MISSING MY GUYS.

One more to sum it all up...

"I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." - Mr. Twain

If we dont change the direction of where we are going, we will end up where we are headed. - Chinese Proverb

You dont mess with this guys trailer...

"Don't Fuck with The Javalin"

This beauty was parked outside my work today. Thank you Portales, New Mexico!

Always.

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.’

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’

Sweet Illusions

That pretty much sums it up.

Donate

Donated blood today for the first time in one of those blood donation buses. I was pretty excited until I actually went in there. They smell very santized and stuffy. And of course they had slight issues with actually getting my blood to flow. They stuck me and the blood just sat there at the beginning of the tube. So they had to wiggle the needle around, move it in and out. Sounds fun right. Once it got going I felt very uncomfortable. I realized after it was all done it was the tightness of the tourniquet on my upper arm that was bothering me. Which makes sense since I am always uncomfortable when I get my blood pressure checked. After they were all done draining me I went to the front of the bus to have my drink and snack. I sat there for about 45 seconds before I realized that I was going to be sick. I left the bus quickly and went and sat in the grass. I was sitting there for a few seconds when the coordinator walked up and asked if I was okay. I let her know that I was not feeling that great and thought I was going to be sick. If being the one to get sick wasnt embarassing enough she opens the door to the bus and starts yelling "We need some help out here. Quick." I was mortified, and sick. They brought me some ice packs and I layed down for a few minutes. As soon as I layed down and the breeze got to blowing on me I felt a million times better. I got an awesome red reusable grocery bag for my troubles and in a few days I can check my cholestorol levels online if I want.
Though my experience wasnt the most pleasant one I would and will do it again. Maybe next time it wont be so tough. I mean the girl who started a little after me got done and walked to class immediately, feeling completely fine. Maybe that will be me next time.

Please go to www.UnitedBloodServices.org and see when and where they are having a blood drive near you and as they say "Find the Hero in You"

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away." - George Eliot

Land of Enchanted Weather

I really cant get over the weather here in Portales. When choosing to move in August I cringed at the idea of heavy lifting (which I didnt have to do thanks to M.) in the hottest part of the year. And it was hot.. supposedly. The temperatures read 102 the first day I moved here but sure didnt feel like it. People kept telling me oh its dry heat, dry heat this, dry heat that. I guess it is not something you can understand until you have grown up where the humidity causes a 10 degree 'feels like' difference and when first stepping out the door you begin to melt immediately. The humidity here actually makes it feel LESS hot outside. That is just mind blowing to me.

Its been overcast all day today and rainy off and on so I went ahead and canceled my camping trip plans to Bottomless Lakes State Park. It is so cool outside, where I am currently sitting on the patio in amazement. Realize that even if it were overcast in Galveston it would be muggy and hot.

The first football game of ENMU's season is tonight and it defintely feels like football weather outside. I will have to get my hoodies from home when I visit next weekend but for now I will just wrap up in a blanket and sit outside and count my blessings :)

post script: Please remind me of this bragging on the weather in a few months when I am miserably cold and wishing I was back in Galveston's winter.

Updates

Finally completely settled into my new place in New Mexico. The town is small and tends to smell like cow because of the dairy farms that surround the place. Its hot but not oppressive like it is in Galveston. I actually wear blue jeans! and when you go in the shade the tempature actually cools down. As you can tell I am still amazed with the 'dry heat'.

It has been a hard transition from hometown to new town but I am getting used to it. Still havent met many people other than my neighbor but I havent done much around here yet either. In a way I am enjoying the solitude. Something I have not had in... years. And of course I am loving being alone in my own space, doing my own thing. With that being said I miss my friends tremendously. I love the people that I surrounded myself with in Galveston.

School. It started last week and I know that I am going to really enjoy the coursework. I am finally done with general classes, minus the comp. class they are making me take, so I am on to my classes for my majors. (which is Anthropology and History) The (text)books for the classes are interesting. My cultural anthro class books are different ethnographies by anthropologists ranging from a native culture in New Guinea to women of Rio shantytowns, and differnt things in between. My other classes are Indians of North America (pretty straight forward) and Survey of Western Civilization. I always excel at History so I am confident in how the semester will go. Lots of papers to write :) and information to read :) This Friday there is a meeting of the Antropolgy Club. Not sure if I am going to join or not but I will probably attend to see if I am interested. There is a History club here as well that I will probably look into. Geez I sound like a nerd.

Yoga. So the only yoga studio around is about 25 minutes away and it only has hot yoga. So I went. And I threw up. haha. I hated every minute of it. And will go back again. I am def. missing Jim, my yoga teacher in Galveston. Though I did find out today that they have yoga Mon and Wed(cant Wed bc of Hist. class) nights at the rec center right down the street so I will be checking that out for sure on Monday. I also spoke to the yoga instructor at the univ and she said she would sign me into her full class if I wanted to go this semester. I will have to talk to admissions tomorrow and see how much that will set me back, but I love yoga so I must look into it. I dont want hot yoga to be my only option. Maybe after I get back into my yoga as well as 'running' routine I will try the hot yoga again and it wont be *as* terrible as it was Friday. I have a good friend who absolutely swears by it so I told her I wouldnt give up on it.

I flew home Sat. morning because my mom was in town and I havent seen her since March and wouldnt see her again till Christmas time if I didnt this time around. It was so worth it. I spent 3 amazingly wonderful days with her. If you would have told me during my teens years that my mom would be my absolute best friend I would have laughed at you. Dont get me wrong I have always been really close to my mom but I was a holy terror for her at that point in my life. I am so extremely grateful to have the opportunity to have such a beautiful, loving relationship with her. It may sound cliche but she really is my best friend and I hope that I can be at least a fraction of what a tremendous women she is. As always it was hard to say goodbye to her. I know she is proud of me for coming out here to go to school so that keeps me motivated to keep on keeping on. Got to spend some time with the rest of the family too. One of my neices was living in Costa Rica with my brother and parents all summer so I got to see her for the first time since May. Six going on sixteen. I also got to pick up her and my other six year old neice from their first day of first grade! They are in the same school this year. Both beautiful incredibly smart girls. And as always my 17 month old nephew was the cutest little guy on the planet. Example: His cousin (my neice mentioned above) fell and hurt her ankle while playing with his sister(my other neice mentioned above). He dropped what he was doing and rushed (in a lil guy still learning the walking ropes way) over to her and patted her back and looked at everyone like 'Hello? She is hurt arent you going to help her' with a distraught face. Then gave her sweet hugs until she stopped crying. :) I rest my case.
Bonus: spending a little time with my love ♥

Well I have some reading to get to that didnt get done this weekend.

xo

Instead of:

doing laundry
packing
cleaning my car
cleaning in general
packing

for the big move to New Mexico in just 60 hours I am catching up on my favorite blog of maybe all time:

www.fosterhood.tumblr.com

I suggest for everyone in the entire universe check this blog out. Just sayin.

Something I read today...

When you’re holding onto a relationship, it’s usually more about attachment than love. Love wants for the other person’s happiness. Fear wants to hold onto whatever appears to make you happy so you don’t have to feel the alternative.

Still Life

Hair check before going out




Lizard I accidently smashed...



With this door




This mosquito landed on my mouth and I bit it! Ugh.




cheesing at my date.




Our sunset view :)

The Holidays..

Sunday turned into quite a wonderful day.

(Picture to the left is our view of the fireworks off the jetty)

M. and I went to and afternoon BBQ at a friends house. Chicken and Beef Kabobs and the most wonderful angel food cake concoction that I have ever eaten. Then we biked up to the Seawall to watch the fireworks. There were people lined up for miles on the seawall, which is always a nice thing to see (minus the trash they leave behind). Though for a novice bike rider like myself weaving through the people became a little to nerve racking so we took the back roads til we got to where we wanted to be. We ended up less than a block away from where they were setting the fireworks off at the end of the jetty on 37th St. We found a spot amongst the people who were already set up on the beach and waited for the action to start. And it did with a bang. Most of them seemed to go off right over our heads and that night they seemed a little brighter, a little more sparkly, and a little more special. Minus the terrible music that was being played by the dance party bus that was stationed above us on the seawall the sounds of the holiday were pretty nice. The fireworks exploding, the people cheering and oohing, and the waves rolling in. The colors of the people, the lights on the water, and the brillance in the sky. It was sensory overload but in a way that all seemed to come together and work for that moment.

The bike ride home was nice and cool and enjoyable, except for the massive pain in my ass. Both pysically from the bike seat and mentally in the form of Ms lectures on proper biking ettiquette. :)



The 4th tends to be a bittersweet holiday for me. I love to BBQ and spend time with people and watch fireworks, so Independce Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Growing up my family and close family friends would always spend the day cooking and BBQing, listening to music, and really just enjoying spending the day together outside. My mom and I and maybe one of my brothers would pick up fireworks a few miles up the road since they were illegal inside city limits. She would always spend too much money and always make sure we each got the fireworks that we wanted. I always got sparklers and these little chinese friendship pagodas that my friend Noella and I would set off every year. We would smuggle them back to the island under blankets... covert operation style. We lived at the end of a dirt road that led to about 16 acres on the bay so we could set off whatever we wanted without the worries of being bothered by the law or bothering our "neighbors", since we didnt really have any. As the sun would set my brothers and dad would start to set the fireworks out on our wooden table in order of how they would set them off and get the supplies needed (PVC pipes for launching fireworks and palates for the bottle rockets to sit on). From where we lived we could see both Texas City and Hitchcocks fireworks in the distance and could climb on the roof and watch Galvestons. My friends (usually always Noella) and I would busy ourselves with sparklers, writing our names in the air, and setting off our friendship pagodas, that we would keep until the next 4th. There is a certain burning smell that I always associate with them. And when it was time we would all sit on the porch, facing the bay, the music playing, and watch the fireworks that my dad and brothers set off for us. Our own private show. Surrounded by the people who meant everything in the world to me and place that is unmatched anywhere in this world. I miss it. Every year since we moved 6 years ago. We are all in different places now but I hope that at least for a moment on the 4th we are all remembering how beautiful and truely amazing those Fourth of Julys were.

(The picture to the right is of the house that I grew up in. The porch we would watch the fireworks is on the far left side and extended the length of the house facing the pasture out to Galveston Bay)

He makes me smile.

After an emotionally irritating day my BF (that is both boyfriend and bestfriend)posted this on my facebook:

'Saw this and thought of you: apparently it's from Bob Marley.

"She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her Heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her,don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there."'

Made me smile.

Now back to Zombieland...

Dinner #2

'Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall
All you have to do is call.
And I will be there, yes I will.
Cuz youve got a friend.'

Tonight I had a DJ for while I was cooking. My parents got me a record player for Christmas and through some miracle all of our records made it through 'The Storm'.

Note: From here on out in the blog 'The Storm' will always be refering to Hurricane Ike... the sweet ol hurricane that hit my hometown and flooded everything in its path.

So tonights music consisted of some Bill Withers, Blood Sweat and Tears, Carole King, Neil Young, Sly and the Family Stone, The Rolling Stones, and Janis Joplin. Classic Rock is probably my favorite genre of music.. and what the vast majority of the familys record collection consists of.



For dinner tonight I made Chicken and Mushrooms! A recipe I got off of allrecipes.com. I added a few extra ingredients and threw the bad boy into the oven for what felt like eternity. That is my issue with cooking.. im impatient. I cook at temps that are far too hot, so if I dont keep a watchful eye on what I am cooking it will burn in a second.. seriously like one second. Also I Never know when chicken is done baking. It always says when the juices run clear but usually I have added something to it that obscures any chicken juice that might be produced. I always end up cutting into it and 'cooking it for a little bit longer'. Anyway, the verdict on dinner tonight: salty. Which is soo weird because I never salt anything but apparently all my ingredients together made the dish rather salty. Not unbearable, it was mainly just the sauce and the mushrooms so when eating it with a bite of chicken, which wasnt salty, it was pretty tasty. Dont think I will make it like
(this is where I stopped writing because my friend called me because he got pulled over and arrested for unpaid tickets... that whole ordeal was fun.)
SO back to what I was saying.. I dont think I will be making it like that again.
Also it is another bland looking picture.

Well... its late now and Im ready to rest my brain.



Ohh.. I forgot I made some yummy funfetti cake topped with fresh strawberries and sprinkles! That was good.

Countdown has begun...

I leave for New Mexico in 30 days! Im ready to go in the emotional sense but havent packed or planned much at all. I will get on that soon.

Today has been a rainy, cloudy, dreary day.. and I have been loving it. Apparently we are getting the 'outer bands' of the 'dirty side' of Alex. The picture to the right was taken on 69th St. while I was watching the waves roll in. I stopped to watch the pelicans but of course as they flew off as soon as I sat down. It was still pretty awesome out there. Like I said before Im trying to soak up as much of this water as I can before I move to the desert. Im glad I got to see a good storm before I left and it has been a nice reprieve from the heat.

Downside of rain: while trying to hurry out of it last night I skipped the last step on the stairs and busted it. Usually it wouldnt be that big of a deal.. bruises, sore knee, etc. but some how I managed to pull my upper right quad and it hurt/s! Was hoping to get to yoga tonight but dont think Im going to make it. Gonna let my muscle relax a little.. plus I dont want to tell fellow yoga followers how I hurt my thigh.


Had a good night last night with some friends that I havent got to spend much time with lately. It seems we all are moving on to exciting things in the upcoming months. Talk of leaving the island for school and WWOOFing and other opportunities. Then it was on to open mic night at Old Quarter for cheap beers and good live music. (Where the picture to the left was taken.) Note: All this was before I fell. Hoping to spend as much time with these lovely people that I can before we all go our seperate ways.

So ready!..

"If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through." ~Chinese Proverb

Information on WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) can be found here: http://www.wwoof.org/
Its worth checking out!

Dinner

Dinner tonight was one of those that look bland and kind of gross when you look at it but is really yummy and tasty when eating. Stuffed pork chops and sweet potatoes. It was pretty tasty if I do say so... since yours truely cooked it :)

So it looks as if Tropical Storm Alex is going to steer clear of us here on the island. Though the wind is blowing and the waves are pumping (in a choppy, unclean way). I do hope for some more thunderstorms before this weekend; though the mugginess that follows is opressive. And then I want beautiful weather and clear skies for this weekend because I have some fireworks to watch. Apparently the season before lasts American Idol winner Kris Allen is playing at Moody Gardens this weekend and a friend of mine is having a birthday party right across the canal so that should be fun.. with fireworks to boot! And even more fireworks Sunday on the beach! Trying to soak up as much water time as possible before I move to the desert. Mmhmm.

Blogging...

I have officially and tentatively entered the world of blogging.. a few years later. My account says it was set up in August of 2007 so that should be an indicator of how this might possibly go.

At the end of July I am moving to New Mexico to go to Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. So I will be leaving my sanctuary on the Gulf and heading out west. This is the main reason I have finally decided to start this blog. For the first time in what might be ever my family is spread out away from each other, so I want to use this medium to keep them updated and involved in my goings on when the phone calls get few and far between. It happens. I know. But I never want my loved ones to think that I don't want them involved every step of the way. (If you strangers learn anything from this blog I hope it is the true love and unyeilding devotion I have for my family.) So hopefully this blog will keep them updated when I fail to do so.

I dont have a witty title or catchy description so I used a picture that I have fallen in love with. It was taken a stones throw away from where my brothers and I grew up on Galveston Bay.

A few things about this here blog:

- I misspell words. I will look them up on dictionary.com if I dont know how to spell them or if they dont look quite right, but some will slip through the cracks.
- Also I dont use apostrophes... it just laziness on my part.
- There is a chance, like thousands of other poor blogs out there, that this project will be abandoned. Though I honestly hope not.
- I will most likely be posting pictures, and recipes, and daily goings ons, and rants (maybe lots of these, ranting is a family trait), and quotes, and random musings that have been trapped in my head.
- Enjoy and dont be a hater :)

Until next time.



When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts, the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure
them,
When I sitting heard the learned astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman