thursday. I'm really nervous about it, and should I bring a resume? My resume needs to be completely retyped, and looks pretty horrible thus far. This is, though, my first interview amongst all the jobs I've applied for, so I'm ready to put everything I have into it. It's a retail job (oh the horror!!!) but I think I can handle it, after the previous retail job I've held in the holidays, as well as the communication skills I've built and the work ethic.

So that, so far, has been my October. We're preparing for Halloween (oh, this really is a horror, let me tell you). We usually have upwards of 600 trick or treaters- kept track of by packages of Pixi Stix. We buy enough for 600, sit on the patio out front (no use in sitting inside, they just come up the driveway/front path in lines, there's not even time to shut the door before the next kid is there), hand out one pixi stick and something else to each kid till we run out of Pixi Stix, then we shut the lights out (and still the doorbell rings, since we usually run out early).

Pollen and whatnot is all bothering right now, and most of the time I am ending the day with a bad headache and/or stuffy nose, watery eyes, something that makes me want to avoid typing this much. Today I did it, I finally mustered up enough to type a whole blog. I plan on coming back in November to my daily blogging, hopefully. As of now, I don't have much to blog about anyway, as my days are typically empty and boring. My whole month filled one blog. Pitiful, right?

Until next time,

Prompt Me: University of Choice

College/university: It's a major part of every student's life, whether they go or not, and if they go, the factors involved in their choice of colleges and universities are huge. HUGE.

When I was in high school, I was a starry-eyed believer in the dream college, which wasn't much, but was much different from where I actually ended up going. My dream college, my sights not set on Duke, Harvard, or Yale, was Baylor University in Waco, Texas, about an hour from where we actually live. I sent off my (incomplete, as I was still a high school student) transcripts, took my SATs, and did all the things a graduating high school student is expected to do.

Knowing that I was going for more than a "Community College," I involved myself in a number of extracurricular activities- enough that I had to "narrow the list" to which ones I wanted included in the yearbook & in the Who's Who Among American High School Students Edition the year I graduated. Colorguard, UIL, and Choir were my favorites, but there was also National Honor Society, Student Council, a brief stint on the Debate Team, all four years in the Who's Who records, class Salutatorian, and if you want to be specific, within UIL, I competed on the Spelling and Social Studies Team individually every meet, as well as a number of times on the Number Sense team, Math Team, Creative Writing team, once on the headline writing team, several times with each of the science teams in biology and chemistry (my physics skills were weak)...in other words, I was the top notch high school student.

I primed my transcript (106 grade point average, not too shabby!), and added the extracurriculars, certain that I'd be ready for the college of my dreams.

Then reality hit, and I got the paper that showed the tuition bill for a semester at Baylor University, as well as my awarded scholarship. I was only 1/4 paid for, and I was not able to commute an hour each way every day (even though in the end, that's what I essentially ended up doing).

My parents pushed for me to find something closer and less expensive, and so I (very apprehensively and not quite willingly) did. As the acceptance letter and scholarship to Baylor sat beckoning on my dresser, I applied to the University of Texas at Arlington, sent my transcript, scores, and whatever other desired materials.

March 11, 2005, due to the "10% rule" (and maybe the whole doing well in high school thing), I was accepted as a freshman into the University of Texas at Arlington. Quickie about the 10% rule- if  you are in the top 10% of your graduating class at a public high school in Texas, you are automatically granted admission to the public college or university of your choice granted there is room in their freshman class (cases like UT Austin call for further inspection, as their freshman class often is far too large to accommodate all the 10% graduates)

Needless to say, although the tuition was much more affordable, and I still had a scholarship, this was not my school of choice, and I was not happy. In addition, I wasn't able to participate in any activities- they all cost money. So here I was a college freshman, going to class for a few hours a day, and going straight to work. Not quite a way to adapt to college.

Four (or six) years later...I'm kind of glad I "chose" UTA. They have a really good school of social work...who knows what path I would have taken elsewhere? I did gradually accommodate myself to campus, although I never really found myself "fitting" on campus. It eventually became a place where I felt comfortable, and I'm kind of sad that I'm not there this semester, my first semester after graduation.

No, UTA wasn't my first choice, and it wouldn't have even been a choice had my parents not wanted me to go to a college "close to home" that was "affordable"...but nevertheless, I ended up going there, and you know what? I'm happy I did. I'd never take it back. The professors, the few people I did connect with, even though we lost contact, the experiences I had, they all had an impact on me. It wasn't my first choice, but it was a very good choice, indeed.

This weeks topic:  College

via

Today's Prompt:  I chose not to go to college....
or I chose the college I did.....

Thirty Three and a Traumatized Dog

Day 2: Where you'd like to be in ten years

Well, in ten years, I'd certainly like to be far past where I am right now. I'll be thirty-three (that one, I have no choice in the matter). I'd like to be finished with my Masters' degree, and have my license and a stable career. Of course, since I don't see myself with anyone, I'm not particular about where I'd live- perhaps a nice small place in suburbia- I actually quite like suburbia. It's not so far away from town that you are completely isolated from everything, but it's not at the core of everything, where there's constantly hustle and bustle, and you never get to rest.

That, really, sums up where I'd like to be in ten years.

Our poor dog got traumatised today, and it's partially my fault...poor thing.

You see, every once in a while, he'll get in the habit of coming into my room and jumping onto my bed. Typically, he doesn't jump on furniture, so this is unusual. He's never been the type to jump on furniture much- which is good, because he's a big dog.

Well, today my parents got me a new mattress (the other was probably older than I am....it was about time for it to retire). I'm quite pleased with it. Goober (the dog), on the other hand...well, not so much. He sized my room up, knowing something was different, when he came in, but nevertheless gave a running leap at my bed. He didn't realise that it sits about a half foot higher than it did before...and he landed square in the middle of his chest, with this face that...I don't know how to describe. It was funny and pitiful all at the same time.

He turned tail and ran out of my room. I tried to call him back, and I was going to sit on the floor with him, but when he turned the corner and saw my bed again, he turned around and ran. He hasn't come back this direction since then. I think I traumatised him, and I feel awful about it...but I can't help but laugh at the pitiful face he made when he landed, paws flailed to the sides, halfway on the bed. Is it bad that I wish I had a camera to catch the face he made at that moment?

Hopefully, someday, he'll overcome his fear and be able to once again brave coming into my room to see me on occasion....it'll be difficult to adjust to, poor thing. I keep finding myself trying to sit on the lower bed, so it's unusual for me too, but I'm not having any trauma from it...but I also didn't land like he did. I also didn't end up the subject of a blog because of my facial expression after landing on the bed. As a memory, I'll add a picture of him on my old bed, after my initial shock of seeing him, the first time he ever came in my room, also the first time I ever saw him jump on a piece of furniture.

Weight Loss

I've been desperate to lose weight for quite some time. It's actually been up and down for a while for me, and now it's up higher than it's ever been, which is very depressing for me. I've heard that I don't look what I weigh, and while that's sometimes encouraging, it's also depressing that the numbers on the scale are so high.

When I was young, I was fairly thin. I started to fill out in middle-high school, where I went straight from childrens' sizes to adult size 7-9s. I wasn't too happy with my size in middle or high school, but I never let on about it, because I didn't want the ridicule of "oh, you're perfectly fine, there's nothing wrong with you" when I knew, in my mind, that I was overweight. I gradually gained weight through high school, but it was so gradual that by graduation I was only an 11-13. Not too bad.

I started working after high school, and, working at the fast food chain I worked at, you'd think I'd gain a ton of weight. I thought I'd gain a ton of weight, especially since I had all access to fried food (for free), as well as constant access to fountain drinks. Mountain Dew was my best friend. Another factor- the freshman 15. I was starting my freshman year of college. Add that all up- freshman year of college, constant fried food diet, and liters of Mountain Dew daily- how the heck did I manage to lose enough to be in a size 9 by the time I left that job? Eating disorder. One that I had for a while, but kept secret, and it didn't become severe until I was away from home for more than just the school day.

I left that job for a big box retailer, and continued to shed pounds. When I graduated high school, I weighed 170lb (~77kg). After approximately 2 years, by the end of 2006, I was down to 125lb (~56.5kg). That's a significant loss. Thing is, even after I changed my ways, I kept the weight off for a while. That is, until mid-2008. Suddenly, I started gaining massive amounts of weight because of a medication, and I knew what and why, and immediately stopped it, but the damage was already done, and I had gained back most of what I had lost.

It was difficult for me, to have gone from being larger, to being a size that I was not ashamed of, then to balloon back to a size I was ashamed of within a matter of 2 months. After that, I continued to gain weight at a steady rate, and no amount of [anything I did] stopped or reversed the weight gain.

At 225lb (~102kg), I knew I had to do something. My doctor knew. I kept talking about it. I still keep talking about it. It seems, though, like every time I get active, I hurt myself. Heck, I was stepping off a curb the other day and faceplanted in the street. In front of a lot of people. Not pleasant. When I tried to stand up, my heavy bag pushed me down into another faceplant. I couldn't get up. It took another person helping me up. My legs are now in pain, lots of pain, my knees and ankles too. Both sides felt it.

I'm on a tablet that's supposed to have a side effect of weight loss. It's curbed the weight gain, but no loss yet. I'm trying to exercise when I can, at least some yoga, and I try to run from class to my car (where there are no curbs, that is), and vice-versa. I take the stairs. I try to eat healthy, although when there are unhealthy foods around, I do get tempted, and sometimes give in.

I'm starting to feel like it's a lost cause. Many of my family members are obese. My sister isn't, but she thinks she probably will be. She's more accepting of it...but she's not there yet. I don't want to be here...I had a taste of being not obese, and it felt nice, and I want it back. I want to be able to find clothes in my size again. I want to be able to go out and not feel like I'm being stared at because I'm overweight. I'd like to be able to eat the things I like, but I know that's not possible.

What I'd like, most of all, though, is to be proud of, and to accept, who I am. That is something that I really would like to get out of my life. Why is that such a difficult concept for me to grasp? Why must it be so difficult for me to just get it and move on? Why must I focus and obsess over it so much?

Whatever this is, it's not healthy, and I don't see any good coming out of it. I just wish I could be the thinner person I used to be again, What am I thinking? That's not likely to happen. Such is life....

Driven

Last minute edit- learning to drive is different everywhere- in Australia, apparently, they have to drive with a certain plate on their car for a certain amount of time! I would hate that! It's like...drawing attention to the fact that you just started driving. Embarrassing. So glad they don't do that here in the states. Also, if you want to see another post about experiences learning to drive, Woogsworld, an Australian blogger, posted about her (very different!) experience earlier today, which, technically, is tomorrow compared to Texas.

My sister has gotten her learners' permit. In October, she will be turning 16- the age they get their drivers' license around here. So far, I haven't had to share the road with her. I don't know if she drives well or not, and I don't want to find out yet. My dad's been the one taking on the brunt of the driving with her, being her instructor and all. Honestly? I don't want to know how she drives until she has the license. It looks like the permit but it's actually a license. Yea, that one.

In fact, he was my brother's driving instructor, and he was my driving instructor. I didn't start the process til I was 17. It's all hypothetical about why this is. Perhaps I was too busy doing activities during high school. I didn't think my parents really wanted to pay for drivers' ed. My dad says he wasn't certain he was legal to teach the parent-taught drivers' ed. Whatever the reason, I was very late learning to drive.

When I first started to drive, it was in an SUV. An SUV is nothing like a car. They're taller. Much taller. It was 2005, and I had a 1995 Pontiac Grand Am waiting for me, but its reliability was....little, at best. Its battery would die in the driveway after a few hours, and we had no idea why. We tried replacing parts, we would jump start and try driving it every once in a while, but we finally gave up on it. We were still car shopping for something better, knowing that I was going to the university soon and didn't want to drive a truck to school, considering mileage, but that I needed my own vehicle, but the SUV had to do for the time being, for practice.

Once we got everything set into place and I started practicing, I realized it wasn't as difficult as I thought. Sometimes I got a little overconfident, but usually, I took to everything pretty well (as I remember it). I hated loved how every excursion included a driving lesson. "See how when I changed lanes back there, I checked my blind spot?" and such were common topics in the vehicle. I find them popping up again when listening to my dad teach my sister to drive.

Luckily, everything we've had in the family is automatic. Heaven forbid anyone bring a standard into the picture. It would be a death trap for all of us. One of the cars we looked at was at a Kia dealership- one of those too-good-to-be-true ads. It turned out to be a standard with nothing inside- no AC (in Texas, that's a sin), no radio, etc. We turned it down. We ended up finding a nice silver 1999 Taurus in very good condition, which I still drive to the day, and it's climbing toward the 150k mile mark (it was at 88k when we got it). Still runs pretty good, with the occasional problem.

The process of getting my license wasn't too bad. I read enough stuff to get the permit, which my sister has already done. However, our permits look significantly different because they have changed the background (the layout is the same, though). I still have my permit- tucked away in a drawer. From my permit, I had to do a certain number of driving hours under the supervision of an adult with a drivers' license in good standing, with no more than blah blah blah other passengers something or other. That stood for 6 months, at which point I was to take an exam. Well, for parent-taught driver's ed, since my parent was the teacher, he got to administer the exam, and we took the materials to the Department of Motor Vehicles, where they were very trusting, took our materials, took my picture, handed me a paper license, and told me to have a good day. Very quick! That was to be renewed every year until I was 18 (which wasn't long, since I was already almost 18 at the time).

Provisional licenses (permits) and under 21 licenses look identical, except one says "provisional license" and one says "Under 21 until mm/dd/yyyy" and the restrictions are a little different, but are just recognized by letters under "Rest" under the picture, almost invisible under all the other stuff they write on a license. I still have an under 21 license. I turn 24 this November (I had to check a calender. OMG). They last 6 years, I guess. There's the permit and the license, and that's it. Once you get a license they have a certain number of restrictions on you for like, 6 months, but since I was almost 18, they didn't apply to me for the full 6 months.

Just weeks after my drivers' license was issued, I started my courses at the university, and was driving 60 miles a day, every day, in my silver Taurus. I think I still had my paper license when I started even, but I don't remember precisely. A lot of stuff was going on, with work, just getting my braces off, school orientation, getting everything sorted for my first semester, getting my driving stuff sorted.

Now I'm watching my little sister go through the process (but she has to take a test at the DMV, the parents are no longer allowed to administer the test- they changed the law after my brother and I finished our licenses)....and I can't help but remember trying to figure out which way which blinker went, what P, R, N, D meant, turning on the windshield wipers, headlights, and actually following the speed limit and all that fun stuff that now comes as second nature. Nostalgia.

Flags and Fireworks

This is going to be more of a story type blog- I've had a busy time, and not much time to think of anything creative!

As the majority of you know, I'm sure (and if you don't, you probably have never heard of the US), yesterday (as of the minute I am typing this) was Independence Day in America. Of course, for the ladies that means dressing up in a lot of red, white, and blue and talking with other ladies, and for the guys, it means barbecuing and blowing a lot of things up (I have this confirmed with several sources). We, of course, forget the true meaning, the founding of our country. Ironic, though, that the Declaration of Independence wasn't fully signed on July 4th- some of you might not know this- just some of the signatures went on paper that day. I'm not sure of the exact date without looking it up, but signatures stretched beyond at least September that year, 1776 (how many knew the year?), and the date July 4th was chosen because this was the day that Congress is said to have approved the adoption of the Declaration.

Well, we have been in the St. Louis area this week visiting relatives, and we had a fireworks show of our own- low maintenance, probably expensive; my uncle bought the fireworks, neighbors of his bought some too. We all went into the cul-de-sac and shot off the fireworks, and it was nice. The kids lit the smaller stuff in the early evening (dare I say twilight, or the Twilight fans might start creeping my blog), and all the larger fireworks started when darkness finally fell.

The street was littered with cones and boxes of various fireworks that had been used, and my brother, sister, cousin, and cousin's neighbors had shot off some Roman candles, which were off in a bucket. Every direction you turned, you could see fireworks lighting up the night sky, almost like lightning, but much more exciting (and less scary). By the time we were done, the weather reports read that it was foggy (I think, in fact, it was smoky), and all the grand finales were showing. When we got back to my grandparents' house, we watched the coverage of the show at the Gateway Arch over the Mississippi, in Downtown St. Louis. I was proud of myself for lighting off Roman candles (and not being afraid of singeing off the ends of my hair....), but a little disappointed, because my sparklers when I was little were never that pretty! Mine were little metal sticks with sparkly grey matter at the end that sparked when you lit it. No shiny pretty wrappers!! Oh well.

I came to the house last night and finished my paper. It was rough, but I finally finished it. I'm still concerned about my internship, but I'm trying to keep my mind off it right now, because there's not much I can do from here, right?

So we went to Six Flags today. Funny that the origin of Six Flags is in Texas, and has to do with the six flags that have governed Texas, one of them being Texas' own independent flag! (The others being France, Spain, Mexico, Confederate States of America, and United States of America, in no particular order...yea, it interests me lol).

Six Flags was fun. I go there for the coasters, of course. We rode every one there....as well as the Ferris wheel. My brother was going to try to scare the crap out of me by getting me to do the bungee jump thing, but didn't (thank goodness). It was a good way to take my mind off things for a while and just wander around in the sun. It's funny, though, all the rides in Texas seem bigger. Oh yea, everything is bigger in Texas!!!

No, really.

Their wooden coaster could use some improvements, and ain't got crap on the Texas Giant, especially since they built the Giant to be smoother with the metal tracking and all. I can't compare the Tony Hawk because it had some weird, un-epic name here. The Batman? The decor outside sucked, and the guy behind the ride was an asshole. At least the people in Texas are friendly. The Batman also seems longer in Texas, and that's probably because they take you through the ride again....backwards. The Mr. Freeze? Too short. They were only running one side. In comparison, though, they were about the same. Tower of Power? They only have one tower here, and they only drop you once. Texas gives you much more suspense.

EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS!!
Except the fireworks shows.....sorry Texan readers. I saw some great fireworks. The burn bans are bigger, I guess you could say?

Well, that's all I got to say. Nothing insightful today. Well, I do have something insightful, come to think of it, but I'll save it for its own blog.

Deuces!

Needs Improvement

EDIT: I said I would have a book review in this post. It WILL be in a post soon, I swear. I completely forgot until after this was posted, and now I don't have time to write it because now I have to get back to my paper.

If I were to write a progress report for July so far, I would write a failing grade. U for unsatisfactory. F for failing. GTFO. Needs much, much improvement. Who approved this?

The search I did for stuff for my assignment? I can't use what I found. I had to delete it all. There would have been repercussions if I hadn't. Now I'm out of state and can't access it. The most I can say is that it really sucks, and that I don't have any way to explain it to my professor other than "oops, I screwed up, and now I have nothing to show for it." Now we're in Missouri, and I have no access to the intranet at my agency. I have no way to *successfully* complete this assignment when I'm out of state and have no access to this empirical data. Fail.

Less than 12 hours after we leave, we get a call from our neighbor that there is water streaming out our garage down the driveway. We ask him to shut our water off, and my brother's girlfriend to drop by and tell us what's going on within. Come to find out, half the house is damaged.

Of course, the half the house that all my stuff is on. Always. The air conditioner that went out last month? Same half. The part of the carpet that was soaked because the ice maker broke? Same half. Now that half of the house is (from what we know) flooded. I honestly don't know what was on the floor, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not gonna be too happy when we return.

It's July 2nd. I didn't even get out of bed yesterday because....dammit, I didn't even feel like it. The whole day just friggen sucked. My grandparents had company today, so I went up and saw them. Lots of people, I got to hold a baby. I have now officially decided that I am not mommy material. I can look at them, and hold them, but once they let out a cry, it's all back to the mum. I'll pass my prime and then I'll have a really good excuse.

I've seen a few people that I haven't seen in years. Uncles, cousins, etc. Ate some. Wrote some on my paper. This is a break on writing my paper. I'm writing on my break from writing. >.< haha. I was gonna put some pics on facebook but I really don't feel like it right now.

It's funny, these people in Missouri saying it's hot out, and I go outside and I'm like "oh, it's so nice!"
They give me dirty looks
I can't help it, it's so much nicer than Texas.
But, they get ripped off at QT, because their drinks are 69 cents instead of 59. But I digress.
Here's to hoping the rest of July is better than the first two days have been. If the rest isn't better...this month is going to be hell.

Deuces, yo