Hooters

As I was sitting at Hooter's last night with Kevin, it occurred to me that it is not the girls in little shorts that bugs me about Hooters. It's the combination of messy/fattening foods and the girls in the little shorts that bug me.
Because as you're sitting there with your belly hanging over your pants, barely able to breathe with wing sauce dripping from your chin, there's nothing that you want to see less than the perfect girl in the tiny shorts. It's almost taunting you: "this is what you could be if you didn't eat so much, fat ass!"
But they do have killer fried pickles...

That Time Of Year Again

In lieu of a New Year's Resolution, I'm opting to take inventory of the things I've learned over the past year:

1) That nothing's more important than family and friends.
2) That you should never say never. Because nothing's impossible.
3) That sometimes friends that you thought would always be there for you aren't. And sometimes friends that you never knew you could count on before become exactly what you need.
4) That you never know what's going on in people's lives: people who seem strong and steady sometimes aren't, and people who seem weak can often surprise you.
5) That we really don't have control in life, and we really never know what tomorrow will hold. Some days can be sunny and bright while the next can bring about storms, tsunamis strike without any warning at all, earthquakes can literally wipe out populations, and that often the real victims of these events are those left behind.
6) That true wisdom isn't always conventional wisdom.
7) That the past should be left there in most situations.
8) That the older I get, the more interesting my grandparents become...and the more I realize how lucky I am to come from such a close-knit family.
9) That there's nothing more genuine than a child - they tell you your breath stinks if it does, that you look goofy if you do, and that your make up is smeared if it is. But that makes it much more special when they say something nice or when they giggle. Because you know it comes from some place that's real.
10) That the things I dislike in other people are usually the things I dislike about myself. And it helps to pin point the changes I need to make.
11) That my relationships aren't perfect, often because I'm not perfect. But there's something special about their imperfection.
12) That it's ok to be silly.
13) That it only takes a simple twist of fate to lose everything, so it's important to truly live and enjoy today, and to say how you feel right when you feel it because you never know if you're going to have another chance...
14) That you should NEVER go out looking at Christmas lights sans bra, in your pajamas and leopard print house shoes, because you never know if your truck's going to end up stuck in a ditch somewhere. Trust me on this one :)

Christmas

I could not have asked for a better Christmas, despite a few minor mishaps.
It was filled with family and friends, which is all you can ask for out of the holidays, right?
Presents were just an added bonus :)

Here's a run-down of the major events (both good and bad) of this past weekend:
-went Christmas light looking on Friday and ended up with our truck in a ditch at atleast a 45 degree angle, which was as dangerously close to flipping a car as I've ever come. No fun at all.
-ended up sick on Friday, and spent Friday night out in the cold waiting for a wrecker driver to come pull us out of the ditch, causing me to be even more sick for Christmas Eve/Christmas.
-ate more food from Saturday - Monday than anybody ever should...and somehow managed to lose 2 pounds??? What's up with that???
-spent Christmas night getting our asses kicked by our friends Jay and Kimberly at "Scene It" and "Taboo," but had a great time anyway.
-Tried to fight the crowds at the mall yesterday to return some stuff that didn't fit, but never actually made it into any particular store due to the hideous amounts of blood-thirsty consumers
-watched "The Notebook" yesterday (which was one of my Christmas presents), and ended up sobbing throughout, although it honestly was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Learned that Kevin's made of stone :) He sat there with no emotion at all while I was repeatedly wiping my face with the sleeve of my sweatshirt...

And now I have a two-day week, followed by a 5 day weekend and a New Years Eve celebration to be spent with two of my best buddies from College Station.
Can't wait, Berly and Allan!!!

Don't Nobody Want To Work Today!

It sucks being at work today.
I left this morning and Kevin looked so comfortable and warm all snuggled up in bed.
He was good hubby though. He got up with me and made me toast - our morning ritual.
Props to him for that...
T minus 5 hours and counting until I'm officially off for Christmas!!!

Scatterbrain Part II

-I've been on the verge of sickness for two weeks now. But I'm not going down without a fight - nope, instead I've been pumping my body with vitamins, orange juice and echinacea for the past two weeks, leaving me almost sick and feeling not-so-good, although I'm not quite as bad off as I would be if I had a full on cold. I am, however, ready to kick myself because had I just given in to it in the first place, I would be over it by now.

-It's official. I have no motherly instincts whatsoever. We were about to get a puppy. A puppy for goodness sake, and at the last minute I freaked out and decided I couldn't go through with it because I wasn't ready for the responsibility of A DOG. How sad is that?

-My cat's a drama queen. I took her to get shots yesterday, causing her to spend the night being pissed off at me and punishing me for my bad decision to have ever taken her to a - gasp - veterinarian. Now, she's trying to align herself with Kevin, so she's limping whenever he comes around in order to get sympathy from him. It's working. I may have to learn from her. So young, and yet so full of knowledge, that one.

I Think My Guardian Angel Drives a '92 Honda Accord

I was on my way to work this morning, (which consists of driving 40 miles down a one lane highway) when I noticed that the Honda Accord in front of me was traveling at about 15 miles below the speed limit. Being that I wanted to get to work early for our Christmas Breakfast, this was a bit irritating for me. Every time the oncoming traffic would thin out, allowing me the opportunity to pass, the car would speed up. And when there was traffic coming, he would slow down. AAUUUGH! I wanted to kill him.
So I'm a bit upset by the time I come to the point where the highway turns into a two lane road, and as soon as I get the chance, I speed past. I turn to look at the driver, who was a middle aged man in a flannel coat. Then I look forward and not even three seconds later, I look back and the car is completely gone. There were no turn offs, no intersections, and really nowhere to go. The car was just gone. Bizarre.
So my first thought was that the guy was my guardian angel, sent to slow me down for some unknown reason. And then my second thought was flannel jacket and 1992 Accord...I'll bet they pit you with your guardian angel based on your comparable financial status...
So yeah, I now believe my guardian angel to be a slow-driving, middle-aged, flannel-wearing man in an old car. Awesome.

Watching The Discovery Channel Again

Sometimes all the technology in the world can not rival the knowledge passed down from generation to generation.

Case in point:
When the tsunami struck on December 26, 2004, the Onges Tribe, who live on the Andaman Islands in India and who are considered to be the most primitive tribe in that region, noticed the tide being sucked out. Having the "knowledge" that the receeding tide is an indication of an impending battle over boundaries between the gods of the land and the gods of the sea, they knew that they should relocate deep into the forest until the battle was over and the new boundaries were created.
They did just that, and not one of them was killed or even injured.
Meanwhile, more than 226,000 of their neighbors were killed by the horrible disaster.

I learned that from a Discovery Channel special on the tsunami last night, and thought that was interesting...

What a Rip

I just opened a fortune cookie that literally said the following:
"You will read this and say 'Geez! I could come up with better fortunes than that!"
Confucius has gotten lazy in his old age...

On Love and Marriage

I got these from my friend, Rita. They made me laugh, so I thought I'd share.

A Woman's Prayer
Dear Lord, I pray for wisdom to understand a man, to love and to forgive him. And for patience, for his moods.
Because, Lord, if I pray for strength, I'll just beat him to death.

On a More Serious Note

Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?
Because I do.
There's nothing better than sitting home and watching the lights on your Christmas tree, or going out looking at Christmas lights with your family and/or friends.
I love the excitement in the air, the smiles that are everpresent on people's faces, the family gatherings...everything.
However, there is no way any Christmas will ever top last year when, for the first time in my life, it snowed throughout the night on Christmas Eve. I felt like a kid in a candy store when I woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground, and spent the morning with my family having snow ball fights, and making snowmen and snow angels. OK, in actuality, we spent the morning pelting each other with tightly packed snow rocks, but it was still a good time. It's not often that you get the opportunity in South Texas to even see snow, much less play in it on Christmas day.
I love that no matter how old you get, you're never too old for Christmas.

Pictures From Our Ice Skating Adventure

Jay, Kim and Owen at the Festival of Lights

Kevin and Owen feeling out the ice

Owen was so funny when he was first getting on the ice. He kept looking at Kim and saying, "I'm scared, mommy." But he was a trooper, and I think he ended up having a good time :) He's such a little cutie!!

The Cutting Edge

Ice Skating in Texas. Sounds like an oxymoron, right?
Let me tell you, it's not pretty.
Saturday, Kevin and I went with some friends of our to this make-shift ice rink down in Galveston to try our luck at sub-zero skating. This was Kevin's first go on the ice, so we knew it wouldn't be pretty. But I have to give him props - he wasn't half bad.
Though at times, he looked more like he was walking, he never ventured too far from the wall, and he never lowered his arms, which remained constantly at a shoulder-length 90 degree angle to his torso.
But hey, he was trying.
And he provided us with entertainment for several hours.
At one point, Kevin came so close to busting it that I thought it was over. But he was dead set on not giving in to gravity. So he started waving his arms frantically and doing the cartoon run with his feet, trying to reposition them underneath his body. After probably 7 seconds of leaning left, then right, giving the serious scowl of concentration, and semi-running, he seemed to be back under control. I couldn't help it - I wanted to laugh. And as Kevin leaned over to me and sheepishly claimed, "toe pick" (the famous line from the movie The Cutting Edge), I started cracking up. And then I almost fell from laughing so hard. Kharma's a bitch.

The Inlaws

There's no nice way to put this, so I'm just going to say it: it can be so hard dealing with inlaws. Learning to mesh with a new family and figuring out what is and what is not acceptable behavior can be really hard at first.
One of the things that initially struck me about Kevin's family was their constant tendency to ask about the weather. I didn't understand this behavior. Were they really interested in how many inches of rain we had gotten that week? Seriously?
They seemed to be extremely interested in the humidity levels, the amount of rain, the wind strength and the cloud density that we had to endure on a daily basis. I even noticed that hubby, when talking to his family, would preface the conversation with the standard opening, "So, have you guys gotten much rain recently?" He would then tell them all about the heat index and the rain patterns at our house. Bizarre.
I was initially taken aback by this seemingly strange behavior.
Then one day, as I was sitting in awkward silence on the telephone with my father-in-law, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I could think of nothing relevent, appropriate, or new to tell him about our life.
I couldn't even think of anything to ask in the hope of sparking some sort of conversation.
I was drowning in a sea of silence.
And then it happened.
I blurted out, "So, how's the weather there?" And as I sat there relieved for a moment, listening to the details of the most recent West Texas sand storm, I understood this behavior just a little more.

Me Being Cheesy

The thing I love most about life (aside from my family and friends) is that you never know where tomorrow's going to lead you. I love that.
I look at my circle of friends: girls who, four years ago, were going through the EXACT same things I was going through. We were studying and trying to graduate, going out partying, dating, having girls' nights in. That was an amazing time in my life, and it made it 100% better to be experiencing these things in the company of my best friends.
Fast forward to today. Not one of us is in the exact same place in our lives.
We've all chosen different paths: independence, marriage, grad school, parenthood, career investigation, etc.
I think of our tracks, and how for a few years they weaved in and out of each other; then they continued in different directions. We didn't think far enough ahead to realize that our time together would be so brief. For that short period of time, we didn't need to think ahead because we had everything we needed - friends, family, good times, direction - right then and there.
I love that, in life, you take people with you regardless of how far away you are. You take memories and laughter, strength and love from the people that touch you along the way. And you learn from the mistakes, and hopefully use those lessons in your new/developing relationships.
It's this cycle that never ends.

And occasionally, you get the really good hair days. That's just an added bonus.

The Coughy Laugher

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday.
I thought it was really good, although it did seem a little darker than the other movies. The thing that pissed me off about the movie had nothing to do with the actual movie. It was actually this lady that sat across the aisle from me, coughing and laughing for the duration of the show.
All I'm saying is this: Harry Potter is not a comedy. It's not even that light-hearted anymore. Nope. It's actually really dark.
But the coughy laugher found it to be the funniest show on earth. Throughout the entire movie, she continuously cupped her mouth with her hand and shook uncontrollably with laughter. Harry Potter's running from the dragon; she laughs. Harry's ass catches fire from the dragon's breath; she laughs. (I can kind of see why on that one.) Mad Eye Moody pulls off his leg; she laughs to the point of breaking out into a coughing fit.
COME ON WOMAN!
I'm not sure why, but she annoyed the hell out of me. I couldn't stop watching her. The poor thing didn't even make noise; she just shook with laughter, and it pissed me off like no other.
It's not funny!
Voldemort coming back to life as the embodiment of all that is evil is not funny!
I should probably focus on learning patience.

Let Us Be Friends

So the party was fun. We went, we saw, we conquered.
We rode to the party with our friends, Jeff and Tracy. On the way up there, Jeff let it slip that he thinks the new girl at work, Mandy, is hot. In fact, he called her "Man Candy," causing Tracy to be a bit upset.
Fast forward to dinner. Tracy and I are sitting at a table when one of our friends comes to sit down with us. Along with her comes Mandy. Tracy was not amused. Friend says, "Have you guys met yet?" Tracy responds abruptly, "NO." Friend introduces Tracy as "Jeff's wife" to which Mandy replies, "Oh My God - you're Jeff's wife? Jeff and Kevin are my two favorite people at work." Tracy, again not amused, goes, "Well that's just great, MANDY. Courtney, do you want to go with me to get a drink?"
It was so funny. I've actually never seen Tracy act stupid before, so I was sitting there with my mouth wide open, just staring at her.
Mandy turned out to be really nice. In fact, we talked a lot throughout the night. Turns out we went to the same college, and she's married, and she looks like a rat. A rat with a killer body, but a rat nonetheless. It was for these reasons that I found it possible to be friends with Man Candy. Really, for the last reason alone. Had she been a hot girl, I would have hated her right along with Tracy.

I'd Love You All Over Again

Six years ago today, on a cold and windy night in College Station, I met the man who would become my husband.
Although at the time, it was anything but love at first meeting. In fact, I cussed him out a few times that night. And again the next day.
And that's when he knew he would spend the rest of his life with me in wedded bliss.
What was he thinking?
Thank God he saw something in me other than a straight up bitch...

Focus

Last night, I went in search of a "casual/formal" outfit to wear to Kevin's company Christmas party on Friday.
Found nothing.
What does one wear that says, "I'm casual/formal, not slutty but a little sexy, trendy but appropriate, and not too expensive as I'll probably never wear this damn outfit again"?
And then it happened. I found the cutest scarf of all time at Lerner, marked down to $10. And as I checked my wallet to pull out the "Mrs. Olson" Lerner card, I found a 25% off coupon that expired yesterday. Some things in life are just meant to be.
So I bought the scarf.
And though I still have nothing to wear on Friday, I don't really care because my neck is amazingly warm this morning...