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I’ve been busy lately. Midterms ended last weekend and I’ve been busy catching my breath since then. School is going well. I’m in the final stretch before finals and my trip to China. While I’m really stressed now, I know it will be over sooner than I expect and I’ll be on vacation after that.

In other news, my grandpa passed away two weeks ago. It is sad, but he was in a lot of pain and had been going downhill for a while. I thought about going home for the funeral, but my Dad was adamant that I stay in school. I talked to him a few times while he was with the family and then again when he got home. Daniel went and the rest of my cousins were there. I feel kind of numb about it but it probably won’t hit me until I go back to Dallas and see my Grandma.

Danny and the cats are doing well. The weather has been really nice lately so Danny and I have gone on several long walks. Hopefully this will help offset some of the damage I’ve done since all of the Valentine’s Day chocolate went on sale on Thursday. But hey, I need study fuel, right?

I just found out that Ann Richards has died. This makes me really sad. She always seemed to have so much life in her, so “in the moment.”

I don’t know what else to say.

One of my coworkers, my best friend at work, got canned yesterday. He and I both knew it was a possibility, but it still sucks. I think he’ll be better off in a new office, a place where he will be appreciated, but I’ll miss him. Just last week, I showed him some of my wedding pictures and he told me all about how he and his wife met and their wedding. There are other folks I can talk to, but he was my lunch buddy and those aren’t always easy to come by.

Okay, pity party over. It will just suck when I’m at work tomorrow and everyone comes by and asks where he is.

Image courtesy of janine42584

This week’s Veronica Mars was the season finale. In it, we find out that the mass-murderer/rapist/blackmailer was Beaver Casablancas; cute little put-upon, victimized, total sweetheart Beaver. Sigh, it was so sad but so believable. Who would really suspect that the puppy dog would murder innocent people and rape the heroine while she was drugged? Bravo Rob Thomas, Bravo. *slow clap*

In other related yet even MORE frivolous news, I found out that I am most like Veronica Mars.

You scored as Veronica Mars. You used to be really popular, but now you are the school outcast. You are really smart and somehow have all the answers… and you can snark like no other.

It’s not just the handfuls of M&Ms I scarfed down that are making me feel a little, I don’t know, off. Tonight (okay, on Wed night because I’m a little behind) they eliminated Nick on ProjRun. Nick! Nooooo! I mean, he hasn’t done well for the last two weeks but he lost to a fucking space suit made of shredded t-shirts or something. Not only did Kara have to wear that brownish abortion on stage but Santino freakin’ LOVED it. Ugh…

Even though the judges keep liking Kara for some reason, I want her gone. She is spineless, weak, fragile, and boring! Even Santino has personality, a shitty personality, but personality all the same.

I’m just, feeling…unggghhhh…….

I didn’t go to work today. I’m fine, but the train right before mine hit someone so all trains stopped. I hear about fatalities, but it’s usually from someone in a car trying to beat the train, not someone on foot. Apparently, it happened when a southbound train hit someone in a busy area. There are safety gates and the trains blast their horns repeatedly when they come through.

So why didn’t I go to work? Since the trains weren’t running, the train company decided to reverse the direction of my train and drop people off along the way. I could have ridden it down two more stops and taken a bus to the city, but that sounded like a huge pain in the ass. The bay area is notorious for bad traffic, especially at rush hour, so I wouldn’t have arrived at work until noon anyway. Plus, I didn’t want to be one of the hundreds of people competing for a space on the bus.

I called my boss and just said I was going to take the day off. She was cool with it. I mean, there wasn’t really anything I could do to get to SF and I couldn’t work from home. Danny took today off too so we’ve had a really nice lazy day. Even though it had nothing to do with me, I still feel really bad for the person who got hit, the engine driver, and the people nearby. It’s just so stupid and tragic.

I just found out that Lisa’s oldest kittycat Meggie passed away yesterday. She was put to sleep after suffering from an increasingly painful liver disease. I’ve lost a few pets in my lifetime but I think maybe I managed to block out the pain or find a way to fill the hole in my heart that they left. I know it will take time and that Lisa will be fine, but right now it must really really hurt.

New Orleans: I just don’t know what to say. Although the damage has continued for days, I think it is finally sinking in what’s really happening there. One of the more mindblowing things to think of is that they are evacuating people to Dallas because there are A: so many people and B: nowhere to go. Dallas is at least ten hours from New Orleans. Everything from New Orleans to Houston is full - hotels, shelters, churches, even campgrounds are starting to get crowded. I just never imagined that damage in New Orleans could be so severe that they would be setting up shelters in Dallas and Austin.

I realize that one of the reasons that TX is getting most of the refugees is because the road east of New Orleans is basically destroyed. Still, this is crazy. I just read an article in the Austin American Statesman which states that the refugees coming to Austin can enroll their kids in AISD schools for the time they’re there. One of my friends teaches first grade in the Lake Travis area. I’ll have to ask her what the schools are doing to deal with this.

I’ve been reading some really interesting blogs about the destruction of New Orleans . It sounds like the streets are open sewers filled with trash and dead bodies. *sad*

I’m just glad I got to go there and enjoy the city a few times before this happened. It will never be the same again.

*I don’t mean to sound flippant about the situation, but the shock is just starting to wear off and I truly don’t know how to react.*

Babs tagged me for this poll. I think it’s cool, but I realized that I really don’t search for new music anymore. The last songs I downloaded were ones I heard during snippets of Live 8 coverage and while browsing for movies at blockbuster. I LIKE the songs, but I certainly didn’t find them in any cool, underground manner. They were served to me like cheese samples at Costco. I’m so suburban. *sigh*

List ten songs that you are currently digging … it doesn’t matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they’re no good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they’re listening to.

Keane - Somewhere Only We Know
Astrud Gilberto - Fly Me to the Moon
Blur - coffee and tv
Ween - Voodoo Lady
Ween - Can’t Put My Finger On It
Snow Patrol - How to Be Dead
Snow Patrol - Chocolate
The Killers - Somebody Told Me
Modest Mouse - Float On
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

Despite how much I may bitch and moan about my lack of new music knowledge, I do have access to the soon-to-be-released album by Austin’s very own Black Water Gospel. My brother Daniel plays bass for them. Their debut album will go on sale after their release party at Jovita’s on September 10th.

Ok, now my shameless plug has ended, you can go back to your own cool, hipper-than-hip music.

Oh yeah, eenie meenie miney mo: Amy, Danny, and Chris (for now).

The bombings in London today were surprising but not shocking. Maybe it’s because after the 911 attacks we just sort of expect to hear about this stuff. I’m not saying that I wasn’t affected by it, but after the NYC attack and the Madrid attack I guess every city kind of expects to endure this kind of event sometime. I think security has improved in the last few years, but obviously you can’t always stop people who are bound and determined to blow shit up. It sucks, but it’s true.

It made me think about what I was doing when I found out about the WTC attack. I was driving to work and every radio station was giving a play by play of what was happening in NYC. I was worried that I was the only one in my office who knew. I assumed it had just happened. I walked into my office and found my entire department huddled behind a small tv on someone’s desk. We watched the first tower fall. I don’t remember anyone freaking out except one woman wanted to leave work and go get her kid out of school. I don’t know how that would help anything considering she lived in pfucking pflugerville, but whatever. Our dept manager didn’t discuss it and kept emailing everyone regular work emails as if nothing had happened. This bothered me since we were obviously in shock and were having a hard time concentrating. I understand the point of wanting to continue with business as usual, but I thought it was odd that he didn’t want to even acknowledge that something completely out of the ordinary had happened. He was pretty oblivious though - still is from what I hear.

Danny and I were on vacation in NYC when the Madrid attacks occurred. Despite being in the city where the last major attack had happened, I didn’t feel worried. If there was anyplace that was locked down to attacks, NYC was the place to be.

My point in this rambling email is that no matter how much we bomb the middle east, there are people within our midst who could blow us up at any minute. Maybe bombing the middle east is not the way to prevent terrorism from happening at home. I’m just sayin’….

I know, I know. Captain obvious has come to the rescue once again.