Happy Holidays

After 25 years, Santa still comes through every year with my Christmas stocking, my most favorite part of Christmas! This has not been my favorite Christmas by any means but the stocking made it feel like Christmas no matter what! Santa went through the extra effort to send me my stocking in the mail since I was unable to be with my family! Thomas liked it too! I love you family!!

Our House Guest

So Thomas (that's my cat) and I have been entertaining a very special guest over the holidays...a parakeet (I don't know how to spell that). I believe his name is Elmo (although I might have been mistaken when Lacy told me his name).

The first couple days, Elmo stayed in the bathroom because the cat doesn't go in there. Then I worried that it was too cold in there (I have no clue what a bird needs!) So I brought him in the living room so he could be social during the day and then I put him in the guest room to sleep, no cat access. Well, Thomas was interested in Elmo but by no means obsessed. Then yesterday, I caught him getting ready to make the leap from the floor to the top of the tv cabinet in order to get Elmo!! The picture you see is in the guest room where Elmo sleeps on the floor but in the living room he is out of cat's reach, but Thomas just sits and stares at Elmo regardless of where he's located. But I think they will be friends soon. I explained to Thomas that Elmo is our friend and we don't eat our friends! Happy Holidays!

The Post Office at Christmastime

We've all been there. We know what it's like to drive to the post office, stand in line for an incredible amount of time just to over pay to send a package or letter. Well, today I did just that...except the man in front of me gave me the giggles and I have to share this story...

I'm next in line and the man ahead of me is mailing a package...priority. The total comes to $5 and some change. The man pulls out his credit card to prepare for the transaction when the mail man says, "I'm sorry sir, we can only take checks and cash when the total is under $10."
Customer: What?
M.M.: I'm sorry but that's the policy. Would you like to buy something to make it over $10?
Customer: Yes, I'll buy some stamps please.
M.M.: We're out of stamps right now (then looks out at crowd and addresses them) If any of you are wanting stamps, I'm all out (half the line walks out the door). I have postcard stamps if you would like some of those.
Customer: (Notices refridgerator of sodas) I'll just buy some sodas, I'm not going home to get cash, just to come stand in line again.
M.M. We have cookies, would you like a cookie?
Customer: No, just give me as many sodas needed to put me at $10.
M.M. Sure thing!

By the time the transaction was over, the customer had purchased 6 Diet Cokes just to mail a package! I was laughing so hard. The things we'll do (and pay!) to get a task done the first time around. Merry Christmas!

You Know You're a Graduate Student When...

A classmate shared this hilarious list with me. I can totally identify with some of these things. The starred items are partcularly applicable.......
For those of you who don't know, I'm studying Music History and Literature.

You know you're a grad student when…
1.The concept of free time scares you.
2.Professors don't really care when you turn in work anymore.
3.You consider caffeine to be a major food group.*
4.Saturday nights spent studying no longer seem weird.*
5.You can read course books and cook at the same time.
6.You rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.
7.Everything reminds you of something in your discipline.*
8.You find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade."
9.You have ever spent more than $50 on photocopying while researching a single paper.
10.You regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.*
11.You look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.
12.You appreciate the fact that you get to choose which twenty hours out of the day you have to work.
13.You find the bibliographies more interesting than the actual text.
14.You have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just trying to keep them all in the same general area.*
15.You wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as a "personal communication."
16.You have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.
17.You start referring to stories like "Snow White et al."
18.You consider all papers to be a work in progress.
19.You are constantly looking for a thesis in novels.
20.You hope it snows during spring break so you can get more studying in.

And that's graduate school in a nutshell...welcome to life as I know it!

Girls' Night Out

Last night, the girls and I went to see Chicago the Musical at the fabulous Majestic Theatre here in San Antonio. Before dinner, we went to a great fancy dinner downtown.

We had an amazing time!

We got all dressed up and really lived it up in San Antonio!