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.