nye-preparations-safety and security...that's all!

well, it was all over face book in case you missed it, let me wish you a happy new year!

be safe! play nice!

today i had to get out and away from the complex to study, and i had a craving for chili's chips and salsa. so i went over the vocabulary words i had written down this morning and pored over them (about 750 words)...uf. but i got a lot more done there than i would have staying here all day!

have you ever gone into a restaurant, looked at the menu and not found one thing you thought you'd like and left? well, it definitely happened today when 3 people came in and stood up and left about 3 minutes later. hmm...i could maybe understand if you went to an obscure hole in the wall joint that had an ambiguous name and served strange food like armadillo ribs or something, but chili's? you came in not knowing what kind of food you might encounter? pretty run-of-the-mill.

before i left, i ordered the quesadilla explosion to go so i would have lunch tomorrow. after i paid, i left and decided to go to walmart for some small necessities that i needed to make me feel safer-will share those in a moment. but as i got about 5 blocks from chili's, i realized that i had forgotten the to-go bag at my booth at chili's! boo. what a waste of time. i turned around to go get it and thankfully the server didn't laugh in my face! i'm pretty sure the family at the table across from me was wishing i hadn't come back so they could snag it...jerks.

i'm very excited about lunch tomorrow! thank you anna brawner for introducing me to the quesadilla explosion!

when i got to walmart, i knew exactly what i needed, so it was quick-until i got to the checkout line. i went to the 10 items or less, and i think a family was in front of me and they divided their goodies amongst them to avoid the long lines. jerks..must be related to the restaurant family that was eyeing my food....(not really)

when i got home, i was thrilled to finally get my pur filter into the filter-contraption! i just don't have any confidence in the city's ability to treat my tap water well enough for me to want to drink it. i need the tap water for coffee and soda stream, but like i said, can't do it without the purifier!

so, you can see why this is the first product that i purchased that adds to my safety!

the other item is not as much safety as it is security, and i told you about it yesterday.

i did take the last batch the other night, so like i said, it's a necessity to have on-hand when needed!

ok, i've just watched 5 episodes of dog the bounty hunter, and secretly (or not so secretly now), i kinda' like it!

i remember when NYE used to be so much more exciting-at my parents church, they used to have ping pong tournaments, board games, etc. in HONDURAS we used to go out and shoot off fireworks- if i remember correctly, one year some of us climbed the water tower behind my house and took pizza and cokes up and watched all of the fireworks from up there. that was pretty cool.

well, one more dry run of the test tonight and it'll be time to pop the confetti-things!
julie

p.s. in all seriousness, may you have a blessed new year full of fun adventures and wonderful memories!

yo yo ma- rx for relaxation

well, the truth is that i was not planning on posting tonight because i got busy taking a practice test (cd-computerized), and it took awhile (yes, i took the un-timed version, and it still convinced me that i am not quite ready...in fact, it made me feel dumb). so i have decided that as i study more vocabulary i am going to try to incorporate at least one word into the posts from now on.

thankfully i have the musical stylings of yo yo ma to calm any damaged nerves...nothing is as soothing as bach being played on cello...breathe in deeply and let it out-i feel like i should be in a huge velvet-red library in some grandiose mansion surrounded by antique books on every wall, with a strange spectacled man smoking a pipe on a gold-trimmed bench by a window...but i'm rather quite glad i'm not!

for those of you confused, yo yo ma is not a strange rap group with songs about your mom....

today began and ended with more studying-tired of it yet? i am...and so are the boys. as i was bent over reading the preparation guide today, chaco decided that this was how he was going to help me:

ma, don't worry, i got yer back!

i started to deviate and write a card, but then i felt guilty about not studying...perhaps it's because i spent the money on the test and need to be a good steward of that (or perhaps it's the idea that if it's going to leave me impecunious, i should take it seriously so that i don't have to shell out the money i was planning to use on a kindle fire for another test). i cannot believe i'm paying to take a test. i hate tests. why pay to take one?? it seems ridiculous.

last night shortly before i went to bed, i had to take two of these.

good thing i had to use them last night...oh wait, i thought the due date was this year (see, bad at math-me)

i don't know what i ate that caused the problems, but i will say that i am rather impressed... amazed.... fascinated.. RELIEVED at how quickly they worked! i don't know how scientists came up with it, but i truly am grateful. i need to go get some more because that's the kind of thing you want to have on hand, no messing around with chancing it trying to get to the store to buy some (if you know what i mean)...

so, sometimes when i'm sitting here writing these posts, i pretend i'm tom hanks in 'you've got mail.' i use the godfather voice and do the "monday, tuesday, thursday.." line. don't ask why i just shared that with you...it's just a little inside tidbit. don't judge.

big day tomorrow...nope, not really.
julie

in between quantitative reasoning and data interpretation, you will find me, mouth slightly ajar with a blank stare

if i told you i was studying again today, would you think my life was dull? well, right now it is!
i gave the boys a bath, which is always a feat when i try to more than one at a time! bruno likes baths, chaco is not a fan. for chaco, i think it's mostly that he hates the hair dryer at the end. i'm pretty sure the noise gets to him. but once i have them mostly dry, they are maniacs and they run into my room and up onto my bed and bury themselves in the throw blankets. it's actually rather endearing.

after a little more studying and getting my answers wrong, chaco and i took a walk,

it's finally fall at our apartment! (today and tomorrow)

then i dropped him off and i took a longer walk. i went back to my new park where they are still adding to it.

on the way to the park, the branches of this tree were hanging over the sidewalk and they were fuzzy-which at first i thought perhaps pussy willow branch? but then, as i was researching (aka stalling from studying) i found that they are more of a northern plant, so this tree....not sure what was going on.

captivating little water feature (especially on a day as nice as today was!)

and then this massive contraption pollutes the entire view! yuck. it's monstrous! the little white box up there in the intersection has an air-conditioner in it-i mean...it's probably big enough to have a party in.

they also have a 'wildlife sanctuary' on a little island across the walk. but all it had was some dead grass. i don't know how they intend to promote it to the wildlife to get them out there, but i don't envision too much wildlife choosing to cross the sidewalk to get to the little island.

it was pretty empty at the park except for a biker, another walker and a lady reading on a bench. any one of them could have been cia. (obviously just kidding), but do you ever premeditate how you will defend yourself were the need to present itself? today i did. i was thinking about what would i do first if someone approached me with a vicious dog. and the first thought was go for the eyes first then take out the human's knee....(self defense-over thinking things, but better safe than sorry, right?)

well, it's time to get back to the book and reason quantitatively.
julie

math studying...i'd rather have a million and two paper cuts with lemon juice poured on

i know it's been a good vacation when bruno and chaco don't want to get up in the morning. this morning i asked if they were ready to get up and they both groaned and rolled over...bruno said he hates alarm clocks and doesn't see the sense in them. i whole-heartedly agree. they are a necessary evil (but not on vacation).

after playing around with the math portion of the gre, i am pretty sure i am going to tank on this test. i feel like hunting down all of my former math teachers and blaming them. (except for ms. fasquelle...she's the only one who really tried to help me and of course mrs. smallwood my tutor-bless the lady-she had patience with me!)...for the rest of them...i don't even have words.

 i hope i don't need the sine and cosine thing because in my mind those are things you do when you purchase a new vehicle or house...and tangent...well, i'm off on a tangent right now! seriously though, as i sit here looking at problems, they're like a foreign language to me. (a strange, harsh foreign language-not one of the romance languages, either).bruno and chaco offered to help, but every time i mentioned a problem, they made a joke about it. no help whatsoever. and when it came to the answers, bruno kept saying,"b for bruno!" and chaco would pipe up, "no!it's c for chaco!"  if i pass this portion of the test, it will be purely a miraculous guessing game. and i don't say that in false humility like some people might...i really do suck at math. period.

so, remember the tree i got for Christmas? well, i finally got around to looking up what it is going to grow into

.check out the link. it wasn't quite what i was expecting..when i think pine tree, the first thing that comes to mind is:

minus the weird eyes

 i need to transplant it-after reading about it, the seeds are edible cooked or raw, folks. so there you have a great little snack chock full of oil and has a hint of resin flavor..and the young pinecones can be ground for flavoring. (there are some medicinal attributes as well but when they preface it with, we will not be held responsible for..i usually stop reading).


well, i'm back off to studying-i don't want it to be a total waste.
julie

silent night and poor, sad animals

ok, so usually when i make sugar cookies cookies, they don't come out like this. i had three cookie sheets. the first batch was a little bland, the second i rolled in sugar before putting them in (that was the trick i needed). then the last batch i put in took longer. when the timer went off, i looked and they looked like they were barely melting...so i gave about 2 more minutes on the timer and when i looked nothing had changed. i forgot that i had turned of the oven, so i turned it back on and gave it 5 minutes because my science and math are bad, but i figured they had warmed up some and i had no clue how long it would take the oven to get to the desired temp.

well, when i took that last batch out, they looked like snickerdoodles, only i had not added any cinnamon...a little over-done. but that was actually the batch i liked the best! i love when you take a bite and it melts in your mouth! divine-especially with a little coffee on the side!

does it strike anyone else as odd that when they show the ASPCA animal rescue commercial with sara mclachlan they play silent night? and then show all of these sad animals...that is not a sad song...'Christ the Savior is born' playing in the background and then "there is an animal waiting for your help, please call right now." i wish they'd just come up with an original song about animals.

so i was doing some studying this evening

when i heard someone yelling like they were looking for a dog-it was a little muffled, but at first it sounded like max, after i heard the person yell 4 or 5 times, i put on my shoes and a coat to see if i could help (the thought of a lost pet out wandering around...(back to silent night and sarah)...then when i got outside, i listened but i didn't hear anyone, so i went downstairs and didn't see anyone or hear anyone, so i walked around the building and came back up. then when i got inside and took my coat and shoes off, i heard it again, this time it sounded like DAD...looking for dad (which should have been more unsettling than max) but as i listened again it sounded like max, so i put the shoes on and the coat and stepped outside again. i stood in front of the door for about a minute but i didn't hear it again, so i figured i should go back inside because it might seem strange if one of the neighbors came out while i was just in limbo on the landing.

on fb i added the timeline for my profile page and for whatever reason, it is keeping me from posting on my wall from my computer, so i've had to post from my phone-so inconvenient. boo. i am rather unhappy right now with the new feature. oh well.

sleep in heavenly peace...sad kitties and puppies...and everyone else,
julie

if you want to stop a conversation real quickly, just cock your head, act like you don't understand and bark

ok, so bmayes received her package and now i can share those pics i was waiting to share! you kinda have to know brittany to appreciate the gift...she is licensed to practice law in tx and ok (so proud of her!), and is a huge reagan conservative-woohoo! she named her female dog reagan, and her male dog thatcher (after margaret thatcher-one of britain's great prime ministers). so these items were deemed most appropriate:

this is why the asian language confused me...i didn't realize they were fond of margie...

reagan cards and cd of great speeches.

i told bmayes that i was dying to see the actual cards in both decks, and i was really close to opening them and re-sealing them with my shrink wrapper...

and you may or may not remember these little ornament numbers i bought-if the economy gets worse by next Christmas, b, you could always do ELF at the mall. please do that. i will come up to oklahoma for that!

pretty sure santa will make her dump the iphone, but i am also pretty sure she'll beat up the chic that makes fun of santa on Christmas eve.

the boys have been vying for a position on my lap...true lap dogs...the thing is bruno is not one for laying on my lap, he just stands there staring off into space. chaco actually sits or sleeps. so it's been something like this:

they kinda have to cuddle to fit at the same time

or chaco will crawl under bruno and sit half underneath him while he just stands there helping me with my next move on scrabble or something.

when chaco and i went to the office to pay rent, shannon saw him at the door she and mandie stood there telling him to come in and he was doing his little happy feet dance and wagging his nub of a tail until i finally opened the door and let him in. mandie grabbed a milkbone treat and broke it up for him, but he's picky. when we left, he looked up and said, "mama, why don't they have the soft treats? those things are like rocks" and i couldn't help but thinking he was a little spoiled and ungrateful-kinda like my students complaining about free breakfast; i'm not okay with that. so when i told him beggars can't be choosers, he just cocked his head and acted like he didn't understand. (he's gotten really good at that when he wants to end a conversation).

well, i'm off to make some sugar cookies!
julie

may Christ be reflected in your Christmas

if one were a movie watcher, they might determine that monkeys were evil little creatures. indiana jones (raiders of the lost ark), pirates of the caribbean, not to mention the latest planet of the apes, oh, and i almost forgot the flying monkeys on the wizard of oz!...today indiana jones was on and it caught my attention. then when the little monkey eats the 'bad dates' that have been poisoned and dies, they cut to a scene where the camera is above the ceiling fan and you see the blades slowly going around with the dead monkey lying on the floor. why is it that in mystery movies when they shoot from above the fan like that it seems so ominous?

has anyone else been in a house or building where the ceiling fan is wobbly and had the irrational fear that as you slept under it or sat around in that room that the whole contraption might fall, blades still spinning wildly and sever some important artery in your body? no? me neither then...but it was scary.

so i went downtown again this morning and found a place to park and there was a lady sitting on a cement wall, so i went over that way and she asked if i had a couple bucks. i purposely took no cash so that i wouldn't feel bad about not giving out money. so i told her no, but would she like some coffee or a granola bar or something. and she asked if i had anything sweet, so i gave her a granola bar and a bag with some peppermints and butterscotch candies, gloves and crackers. she said someone stole her luggage last night. we sat there for a couple of hours, and during that time, there were several others who came over. some just wanted to talk. one gentleman actually came over and started telling his whole story about his wife and how she is still tied to mama's apron strings at 40 yrs old, and he doesn't get along well with the lady. he said something about some advice his psychic friend had given him: if your wife isn't talking about her, don't you start. if your wife is talking about her, STILL don't talk about her. (good advice even for a psychic). he went on about buying gifts for the ladies in his family because it's all about impressing the ladies...he got that right!

it wasn't freezing out, but the cement wall i was sitting on wasn't heated...it was cold enough to appreciate reheated coffee.

there was another gentleman that came over and again just wanted to chat (and drink coffee..and hey, you got some food over there? smile). he was on his way to memphis to see his mom-coming from las vegas.said he had several teachers in his family as well.

there were a few more who came and went, but there was this one elderly gentleman who asked if i could watch his bags for a minute. having worked for the airlines, the first thought that immediately goes through my head is: no, that is a security risk! never leave your bags unattended and report any suspicious objects! second thought: he trusts me enough to watch every belonging that he has. tall order. well, he was gone for quite a bit and when he came back, he recounted his bags and said he was missing a tote bag. i said, "oh, but you only brought three bags over here." he mumbled something about it got stolen earlier-and i looked at the lady who was still sitting next to me and said, "must be going around." the man sat down and had another coffee, and then he asked if i would like a half of a sandwich, which i had to say no to... and i ended up taking off shortly after that, but i let the lady keep the big aldi bag with some food and extras in it since she her luggage had gotten stolen.

i wasn't sitting down there for but maybe 2 hours, but it is amazing how many people i saw just in that little area who were lonely and had next to nothing. filling the physical needs is one thing, but for most of the people i met today, they needed someone to talk to just as much as they needed a bite or a drink or clothing. how often do we just walk by people or try to avoid eye contact because we don't know what else to do? from now on even if i don't have anything to offer, i still have kind words and a listening ear that need to be available-

here's hoping that your Christmas has been blessed and continues in the same manner!

slow down. don't get so busy that you miss the opportunities that are all around you!
julie