Shirtless on I-10

Well, I managed to survive another Thanksgiving. Since I had been in San Antonio since Friday for the conference, I was ready to go home. I packed up after dinner and headed east on I-10.

I had one of the turtlenecks on and was hot. I had stopped at the Flying J truck stop before heading home and bought some really cool t-shirts. Once I passed through Sequin on I-10, I had to get out of the turtleneck. I had a group of cars about a mile behind me and another group of cars about ¾ mile in front of me. So, I decided to change shirts. As you know, I don’t also think before I do something. I took off the turtleneck while I had a cigarette in my mouth, and ending up knocking the cigarette out of my mouth into my bra and burning myself. When I was trying to get the cigarette, I ended up dropping the t-shirt on the floorboard of the car. I still had a good distance between the two groups of cars, so I was able to retrieve the shirt and get it on before anyone was close enough to see me driving on I-10 without a shirt on.

I never cease to amaze myself with the predicaments that I get myself into.

Turtlenecks

Wednesday was the last day of conference.

On the last day, there are only morning classes available. I didn’t get to bed until 5:30am the night before, so there was no way I was going to make it to any of the classes that day.

When I did wake up and took a shower, I noticed that Chris, again, being the very good friend that he is, had left a number of hickeys on my neck. I was half-tempted to tell him that he would have to go to my grandma’s house with me and explain them. When I saw him between classes, he looked like he was still drunk and suffering, so I didn’t harass him too much.

I checked out of the hotel around noon, and went to do some shopping before heading to grandma’s house. I was looking everywhere for a freakin’ turtleneck shirt to hide the hickeys. All I could find were sweaters, which would be too hot. I did finally find some thin turtleneck shirts in the men’s section of WalMart, so I bought two of them and went on my merry way.

My sister called me when I was still shopping, and since I was close by, asked me to pick her up. So I did, and we ended up going shopping at some stores close by grandma’s house before going back to the Riverwalk. We went through a lot of the shops there before going to Casa Rio for dinner. The food was wonderful. I am definitely going to go back there again.

We headed back to grandma’s house and I went to bed early. I was trying to catch up on some much-needed sleep.

The Revenge of Rumplemintz

Tuesday at the conference was okay. I finally made it to one class! During that class, the speaker asked if there were any piano bars in the area. Of course, I yell out “O yeah!” All of a sudden, everyone in the class turned their heads to look back at me. I guess I don’t realize how loud I can be.

We ended up going to Boudro’s for dinner. Then, we headed back to Durty Nelly’s for another fun night. When we arrived, the place was not very lively. But, it was early, so we figured we would stay around a while. Our waitress sucked! She brought us our first round of drinks, and three out of five of us wanted to just open a tab so we wouldn’t have to worry about paying cash for each drink. She was so pissed about having to do that, which really irked me. Then, she would disappear for long periods of time and it would take forever to get another drink. She was nothing like the great waiter we had last night. And, mind you, it was not very crowded so I know she couldn’t have been busy. It was sad. Also, there was a different piano player and he was not very impressive. Heather and I wanted to bail out and go check out some other bars, but the others wanted to wait around a while. After two Tom Collins drinks and a shot of Rumplemitz, I closed out my tab. I was sick of dealing with that bitchy waitress.

Since the bar was located in our hotel, I went up to my room to drop off my jacket. While I was there, I checked my email. Then, Heather called me to find out where the hell I was. I told her I would be back down shortly. By that time, Chris and Tim had arrived at the bar. We decided to get out of there and head to Polly Esther’s again. Since it was a weeknight, they only had one floor open. It was so crowded in there. And, to top that off, they had run out of Miller Lite! I asked the guy how the hell they could run out of Miller Lite. He said that at this same time last year, they only had 13 people in the club. They had to know that the Texas EMS conference was going to be in town with an estimated 3,000 attendees…and a lot of those attendees love to drink. When you’re in EMS, you’re on call for long hours, so you definitely can’t drink then. The conference is the one of the few times you can drink and not have to worry about sobering up before going on duty.

I guess my stomach finally recognized the Rumplemintz shot I took at Durty Nelly’s, and it felt like it was starting to tie up in knots. When we got to Polly Esther’s, all I ordered was a Diet Coke. Chris was shocked that I ordered something that did not contain alcohol. So, being the good friend he is, he ordered a shot of Rumplemitz for me. Just the smell of it caused me stomach to knot up even more. I walked outside for some fresh air, came back in, and Chris noticed that I still hadn’t drank the shot yet. I told him my stomach wasn’t going to allow it. He had no idea that I ended up praising the porcelain god last night, since I hadn’t really seen him during the day to tell him. Once he knew, he understood why I wasn’t drinking that much. So, he drank the shot for me. Heather and Lisa ended up bailing out of the club early. I was ready to go myself, but didn’t want to leave Chris behind. Tim had also bailed out early, so he really didn’t have anyone to hang out with. Chris is like me and can pretty much strike up a conversation with anyone; but I still didn’t want to leave him alone. So, we stayed there until he finished his Coor’s Light (since he couldn’t have a Miller Lite) and headed back to the hotel.

I am so happy that the conference will be back in Austin next year. That’s where it’s been for the previous five years and they appreciate us. The Austin bars always know to stock up on plenty of alcohol before we get there.

A pitcher of daiquiris

Monday night started out slow. There was some miscommunication with my friends from Schlumberger and Alvin EMS. They all agreed to meet at 6:00pm in the lobby for dinner. Unfortunately, no one remembered to tell me. So, they called me to let me know they were leaving for dinner, and I was not even close to being ready to go. So, I told them to head out without me.

I called Chris, and he had no idea what his group for doing for dinner. So I ended up ordering room service and a pitcher of mango-strawberry daiquiri.

As I waited for room service, I called Chris again to find out if they had any idea where they were going. To my surprise, he actually knew! They ended up at Durty Nelly’s, a piano bar located on the Riverwalk level of the hotel. My room service order had just been delivered, so I ate and drank as fast as I could so I could get down to the bar and not miss any action. Do you know how hard it is to drink a frozen daiquiri fast? It’s pretty damn hard, so I was only able to drink half of the pitcher before I gave up and stumbled downstairs to the bar. Once I arrived, I found that Penny and Lisa from AEMS also had found their way there, which was cool. The piano player Steve was one of the best I have seen. He is from Vernon, TX and was once a preacher!

I had many, many of shots of Rumplemitz (I lost count). Somehow, the conversation turned to breast sizes. To make it easier to compare who had smaller breasts, I just took off my bra. I didn’t take my shirt off shirt first, then the bra. I just took it off under my shirt and handed it to Chris. Since no one else took off their bras from comparison, Chris ended up wearing my bra on his head briefly before giving it back to me. So, I was able to put it back on. And yes, I did it while I was still wearing my shirt (I didn’t realize I was so talented).

Then, much to my dismay, Chris cut me off from liquor L. He said that I reached my limit and needed to stop. He was probably right, but I didn’t want to accept that at the time. He was doing it to be mean; he’s just a great friend who cares about me. But, that night, Lisa was a better friend because she snuck a shot to me. Thanks, Lisa!

As my sister will tell you, I can talk a lot. So, of course, I was all over the bar talking to everyone. I meet “clapper guy”. I don’t know his real name. I just call him that because he was my clapping partner during the Scotsman song. I had a cigarette in one hand and he had a beer in one of his hands, so we used our free hands to clap. There was also “silly bitch” guy. I didn’t give him that name; that was the name that piano player Steve gave him. When the guy came in, he had a bunch of Mardi Gras beads around his neck. He went up to talk with Steve, who notice the beads around his neck and called him “silly bitch”. So, that was his new name for the night. BTW, I did manage to get one set of beads before the night was over.

When I was wondering around the bar, I ran into some representatives from Grainger. I order a lot of items from them for Schlumberger. So, I chatted with them for a while, and they bought me another shot of Rumplemitz.

The bar shut down at 1:00am, which sucked. So, we found our way to a dance club, Polly Esther’s. I had to go to the powder room. When I came out, I ran into Clapper Guy and his friend and talked with them for a while. When I went to find the rest of my group, I couldn’t find them anywhere. So, I staggered back to the hotel and passed out in my room. Soon after that, my phone rang and it was Chris and Tim calling from their room asking me why I left the club. I told them that I looked and couldn’t find anyone. I ended up going to their room. They were both pretty drunk, and drunk people tell the best stories! I got to hear about a Tim’s terrible encounter with an Igloo cooler. At 4:10, I headed back up to my room, praised the porcelain god, and then passed out.

What a night!

Tim's worst nightmare:

Party!

Well, the first full night of the Texas EMS conference got into full swing last night. I started out attending the Aeros/Ramage hockey game. The Aeros lost in overtime, which really sucked.

Then, I got together with some others from Alvin EMS and my crazy friend Chris, and headed to Dick’s Last Resort. We had a blast there! Mostly, I stayed with the usual Miller Lite, but I did have two shots of Seagram's Seven and one shot of Rumplemintz. I was feeling pretty good. Surprisingly, I was back in my hotel room by 10:00pm.

See...I'm trying to be good

Ugghh! Stupid People!!

Well, I finally made it to San Antonio. It wasn’t easy. I really didn’t start packing until late Thursday night, and finished up Friday morning. Of course, when I go out of town, I like to clean my apartment beforehand so I can come home to a clean place. After the cleaning was done, I was ready to hit the road. This was around 1:00pm.

Before I left town, I went by McDonalds because I was starving. The girl handed me my large diet coke at the drive-thru window. Being the klutz that I am, I grabbed it wrong and spilled it all over my car and myself. Since I was less than two miles from home, I decided to head back home, clean myself up and wash my clothes. I finally left Alvin around 3:15pm.

The traffic basically sucked. I do not understand idiots! If you’re not driving fast, get your ass out of the left lane!!! That’s the one major pet peeve of mine. What’s sad is that I tend to get so worked up about it, even though there’s not much I can do to control it.

I finally arrived at the hotel and got settled in around 7:00pm. I spent the night relaxing and getting ready for the PowerPoint class I had the next day. My friend Chris called me around 10:00pm, and I ended up talking to him for an hour. He won’t be coming to San Antonio until Sunday. In fact, he’s due to arrive as I’m leaving to go the Aeros/Rampage hockey game. And yes, I did remember to bring my Aeros jersey!

U GO RV

As I was driving home the other night, I was behind a vehicle with that on it’s license plate. My user name on Instigator Alley’s message board is RedVulcan500 (after my motorcycle, of course). People will sometimes refer to me as RV on the board for short. So, when I read this license plate, I was quite amused.

I do go!

It was worth it

I went to the Aeros game last night. They lost, but it still was a great game. We had to go into overtime. Nothing can get your heart pumping like going into overtime. I thought the guy sitting two rows in front of me and Lori was going to have a stroke! Maybe I need to start carrying some of my medical gear with me to the game?

Anyways, I did take pictures (of course). I?m still not too happy with the way many turned out. I?ll have to go back to my camera?s manual and see if I can figure it out.

To see pictures from last night's game, go here. I also added some new pictures to the Curtis Murphy album, so feel free to also take a look at those.

I'm sorry...so sorry

My apologies to the few people that do read my site…I haven’t had time to blog in a while. This just proves how boring my life is. So, to make this blog seem a little easier to read, I’ve broken it up into parts. Enjoy!

Family and Friends

Grandma?s going to a hockey game!

That?s right! Wednesday was my grandma?s birthday. Thank goodness Lori called me to remind me. So, I called her up to wish her happy birthday and to let her know that she was going to the Houston/San Antonio hockey game with us next Sunday. She actually seemed a little excited about it. I know she?ll love it. Of course, I really didn?t give her the option to say no.

I owe a BIG apology to Diane. I saw her last weekend at Brandon?s birthday party, and told her I would email her the links to my web site as well as some other sites of interest. When I talked with Christine (her daughter and my best friend) on Monday night, she told me that Diane said I hadn?t emailed her yet with the info. I am so sorry about that (please refer to blog on how work was this past week). I did email her today with an apology, and gave her the links as promised. I hope she won?t hold a grudge against me too long.

Work

Actually, it’s been a hectic week at work. It seems like everyday I walked into the door, they have added more people for me to support. I'm up to 144 people now! There are 340 people total in the new building, and I support 100 of those (the rest of my people are located in other areas of the site). So, I basically support 29% of all the people in the new building. To top that, there are seven other administrative assistants in that building, which split the other 240 people, when averages out to 34 people per other admin. That just doesn't make sense to me. I don’t know if I’m just that damn good, or what. I would like to think I’m good, and I try to excel at my job. I may not be the most professional at times, with my perverted remarks; but, I am always professional when it involves business.

With the increasing number of people I support, I’m working longer hours. By the time I get home, I am just beat and ready to go to bed. Also, after spending hours on the computer at work, I’m not anxious to come home and get right back in front of a computer screen.

My boss is on vacation for two weeks, so I haven’t been able to talk to him about it. He sure picked a bad time to take a vacation. When he returns, I’ll already be in San Antonio at the Texas EMS conference…probably getting drunk off my ass. I haven’t had any alcoholic drinks in so long, it will probably only take a few beers to get me to that point (AKA cheap date).

Hockey!

Well, what can I say about my Aeros. Isn’t there a rule that says if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all? They’re recent games have left a lot to be desired, but I’m remaining positive that we will improve as the season goes on. Even if we don’t, I’m still a true fan and will support them no matter what. This seems like an odd characteristic in this area. It seems like as soon as a team has a slump, no one wants to claim to be a fan. Fair-weather fans just seem to be very popular in the Houston area.

On a good note, Curtis Murphy is kicking ass! Just look at his record:

Okay, I may not know exactly what all that means…but it looks damn good to me! I just to see him tonight as the Milwaukee Admirals face the Houston Aeros. The Admirals are in fifth place in the Western Division and the Aeros are in seventh place. Much to the dismay of other Aeros fans, I just can’t help to cheer for him when he’s on the ice. He is, after all, my favorite hockey player. Sorry, I guess I was having a “puck bunny” moment.

Getting ready!

With the CPS exam done, I'm able to work on some projects I started about a month ago, but haven't had time to finish yet.

Now that I'm living downstairs, I can do more outside decorations for Christmas. I am proud to say I finished my first two lollipops tonight!

I know it's not that exciting, but that's about as exciting as my life is right now. Just wait...I'm going to the Texas EMS conference in two weeks; I always end up doing some crazy things there. In fact, I usually don't remember some of the stuff I allegedly did, but people said they witnessed it.

Alcohol can make people do crazy things...

My Lollipops!

It's All Over!

Well, I managed to complete the CPS exam yesterday. I'm so happy to be done with it. More importantly...no more cramming!

I went to Brandon's birthday party today. To see pictures from it, go here. It seems like everyone had a good time.

I really don't have much to write. This weekend was so hectic; I'm going to call it an early night.

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

I take the dreaded CPS test tomorrow. I wish I could lie and say that I'm prepared for it, but I don't feel like I am. I'm just hoping if God wants to perform a miracle, he'll choose tomorrow to do so

One of the tips that we were told during our CPS prep classes was not to bother studying after 6:00pm the night before the exam. If we didn't know it by then, we weren't going to know it at all. So, I went shopping for Brandon's birthday gift. His birthday party is this Sunday, and has a Spiderman theme. I called him to tell wish him a happy birthday, and he kept saying "It's my birthday, it's my birthday". He is just too cute. I can't believe he's already four years old! He's growing up faster than I want him to

While I was at WalMart, I ran into someone I hadn't seen in a while...Daryn. For those of you who don't know Daryn, he is a wonderful guy. He'll probably disagree with that statement since he tends to be modest, but this is my web blog so I can type what I want

We had a wonderful conversation and he seems to be doing pretty good. Hell, he also looks pretty damn good, too. It was really great talking to him again and I was very happy to hear that he and his family are doing well.

With the big exam tomorrow, I guess I better wrap this up. The results will not be available until 45 days after the exam, but I'll definitely let you know as soon as I found out something.

The Return of Smurf

Well, I guess I have lost my touch...I went to the Aeros game last night and they lost It was a sad game...the final score was 8-2. I'm still experimenting with my camera, but did get some decent photos. You can check them out here.

On a very good note, I finally got to see Curtis Murphy. He's my favorite player of all time. I was so mad when he got traded from Houston. The first Aeros game I attended was sort of sad since Murphy wasn't there. Then, after seeing him on the ice last night in another team's uniform, I was really starting to get emotional. I do miss him. He is just a damn good player. He did great last night...he finished with one assist and was tied for a team-best plus-four! I did take a bunch of pictures of him. He has a whole album dedicated to him that you can view here.

The Aeros next home game is Saturday, November 15th. And, guess what...we're playing Murphy's team again!

And now...for some good news!

I heard back from the IAAP-HQ today regarding the verification of my work experience. I do not have to have to form from my former employer to them before test day on Saturday (yea!). That's one less thing I have to worry about this week. They did request that I try to get it to them before the results from the exam are released (usually 45 days after the test date).

I was suppose to go to board meeting tonight, but decided not to go. I came home and actually study! It's so hard for me to study at home...there is too much other stuff around my place to do that is actually a lot more appealing than studying.

I'm counting down to Thursday night...when Curtis Murphy will be back in Houston! He'll be on the wrong team, but he'll still be here and that's what counts. I can't wait!

Two for two!

Well, this weekend ended on a very positive note...an Aeros win! I have now gone to two Aeros games...and they have won both of them. The only timed the Manitoba Moose scored tonight is when I left during the second period for a bathroom break. I normally try to wait until intermission, but that wasn't an option tonight. But I have learned my lesson...no matter how bad I need to go, I will wait until intermission!

I did remember to bring my camera. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember how to set it up to take action shots. I did get some decent pictures, which can be viewed here.

The 7th Annual Alvin EMS Haunted House wrapped up on Friday night. The profits from this year did not beat the profits from last year, which really perplexed me. I know we were busier this year than last year, so I had to do some research until I was able to figure it out. Sure enough, last year we were open for five nights, and this year we were only open four nights. When I averaged out the total profit over the number of nights, last year's nightly average profit $916.21 compared to this year's nightly average profit of $1004.32. Those numbers made me feel better. The pictures from this year's haunted house should be on the AEMS web site soon.

Less than a week until my CPS exam…I think. The reason I say that is because a new obstacle has cropped up. Many of the people in my review class hadn't received the admission tickets for the test site, me included. I emailed IAAP-HQ about it. They sent it to me in an attachment, which was good. Then, in the same email, informed me that they currently only have 29 months of experience on file for me, which is a lot less than the minimum required (48 months experience or a college degree).

It was very nice of them to let me know about this a week before the test. I sent my application and they charged my credit card back in August. So, I guess I really don’t know if I’m testing Saturday or not. I don’t know when they would have told me had I not emailed them about the admission ticket.

I found this out Thursday afternoon, but between the chili cook-off at work on Friday and the Haunted House, I really didn't want to deal with it. So, first thing tomorrow, I'll email IAAP-HQ again to find out what my options are.

I'll keep you posted!