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I’ve been meaning to update for a while, but it just seems like I’m so busy lately. I’m not even sure doing what.  Winter break is finally here!  Thank God.  It’s been a pretty fast semester, though.  I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing this break, or at least as much nothing as I can.  Tuesday I’m going to the Mavs game, and Wednesday I’m heading out to Benbrook.  Saturday I’ll go up to Oklahoma for the day, and then come back home on Sunday.  I’m really looking foward to the Mavs game.  I don’t think I went to any games last year.

Last night I did my Christmas with Rob, April, and Colin.  I think Colin might have been a little disappointed that I didn’t get him a toy for Christmas, but he’ll be pretty happy when he goes to the Stars game I bought him tickets for.  I hope he likes going!

I’m still trying to decide if I want to get a house or not. My apartment lease is up in February, so I probably need to make a decision soon so that I can start looking for a place to live.  I’m just not sure I can afford it, but I’m really tired of apartment living.  So is Maggie.

So I’m walking Maggie tonight for our night potty sessions.  Per usual, I drop the leash and let her sit near the middle stairwell while I ran to throw away her little doggie baggie in the designated trash.  Usually, she sits very patiently and waits for me to jog back.  But after I turned around to come back, she just take off.  She’s still just small enough to wiggle through the apartment security gate (and I say security in the loosest sense of the word), so I’m just thinking, “Just great! She’s going to sneak through those bars!”

Nope.

My dog was on a dead sprint back toward our stairwell, up our stairs, and straight to our apartment.  Turns out my dog hates the cold just as much as I do.  Could I ask for a better dog?

I’m not at school! Woot!  I’m so glad to finally have a week off for some rest, and to commemorate this wonderful occasion, I’m going to do totally nothing.  I dropped Maggie off at day care, so now I have the whole day for me.

And yes, I take my dog to day care (Doggie Day camp at Petsmart, totally awesome).  She’s got so much energy, and my apartment is so small, that it’s hard for me to be able to give her the exercise that she needs.  Especially since I have no yard.  I figure it is better she goes to day care (we call it school) to get tuckered out, and then that way she is nice and rested when she gets home.  It is way better than having her dive bomb me from the couch when she gets bored (which she does; it’s quite spectacular).

This weekend was completely awesome.  I went out to a party at Nathan Vore’s house…the Woody Dean 4th annual dove party, or something to that effect.  It was so great to see some people that I’ve reconnected with recently, and to see some new friends as well.  As an added bonus I got to see Eric, who I haven’t seen in years! I’ve really missed him.  And his girlfriend was hilarious! I’m so glad I got to meet her.  Hopefuly I’ll be able to stay in touch with them in the future.  I’m really glad Matt invited me out.  I didn’t make it home until about 4am.  I haven’t stayed out that long in forever!
For thanksgiving I’m going to be heading out to Benbrook.  I’m really glad my dad isn’t going to be on site and that he’ll actually be home.  I was worried he might have to be out in Midland or New Mexico.  I love that he’s got this new job, but it sort of throws a monkey wrench in plans.  Or at least it has the ability to. No monkey wrench this week!

And now I have to go help Rob move a tv. I guess I’m now quite going to be able to do NOTHING all day. Oh well.

I am so worn out.  All the time.  But, at least there are only 12 more school days until Thanksgiving break! woot!  I am enjoying the school year, though.  I LOVE my new principal.  He is such a great guy, and he really does care about the school.  I actually enjoy going to work again.  I’m just tired all the time.  Between Maggie and all the extra crap I’ve taken on at work and everything else, I feel pulled in all directions.

To make matters worse, I had to be on crutches last week.  I finally went to the doctor about my broken toe, thinking he wouldn’t be able to do anything, which to be honest he really didn’t.  All he said was “Use these for a week.” But I’m off them now.  I didn’t think it would be that bad since it was NOTHING compared to when I had to use them at Tech.  And I also cheated by only using them at school (the only place I’m really on my feet long enough to need crutches anyway).  But I still didn’t like it.  I forgot how bad/painful the first few weeks of being on crutches are.  But, it was just one week.  And I’m done now.

I’ve also been doing some house hunting.  Not buying, just renting.  But it looks like I might get screwed by my apartment complex.  I don’t feel like going into it, but I’m not very happy with them.  Quite frankly, I’ve never cared much for this apartment.  Case in point: we have rats.  Not mice, rats.  I saw one last night as I was walking Maggie.  I’ve seen a few dead ones, but this one was quite well, and pretty speedy.

Maggie’s been going to class for two weeks now, and that’s been going really well.  She likes it, and it gets her out of the house, so I’m glad I signed her up.  She has made friendly with the neighbor dog Buddy.  The ran around tonight and played some, so now she’s taking a nice nap and leaving me alone while I’m on the computer.

And I had a really fun experience a couple of weeks ago.  I went down to the Halloween parade in Oak Lawn.  Now THAT was an experience.  Matt invited me to go with him and some friends.  I definately want to go back next year!

Most importantly, though, is that Tech beat UT!  I could say more, but really, everyone already knows the exact amount that they want to.  I told my kids that if Tech goes to the championship, I’m going to the game and leaving them with a sub.

Well, I can see that I’ve been lax in posting.  That must mean that school is in full swing.  It also doesn’t help that Maggie takes up alot of time, what with having to walk her and all.  I love having her, but it sure is hard to do in an apartment.  I’ve tossed around the idea of renting a house, and even gone to look at a few, but I’m not sure about it.

It seems like this month has been so busy.  One thing that happened is that I broke one of my toes…my pinkie toe on my right foot.  As I was coming in from outside crosswalk duty one of the kids opened a big metal door right into my foot.  I was wearing open-toed heels, so the door did quite a number on the skin and bone.  That was a few weeks ago.  It’s still pretty swollen, but at least I can walk on it now.

I also got a speeding ticket! Grrr!  Actually, though, I totally deserved it.  And really I’m surprised I haven’t gotten one sooner.  I was doing 42 in a 30.  Suck.  Oh well.

Maggie has gotten so big!  I don’t really notice it until I go back and look at pictures (that I still need to post), but she’s going to be a beast of a dog!  What sucks is that she still can’t do the stairs by herself yet.  She can walk up them, but I still have to carry her down.  It’s like carrying a 2 year old around.  AND she’s afraid of the dark!  There are some places where we walk where she’ll practically crawl up in my arms and make me carry her.  She’s a funny thing.

And how about them Red Raiders!  Woot!

It seems like a lot has been going on. Most recently, I had to go out to Midland for my Uncle Johnny’s funeral.  He was such a nice guy, and this was such a sudden loss, that it made it even worse.  My aunt seems to be doing okay. And my dad stayed out there a few days to help her take care of things.  He might go back a little later to help her out some more.

School has also started.  I really like my classes, but I really hate my schedule.  I have 1st and 2nd off, so the day is REALLY long.  To make it worse, my 3rd/4th block is interrupted by lunch.  I REALLY hate that.  It totally throws my day out of whack.  But at least I’m really liking the kids, so that’s good.

Probably the biggest personal change in my life right now is that I got a puppy.  Maggie the Lab (lab mix, really).  She’s a shelter dog that I encountered while doing SPCA volunteer work.  She’s ALOT of work, but I love having.  I am ready to get past the potty training and getting up in the middle of the night bit, but I really enjoy having her.  She’s alot of fun, bundles of love.  Unfortunately, she’s also ALOT of trouble.  Hopefully, we’ll get past that too!  I’ll post some pics of her later.

My Uncle Johnny passed away this weekend.  The funeral will be out in Midland on Tuesday.

Last week I found out the my Uncle Johnny had a brain tumor. They didn’t know if it was cancerous or benign, so we were all hoping for the best. He was scheduled Tuesday to go have surgery to remove it.

Things sort of took a strange turn this week, though. Monday night he had to be rushed to the hospital because he had a stroke. He had stopped taking his blood thinner medicine (per doctor’s orders) in order to be able to have the brain surgery on Tuesday, and this may have contributed to the stroke. He’s been in a coma ever since, and the doctors don’t foresee him coming out of it. Well, they went ahead and removed alot of the tumor, but there is still some left. We also got the biopsy results today. It is cancerous, and apparently it is the type of cancer that progresses rapidly. So I’m not even sure what to make of this. I’ve been trying to just not think about it and hope for the best. I really like my uncle, and I really feel awful for my dad. This is his brother-in-law, but it is also a friend who he knew from high school, and probably jr. high and elementary, too. They both grew up in the same community. But mostly I feel terribly for my Aunt Marilyn.

Right now he is breathing on his own and his vitals are actually good. So I’m hoping the he able to come out of the coma on his own. Doctors have been wrong before.

It seems like the last couple of weeks has flown by. That means the beginning of school is getting closer. Suck.

I had a couple of good lunches recently. Last week I got together with Keri for some lunch. She brought Gabe with her, so it was cool being able to see him. He’s a really cute baby. She seems to be doing good, and it was really great being able to see her again and do some catching up.

Yesterday I had lunch with my ex-boyfriend Matt. He left me a message asking if I wanted to go out to lunch sometime. It had been like over 4 years since I had even seen him, so I thought what the heck, why not. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was a really nice lunch. He’s moving to Austin (as of yesterday, actually), so hopefully that works out well for him.

I also start my volunteer work with the SPCA today. I think the best quote about this comes from Matt (Rob’s brother): “Are you really that bored?” Yes and no. I was looking for something else to sort of fill my day during the summer (and ever into when school starts). But I also thought that if I did this it might curb my need to go out and get a pet of my own, since I am currently without any kind of animal at the moment. But who knows, that might backfire and I could start bringing home all kinds of animals!

Also, Friday I went out to see The Dark Night. It was AWESOME!!!! Kinda long, but totally worth the admission price. Rob and I disagreed on this, but I think all the hype about Heath Ledger is spot on. Maybe not all the hype about the movie as a whole (I’ve heard Oscar buzz for the movie itself), but Ledger’s Joker was truly disturbing and uncomfortable to watch. He should at least get a nomination. But that’s just me.

And I DIDN’T get to go to Padre Island. I guess Hurricane Dolly just had other plans for us. It was almost humorous. The Sunday before we were supposed to leave the news started talking about some organized storms that would probably turn into a tropical storm and head to the Texas Coast. And then the projected path took it within miles of our destination. When it was all said and done, the eye of the storm went right over our hotel, literally. We heard later the day the hurricane hit that the hotel we were staying at had its roof ripped right off. At least we got our money back from the hotel. Still sucks though, I was really looking foward to it. At least it saved us a 10 hour drive.

Got three and a half minutes to kill? This is pretty funny.
Batman or Bush? (video)