Getting Packed

Well, this weekend was spent packing. Yes, mom...Brit did take a pic or two. I really hate packing and so do my animals. They get really needy because they think I might leave them behind. If they keep whining I might. Anybody not doing anything next weekend can come and help me clean the new house. I am hiring movers so that part is taken care of. I figured I would let everyone know that I was doing that so they would stop avoiding/screening my calls. No--I am not going to ask you to life heavy boxes.

Closing on a house wouldn't be closing on a house if there wasn't some drama involved. I need to get a copy of the title company check to prove that I have already paid it. Otherwise they will make me pay a 2nd time at closing when I pay all of the other prepaids. For some reason, the one check I need to view and print is the one check that Wellsfargo Online doesn't want to show me!@!! It keeps showing an error message. I went to the drive through teller and they had the same problem. So, I asked "What should I do about that?" "This is TIME-SENSITIVE!!! People". "Well, I can give you the card of our personal bankers". Yes, and thank you dumb ass teller.

All I know is that if I don't get what I want I am going to go postal...Wishing you the best year ever...Mel (And yes I am seeing someone about the anger)

Rain? In July? Seriously?!?

So I woke up at noon, had my coffee, read some of my Jen Lancaster novel, and pet my cats until their combined shedding caused me to have a sneezing fit!

I realized that I had not been out of the house much in the past 2 days except to go to the grocer or the Hollywood video, even though I have been avoiding the stereotype of crazy cat lady lately, and that I was going to have to be on the sailboat this weekend and my tan needed a boost.

So, I put on my newest bathing suit and cover up, put my hair in an on-the-side braid (which I can still rock at my age--I don't care what ANYONE thinks!), packed my pool bag (which includes over sized beach towel, bottled water, book, and sunglasses), put on my cute heeled sandals and headed out the door.

Seriously, I was looking for funnel clouds with how bad the wind was blowing. The construction site next door has now lost all of its topsoil (or should I say all of its caliche dust) because it is now floating around my neighborhood for at least a mile. I turn on the radio and find out that it is raining like crazy in Kerrville and that it is heading straight for us. So much for tanning...guess I'll have to go to plan-B (which you can get over the counter at any pharmacy now if you are over 18!! Yeah!!) and head over to the Bijou to see Cheri, the story of an aging courtesan in France...Please, no comparisons.

Wishing the best!

Awkward and Spastic

Last night I met up with my friend Michael and we had drinks at Chuy's where my sister is a bartender. As such, she was good enough to top off my and Michael's drinks with some extra tequila. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea--read on for details. The happy hour was as interesting and entertaining as ever.

Once Brit was off work, we changed into our after hours clothing, a.k.a. stripperware (just kidding, sort of) and headed over to Eden. We sat down and talked with the owner, Alex, and his gf, Carly, who we met through Lisa and Neal. The drinks, D.J., live band on the patio, and overall ambience of the place was fantastic. If you are ever in SA on a Friday night and looking for a really classy place to chill and are a little bit on the mature side of life, this is the place. There are all ages, but it doesn't feel like a teeny bopper fest.

We all headed over to Bitter End for the much famed Pink Party. Very few people were wearing pink and judging from the amount of dudes there, I think the "Pink" was a poorly veiled attempt at suggesting there would be a lot of pussy there, hence all the guys. Why do guys think that just because you call it a pink party that a bunch of chicks are going to show up clad in all the sexy pink things that we own??? The joke was on them, because there were more dudes than chicks so they ended up looking queer. One of them was even wearing dark black rayban glasses. I scoffed, "who wears sunglasses in a club, what a weirdo." As we passed by him and his crew, who were checking us out hard core, I realized that the sunglass-wearing man was also carrying a walking stick--the dude was blind. I almost gave him some ass just cuz I felt so bad about making fun of him.

After Bitter End we headed over to The Falls for the last 30 minutes of the clubbing evening, which turned out to be the most hilarious. We went straight for the dance floor and some of the most booty shaking songs came on. This guy politely came up to me and asked if he could dance with me. Within a matter of seconds, I assessed him toe to head. Tall, surfer blonde hair, muscular build, not bad at all! Oh wait--his eyes are a little funny...OMG he is cross eyed. Naturally, I said thank you, but no. Shortly after that, the "Birthday Sex" song came on. It is a good slow moving one so all the chicks can dance their sexiest. I think they put it on at the end of the night because it is the last chance men have of picking up a chick that will go home with them and they don't want to waste their time on a chick that can't move her hips. BTW, I can definitely move my hips. LOL.

All of a sudden, this hand slides across the upper backside of my right ass cheek, around my hip, and almost gets as far as my hooha when I step away and look back disgusted. Who does this guy think he is? I mean it has been a while, but wasn't that at least 2nd base!?! But there was no one there when I turned around, which was strange because the hand was still on my hip. At this point I direct my attention towards the floor and there smiling up at me is this bald midget of a man. Seriously? I am 5 ft 9 inches without the 3 inch heels I was wearing. Did this guy think that he would do me with his head, cuz I am pretty sure that I was not going to be able to feel anything else, and I do not need anymore 'are you in?' moments since I left college. I gave him the get the f away from me look and turned back around and continued to dance alone. I turn back to see Brittney having a laugh attack of stroke-enducing proportions. I keep saying, "stop laughing, he can see you." But she doesn't. I am always torn between giving them props for trying when they know it would never work out and being pissed that I am the one they think they had the remotest chance with.

We grabbed a burrito and headed home, but I could only eat a little because my tummy had been upset ever since the 7 margaritas I had a Chuy's. Needless to say I spent a lot of time with my head in the trash can early this morning. I will NEVER have tequila again!

Today I met up with Elizabeth at our usual Starbucks. We are having a great time and I am relaying the mini me and cross-eyed stories when this dude comes up to us and sits himself down at the table next to us and tries to butt in on our story.

Dude: "Sounds like yall are having fun, ah ah ah"
Mel and Elizabeth: "Yeah, we are"
D: "Anything yall can share with me?"
M&E: "No, nothing we care to share"

The guy gets up and leaves, or so we thought. 20 seconds later he comes back and listens in on our conversation about loser guys trying to pick me up and being unsuccessful and he jumps into the conversation.

Dude: "Yeah, this one time I met up with a girl friend of mine at a bar downtown for Halloween."

Oh, brother, I thought

He continues to tell us how when he got there, this guy had camped out and was harrassing his friend with unwanted advances. They ended up having to go to the bar to get another drink and then sit down somewhere where there were no extra seats that the unwanted guy could find to once again rain on their parade. He continued to remark on the guys "awkward and spastic" dancing, to which I remarked would be the title of my next blog. Unfortunately he did not get that I would be describing him and this momentary interuption of my girl talk session.

I suddenly asked Elizabeth, "Is it time for us to catch that movie?" She immediately replied, "Yes it is!" The guy asked what we were going to see and for an undetectable second Elizabeth and I locked eyes with the realization that neither of us really knew what movies were in the theaters now, so I blurted out "Bruno". That is the new Sasha Baron-Cohen film that I have seen, but that Elizabeth has too high taste for (turns out I do too, but I am a glutten for punishment and just don't want to believe that someone can make two bad movies and forced myself to see. There are some funny parts, but way too much ass action).

When we got into the car I said "See! That shit happens to me all the time." Elizabeth replied, "Did that guy not realize that he was telling the story of his life!?!?!" There of course was no movie, so we went to Sushi Zushi and had a delightful afternoon catching up. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians...

We woke up with the sun on Sunday, which ended up being at 5:45 a.m. I would like to say that the early wake up was a one-time thing, but every day was like that. We got ready to make sail by cleaning up around the boat. We had some issue with Ample Hamper not delivering all of the food we needed although they charged my mom's credit card a month early, but we got it sorted out, sort of.

I can't even begin to explain how beautiful this place is.

The draw of Ample Hamper was that we could order food in advance as a way to guarantee that it would be shipped from the mainland and there for our use while on vacation. Plus, they deliver right to the boat--no waiting. The problem was they didn't have all of our order. None of the meat we requested was there the first or second time that they delivered to us.

Luckly, there was a service provided by Bobby's Supermarket that would send a guy by our boat to pick us up and take us shopping and then deliver us back to the boat free of charge, so we were able to get the remaining items we would need for the week.

We set sail for Norman Island and the Bight. The sailing across the Sir Francis Drake Channel was smooth and excellent. We moored at the Bight and dinghied out to The Indians for some snorkeling. The snorkeling was ok. I was mostly darker colored coral and some idy bidy fish. We came back from The Indians to The Bight where the charter was moored and took a cockpit shower off the back of the boat. I didn't understand that you got wet in the ocean water, shampooed and rinsed with ocean water, conditionered, and then go to the head (sailing slang for bathroom) and wash your conditioner out along with your unmentionable areas. The point is to save the majority of your fresh water stores so that you have it until the next time you make port and refill.

So there I was sticking my hands into my tankini top to wash my boobs and into my tankini bottoms to wash my crack. Finally, mom mentioned I should go below and finish and we all got a good laugh. We dressed like floozies and went for a drink at the Willy T (The William H. Thornton) which is a perminantly anchored schooner/restaurant/bar that is a hotspot of entertainment for locals as well as cruisers/vacationers.

All I have to say to describe the atmoshphere is that there was a running powerpoint of pictures showing naked girls taking shots off of each other at this place. But it also had food so we ordered and had a drink. A WHILE later our food came and again my food sucked. I had salmon and it was overcooked. Mom and Brit had conch fritters, Bruce had excellent ribs. We made it back to the boat after dinner and went to sleep a while after the sun went down--it was about 7:30 p.m.

Traveling to the Islands

Brit's friend Sammie stayed over Friday night. At 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning we woke up and were out the door by 4:00. Thank you Sammie so much for staying and draggin our asses to the airport--you are a doll. But the biggest shout out goes to my very allergic, good friend Elizabeth who came once a day before work and several times in the afternoons to feed/water/pet my kitties. The cats didn't shun me when I returned from this trip like they usually do. They were well cared for. Thanks!

Delta Airlines in SA was a pain in the ass and disorganized. You can't precheck in for international flights anymore, but they have not helped the craziness that happens at the airport check in either--boo Delta.

Flight from SA to Atlanta was uneventful. We ate burgers and had bloody mary's at a bar in the airport in ATL because there was a 45 min. delay for our flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Why you ask? Because they forgot to bring the plane from the hangar. Did they forget that there was a flight or what??? Then there was a security check that had to be done once it arrived at the airport so at least I have the allusion of safety working in my favor.

There weren't enough people on the flight so we had the back rows to ourselves and spread out for a nap. We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. I hate that I like movies like that. It was stupid, but like a rubber necker at a train wreck, I continued to watch.

We flew into San Juan and it looked filthy like a 3rd world country and not a U.S. territory. I will never want to go there. We waited for our luggage only to find out that our mom had misinformed us and our luggage had already been transported to the Cessna that would take us to the BVIs, a fact that she will dispute to her dying day because it would mean that she was wrong and that is like god being wrong and the world would have to cease existing. LOL.

We ended up being a lil bit late to meet the parents. Each plane could only carry 9 people so mom and Bruce went ahead of us. Our puddle jumper flight gave us a great view of the BV and USVIs. What was hilarious was the pilot kept glancing at the manual as he flew the plane. I will admit it made me a bit nervous. (I have since found out that he was going through a checklist and was exhibiting an action done by only the most conscientious of pilots)

The BVI airport on Beef Island was super small and the customs officials asked where the rum was!?! I said that is why we came here--to get the rum--so we didn't have any yet. Man! what a break from the seriousness with which one usually meets customs officials. It was also a break from the frustration I was feeling being separated from mom and Bruce who were out the door and in a taxi as I was stuck behind 3 older, slower, dawdling couples.

Finally we were past the rigmarole and in the taxi heading to the BVI Yacht Charter dock on Tortola. Our boat was cool. It was a center cockpit 40 ft Beneteau. We dropped off our stuff and headed out to dinner on the taxi that had waited for us to drop off our shit at the boat. We wanted to go to Spaghetti Junction, but it was closed so we settled for Pusser's Restaurant.

Brittney had conch soup, Mom had curry chicken roti, Bruce had shepherd's pie, and I had fish and chips (mine sucked, they have better F&C at Lion and the Rose in SA). I do not have a picture of the food since someone has informed me that pics of food on blogs is boring. J/j you know there will be some eventually. But the drinks were good.

Our waitress was from Jamaica. Most of the people in the service industry around here are from other Caribbean islands. What they say is that the BVIans are lazy; but really they are just too proud. Plus they have free higher education for all people born on the island and free healthcare. They aren't too proud they just have better jobs as doctors and businesspeople.

The same cabbie picked us up and we found that Bruce had left his cane in the taxi. He brought it along for the trip in case his back acted up. Once back at the dock, the price for the taxi had doubled--big surprise! We went ahead and paid it. Bruce forgot the cane again, but I picked it up. We have a tradition of being ripped off by cabbies the 1st night we are anywhere new.

Everyone was tired from a long day and settled down to sleep. The bed for me and Brit was too small for how hot is was without AC in the cabin so I grabbed some deck cushions and a blanket and slept on the foredeck of the boat. It was a little awkward sleeping next to an open hatch, the one that was providing Brit with air, but after shutting it and hearing her scream a couple of times, I managed to avoid it for most of the night.

A "No Wire Hangers" Mother's Day

So the day after Ann's grad party, I get in the car and head down to CC. I met up with Mom and Bruce in Port A, where the boat is. Mom keeps telling me that she doesn't really have anything planned for mother's day and since I was just down the previous weekend for her trip to the hospital, it wasn't like I would be neglecting my daughterly duties if I didn't come down for a one-day trip. But I came anyway, mostly because I thought I may get a chance to sail (gotta get ready for the BVI trip), but partly because they have been a little down lately with both illnesses and all. Plus, I wanted to see the family.


On my way down, I called my Gma Chris (dad's mom) and found out that she was in CC with my Aunt Valarie (her daughter) and that my dad was there as well. So, after I visited with my maternal familia I would head over to the paternal side.

When I got to the boat, mom was making mimosas whilst I changed into my beach wear. We sat up top and had a few as Uncle Mark and soon to be Aunt Laura showed up, shortly followed by Gma Becky as she is called by my Uncle's son, since she is now 'of age' to be a grandmother. When I was born she was not--and was thusly called 'mamamma' (I know, so much better, right? Kinda sounds like moomoo).

But that is how it is with my family, we make fun of each other. The more we tear you down the better you'll be right? Just kidding. But we do poke fun. For instance, I am made fun of for my weight and all the weird ass guys I date, Brit is made fun of because she worked at Hooters and can be a bit psycho, mom is made fun of because she had babies too young and is married to an old man, and Uncle Mark is made fun of because he sits when he pees. Now in his defense--he is like 6ft something and aiming into a pot that far down can be cumbersome, I would assume, and am glad that he has found a sanitary way of urinating.

So when Uncle Mark and Laura arrived we set into our usual banter of speaking with one another and someone brought up the old issues again. So, at the appropriate time in the conversation, the time where the joke would be the most funny, I mentioned my Uncle's 'dirty little secret'. Well, I guess it would be his clean secret, but I digress. Out of nowhere, the lioness pounces. Apparently that is a sore subject for Uncle Mark because his wife to be jumped to his defense and over agressively shouts at me "When you get married...You're gonna FUCKING wish that your man pees sitting down". It really was a mommie dearest kinda moment, but I could see she was really passionate about it and the jokes that could have developed out of that moment would have been emmy worthy stuff, but would not help her to feel 'a part of the family'. So I was patient with her and did not continue with the pee pee talk. Hope she gets it soon though, cuz I don't tip toe much.

We followed that up with a cool little happening. A boat was coming into the docks and lost its engine power. It is really hard to dock a boat at a slip without a motor. So mom, Uncle Mark and I race, o.k. walked leisurely, over to the motorless ship's slip and helped them to tie up without too much damage to their boat or the dock.

After we ate, we went shopping. It is funny learning the idiosyncracise of other families. For instance, when I was growing up, I was placed in the center of a flatbed trailer that was decorated in "The Little Mermaid" style, dressed in an Ursula costume and paraded down Ocean Drive in CC waiving at children who hissed and shouted at me because I was the villain of the film, all for fun. Laura's family had her strip down in department stores and try on clothes where they were hung on the racks. Interesting. I was able to try my clothes on without having to wait for the dressing room as a result, and that was a plus because I HATE waiting for dressing rooms. I found a couple of cute cover ups and shirts for the islands on our trip shopping. A good time was had by all, except maybe Uncle Mark who volunteered to be our chauffer and played on his IPOD the whole time.

Once back at the boat, I packed up and headed out. I had another shin dig to go to after all and I wanted to be back in SA at a decent hour. It was so great seeing my Gma Chris, Aunt Valarie, Uncle Eddie, and cousins Trey, Evan, and Mary. It was cool seeing all of Uncle Eddie's family again, too. After the divorce, we don't really go around them as much. No real reason, just don't get around to it.

It is so crazy to see the cousins all grown up. I had moved to SA by the time Mary became old enough to recognize people so I don't have as close a connection with her as I do the boys. Evan is a trip, man. He spent most of the time texting some chicks and he has gotten so tall--and thin! I always thought he'd be a bit chubbie. And then there is my baby boy, Trey. I baby sat for Aunt Valarie a lot when he was a baby. I just see how tall he is, the 5 o'clock shadow, and the crazy myspace page and remember wiping the poop off of his butt. *tear* They grow up so fast don't they?

Over all a great day filled with lots of catching up. It was great to see dad! Hope your M-day was great too!

Ann's Graduation Party

So my coworker and friend, Eileen has a daughter who has just graduated from UTSA. Eileen threw her a graduation party and I was invited. I am in this weird in between where 4 years ago I was graduating UTSA and having a party in which the majority of the people who came to the dinner were my mom's friends and now it is 4 years later and I am the 'mom's friend' who has been invited to celebrate the graduation of someone I barely know or like, but will go to support because of my relationship with the mother.

Luckily for Ann, I am close enough to graduation to know that she will appreciate money for her gift, and far enough away to know not to give her cold hard cash, but a nice gift card to IKEA--a gift that will keep on giving.

All the schilo's from work were there. The food was catered from Papasito's (we just can't seem to get away from that place, I know). Denise's mom was visiting from the valley. Since Denise's dad passed away, Mary's trips to San Antonio have been more frequent and luckily for them we are a close nit group who enjoys hanging out with our respective mothers. LOL.

We had some fun with the cake, as you can tell from the pictures, after we were discussing the differences in the way children and adults eat cake. Scott was saying that when he was young he would forgo silverware and shove the cake into his mouth which is exactly what he did when I double dog dared him that he didn't have the guts to do something like that as a grown up. I will never doubt him again.

Trinity finished off the night singing to the graduate and her table full of giggling college friends. After that, a large amount of alcohol emerged and it came to that time in the evening when the grownup friends invited by the graduates mom to bring monetary donations make their exit and the college kids get crazy.

They will not be able to top mine though, one of my girlfriends threw up in my mom's front yard for all of her 55+ neighbors to see. Wishing you the best year ever...

Has anybody told you you're the youngest person in here?

Alan, a friend from the IT dept at work and his wife, Diane, invited me to the Splendor in the Garden Gala, a very beautiful party held every year at the botanical gardens in SA to raise money for their foundation. I am so thankful that Diane's boss, a lawyer in town, purchased a table even though he would be out of town and that Alan and Diane invited me to go with them when her boss gave her the table to fill. I feel like such an ass that I don't have a photo of them, but they are great people who I will hang out with again so I'll get their pic then.

I bought a new dress and arrived on time to the Gardens even though I had never been there before and was unsure that I would find it on time. I parked and walked to the Gala instead of doing the valet. Even if I wanted to spend the money on valet, I don't think I could. The whole passing tip money along is always awkward to me, even at the car wash. Alan met me at the entrance and we walked through a parade of waitstaff holding trays of drinks and hors d'œuvre on our way to the group he had invited. It was magical.

I was pleased to see that my bud from down the hall at work, Ruthie, was there with her husband. She and I are much closer in age and it made me feel more comfortable to have her there.

Everyone was old and most had dates. Except for the bartenders. Most of them were broke,hot-ass, aspiring actor types who made a mean margarita.

It is the damnedest thing sometimes, life. When I go to the clubs to meet guys, I get tired of competing against 18 years old who have short skirts and tight asses. Now, when I think I am branching out and going where more respectable, mature men will be, I get screwed again. All of them were dating younger women, but they were younger like my mom's age. So these botanical gala type men are the ones who are too respectable to date the really young girls like me, they go with the 30 somethings who are still young, but who are at least as old as their biological children. So I am too old for the guys in the booty bumping club and not old enough for the men in the country club. Will someone pleaazzze explain this to me because it does NOT make any sense.

So there I was with my married friends with a margarita on the rocks and a kick ass dessert! But I looked great in that dress...the bartender told me so ;)

p.s. I couldn't get he red eye outta that one photo so don't email me telling me about it, I already know.

Roasted Vegetable & Sizzling Brown Rice Soup

Mmmm....sounds good right? Well it tasted even better. After the week that I have had, I am ex-haust-ed, but I was so excited that I made something from a recipe...from a cook book.....and it was good...that I just had to tell every all. This is the recipe and could easily feed 6 couples a decent portion. For my vegetarian friends out there, you can substitute the chicken broth for veggie broth and it will come out equally well. Warning: it is a bit spicy and I had to drink it with a glass of milk--I know, too much info.

Ingredients:

6 cups vegetable broth

2 cans (14.5 ox each) diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

8 oz asparagus spears, trimmed

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2 tbsp vegetable oil, divided

2 pouches (8.8 oz each) cooked brown rice

Directions:

1. Bring broth and tomatoes to a boil in covered casserole (4 qt.)

2. Dice zucchini and yellow squash into cubes. Cut asparagus into 1-in. pieces. Toss vegetables, pressed garlic and 1 tbsp of oil in mixing bowl (6 qt.). Arrange vegetables in a single layer over large sheet pan. Place pan 2-4 in. from heating element. Broil 4-5 minutes or until crisp.

3. Heat remaining tbsp oil in skillet over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until simmering. Separate rice according to package directions. Evenly distribute rice over bottom of skillet; cover with splatter screen--or not, it is much funner that way. Cook without stirring 5-6 minutes or until rice is golden and crisp. Remove skillet from heat; let stand, covered with screen, 1 minute. Remove casserole from heat; add roasted vegetables. To serve, ladle soup into serving bowls; top with rice.

Happy Bday TC!

Way to go TC! You are the most sexy 35 year old I know (even though the waiter announced to the whole restaurant that you were a blossoming 21). You really rock a sombrero! Enjoy the gift card to Ann Taylor.

The whole gang got together at Papasitos for another birthday. There was plenty of fun conversation for all. The funniest was toward the end when we were ordering desserts and the waiter verified our order for two ice cream balls covered by chocolate, nuts, and coconut shavings. He leaned over TC practically peeking into her cleavage and said, "so you would like two balls?" To which she replied "yes, more than anything I would like to balls for my birthday!" The waiter blushed and documented it on his order pad and said under his breath "a pair". TC misheard him and said, "no, I could do without hair on my balls please." The whole group and surrounding tables burst out laughing. Good one TC. I love it when we get to sexually harass waiters. It makes for a fun evening.

Earth Day 09

Ok, I know that Earth Day was 2 wks ago, but bear with me because I am slow at adding pictures to the blog and since I think blogs without pics are boring... I was kinda suckered into helping with the Earth Day landscaping on our campus, but it turned out to be an awesome thing.

I learned how to till, bury edging, plant trees, pick out perennial plants, and haul mulch and compost in a gator. At first I had to dig so that the edging could be laid down. I was jumping on a sharp shooter shovel and fell over onto my ass! I had to laugh to keep from crying because it hurt when the shovel flew out of the ground and into my shin. I still have the bruise. The above pic is me post fall.

After my graceful kiss with the dirt I got a bunch of students to continue the digging and then they placed the lawn edging into the trench that they had dug. We had to do some cutting to get the edging pieces to connect, but after that it was smooth sailing.

I got to get into the gator that the athletics department has and drive around campus. We had a compost and mulch pile in the back of the school that I would have a student help me to load into the back of the gator and then dump back at the front of the school where we were beautifying. Actually, the final product kinda looks like a mess compared to the other side of the front of the school where the principal paid to have it professionally landscaped. But he ran out of money and is very grateful for what we did with the other side. I am very proud of it, mostly it has helped my build my confidence in myself and quelled my fears of buying a house with a yard.

Gardening is very addicting. I felt sore, sunburned, and happy at the end of the day. Sorry there are no final pics, all the ones I have had students in them and those can't be published on the web. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel.

Stonewerks!

So I got a call Saturday afternoon from Denise telling me to meet her and some of our buddies at Stonewerks in the Quarry. Even though my parents were in town visiting I caught up with them and had a blast.

When I got there it was Denise and Danny, Mel and Brian, and their friends Claire and Matt. Luckily the boys sat with the boys and the girls sat with the girls so I didn't feel like such a 7th wheel. I hate going out with couples. Denise said that one of Matt's friends was coming and that I might like him so that was a plus. Unfortunately he had gone golfing with Danny, Brian, and Matt earlier in the day and was so inebriated from the beers combined with the sun that he passed out and didn't show up...winner!

Our waitress sucked. She suggested that we try their melon-ritas because they were fan-tastic. When they finally got to our table they were completely melted and were not melon-ritas, but regular margaritas being sold for $11.50 as 'melon-ritas'...ooooo! how exotic, right? Wrong. So we ordered our trusted jack and cokes and dos equis and began a very fun time. Brit and some of her friends stopped by before going out for the rest of the evening elsewhere. I finally got pictures of me and Denise in which we are not in incriminatingly drunk situations (yes, I just made up that word). Except for the last one that I took of myself. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel!

Why buy the cow...

Over the years my ideas about men and their relationships with women have been defined by the men in my life. Most of them feel the same way as the old adage "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" and it has made me a bit bitter. However, my lovely step dad is my beacon in the night and is the one exception to the rule that I chose to use as the validation that there will one day be a guy who gets me without being told how to.

When I was 17, my parents were divorced and I was living in Alice. My mom moved to Corpus with my little sister and my dad was overseas every other month or so. On one of his trips back, we were spending some quality time one evening. He was making margaritas, his girlfriend was somewhere around the house entertaining the friends of mine from school who would come over since my house was the least supervised, and I was listening to my dad's drunken words of wisdom. We started talking about boys and how retarded they were ;-) and how I didn't really understand them sometimes. He explained that men look at women as if they are buying a car; they want to test drive it before they take it home. And they are going to test drive quite a few before they settle on one so, if I ever needed any condoms, they were in the top draw of the table beside his bed. As you can imagine, I was mortified about the condom comment. My young mind analyzed the information that I had collected so far about men from what society told me (the cow story) and what my dad had told me (the car story) and thought, well, at least some guys are buying.

A lot has happened to me since then, I have had my feminist awakening, etc., etc. and I think that my society's and father's conditioning have made me very uncomfortable with men paying for anything for me. I know that my decision to pay for my own meals or foot the bill for my boyfriend and I to go to Las Vegas will never be adopted by women as a whole or bring down the whole 'paying for sex' system, but at least I have a clear conscience by tipping the scale back the other way just a little. (I do realize the contradiction in the previous statement and I do try to achieve equality in my relationships for the most part.) What angers me is that men create parables like the one my dad taught to me and teach their daughters to buy into the bartering system and then get pissed off when they have to pay for everything. My dad does it every time he hooks up with a new chick and after about 2 months (during which time he has moved her into his home, bought her a cell phone, and encouraged her to stop working) accuses her of being a gold digger and drops her like a stinky diaper. I even have friends who bitch about this same thing without realizing the possibility that not all women want them to pay for everything, especially if the women are going to be expected to put out.

And that brings me to the latest profound words of wisdom given to me by a guy in my life. Me and a couple of friends were commenting on the games that men and women play with each other. I was trying to sum up how women look at relationships and was having a hard time doing it since I am not like all women and therefore can not speak for them, but my friend really nailed guys (and I begrudgingly admit, a lot of girls too) on the head. He said that "women want their men to change and men want their women to never change. I have to tell you that I was dumbfounded and impressed with this comment at the same time.

I embrace change for the most part. I am frightened by it and drag my feet through it, but go through change nevertheless. I think that changing is done in small ways everyday until all of those little changes create a big change. I think that is how most couples grow apart, they wake up one day and--even though my friend wouldn't admit it--realize they have both changed and in opposite directions. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that we are living longer than we use to. We use to be dead by the age of 30 and hadn't really gotten the chance to really annoy each other yet.

So, what is the solution? I don't know, maybe get married later in life. Or, make sure that the person you are with is really on board with your life plan--don't be blinded by passion. I am not saying 'don't have passion', by all means have it in spades, just don't let it romanticize the person you are with. Or, don't get married at all. One of my very best friends just celebrated her 10 year anniversary with her male life-partner. (I thought I should specify that it was a heterosexual relationship since many homosexuals refer to their lovers as life-partners.) But then how do you know that the person you are with will stay with you? Well, you just have to trust in the love and that is probably why we humans created law in the first place. A way to make people do what we want...kinda like religion. And weren't men the ones who came up with law in the first place? I knew it! They have been trying to make us stay the same with legalities all of this time. HaHa. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel.

The Taste of Northside

OMG!

I seriously hate it when my students use text language to communicate, but it is the only way that I can express my excitement at how bad ass the Taste of Northside event was last night! If you weren't there, you missed out.

Things started off a little rocky. I waited in line for 30 minutes at Cornerstone Church (I thought I might burn just walking into the parking lot) to board a charter bus that was to take us to Sontera. The upside was that it gave James a chance to get there. He had TAKS training after school and was a little late in getting there.

Once we were inside Sontera we walked up with out Heb-purchased tickets to redeem a booklet that showed which booths were in what areas. We walked up to the first booth we saw. It was La Madeline and they were serving a itty bitty cup that held one strawberry with some yogurt creme drizzled over it. I reached for one and the attendant behind the booth said, "That'll be 2 tickets". I was perplexed until she pointed at the booklet I had just traded for my ticket. Inside the booklet were 10 booth tickets. Shit! I thought this was a free for all type of thing. I was expecting to graze on all of the scrumptious foods, but it turns out that I was going to have to be more selective in my choices since I only had a few.

James and I cruised around and found an Indian food booth and the guy only made us pay with 1 ticket instead of the customary 2 tickets because we picked up one of his restaurant's pamphlets. From then on the luck was with us. The beer lines were short; my wine lines were long but worth it. We sat around in the 1st area and finished our Indian and listened to a cover band who satisfied our need to hear 'The Day the Music Died' and then went exploring in the other areas. Area 2 was all about fundraising; silent auction, VIP area, and casino style gambling table. Since I was not there for philanthropic reasons I zoomed right past all that shit into the 3rd area.

Area 3 was the wino paradise. There were more alcohol booths than food and the band was rockin. That is not to say that the food booths that were there were not fantastic! We immediately found Houlihan's booth was giving out seared tuna for only one ticket. Now I know what you are thinking, seared tuna at an outdoor booth? but let me just tell you that this was so fantastic that we went back about 3 times and have decided that our Friday night drink sessions need to visit this restaurant.

The weather was perfect and as the sun went down we became more inebriated. The people watching was fantastic. 1 in every 4 women was wearing the same designer so we got a big kick out of that, as well as the 1 in every 5 women that was in need of a bra, but had forgotten it at home. The band's set list varied from Elvis to pop songs like 'Give me the Greenlight' so we were never in need of entertainment.

We are already making plans for all of our buds to come with us next year. I told Brit about it last night and she is definitely in. Since there is no purse search on the way in I think that we can totally sneak in a flask in case our tolerance for wine exceeds our number of tickets and a blanket to lay on the lawn will be a welcomed addition. Hope to see you next year! Wishing you the best year ever...Mel.

13 hour days

So last week we were collecting, copying and delivering the dual credit paperwork for 650 students to NVC and it was such a large and daunting task that every day last week was spent at work until 9 p.m.

Friday was a blur filled with presentations, students acting CRAZY, and finally, drinks with my boys. I met Michael, James, Jason, and David out at Fox n the Hound for a few beers and raunchy conversation. We got to hear about Michael's trip to Paris and London which made me even more determined to go there. James and David now teach a student that Jason and I taught back at Southside and I was excited to hear about how she was. The rest of the night was spent reminiscing about all the crude words that we used to use back in the day, but so rarely hear now--and for good reason they will not be repeated here. What happens at F and H, stays at F and H.

Saturday morning was storming so bad that it sounded as though a large water faucet had been left on. But after the storm--which ended about 6:30 a.m.--the rest of the day was fine. Since I had a sub on Friday and did not check emails all day, I did not know that the trip to the school to till the ground in preparation for Wednesday's Earth Day planting had been cancelled. Apparently, the coordinator felt that it would be too rainy on Saturday morning according to the forecasters and so they rescheduled for after school on Monday. Did they not remember that weather people are ALWAYS wrong?

So there I was sitting in a parking lot alone. I called up Denise and because she was going to come with me to Garden Center to plan out what things AVID is going to buy for the landscaping on Earth Day. We decided that we needed to get into the school because we each had forgotten things we needed. So we went and asked the AP who was conveniently working on a Saturday if we could borrow her swipe card to get into the building. She did not know it, but the alarm was on. So when we swiped the card and opened the door we were greeted by the high pitched beeping of the alarm sending its signal to the cops that someone was unlawfully in the school building. Denise throws her keys at me and says, "run and open the door and get the stuff!". I head up the stairs with her on my heels and asked, "why are we running? we work here!" I can't figure out which key opens the door so she grabs her key ring back and unlocks the door to our classroom. We grabbed our stuff and headed back to the APs office to give her back her swipe card. She is kind of an idiot and didn't know what to do so she called another AP and got the number to security. She explained the situation and told them that they did not have to send any police out. We found out that they already had 2 units in route. Great! we thought. The AP was able to turn off the alarm and we waited around to see if the cops showed up, but since the alarm had stopped ringing I guess they never did so we left to the Garden Center.

What a money hole! If I ever get a house and some money I must keep myself away from the Garden Center. There are so many cool things to buy. It is almost like walking into a shoe store and imagining what all those shoes would look like in your closet or on your feet any time you felt like wearing them--intoxicating. But since I am and incredibly indecisive person and get overwhelmed by too many options, my brain shut down and could not focus on what I needed for the school project. So Denise and I decided to bring my friend Carla along next week to pick out stuff because she is like a heat seeking missile when it comes to making decisions about gardening; mostly because she has a house and gardens--I kill all the plants in my apartment.

I came home after dropping Denise off and vegged for a while. I really like the t.v. show 'Life' and had 3 episodes to catch up on. I got through one and started cruising the Internet for Fiesta events I might be interested in. Most of them were trashy or 'family friendly' which translates into whiny, crying babies and for me to stay the fuck away. But I was interested in one called 'the taste of northside'. You pay $40 and get to sample food, wine, and other drinks from local restaurants. I think I am going to enjoy that this next Wednesday.

Later that night after realizing that my phone was near dead and that I had left my charger at Denise's, I got dressed and met Denise and Danny out at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game and get my charger back. Danny said that he would pay for me if I ate 6 blazin' wings. I said he was crazy and that he could eat some blazin' wings his damn self. He double, then triple dog dared me that I couldn't handle eating even 3 blazin' wings. I said he had a deal, ate the 3 wings, won the bet, but paid for it this morning!!!

Today I am going to lay out and work on my BVI's tan. Can't be in a bathing suit at the equator without a base tan unless you want to be below deck with a 3rd degree burn the entire vacation. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel!

New Member Reception with the JLSA

Wow! Today I went to The Bright Shawl, the headquarters of the Junior League of San Antonio for the New Member Reception. I got to meet my mentor and the cluster of new members she will be mentoring and who will be going through the first year of JLSA with me. I was so inspired by the amount of community service hours are accrued by this organization. There are over 800 active members who complete a minimum of 45 hours of service each year. The ladies in my cluster are so well spoken, accomplished, and strong women who live right here in San Antonio. I am certain that I will make many life-long friends here. From a professional standpoint, I think my students will eventually benefit from my connections with this organization. Maybe I can find them internships?!? Overall, a great day. Wishing you the best year ever....Mel

Let's Rodeo San Antonio

Me and Brit completed our 6, 6-hour shifts at the buyers registration booth at the SA rodeo this weekend and had a blast. One of the ladies that was volunteering with us is a mortgage broker and is going to give me a better deal than my last guy could. I am super excited. After 5 years of volunteering, it is finally going to pay off with more than that just the good feeling I have in my heart from helping give scholarships to students.

I put in an offer on a preforclosure. I am sure we will go back and forth a bit on the price, but I think that the work that I will have to do to make it liveable will be well worth the lower price and haggling. It is eerie to go into that house. The people who lived there before went into bankruptcy and left with only the essentials of what they would need and could fit in where ever they are living now. There are boxes of their things all over the house--one had shoes at the top. Bummer.

All of the crap in these pictures will be left behind when the house is sold. This is a sad, sad story indeed, but may have a happy ending for me! Wishing you the best year ever....Mel.

The Big City of Alice

It has been a while and I begin this blog with an apology for that. House hunting and work has had me drained for the additional effort that it takes to keep this updated properly.

Now, on to the big city (that is sarcasm because Alice is the size of Boerne).



I went to visit my dad before he left for Africa and we went to my old stomping ground, Fiesta Marina on the shores of Lake Mathis. I think that the reservoir has been steadily losing water since my partying days of the 90s. They used to have dances out there with live bands and back in my kicker days we would go and meet all of our friends from nearby cities of Orange Grove, Agua Dulce, and of course, Mathis. We would have the some of my most memorable high school parties here.

It was quite cool outside, especially because dad and I were riding on his Harley. They have seat warmers, and dad's body covered a lot of the wind, but I still felt chill. It was really nice because we went down some of the nearly deserted back country roads in that area of Texas and they are really peaceful this time of year. This is me being a Harley chick.

That night we hung out with some of my dad's biker friends. They are cool and down to earth people. I even got to see my dearest, oldest childhood friends, Matt and Britni. These two are the children of my dad's best friend, Mark. Seriously, I thought I was going to marry that boy. But luckly he had no romantic interests in me and I am thankful that his mom is not my mother-in-law and that I am not living in a trailer somewhere (not that he is like that, he has a very successful business.) But I think part of why we are both so successful is that we didn't get stuck in that small ass hick town.

The next day, dad bar-b-qued for us and we sat outside in the afternoon sun and talked about nothing much in particular. It was a great relaxing get away and I enjoyed spending the time with my dad.

:(

I will not be buying the house at Coppertree. The seller wanted 80k without closing costs (about $5000) which would be about 85k (their original asking price) and I just could not will myself to be a cuckold. I know I can find better I am just going to have to wait. How can I be so sure you ask? Because I heard it on NPR. This is the best time for buyers, but we are just going to have to be patient, go back and forth on the price negotiations, and wait until the perfect house meets the perfect price......on to the next one.

We knew it would happen

Well, my realtor called me yesterday and updated me on my offer of 73k plus closing for the house at Coppertree. The first call she got from the seller's realtor was not just no, but hell no and the second was, well maybe we were a bit rash--we'll take 80k plus closing costs.

After thinking it over and discussing it with my mom and Bruce, I decided to see the other 4-5 townhomes that were for sale in that neighborhood. If there is a drastic difference (ie 10k difference) I will consider paying the 80k, but will probably offer 79k. But those other houses are going to have to be trashed out for me to consider it. I really like the one I made and offer on because it is move-in ready and already has the updated lights and cabinets that I would probably have to do on the lower priced ones, but I just have to see the other ones to make myself feel more sure about buying a more expensive house (even if this one with the inflated price is 10k less than my max price).

Let me know what you think...wishing you the best year ever!

Mmmm....Mmmmm.....Good

After we spent an hour completing paper work, just to make an OFFER on a house, we went back to my apartment and made some delicious salmon.

We took pastry puffs and rolled it out while baby spinach marinated in tomato basil dressing, tomato basil feta cheese, and chopped up tomatoes. We cut the salmon into 2 inch slices and cut the pastry puffs into four squares. We placed the salad concoction onto the pastry and then the salmon slice on top of that. We closed it up and baked it. (And by we, I mean my mom). It was delicious.

We had a great time talking about the potential townhome and the counter offers that may come in. My step dad and mom are AWESOME and are going to front me some of the money for the down payment. How did I get so lucky?

I spent Sunday grading papers and doing laundry, which Bella tried to assist me with. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel.

I found one, I found one!

This is the 3rd house we went into Saturday when my parents came up to look at the house that I was considering buying. All my wanting for the dover ridge house went away when I walked into this one!! I love the windows in the living room. The vaulted ceilings are fantastic. I love the trendy paint that is all over the house and the tile flooring. They did a really good job on the paint.

The people who own it lived in, bought it 1 year ago. They got home sick and left back to College Station. The house has been on the marked for 4 months. They are asking 85k, but houses in the complex have been selling from 63-73k. I asked for 73k plus closing costs. I hope they take it. The problem is that they paid 80k for it and haven't lived in it long enough to get any equity built up in it. Oh well, they should have thought about it before making a rash decision.

The kitchen is great. It has new appliances and the cabinets were recently stained. I love the floor tile too! My allergies will be much more manageable.

The downstairs bathroom is has tiled countertops that match the kitchen. Those double doors in the mirror hides the washer and dryer hook ups. It has lots of drawers for all of my crap.

The bedrooms are an ok size, this one is photoed badly, but you can see the color in the bedroom though, it will be easy to match it with decorations.

This is the storage area underneath the stairs going up to the 2nd floor bedroom and bathroom. I think this will be the perfect place to store my many things. A trip to the container store is in order. Ugh! Thinking about all the things I am going to have to buy makes me ill.

These are the lights in the bathroom downstairs. I will take the downstairs bedroom and bathroom since I am up way earlier than Brittney and will want to be able to be up and not have to be quiet.

Right outside the kitchen area is a place for my high breakfast table. This cute little light fixture is in the perfect position right above it. I am so glad that I won't have to buy these little accessories when I move in.

The kitchen upgrades continue with these lovely lights.

This is the back yard. It is winter here, so it needs a bit of work and some love. There is also a tree right over my patio area, but is leave-less this time of year. The shade should help with the electric bill though.

So I made an offer and signed the paperwork! Hopefully the seller will go for my bid and I will enter the 10 day option period. I would love to be in my new place by March 5th!!! Wishing you the best year ever...Mel