The past two weeks have been horrible. Wretched horribleness. I popped ibuprofen like crazy due to massive headaches each day of the week. Sometimes when it rains, it pours.
Let me start with the good:
1) Of course there could be no better news than my brother returning from Afghanistan! My mom and I headed up to Dallas late Wednesday night, as my brother Ralph was staying with my brother Arnold in Dallas before returning to Oklahoma. It was so good to see him - though our family isn't all lovey dovey or huggie or anything. I finally got to hear more about what he did while over there (IED Specialist) and saw some pictures. My mom thinks I'm morbid for wanting to see images and hear stories, but that's not the case at all. This war is more real for me than for others. And hearing the stories puts everything into perspective. No, my brother does not want to be there, but while there he has to fight for his life. Does it bother me to know that he probably killed some people? Absolutely - but it's either them or my brother, and I'm sorry to be selfish, but I would rather it be them. Who wouldn't want that? Ralph said that soldiers go into Afghanistan thinking they got the better end of the deal between there or Iraq. But in actuality, Afghanistan is much more dangerous than Iraq. He said that in Iraq you may get shot at, but it will just be one or two quick shots and then the person runs off. But in Afghanistan, the fighting lasts for hours. And there are tons more suicide bombers in Afghanistan than Iraq. There are approximately 7-10 million land mines across the Afghan land. Pretty crazy. But anyways, I am super happy that he is back. He should be taking his 30 day leave pretty soon and will head to Texas. We have a brother-sister date to go to Pluckers as he is craving some lemon pepper wings and Shiner. While he is down, I may need him to do some manual labor - which leads me to...
2) I finally found an apartment! I am an extremely picky person when it comes to most things, and the same can be said when I go searching for apartments. I know what I like - separate dining and living rooms, the bathroom not in the bedroom, a decent size kitchen, no ugly wood finishes. And I also know right away if I like the apartment or not the second I walk through the door. I almost went with an apartment further up north than I cared to be because it was a bigger floorplan, had an attached garage, and was cheaper than what I currently pay for my crappy place. Okay, so my place isn't too crappy (I currently reside near the Arboretum - deer wander around, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops grace my kitchen). But then I found it! The second I walked in I said "this is it - I know it!" It is much roomier than my current place (current: 660 sq. ft.; future: 837 sq. ft.), and it comes with an attached garage. It is close to where I would like to be. Aaaand...it is cheaper than my current place and cheaper than previously mentioned future apartment. So I have submitted everything to the complex, and I hope I get it. I should find out on Monday or soon after. The only catch is that there weren't any available units in May, so my move-in date is April 14th, though my current lease runs until May 31st. But that's okay - that gives me time to take things over a little at a time and start setting up wall decor. I hate when the new place is covered in packed boxes. So do as much as possible and then save the final trip for a few loads of the big stuff. Works for me!
1) Of course there could be no better news than my brother returning from Afghanistan! My mom and I headed up to Dallas late Wednesday night, as my brother Ralph was staying with my brother Arnold in Dallas before returning to Oklahoma. It was so good to see him - though our family isn't all lovey dovey or huggie or anything. I finally got to hear more about what he did while over there (IED Specialist) and saw some pictures. My mom thinks I'm morbid for wanting to see images and hear stories, but that's not the case at all. This war is more real for me than for others. And hearing the stories puts everything into perspective. No, my brother does not want to be there, but while there he has to fight for his life. Does it bother me to know that he probably killed some people? Absolutely - but it's either them or my brother, and I'm sorry to be selfish, but I would rather it be them. Who wouldn't want that? Ralph said that soldiers go into Afghanistan thinking they got the better end of the deal between there or Iraq. But in actuality, Afghanistan is much more dangerous than Iraq. He said that in Iraq you may get shot at, but it will just be one or two quick shots and then the person runs off. But in Afghanistan, the fighting lasts for hours. And there are tons more suicide bombers in Afghanistan than Iraq. There are approximately 7-10 million land mines across the Afghan land. Pretty crazy. But anyways, I am super happy that he is back. He should be taking his 30 day leave pretty soon and will head to Texas. We have a brother-sister date to go to Pluckers as he is craving some lemon pepper wings and Shiner. While he is down, I may need him to do some manual labor - which leads me to...
2) I finally found an apartment! I am an extremely picky person when it comes to most things, and the same can be said when I go searching for apartments. I know what I like - separate dining and living rooms, the bathroom not in the bedroom, a decent size kitchen, no ugly wood finishes. And I also know right away if I like the apartment or not the second I walk through the door. I almost went with an apartment further up north than I cared to be because it was a bigger floorplan, had an attached garage, and was cheaper than what I currently pay for my crappy place. Okay, so my place isn't too crappy (I currently reside near the Arboretum - deer wander around, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops grace my kitchen). But then I found it! The second I walked in I said "this is it - I know it!" It is much roomier than my current place (current: 660 sq. ft.; future: 837 sq. ft.), and it comes with an attached garage. It is close to where I would like to be. Aaaand...it is cheaper than my current place and cheaper than previously mentioned future apartment. So I have submitted everything to the complex, and I hope I get it. I should find out on Monday or soon after. The only catch is that there weren't any available units in May, so my move-in date is April 14th, though my current lease runs until May 31st. But that's okay - that gives me time to take things over a little at a time and start setting up wall decor. I hate when the new place is covered in packed boxes. So do as much as possible and then save the final trip for a few loads of the big stuff. Works for me!
I'll move on to the bad:
1) Last week on Wednesday I flew down to Corpus for a send-off meeting with the local chapter. My flight out of Austin was at 7 a.m., with a 2 hour layover in Houston. Following the meeting, Erin and I were dropped off at the Corpus airport to catch our 6 p.m. flight - Erin lives in Houston and works from an office there. We then heard that our flight was delayed an hour, which freaked me out since that would put me at the Houston airport 10 minutes before my flight to Corpus. We kept hearing reports that the flight was delayed another hour. And then the loud booming voice came from above "those passengers aboard flight # ____ to Houston making connections, please return to the Southwest counter." I was told that I would not be leaving Corpus for the night, and instead would have a 7 a.m. flight the next morning. Ugh. Luckily my family all lives in Corpus, so my aunt came to pick me up - my mom lives a bit further from the airport and was driving back to Corpus from out of town.
2) Last Saturday (the 28th) was Finalists' Weekend at work. I had my keys in my pocket and somehow they slipped out without my knowing. Following selection of the recipients, I spent a good deal of time turning over cushions and re-tracing my steps. I even looked in the trash cans in the bathrooms...yuck. It was clear that they were nowhere to be found. And as it turned out, all my friends were out of town. Luckily my brother Arnold was in town at the lake with his friends, so he came and picked me up so that I could see if the spare key was in my apartment. I was quite certain that I left the spare attached to the valet key and had thrown both keys in the glove box when I got the car in October. Upon searching my apartment, the key was nowhere to be found, so we headed back to campus and called PTS to get a free pop-a-lock. Nearly 2 hours later, my locks would still not pop. Two PTS people attempted to pop the locks, to no avail. I got frustrated, so Arnold took me back home where I sulked for the rest of the night. The next morning I was awoken with news that my mom called AAA and that they were on their way to the garage. Thanks to Paul for waking up and taking me back to campus! After about an hour of the AAA man trying to pop the lock, he gave up and called his locksmith who had to pick my locks. I know I should be relieved that my car is clearly not too easy to break in to, but all I wanted was for someone to figure out how to pop the lock so that I could go home!
3) A few bombs were dropped on me throughout the last two weeks at work. Those are always fun. A couple of them felt like slaps to the face more than bombs. But either way, not a great feeling. I won't expand. But I did want to mention it since work did cause the majority of my headaches.
And now for the ugly:
1) So while in Dallas on Thursday, my mom received a phone call from her friend. Apparently there was a fire blazing in our little Lagarto community and was dangerously close to my mom's place. She wanted to check in with my mom to see how close it was, but of course my mom had absolutely no idea what she was talking about seeing how she was in Dallas. Needless to say, chaos erupted. My mom's friend, Genny, headed over to check on the animals. For those of you who don't know, my mom is a huge animal lover. She rescues abandoned animals, takes every single one of them in for their shots and to get spayed/neutered, and then sets them up with a nice little outdoor animal retreat. The property is fenced in and there are plenty of safe, warm animal pens set up for them to sleep in/keep away from the rain and cold. I can't tell you how completely useless I felt listening to Genny scream through the phone as the fire blazed right through the yard. Genny was trying to unlock the pens with the baby kittens and let the dogs loose, but she had some problems seeing through the smoke. The next thing we heard was "oh God, you're going to lose your house." That's refreshing! Minutes later, we learned that the volunteer fire department showed up in the nick of time. The fire ravaged the small community - over 170 acres burned to a crisp; 40 structures gone, 30 of those being houses. The community is extremely tight-knit and looks after one another, so already they are lending helping hands to those who lost everything. What made me the most sad was that had we not been in Dallas that day, my mom would have been in the middle of the fire. She loves those darn animals and would not have left until she rounded up every single one of them. I confronted her about this, and she did in fact mention that she wouldn't have left her animals - though she insists she would have been just fine. Scary. I feel bad for those who lost everything - the community is more for the retired people who want to live out in the country near the lake. They can't afford to rebuild, so it will be interesting to see what the area looks like in the next few months.
1) Last week on Wednesday I flew down to Corpus for a send-off meeting with the local chapter. My flight out of Austin was at 7 a.m., with a 2 hour layover in Houston. Following the meeting, Erin and I were dropped off at the Corpus airport to catch our 6 p.m. flight - Erin lives in Houston and works from an office there. We then heard that our flight was delayed an hour, which freaked me out since that would put me at the Houston airport 10 minutes before my flight to Corpus. We kept hearing reports that the flight was delayed another hour. And then the loud booming voice came from above "those passengers aboard flight # ____ to Houston making connections, please return to the Southwest counter." I was told that I would not be leaving Corpus for the night, and instead would have a 7 a.m. flight the next morning. Ugh. Luckily my family all lives in Corpus, so my aunt came to pick me up - my mom lives a bit further from the airport and was driving back to Corpus from out of town.
2) Last Saturday (the 28th) was Finalists' Weekend at work. I had my keys in my pocket and somehow they slipped out without my knowing. Following selection of the recipients, I spent a good deal of time turning over cushions and re-tracing my steps. I even looked in the trash cans in the bathrooms...yuck. It was clear that they were nowhere to be found. And as it turned out, all my friends were out of town. Luckily my brother Arnold was in town at the lake with his friends, so he came and picked me up so that I could see if the spare key was in my apartment. I was quite certain that I left the spare attached to the valet key and had thrown both keys in the glove box when I got the car in October. Upon searching my apartment, the key was nowhere to be found, so we headed back to campus and called PTS to get a free pop-a-lock. Nearly 2 hours later, my locks would still not pop. Two PTS people attempted to pop the locks, to no avail. I got frustrated, so Arnold took me back home where I sulked for the rest of the night. The next morning I was awoken with news that my mom called AAA and that they were on their way to the garage. Thanks to Paul for waking up and taking me back to campus! After about an hour of the AAA man trying to pop the lock, he gave up and called his locksmith who had to pick my locks. I know I should be relieved that my car is clearly not too easy to break in to, but all I wanted was for someone to figure out how to pop the lock so that I could go home!
3) A few bombs were dropped on me throughout the last two weeks at work. Those are always fun. A couple of them felt like slaps to the face more than bombs. But either way, not a great feeling. I won't expand. But I did want to mention it since work did cause the majority of my headaches.
And now for the ugly:
1) So while in Dallas on Thursday, my mom received a phone call from her friend. Apparently there was a fire blazing in our little Lagarto community and was dangerously close to my mom's place. She wanted to check in with my mom to see how close it was, but of course my mom had absolutely no idea what she was talking about seeing how she was in Dallas. Needless to say, chaos erupted. My mom's friend, Genny, headed over to check on the animals. For those of you who don't know, my mom is a huge animal lover. She rescues abandoned animals, takes every single one of them in for their shots and to get spayed/neutered, and then sets them up with a nice little outdoor animal retreat. The property is fenced in and there are plenty of safe, warm animal pens set up for them to sleep in/keep away from the rain and cold. I can't tell you how completely useless I felt listening to Genny scream through the phone as the fire blazed right through the yard. Genny was trying to unlock the pens with the baby kittens and let the dogs loose, but she had some problems seeing through the smoke. The next thing we heard was "oh God, you're going to lose your house." That's refreshing! Minutes later, we learned that the volunteer fire department showed up in the nick of time. The fire ravaged the small community - over 170 acres burned to a crisp; 40 structures gone, 30 of those being houses. The community is extremely tight-knit and looks after one another, so already they are lending helping hands to those who lost everything. What made me the most sad was that had we not been in Dallas that day, my mom would have been in the middle of the fire. She loves those darn animals and would not have left until she rounded up every single one of them. I confronted her about this, and she did in fact mention that she wouldn't have left her animals - though she insists she would have been just fine. Scary. I feel bad for those who lost everything - the community is more for the retired people who want to live out in the country near the lake. They can't afford to rebuild, so it will be interesting to see what the area looks like in the next few months.
None of these pictures are of my family or my mom's property. They are of nearby residents.These last few weeks just really sucked because I didn't really have anyone to talk to. My friends have their own lives and all live with someone. They already hear stories from their spouse/roommate about their day and don't really need to hear about another person's. And some of them aren't even interested in hearing the details about my day. It would have been nice to come home any one of the last 14 days to someone who could offer a nice big hug and an ear to listen. But alas, it was me and Gigi. Oh, the life I lead...
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