I can has paycheck?

Nope...not yet. They're "still working on it." I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. I thought, well, hey, I'll just get a big fat paycheck someday until I realized that given all the hours I have worked, I'll still have made less than $150. And I actually haven't worked all that many hours. But any money is better than no money!

He's playing fetch... with my kids... he's treating my kids like they're dogs.

Today was looooong - pretty much like every other Monday. I got up at 6 after a not-so-great night of sleep, and had class from 8 - 12 pretty much straight. We took our class picture, and for some reason some people put up a big fuss. I guess I get that it's 10 minutes of wasted time, but - meh, whatever. We even got out of class early. Then of course we had a long afternoon class, then a student meeting to discuss some things, and then I worked with Aaron and Priyanka on our Helen Keller treatment plan. So pretty much at school for 12 hours. It really wasn't that bad, though. All things considered. Still housesitting - it was weird having a room full of animals this morning!

Things I hadn't considered

After enjoying a lazy Sunday morning of doing absolutely nothing, I headed back to Dallas. I thought I would be OK, but I was really tired on the way home, so I stopped to get some Starbucks. I ordered a half regular half decaf, but they didn't have decaf so he recommended something else that was similar - b/c they didn't have it, though, the coffee was on the house! Yay!

So now I am stilling my my parents living room, housesitting for them while they're in D.C. Our German Shepherd, Nacho, is getting pretty old. I think he's 10 or 11 (and dang it, I just looked over and the cat is drinking my water! Ugh!). Obviously I knew he was getting older by the way he moved slower and took longer to get up, but I haven't seen him inside the house in awhile, so it was sad to find he couldn't do a lot of the things he used to do - like climb up the stairs. He slid down twice, and then had a lot of trouble getting back up. I also put up a tiny box barrier so he couldn't go into the dining room, and he didn't even attempt to jump over it. This is the dog that used to jump up to open the door, and you really had to outsmart him to catch him. I just hadn't ever really thought about pets aging much.

No!!! We moved there last year!!!

After years of wondering...I finally know! When I used to drive home from work/anything N of where I lived (which is like everything), I used to see a ton of cars parked on the side of Mopac, and wondered what was there. Mark took me for a walk (hike?) on the Greenbelt yesterday, and we were one of those cars! It's just a big area where there is sometimes water, and lots of trails, including one part where you have to hold onto a chain to walk around this cliff. People also rock climb here. Anyway - it was very cool because it felt like you were in a different place, but then you look up and there's the Mopac bridge, and you can hear the cars passing by.

Ben had housewarming party last night, and his house is AWESOME! It was actually featured on Flip That House in 2006 and they did a fantastic job. I'm super-jealous now! It's sort of what I really want - a house with charm (not a carbon copy of the one next door) but with a really nice interior. Plus it's got a great backyard. I got to watch Old School, too - I love that movie, especially the birthday party part. "Wait, what?"

When we got home, we also had a surprise - a raccoon wandering around the parking lot. Mark got a few pictures, and I threw some crackers to him, which he ate very quickly. So cute - luckily this one did not appear to have rabies.

Get into play mode

Some people have a hard time going from Academic to play mode. I have no trouble with this - it's going to other way that might be a bit of a problem. We went to NTTI Friday morning, and I was really excited because I knew we were going to get to play on the equipment. She asked for a volunteer to get on the net swing, and of course my hand shot up. YES! The idea is you lay on your stomach in the net and use these two ropes to pull yourself. It always looks like so much fun, and it is...but it's also hard work! My arms were getting tired after a few minutes, but apparently the kids have to do this for 15 - 30 minutes. Then we got to go in the other gym and jump into the pillow pit. One of the things was a rope swing, and I thought - piece of cake! Hmmm...I swung out, and slid right off! There's a big knot that's supposed to hold you on, but instead it just kind of ripped up my thighs - ouch. There's a giant obstacle course, too, and a scooter-ramp. I also got to see nystagmus, which I knew about but hadn't ever witnessed - crazy! Anyway, it was a lot of fun but I was exhaused afterwards. Then I headed to Austin, and once I got here I didn't do anything - pretty much laid on the couch and watched TV. I can deal with that!

Those 3 words

We got to watch Dirty Jobs in class - woohoo! Mike Rowe! Unfortunately, even he wasn't enough to keep me awake. Speaking of awake, I got the results of my sleep study back, and.... basically I heard the same 3 words I hear from most doctors - "I don't know." It appears that I am, in fact, a medical anomaly. The results indicate that I wake up several times during the night due to breathing problems - and it appears that I have some new form of sleep apnea - not really obstructive, especially b/c I don't snore, and not really central. So...why do I stop breathing??? Also, I had a bunch of PLM which could be a factor, as well. And basically I had horribly fragmented sleep. Dr. said this is almost never seen in "people my age" - and even when it is seen in old people, it's usually secondary to other stuff. Awesome! Thanks Mom and Dad for the awesome sleep genes. Anyway, I went to Fieldwork and then to Lindsey's to watch Twilight again. Even though it's kind of dumb (there are definitely some wtf moments), I still like it! Although I MUST disagree with the box, which claims that it's "the greatest epic romance since Titanic!" - yeah, right!

Which would be a bigger issue- frustration or peer isolation?

That was the big question of the day as we all prepared to take TWMT 2. Luckily, it went pretty well - no major problems, and I ended up with a 97. That's right - probably the highest grade I will ever get on an exam! Anyway - not so bad, but people were still a little miffed about retaking. They announced that the NICU class will be added to next Fall, so everyone of course signed up for it and we'll see who actually gets to take it. Of course to do this, they ended up dropping 3 of our options (2 classes ((sort of 3 as one was a 2-part class)) didn't make and 1 was replaced w/NICU), leaving us with 6 choices. Luckily none of the dropped classes were ones I wanted to take.

So of course, I went to trivia. I normally get pumped up, but for some reason last night I wasn't feeling it. I was getting bad vibes from some of the team, and we did OK, but not great - 3rd. $15 doesn't split well between 11 people. Anyway - maybe next week will be better, or maybe I'll just take a hiatus. Getting there over an hour early sucks! The picture is us reliving the glory days...or me taking a picture of our picture on the wall.