My Back Still Hurts...

Damn it.
But thank God for Rita, who took it upon herself to work the front window for me today so that I wouldn't have to deal with the public on top of the back issue.
Rita completes me.

Little Ballerina

If there was one thing in life that I could go back and change, it would be my obsession with sports when I was in high school. And I'll tell you why: because in 1996 - 9 years ago - I hurt my back playing volleyball. And though all of the benefits of playing high school sports are long gone, my back pain still remains.
Especially today.
I swear, if I could do it all again, I would be a dancer... a Santa Fe Tribal Belle that is.

And More Pictures...

These pictures are from our Mardi Gras themed family reunion. The first picture is of my cousins, Stran and Ashley, both learning young about the classy tradition of Mardi Gras. And though Felicia did not end up making the aforementioned (and infamous) Hough Family Reunion shirt, an obvious relief to the "family elders", she can be seen in the second picture, acting the fool with my brother. The third picture is of my cousin, Brooke and me at the pool after the reunion. And last but not least is the picture of my mom with her cousin, Jeannie, both of whom got conned into selling door prize raffle tickets during the reunion...

Pictures from San Diego

The first picture is the view of downtown San Diego from our hotel on Coronado Island.
The second is the view of Mission Beach from the top of the roller coaster that almost gave us whiplash...
And the third is the Stacie in the car, overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the top of a hill in La Jolla. The picture doesn't do LaJolla justice though - it's so pretty there.

On a More Serious Note...

I forgot to mention my experience on the way up to Kerrville.
We had stopped to put flowers on my grandma's grave in Columbus, and being that the cemetery where she's buried is really old, I always find it interesting to look at and read all the different headstones (is that twisted?)...
Anyway, one of the headstones that Felicia and I found said the following:
"No hope of Heaven, no fear of hell. Superstition was not his religion. He represented kindness and sought justice."
He sounded like a good person who just never found God...
And forgive my naivety for a moment, but I always wonder about what happens to good people who aren't necessarily religious. Do you think they go to hell?
I think about how people are a product of their environment. If you're not raised to be religious and you die before you have a chance to find your own beliefs, are you held accountable? Because what if that same person had had the opportunity to live longer and, with time, found religion. Is it fair that some people are given such a long time and so many chances to find God, and some people die prematurely without having had so many chances?
Is that a stupid question?

On The Road Again

Now I'm at our family reunion in Kerrville sans husband - again.
I may be the worst wife ever. Kevin has to work and doesn't seem to care about the fact that I've now left him for an entire 6 days...in fact, I think he's just relieved to not deal with our family this year. They can be a bit much to deal with. In my defense, I did ask him to go to San Diego and Kerrville both - neither of which he seemed excited about, and for neither of which did he make an effort to get off of work...
I got Kevin this shirt from Hooters in San Diego that says, "Hooters Girls think I'm sexy." And though I've been absent for 6 days, he now thinks I'm the best wife ever...

And Also

I actually got brave and tried fish tacos in San Diego. I chickened out last time I was there and didn't even try one, and I've been regretting that for eight months now. They were so good. I'm actually craving one right now. But there aren't very many places in Houston that serve fish tacos. Bummer...

So Much Fun

Where to start on the San Diego trip?
First of all, it was a blast. Stacie was in charge of renting the car, and she managed to get us a 2005 Mustang convertible. Nice.
We went to Balboa Park and saw the Japanese Botanical Gardens and all kinds of museums, which was neat. We went to the San Diego Zoo and I got to see pygmy chimps (very exciting!) and panda bears, polar bears, elephants, etc - all your typical zoo stuff, except this had to have been the biggest zoo ever. We walked for 3 hours and still didn't see everything, so we hopped on a tour bus and got the highlights. Good stuff. We went to this place called Belmont park, which is much like the Kemah Boardwalk with all these shops, restaurants, rides and a rollercoaster, on a beach. At the top of the roller coaster - which is probably the jerkiest ride I've ever been on because at one point, I seriously thought my neck and head had fallen right off of my shoulders - you could see the ocean for miles and miles. It was awesome. And finally, we went to LaJolla, which is this town in the hills on the coast, where you get the most amazing views of the ocean. We walked the beach and drove the scenic route, where you can view the Pacific from the top of a hill. I've never seen anything so beautiful in all my life.
Stacie and I stayed on Coronado island, which is just west of southern San Diego, so we had a great view of downtown San Diego and Petco Park from our hotel room. We literally could sit at our pool and look out at the bay and downtown San Diego.
And the best part of the trip was that one of my best friends from college, Lisa, came down on Wednesday. We basically just hung out - went to the beach and laid out at the pool - but it was so great to see her. I can see why she loves San Diego so much. It's a really neat place.
But I have to say, it was so good to be back home with my husband last night. I really missed him - I'm not used to being away that long, and I was getting a bit homesick yesterday.
I do, however, highly recommend San Diego - earthquakes or not...

Sweet Freedom

15 minutes until the weekend!
California, here I come!

DHT

Love them.
I heard their remake of that song by Roxette called "Listen to your Heart," today.
I have to give them their props - I really like the remake.

Always Something

I was just reading a story on cnn.com about the abnormal amount of earthquakes in California this week. Evidently, there was an earthquake off the coast of San Francisco, two earthquakes in Northern California, and one in Southern California within the past 4 days.
So now I wonder quietly to myself, "Is this the best time to take a Southern California excursion?" The weather's not going to be that great and there's now an impending threat of earthquake. My Texan self would freak out in the event that the earth actually started shaking around me.
But you know, it would be just my luck to live my entire life in this state, to deal with all the crap that Texas has to offer, and then to finally leave for four, count 'em, four days only to encounter THE BIG ONE in California.
To go or not to go. That is the question...

San Diego

I'm down to 6 days until I go to San Diego! a woo hoo!!!
I was looking at the weather report for California though, and it looks like the temperature's going to be upper 60's and lower 70's next week. Bummer about that, but I figure it'll be a prime opportunity to get in some writing.
When I get back, we have a family reunion to go to. Not so excited about that, I must say. Our family is cheesy: we have theme reunions each year, and this year is "Mardi Gras." Super tame Mardi Gras that is. My brother's girlfriend, Felicia, wanted to make a shirt that said, "Hough Reunion 2005: SHOW ME YOUR BOOBS!" Seriously, how many opportunities in life do you get to make trashy family reunion shirts like that? Of course, the family elders freaked out and nixed that idea really quickly. And while I understand their point, they should really think about these things ahead of time. Don't pick a theme that's trashy and then get mad when people go with it. My family somehow found a way to suck the fun right out of Mardi Gras...awesome.

Shut UP!

Good Lord - Michael Jackson was found not guilty on all counts.
That just substantiates my theory that with a pretty face, a girlish figure, and an endless supply of money, you can get by with anything in this country...

Sleeve-head Kev

Santa Fe is such a small world. I went jogging around my neighborhood yesterday, and happened to run past a house where my best friend from high school, LeAnne, happened to be hanging out. I haven't really talked to LeAnne in awhile - it's one of those things where we've grown apart but there's no hard feelings on my part, so it's nice to see her when I do, but we don't really get to hang out on a regular basis.
LeAnne was evidently curious to see where I lived, so we walked over to my house so that I could show her. Keep in mind, Kevin had no idea she was coming, and he's always doing goofy things to mess with me. So LeAnne and I walk in the front door, and in the living room is Kevin, with his back to us, folding laundry, with a shirt sleeve (which he had just cut off of a t-shirt) on his head. What the? How ironic is it that Kevin, who has never before worn sleeves on his head, happened to be in his shirt sleeve/headband on the one day when I randomly bring somebody in to the house. He looked so funny, with his hair sticking up in all directions.
Anyway, Kevin finally notices LeAnne, says hello before realizing that he still has this thing on his head, then begins to turn a little red and nonchalantly removes his "headband" before shaking her hand.
Of course, I'm wanting to bust out laughing because I can tell that Kevin is ever so embarrassed by his unfortunate timing, and LeAnne doesn't really know what to think of him because this is only her fourth time to ever meet him, so either she acts like she doesn't notice the random sleeve on his head or she really didn't notice the sleeve on his head. Not sure which is the case. But it was so awkward for Kevin, which made me laugh even more.
Such a classic (and random) moment. Stuff like that keeps life interesting...

Reason 101 That My Work Makes Me Sad...

Random thought for the day:
Our coke machine at work is such a wild card; you seriously never know when you put your money in whether or not you're going to get a coke in return. You can, however, count on the fact that even if you don't get a coke out of it, you're not going to get your money back. It's one of those constants in life that you know you can count on...
Although it's frustrating on most occasions, it also makes those days so much better when I put in my 50 cents and actually walk out of the break room with a Diet Coke. Today was a good day. I'm actually drinking my Diet Coke as I blog. Score!

Not So Bad

So the belly button piercing wasn't nearly as bad as the cartiledge piercing. It was actually pretty quick and painless, the way I like it.
The most bizarre thing was that there was a 9-year-old girl there who had a belly button ring also. That's a bit young...
And when I was laying down to get the piercing, the lady asked how I wanted it: fast or slow. WHAT? I think she saw the horror on my face, because she quickly followed with, "some people like to feel the pain."
What the hell? What kind of freak is like, "pierce me, and make it hurt." I'm the person sweating bullets in anticipation of pain, asking for sedatives, and having to hold back tears before a needle is even shown.
Obviously, I wanted it fast.
And it was. Props to you, piercing lady, for your swift movements and calming voice.
And also, shame on you College Station ear cartiledge piercer - you pierced my ear as slowly as possible, and now I believe that to be an intentional act. You bastard.

Monica, I'm Scared!!!

I'm so nervous! I have like 18 hours until I get my belly button pierced. I keep having second thoughts - maybe I'm too old for a belly button piercing, maybe I'll cry right there in the tattoo parlor, Oh God, all the tattooed people are gonna laugh at me when I cry, etc...(your normal pre-piercing jitters).
I think this stems from my freshman year at A&M, when Lisa, Shana, and I were going to get the cartiledge of our ears pierced. I was nervous, because we were going to this tattoo parlor to get it done, meaning that instead of the quick and painless gun that they use at the mall, they were going to use a hollow needle to actually take a portion of the cartiledge out of our ears. Evidently, this makes the healing process faster or something. So as I was about to back out of this adventure, my friend Allison convinced me that she had actually done this before, that there was nothing to it, that it was totally painless and that I was a baby if I backed out - all the typical peer pressure one might expect to experience at the ripe old age of 19.
Fine, whatever - I'll do it.
So as I'm sitting in the chair, getting my ear pierced, trying not to wet myself from the blinding pain, listening to my cartiledge cracking as it's being pushed out of my ear, (perhaps this account is a bit dramatic, but whatever), it occurs to me that my friend Allison is a damn liar. No way she's gone through this before and didn't experience pain.
It was only after I was finished, still feeling the burning sensation on my ear that plagued me for three months, that Allison admitted that she had indeed lied and had told me that it was painless just to make sure that I went through with it.
So Allison, if you have any bellybutton piercing advice, let me know now before I back out of this tomorrow:)
Felicia is going with me to get it done. She's meaner than I am and has threatened my life if I try to back out. I live in fear tonight...

Bay Watch, Knight Rider, and Wolverines Softball

Anybody who has ever thought to themselves, "I wonder what David Hasselhoff is doing now," can rest assured, because he's alive and well in Michigan. David has evidently finished his music tour of Europe and has settled in to his new role as the Wolverines third base softball coach quite nicely.
Seriously.
Check out the NCAA softball tournament on ESPN2 sometime - you'll see what I'm talking about.
And might I add, the DePaul softball team might be the manliest-looking group of girls ever. Their pitcher is a dead ringer for the Russian (?) girl on "Dodgeball" with the bushy eyebrows. She's hot...

Marshall

So I watched the E True Hollywood Story of Eminem last night. It was really good. I never knew what an interesting person Eminem actually is; To come from nothing, have nobody supporting you and still make your dreams come true is pretty impressive. (I had the complete support of my parents and ended up at Social Security in Angleton, TX :)
And I like that he says what he feels regardless of how people take it or what they think of him.
That was random, I know, but it was actually a really good show...