The New Year

Once upon a time my only goal in life was to not get fat. I was happy then. Life was easy. Things were good. I was accomplishing my goals daily. My new years resolution is to get back to that state of mind. Once I was fun, and funny, and carefree. What happened? I hear myself becoming bitterer by the minute. If I could just let loose a little. I'm pretty sure all I need is an IV drip of something like Valium. Yeah. That sounds great. Or an IV drip of beer. Would that kill me? It would probably burn.

Last Friday I was hanging out with some friends and they were asking me all kinds of questions about when I was a teenager. I don't know how we got on the subject. I think it was because they were asking me about when Kyle and I started dating. I started thinking about how much fun we used to have doing, well, nothing. I think we were just inebriated most of the time.

Note to self: Stay intoxicated most of the time. Life is so much better that way.


This is post 500.

I'm having a terrible time figuring out what day it is.

Guess What!

Kyle has mono! How fun! You know what that means? I probably have mono. Great. At least I have time to rest before school starts.

2 things I just remembered about vacation

1. We saw Lyle Lovett in the airport in Houston on the way to Lima. It looked like he had two guitar cases and no other luggage.

2. In Peru, they only want crisp money with no tears or stains. Why? I have no idea , but if you feel like going dollars are no problem just make sure they are perfect. Even a bend on the corner was grounds for saying they won't take it. Weird.

Oh, yeah one more thing. In the airport in Lima on the way home we saw an armless man traveling with a guitar. Of all the things he could have. He couldn't even carry it. I know it is bad, but I couldn't help but think of the Family Guy with the no armed baseball player. I laughed.

I'm having an affair

My affair with Jorge Borges is fleeting, but we have met many times in the past 6 months. I had never heard of Borges before the last week of the first summer session. My Spanish professor brought in a story to show us one sentence. He wanted to prove that a certain grammar rule was actually used. He explains the story. It kind of blew my mind. Then he shows the sentence. Since then almost every single class I have had a professor mentions Borges. The first week of the next summer session, which happened to be the very next week after the first incident, both of my English professors mentioned Borges. That really blew my mind. In one of my classes we talked about him quite a bit. By this time I start to think I need to read this Borges character. First day of Fall semester my poetry professor has a handout with a Borges quote on it. Last day of Fall semester my Walt Whitman professor has a quote from Borges on it. The first page of the book Corley gave me for graduation has a Borges quote. If I combine all the quotes I've read it might equal a short story by now. I'm starting to feel like this is a big conspiracy. I must read Borges. Everyone around me is inundating me with Jorge Borges.

Another thing, when we were in Peru I saw some olive oil in a market, the brand was ... you guessed it Borges.

L.I.E.

Recently a new toll road has been constructed in my stomach. There is no traffic! The L.I.E. (Large Intestine Expressway) says one hour to the next exit. I'm hoping I contracted a parasite. I mean skinny is skinny, right? Who cares how you get that way. Kyle says it is a case of bad Whataburger. But why would Whataburger do that to me? It is my friend. It doesn't want to hurt me.

One more reason I will never fly Continental again

Passengers escape burning jet in Denver; 38 hurt

Finally

I finished uploading all my vacation pictures to Flickr.  

On My Winter Vacation

There were a number of snags.  All the snags were due to the airlines.  It makes a person never want to fly again.  Especially Continental.  This has happened before.  Our first flight from Austin to Houston went swimmingly.  We get to Houston and have a three hour lay-over.  I read, Kyle tried to sleep without much luck.  They board the plane and by the time we get to our seats I'm sweating because it is really hot in the plane.  It takes people forever to cram their shit in the overhead bins and when they do we don't move.  So we sit there in the heat and wait.  And wait. The captain comes on and tells us the a/c is broken.  No shit!   After about 45 minutes they finally start bringing us water.  I can see the water tray and there is only one left and three people in our row.  The lady next to me is old and she isn't paying attention.  So I take the water from the stewardess and had it to the lady.  We get no water because right then the captain comes on and tells us to get our things we are getting off the plane.  So we still have to wait for everyone to get their stuff out of the overhead bins and now people are moving around so it is even hotter and I still haven't had any water.  I'm sweating like a pig and generally feeling gross.  Long story short after another two hours of sitting in the airport the fix the a/c and we finally get to leave.  We were supposed to get to Lima at 11:30 go to out hotel for a few hours and go back to the airport to take a flight to Cusco at 5.  Instead we arrived around 3 waited forever at the luggage retrieval to find out that another passenger took my luggage instead of his.  So the airport says that they will send it to the Cusco airport as soon as they get it.  We were bringing a huge duffel bag full of gifts for the family of one of Kyle's co-workers.  Mostly clothes that he wanted to give them.   They waited at the airport for us until 4 in morning.  After that we had time to check our luggage and board the next flight.  We got to the hotel in Cusco at about 8 and we slept for the rest of the day.  

From then on everything went really smooth.  I got my luggage the next day.  No other problems.  Until the flight home.  In Cusco the plane we were supposed to fly out on was delayed.  Three hours.  We woke up at 5 in the morning to sit in the airport for three hours.  When we get to Lima we were supposed to be meeting the family and having lunch at their restaurant and go sight seeing.  Again they had to wait for us for hours.  I felt so bad.  We finally made it to the restaurant.  We had seviche that was absolutely delicious.  Then we had traditional Peru plate that is similar to stir-fry with beef, tomatoes, french fries, and other assorted fresh vegetables.  Then finally we had mussels in the half shell topped with red onions and garlic an ají (which is a semi- hot chili).  The food was delicious.  We wanted to go to the catacombs but with the flight delay and lunch running long we knew they were closed.  So we went to downtown Lima.  The square was closed because there were going to be protests and there were tons of police in riot gear.  We were going to go into a huge cathedral, closed.  So we walked down to another one.  Then they were going to take us somewhere else.  I forger where it was.  Doesn't matter it was closed.  We had some bad luck.  

They drop us off at our hotel at 8:30 our ride to the airport is coming to pick us up at 9:30 for out flight at midnight.  We get to the Continental check your luggage line and it is around the block.  We waited in line to get out seats and check out luggage for over two hours.  TWO HOURS.  Our flight says it is delayed 30 minutes.  In actuality we didn't even board until well after 1 in the morning and we had a connecting in Houston that was delayed an hour as well.  But while we are waiting in line Kyle kind of went to the side and was standing next to the white girl in front of us.  As soon as I opened my mouth and asked where are you going.  ( I was still behind her) She says, "Dude, we are all in hurry here could you not cut me?" Oh, god.  Kyle tells her, "I'm not getting in front of you." I can see him turning red, and he tells her "Calmate".  After about five minutes they tell us that we are standing in the wrong line.  The line for Houston is on the other side.  So we move to the other line along with the girl in front of us and Kyle says you better hurry I'm going to get in front of you.  We get in the new line in front of her and I think good maybe that will be the end of it.  No such luck.  The line moves up a little and Kyle stays back and tells her, "Go ahead get in front of us I was just trying to be a bitch."  My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates.  I was trying not to laugh.  Then as we move in line a guy comes up and actually cuts in front of her.  She doesn't say anything.  Then she says something.  I'm not sure he knew he was cutting, but it was too much I had to laugh.  We got to Houston we didn't miss our connection.  The final flight was on time and half empty so that was nice.  

Christ on a cracker

I'm back from vacation.  While I was gone grades were finally posted.  I am officially graduated, I guess.  I got 3 B's and 2 A's in case you were interested.  I'm not really happy with that, but that is enough points to be on the Dean's list for my third semester in a row.  

I have never had worse travel luck.  Getting to Peru and back home was HELL.  The middle part was nice though.  The middle is the best part of everything.  

I have lots of stories.  Tons.  But I have to sleep first.  I have tons of pictures too.  

We left Lima last night at midnight and hadn't slept since 5 am the previous morning.  I still haven't slept.  I'm so tired I can't even do the math.  Pushing 32 hours anyways.  

Until Tomorrow,

Graduation and Party

The graduation ceremony was the worst I have every had the pleasure of sitting through.  First, some guy from a parent's organization couldn't read his own speech.  I know kindergardeners who can read better.  Thankfully, his speech was short.  But his horrendous reading was overshadowed by the god awful keynote speaker.  Her whole speak was about how horrible the economy was doing.  It was unspeakably bad.  I wish I had a picture of what my eye's looked like when she started talking.  It was the biggest downer!  I was horrified.  Follow that with an impossibly long name calling.  Yuck!  I'm glad that is over with.  

Then I got to my house there were so, SO many people!  Tons of people.   I was really surprised by how many people showed up.  I think 33 people RSVP'd there were more.  It was a packed house.  I managed to not drink too much.  When almost everybody left I opened all my presents.  I should graduate more often.  Damn.  My favorite gift?  Paper shredder.  I'm only kidding a little bit.  I'm sure my favorite gift will be the book Corley gave me.  I will be reading it on vacation.  I have a 15 hour flight coming up.  I better find some anti-nausea, motion sickness medicine before I go.  Flights don't usually bother me, but after about 9 hours I start to feel gross.  

Now, I have to think about finishing this 10 page paper that is weighing my high down.  Bummer!   

See ya soon!  

Whenever you want the hours to go by fast they never do.   6 o'clock today I will be graduating from college.  Kind of.  At least I will be attending the ceremony.  Official graduation doesn't come until grades are turned in on the 15th.  Then I have to get some paper work confirming it and give it to UT to confirm I graduated from UT so I can go to graduate school.  Yeah.  You think they could just look it up in a computer, but whatever.  At least I don't have to pay anything, which, frankly, surprises me.  There is still time for them to tell me I owe something.  

January 13th is graduate school orientation.  I'm pretty excited.  

But I'm more excited about Dec. 9th.  Vacation!!!!!

I just crossed the finish

Well, almost.  

Today was my last day of class!  For at least a month.  I'm really excited about that.  I wish I could say forever, but I still have two more years.  

At least I accomplished a small part of my goal.  

On to the next thing.  

Children's Literature

Have you heard about the live action movie version of Where the Wild Things Are?  

I just read about it in the Rolling Stone.  The screenplay is written by Dave Eggers  (of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame) and Spike Jonze (director of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich), Jonze also directs.  I can't tell if I'm excited or afraid of being dissapointed.