A Good Week

This has been a good week. I am happy. Monday was pretty uneventful, but from there it gets more exciting. On Tuesday I went up to the middle school because I wanted to arrange to sit in on some class the next day. I ended up instead having a lovely chat with Ms. McCormick. It was great fun catching up with her. She had just cast Matt's cousin Sarah as "Ursula" in the school play The Little Mermaid, so we even had that to discuss. On Wednesday I put on my respectable clothes and went to the middle school for observing. It was just something I wanted to do before jumping in as a substitute teacher. I sat in on two of Ms. Janik's 8th grade English classes, the TaG 2nd period and regular 4th period. During 3rd period she arranged for me to go next door and sit in on a pre-AP algebra class. I had a really good time, even if I was having to be "Miss Hall" (sound familiar, Les?). And although some of the kids' antics were a bit scary, in general the whole thing put me at ease about the subbing process. I can do this. Bring on the TB test. On Wednesday night, I got to celebrate it being the 15th (which was the deadline for corporate taxes that had filed extensions) with Matt, as he finally emerged from the Fort Worth tax bat cave he's been holed up in for weeks. He worked all weekend! And SOOO late on Monday and Tuesday. But he got home in time for dinner on Wednesday and we had celebratory Sonic and watched the episode of Scrubs I'd taped.

Thursday afternoon Brittany and I went down to the mini-ranch. She went back to school today, so I was glad we got to spend that time together, even more so since she hadn't seen the place yet and loves horses. Mom and Dad had gone down there early that morning, and we joined them around 6 pm. We pet the horses, I showed Brittany around the place, and then we fed the cows. After dinner, Dad had to return to Dallas to get ready for his dove hunt. That night we dressed me up in the wedding dress samples that had come in all the way from Washington, and then Brittany and I watched Fantasia 2000. In the morning we rode the horses and then made a quick get-away because all three of us had stuff to do back in Dallas. Friday afternoon I had my interview with the Dallas Emergency Animal Clinic. I was pretty nervous, but it wasn't actually much of an interview. The vet with whom I had been communicating with, Dr Smith, met me there and we just chatted about why I wanted to work there and he told me what they did, how they did it, what working there was like, etc. Then he gave me a tour of the facilities. I told him I wanted to work a couple shifts a week (he was willing to have me work as little as a couple times a month or as much as full time), and he said that he'd call by Friday with a tentative schedule for me. Yay! I mentioned that I might later want to work more, even full time, and he seemed fine with that - they seem very flexible. And full time is only 35 hours/week, which is pretty cool. So it was pretty cool. Then Friday night I went to dinner with Kathy Carroll, my 9th grade world geography teacher and friend. :) Speaking of that, I gave her my blog address, so now I have to keep my Tech bashing to a minimum. That's going to be hard but I'll try. Anyway, we went to a trendy pizza place on Henderson called Fireside Pies (we didn't mean to be hip and cool by going there, since hip and cool means waiting 45 minutes to get seated, but we were anyway). It was good food, and there was definitely good conversation. I had a great time catching up!

On Saturday, Matt and I left for College Station after lunch. We picked Em up from the duplex, stopped to get subs from Subway, parked in the West Campus Garage, and met up with Amanda at their tailgate. I had an awesome time catching up with Amanda, but all too soon it was time to head to Kyle Field. Matt, Em, and I walked around the new Aggie Fan Zone by the stadium, and then we split up so Em could trek up to the 2nd deck of the student side while we waltzed over to the alumni side. Matt had done an amazing job getting us tickets - they were on the first deck, roughly the 50 yard line. Mega VIP section. The pregame was so incredible - the Golden Knights parachuting team was there and sailed into the stadium! It was so cool. There are some game pics here. We had an awesome time watching the game. A&M was looking stellar most of the time and totally beat the hell outta Clemson. I was really impressed with the Clemson fans, though - there were a ton of them, and they were very enthusiastic. And then I felt sorry for them for coming all that way to watch their team get beat thoroughly. Oh well. We had a great time! After the game, the three of us just hung out at the duplex, watching Star Wars specials and Em and me talking while Matt looked online and on TV frantically for football info and highlights. Sometime after midnight, Matt noticed they were replaying the game on TBS...*sigh* He watched the first half. On Sunday we all slept until 11. We made breakfast and then we drove back to Dallas.

Yesterday afternoon Laurie Haluska, the woman who has designed and made the La Fiesta dresses for the last 16 years, came over and we had our first wedding dress pow-wow. She brought her assistant with her, and Mom and Susie were also there. I tried on our three favorite dress samples that she'd shipped to us on Thursday and we all talked about what we did and didn't like about them, as well as how we could modify them for a Texas summer wedding. I also modeled them for Dad and Matt, who were in the other room watching the Cowboys, because this was Matt's first and only chance to have input into my dress. I basically wanted to make sure that something I liked didn't turn his stomach or something. But they all passed. You can see the ones I tried on here, styles 967, 1917, and 1179. Laurie is going to send us sketches and fabric samples of the gown we think we just worked out yesterday. I'm excited!!! :) And I had a good time doing it, which was more than I can say for my La Fiesta experience (although I made it through those dress sessions too, mostly because Laurie is awesome). And I'm really glad both Mom and Susie were there to help me out, because as most of you (*cough* Amanda) know, these type of wedding-related things really aren't my forte.

This morning I went and got a TB test, and it was oh-so-much fun. It didn't take hardly any time at all, but having a needle stuck just under your skin and stuff injected into it so there is this subcutaneous bubble of fluid...not my favorite thing in the world. But as soon as I go back and have the area examined (assuming I pass), I can schedule my substitute teaching interview! Yay!

And that's my ridiculously long blog update. I told you it was a good week.