FICTION OF THE NINJA KIND

So far this year the following has happened:

1. River has lost her ever loving mind. Which means that it's true you should watch who you name your pets after. This dog is too smart for us. I guess I'm the Simon to her River because I left and she flipped out.

2. I have returned to Texas. As it turns out there is a nice part of Texas it is called The Woodlands, and it's where my parents moved. I got to see the new house they will be closing on soon. It's wonderful with a pool. Texas just became an interesting place to visit.

3. Orbitz will no longer be getting my business. I have the e-mail they sent me about my ticket information It very clearly shows a departure time from Houston of 5:40 PM. However, when they finally found my reservation at the airport, it turns out my flight left at 3:40 PM. FAIL. When I called Orbitz customer service line later they just said "That's too bad. At this time this is an issue you'll need to take up with the airline to get on another flight." and as to why I was not alerted to a change in my flight status "your spam filter probably blocked it"

4. On the other hand Continental and United will continue to get my business. The woman at the Continental line upon finding my reservation and wondering why I thought my flight was at 5:40, was wonderful. She searched for all flights going to Fresno. She could get me to all the airports that do fly to Fresno, but not actually Fresno. So I got to spend another night with my parents and Haley. She got me to Fresno today, and the people at both airlines were really helpful.

5. I have been assaulted by a baby. I had to sit next to a woman and her very small child on the plane. Very small child instead of bursting into tears at the sight of me, decided he had to hit me. All throughout the flight. With respect to the Mom she did try and stop him as much as possible. But random baby hand to the face was not fun. Nor was it fun when he chucked his bottle at me a few times. I will not be having children.

6. Statistics. I've got four more weeks left. October 29, 2011 is when I finish my degree. Can you tell I'm excited?

7. I briefly glanced over my friends page and it seems like there's some goal to read 50 books in 2011? I'm at three so I might have to go and sign up. It also looks like we're all reading the same books-The Hunger Games. I'm on book three right now. I read the first two in Texas and bought the third at LAX. Must know what happens.

So far, I'm 4 days into 2011 and it's been a very interesting year. I like interesting, but I'd like it to calm down some.

1. politics. end of story. I know what I believe, and I am willing to accept what other people believe, but I don't think it ever really comes off that way. Questions lead to discussion and this subject is one that people get so upset over. I can understand why, but I definitely get why it's one of those things that is not considered a good conversation topic.

2. Military Discussions with husband: we're not fighting anymore, but these still tend to get more intense. However, I did enjoy the Military Channel today and their program on the military academies. I have a great deal of respect for military personnel and I know it's something that I could never do.

Work is going well. I got a $1 lotto ticket for verifying over 100 packets last month. So I'm doing pretty well. The bad part is that I don't really know how to handle all the praise I'm getting. I don't like getting it from co-workers. Today Jackie started talking about how I'm going to be here so much longer then everyone else, and while that would be ideal I don't think I'm better then any of them, I just happen to have a faster learning curve. Plus, I'm starting to get packets back and I wish I'd been thinking more when I first started doing this job, because in a lot of cases I just made my job harder. The amount of fraud I deal with is depressing. People will do just about anything to get money from the government. They love to lie about their income and then get pissed when I find out about it and try to terminate them. We pay your rent, and if you're not honest about your income I don't see why the government and my tax dollars should be supporting you. I'm trying not to become bitter.

Chris and I went down to LA for the holiday weekend. It was good times, we got to see the dog. As always Robin and I took the younger pups to the dog beach. Good times, but Scout was so BAD. He's completly decided to ignore 'come'. I don't know why. While it's been difficult at times this time he just pretended he could not hear at all. Not even his name. Bah, I say. Running around with your dog on a halti on the beach isn't fun. Plus the halti looks like a muzzle (it goes around the head and pulls it to the side if the dog starts trying to pull on you-it's an aid in healing) and so people think Scout is going to bite. Which if you have a yippy dog might happen. Robin has expressed concern for his fear bases aggression before, but this is also the first time I've seen that. He doesn't have a problem with bigger dogs (or horses) but he gets fake aggressive with small dogs. He doesn't understand that they are terrified of him. So I look forward to doing more work with the dog on the beach. Plus, we got to see a nice Appaloosa mare with a blanket coat. She was somewhat spooky about Wizard and Scout who I had lay down and watch as she walked by. I'm happy that Scout doesn't seem to freaked by horses.

I also got to go to a horse show at LA Equestrian Center. It was nice. I didn't get to see the main event, but it was free and they were pretty horses. I love being around horses and it definitely helped. This was on top of Curlin winning his race this weekend. Go Culin. I so want him to run in the Breeder's Cup and kick Big Brown's ass.

I have re-discovered sour Starburst. Yum. Bad for me, but still really yummy.