Vida

today kicked my butt today was a dome day and the school we went to was in austin (farrrrrrr west side).  first, we found our route was detoured because of construction, which made our set-up time very limited. liz and i worked at lightning speed and were ready in time for the kiddos.  the time with the kids actually went pretty well. then we brought everything out to the curb in a light drizzle and i went across the street to pull the car up.  oh my the sound that car made when i turned it on.  i've never heard anything like it in my life.  as liz and i tried to describe the sound to the igo lady we paused and decided on grinding while adding it smelt bad.  liz decided we would die if we drove it... maybe slightly dramatic. eventually igo called to say we needed to get a cab to the closest car (2.7 miles away).   in the process liz & i popped the hood to "look" at it, since we were just sitting there.  the only thing i know abo...

i love peanuts.  i always love shelled peanuts too.  my family's never been into peanuts at the ball game, but for some reason shelled peanuts make me think of the baseball and it makes me happy.  especially during baseball season. i keep seeing bags of peanuts at jewell or walgreens, etc.  but they all say cubs .  it just turns me off from buying them.  i can't explain it.  i know it's silly. when i was at home running errands, i went to schnucks and they had cardinals bags.  i couldn't help but buy a bag.  yes, this meant i took a bag of "cardinals" peanuts on the plane with me just so i didn't have to buy a cubs bag.   and the thing is i know it's ridiculous. after an exhausting day at work yesterday, i ate some last night while watching the cardinals game though and it all seemed worth it =)

whew what a trip. it felt like there was not a moment of downtime during my trip to missouri for easter. you heard about the trip home...ugh.  that would not be placed in the positive column.  but i know many people had it worse than me.  i worry about my grandma friend (vicki).  she decided to spend the night on a cot in the terminal and rebook for saturday.  turns out saturday lambert wasn't up and running yet.  so i'm sure she's back by now, but i hope she got home in time for her Easter brunch.  then as mom & i drove to the airport this morning that area got hit hard.  so many houses...   say a little prayer for them. saturday was a full day with completing the final leg of my journey to ste. gen, helping my parents move into their new house, visiting with one of my high school friends and getting to see the house her and her husband are building (it's beautiful), going to mass as a family.  and it rained off and on all day....

i've had some pretty horrid travel experiences this past year, but this one definitely comes close to taking the cake. travel started at 5 o'clock with my bus ride to the el after work.  whew.  the museums were busy friday so the bus was brimming with tourists who don't understand the bus system.  i escaped that craziness and hopped on the el to midway airport. my 7:30  flight was already delayed, but not to terribly so.  i read and waited. they continue to delay my flight we all board.  the plane gets in the line to take off.  we're just hanging out on the runway waiting our turn when... they turn off the engines and say st. louis is being hit by a major storm.  so we're going to wait for it to pass.  next announcement:  the airport was hit by a tornado, it might be two hours.  we're going to sit.  next announcement:  the airport was closed indefinitely.  we're going back to the gate.   when we were leav...

this week i've had a bit of glum about going to my parents for easter.  i packed everything up and got a prime seat on the bus on my way to work.  as we got closer to museum campus the bus got more and more full.  signs of a very busy day. i had a meeting in pilsen for what turned out to be the majority of the day.  i got an email saying one of the major streets in pilsen was blocked off for the good friday procession.  this got me super excited!  i didn't mind my bus being rerouted.  i also preferred that i missed the procession.  they are pretty brutal in their depicition.  easter in mexico was my second favorite holiday there (first:  dia del nino).  as i walked down the closed street with everyone walking in the opposite direction with their goodies, after seeing the procession.  i pretended i was reliving last year on good friday.  it was rainy and quite cold, but i could almost feel the strong sun on my face and sw...

did you know earth day has a theme?  it does.  a billion acts of green. i've been thinking about earth day for awhile as we started planning for earth day at work months ago.  the statement we came up with to develop our programming is:  Earth is special because it provides us with everything we need to survive, like liquid water and breathable air.  We haven't yet found any other planet like the Earth.  We can do a lot to celebrate and protect the things that make Earth special.   We ended up developing a sort-of dating game show with planets/moons and their characteristics.  The point is:  Earth Wins!  I sat in a rehearsal (i was a contestant for awhile) yesterday and it's super cute. =) as we prepared and execute a special cart to honor earth day at work it made me  pretty upset because for some reason i felt like news stations used to have "green week" and talk about green tips everyday and i haven't watched a lot of news, bu...

i love thrift shopping. yesterday i got around to taking some of my donations into brown elephant (one of my fav thrift shops).  i was sort-of looking for a bread maker.  i would like to make my own delicious, just the way i want it bread, rather than buying bread.  and one of my co-workers said she got hers at a thrift store.  so i figured i'd give it a try.  yesterday i just wanted to check them out.  i wasn't ready to make the plunge ... yet. i found several bread makers that looked good.  the one i really liked was $8 and the smallest.  it needed a little cleaning up, but only on the outside.  i decided to wait, but i was in the thrift shopping mood.   i swear you have to be in a certain mood to thrift shop.  i have to feel like searching or something.  i mean there's A LOT of stuff to root through and it's not exactly organized.  it's sort-of how i have to be in the mood to shop or else i just walk in, walk ...