Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and I was especially happy to spend time with my family. All my dad's siblings were there, and almost all of my cousins, and as always we had a wonderful meal. I got to spend some time with my nina (for those who don't know, that means my godmother, in Spanish) and also with my own godson. He's six years old now, and much more willing to actively spend time with people he doesn't see a lot. I played video games with him (I do wish he hadn't gotten into video games or been given a DS so young, but oh well) and also took him to a movie. We went to see Bolt, and he's such a good little boy, he was quiet and well-behaved. About halfway through the movie, he leaned his head on my shoulder, and I asked if he wanted to sit with me. So he crawled into my lap and I held him for the whole movie. Not that he was tired, or scared, he just likes to be cuddled, and is very affectionate. It made me feel so happy to be close to him and have him know that I love him and want to be a part of his life.

Another big family event that happened this weekend is that we had a dinner to celebrate my grandparents' 50th anniversary. The whole family went out for a dinner, we were all dressed up, and we all got up to make toasts and whatnot. Most of us were moved to tears, and my grandma was sobbing long before we were finished. Also, my godson was adorable there, too, he was dressed up in his tie and sport coat, and we told him he looked like a little politician, that we would be voting for him for president in a few years. I got an adorable picture of him on my phone holding his hands up in two peace signs like Richard Nixon.

I've also got some good news with regard to the misery of my job situation. Myself and several of my coworkers have been feeling bullied and treated badly in general by our company for quite some time, and I've been looking around for a new job. I had a couple of prospective ones, one for REA, the local electric company, and another for an organization called Team Builders, which does one on one counseling and support for kids with emotional problems or learning disabilities. Both of them are very promising, and depending on what I hear about the one from REA tomorrow, I should be out of there at the latest by the end of the month. Hopefully sooner though, since the place and the treatment really does make me feel miserable. I've actually had days where I've sat at my desk and cried because of the way they treat us. The hardest part is that until I do get a new job I'm supposed to just suck it up and deal with it, unless I want to be out of work and not be able to pay my bills this month.

I've also decided where I want to go back to school, and that I'm going to wait another year before I do so. I'm actually very impatient to go back to school, but I want to give myself the best chance to apply and get in to the school I want to go to, so I'm going to take the time to study and take the GREs, and also to do the writing I'll need as part of my application. I'll also have more time to save money and get rid of more of my debts, which will also help in the long run. It's still frustrating, but I think I'm making the right decision.

Reading Material

I'm starting to notice a trend in my reading habits. Along with my usual fantasy and Christian inspiration books and manga as new volumes of my favorite series come out, I'm finding myself seeking out things like histories or biographies pertaining to various subjects, things like historical info on the Roman Catholic church, the start of the Meiji era in Japan, or else literary criticism. I find the need to challenge my mind and really think about my reading is almost essential now, and it's making me feel so much better in terms of my mental state. For a while I was feeling downright dull, like I was in a mental fog. I want the stimulation and the challenge, because I'm working as I can to go back to school, and I want to be at least a little in the habit of studying and thinking critically. My writing has only been fiction lately, with a smattering of poetry, but I'll have to work on that too.

My Weekend in Vegas

I've managed to survive another weekend trip to Vegas intact, and without killing any family, which is always important when we travel there together. We flew out Thursday night, fairly uneventful, though the flight was a bit late. I opted not to go out that night, since I was quite tired, but my parents and their friends went down to the casino at the Tropicana, where we were staying. Thankfully this time my sis and I had a separate room. My grandpa Zeke also retired early, and my other grandparents were scheduled to arrive by car the next morning. We slept in and relaxed, quite gratefully, got up for the breakfast/lunch buffet, and met my grandparents and my sister. My grandma isn't a big fan of gambling or drinking, so she and I and my sis went out to do some sightseeing. We went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, which was lovely and very calming, and full of small children in costume, since it was Halloween. Next stop was Circus Circus, at my grandma's request. Most of the stuff there was kid-oriented, and not to our tastes, though we did get to see the acrobats. That night for dinner we had a delicious meal in honor of my parents' 25th and my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversaries. We went to the Japanese steak house at the hotel, called Mizuno's, which is a Japanese hibachi-style grill. I was the only one who knew the etiquette and words for a Japanese meal, and who ate the meal only with chopsticks (note to self, learn how to make miso soup), and the filet mignon I had was delicious, so tender I could probably have not chewed it, it almost melted in my mouth. Again, I opted to stay in and relax that evening, playing my DS and listening to my iPod. Apparently I missed out on karaoke and a Halloween costume contest, but I wasn't terribly bothered. Next day, much to my delight, dad informed me that we were going to the drag races, which I'd been looking forward to. We had killer seats thanks to grandpa's cousin Chris, and for that race two of my favorite racers, Cruz and Tony Pedregon, did very well. Cruz won his second in a row race, which puts him in first place for points for this season with one race to go. We were all getting a bit tired by that night, I think, and tempers were running high. Dinner was very stressful, my grandparents wanted to eat early but no one was back on time, everyone was going off without telling anyone else, and my grandpa Zeke's obnoxious cousin June was in full form, loud, bossy, and just generally annoying. That evening, after we'd calmed down, we decided to see the Cirque du Soleil show Beatles Love, which my mom in particular had been looking forward to. That was really the highlight of my trip, as I'd never seen a Cirque performance. The staging was amazing, especially for being in the round, though I suppose an acrobatic show of that caliber is better performed in the round. I was enthralled through the entire show. The music was great too (I've been a Beatles fan since I was quite young, thanks to my mom) and all the acrobatics were just unbelievable. My only issue was that I was sitting next to June, and she had the gall to take a flash picture in the middle of the show, despite the warnings about photography. That really did make me angry, since as well as it being incredibly rude, it's dangerous to the performers because the flash could cause an accident in their stunts. Being the theatre geek I was, I was so embarassed to be sitting beside her when the usher came to tell her to put the damn camera away. Also because of my knowledge of theatre, I was amazed by the level of tech in the show. Of course it's a large professional production, but it was flawless, and though I knew how most of it was done, that didn't stop the magic from overwhelming me. I had a great time shopping afterward too, at the shop, and there were many other things I could have walked out of there with if I'd had the funds. I had a great time shopping on this trip too, bought some fun things for myself as well as a few Christmas presents...not saying what here, since some people read this blog, but some of the stuff I got for myself included a Beatles Help! t-shirt, some racing stuff, and a Nintendo Monopoly set to add to my collection. I wanted the Beatles Monopoly set as well, but couldn't afford them both, and I'd seen the Beatles one elsewhere, whereas I'd never seen the Nintendo one before. We were out late that night, at any rate, and we had a kind of early flight the next morning, so we went straight to bed. Next morning, thanks to the time change, we were rudely awoken an hour too early by my grandpa, who had forgotten to change his watch and was panicked that we'd be late. We got to the airport three hours early, checked in, and found our gate, then settled down to wait. My grandparents tend to panic about traveling by air, which is why we got there so early, but I got very frustrated by all their fussing. Then, to add to the fun, our flight was delayed by almost an hour and a half, so we got to sit at the crowded gate for even longer. *sigh* Oh well, I can't really blame them, they don't travel by plane as often as I do, and quite frankly, I don't worry anymore about anything that isn't an international flight, just because those are the real meaning of complicated. A short flight to Vegas is cake. Anyway, after followed a sleepy drive home from the airport, and that more or less concluded my weekend.

Looking Forward to Traveling with Grandpa Again

We're flying out tomorrow for Las Vegas to celebrate a joint anniversary: my parents have been married for 25 years as of September 10th and my paternal grandparents will have been married 50 years as of November 22nd. It should be a lot of fun traveling with more than my parents and sister. I'm not a big drinker and only mildly interested in gambling, which are the two things my dad and sis are really into. I'd rather see things, like the shows. Last time we went, the most fun I had aside from the drag races, which are fun no matter what, was seeing the Tournament of Kings, which is a staged joust at the Excalibur. I'm enough of a dork to enjoy watching the staging as much as the actual show, just because I know a lot about technical theatre. Anyway, this weekend my other grandpa is also joining us, and he was the one I traveled to Europe with, and we had so much fun together. I'm looking forward to traveling with him again, since he's willing to indulge me in what I like to see and is also more interested in the same things I am. He doesn't drink anything but wine anymore, and that only a glass with a meal once in a while, and he'll do only a little gambling. On top of that, he and I worked hard at wrapping a lot of change at his house the last two weekends. He and my grandma had been putting aside cans and jars and whatnot of change for several years, and I agreed to help wrap it. We filled 3 folders of the state quarters, still working on the Philadephia mints, since we have the full Denver mints, and set aside all sorts of rare coins like bicentennial quarters and silver dollars and whatnot. Aside from that we wrapped $545 in quarters, nickels, and dimes. Grandpa said he'd divide that up as spending money between me, my sister, and him, which is also nice. I'm looking forward to going, and I hope we get to see Cirque du Soleil or some other fun show. Not sure about the craziness of Halloween, and we're still not sure if we're going to the races either, but we'll see. All in all should be a very interesting weekend. I'll post pictures and give a rundown when I get back on Sunday.

Weekend in Colorado Springs

My weekend in C. Springs was quite enjoyable, though I had my issues with some of the things that happened there. I went up with my friend Cole, who I've been quite close to for many years. We get along well, but our interests and temperaments are very different. If we spend more than a day or two together I find myself growing weary of his company because he's very extroverted, and I'm very introverted. He loves to be surrounded by a crowd and have an audience for his antics, and he doesn't always understand that I want to be left alone or spend time with people one on one Also, I missed out on some of the church-related things I would have liked to do because he doesn't have any interest in such a thing. On that same note, I didn't get to spend as much time with some of my friends from that venue because he was driving and he doesn't know these people almost at all. Next time I go I'd like to go alone.

Nonetheless, I did have a great time. Our hotel room was nice, and we got to spend a good time with Sami and Brian, and also Ella. We went out to eat probably more than we should, and I spent an exorbitant amount of money. I went to the bookstore, bought some things from my school bookstore, and found some nice things in All Things Catholic, a little shop I really do like. I also got a jump on my Christmas shopping, which is another thing I'm very happy about. I got to spend some time with Valerie at her new place, and it makes me happy that she's settling in and has Lisa and Aaron and Lena around to look after her while she's going through such a difficult time. I wish I would have been able to see some others though, mostly my friends from school or church, like Beth and Patrick, Philip, and Carl. Next time I have any time off I would like to take a three day weekend so that I can stay and go to Mass with them. In the meantime...Go CC Tigers!!!!!

Feeling Like A Real Person Now That I'm Off Vicodin

It's been nearly a week since my wisdom teeth came out, and I feel so much better. I'm still a bit sore and having trouble chewing anything that's not very soft, but I'm feeling a lot better. A lot of the improvement came about yesterday when I opted to stop taking Vicodin. They prescribed it to me as a pain medication, and for the first couple days, I really did need it, since the pain was quite intense. Now though, since the pain isn't that bad and it's mostly just a bit of swelling and soreness, I'm so done with the Vicodin. While I really needed it it was fine, and I'm thankful that it kept the pain at bay, but once I didn't need it as much, I hated the side effects that came with it. It was making me feel very lightheaded and loopy, and also nauseous. Also, it was turning me into an emotional basket case with the mood swings. Over the last few days I'd found myself feeling miserable and crying for no reason just because of the meds. Yesterday I gave a call to my campus minister in one of those moments, and she recommended that it was time to lay off the Vicodin. Even making that decision made a huge difference, and by the end of last night I was already feeling a lot better. I'm still working that junk out of my system, but the pain is more or less gone and I'm so glad, I feel like a real person again. I feel more clear and focused and though I'm not fond of work, I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow just to feel like I'm getting back into my life. My work schedule is moved back an hour, which means I'm going from 8 to 5, which is also a perk in that when I go back to TKD I can go and help the kids in the second class instead of only making it to my own class. Also to look forward to, this weekend is Daddy's birthday and next weekend I'll be going up to the Springs for Homecoming with Cole, which will just be awesome. I've been dreaming about it, even, looking forward to seeing Sami and Brian, not to mention Val and Philip and Beth and Carl and Lena. Val's been having a rough time of things, and I think it will be a nice thing for her to get to spend some time just hanging out. I also need to remember to send Toria a birthday present, since her birthday is the same day as my daddy's.

Lacking in Wisdom *rolls eyes*

I got my wisdom teeth out this morning, and though it's not great, by any means, thus far it's a lot better than I expected. I was very nervous, and kind of stuffy, since I couldn't take my allergy meds, but they were very nice and quite calming. They led me into the room, covered me up with a blanket, explained everything as they did it, and kept asking if I was ok and chatting with me. The nurse who put in my IV was also very nice, and much more skilled than the idiot paramedic who tried it during my car accident a little over a year ago. He tried three different places (one hand and both elbow crooks) and couldn't get it in. She slipped it in, I didn't even feel it, and then the anesthesiologist was chatting, he put something into the port, and the next thing I knew I was waking up. I don't remember a thing. I was tired on the way home, and I napped a lot, have to change my gauze a lot, and have some fun lovely meds for pain. I'm only allowed to eat pudding and milkshakes and things with no texture right now, but tomorrow I can move up a little, to apple sauce. A few days after that, things like soft fruit, melon and the like, pasta, and mashed potatoes. The other weird thing is that I'm supposed to eat a lot of small meals every time I take my meds, which is hard, I'm not used to eating that often. They said Saturday will be the worst day, as far as pain and swelling, but thus far it's only soreness and working on controlling the bleeding. The strangest part at this point is that part of my mouth is still numb from the novocaine, and the only part still numb is the left part of my lower lip and chin...earlier it was my whole mouth, and I was dribbling everywhere. Anyway, wish me luck, and we'll see how it goes for the next week.