My baby sister

I don't know if I ever really mention my baby sister. I had 2 sisters. One older and one younger. The older one died 10 years ago June. The younger one is still alive. She has a kid, the kid's 16.

She's super cute. (But probably dates men who are less awesome than she is).

These two were taken when we went to Leavenworth, WA one Christmasish time.

She's done a lot of super cool things like get SCUBA certified and live in a foreign country for YEARS.

She's been to more international destinations than I have.

This is her when we went ziplining. I would have been interested in it, but I'm not sure I would have done it if she hadn't agreed to do it.  

She's raised her kid mostly alone. She's much more into family than I am. Probably because they liked her better. :) (This is at the fair. I did not attempt a 'bull' ride because I am easily embarrassed and a wuss.)

Have I mentioned she's cute? And pretty funny. Oh and I'm fortunate that she doesn't hold crap against me because she totally could.

She used to be a gymnast and a diver and a cheerleader. You can tell by her form. (This is at a lake here in Texas. Total old school swimming hole).

I have a digital photo frame in my office. One of her pictures came up and I realized she really is awesome. I probably don't tell her that enough.

What I wanted to Say

There was a post to my celiac group tonight that I feel exemplifies what I hate about my celiac community. We, to my knowledge more than any other allergen group, demand special treatment to the point of entitlement. Nowhere in the Constitution are we guaranteed the right to eat at Subway. And why, in all honesty, would we want to make a fuss about a restaurant that doesn't cater to our every whim when we are not their core demographic? I have no idea why this post is pissing me off as much as it is. I don't usually get my dander up about my celiac listserv even though I usually think most of them are a bunch of whiney princesses. The post and my thoughts after the jump

Bliss

It is amazing to think about just how desperately unhappy my job made me and how much that affected my life here in Texas.  I don't know if this is the last place I will live, I sincerely doubt it is, but now that I'm working at a job I enjoy I'm finding myself refreshed and content with living here.

I've been 'nesting' like a fool for the last several weeks. I have planted about 8 container gardens on my balcony and this weekend I picked up 2 chairs and a little table for the balcony. I sat out there for over an hour today and just enjoyed it. I haven't felt that content in a long time. (Although I did buy 2 chairs because I've read that it is bad feng shui to only buy one, you're implying that you have no room in your life for someone else. Plus I figured the cat would take one over eventually, although he has his very own mat that he seems to love that lives on the balcony too. And he seems to enjoy sitting on my lap while I'm on the balcony.) (That's a lot of parentheticals FYI). 

I am still taking my anti-depressants (although just like before I always seem to forget to take them on the weekend). I'm okay with that though.

So far I really like my job. It is mostly projects and I get to do things I like to do. I have only run into a couple things I don't like to do but since they are so few and far between it makes doing them that much easier. I like the people I work with including my boss and my boss's boss. I am the 2nd youngest one in my group (which seems to be the norm for me somehow). (And they're all significantly older than me) (Like 10 years). I even like my passive aggressive (PA) coworker. Most of them are SUPER religious. Like SUPER religious. (I don't think it is possible for me to stress enough how religious they are). Oh and the admin is a little bit... southern belleish. She doesn't believe women should be firefighters. I forget the other thing she said that made me go 'hmmm...' but it was along those same lines.

I graduate in 26 days!  Cap and gown came in yesterday. My whole family is coming to see me graduate (well by whole family I mean parents and sister and her kid. The other 2 kiddos aren't so kiddo anymore and both are poor as churchmice since their dad is Satan). We'll do a little hanging out for the weekend too. I'm trying to figure out what would be a good thing for Mother's day since I presume my little sister will have to fly back sometime Sunday.

My 20 year high school reunion is coming up in June. If I think about it too hard that freaks me out a little bit. I'm facebook friends with a bunch of them. I feel like I've accomplished nothing compared to some of them. Also, a whole bunch of them became super religious. What the hell? I've messaged a few people I really hope to see to see if they're going. That will help me decide if I'm going since by then I still won't have any vacation to use (6 month waiting period for vacay - it's the reason I'm not going to BlogHer this year).  I'll end up flying in either late Friday night or early Saturday morning and flying back out on Sunday which seems a little whirlwindy and expensive (unless I use flight benefits) for such a short period of time.

Container Gardening

I've decided I want to make my balcony useful and pretty so I've begun container gardening. I started with just a little herb container.  Actually it is all the show "My Cat from Hell"'s fault.  I was watching it and the cat guy created a little herb garden for one of the cats. So for Sam I planted cat grass, sage and parsley. So far Sam is uninterested in the sage and the parsley. (But the sage is pineapple sage which smells so nice!).  I also sowed the seeds of catnip, basil and something else. With the success of that I decided to go further. I planted some onions, columbine (flower), snapdragons (one of my favorite flowers), carrot seeds, cucumber, watermelon, red pepper, forget-me-nots and canteloupe. So far, one of the watermelon seedlings died but the other is looking pretty good. The carrots are beginning to sprout and I'll have to thin them soon I think. I managed to move the catnip outdoors since it was coming in nicely.  In some indoor sowing, I can see the canteloupe beginning to grow. So far, no sprouts on the forget-me-nots or the other two peat pots that have ... I can't remember - basil is one I think.  Today I decided to add a little bit more, but strictly flowers this time. I bought African daisy and California poppy seeds and just threw them in a pot with some soil. I'm not sowing them indoors first. The last flower I bought was sweetpea. I love sweetpeas. (The flower, not the food.  Do sweetpea flowers bring about real peas? I don't know about that.)

If all goes well, I'll be graduating on May 11th with my Master's in Library Science. I'm not going to be using it right off the bat. I still really like the job I'm currently doing. :) My parents are actually coming to my graduation. I feel kind of happy about that. I think I would have been disappointed if I asked if they were interested and they weren't. I may or may not have a 4.0. I think my cataloging class is going to give me a B. But I am hopeful. I have no idea what my collection development class will give me since the professor thus far has not returned any of my papers. I have no idea how I've done and that is really annoying me. Apparently she recognizes that's an issue since she pushed back the due date of our most recent assignment until the 6th since she knows she hasn't graded our papers yet.