So, one of my friends from back home has recently moved to Arlington for college. Now, Plano and Arlington aren’t that close, but we’ve both agreed that – since both of us have experienced leaving home and consequently losing some ties – we should see each other as much as our schedules allow.  We’ve only gotten together a couple times, but it has been a huge relief and a ton of fun to have one of my friends from back home here and understanding exactly some of the things I went through when I left home! I think it’s also helped her that I know exactly what she’s going through and I’m here for her.

So…last night I decided I should take her to the House of Blues in downtown Dallas. It was a Sunday night, but the House of Blues was open until 10pm according to the website and since it’s one of my favorite places to go, if a little on the expensive side, I thought it would be fun.

Well, folks, I was WRONG. I have never seen that place so dead! Not only that, but the “menu” we got – due to the fact that they’d sent most of their kitchen staff home – was very sadly limited. None of my favorite foods were on their tiny menu. It only listed about seven appetizer-like dishes, some desserts and that was it!!! They also had the Saints game on all the tvs in the place, so any noise we heard was loud (and probably drunken) screaming from the few people left in the place anytime there was a good play. If it hadn’t been for the good company and former experience, I would have decided that the House of Blues completely sucked. I also feel bad for trying to show my friend “downtown atmosphere” and ending up at possibly the most suffocatingly dull place to be on a Sunday night in Dallas. In retrospect, I should have realized that it was Sunday night and chosen someplace like Cafe Brazil near SMU, which is almost always open, packed, and serving a wide variety of delicious food for much less than H.o.B.

Fortunately for me, I was in very good company with someone who is probably one of the best and most intelligent of friends I’ve ever had and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations, our jokes, and having the chance to talk with someone who knows exactly where I’m coming from on a lot of issues as well as what it’s like to be in a new place coming from Odessa, TX where the enironment is so totally familiar and “safe”. For example, we’re both baffled by how in this area (DFW/Arlington/Plano/etc.) you can be perfectly good friends with someone at school or work, and yet you will never see this person outside of that environment. They won’t go out to lunch with you, go see movies with you, or just hang out. It just doesn’t happen. And, much to her dismay (and my relief, lol) people here don’t hug. Hugging as a friendly gesture is like a foreign concept here. For me, that’s good because I’m not touchy-feely, but my friend shares hugs with her friends. Here, that just doesn’t happen…strange cultural differences, I guess.

So…it’s been a blessing and a relief to see her again – and I won’t name her on the magical intarwebs because her privacy is her own – but I have to say that without her, the House of Blues on a Sunday night is the last place I would want to be, and with her, it’s an ideal spot to hang out (and make fun of screaming drunks watching football).

Time seems to be going both very quickly, and very slowly simultaneously. Has that ever happened to you!? It’s only been two weeks since classes started, but each day passes so quickly that I feel like it must have been at least a month! I had thought that after the holiday on the 18th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the short school week following, that I would be done with running last-minute errands for class materials, but of course that was a mistake.

I had planned for my Reading and Writing Texts (aka HUMA 3300) class, which is a core requirement, that I would check out my required reading books (of which there are 9, plus the latest edition of the MLA Handbook) from the library. But, when the teacher found that out he suggested I just go buy them. He wasn’t rude about it or anything, but I did get the impression that he didn’t really understand the idea that textbooks for the semester can cost me as much as a month’s rent, which I could use for…I don’t know…rent. But, I needed to go out and buy the books.

Granted, this one class won’t break the bank, but it’s frustrating. (If I really wanted to rant, my Statistics book was $102.00.) No offense to my relatives, because I love you all, but I need some relative that I don’t really know to die and leave me a lot of money to help me finish paying for college. Or, you know, some random person to feel bad for me and just give me the money.  I would work if I could, but right now my schedule is too crazed to allow for it…class at 10:30am, class at 5:30…class at 10, 1:30, 4 to 7pm…alternating days. And in my so-called “free” time I’m trying to stay up and a little ahead for Statistics because, folks, this is the third time I’ve taken a Statistics class…the first one I dropped because an absence during an exam was going to make me fail (which is what I get for not having the insurance to run to the doctor every time I’m sick with something I’m already familiar with), the second one I dropped because I had a D and no time to study since I was working that semester…but this time, miraculously…I seem to be doing well in Statistics. I blame the teacher and the fact that the textbook, expensive though it is, is rather well-written. Plus, I’m studying like a madwoman. Oh, and then other homework, of course. Not that reading is ever very hard to do, but it does take time.

But…finally…I seem to have (almost) everything I need for all my classes, I’ve turned in my graduation application, and my application for a passport (yay for impending international travel, wherever it may be), and I’m doing pretty well so far, if feeling a little overwhelmed. I also have been trying to go to the gym regularly (OKAY, FINE, I failed this week…but I’m going to go tomorrow) and I have been trying to deliberately plan a little “me-time” every day so that I don’t go stark, raving mad trying to make it to graduation which is, to claim a cliché, so close and yet so far away.

Anyhoodles, that’s my update for now…I’m just busy (and probably a bit self-absorbed while trying to get everything done) but I’m doing okay!

I’m STILL writing 2009 on things…and actually I wrote 2008 on something last week…so just ignore it if I mess up again.

My winter break was less full of “break” than I had planned, though it was enjoyable. Classes started on the 11th and while I don’t have classes on Friday, I have enough homework that I NEED Friday rather desperately anyway.

I’m behind where I want to be on my reading for fun, though I am keeping up with reading for class. It’s just that reading for class is mostly poetry (which makes sense in my poetry class) and there’s not much to say about it. I don’t dislike poetry, but I’m not a huge fan either. That means I am continually failing to update NeoLibrarium, which I find personally frustrating. I like blogging book reviews…

Anyway, there are good things going on too. For instance, Ricardo and I went on a wonderful date last night at the Pocket Sandwich Theater in Dallas. It reminded me of a similar theater I visited in Midland. We had a rather tasty dinner, then a show. The three-act play, Fangs for the Memories was set in New Orleans. So, to get in the mood everyone in the theater sang a couple of songs about New Orleans (one was House of the Rising Sun, the other I can’t remember the title…). Then we got our plain popcorn to throw at the actors and each other for the show. For extra popcorn it was fifty cents a box, but it was totally worth it to get at least two extra boxes at the first intermission because the audience was entertaining themselves during intermissions with popcorn vendettas. It was hilarious.

During one scene, three of the actors were sitting at a table and since most of the popcorn was landing on the table they just started munching on it while they said their lines! It was probably one of the best dates I’ve ever been on. I’m hoping we can make a return trip soon. Everything was great!

Anyhoo…that’s my update, folks. Hope you are all enjoying the new year and having some laughs yourselves.

Happy New Year! I had a great time bringing in the New Year with Ricardo, we watched the celebrations on tv and had a midnight steak dinner. I made sure we had black-eyed peas (last ones in the store!) and we had a great time. I was glad we avoided going downtown for the big celebrations – it had rained all day and it was freezing cold overnight – plus I’m not big on being in crowds that are packed in the way they were in downtown Dallas!

After the New Year we watched tv for a while and listened to some of the crazies outside. We heard fireworks or something outside several times, but fortunately no gunshots – though though something sounded like a nail gun to me. (Go figure.) I hope you all had a good celebration and a safe New Year, and I wish you the best for 2010!

School starts for me January 11th and I’m looking forward to my last semester of college. Now I need to really figure out what I want to do! I would love to write for a living, but I know that isn’t going to pay the bills right away even if I do manage it later on, so I’m looking into everything I can think of. A lot of people have suggested I just go straight for my Masters degree, but I really think the life experience would serve me better at this point so my plan on that is to wait five years and then, after that time, if I still want it I’ll go for it. There are a lot of opportunities out there for A&H majors, no matter how many disparaging remarks I’ve heard, and I’m looking to explore as many things as possible since, for me to be happy, I’d have to have a career that is interesting, challenging, and involve some change as time goes on – which is a little harder to find than a stable, and somewhat repetitive, job. I doubt I’ll find a career – vs a job – right away…and hey, I’ve got to get my degree first…so encouragement and suggestions are welcome. I’m looking outside of teaching right now because I’d have to spend more money and time on getting certification, and I’m tired of being a student at the moment. However, everything else is fair game.

Hopefully, by the time I’m ringing in 2011 I’ll be making good progress on all of that. Wish me luck!