End of the Year and Start of Something New

I think everyone can agree that 2011 was one hell of a year, both in a good and bad way.  Yes, many important global events shaped the history books like the Arizona shooting, the earthquake and nuclear meltdown in Japan, death of Osama Bin Laden, and the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

But in the end, personally, this year was a whirlwind.  There has been a lot of ups and down in the road from breakups to vacations to fights with family to getting back in the dating game to finding out that my boss is retiring from his tenure in Congress and I will be out of a job in less than 12 months.  Whirlwind, seriously.  (I actually have a few other choice words for this year but will save that for myself.)

At the end of the year, we have a tendency of assessing our lives and the decisions we’ve made over the last year.  We come to terms with some, vow to never do other, and continue to make the ones that make us happy, whatever they may be.  We become closer with people who were only strangers or unknowns a year ago and fall apart from people who thought would always be there for us.  We live, learn, laugh, and love.

I don’t like to be one of those people who thinks that just because it’s the start of a new year, month, week, day, etc, that it’s going to different.  But I think that with the start of a new year, month, week, day, etc, hope for the start of a new job, love, friend, hobby, etc, resonates in people.  New brings new ambition, dreams, and goals.  It brings out optimism in all of us.  It makes us hope for something better and the idea of humanity.

So with this new year I’ve made a few promises, not resolutions…

I promise to do something I love at least once a week, whether that be cooking or baking or going for a long run.

I promise to make a better effort about keeping in touch with my friends that do not live close by.

I promise to find peace and solace within myself.

I promise to do more things for other that are less fortunate by volunteering at Habitat for Humanity and other organizations I agree with.

I promise to work on my relationship with my brother because one day he will be the only family I have.

I promise to not be so bitchy, selfish, shallow, and a liar.

I promise to be a better person then the one I am right now.

And with that, I will end one year and start something new.  Best of luck to all!!

Sweat Ceiling

So when I moved to the mid-Atlantic almost a year ago I thought I would be greeted by snow in the winter and milder summers than what I’m use to in Texas. BOY WAS I WRONG!!  DC and the surrounding areas have broken records today.  This is how it right now…

Yes, the feels like is 117!!  In case you have never been in that heat, it’s like an oven.  No seriously, it feels exactly like when you open your oven to put in a tray of cookies and you get all that heat in your face.  Just like that.

I have no problem with the 100+ degrees.  Come one, happens all the time in San Antonio.  I worked outdoors for a summer.  I can deal with it.  But living in an oven not so much.

So now, my plans until the Sweat Ceiling is lowered will be to stay indoors with the A/C on the coldest setting ever and cuddle with Bailey on the couch.

Disclaimer: I did not come up with the term “Sweat Ceiling.”  I’m not that creative.  The Washington Post is calling this heat wave that.  You can imagine why…

I Hate You Humidity and Texas Heat!!

For as much as I love Texas, I really hate the weather. I am at the Botanical Gardens, before noon, and it’s already like 90 degrees with a high humidity. Oh and mind you, the so called “breeze” is just hot wind blowing by. Of course, being still sunburnt from my tubing adventure on Wednesday doesn’t help. Whenever the sun touches my legs, it burns a bit more.

And the bugs!! I feel that the insects, bugs, and mosquitos are out with a vengece this year due to the colder and longer winter we had. I swear, I can be outside for 15 minutes and be bit seven times. Needless to say, I look like a red itchy mosquito bite from head to toe.

The joys of summer in San Antonio.

Online Defensive Driving Will Be The Death Of Me!!

So back in July, I got a speeding ticket.  It’s not a huge surprise given my driving skills.  To say the least, I drive like a crazy woman, which I am so it’s quite suiting.  Anyways, the court gives you 90 days, so three months, to complete defensive driving.  I, of course, wait until the last two weeks to do it.  And obtain a copy of my driving record from DPS.

Finally I started my online defensive driving course today.  I could have gone to sit in on a class, taught by a “comedian” for six hours or do the course in the comfort of my own home in my pj’s.  If you have never done a defensive driving course, you are lucky because they suck.  By Texas law, each course has to be six hours in length.  For an online course, everything is timed.  So each page or lesson has a minimum time requirement.  Even if I finish reading the information early, I can’t go onto the next page until the clock runs out.  Of course, the together time of all the components is equal to six hours.  That does not include the extra time added for uploading pages, forgetting to press next because you couldn’t press it before, and other things.  So in the end, the course, for me, or any person really taking it online, is greater than six hours.

The real point to all this is that I just don’t understand defensive driving.  It’s not that I’m stupid or anything like that.  It’s that the program and all the information is so mind numbing and BORING!!  All the information is pretty basic and common knowledge stuff that people should know like who has the right-of-way and the major causes of accidents.  In addition to the dullness that it is, the pictures are from the 90′s.  They don’t have dates, but you know how when you see an old movie, like 15 years old, and picture looks different and you just know it old, that’s how they look.  Oh and the videos!!  They are the worst.  The narrator always has the most monotone voice that just makes me want to fall asleep.  I would have paid my ticket in full instead of doing defensive driving but I didn’t want it on my driving record.  Now, as I’m going through the course, I’m painfully regretting my decision.

Then again, I am writing this blog as I’m “suppose” to be watching one of the stupid videos on driving in inclement weather.  So maybe it’s not too bad…