Sorry for the delay in posting. Things have been a bit hectic, and I guess it’s easy just to forget about this. I’ll update you on everything that has been going on in the past month and a half, so this post should be quite lengthy.

CAR

So the car drama finally ended. My mom showed up to my apartment on October 18th (before the Missouri game) with a set of keys. The Corpus dealership ended up finding another dealership that had a 2009 model, so they sold it to me for the same deal that I would have gotten for the 2008. Since I had already been pre-approved and did all the paperwork for the 2008 model, my mom secretly went to the dealership and signed the papers so that she could surprise me.  I have now had the car (2009 Honda CR-V EX) for a little over a month, and I freakin’ love it!! I love having to step up to get in the car and not feeling like I’m sitting on the ground. And I have to remind myself to look at the speedometer every once in awhile. I catch myself easily going over 80 mph – I was so accustomed to my car shaking as it approached 70 mph. So I’m super glad that the whole car drama is finally done and over.

MEXICO

Mexico has come and gone – I can’t believe it’s only been a month since we got back. It feels so much longer. I’ll kind of give a play by play of the days:

Thursday: Caitlin and Terence picked me up bright and early so that we could head down to San Antonio and catch our 10:00 a.m. flight. We met up with Staci and Scott at the airport. We had a bit of a layover in Mexico City, but by the time we made our way through that confusing airport, it was time to get on our other flight. Then we boarded for our flight to Puerto Vallarta, and that’s when shit in the fan. Oh lordy!! Mexicana completely overbooked our flight. People were standing in the aisle yelling at other passengers to get out of their seat, that they booked their flight so many months ago. The passengers were yelling at the flight attendants and the Mexicana officials who finally had to come on board and try to figure out the situation. The guy I was sitting next to had half of his group of friends still in the waiting area being forced on standby. So while all this yelling was going on, another group that was headed to PV for a wedding was yelling at the same flight attendants and Mexicana officials. The second plane was significantly smaller than the first plane we had been on, and there was nowhere for the bride and groom to hang their dress and tux, even though they were told they could. More yelling ensued – by all parties: mother of the bride, bride, groom, friends – ugh!! The flight attendants told the bride to fold her dress and put it in the carry-on compartment. Oh lordy – wrong thing to say!!! More yelling, more cussing. Meanwhile, there is still yelling and cussing from the overbooked passengers still standing in the aisle and from their friends sitting in the seats. Finally they found a place to put the dress and tux, the overbooked passengers were forced off the plane, and we were ready to go -or so everyone thought. I was the closest one to the front and could see what was going on, so I turned around and mouthed the situation to Terence and Caitlin. The flight attendants and pilots tried for about 15 minutes to lock the plane door, but it wouldn’t lock. After about a 30-45 minute delay with all the drama, we finally left and made it safely to PV.

Thursday, cont.: Once Caitlin, Terence and I arrived at the hotel (Staci and Scott stayed at another hotel), we were starving. We ran into BJ in the lobby, so we checked in and then went in search of food. We walked and walked and walked and finally couldn’t take it anymore so we decided to go in to a place called Burger Paradise. We were bummed to eat at a restaurant called Burger Paradise, but once the food arrived, holy smokes!! The best food I had the entire trip!! My beef tacos and rice were aaaammmazing!! The most tender meat I have ever bitten!! Delish!! We headed back to the hotel after that to relax and get ready to meet up with everyone. That night all the adults (aka parents) went to a restaurant together, and the rest of us went to a tapas restaurant. Once again, the food (and sangria) were delish!! We got back to the hotel and met up with the parents and hit up the hotel bar and sat around in a big circle just hanging out. Then it was off to bed.

Friday: We woke up bright and early and headed to our canopy tour (zip line). The bus ride there was extremely painful. I was a bit scared that we were driving on a winding road in the jungle, following two truck loads of military men holding guns. I was convinced we were going to be dropped off and surrounded!! Needless to say, we made it to our destination. The canopy tour was absolutely amazing and fun!! Our guides were hilarious and really made the tour! I would definitely recommend one of these tours to anyone – but be careful – I had no clue it would be such a workout!! Walking up the darn trail to get to the starting points was painful. Oh, and definitely wear clothes you won’t mind throwing away. Nobody said it would be so dirty. The grease coming off the pulley and line completely splattered our clothes – not to mention our faces, teeth, ears, arms, etc. So we got back to the hotel, showered, and then headed to the bar for 2 for 1 happy hour before the rehearsal. Then it was off to the rehearsal, in which it rained, so that lasted only 5 minutes. We then headed off to the rehearsal dinner, which was tons of fun. And then the guys and girls decided to join forces and spend the evening partying together. So it was off in search of fun place. We came across a bar that was open bar for the ladies and open bar for guys for $20. So of course we had to go in. Oh lordy, the shots of Patron were flowing freely!! A couple of hours of shots and drinks and more shots and more drinks – we were all feeling it after that. We left because the music blowed (techno), so we walked along the beach. A few drunk people jumped in (Staci and Mark), a couple of drunk people were shot putting rocks (Terence and Derek), and another drunk person was making sand angels (BJ). Then another drunk person kicked a drunk person in the balls (Denise and BJ). One drunk person jumped in the ocean because he through a drunk person was drowning when she fell (Scott and Staci). So we rounded up all the drunk people, and Staci and Scott took off back to their hotel. I heard Soulja Boy playing in a really packed club across the street, so Amy and I decided to go in there to use the bathroom. We ended up staying in there to dance. Then Caitlin and Denise came in to use the bathroom, so I had to go back out and ask the staff to let the guys in (Terence, Mark and Chris). Paul and BJ stayed outside. So some pretty good music played, so we danced for awhile, and then Paul showed up. He left drunk BJ outside on the sidewalk. We danced (and profusely sweated) for a bit longer and then decided it was time to go. We found BJ practically passed out on the sidewalk. Apparently a cop came up to him 3 times and said next time he would arrest him. So Chris escorted the too drunk to walk (Amy and BJ) back to the hotel in a cab, and the rest of us walked back.

Saturday: After breakfast, the girls hung out by the pool before our hair and make-up appointments. The guys were headed to a restaurant to watch the UT/OSU game. It was time for hair and make-up in Denise’s room. Staci and I were the first to get our hair down. We both asked for beach waves. I wanted them to be pinned up half-up half-down in a loose updo. Needless to say, we both got tight Shirley Temple curls, and for some reason my hair was teased to a height of 6 feet. Ugh. It was so hard to communicate with them. Then I was the first guinea pig for make-up. I swear, the lady was working on my eyes for about 15 minutes. I then heard Staci say “I’m not going to look like that am I??” My eyes shot open and saw her looking at me and then she said “uh, yeah I don’t want my eyes to look like that.” So I headed to the bathroom to get a look. Holy smokes!!!!!! MY EYES!!! Bright neon green eye shadow (apparently to match my dress) completely covered my entire eyelid, up to my eyebrows. My eyebrows were filled with a color that didn’t blend. And the eyeliner – or sweet Jesus, the eyeliner! – dark black liquid eyeline completely surrounded my eye and then came out the corner of my eyelid and curved upward, a la Cleopatra. I looked like a tranny. Oh lordy…it was a mess. I walked back into the room and everyone was just staring at me. Luckily at this point Diana (Denise’s sister) was in the room and she spoke Spanish so she told the girl to take the green eyeshadow off and the curvy end of the eyeliner. She did, but I still felt like a tranny, so I headed down to my room to do damage control. I took my eye make-up remover and went to town. It was disgusting how many Q-tips were covered in eye make-up. I then used my own make-up and tried to fix everything. Luckily hair and make-up totaled about $65, so I chose not to complain too much when we were quoted about $90. So we got dressed, took some pictures, and then waited for the ceremony. There was way too much drama before the wedding, so we were delayed in the freakin’ humid hot sun for about 15 minutes. Speaking of sun – this was the first time the sun decided to come out, which we were thankful for since the whole ceremony was based around the sunset, which up to this day hadn’t existed. Wedding was short and sweet, more pictures, then off to the reception. Food was amazing, drinks were thirst-quenching, music was fun. There was dancing and sweating, more sweating and more dancing. The DJ didn’t have any current music and he didn’t have an ipod or any sort of connection so that we could hook up our own ipods. So some of the fun music that we were hoping for wasn’t played. But we made do with the music that there was. I “caught” the bouquet – so really I was the only girl standing out there, so I kicked it when it came close. Denise didn’t have a garter, so Derek tossed the bouquet to the guys – there were 4 of them compared to the lone girl. And then the night was over. It was extremely fun – disgustingly humid!! Everyone’s clothes were drenched in sweat. It looked like we all jumped in the ocean. I headed straight for the shower after that.

Sunday: The youngins (me, Derek, Denise, Mark, Chris, Amy, Paul, BJ) woke up super early on Sunday morning and headed out to the ocean for deep sea fishing. The sun decided to make an appearance, and apparently it came back with a vengeance. Holy geez, it was burning hot. We spent about 4 or 5 hours out on the ocean and caught some fish. The boat guy made the girls reel in the fish, and of course I had to be the one to reel in the biggest one. I was reeling for over 5 minutes and felt like I was getting nowhere, so Chris jumped in and spent another 15 minutes reeling. After that we decided to head back to shore. The boat guy filleted the biggest fish for us, and we took it back to the hotel for dinner. We got back and headed to the pool. Derek, Mark, Denise and I joined a water volleyball game. A few more hours in the pool, and then we got ready for dinner. We ended up not doing the fish, so Mark, BJ, Paul, Chris, Amy and I headed downtown for dinner and then for some festival. We really just ended up walking around for the night.

Monday: I was super sad to check-out of my room. I hung out in BJ and Mark’s room until it was time to catch my flight. There was so much drama back in the States leading up to the wedding, that I almost cancelled my flight. But I’m glad I went. It was the vacation I needed that I didn’t know I needed. There was no t.v., no cell phones, no internet. It was waking up every day and actually being outside and being active for hours. It was doing things that occupied hours of the day for little money. In the end, minus my flight and hotel, I think I spent maybe $200-$300 on food, alcohol, canopy tour, deep sea fishing, hair and make-up, and cab rides. Pretty much the cheapest vacation I’ve taken in awhile – and for sure the most relaxing. It was lovely. I need another vacation like that!!

BOOT CAMP

The first week of November I began boot camp. It was a 3 week, 4 days a week camp. I went from 7:00-8:00 a.m. It was good. I started to feel good everyday. However, I didn’t like all the running that came with the camp. I’m not much or a runner. I would rather walk, which I don’t see a problem with. Even though the camp directors stressed doing things at your own pace, they seemed a bit non-accepting if you started to walk. I would probably sign up again, but only in the spring or the summer. It was too cold to do some of the things they do in the warmer weather (kayaking) – I felt like I paid for someone to tell me to run.

WORK

The past few months, and in actuality weeks, have been extremely trying on me. It’s hard when most of the fall months are spent working 6 days a week, with most of the days hosting evening functions. Being at work from 8 a.m. to about 10 p.m. and then coming in for another 4 hours on gamedays is trying. I’m usually spent by the end of the week, which is why the blog has beeen neglected. There’s been some drama at work lately – namely due to being on the staff retreat team. The staff retreat occurs every December, and each year is alternated from looking outwards to our members and then looking inwards to ourselves. This year we are looking inwards. I’m on the team. It’s like being on Elmer’s committee – though the team isn’t secret. But everything that is planned is secret – the location, the gifts, the topics, the speakers, etc. The retreat will be next week on the 9th, and there is still so much to do. I can’t stand people who wait until the last minute to plan things, and that is precisely what is going on. I just want it to be over. I feel like some of my relationships with people at work who are on the retreat team are suffering because of all the drama. Work is about to pick up even more. Tomorrow is the scholarship deadline for incoming freshmen. Last year we received over 4,000 applications, so I’m assuming that number will only increase this year. So the next month will be spent alphabetizing, stapling, weeding through the applications, etc. Then January 1 we hit the ground running. Oye. I better stock up on a few bottles of wine. I desperately needed a glass last year when I got home from work. Reading some of those applications gave me pounding headaches. I feel like I need another vacation before all of this starts back up.

UPCOMING THINGS

Tomorrow starts my first gum treatment with my dentist. It’s a series of four treatments, so Dec. 1st, Dec. 10th, Dec. 16th, and Dec. 23rd. We squeezed them all in December so that I could take full use of insurance and get my full coverage before the end of the year. Then after the 1st of the year, I need to get my wisdom teeth pulled (all 3 of them) and get a tooth implant to fill the missing tooth that got knocked out back in high school. I’m hoping to have a good mouth by this time next year. But there are still other things I want done: my gap filled – I have hated my gap for as long as I can remember; I swear since I had the cleaning a few weeks ago, they made my gap noticeably bigger (just as I thought it was getting smaller) – I also want to get my gums scaled back so that more of my teeth show when I smile and I’m not so gummy. But we’ll see what all happens.

I really want to do something for New Yera’s this year. Some of my friends will be indisposed (Caitlin and Terence will be at Kathy Tapperson’s wedding; Staci is preggers, so that’s a no-go), so I’m not too sure. I need to start coming up with something because before I know it, it will be time.

Hrm…I guess that’s all the rambling nonsense I can come up with today. Again, sorry for the long delay. I’ll try to keep updating on a regular basis.