Random Musings...

T+... 2.5 months...ish...Sorry y'all, I'll do better!

So Thomas is at a work training session, and I am rattling around the apartment waiting for dinner to thaw.  Random things I've thought this week...

-Baby-sister-who-isn't-really-a-baby-but-she'll-always-be-to-me moved to Chicago in November, giving me tons of inspiration to do this thing.  She flew home to visit this weekend, and I got a precious few minutes to Skype with her (as well as the rest of the family) this weekend.  SO hard seeing them all gathered together and not being a part of it... brought a lump to my throat and maybe a few tears to my eyes.  But one thing I noticed- she looks SO happy.  Happier than I have seen her in a long time, and that makes ME happy.  She and I are far more similar than different, we have so much in common, and I am so proud of her for taking the big step she did.  Also, her Sig.Other is pretty awesome, I blame him for a lot of this.  Thanks, man, for making my sister happy and taking good care of her.  (Not that she isn't fully capable of taking care of her self- she is- but you really make her light shine in a way it hasn't in a long time. Y'all really complement each other.)

-I had an advising appointment today with a student, who had some questions, wasn't sure he was on the right track but thought he might be... and after we hashed it all out he said the greatest thing to me.  "I thought I'd be OK, I just wanted to hear it from someone who knows what they are doing.  Kinda like going to the doctor!"  Made me smile so big.  He thinks I know what I'm doing!  Must be doing something right, then!

-Officially the only academic advisor here now.  The other girl has now moved into her new role on campus, so it's just me.  Yikes, no pressure to get May grads cleared, degree adjustments submitted, schedules planned...

-Thank goodness, then, that I got MY liquor permit this weekend!  Gonna need that... just kidding but seriously... I can also now officially buy pork.  Delicious, delicious pork.

-Also discovered the Jarir Bookstore this weekend!  Not quite Barnes and Noble, but they had a decent enough selection of English language books that I can keep myself occupied for a couple of weeks.

-We have found heaven, and it is called Ric's.  Ric's Kountry Kitchen, to be more specific.  It's a bit of a hole-in-the-wall place (which is exactly our type and what we've been looking for) but they have damn good breakfast and we've heard good things about lunch and dinner too.  The menu has lots of familiar foods- migas, breakfast burritos, Texas toast, CFS, grits... and ICED TEA.  Honest-to-goodness real ICED TEA.  Strong, crisp, caffeinated, SO GOOD.  I can drink a gallon of it.  We wer introduced by some friends, who invited us to walk over for breakfast a couple weekends ago.  We accepted, and met them in the lobby really early on Saturday morning.  Should have been a warning to me that they were dressed in workout clothes and we were in jeans... the walk was a BIT farther than we were expecting.  About 8 kilometers farther, around the Corniche and about three long blocks off of it.  Still, it was a great morning, sunny and breezy and the company was great, and the food was worth the walk.  We earned our breakfast burrito that day, and liked it so much we walked back this past weekend too (we caught a cab home both days.)  There's a tentative plan to go back this weekend as well, and if the weather's nice, I just might try walking both ways.  I do love being outside in the breeze when I can be, before it gets too damn hot.

-We were in one of the grocery stores this Saturday, and I was poking around looking for something when I heard someone say, Happy Mother's Day!  I turned to see who it was, and realized she was talking to ME!  Apparently Mother's Day was this weekend in the Middle East, and she was a rep for a baby formula company and they were giving roses to moms.  I told her I wasn't one, didn't have kids, and she said, "That's OK!  You get roses too!"  Uh, OK then!  So now I have two beautiful roses, one deep red and one peachy-pink, blooming on my dining table... unintentionally, a lovely reminder of Tyler, TX, Rose Capital USA!


-It rained this week.  HARD.  Surprisingly so, thunder and wind and all.  There aren't many people over here who know how to drive in the rain, since it happens so infrequently... also, very little drainage so no place for the water to go but over the roads. Was an interesting ride to work.

Dinner is just about thawed, and Thomas is on his way home... so I will sign off for now!  Four weeks to Texas!