Haircut!

Hey... just thought I'd post a pic of the new 'do... 

this might not be the best example, but you get the idea... shorter (but not drastically so) and a little blonder. It keeps turning red for some reason, especially in pictures. Eh. There ya go. 

Shaver

November is shaping up to be quite the adventure in my world! I spent last weekend in San Diego (it was heavenly, but I forgot to take pictures!), this weekend in Shaver, and next weekend me and Sally will be in Oregon. Wow! It is so nice to be back in a location that is fairly close to places that I would like to go, unlike Lubbock. 

So this weekend we went up to Shaver lake, where our family has a cabin (thats lakehouse to you midwesterners out there). I haven't spent time up there for probably at least five years, although I think it was even longer than that. Its only about an hour away, so its a place that is a nice escape when you want something different without having to be in the car for hours on end. We had three dogs with us (mine, my mom's, and my cousin's puppy) so at the beginning of the trip we weren't sure how all of that was going to go. I usually don't let Bailey off the leash much because she isn't predictable, especially when other people/kids/dogs are concerned. But they all spent almost the whole weekend off the leashes, and loved every minute of it! Bailey and Captain (the puppy) had a great time chasing each other and playing in the lake. 

I think Bailey was in shock that she got to dig and dig without being yelled at. She took full advantage of the situation and made a muddy mess. Luckily her fur has some super special artic oil in it where dirt falls off... she looked clean by the time we walked home. It was nuts. 

I got to spend a lot of time indulging my pyro tendencies, and we roasted marshmallows outside last night. Overall it was a great time! Hooray for mini-vacations :)

Love connection...

So, I decided to totally out myself here for the sake of a laugh... some of this stuff is just too good to make up, and I figured some of you might get a kick out of my "dating" misfortunes. So a friend and I decided to join match.com at the same time (you know, for moral support). As far as I'm concerned, joining with a friend is the only way to go. Most of it is just entirely to creepy and/or sad to be facing alone. With someone else, you can laugh at the losers and cry about the cute one that doesn't write you back. So anyway... I think I "winked" at this guy, because he seemed decent enough. And with match.com, they let you be a girl and force the guy to make the first move if you don't want to. You're out of your mind if you don't think I'm gonna capitalize on that. So I wink. And he emails back (sidenote, it actually tells the guys to email the girl back... whereas with girls, the option to email is there, but it doesn't tell you "women prefer emails; email her". hilarious)... here's his OPENING EMAIL:

"I'm Ryan from the big town of Merced! You have some nice photos, but I'am curious why your hair is red when you sAY IT IS DARK BLOND. I've tryed this online dating thing before and and found there are some scam artist out there trying to take peoples money. They use the same type of profile but add diferent pictures and forget to change the eye color, hair color evan race at times! AS for me, I'am real! NO scam just a guy looking for love. What is your ph.d going to be? HOw much longer before you achieve it? Hope to hear from you, -RYAN"

Anybody want to place a bet on why this guy has a hard time pickin up chicks? I'm sure he's a regular cassanova. Pssshhh.. I'm not going to even get into the fact that he has the grammar skills of a ten year old, but seriously, you're calling me out on my hair color? Implying that I'm a scam artist? Who does that? This is just irritating because its a completely stupid thing to call someone out on... especially when my hair color tends to change with the season. And no matter what, I've NEVER been a red head. But yeah, my whole goal in life is to steal this dude's money. What the heck. 

So are you curious about my response? I couldn't help myself... 

"Yep, you're completely right... I am really a 42 year old, 300 pound, red headed scam artist out to steal your money. That was one heck of an opening email... hard to believe you're still single! Best of luck in your search..."

Haha. I'm gonna be single FOREVER.

I'm back!

Yes, yes, yes... Couldn't resist starting the ol' blog up again... but for personal reasons I decided to wait until after the election was over to start back up again (I do intend to find a job someday, and in the field that I work in, my viewpoints are more than enough to get me permanently blacklisted--- so no more republican talk--- ok, maybe a little, but not to the extent that I would have been ranting pre-election :). 

Oh, blog world, how I've missed you... haha. Well, not really. My life has been fairly boring since you last saw me. I have had more improvement in my cripple-ness, and at this point people who have never met me would not know that I was crippled a few months ago. I think this is such a huge deal, because I remember thinking at the worst of my pain about how good life would be if I could only stand up straight again without pain. I told God that if I was ever able to function normally that I wouldn't ever take it for granted... and I haven't. I really try to be thankful everyday that I'm able to move and walk and stand and sit relatively pain-free. God healed me (with the help of a young, ultra-hip, confident-bordering-on-cocky, Armenian neurosurgeon)... and its kind of crazy. There are still times when it aches, and I have to be careful about how I move, lift, bend, etc. but its truly truly amazing to be functional. I love it. 

As for the election, I have made peace with it. It was tortuously long, but I think the outcome is within God's plan. Now, I obviously see things differently than most with regard to you-know-who ("The One" if you will) but it makes me happy to know that so many people find so much joy in him winning. People who have never cared before, people who have never felt proud of America before... they care now. They're happy. And that's good. I'm always happy. I'm always proud to be an American... and if this is what it took for a lot of others to feel that way, then that's okay. I personally don't see him as the messiah and the savior people have made him out to be, but him being elected was enough to give others joy. I refuse to take the defeat bitterly, and I will not treat him the way that so many have treated President Bush for the last 8 years. I will disagree on policy and point out the things that I disagree with... but I can't expect others to respect the next republican president if I'm down there mud-slinging and name calling now. The political discourse needs desperately to be rehauled, and unfortunately it has to start somewhere. I'm hoping to do my part. And, from this election I also became aware of Sarah Palin, who will forever be near and dear to my heart. Many of you may not understand why, especially if you buy into the media's portrayal of her, but I believe that she is intelligent and able, that she has done great things in her own state and that she is valuable to our nation. I hope that she runs in 2012, but even if she doesn't, its nice to know that there are genuinely good people out there who are willing to fight for what is right. 

Okay, that's enough for now. :)