Packages From Usedom

Yesterday, after I skipped dutifully to the mail box, I received the most wonderful of packages! Angela, who I have been visiting and who has been visiting me, sent me chocolates!
Unfortunately, yesterday it was 96 degrees outside! The chocolate was all melted when I picked up the package, so I put it in my freezer.


When it had been properly restored to a solid state, I opened the package. There were chunks of chocolate stuck to all the packages, I couldn't figure out where it was all coming from.


There was also a wonderful little postcard that Angela had filled out with a beautiful picture of the beach on it.



She sent me two chocolates with marzipan, which I had never tried, and two with nougat, which I love.


She also sent me some Lindor Truffles. I think, they melted and because the packages are not sealed, they ended up all over everything! Including my hands, chin and nose!


I love German Chocolate! I normally don't get out my camera when I get mail, but I thought I would share this yummy experience with you!


I didn't open the package until late last night, so I probably shouldn't have eaten any of the chocolate, but it was just too tempting, I love marzipan!!



Thank you Angela, I consider you a good friend to have. Anytime I visit you always have wonderful things to say and you can always find the silver lining in any dark raincloud! Thank you for brightening the blog world, one happy word after the other!

New Blog

I have made a blog that I'll update periodically about the planning of the wedding, I'll probably do quite a bit in the next few months then not touch it again for two years, but I will have it!

Rainy Days and Wedding Dates

Colorado and I sat down and made out a budget to see if we could make the drive up to Denver to see his family this June. We also made a budget for the wedding. I have been trying to show him how difficult it will be to have a nice wedding (the way I want it) and Colorado has come to the conclusion that I was right and that we won't have the money to get married the way I want to. So, we have backed off from the 'one year from now' date. We do have money saved. Since last August we have managed to save quite a bit. But at the rate we have been going, it will probably take us at least two more years, working the 20 to 30 hour weeks that we both do right now, to save up the money for us to get married and have the honey moon that I want.

I was getting into the planning part of it though, I really got excited. That's probably part of why he decided to say we could wait. I was showing him flowers and asking him about colors and showed him this nifty budget thing that I found online and he started asking about why stuff cost so much. We have decided that we will wait, mature, and buy a second car before we get married. Too bad, I had already gone to try on dresses and OMG I loved planning the wedding :) Oh well, this way we both get more of what we want!

June 12, 2010

Colorado asked me to marry him almost a whole year ago. May 22 I think. We were at his Grandma's house, that's where he lived at the time. Usually I would go over there after I got off work and almost all weekend (when he wasn't working). This night we had found a box of brownies at Albertson's on the 99 cent aisle. So I made brownies while he pretended to watch. We watched T.V. while they were baking. When I got up to cut them, Colorado went to his bedroom. I cut the brownies and put two in some napkins. When I opened his door, he was down on one knee and asked me "Water Baby, will you marry me?"

Needless to say, I said yes. We moved in together 3 months later and now we think we might have a date for the wedding. June 12, 2010.

Kitties and Roomies

I got my very first cat in August! He was a shelter cat. Colorado has always had cats and so when we moved in together, he immediately suggested that we run to the shelter and play with the many kitties there.



He had been at the shelter for almost 6 months. We went in looking for a kitten and instead came out with the sweetest cat I have ever met.


Soldier is his name and rubbing is his game. He rubs his face on everything! your fingers, your nose, your chin, your legs, YOUR CAMERA!



Finding an angle that is complementary to the soldier cat is almost impossible. Alas I found a few. And also a couple of Patches, our roommates Red and Tall's wiener dog. And also one of Tall sleeping on the couch!



Daddy knows about this but I'm not sure I told yall about Annabell. She was our kitten. We called her kitten and she knew she was kitten. When we moved at the end of February, she got out while we were moving the bed. We still have not found her.



She took to hiding in the water bottle case and ate her meals on our bed side table. She was so tiny when we found her on the side of the freeway. I hope she is OK.

This is it, This is me.

Usually I want to post a blog, just so I can get a little bit of feedback, from my dad and all of you, mostly his friends, I have yet to make any of my own. I try to blog for my sake, but have trouble telling this huge internet the things that I really should be telling it.

Life has been lack luster. I am back in school and I am working at a 'fun' job and I'm only 20 years old and engaged to this amazing guy. But sometimes I just don't even want to get out of bed in the morning. I just want to curl up and cry.

Nothing particularly bad has happened. I just feel like even if I get up and shower and go to school and do my homework and finish this semester. I still have next semester and the year after that before I really start work on my degree and that will take at least four years, so I will be 25 then. That's not too bad, except that the people in my profession, unless they get their foot in the door when they are a freshman, usually don't even get to see any wild whales or do anything for years because of internships and paperwork desk jobs.

Sometimes I wonder if I will even graduate. Will I end up teaching? I don't even really like kids. I don't want to spend the rest of my life getting up early so that I can go to work so that I can earn money to pay for things I don't REALLY need. Will I be happy when I finish this semester? The next one? What about after that? Will I be happy then? Is there something I need to do that someone forgot to tell me about that will make me happy? I should be able to deal with my roommate (a dick though he may be) not wanting to share art supplies without not wanting to speak to him for a few days or wanting to hit him in the face with a metal baseball bat.

Nothing feels worth it anymore. I want Colorado to be enough for me. I don't know why I feel so worthless now. I never used to. In high school and the summer after that I felt so amazing, all the time. Galveston was hard. Harder than anyone knows, it changed me and I wish I could go back to before. I want to take it back. I feel like it took a part of me away and I don't know how to get it back.

Asshole

This last week I was on my Facebook and one of my friends posted a link to a group called "Nuke the Whales". I clicked on the link and was really hurt by what I saw. There were over 200 members and most of them had posted comments about the group that sound a lot like this:

"Nuke the f***ers! they deserve to die!!!"

and

"Stupid animals can't even breathe underwater, all they do is eat our fish!"

and

"United Nations Indoctrinating Our Youth in Earth Worship; Documentary uncovers the real objective behind the Earth Charter. Many U.S. city and educational officials have already been persuaded to endorse this pro-UN manifesto. Learn why this campaign, masquerading as a plan to protect the environment, is potentially lethal to family, faith, and freedom.
http://www.documentarywire.com/indoctrinating-our-youth-in-earth-worship"

So, in response, I posted a note (kind of like a blog entry) that goes like this:

I know that most of my friends don't necessarily find the Save the Whales cause to be one that they strongly support. Some of you may not even think this cause is valid. I glanced at my home page today and found something that truly offended me. One of my friends had posted a link to a group called Nuke the Whales, most of the wall posts contained members who seemed almost excited by the idea that these wonderful creatures are a drain on society and should be eliminated. I want to dedicate my life to helping restore the world's population of baleen and toothed whales and I was deeply hurt by the ideas expressed in this group. I understand that the premise of the group is intended as a joke, but I am deeply offended by it. Some of you may not understand why, but I don't find this funny. These animals are endangered and are dieing out before we know enough about them to understand them. There is still so much we don't know about whales and the conservation efforts are not moving very fast. In a world where stupid things amuse the majority, I would feel defeated and that my efforts are for naught if more groups like this start popping up and become more popular. Cartoons about stupid people are popular all over the place and I do not want Nuke the Whales to join the ranks of Charlie the Unicorn, South Park or Family Guy. I'll get off my soap box now, for those of you who actually read this, thank you :)

I tagged a few of my friends that I thought might appreciate the fact that I took a stand and wrote about what I believe. One of these people, who I tagged because I consider him an intellectual and was curious about what he thought wrote this to me:

First off, you're wrong. That's ok, most people are most of the time. Including me. The group itself is parody and they're expressing loudly that they think whales are important. This is similar to making racist, sexist or otherwise bigoted statements that are absolutely untrue to point out the ridiculousness of said statements, the only problem is that this group took it to an extreme and made it a little less satirical and a lot less funny. They point being, they're still on your side. None of those people think that losing whales is a good thing at all and I'm sure plenty of them appreciate good humor. Like South Park. Which is satire. Second off, they are expressing one of the most treasured aspects of free speech: you have no right to not be offended. You're bound to run into plenty of people who offend you and it is your job to understand what they are saying completely, to comprehend their motives and methods and realize that 1) they're wrong or 2) they're not so bad after all. The free marketplace of ideas is a harsh place to live, a no-holds bar arena of thought and reason. To be unable to communicate thoroughly or take the time to read the statement of the group (and I found three in a search, all of which were in no way serious) then you should in no way be complaining. Do realize that I love you, but I will in no way coddle you. Your argument is flawed, misspelled, and holds as well as a sieve on a shooting range. And to help you learn from it the best thing for me to do is not tell you it looks like a nice bucket.

I am furious. So I told him:

Thanks Alex, I thought you might have something intelligent to say because I consider you an intellectual. Obviously I underestimated your sense of morality and understanding for other people's causes. I stated that I understand that the groups are meant to be funny, but that I do not find them to be and was simply expressing my opinion that in my current field of study these groups, while seemingly harmless have the potential to be detrimental to the cause I have chosen to spend my entire future promoting. Also, if I misspelled any words, please, do tell! I can't find them.

I know this is kind of long, but I needed to vent. :)