Overcome with gratitude.

"This is probably why many young children have such a natural attachment to animals, seeing things fresh without the years to retract all the miraculous new images coming at them, all these remarkable animate beings racing and barking and panting and chirping in their midst." -Matthew Scully

I still marvel. I could spend my days off locked up at home, watching my four critters of three different species interact with one another for hours. My patience at red lights is not tested if there is a squirrel hurrying along off the street or birds flying into open spots on power lines overhead. Bad days at work become better if I stop to look out the window and watch the dogs jump in and out of the pool or stretch out on the grass to soak up the sun.

Thank goodness I still marvel. Thank goodness I never grew out of that. Thank goodness my life now revolves and will continue to revolve around these miraculous beings. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Writers are selfish, writers are egotists.

I am currently working on the third of four essay assignments for my English class (I also have a lengthy research paper due in a few weeks, but I will tackle that beast at a later time). Before sitting down to begin this paper, I decided to look at my standing in the class. My grades.

They are awesome. Mostly A's. Only three B's.

This, my friends, I am glad to say gives me what I call "wiggle room." Ah, yes. In this third of four essays, I am going to allow myself to write how I want to write. Not as casually as I do here, but more like the style of writing that I like to read. Like the writers whose work I admire and enjoy. Not so damn formal. I will still abide by the formatting and referencing rules, mind you, but dammit, I am tired of sounding so... so... proper.

Can I throw in an anecdote if I please? Can I introduce my thesis and claim by starting off with a story that has nothing to do with the topic or the book that this paper is about? Can I use as repetition, alliteration, and pose rhetorical questions if I freakin' feel like it? Cos I'm gonna. I may end up getting a B on this one. That's fine. My other kickass grades will make up for it. I will still be in the running for an A in the class for the semester. That's really all I want.

Okay, time to wrap this sucka up.

Ah, well.

I decided to give myself two to three days to be upset, disappointed, and sad even. Honestly, I have just been moody BUT, it is time to snap out of it. What other choice do I have? I can't live my days with a blah attitude that probably annoys the hell out of everyone around me including those I love. It is entirely up to me to maintain my happiness. What is it that I always say? Oh, yes: It's my happiness and I'm keeping it, dammit!

Now, how do I go about this? Somehow, I must convince myself that my year has not been ruined. That this year, and life in general, still have much to offer me. One thing that is a personal bare nessecity is for me to always feel accomplished. It is damn difficult to feel that way right now, so I must figure out a way to get that sense of achievement back somehow. I need it. Bad. I've always wanted to take French back up...

Hmmmm....

Doin' good. Lovin' life.

I feel like I've been living in a different world these last few days. I don't really know where this feeling is coming from, but I like it. Maybe it's all the sunlight I'm getting. Yes! The weather is finally on my side and I've been spending as much time as I can outdoors.

I have also been challenging my willpower by counting calories. This forces me to eat very healthy. I'm not going to waste calories on things that don't fill me up. There's an app on my phone that not only counts calories for me, but counts everything else as well. I am happy to say that since Monday, I have NOT surpassed my fat or carb limits. Go me! I have been going over my sugar limit... Just barely, though! That shit's in everything, including milk! Ah well. It'd be much worse if I still guzzled down coke like I used to, which I'm not. Needless to say, I am very proud of myself. Bikini season, bitches!

Also doing remarkably well in my class.

Also making this entry using the blogger app on my phone.

Omg, I love my phone!

Life is good. :)

Waiting, walking, shivering, loving

It's so hard to have to wait. Hopefully, these are my last few weeks of not knowing. I would like to begin planning the rest of my year already. I would like to know what I'm in for. I would like to start mentally preparing for whatever it is that has to be done. Where will I be this fall? Living life the way I am now, or living life as a sleep-deprived, penniless student once more? I just want to know.

I wore shorts when I walked my dog this morning and unfortunately started to shiver. I immediately took my snazzy little phone out, opened the weather app (OMG I feel so caught up with the times!), and found out that at the time, the temperature was sixty-six degrees. Awesome. Now I know what sixty-six feels like, and now I know that wearing short shorts will not suffice. Dammit! I love wearing shorts.

Oh! I wish I had a picture of my absurd outfit this morning. Another great aspect about being in a relationship is that I can go out lookin' a fool and it is perfectly fine, because this person or that person may think I look damn ridiculous but, what does it matter? There is a man in love with this hot mess. A wonderful man at that.

Booyah!

I'm out now. Hasta luego.

I don't do winter.

Anyone who knows me knows that cold weather and I do not get along. As soon as the temperature drops below sixty (yes, sixty), I become a shivering, uncomfortable, miserable mess. How I have managed to survive these past four days without becoming a total grouch is beyond me. Maybe it has something to do with how hilarious it is to watch my sweet Canelo Dog slip and slide when I take him out for his walks. Maybe it's the fact that we've had the park all to ourselves throughout the week (that never happens). Maybe it's remembering that this is Texas (dammit!) and that the hot, glorious days of summer stick around longer, much longer, than these current crappy days of winter. Come on with it, summer. I miss you.

First thing that has (finally) been done.

I finally decided to start a new blog. After seven years, I am done with blogging on myspace. I have over three-hundred posts there, but that site makes it damn near impossible to enjoy blogging now. It's horrible. Signing in alone is a hassle, as is navigating to the page where I can actually begin to type my blog. I am over it.

So here I am.

Currently, I am eagerly awaiting next month to arrive, for several reasons. March brings me warmer weather, more opportunities to be outdoors, picnics would be fun, The North Texas Irish Festival, the St. Patty's Day Parade, and a letter. This month, not even two-days old, already torturing me with awful weather, will definitely try my patience. I have never been fond of the month of February. I actually wrote a blog about it five years ago. You know... back when I blogged on myspace. [sigh]

It truly sucks that all those posts are stuck over there, and that I can't even provide a link to them here. Oh well. It is time to move on...

That's what I'm doing. :)