Another One for the Books

I'm glad this year is (almost) over. It seems like it's lasted for two. For a while there, I was actually wishing the whole Mayan calendar thing was true, because this was turning out to be one of the worst years of my life. You'll notice the date and content of my last post and easily figure out why.

That, and I was stuck in a job I didn't want with a dysfunctional business strategy guiding not only my team but the other teams with which I closely worked. On top of that, I started thinking my particular age might be the magical turning point where everything was downhill from here. Not in a good place at all.

Good news is it looks like life is on a upswing. I've been in a new job for a little over a month in a great location, with great people, tons of challenges, AND (not that it's important, but...) more money. The challenges aren't all going to be easy and maybe not even winnable, but in the end, it's going to be something I can stick in my back pocket and every now and then pull out and say, "I did that!" Now when I leave work, I don't feel like drinking my life away and I actually try to work out a little bit. My daughter starting up sports has helped too. In fact, her first basketball game ever was this week, and while the gang of fourth graders she runs with didn't score any points against the fifth and sixth grade rivals, they did something even better.

Yep, that sucker's stuck. Hilarious. And yes, the other team scored 24 and they scored zero. It was still fun (straight from the horse's mouth)!

Something else that helped put a big smile on my face was spending time with my husband in Nashville earlier this month. We honeymooned there fifteen years ago, and I've always wanted to go back, especially since my sister and a group of our friends go every year to see the Texans beat the Titans. Oh, now you see what the smile is from, you say. Well yeah, how could I help but smile when this was my view?

Yep, life is good. Now let's hope all that hype about the Mayans really isn't true.

A Tribute to My Cousin

My cousin died two weeks ago today. I know some people would say big deal, it’s just a cousin or big deal, people die every day, but it is a big deal to me.

My father has a brother and three sisters. My sister and I basically grew up with our cousins from the three sisters like we were siblings, swimming like fish in my grandparents’ pool and climbing trees like monkeys up and down Grape Street. My uncle acted like one of us kids until he left for Florida and never came back (that’s a whole ‘nother story). We are all still close at heart even though we spread out among Arkansas, Texas and Florida back in the 80’s. I’m the oldest of the cousins; my dead cousin was two months younger than me.

I guess my father’s side of the family has been mostly lucky when it comes to death. We really haven’t had to deal with the tragedy of losing our loved ones too soon. My grandparents lived long, full lives; my parents are relatively healthy; my aunts and uncle are still going strong; and the rest of my cousins and their spawn are thriving. There was an incident, almost three years ago now, where one of my younger cousins lost the love of her life to a ranching accident; he was gored in the lung by an exotic deer. This was the husband to the sister of my dead cousin. As I said, we’ve been mostly lucky, but some of us have suffered much, much more than others.

If you ever rented tubes from Rockin’ R on the Comal River, you might have seen my cousin. You really couldn’t miss him. He was a big guy, almost as tall as me (a long-standing joke in the family), and definitely twice as wide; his voice matched his size. While his sense of humor bordered on obnoxious for some of the family, you can be certain a woman like me would think he was funny. He had been many things in his too-short life…a chef who helped start one of the best restaurants in New Braunfels, a real estate agent who drooled over riverfront property, and a teacher whose next big thing was being a principal. He got to dance with his beautiful daughter while celebrating his sister's second chance at love only two short months ago. He didn’t get to do enough.

Although it was his heart that was the most broken, the hearts of his entire family will forever be changed. I love and miss you, Chris.

Summer is Over (in my book)

The Summer of 2011 was hell...absolute, energy-draining, soul-sucking hell. Not only because of the things everyone knows about...record-breaking heat, drought and wildfires in the wonderful state I call home...but also because of a ton of personal burdens. Today, after I completely get the Summer of 2011 off my chest, I'm walking away from it for good.

This summer started out with The Kitten attending a new daycare...for one whole week. She hated it and cried herself to sleep every single night she knew she had to go back there in the morning. Since she was traumatized and refused to try another daycare, we catered to her spoiled rottenness the rest of the summer by driving her to whatever extended family member she wished to grace with her presence or bribing her cousins to come to us. At least one of us had a great summer! I don't know of anything stronger than your worry for your child(ren) that can drag you down to a dark, dark place. Unless you have a demanding job too...

So during all that scrambling for babysitters and driving all over the northwest side of Houston, I was also dealing with work. You might recall a while ago I started talking about this big strategic project to which my very cool boss was reassigned and I would be backfilling for her in the meantime, but then as the project moved through its phases, we discovered the entire company would be reorganized and I started tweeting about how I wasn't going to have the same job (my original Business Analyst job) at the end of the six-month project. No? Well, that's your background, and all you really need to know is all that waiting and worrying over the summer came to a head when the available jobs were posted last week. I've narrowed down my five choices (although I know they will most likely place me in the job that most closely resembles the one I hold now and don't want), and now my fate is in somebody else's hands. Of course, I won't know that fate until the end of October, but like I said, I'm walking away. Letting it go, and hoping my company doesn't let me go.

Now the summer wasn't all bad. We had an awesome trip to Disney World the beginning of June. I skated in not only one but two banked track bouts. I spent a weekend with a friend I had not seen since high school. And today...today, I finally found the motivation I need to move to a better place. I start rehearsing with the rodeo choir on September 26th, and our first performance is October 15th. I bet you didn't know that Catazon was a good enough singer to try out for a choir that performs in front of, oh, a few thousand people for three weeks out of the year and actually MAKE IT! Well, you oughta know.

Summer of 2011...you can kiss my karaoke-ing ass.

Have Job, Will Travel

Today begins a month of extraordinary travel for my job.  Really, once I put it out there, most people, including me, would say, "Oh, that's not so bad."  Then I put it in the context of "I love the organized schedule of my usual life and so does my daughter", and it makes me a little stressed. Thank goodness I will have time to throw in some personal fun (although I should probably take it easier on that since I recently had the good luck to strand myself an hour away from home with a dead battery just because I wanted to be a badass on the banked track too).

Today, I leave for California at 6:45 p.m. CDT.  Tomorrow, I work for at least twelve and a half hours, which includes a presentation on a subject that gives me indigestion and an evening meeting with Asia Pac that makes my eyes feel very droopy.  I return home at 10:00 p.m. CDT on Thursday.  Friday, we camp; Saturday, we jump out of a plane; and Sunday, we return home for Zeigfest!  Woohoo!

Halloween plans are shaping up nicely, including a Ghostland Observatory show that I have been looking forward to since July.  A long-lost friend from Austin will be joining me and my sister, but no word on whether I can get everyone to dress up yet.  The Friday after Halloween, I'm finally going to a University of Houston football game, almost twenty years after I received my bachelor's degree.  Good times!

The next trip to California will be November 7-9.  This one is extra special because the family will also be dealing with the opening weekend of deer season and the only flight I could take back gets me home at 12:30 a.m. CST on November 10.  Why is this the only flight?  I have to give the October 20th presentation on a subject that gives me indigestion to a Houston audience at noon CST on November 10th, after giving a presentation on my wonderful Community of Practice at 2:00 p.m. PST on November 9th.  Loving my job right about now!  May try to throw in a visit to the Renfest the weekend of the 13th, or The Kitten will hate me forever.

Don't worry; I'm not finished yet.  I'm getting the 36 hours of professional development I need to complete my annual goals at a conference in Washington, DC, November 16-18.  At least I get to see The Yankee on that trip and hopefully come home in one piece.  Last time we partied in DC, I danced on a bar.  Shocking, I know.  I think I lost those pictures when my computer died this summer; well, it was either those or the videos from Key West.  It's a good thing the proof of either is hard to find.

And that, my friends, is my upcoming month of extraordinary travel for my job.  When I get home on November 19th or 20th (haven't decided yet), I'll have already started on ten extraordinary days of no work at all.  Could be worse, y'all, could be worse.

Yet Another Weekend Full of Wine

This past weekend, I attended the Gruene Music & Wine Fest.  Although I've been to Gruene, a quaint little town on the Guadalupe River snuggled up next to New Braunfels, many times, this was the first time I had the opportunity to attend the wine fest. I highly recommend a visit to Gruene any time of the year, but this was an especially enjoyable weekend, as you will see.

My sister and I took off about 10 a.m. on Friday with her family's pop-up trailer in tow.  I, of course, made her stop at Buc-ee's in Luling even though she was very nervous pulling the pop-up around.  Thankfully, they expanded the parking lot recently, and she had no problem getting in and out of there.  Things were not as easy when we arrived at the campground about an hour later.

A sign at the campground informed us that we could pick any site except for those marked reserved.  My sister was looking for one in particular.  When we got to 100, a reserved sign was sitting on the table so we continued driving and quickly noticed that there were no more campsites with hook-ups past 100.  Trying to turn a camper around with a cliff on one side and the river on the other is not easy, and about halfway through the task, someone starts screaming about how they are going to pee on themselves from laughing about it.  No, it wasn't me, but when my sister brought it up, well yeah, then I started laughing so hard I almost peed too.  It took us a while to turn back around and stake a claim on campsite 99, but luckily, there was a guy who witnessed us doubled over in holding back pee mode and helped us back the damn trailer into the site.  And who cares?

We were at the river!  Later that night, my sister got really trashed and tried to climb through a fence when a gate was two feet to her left, but you really had to be there to appreciate that.

You might have noticed that I started this post in a very mature tone, but it has quickly gone south.  Ok, at least I tried.

Saturday at the wine fest was kick-ass.  A good friend had joined us by now, and we quickly turned into the trio of women who caused a stir. That's my sister in the headdress.

And that's our friend in the Groucho Marx getup.

I have no idea how I became the normal one this weekend.

The tastings included wine from none other than Miranda Lambert's own line and an award-winner from the podunk town I couldn't wait to leave.  The picture directly above was taken in Gruene Hall where we saw the cutest little fiddle-player who we all wanted to sample.  Meow...

One thing I realized from this weekend was that I should be the normal one more often and take amazing pictures to remember everything.  I'm sure I'll feel more like myself by next weekend.

My #1 Freebie

From the moment I first saw Billy Idol, I've had the biggest crush on him.  I don't even remember the first glimpse, but I know it was on MTV and I must have been about 12 (that's when White Wedding was released).  I bought all his music; I even have every Generation X release I could get in the states in the 80's on vinyl.  His VH1 Behind the Music episode is on a VHS tape somewhere in this house.  The picture below is my 6-inch stack of article clippings that I used to keep in a binder in my school locker but now fills up a magazine box.

I actually don't think crush is the right word.

Last night, I was front row at his Houston House of Blues show; the first time I've seen him in almost 20 years. (I'll never forgive my husband for not letting me go to his Houston show in July 2001 when we got off our return flight from Norway about an hour before it started and we still had to drive home to Austin...never.)  I was "the one wearing the shirt of the band I'm going to see"; the shirt I bought in 1984 at an Astroworld concert, put away for safekeeping, and now have only worn once. 

The only disappointing thing about last night's show was that he never came to the side of the stage where I was standing.  This is the best pic I could get.  Would it have killed him to just come sweat on me?  Like my #2 freebie did in 2008?

Oh, and he kept his shirt on way too much.

But the show rocked! And I'm glad somebody in line had an extra ticket for my sister, since I bought the last one from the box office three weeks before the show.  Except maybe I shouldn't have tried so hard to get her in because she took home a drum stick and a guitar pick.  Hooker.

I hope I don't have to wait till I'm 50 to see him again.  I don't think he will look this good at 64.

I Always Bite Off More Than I Can Chew

Hate to admit it, but if you were planning on the return of a leaner, meaner Catazon at the Crude City vs. Bosses bout on May 15th, that ain't gonna happen.

In January, I committed to 60 days of Insanity (you know, that Sean T. Beachbody workout?), so that I could fit in my rodeo jeans. Of course, I didn't do 60 days since rodeo season kicks in around the last week of February, but I got back in the jeans and received a ton of compliments on my semi-rockin' bod. For the past month and a half, I've been trying to get back on my regular Insanity routine, while my body has been slowing moving southward again, and I was almost there when a huge project landed in my lap.

I'm trying to turn this into this before the bout. Throw in a couple of family birthdays, Mother's Day, setting up summer tutoring for The Kitten, and coordinating some home renovations, and when do I have time to workout? Maybe after I get back from my third business trip this year the third week of May?

I think the only opportunity to flex some flab over the next week will be an intro to pole dancing class on Monday, and only because I've already paid my $40.

April Madness Continues...

Last weekend, I skated with Crude City. This bout held some significance in the fact that it was only the second time my parents have seen me skate in the five years that I've been derbying. My mom's favorite hobby nowadays is photography, which is a good thing because her pics are the only ones I have of the bout. (That's a little different from when I was skating with HRD, and captures of my crazed expressions were a dime a dozen.)



BTW, we won by like 150 points or something like that. I promised myself not to get caught up in that this time; I'm just doing it because I can, not because I'm trying to prove anything. Although it was nice to have two 18-point jams in one night. ;)

Tonight, I'm starting on my first celebratory weekend. It won't be as good as last year's first weekend, but I get to see one of my favorite bands with my favorite sister (okay, my one and only sister, but she's bad-ass like me). Then, tomorrow night, I get to scout out the team I'll be skating against next month.

Good friends, good music, good hits for bad bitches....awww yeah!

I Should Get Paid for This

I'm not going to dwell on the fact that I'm socially inept at gift-giving. I can usually disguise it by showing up with a bottle of Patron everywhere I go, but it gets harder to hide that major personality flaw around the holidays. The Kitten, (most of) the nieces and nephews, and the in-laws aren't really interested in getting drunk and naked, you know.

What I am going to harp on is that fact that it's socially acceptable to maintain a wishlist nowadays. Get your butt online and start one. Check out this helpful post on Lifehacker for some top wishlist tools. A wishlist not only makes life easier for your socially-inept loved ones, it also organizes your own thoughts. I would never be able to keep track of what The Kitten wants for Christmas if I didn't rush to Amazon everytime her eyes widen.

By the way, if you haven't been using a reader to follow interesting blogs like Lifehacker, you really are living in the dark ages. Haven't you heard that blogs are dying a slow, painful death? Oh, wait, that's just mine.

Hitting a Car was the Highlight of My Week

Last Monday, I floated the Comal River like a rookie. Maybe it was because it was The Kitten's first time to float the river, and I was a little nervous, hoping she would love tubing as much as I do. Maybe it was a bit of showing off in front of my cousins on my dad's side who all are younger than me. Maybe it was way too much cider. But anyway, I fried my legs for the first time in twenty years. And not just fried all over...burned in a candy-cane pattern. Yes, I have red and white diagonal stripes up and down the fronts of my legs. Lovely!

Still, my candy-cane legs can't top the marks I received from skating the Pride Parade Saturday night. Before the parade even started, I hit a car. Poor car! It was just minding its own business, and I came along and tripped into it. It was too dark to see how bad my Catazonianess damaged it, but the bruise on my upper arm says there might have been a dent in the passenger door. The bruise is even bigger than the one when I fell in the clothes hamper, which you can actually see in the picture on my Blogger profile. Nice!

By the way, I'm waiting to see pictures from that night, so if you have any of the roller derby girls rolling down Westheimer, either on wheels or on the ground wrastling, put 'em out there! And thanks, Rushin' Cleavage, for such an enjoyable evening. ;)

I didn't think the week could get any better than once again getting the crap beat out of me by stationary objects, but then I went to a Roger Creager concert yesterday evening, right smack-dab in the middle of what I like to think of as my old 'hood (Oak Forest), and I know it's hard to believe that only about 75-100 people would brave the heat wave from hell to see him at such a great venue (a little league ballfield), but the few, the brave, the crazy were rewarded with a free beer from Roger himself. Awesome.

Summertime!

My plans for the official beginning of the summer season, Memorial Day Weekend:

1. Act a fool at my sister's 3rd Annual Karaoke Birthday Bash on Friday night.
2. Finally get a haircut after at least nine months of hippie hair (can't really remember the last one).
3. Finally buy some new tennies now that the ones I bought on the way to the 2006 HRD championship bout when I could only wear one of them are making a weird clicky noise when I walk the streets at lunchtime.
4. Be jealous of everyone on the river while I play on The Kitten's slip and slide.

I love summertime! I'm sure I'll think of more fun summertime things to do over the next four days, but that's a good start. Who knows...the last three might kill me, or at least just make me die a little bit inside.

Happy Go Texan Day 2009!

The Kitten and Sparkly

Originally uploaded by Catazon.

The Kitten and Sparkly are celebrating. You can't see it, but she is decked out in brand new bootcut jeans and a belt with crosses and hearts outlined in rhinestones, and she's still wearing the boots she inherited from her cousin a couple of years ago. I'm celebrating, too, although I will stand by my practice of no pictures, please. It might get kinda crazy since I'm hanging out with my sister at the cookoff.

My Calendar Runneth Over

The 2009 Show has begun. I spent most of the weekend at Reliant Park...the Membership Dance Friday night, drink inventory on Saturday morning, and the equipment setup from hell on Sunday. After all that, I didn't feel very guilty while celebrating Mardi Gras at Willie's last night...listening to a good band, eating fried pickles, and drinking too many margaritas.

The goal was to get the taxes done before March, but I also promised to buy The Kitten some western jeans for Go Texan Day on Friday. If she's anything like me (and she is), we will visit all the Cavender's in town to find some jeans that fit. Sounds like a fun week, one which will end with my attempt to attend the largest cookoff in the world not only on Saturday night when the main group of friends will be at our regular stomping grounds but Friday as well so I can see and be seen. It all boils down to whether we trust a houseful of cousins alone.

Tomorrow at lunch, the city is staging an event called the Rodeo Roundup. Now that I work downtown, I get to check it out. No work meetings on my schedule yet, so I will most likely disappear for the whole two hours. One of the perks of having a boss half a country away. Then the parade is Saturday morning, and unless The Kitten changes her mind, we will be there, too. I already posted my rodeo work schedule, so I guess that means I'll see everyone in April (unless you read my Facebook and Twitter updates, of course).

What's My Name Again?

My daughter's name is not The Kitten. It's really Sydney. Since she was born, we have called her Sydney Bean...and every other variation of Bean. Beanie Baby, Beanie Weenie, Beana, whatever... Our whole extended family calls her Bean.

Last night, The Kitten asks, "What's my middle name?" I say, "You know your middle name. What is it?"

"Bean?"

"No, your middle name is Marie!", I reply with a big smile.

She puts her hands on her head and exasperatedly says, "I can't believe I told Aidan my middle name is Bean!"

Too cute! Although, I think she *really* likes Aidan, so it might have been a bit embarrassing for her. Good to know I'm already doing my duty as a parent.

I'm Not Complaining...

So I'm over halfway through with this cardiovascular health kick, except the thing is I'll never be through with it. Yesterday, the food served at the family birthday gathering was fried fish, fried chicken, and tater tots. Blegh. Even before the health kick, I would not let any of these things near my mouth, so lucky for me, there was also a green salad. And get this...the salad bowl was the only thing even close to being empty...and no, it wasn't only me eating it. I was also able to bypass the German chocolate cake...a true feat, because I do love coconut but most likely will never knowingly let that artery-clogging mess into my stomach again. Too sad, but totally worth it...

Meanwhile, my marriage grows slightly weirder with my husband doing the complaining about being fat. He still refuses to listen to me about anything, so he finally outweighs me for realz!!! Woohoo! Ladies, if you get the chance to experience how annoying your significant other can be saying how they need to lose weight but doing nothing about it, you would never complain about how fat you are again.

Catazon's Week 7 of the Cardiovascular Health Program:
Weight = 187.2
Anxiety Level = 5 (I've got no motivation, and I stress about no motivation.)

The True Meaning of Rodeo

I have been a big fan of rodeoing for many years, which is really strange since I'm not a big fan of cows or horses. I guess I admire the extreme sport aspect of it all. Understandable. Then I saw an extended family member compete in the calf scramble last night.

My husband's cousin's son (what is that? like once removed or something? maybe I should use my skills and look that up?) enters a cow into the livestock show every year, but this year, he had a chance to win a calf he could bring back to show next year. He lined up about a half a foot shorter than the sixteen other boys and eleven girls, but he looked strong out of the gate. Within seconds, he tackled a calf, but the calf flipped around and took off. All the while, I'm jumping up and down, screaming, and trying to keep The Kitten informed on what was actually happening. It was the most exciting thing I have ever seen at a rodeo!

Our cousin kept running until the last calf was caught, and even though he wasn't one of the fourteen who caught a calf, he's still a winner to us. It made me even that much prouder to be a part of something that does good things for so many kids. Maybe that's the real reason why I'm such a big fan.

Central Texas - Heaven or Hell?

Five reasons why Central Texas is heaven on earth:

1. my favorite barbecue establishment
2. my favorite place for queso and CHEAP margaritas
3. my favorite place for a nice view and EXPENSIVE margaritas
4. the birthplace of modern-day roller derby
5. my favorite place to just BE in the whole wide world

None of these places will be visited on my trip to Central Texas this weekend; therefore, I might as well be in hell! I will be staying in a farmhouse built in the 1930's or 40's (I can't remember, but I know it was a long, stinky-ass time ago). I will have to share a bathroom with my in-laws. I will be surrounded by country folk that didn't understand why I kept playing tackle football after I broke myself, so they most certainly can't understand why I keep "rollerblading" after breaking myself again. I will be forced to eat vegetables with the yummy bonus flavor of bacon, if there is any room for vegetables at all. I will miss two derby practices. I can't wait to get back home to start on all the things I should have been doing this weekend to prepare for The Kitten's 4th birthday next week.

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. ~ John Milton