This weekend was made of FAIL.

See, I had the best of intentions with this whole "Blogtember" thing.  You know what they say about the road to hell, right?

Anyhow, yeah.  FAIL.

Friday morning brought me to my stepdaughter's IEP intake meeting.  She has binaural hearing loss, mild to moderate.  She also has inattentive type ADD.  Oh, and a proclivity to lie if the mood strikes ... as it does pretty much every time her mouth moves.  The meeting went relatively well, with the psychologist planning to do some executive function testing to help the teachers help her learn more effectively.

As we were leaving the school, I noticed that my back passenger window was down.  I thought to myself "self, that's odd.  You didn't leave that down, did you?"  I tried to roll it up and a disconcerting crunching noise occurred.  I almost vomited.

After making a $400 donation to MAG BMW, my window regulator was replaced.  I know this is an issue with E46's, but still I am PISSED that I had to borrow money from Panda (his "my kid screwed up and doesn't get to go to Disney money), and I'm PISSED that I had to waste it.  Well, it's not wasted, but you know what I mean.

Saturday brought my stepdaughter getting assaulted by some neighborhood punks in the front yard because of what she was wearing.  My formerly nice neighborhood has been run over by morons that think it socially acceptable to form a "community" and exclude everyone else.  Then they allow their children to assault others, because they don't like the color of their skin / religious preferences.  Um, not OK.  So the cops were called, a report made, and now my kids can't go out in their own front yard and play.  Awesome.  I was already considering Catholic school for the kids, and I think that this is pushing me even further toward my decision.

Today, as a result of not sleeping much last night, I laid down for a short nap after Sports Reporters ... and slept right through 12:15 Mass.  UGH.  At least I finished making most of our shirts for Disney.

Speaking of Disney - I now have New Moon and Twilight on iTunes and my iPod Touch for the trip.  My daughter is excited - she's wanted to see Twilight for a while and I'm saving it for the airplane ride.  

This week will suck - I just need to make it to Friday. I can do this!  This time next week ... I'll be a college graduate!  My dad, his lovely wife, and my grandma are coming down to witness the ceremony.  I haven't decided what I plan to wear yet.

Time for bed.  Just watched a damn good Cowboys loss. 

Dear Immune System:

Why hast thou forsaken me?

Here we are, just 25 days until we leave for Disney.  And I've got what is likely the tail end of a sinus infection.  I thought it was allergies, then maybe a simple head cold.  But clearly, it's more than that.  It's been a week, and I feel horrid still.  And very tired.  I'm hoping that this is the end of the nonsense, since I don't have much time to get back on the straight and narrow.

This weekend needs to involve lots of prep for the trip, and I have very little energy to do it.  My to-do list involves:

• Purchasing my daughter a new swimsuit, as she's outgrown all her others
• Returning the skirt and jeans that I purchased without her, as she moved up a size in the past month
• Exchanging the t-shirt paint I purchased for more feminine colors ... I bought red, black, and gold ... I think FusserBug will want her Spiral Mickey Head Shirt to be very girly, since Panda and Princess LiarPants aren't going now. 
• Ironing on all the transfers I've gotten completed already
• Having Panda order a new printer, since ours took a dump
• Picking up a few pairs of shorts (on clearance at Avenue) for myself
• Meeting my daddy and his beautiful wife for lunch at 1 on Sunday
• Making the transfer shirts
• And I'm sure about a kabillion things that I've forgotten.

I also want to make it over to the dollar theater to see Eclipse.  OH and I need to pick up Twilight and New Moon on DVD so that I can add it to iTunes and to my iTouch for the trip.

But the most important thing?  COLLEGE FOOTBALL STARTS TOMORROW!  Hurray for GameDay!

Yeah.  No rest for the weary.

Random New Moon Observations

If you're lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be) enough to know me personally, you have either reverence or hatred for my numbered lists.  Considering the fact that I'm a big huge ball of raging ADD right now, it's just about the only way I can organize my thoughts into a manner that others can understand.

1. I noted the rampant product placement.  As discussed with one of my BFFs today, if the wolves destroy their clothing every time they phase, why are they wasting money on Levis?  To which she noted "wow, spending a lot of time looking at wolf ass last night, eh?"  Busted.
2. Billy Burke (Charlie Swan) is one damn fine looking man.  The cop-'stache needs to go, but he is quite tasty.  If anyone's wondering, this is the beginning of a new label ... i want to shag charlie swan.
3. There is never a number three.  I put this here to see if anyone's actually reading my mindless drivel.
4. I still don't think that KStew is Bella.  I'm not sure who IS, but I know she's NOT.  I also don't buy Rpatz as Edward.  However, the casting of Jacob was right on.
5. I still don't like Rosalie.  I just ... don't. 
6. Back to Edward.  As discussed with my Panda, I think that James Franco would have made a far better Edward.  In my mind, Edward is smooth, wise, and very stylish.  Almost like a James Bond type person.  But when Bella's around, he turns into a stuttering mess that has a hard time controlling himself.  Anyhow, James Franco would have made a better Edward.  At least he doesn't look like he's about to drop a deuce when he says his lines.   
7. Let's talk about the screenplay, mmmkay?  I know that cutting down a  600+ page book down to a two hour movie is tough.  But damn.  I had hoped for a bit more character development.

 Off to watch one of my favorite movies of all time ... Major League.  Time for sleep, after that.

The Results Are In.

hose damned My final grade is ready to go.  I can't believe that my undergraduate career is finally over.  After sixteen years ... I'm done.  Sixteen years.  Relocating 150 miles from home.  A marriage.  A child.  A divorce.  The appearance of my Panda.  The loss of my mother.  The disappearance of my Panda.  The reappearance of my Panda.  Marriage in Jamaica.  Becoming insta-mom to my now 10 1/2 year old stepdaughter. Three jobs, five cars, and a partridge in a damned pear tree.

Anyhow, sixteen years are up.  And I'm done.

Until, of course, I start back to pursue my MBA in November.

I thought that I'd feel differently than I feel today.  I thought I'd be jubilant, ecstatic, even giddy.  But no.  Right now, I feel almost ... scared.  I guess that I've been at this for so long that I don't know what to think.  As a good friend said, sometimes we prefer the evil that we know to the possibilities that we don't.

My lovely husband relinquished the TV tonight for 130 glorious minutes.  I got to watch New Moon in 61" of hi-def 7-channel surround-sound glory.  Ahhh, it was lovely.  I got my Pack on in peace.  I think that it's likely my favorite book and movie so far.  This runs counter to most of my other Twi-types, I know.  But I really like the ancillary stories ... the Quileute tribe, the Volturi, and even the rest of the Guard.  I think they did a great job casting Aro.  And I still want to donkey punch Rosalie.  I know I'll like her better in Breaking Dawn (but not all that much after all), but I still want to grab her blonde hair and crack her one.

Off to watch Top Gun for the eleventybillionth time, and to crash out.  I'm rather sleepy.

Dear Twilight: I'm Cheating On You.

So I actually stopped at Blockbuster tonight, and re-upped my membership.  Why?  Because they're having a "$3 For 3 Nights" sale.  I can rent any BluRay for 3 nights for $3.  (warning: rationalization follows ...) I figure when Eclipse is released this Christmakwanzakkuh season, I can pick up the movies up to own for a cheaper price than I can find for now. And since I'm finished with school till November 8th, I have some free time.  And really, who wouldn't want to spend their newly-found free time with the Quileute Wolf Pack?  (/rationalization)

So anyhow, yeah.  I picked up New Moon on BluRay for three nights.  I gleefully paid my $3.18 (including tax) for the delicious Pack in BluRay.  61" worth of muscley boy toys in the privacy of my living room.  Hey, Lautner's legal now.  Don't you dare judge me.

Anyhow, I brought it home and put it on the table.  Why?  Because there's football to watch!  Yes, I know.  It's the Hall Of Fame Game.  Yes, it's preseason.  Yes, said football is shitty.  But it's been soooo long!

HOF Game = Slumpbuster.

Work tomorrow.  Blah.