She even bought me panties...

My mother took me shopping for back to school clothes today. My disposable income each month is laughable, and I quite frankly, think my mother was sick of seeing me in all the same clothes over and over. Granted, I do see my parents quite frequently, but I think she had my pattern figured out...
Anyhow, we spent no less than six hours in two stores, and my mom dropped damn near half one of my paychecks on acquiring a new, more professional-ish teacher-y wardrobe for me. I really enjoyed just hanging out with my mom, but I got a huge bonus... a butt-load of clothing!
Don't get me wrong, I have clothes, it's not like I'm rotating the same handful of outfits or anything, its just that most of what I buy comes from Old Navy or somewhere else of equally shoddy durability of construction... and therefore a large majority of my wardrobe could certainly stand replacing/updating.

Bonus:
I got home with a shot of energy from a post-dinner frappuccino and actually CLEANED OUT MY CLOSET! (clothing only - i'm not starting shoes at this hour.) I wanted to have a place to put all my awesome new clothing. I accumulated well over 50 empty hangers in the process, AND now I get to put a check by that thing I didn't think I'd get done this summer...

Double Bonus:
I got some prints of pictures from my trip to Virginia to see my new baby nephew. There's this one of me holding the baby, and I look awesome. I looked at the photo and said, "Damn, I'm pretty..." (... and I have immeasurably low self esteem, so you know its gotta be a good picture...) As soon as I get my hands on the digital version, I'm so posting my picture on here. I never thought I would put up more photographic evidence of my existence other than my feet, but Damn, I'm pretty...

{Unfortunately, however, we will still not be posting our photo to our profile because we are still somewhat frustrated with the whole store your photos elsewhere thing, and trust us, we have invested some time, but you know what, we're not going to be talking about this right now... we'll come back to it, though... oh, indeed, we will...}

It's been a great day. I go to bed happy. And did I mention, Damn, I'm pretty....?

A self deprecating moment

How is it that I am so self-involved as to not be able to remember the birthday of someone I've known over ten years?

How much worse is it that never would have remembered on my own?

*Notice* - Shuttle service has ended...

At first, I was somewhat devasted by the news that the shuttle fleet was grounded indefinitely. There would be no return to space until 2010, when a new vehicle could be developed.

Hmmm...

The very shuttle flown, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981. 1981? That was 24 years ago. I was 3. The whole shuttle program inception dates back to 1972... and Nixon! That was a generation ago...

1981? 1972? There were no cell phones, no home computers, no internet, no cell phones, no Microsoft, no MTV, no cell phones, no PDA's, no DVD's, no CD's, no cell phones, and a pocket calculator still cost upward of $20...

And that's just for us common folk.

Imagine the technological advances plausible for the scientific community. Imagine, given the brightest minds and the thirty-three years of technology that has unfolded since the program's inception in 1972, what can be created next.

Although we know 2010 will turn into 2015 or 2020, I say OK. I can wait. My curiosity has the best of me. Maybe I've watched too much Star Wars, but I say: NASA... Bring it on!

An apprentice to the Goddess

I know I keeping whining that my summer is over, but the bitching stops here. I'm taking this workshop by Marilyn Burns, the Goddess of Mathematical Education, and it's crazy awesome. I have learned so much. There are so many things that I'm psyched about for my classes this year. I'm so looking forward to taking on this school year. I've had a nice, relaxing break, and now it's time for me to be a productive member of society again; I'm fired up and ready to work really hard and start applying some of this stuff I've learned. (And I'm really lucky that I feel this way because my new department chair is the superintendent's daughter. Unfortunately, she has never taught middle school before. This should be interesting.)

Now I just have to get out of the habit of sleeping in past 8, 8:30, 9:00....

Other than that minor issue, all I've got is "Look out you pre-pubescent *fuckers. Here I come... you're going to learn, and goddammit, you're going to enjoy it!"

* by fuckers, I do, literally, mean "fuckers." Many of my 12 and 13 year old students engage in frequent sexual activity. Even on campus.

Frack Bob Schieffer

***On an unrelated note: So my summer, technically, is over. I'm in either workshops or staff development meetings every day until the kids come back. This is the part where I whimper.***

I was at a workshop today, (a pretty cool one actually, where impact of the lessons is to invoke student empathy) and I wasn't home to watch the Discovery launch. Fortunately for me, I have become the goddess of DVR since having it installed 5 days ago, and recorded the launch. When I got home, I immediately sat down and watched it. I was thoroughly impressed. They had all these cameras to make sure they could see if there was any damage, and they had one between the fuel tank and the orbiter where you could watch as the earth disappeared. Eventually, the fuel tank and the camera pulled away, and you could see the shape of the bottom of the shuttle as it continued on. It was quite cool. I'm glad I DVRed it. (DVR rocks!)

However, the entire process was a little marred by Bob Schieffer, the moron who's fronting CBS Evening News these days. He said something to the effect of, "I think its, uh, something special that we're, uh, all so excited to return to space that no one has, uh, taken the time mention this mission is commanded by Eileen Collins, uh, uh, a woman..."

Way to go, dinkbreath. Wouldn't it have been even more special, had this fact remained unspoken and accepted as the norm it is and should be...? Must we have been subjected to random musings of a antiquated member of the good-ol-boy club?

Not a big deal indeed.

See if you can tell what my new pseudo-swear word is... or "Fun in the Capital"

Bonus points if you know what t.v. show it's from...

So I spent the last week in Fairfax County, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. My brother and his wife just had a baby last month (my fourth nephew total) and I went for a visit. My brother, a Major in the Air Force, just moved to the area a few months ago and is now working in the National Reconnaissance Office. That's pretty much all he's allowed to tell us about his career. [Me: So K, what did you do at work today?" Him: "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." This is not news to me. His previous position was at the Space Warfare Command Center in Colorado.] And of course, my nephew is adorable; he's a really good baby... he hardly ever cries and loves to snuggle... He almost made me want to re-think that whole "I never want to have kids thing." Almost.

However, I digress. I did the whole touristy thing while in D.C...I hit up the Archives and a couple of the Smithsonians... saw the Hope Diamond, the Enola Gay, declassified documents regarding the U-2, and of course, walked all over the mall to view the monuments like the brand-new WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Wall. And I have never sweat so much as I did the day we walked the mall... Apparently there ARE places that are hotter and more humid than Houston. I refused to believe it when my brother told me it was hot and humid there. My thought process was "Hey, I'm from H-town... if anyone can handle ridiculously hot and humid it's me." But, OMIGOD, it was so fracking hot, and the humidity was up around 96%. NINETY SIX PERCENT! Are you fracking kidding me? It was more like swimming than walking when you were outside... I was so relieved to return home to the 90 degree, 80 % humidity weather... (?)

The sad part was that my very favorite part of the trip is when I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that looked a lot like this one. I think this is about one of the coolest fracking things I've ever seen... I immediately came home and surfed the web until I found one like it so I could pay a ridiculous amount of money to acquire it. I hate cigarettes. Let me rephrase. I ABHOR cigarettes.

And that's what I did on my summer vacation.

Grr. Argh. School starts in two weeks.

*sigh*

Space... the final frontier...

I'm ridiculously excited about the U.S.'s return to space. I am having DVR installed tomorrow, and they're supposed to come between 12 and 2. They sure as hell better make it by 2, because the very first thing I plan to digitally record is the Discovery launch at 2:51.

I'm such a dork.

But I'm also the same girl who cut classes in college to watch John Glenn return to space...

Sometimes the human race just shocks me...

Yesterday I took my parents to the airport. I was on my way home, and one of those random vicious storms that have been slamming Houston the past couple of days decended upon the northeast side.

It was raining like gangbusters. I was honestly a little terrified, and I have driven through some pretty nasty storms. The freeway traffic was crawling along at about 25 mph. At one point, I saw lightning strike one of the freeway light towers. (Probably one of coolest things I have ever witnessed, but I was too busy staring at the road to pay it too much heed.)

I was on 45 heading south, about halfway between the beltway and the loop, and this SUV dauntingly passed by me. As it inched past, I noticed that it's hazard lights were on.

Hmm, I thought. That makes it really easy to see him in this wretched rain.

The pick-up in front of my must have had the same thought, because a few seconds later, his hazard lights were on, too. And then the Mustang two lanes over had it's hazards on. And within less than a minute, all of the eight or nine cars in immediate proximity to this SUV had their hazards on. Including me. It was so much easier to drive a little faster, because you could comfortable SEE everyone around you. We had this nice little pack going, all with our hazards on, moving at a fairly comfortable 45-50 miles an hour through some of the worst rain I have ever seen.

When the rain suddenly ceased about 5 miles later, everybody shut their hazard lights off, and accellerated gracefully on the dry (?) pavement.

Brilliant plan, Mr. SUV. Way to go Houston drivers.

Like I said, sometimes something small happens, and we redeem our primarily stupid selves.

Home sweet Houston

I've always thought that one of the coolest things about living in Houston was the suprisingly low cost of living, as far as huge 4 million + cities go. However, according to CNN, we hit the middle internationally. Out of 144 of the largest cities in the world, Houston lands at #70.

Places where its cheaper to live than Houston:

*Kuala Lumpur - Hmm... I've always wanted to see the Petronas Towers...

*Bangkok - umm, I'll pass on this one. I imagine it's still a little messy from the tsunami... and all the hookers...

*Denver - Denver? Really? It's cheaper to live in Denver than Houston? How is that fair?

*Sao Paolo - Well, Brazil certainly wouldn't suck.

*Seattle - again, pass. It's pretty, but the weather blows. (Says the girl who's car thermometer hit 104 degrees today...)

I guess it's not as cheap as I thought here, but it's home, and I do love it. After all, H-town is the home of Xanadu...

River Rats

*this part of the blog not intended for children*

Last month, I went to the river with some friends and neighbors (and a bunch of people I didn't know.) [I started to write this shortly after our return, but never posted it, so forgive me for the old news.] Even though I was still recovering from my horrible tummy affliction and therefore was not imbibing as much as, well, pretty much every body else, I had a fabulous time. There were a whole lot of wasted people on this adventure. I think I had 4 beers the whole weekend. Most of the rest of the crew had 4 an hour.

We stayed in these bad-ass cabins right on Canyon Lake - each cabin had room for 12 people to eat, sleep, bathe, and party. And party we did. There were flashlight strobes to highlight the dancing on the porch, and I think at least 9 people crammed into the hot tub at one point. There was even a Ron Burgundy wannabe contest. Well, not really, but this guy definitely won.


So on Saturday night, after a long day of floating and drinking and getting sunburned, a group of us, mostly girls, were all hanging around inside, enjoying the AC for a bit. Although the party is still in full tilt, the Hostess (who later that night broke her nose when someone tried to pick her up and she fell flat on her face - that was fun, and a whole nother story...) starts cleaning up a little. Somehow the conversation goes toward the inherent connection between cleaning and sex. (?) Apparently the Hostess is quite energized by sexual encounters with her husband, and likes to clean post-orgasm.

Jay, a small, yet very entertaining guy, was walking through the cabin to grab more beer and heard part of the conversation, so he decided to throw in his two cents. "Man that's awesome. I need a wife like that. Every time I wanted my place clean, I can just grab her and say, 'let's do some fucking so we can get this place straightened up!'" He then made a lovely little hip thrusting gesture and walked back out on the the porch, as we sat giggling at his wierdness.

Then the blond chick sitting next to me, who hasn't said much in a while, comes back with the most fabulous retort. "Poor Jay," she says. "No wonder he isn't married. He still thinks that orgasms come from fucking."

I laughed so hard that I snorted.

I can't wait until next year.