I love cable

I love cable. I love cable too much and I think we need to get rid of it. I reached this conclusion last night while watching the "Keeping up with the Kardashians." For those of you that have lives and don't know anything about this family, Kim Kardashian is famous for being friends with Paris Hilton and having an extremely, um, shapely derriere. Naturally someone decided those were good reasons to give she and her family a reality show. Prior to the Kardashian family saga I was engaged in another gripping reality show called "Doctor 90210" which details the plastic surgery adventures of people that live in Beverly Hills and probably have emotional issues. All in all I spent two and half hours last night watching reality tv. I am so embarrassed by this I felt I should share it with all of you. Seriously, no wonder I don't have time to exercise.

Next, because it's not possible to write a whole post about reality television (unless you are way, way more pathetic than I am), I'll tell you a funny story about what happened on my flight from Las Vegas to Denver. I flew home on United so of course the flight was delayed. We had to wait for a plane to land and everyone to deplane before we'd start boarding. So waiting, waiting and I notice about five police officers mulling around. I was sort of hoping for some drama so I would have a good story. Naturally my thought was that someone on the flight about the land was intoxicated and belligerent. Eventually the plane landed and everyone started to deplane. At this point I didn't see the officers and was waiting for someone to be escorted off, I don't know, screaming and making scene in handcuffs maybe.


After many, many long minutes it was clear that the plane was empty and the officers were gone. Oh well, no drama or funny story to share. That was ok.

My friend and I got in line to board and then walked down the hall to the cabin. Standing right outside the cabin door were four police officers. Under ideal circumstances I am nervous flier. Having four uniformed police officers greet me as I got on the plane did not help matters.

I said exactly that to one of them and he laughed and told me he was making sure that no one was leaving Las Vegas with any money. I looked at him quizzically and wondered if he really thought I was stupid enough to believe him. The line was moving slowly but eventually I got onto the plane, looked over and lo and behold if OJ Simpson wasn't sitting there. Since my power of observation is very keen I said loudly "Hey! It's OJ Simpson!" He sort of smiled at me. Then, in case there were people in the back that didn't hear me I said it again. Seriously, I was just really surprised.

He was friendly to all the people that approached him (I don't really think I blew his cover). He didn't murder, assault or rob anyone on the flight. He seemed well-behaved. I did wonder why the hell he was flying coach but reached the conclusion that he probably has no money left for first class. I found out later that he was arraigned that day in Las Vegas and that our flight continued on to Miami where he lives.

I was musing over the presence of the officers with my dad and mom and my mom suggested there were there to stop people from mobbing him for his autograph. My dad thought that he wouldn't mind that and that the officers were there to protect him from angry mobs. Who knows?

So in the end I didn't have a belligerent drunk person story but I think the story I got is, in a way, even better.

Holy crap

Has it really two and a half weeks since I last wrote? I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. I've been so busy I'm not even sure where to begin. Also I left my camera at home so I can't post any of the dozens of pictures I took.

I guess I'll first say that I had a great, great time with my friend Susy. I was a little nervous that we wouldn't get along since it's been almost five years since we last saw each other. As it turns out it was like we hadn't spent a day apart. I don't know how many other people have a friend like that but I certainly feel blessed that I do. She and Kent also hit it off and we had a great time together while he was in town. Since we had a guest we did stuff that we normally don't take the time to do. We went up to Fort Collins and did two brewery tours, one at O'Dells and one at New Belgium. I preferred the O'Dells tour, mainly because we didn't have to wait. At New Belgium we cooled our heels for 45 minutes before we got our beer. (Hey, I have priorities.)

Thanksgiving was also nice, we had 15 people at dinner. The cooking for 15 isn't that much more than for 7 but the clean-up is sure a pain. Plus, we had some of my mom's family in town and their contribution is to sit and eat the food and watch everyone else clean up. As you can imagine, it's extremely helpful. Susy had never been to Thanksgiving before and I thought it was great she got to enjoy my favorite holiday with us.

Susy and I went to Las Vegas on the Monday after Thanksgiving and stayed at the Paris. It was pretty nice but after this trip I'm not eager to go to Las Vegas again. Once you've seen one casino on the strip, you've pretty much seen them all. Our first night we met up with my friend Hanna and had dinner (thanks again Hanna, it was awesome!). The second night we went down to Fremont Street for the light show. My dad also instructed us to see the newly renovated pool at the Golden Nugget. It's definitely cool, with a huge aquarium in the middle. However I felt the experience was somewhat marred by the vast number of scary drunk people walking around and at times following us. At one point I dragged Susy into Binyon's Horseshoe because I thought someone was following us. I asked a police officer for assistance but by then the smelly old drunk was gone. We didn't stay much longer after that since we didn't feel like gambling anymore.

Those are the main highlights of the last few weeks, plus a lot of good time with my family. On a side note, my brother is in trouble yet again. He relapsed about six months ago and as a result back serving time that he'd been on probation for. I hope that he'll be able to get and stay clean but my faith is somewhat broken.

I hope to have some pictures up this week of my trip.

Weee!

Or rather Wii. We decided to join the 21st century and buy and up-to-date gaming system. The last video game I played was the classic Nintendo and the last one Kent played was Sega. To say we're a little behind the times is an understatement. A Wii, for those of you that don't know, has a wireless controller that interacts with a sensor you put on the top of your TV. Wii is really cool for sports games because instead of just pushing buttons you actually use the remote as, say a tennis racket or a javelin.

The Wii also connects to the internet and you can download the classic Nintendo games. This is my favorite, FAVORITE thing. I used to love all the old Mario games but when my Nintendo died there was no way to play them. Now, I just connect Wii to my internet connection and voila for $5 I can download my favorite classic games.

I will have to say goodbye to Wii (and Kent) tomorrow though because I leave for my visit home. I'm really excited to get back and see everyone but I hate to be away from Kent and the animals for so long. Of course, Kent will be home for the actual holiday but then he has to leave again. And naturally I'm really excited to see my friend Susy. We're going to take a quick trip out to Las Vegas. Susy's been to America a number of times but hasn't seen much besides Colorado and Las Vegas is a really easy trip to make. I just had to promise not to gamble away our life savings. I think I can handle that.

Oops

I can't believe I haven't posted in a week. I'm not sure why since it hasn't been very busy. Maybe it's because I haven't had anything to write about. Lucky for you though something funny happened the other day that illustrated, once again, that San Antonio and Denver are not the same city. *Haha*

I left for work the other morning and according to my car the outside temperature was 64 degrees. For 7:30 AM in November this seemed pretty pleasant. When I arrived at work, what was the security guard wearing?

Why, a parka and ski cap! Of course! I shouldn't laugh those because most Coloradans would be completely useless here in July. But still, I laughed about it all day.

Am I getting old?

The past few weekends we've been getting together with guys that Kent has class with. We've had them over to our house and made them play Cranium with us. We love Cranium but you can't play without at least three people and then one person has to float between teams. Anyway, onto the point of my story. One of the guys is 18 and one is 21. They had to answer a question about the band Nirvana. They'd never heard of them. I normally wouldn't say "the band Nirvana" because until two weeks ago I'd never encountered anyone who didn't know about them. I almost made them sleep on the porch.


Am I really getting so old that people only seven years younger than me don't know about Nirvana? I am finding it harder to remember peoples' names and I've noticed that I no longer remember multiples of seven unless I use my fingers. Am I so old that one of the most important bands of the 1990s is no longer relevent? This is how I feel about that:

To work or not to work?

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to going back to school for my Master's degree in counseling. Being a military spouse has made me very impassioned for solider rights. The war itself is another long, angry blog but I'd like to counsel soliders with post traumatic stress disorder and their families. However I am feeling a little conflicted. Even though we're still a few years out from having kids Kent and I both agree that one parent staying home is extremely important. This alone probably isn't that conflicting as many parent, especially mothers, stay home for a few years while their kids are young and return to work when their kids start school.

My issue is that I have no plans on sending my kids to school. I just reread that sentence and it sounds sort of funny. I mean that ideally I want to home school our kids. There are a lot of home schoolers that do so for religious reasons but that's not my issue at all. My reasoning is actually pretty straight-forward. I don't think public education does a very good job and I think oftentimes learning becomes drudgery instead of fun. I think kids are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD because kids aren't meant to sit at a desk for six hours a day.

Anyway, so this is where my conflict stems. On one hand I want to get the education I feel passionate about for myself. But if I get that education will it go to waste? Will I regret not pursuing a career so I can take care of my family? Too bad I can't be split in two. Then I could satisfy both parts of me.

The best birthday ever

I'm not anywhere near my birthday. But I was thinking the other day about one of the best gifts I ever received. First though I have to give you some back story.

At the time of my birthday I had a crazy, huge crush on a boy named Josh that lived up the street from me. I was not alone, I believe at any one time he had five or six girls swooning over him. In retrospect I'm not sure why. He wasn't particularly cute, smart or funny. I digress. Anyway, Josh didn't like me. I think, at best, he had a tolerance for me. He knew I liked him (high school girls can't keep secrets) and it was inevitable that he was around me occasionally as we had a few mutual friends.

I was out of town on my 17th birthday (which is itself a whole story) and thus did not get to celebrate with my friends. I have a summer birthday and this seemed very unfair to me. However, I had sweet friends that didn't forget my birthday and wanted to do something special. Upon my return they gave me a few gifts. I'll be honest, I only remember one thing they gave me but it was awesome, especially for a 17 year-old with a serious crush. Are you ready?

Ready?

It was a videotape.

My friends Lisa and Kelly gave me a videotape and insisted I had to watch it right away. So I popped it in and started watching. I don't remember everything but part of the video involved them driving around with their windshield wipers on and no rain (we thought this was hysterial) and them getting my friends to wish me a happy birthday. The best, BEST part though was at the end. The camera view changed to night vision and there was a view of a house. I don't remember all the details but it basically involved them crawling around Josh's front yard. I think they made him say HI and HAPPY BIRTHDAY too, which made it pretty much the best gift ever.

So that's the story of the best gift ever. I outgrew my crush and Josh and his family moved away. Lisa, Kelly and I all went off to college and Lisa and I got married. No one has ever given me a gift like that again though. I still have the tape but alas, no longer a VCR. Maybe VHS will make a comeback though.

Me and Kent

In case you are wondering what Kent and I look like here is a picture of us:
It's a year old but we pretty much look the same.

I was going to post about something else

Originally I was going to blog about the person who caused a five car accident and made me late to work yesterday but then I decided that since I'd just posted about San Antonio traffic maybe I should write about something different.

However I do want to stick with the automobile theme.

I was a very lucky teenager. Nine months after my 16th birthday my parents surprised me with a car. I actually remember the date because it was the day of the Columbine shootings. The shootings, obviously, made me quite sad but as it turns out it was nothing a car couldn't fix. It was a silver Honda Civic, about two years old. I loved that car. I still love that car. In fact, I still have that car although now it's my husband's car. In April, after driving the Honda for EIGHT years we decided that maybe it was time for an upgrade. Actually, to be specific Kent got a motorcycle and I thought that was only fair if I got a new car.

So after much, much, much research and many hours spent looking online at different options I decided I wanted a Mini Cooper. Actually I knew I wanted that all along but I wanted to make sure I didn't want something else more. I actually did want something else more, namely a Mercedes-Benz but, well, I haven't won the lottery yet. Anyway. The was only one teeny, tiny problem with the Mini. That was the teeny, tiny backseat and the two doors. I planned on having this car many, many years and it was not condusive to the babies we plan on putting in the back seat someday (properly restrained, of course). If we were going to spend our hard-earned dollars on a vehicle, we needed something that would meet our long-term needs.

This led us to either an Audi or a Volvo. We ended up with the Audi because frankly it was a cooler looking car and had a turbo. When we bought the car everyone warned us that the upkeep would be expensive. Now as I stated above I drove a Honda. Hondas are not expensive to upkeep. Plus you can do the important things yourself, like change a headlight and install new wiper blades. When people said "expensive" I figured they meant things I would never do, like, replace an engine or something. You can only imagine my surprise when I found out that you have to TAKE THE AUDI TO THE DEALERSHIP FOR WIPER BLADE REPLACEMENT. I wasn't even surprised that you had to take it in for headlight replacement after that. It couldn't get worse.

Of course life has a way of making you eat your words.

Driving into work on Wednesday my car starting making an alarming beeping noise. Apparently my oil pressure was low. What does that mean? Well gentle readers, either my oil is low or my engine is going to explode. I was hopeful I could add a quart of oil and life would be sunny again. I am no car expert but I am quite familiar with checking oil levels. I knew I was in over my head when I couldn't actually tell what the oil level was at. I figured I just add a quart of oil anyway and cross my fingers. But apparently my stupid car requires some stupid fancy oil that you can't buy at the gas station. Or the auto parts store. OF COURSE you have to buy it...where else? THE DEALERSHIP.

There is no happy ending to this story. Not even with the backseat. As it turns out, if you are more than five feet tall you have to push your seat back so far that you mush the legs of anyone sitting behind you. Sometimes cars, like blogs, have unsatisfying endings.

Things I know about San Antonio

1. Drivers are crazy;
2. Yielding is optional;
3. A merge sign usually means stop. But sometimes it means cut across two lanes of traffic without looking;
4. Construction signs are meaningless;
5. It is OK to drive down the interstate at 50 mph.

Needless to say, my morning commute is white-knuckle the whole way. I guess it's OK but it means that I don't really need coffee anymore. Yesterday I was driving along in the morning and got stuck in traffic. One of the habits I'm trying to break is falling apart in a rage any time I'm on the road and cars stop moving. So I drank some water, sung along to the radio and tried to ignore the grumbling beast of frustration as I crept along. After 25 (!) minutes of sitting in traffic I finally arrived at the source of the problem. A minivan was stopped in the middle lane. It looked new and shiny so I didn't know if it broke down or if the driver needed stop for a bathroom break. Either way he or she was nowhere to be seen. I imagine he or she was hiding from all us angry commuters.

I might be mean

Everyday on my way home from work I drive by this person selling candy apples on the corner. He walks around among the cars with a big box of them and they cost a dollar. First, I don't know who would want to buy a candy apple from a stranger on a corner. But second, I hate that he walks around the cars. I would hate it if he just stood on the corner but I really hate that he will come up to your window and look in at you when you're six cars back.

This is actually one of my biggest gripes about San Antonio in general. There are people on every corner selling candy apples or newspapers or keychains. If they aren't selling something they want a donation. I did not experience this in Denver. I don't know why, maybe the weather was less appealing or maybe there were laws that banned people from selling things on corners. Don't get me wrong, we still had homeless people begging but it seemed like a lot less.

For the record, I NEVER give people money. There has been one occassion where money was given but it was by Kent. And, in his defense, the guy came up and stuck his face pretty much against our window. It was actually pretty alarming and if I'd been alone, I most likely would have run the red light. But since Kent was with me I didn't worry because I knew he would be able to kick the guy's ass if need be. Anyway, he got $3 and we learned that he recovered from drugs thanks to Jesus Christ. At least we learned something.

I'm coming home

I have an official return date from work! I'm flying home on November 17th and returning to San Antonio on December 2nd. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends but I'm most excited that my friend from Germany is coming to stay with me for those two weeks. I met Susy when she came over as an exchange student during the second semester of my senior year of high school. The first time she was here for two weeks and then she came back to stay for six months. She didn't stay with me, at least not at first. I was out one night with a friend and we ran into her, the girl she was staying with who shall be known as Spoiled Brat (SB) and SB's stupid friend who will we call Dumb Blonde (DB). SB and DB pretty much ignored her while they talked to my friend. Listening to the three of them talk was like listening to retarded children trying to count so Susy and I started chatting. We agreed to meet up the next day and, not to leave out the whole story, but the rest was history. SB got tired of having an exchange student within the first month and Susy was at my house all the time. She basically become another member of our family. In the spring she moved in with us for good. Well, not for good because she did eventually go home, but for the rest of her stay. That summer I went and stayed with her family in Germany and we've both been back and forth a couple times since. I think it's hilarious when people say they can't keep in touch with friends when they move away. I've managed to stay friends with someone who lives half a world away. It's pretty cool.

Riverwalk

In a break from convention, this weekend we actually went out and did something instead of staying in. I will add at this point that staying in is not what Kent wants to do but rather comes from my laziness. Anyway, we decided to go down to the Riverwalk and spend some quality time getting aquainted with our new city. Of course we forgot our camera because that's the story of our lives. We ended up taking a boat tour and learning about the city's history. Then we spent some time walking around and had beers at a couple different restaurants. At that point my feet were so sore from my shoes that we had to go home. Oh well.

Back from the dead

I promise I'm not going to leave our blog to die. I've just been super busy and there's so much to write that I don't know where to start. We're getting used to Texas, and it's really not that bad. The traffic is absolutely horrible though and I don't know what people mean when they talk about how friendly Texans are. From what I can see, that's not really true. Coloradans are much more friendly. Anyway.

We're starting to learn our way around and finally know how to find things that are not: 1. the grocery store or 2. the gas station. Of course we also know how to get to our jobs but that's not really fun. I took some pictures of our apartment and also learned how to post so I'll do that in the next couple days. Even though we're learning our way around we still haven't really met anyone yet. Kent knows a few people from school and we actually went out with them on Friday night. It was a good change to go out instead of staying in all weekend but it was all guys and three of the four are either divorced or going through a divorce. The worst part about being here, aside from the traffic, is how much I miss my friends and family. It's worse now than it was in the first couple weeks.

I'm back

No I didn't abandon my blog, faithful readers (just kidding, I don't think I have any of those!). We've just been on the road, unpacking from the road, recovering from the road and trying to get used to work again after the road. We're in lovely San Antonio, but it's not as lovely as Denver. We're settled and I'll have pictures and more to write as soon as I figure out how to work the digital camera and when I start to feel a little more inspired.

Moving bites.

I haven't blogged for a while (but that's OK but I don't actually think I have any readers) because life has been super busy. We are almost ready to roll out of town but found out last week that the military will not pay to move our stuff until at least October 1 and maybe not even then. The reasoning behind it is very boring and illogical to anyone that's not in the military but suffice it to say this was not news that made either of us very happy. After debating for a few days we've ultimately decided that we don't want to be without our stuff for another six weeks because in all likelihood we'll end up paying for our move anyway. If we wait we're also then faced with getting back up here and making another trip to San Antonio when the weather might not be all that cooperative. I imagine driving a UHaul will be trying enough without snow. Anyway, I just want to be down there and in my own house again.

Addiction

I find it supremely irritating when addiction is referred to as a disease. I would even go so far as to say that, at least at the moment, it annoys me more than anything else. Addiction is defined as "the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma" while a disease is definted as "a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors". I do see how you could stretch your imagination so that an addiction would fit into the definition of a disease but I think it's inaccurate. I think calling an addiction a disease takes away the culpability of the user; it's not their fault! They're SICK! They have a DISEASE for God's sake! I think that is utter bullshit. A disease is almost never something that someone has done to themself. It's something that's been inflicted on them. I'm sorry but anyone addicted to a substance has a choice every goddamn day if they're going to put that substance into their body. Take some responsiblity and stop calling your addiction a disease! Have a little bit of integrity and own your choices. Even the bad ones.

We have an apartment

Yesterday I got confirmation that we will, in fact, have a place to live once we arrive in San Antonio. After the nightmare I endured with the first place we looked, I was worried. But somehow-I suspect it's because the employees have been trained in customer service-this place was able to get our application, process it and confirm our move in date in less than four days. On one hand it's exciting because I do believe this place is nicer than our condo and on the other hand that makes me sad. Isn't something you own usually nicer than an apartment? At least the pictures look good, I could be wrong I guess. I'm also a little nervous about the possiblity of roaches. This is not something I have ever dealt with before. And I will say that while I am completely capable in most situations I don't do well with bugs of any type. Especially in my house. Outside is ok, but not in.

I am so sad that today isn't Friday. I would so much rather work four 10 hour days rather than five 8 hour days. The way I see it is you feel crappy at the end of an 8 hour day and crappy at the end of a 10 hour day. At least if you work 10 hours you only have to do it four times a week instead of five.

The beginning

I have to admit: while I think a blog is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, as well as push your ideas on hapless strangers, part of me feels like it's a tiny bit cheesy. But hopefully I'll outgrow that. We are leaving Denver in less than four weeks and I'm getting pretty itchy for it. I'm mostly looking forward to it just being the two of us. I think we've found an apartment in San Antonio. It is on the small side but the area looks really nice and people had good things to say. As long as we don't have roaches, I'm pretty happy.

I'd like to keep this updated a couple times a week, especially once we move. But I suppose it's possible this will be my sole entry, although I'm going to give out the address so that seems unlikely.