12 years ago...

12 years ago today, my best friend asked me to do him the honor of being his girlfriend. We were just starting our senior year of high school. I said yes, and we've never looked back.

We had a wonderful "date" lunch to celebrate and spent the entire time talking about our favorite memories over the last 12 years. I feel so incredibly blessed that we had enough to talk and reminisce about that the conversation lasted the entire hour...and those were just the highlights!

Not many people are lucky enough to have met their mate so early in life and to have had such time together to watch them grow into the person they will be forever. I know Alex better than anyone on the planet--I know where he's come from, I know what he's been through. I've seen the forces and events that have shaped him into the man he is today. And he knows the same about me.

We are so very, very lucky.

Hells to the Yi-zah!

Alex "surprised" me with tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance tour! (That gets " " because we had talked about it for a while but decided that we should save the money. Trouble was that we decided that same thing about FOUR different fun things we were going to do, so Alex decided he had had enough and got the tickets anyway!)

I am so excited!!! #81, here I come!!

Catching up

Have you ever had a lunch date with a friend who had all kinds of exciting news about his or her life when the best you had to share was the sale on bell peppers you caught when you went grocery shopping two days before?

That's kind of how I feel now. I know I haven't updated in a while, but quite frankly there hasn't been any blog-worthy events going on in our lives. I've considered taking the route some of my blogging peers have and start making posts about my personal feelings about global events (the IOC banning the Iraq athletes from this year's games; Yao Ming and Dirk Nowitzki representing China and Germany, respectively, at the games; the So You Think You Can Dance tour tickets being $65+; etc.), but I'm trying to keep this pure for family and friends who simply want to stay updated with life here in P-ville, TX.

So I'm that friend who has nothing cool going on. The most notable event in our lives recently is my sweet bruise I got in our softball game last Wednesday. This pic. was taken 24 hours after the game. We won the game, by a lot. In fact, we've won our first 4 games of the season, a feat unprecedented since we've been on this team. We may have to throw a game or two of the second half of the season because we'll be forced to move up into the "intermediate" league if we win our league, and we don't want to do that. Those people are serious. We just play to hang out with our friends once a week and drink beer. Well, Alex is serious about it sometimes. Like that game he got kicked out for throwing down his glove, kicking the dirt, rushing at the ump (just a little bit) and cursing...in English. It was the cursing that did it. I told him there was really no excuse for that; if he's going to get so worked up, he needs to switch immediately into Russian.

I also have a nice new scar, but I'll spare you the pictures of that. On my last dermatology check-up, I had a spot taken off my back that came back as "severely abnormal" and the doctor hadn't gotten it all off. So I went back in to have the rest removed, which apparently meant he had to take a 2 mm perimeter all the way around and under it. So I have the first stitches of my life. But the wonderful news is that all the tests came back clear: no more bad stuff left in the area! Nothing more to worry about!

So, as you can see, if those are the height of excitement in our lives right now, we're living pretty smoothly. Jobs are busy. Cats are funny. House is clean. Grass is (amazingly) alive.

Life is good.

#28: Keep a potted plant alive for at least one year

Unfortunately for the plants, I'm kind of limping across the finish line on this one. I was given two gorgeous plants as housewarming gifts last July: an aloe and a beautiful flowering plant (front left; hibiscus, maybe? who knows...). In the early eagerness of domesticity, I bought the third plant (front right).

Knowing how living-plant-challenged I am, my friend who gave me the aloe assured me they are hardy, nearly impossible to kill. Thank goodness, because as you can see, the poor, not-so-hardy mystery flowering plant only has about five leaves left, and one of them isn't looking too hot.

I haven't had blooms on either of the flowering plants since last August, a fact I was told could be remedied by repotting them with some fertilized soil or miracle grow or some such. I consider that to be level II care; I was concerned with level I care: water the correct amount in order to keep alive.

I nursed them through the winter, and when sunny skies and warm weather again arrived in central Texas, I happily moved them to the front porch, prematurely delighting in the mistaken assumption I had guided them through the toughest stretch. They were all promptly burnt to a crisp (literally--they were blackened), and I thought I (they? task #28?) was/were doomed for sure.

They've spent the remaining time since that ill-fated first warm-weather spate on our kitchen table. I feel like they are in an assisted-living plant ward--not too much sun, not any fresh air, no excitement. What do I do now? Continue to nurse them through a premature old age? Is that any life for a plant?

Maybe I'll plant them in our little shrub-bed in front of our front porch--this will give them the chance to flourish as they were meant to...and if it means they die, well, at least they'll die under the wild blue wonder of the great outdoors instead of cooped up in my kitchen.

I can't believe I forgot!

I can't believe I forgot to add these two stories to the post about our family reunion weekend.

We flew in and out of JFK. When we flew in, while we were waiting to pick up our bag, we were standing next to two girls and a guy who were all extraordinarily drunk and engaging in a fully clothed, very public threesome. Welcome to NYC!

On our way out, our flight was delayed 3-4 hours, so we sought refuge at the terminal bar/restaurant. When we walked up, a girl we assumed was the hostess walked up and grabbed a couple of menus. Alex said, "Two, please," to which she replied "Seat your own F-ing selves," and walked off to hand the menus to another table.

We were SO glad to get back to Texas! ;-)

Sea Kayaking, Clambakes, and Fireworks!

(Otherwise titled: #58: Visit my grandmother)

We spent the 4th of July weekend at a family reunion in Connecticut. We had an amazing time. There were more than 20 of us hanging out in my aunt's backyard at any given time, munching on burgers and steamed clams. We went sea kayaking and hunted for seashells and sea glass. There was an island off the beach that you could walk to when the tide went out. There we hunted for treasure, searched for birds, and made cairns on the rocky shore.

The fireworks were great, too! There was no official town show, so all the ba-gillionaires who have beach-front property band together and put on shows of their own. Imagine looking down the beach and seeing three or four full-blown fireworks shows going on at once! And they weren't the little dinky kind--they were big, grand, and expensive! And because they weren't official city shows, there was no buffer zone for the crowd. We got to see the fireworks explode directly over us (and even got hit by ash a couple of times)!

The best part was getting to spend three days with my family, whom I rarely get to see as we are spread all over the country (and the world! My cousins flew in from Lebanon for the event!). I hear the next one is going to be in two years at our house...I'd better start getting ready!

Happy 4th!

KC

#4 (Get a promotion) and #64 (Get a raise) -- Yippee!

After two years, three months, and 19 days, I am FINALLY are "real" employee of my company!

*****pause for the Happy Dance*****

I was originally hired on through a staffing agency for a one-year project and told that typically "project employees" are hired on permanently after the successful completion of their first project. Well, six months later, my company went up for sale and a hiring freeze went into action. It took a long, long, long time, but the sale is complete, the merger is complete, the reorganization is complete, and staffing has begun again!

A senior editor position opened up in the Adult Education group (GED and college prep work), and I got it!!! That's a three-step jump as far as promotions go, and a small raise, but a raise nonetheless. And I get paid vacations days! And sick days! And an office! And it's a management position, so I'm actually going to be in charge of stuff! I am also really looking forward to getting back to 6-12 grade material, which is what my certification is in. For the last couple of months I've been on a K-2 phonics and spelling program, and while it's been educational to say the least, I'd rather be working on material that I know and am good at.

Goodbye bottom of the totem pole!

Have a fantastic Fourth of July weekend! I'm off to celebrate!

-K