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.