Finally. My vacation time has arrived. I am leaving for my 10 day wonderful vacation.

First, I’m going to California. Officially, for my cousin’s wedding, which doesn’t happen until the last part of my vacation. The first part of my vacation will take place in a beautiful place, my favorite place in the world. That’s right, Hawaii. It was my parents’ idea, so who am I to argue?

So I arrive in Cali late on Friday night. Saturday I get to spend some time maybe hanging out with a friend or two. Then Sunday we leave for Hawaii. We return from Hawaii late the next Friday night, almost Saturday morning. I am planning (though I have not finalized) some kind of event to hang out with my friends that I haven’t seen in forever, since that day works for many of them. Then that Sunday is my cousin’s wedding. Monday I fly back home to Houston, and back to work on Tuesday.

I’m gonna be a good girl and not bring my laptop. I know, hard to believe. But I can do it! I will still check my emails from my parents’ computers when I’m in California, but since most of the time will be spent in Hawaii without internet access, there’s no point in carrying a laptop on the plane. So my internet presence will be basically nil for the next week or so. Try not to miss me too much.

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Yesterday I had my dentist appointment, that I was long overdue for. I hadn’t had a cleaning or checkup since before moving to Texas. Part of that was laziness, another part was it just takes so long to finally get things settled. Anyway, the appointment was for 8 am to try to get everything done so I can still get to work at a decent hour. They did my paperwork and x-rays and all that, and then I waited for the Dentist. When he inspected my teeths, he prescribed a deep cleaning, not the regular kind that insurance covers, no, the deep cleaning that is required for really serious stains that you have to pay for out of pocket. Apparently my coffee, iced tea, and Dr, Pepper have taken a toll on my teeths. Awesome. What more, is he found a cavity. WTF? I haven’t had a cavity since I was a kid! So of course with Dental PPO I have to pay a portion of that. Fun fun. We also talked about my jaw issues (TMJ Disorder) and he said that I open my mouth just fine now, there are no issues with that anymore. (Two and a half years ago I dislocated my jaw - it locked open. After the ER doctor set it, it hurt a lot and I couldn’t really open it very wide at all for about a year. Apparently, certain things like that take forever to heal, like sprains.)

Then the hygenist did her deep cleaning thing on me. That included her scraping the sides of my teeth and the gum line to get all the deep stains out. It hurt, not gonna lie. She tortured me for about 45 minutes. My gums are still sore and my mouth still tastes like a dentist visit. Blergh. But at least my teeth are cleaner. I had noticed those stains, yes, they worried me. That’s why I started brushing harder and even bought those Listerine whitening strips, but they didn’t seem to help with the deep issues. So now that I’ve had my deep intensive (not to mention expensive - I think I paid like ~$130 on my credit card. Then, my next appointment is a Saturday in September for the regular cleaning/polish, followed by the filling. Awesome. That’s another ~$50 I have to pay for the filling. Seriously, how did my teeth get that bad in one year? I miss my awesome dentist in California. His cleanings didn’t hurt and my teeth were ok then.

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So we’ve been married for over a year, and we just last week officially notified the military of that. And now I have my own government-issued military dependent ID card with my mug on it.

We made an appointment at Ellington Air Field for 8:30 AM (their earliest available slot) for last Wednesday.  Their policy is even if people have an appointment, the people that work there always get priority, so needless to say we were there early yet had to keep waiting for our turn. Then they started having “computer trouble” that they blamed on the tropical storm. The (extremely incompetent) lady in charge there said someone must have unplugged the machines in preparation for the storm, even though they’re not supposed to be unplugged, so now that they are turned on again things don’t work. Right, cause unplugging a computer makes it not work when you plug it back in the next day. So when they finally decided it was in fact our turn, at 11 am (!!!), their scanner didn’t work so they couldn’t process our certificate of marriage.

At this point I had expected to be at work by 10 am, I know, silly me. But since I worked from home the day before because of the storm (it had stormed pretty bad the night before so I decided I’d stay home so as not to drive in that) I felt really bad for having yet another day when I’m showing up all late to the office. So I get really mad at them and I’m sending angry sparks from my eyes at everyone but apparently they didn’t notice cause no one blew up. Anyway they tell us to go to the other ID card place that doesn’t do appointments but is drop in only and where you take a number and sit and wait until your number is called.

So we go there, it’s near downtown so it takes some time to get there. We get there around noon (we hadn’t stopped to get food so I was not only pissed off at the world but hungry at that point too). Their sign says they are open until 1:30 and honestly if we had gone there first we’d have been done by the time I thought I’d be at work for sure, even if we had to wait in line. What sucked about that place is their alarm system was broken or something, cause there was a ringing sound going on in the hallway where the waiting seats were. I seariously thought I was going to lose my mind. The alarm kept ringing, I was pissed, hungry, and to top that off the TV kept CNN on loop where they kept showing that refrickintarded video of Paris Hilton’s “energy plan”. OMG, I seriously was gonna go homicidal that day.

At about 1:30 the number before our’s finished up, and I was telling Hubby that if they said sorry we’re closed right before me, I’d kill somebody. Maybe they heard me, or maybe the sign was wrong, but they kept taking people and processed my paperwork. I took maybe 15 minutes for the whole thing - putting our marriage certificate into the system, filling out the information for the ID card, taking the photo, and printing the ID. So I got to leave there and go to work with ID card in hand, at least having something to show for my completely wasted day. Yea, I showed up to work at like 2:30 that day. Talk about fashionably late! But I charged half my day to time off and took some work home with me that evening to make up for the rest of the time.

But yes, I can now go to the USO when I fly this weekend!

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According to the awesomeness that is Angela, my blog kicks ass! That’s right! She named me as one of her top 5 choices for kick ass blogs! That’s cause she really kicks major ass and is one of the awesomest blogging ladies in the blogosphere!

Do you know 5 bloggers who kick ass? If you do, let em know!

Show Your Blogger Love

*Choose 5 bloggers that you feel are “Kick Ass Bloggers”
*Let them know you think they kick ass via email, twitter, or blog comments.
*Share the love and link back to both the person who awarded you and back to www.mammadawg.com
*Pass it on!!

Let’s see, who are my kick ass bloggers? These are bloggers who I interact with often, who’s blogs I’m always reading, and who have made an impact in my blogging life.

1. Angela. I know, she already got named, but in my mind she really is kick ass. She’s got two great and interesting blogs and is my top reader. I heart her.
2. Maria
3. Julia
4. Joana
5. Rebecca

You ladies are awesome and kick ass!

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So after we had to pay for fall 2008 semester tuition for Hubby’s law school, we finally got our loan application approved from My Rich Uncle.  We only applied for them late this summer, after Bank of the West, where we originally applied, denied our loan because we asked for more than the school allows for the year. We had wanted to get one loan for the rest of his education and some extra to help us get by, and when we did the application, the lady on the phone taking our information said that was OK. Well, turns out it wasn’t, and once they denied our loan, we could not apply again since they closed down their student loans department. Great. The reason we went with Bank of the West is ’cause Hubby’s Mom is branch manager or something, so she told us about their options but that they were closing down the student loans section so we had to apply quickly.

So after we got denied, sometime around that time we got an ad in the mail about My Rich Uncle, and went for it. The rates are good, actually better than what Bank of the West was going to give us.  They let us defer the payments until graduation like we wanted, cause it’s not like we can afford the payments now anyway. So now we have our $20,000, which is enough for about a year’s tuition. We have some other remaining loans as well to cover books and the extra (cause it’s about 12.5 grand per semester tuition. At least we had some savings so we were able to pay the tuition before we got the loan. Next time around we need to apply earlier to make sure we get the money before we need to pay. Cause those situations can get scary.

Of course, I’m not looking foward to having these loans become due once he graduates. He’ll need to find a job quickly because the several loans we have will have their monthly payments add up to quite a bit. Ah, the joys of going into blinding debt to continue one’s edumacation.

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Friday was the Breaking Dawn midnight release, so that was an interesting event for me. It was my first ever book release, since I never read any of the Harry Potters (I know, don’t kill me) and never stood in line at midnight to get a book. One of the girls who planned our outing was able to get us gold wristbands when Borders first opened, so we would be first in line, which was awesome! So prior to going to Borders to pick up our books that evening, we went to Sonoma for some great wine. I had a yummy Muscat so I was happy. One of the girls had a special surprise for us, she brought cupcakes! Mmm red velvet cupcakes with yummy wine. What could be better? Oh yea, great company. That was tons of fun. Then we went to Borders to hang out and wait for the book unveiling, and watch some of the debates and stuff they had. Well, the partipants were all annoying little teenages who were all like I think Bella should pick Edward because like Jacob smells bad and like Edward is hot. Ok, yea, good job little teenager. The costume consest was pretty weird too, but the winners were a cute couple who were Sam and Emily. That was cute. We basically sat back and made fun of the teenagers and looked through maganizes until it was time to line up. A friend with the same name as me had me take pictures of the unveiling, and what was funny is the angle I took the first picture at, looked like one of  the girls was trying to pull back the sheet. Heh. I didn’t get home that night till about 2 or so, read a little, then passed out. Some of the people who got their books with me are already done, and I’m like on chapter 8. But oh well, hopefully there won’t be too many spoilers in their facebook posts.

Saturday turned out nice too. I slept in quite a bit, read some, ran some errands, and then while I was out running errands I got a text from a friend that their 4th backed out and they wanted to know if I wanted to join them for the John Mayer concert that night. Of course! So I get home in time to take a shower and straighten my hair before leaving to meet them at one of their houses. I didn’t know where the concert was, so I assumed it was an indoor airconditioned regular type of concert, and wore black jeans and boots, evening makeup and all that. Silly me, it was an outdoor concert and we sat in the lawn area, in the Texas HEAT. Yea, poor choice in clothes. By the time we walked from the parking lot to the seating area, I was drenched and ready to pass out. I didn’t even have a blanket, cause I didn’t know to bring one, but there were 3 blankets for 4 people so I got to share. When we sat down I immeditately took off my boots and socks and rolled up my jeans to my knees and tied my hair up. That helped a lot. I didn’t look in a mirror but I don’t think I had makeup melting all over my face, it felt ok. Eventually before John Mayer finally came out (Colby Caillat opened for him, I’m not too much of a fan of her’s) it got dark and there was a breeze. Let me tell you, the man got hot somehow. He didn’t wear a shirt and he had a nice set of abs there. And played the guitar amazingly. So it was quite nice. I was kinda zoned out that day cause my sleeping cycle was all out of whack, so it was interesting. Plus, the people right behind us, especially me since I sat on the end, were drunk off their asses though, and kept being routy and obnoxious and even spilled beer on us. Awesome. Why people feel the need to be jerkasses, I will never understand. But it was still great to hang out with friends and have some eye candy as well.

Today I’m still all out of it cause I got home after 1 and read some before passing out, and woke up and read some again. Tonight we’re going to a couples bowling event organized by one of my very pregnant friends who I used to work with and who I rarely see so this will be awesome. Hubby should be home soon from drill, they got let out early, or he just left, whatever, but it’s great that we can both be there. This turned out to be an awesome weekend. I love awesome weekends where I get to spend time with new friends.

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I have proof! My cat is a princess and believes in no manual work. She thinks machines are supposed to do things for us, and we should just sit back and relax and play with her.

See, yesterday morning I finally decided to get around to hand washing some of my shirts that had piled up in my “to hand wash” pile. My cat likes to hang out with me, anywhere around the house, especially in the bathroom. So she was wandering around the sinks while I was soaking and washing and rinsing and laying things out to dry. So while one of my tops was soaking in the sink the kitteh decided to attack it. She’s like eww what are you doing and why is my Momma wasting her time on you.

Just watch. If the video doesn’t work, you can watch it on youtube here.

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Today started off kinda funky with the weather sucking (storming and bad visibility) and drivers sucking more. It’s just so strange, Houstonians are so nice in person, but once they get behind the wheel, all human dignity goes out the window and assholeness sets in. I swear! I was making a left turn, at a yield light that had not turned the green arrow yet, so I wasn’t sure if the cars were stopping or going, and apparently was not making that decision fast enough. So the person behind me decides to just turn. Listen buddy, not sure if you’ve ever had any science classes, but two vehicles cannot occupy the same space at the same time! You could have hit me! It was raining for crying out loud. People, I swear! And of course, on the drive home, visibility was near nonexistent, but apparently speeding by 10 miles was still not acceptable by some awesome tailgators and people who drove nearly inbetween other cars to get by. Traffic was awful on the way home, no thanks to these people.

Tonight was the women’s meetup to see Mamma Mia, which, by the way, was awesome. Not as good as the broadway show, naturally, but still good. I love, love, love ABBA. I grew up listening to their music and I had to fight myself just to sing along under my breath. But I felt like I watched the  movie alone. See, a few people I knew were supposed to go to the meetup as well, but probably due to awesome weather and traffic, couldn’t make it. Sara and I had to work late (thanks Pete) and I barely got home in time to make it, and since she lives an hour away, couldn’t make it. At least this meetup was held in my town, so I literally just had to drive down the street. The organizer was supposed to meet everyone out front, but no one was there, and as I walked in I got to talking to another woman who was there for the metup but didn’t see the organizer either. It was my first meetup so I didn’t know the other people so couldn’t recognize them. So basically I sat with this woman who I talked with a bit, but it was like seeing the movie alone. That kinda sucked. And it really made me wish I had a best friend or two here to hang out with and have fun with. Not that I really had those in Cali toward the end before moving out here, we’d long since lost touch and moved on. I realize it’s hard to make friends with people I haven’t known that long but dammit this alone feeling sucks.

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Kitty Limericks does doggie limericks too. This one is about Dixie.

Dixie loves to play in the pond.
Of chasing her ball she’s very fond.
They put them together
In sunny weather.
Just watch Dixie and Hubby bond.

She is referencing this video I made of Dixie at the dog park playing with Hubby:

If the video doesn’t work, you can view it on youtube.

Thanks again Karen Jo! You are awesome!

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