A Little Light Fun

So it's Saturday afternoon...I'm at work...(just gave a program designed for small kids to 9 adults)...it's been pretty slow...time to jazz up the day! Enjoy! (I borrowed this from my ex-partner in the Highland Middle School class--thanks Kat!)

FIRSTS :
First best friend: Kristen Kliever (haven't seen her since 5th grade!)
First car: '84 Honda Accord--pretty janky
First date: Freshman year of college with Layne Dussechleger (first and only date)
First kiss: Well, according to my mom it was in kindergarten--note sent home "Erin needs to control herself. She kissed a boy today"
First crush: Brandon Green in first grade
First self-purchased CD: umm...not sure--my very first cd was The Monkees Greatest Hits--yeah

LASTS :
Last car ride: to work
Last library book: The Warren Report--it was for a history paper
Last movie seen: in theaters--Walk the Line; on t.v.--Finding Nemo
Last beverage: Coke (drinking it as we speak)
Last food consumed: Fun Size Fast Break candy bar
Last phone call: last night with matt
Last shoes worn: my black work shoes (the comfortable ones)
Last cd played: Jekyll and Hyde
Last item bought: diet pepsi with lime and a twix
Last annoyance: aunt flo--enough said
Last disappointment: Abilene High--0 South Lake Carroll--52 (yikes!)
Last frustration: car ride to Waco (i'll explain later)
Last reason to smile: when the highway patrolmen searched my car at 12:30am
Last reason to laugh: retelling the story of the patrolmen on the phone
Last shirt worn: light blue button-up shirt
Last website visited: xanga
Last words you said: one more hour (to Ketra about leaving work)
Last thought: I really need some chocolate
Last song you sang: In His Eyes (jekyll and hyde) I tend to sing all the time in the car--keeps me awake :)

Thanksgiving Schedule

I start my wonderful Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow at noon. I go to work at 8:30, give two tours to school kids (cutting it a little close there, kiddos) and then I'm on my way to Abilene! Here's what my schedule looks like for the next few days:

Tuesday
- Arrive in Abilene around 5:00ish
- See if any of the SPP gang is still in town
- Movie at 8:00ish with Christy and special guests (so far on the list are Haley Savage, Tyler Lawerence, and Steven Moore!)
- After the movie hang out with my boys

Wednesday
- possibly lunch with Matt and Bryson
- go check out the crew at Kirkland's
- leave sometime with the family to Dallas

Thursday
- watch Thanksgiving Day Parade
- help with lunch
- laze around

Friday
- not sure what I'll do during the day
- 7:00 go to the Abilene High playoff game in Waco!
- After the game head back to CS for work on the next day

$=real food

Well, I survived 5 weeks waiting to receive my first pay check from the museum. This past week I start to get a little low on the creative food venue: mainly I was living on cereal and pb&j. But Friday was a blessed day when the direct deposit fell through! Tonight I spent a leisurly trip in H.E.B. My kitchen is now filled to the brim with wonderful food! Some of my favorite items:

* Chocolate Peanut Butter Soy Ice Cream
* White Chedder Cheetos (whoa)
* Popcorn Shrimp
* Kashi Crunch Cereal

I hate Mondays!

With my current work schedule I have my day off on Mondays which should make the day a joyous time of relaxation, right? Well, the past few Mondays have been hectic, stressful, and sometimes have ended in tears. I'm still trying to get settled into my new city which means I have a lot of things to change and setup and Mondays have become the designated day for all that crap. I should have known it was not going to be an enjoyable day when at 8:30 in the morning a jackhammer type instrument went off right behind my apartment. Apparently they decided to fix the sidewalk early in the morning on my one day to sleep in! Somehow I managed to drown out the sound and sleep a little longer. During the morning time I researched different insurance places for my car insurance. Then I made a list of everywhere I had to go--I had to get a notary to sign my request for defensive driving (yes I got not one but 2 tickets on my way to and from Abilene a few weeks ago) and I need to get a few groceries from super walmart. I got in the car and started to backup when I noticed the car was really sluggish. I got out and saw the the problem--a very flat tire. Grrrrr! At first I wasn't sure what to do. I followed my first instinct and called my parents but neither one of them answered. Then I remembered that in my trunk I had a travel size air pump that plugs in the car. So after airing the tire I rushed to the little Walmart across the street. I assumed it would take an hour to an hour and a half to fix. Well, I was there from 2:15-5:00! They had to change both of my front tires and for some reason it takes 3 hours to do that. So I missed my chance to go to the notary and it was after 6:30 when I returned home from grocery shopping...sheesh.

Maybe next Monday will be a little better!

Not a Dull Day

So my day at work started out like a pretty typical Saturday. Yes I work on Saturdays. It's not as bad as it sounds--I'm the only one back in the office so I can do whatever I want. Today I was doing research for some upcoming bulletin boards I will be putting up. This whole past week the temperature in the office has been very cooperative--a nice liveable setting. Today it literally is the ice box. At around 11:45 Ketra, one of the weekend front desk workers, came by my desk and asked if I would like the space heater. I thought it might be nice to feel my fingers again. So I brought it in, pluged in in and turned it on. As soon as I turned it on my computer shut off and this horrible, continuous beeping commensed. I ran out to Bill and Ketra and asked for their help. We figured out it was the backup system that was beeping--not really a good thing. So we called Effie and followed her suggestion on flipping all the breakers. This did not erradicate the problem but made it worse as the lights in the outer office turned off! Finally, under Effie's suggestion, we just unplugged the backup system. What's scarey is it kept beeping even though it wasn't plugged in! Ketra and I slowly backed away from it. We got the lights turned back on--thank goodness! So at least the day wasn't completely boring!

*Highlight of the day: I had a Pizza Lunchable for lunch today! I haven't had one of those in years. I felt I need to revert back to my childhood.

Kids Say...

Finally after almost a month I have internet capabilities in my apartment. The guy who fixed it was only on my computer for 10 minutes. He clicked one little thing and everything worked--sheesh! All that waiting for one little click.

I love working with little kids. Each day is different and you never know what they will say. Today on one of my tours I had an answer to a question that I had to keep from laughing at. On the second floor tour of the museum I set the kids on the floor while I talk a bit about the people who came to Texas. I begin by saying "many people came to Texas because there was something they could get that was really cheap and sometimes free". I ask the students what it was. The correct answer is land. Some of the common answers I get are food and wood but today I had a little boy say doors. It was such a random answer that I wasn't expecting. I had to hold in the laughter.

One more day of work until my blessed weekend. But this evening I have some special visitors coming that will make the weekend a whole lot better!

Getting Paid to Play!

Today I had such a wonderful time at work! Anne took Judy and I (the newbies) to see the rest of the park. I have been here almost a month now and I haven't met the other people who work at the park--I've talked to them on the phone. We started at the visitor's center which has a wonderful gift shop full of texas items. I already know where most of my Christmas presents are coming from. Next we walked the trail behind the center all the way to the Brazos River. It's so beautiful down there--everything is green and there are trees, real trees...not the bushes we have in Abilene. Next we went down to the farm. Since we are VIP we got to ride around on the golf cart. We toured the slave cabins and the pen with the baby oxen named Sam, Slim and Shorty. Next we visited the house of Anson Jones (it really is the actual house). FYI: Anson Jones was the last president of the Texas Republic. In the yard of the house were chickens and ducks freely roaming around. Janice, one of the ladies who runs the tours of the farm, showed us her gardens in the back full of carrots, cabbage, onions, etc. She actually uses the food grown to cook meals down there. I can't wait to go there while a school group is down there! After lunch I went to the back where Maria and Shawn work on all of the artifacts. They showed some of the stuff they have and explained how to handle them and the type of controlled climate that has to be kept. And now it's about time for me to leave--I'm leaving early to meet the internet guy so I can finally get internet in my apartment! All in all it has been an absolutely wonderful day--I love my job!!!

Sheesh...It's About Time!

Well, I know I told everyone that I would start up my blog again since I wouldn't be in the same city. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to get started. The main problem is I don't have my wireless internet setup yet. It's going on the 4th week without it. I now personally know 3 of the guys at the computer company and talk with them as if I have known them for years. Hopefully sometime this week I can get it figured out. (If anyone out there knows anything about getting wireless on a laptop I would appreciate any advice).

The job is going great! I love it alot! So far I have scheduled many tours--I think I have most of that down. Last week was my first time to give tours. I gave 7 tours in 3 days! My first day, Wednsday, I gave three separate tours so by the time the day was over I was an expert. Each tour is different depending on the kids and mostly on the teacher and how she manages the class. I've had some interesting groups who have been hard to handle mainly because their teacher pretty much gave them to me and went to look at items in the museum--grrrr! But I have had some other wonderful groups. Last Thursday I had the "heavenly group" as I call them. They were absolutely perfect and so far no other group has matched them. At the end of giving the tour to one of the groups, two third grade girls were upset that I wasn't going with them to the next site--it was so cute!

Apartment living is going well. I'm still lacking a few pieces of furniture but I have the major essentials...the t.v.! I'm still unpacking--it's hard to figure out were to put all my stuff. Last night I went to the exercise room for the first time. It's pretty nice. I used the treadmill (which I found out this morning I should have stretched first--a little sore). I'm slowly getting involved with A&M Church of Christ. Already I have found people I have connections with. I met the parents of a girl I knew from ACU and last Sunday I sat next to a guy who did an internship in my dad's office--how weird!

Anyway, that's about all that's been going on in my life so far. I promise to keep ya'll posted!

EC