Ahhh... to sleep in finally

It's been an exhausting week.  I had coffee three days this week which almost unheard of for me.  I scanned my library inventory this week and had to get ready to be gone all next week.  I'm looking forward to my trip to Austin, but it's tiring trying to get ready for it.  I was so tired this morning, I never even heard Matt get up and get ready.  He had to shake me awake to kiss me good-bye.  I had a very strange, but interesting dream about a weird roller coaster bike thing.  It's hard to explain, but it was a really fun ride in my dream.

I'm trying to decide what to do today.  I could be productive and start tackling the mess I've left in the office that I haven't touched in weeks now.  I do need to do some laundry and pack for my trip.  I still have a Kohl's gift card and some cash to spend so maybe I'll go shopping.  Or maybe I'll be lazy and sit in my bed all day and goof off online.  I do like my Chromebook that I got for Christmas.  It is so fast.  I'll probably take it with me to Austin for the conference.  I can take notes using Google docs and the battery lasts a long time.

A Late Apology

So I had an interesting conversation with Marty last night.  Yes, I said Marty.  You know - the high school sweetheart that I had the on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again relationship with.  For the record - we've stayed friends.  We comment on facebook.  We get together in groups with other friends from high school and hang out.  Matt has met him and thinks he is a nice guy.

So I find out last week that I'm going to get to go to a technology conference in Austin the first week in February.  I'll have a hotel there starting Sunday night so I told Matt that he could come up and stay on Sunday, then he could play Scrabble on Monday in Austin before heading home.  Matt really wanted to be able to watch the Super Bowl, however, so I checked with Marty and Brent (my other high school friend) to see if they were having a party we could crash.  Well it turns out that Brent just needed an excuse to have a party and Marty, me, and Matt will be going.  So we are texting back and forth making arrangements.  Marty then said that it was funny that I sent him a message because he was just thinking about me so I asked him why that was.  He said that he had just found out that his ex-wife had cheated even more so than he originally thought when they were still together.  He was obviously reeling from the news and he told me, "I made some bad decisions when it came to you and me based on my loyalty to her and now I find out that it wasn't deserved and for you that sucks and I apologize."  I told him that an apology wasn't necessary but I appreciated it.  He also said that it worked out for me because I found Matt and that was a better relationship for me.  I would have to agree with that.  I'm still fond of Marty and will always care about him, but Matt is a great partner.  There's no drama with him.  There's no jealousy.  I can be myself and he still loves me sometimes in spite of me being myself.  It took a long time for me to let Marty go, but in hindsight, it never would have worked for us.  I'm glad that we're still friends, but I'm happier that I found Matt.  I do wish him happiness though.  I hope that now he is finally able to let go of his residual feelings for his ex-wife and move on.

So, yeah, I'm going to be in Austin for a whole week at a technology conference.  I think it will be interesting, but it will be kind of lonely.  Matt will have to work all week so I'll only see him on Sunday and Monday.  But it will also be kind of nice to just get away from work for a bit.

The Big Easy

Matt and I headed to New Orleans on Friday.  We drove so I was able to do some reading on the trip.  Of course I forgot my book light so I couldn't read on the way down after it got dark.  I did pick one up before we headed back so I could read.  We also ended up giving a ride to a player that needed to be dropped off in Houston.  The tournament started off fairly lousy with me losing the first four rounds in a row.  I rallied a bit in the afternoon and won three games.  I was only expected to win about 6 games and I ended up winning 9 out of 20 overall.  My rating increased by 32 points because of this.  I even beat the number one rated player in my division and had my first 500 point game during a tournament.  Matt had a bad streak of losing 7 games in a row, but made a comeback and ended up winning half his games.  We didn't get out to do much there because it was pretty much playing in the tournament most of the day.  On the way out, we got stuck in traffic in Houston and that delayed us.  We were heading to meet Josh for lunch and he had to wait over an hour for us.

We got back around midnight on Monday/Tuesday and I had to work the next day.  It was a very long day as I had to get a million things done.  I ended up staying at school until 8:45 p.m.  That was more than a 12 hour day for me.  I got to school early today hoping that I'd have a bunch of students come for the launch of the book of the month club.  A whopping two students showed up and neither one could check out the book because they had other books that were way overdue.  Maybe some of the teachers will send more students down tomorrow.  I received a grant to start the club and I ordered 12 copies of 6 different books to promote during the year.  The first book is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Always something to clean

I continued the cleaning and organization kick this weekend.  I finally got the loft area and my craft closet finished.  Much of the stuff that didn't have any place to go is in the office/workout room.  I guess I'll get to that some day.  Tonight I cleaned the kitchen and living room though I still need to mop and do dishes.

I finally got my speeding ticket issue resolved.  I was going to mail it in but Matt said he would take it to the courthouse for me today.  He took it but was told that I had to give them a copy of my insurance as well.  There's nothing in the paperwork I received that I would have to resubmit my insurance as I already submitted it online.  He brought me lunch today and shelved books and then went back with the copy of my insurance.  He is playing Scrabble and watching football at a friend's house tonight.  Perhaps that's why I was somewhat productive this evening.

Well it's bed time for me.  My cat is curled up on the bed next to me and the dogs are somewhat sleeping in their beds on the floor.

It's Damn Cold

I really shouldn't complain after having lived in the Texas Panhandle for 41 years and suffering through many brittle, cold winters.  It hasn't even hit freezing yet - it started around 43 degrees this morning and was 36 when I left school.  I guess I've become acclimated to a warmer climate because it feels miserably cold to me.  At least it shouldn't last too long.  It's supposed to get back in the 50's next week and possibly the 60's the following week.

Tomorrow I may just stay in bed all day.  Matt wanted to go to church at 5:30, but I may just let him go on his own and I'll go sometime on Sunday when it starts to warm up.  I have a lot to work on this weekend.  I still have house cleaning/organization to work on as well as the online book club project.
I got more new books for the library today.  I love it when I get to have the first look and some of the books I ordered.  I just wish I had more time to actually read some of them.

Back to the Grind

It's difficult to go back to work after a long break.  My sleeping habits get out of whack so mornings can be difficult.  Thankfully, coffee helps a little.  I didn't get a chance to have coffee this morning though.  We are doing practice tests.  Thankfully my group was pretty good which was somewhat surprising.  I feel behind in work, but I'm trying to catch up as best I can.  Losing 2 1/2 hours of the day for testing takes it toll.  We are doing this for the next four days and I'll probably be called to do make-ups on the 5th day as well.  I have to start planning some special teacher training soon and I have to get an online book club started.

The weather is turning cold here.  We have a front coming through and a potential winter weather advisory for Friday and Saturday.  Matt was supposed to have this program at the library about the big snow storm of 1985 and ironically it might get cancelled because of the weather.  I don't think we'll get 10 inches like it snowed back then, but any freezing substance that falls from the sky basically shuts the city down and we go to almost 24 hour news coverage of the event.

 So I get home tonight and I'm chilled, but then I remember the Christmas present Josh got me!

They are USB hand warmers.  I'm wearing them as I'm typing this blog.  They work pretty well.  Tomorrow I'll have to wear a sweater.  Luckily winters down here don't last too long.  This is usually the coldest spell.  I hope it warms up before we go to New Orleans next weekend.  

Cleaning as a form of Procrastination

I've been on a cleaning and organizing binge for the last few days.  I'm really doing it because I don't want to be doing other things I should be doing - like stuff for school.  I've been needing to clean out closets and sort through stuff ever since I moved in two years ago and especially since Matt moved in over a year ago.  The house is still a mess - it always gets worse before it gets better.  There's piles of stuff all over the place - especially the loft area right now.  That will be the last room I tackle - I hope I get to it tomorrow.  My bedroom, the master bath, and my closet are clean.  The laundry room is clean and I've organized the storage under the stairs.  The kitchen is still a mess, but not as bad as it was yesterday.  I've discovered I have a bunch of blankets and am running out of room to store them.  I've been gathering a lot of ideas on pinterest and some of them I've already implemented.  The storage under bathroom and kitchen sinks is much better now.

I spent most of the day today at defensive driving.  I got a ticket back in October and I was getting down to the last minute to get it done.  I could have done it online, but I didn't think I would be disciplined enough to do it.  I signed up for the comedy course thinking it would be really funny, but it wasn't that great.  I didn't really learn anything other than I live in the city with the highest traffic fatalities in the state.  At least I got a decent meal out of it.

I can't believe there's only one more day of vacation left.  I guess I need to make the most of it - which means sleeping in until as late as possible tomorrow.  We'll probably go to church at 1:00 and then I'll get back to cleaning and organizing.  I probably won't finish tomorrow, but I'll work in the evenings as much as I can.  We won't start band up again until the following week.

Matt I and are going to New Orleans during MLK weekend for a Scrabble tournament.  We are going to be able to stay with some friends of his which certainly helps with the travel expenses.  I haven't been to New Orleans since I was 19 so I think it will be a fun trip.

Almost killed a dog

So one of my readers laughed at my last comment on the year in review from the previous post:

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014.

Don't trust the dogs when you're gone.  

I guess I should have known better.  While Matt and I were at church this morning, Angie ate her way through the wooden gate at the top of the stairs.  I have not been this angry in a very long time.  I would have punched walls had I not wanted to damage them or my fists.  I did slam several doors and kick the broken fence.  I think the last time I was this angry was when I was married so that was about 14 years or so ago.  I stormed out of the house and headed to Target to see if I could find another gate.  My problem is that is has to be metal and fit an awkward space of 37 inches.  I didn't see anything at Target that would work.  I then went over to Petco.  They had a few choices but were really expensive.  one of the gates I looked at was priced at $79 but I found it online at Amazon for less than half that.  I didn't have time to wait for a shipment so I sat in my car and looked at Walmart online.  It showed they had a metal gate in stock at my local store.  I bought it, came home and installed.  I'm getting to be a pro at installing baby gates.  This gate seems to work ok.  It fits better than the first one I had, but the opening is not as wide as the second one that I preferred (before the dog tore it apart.)  It doesn't open very easily - it's more of a two handed job, but at least that means the dogs shouldn't be able to get through it.  Then again, I shouldn't assume anything.  I didn't think Mollie would figure out how to open the the first gate.  

I stayed angry with Angie most of the day.  She knew she was in trouble.  I spent the next few hours in front of the tv goofing off and somewhat napping.  I then focused on cleaning the rest of the bathroom, my closet, and the bedroom.  There's nothing like cleaning as a form of procrastination.  I should be working on stuff for work - like reading some books and doing stuff online, but I'm in a cleaning and organizing kick at the moment.  I went to Walmart yesterday and spent $100 on storage bins.  You should see the bottom cabinet in my bathroom now - it is amazing.  

I know I've been a bad blogger for a while.  I even stopped posting the quick takes weekly.  I won't "resolve" to do better, but I will say that I will try.  I do like it when I can go back and see what has happened over the past year and it's disappointing when I try to figure out something that happened and I don't have a post about it.  

I do like my new chromebook, but I have to go back to posting via blogger's interface instead of using live writer.  So far it's ok, but I guess we'll have to see how it goes.