Halloween party

Yesterday my mother hosted a Bunco party at her house and I volunteered to come over and help her party prep. I don't like going to parties, but really enjoy setting them up. I showed up at my parent's house five hours before the party was supposed to start. My mom already had most of the decorating done, so I helped mostly with cooking, cleaning, and setting the tables.

There were four tables in all, and she had each decorated with a slightly different Halloween theme. My mom was running around until right at 7 p.m., when guests were supposed to start showing up. As usual, she made way too much food.

I didn't even tell my mom I was taking this picture, she just ducked out of the frame at the right time to read something out of a cook book sitting on the counter. At 6:45, my mom put a sheet of paper under my nose and said "Make this in a double batch." and ran off to her bedroom to change into her Halloween costume. It was a recipe for margaritas. I've never made a mixed drink in my life, but I can follow a recipe alright, so I made it. In a double batch. It tasted like poison to me, but my mom said it was just like a margarita should be, so I guess I missed my calling as a bartender.

age ain't nuthin but a numbah

I turned 30 this year but I really feel like 29 was the year that old age started to take hold.

That was the year I found my first grey hair.

It was also when I hurt my back while doing yard work and was absolutely shocked when the pain got worse instead of better over the next three days. I was accustomed to abusing my body and a good night's sleep fixing whatever ailed me. It took almost six months for my back to stop twinging when I'd go to pick up anything heavy.

But perhaps the "oldest" thing that happened at 29 was me falling in love with a high fiber cereal.

worried about your fiber intake? sure you are, old timer.

Now the only grocery store in north Texas that carried it has stopped, so I have to start buying it in six packs off of Amazon like a fiber doomsday prepper.

compulsion

I need

to stop

buying

plants!

Ever since I tore down the fence, there are parts of the yard that look a bit bare now, and I can't seem to pass by a home improvement store or nursery without buying something new to un-bare it. I realized it was getting a little out of hand when I went to Lowe's to buy a light bulb and came home with six purple flowers.

The Kills - Satellite

This is not a music blog. I'm just reminding myself.

Expectations

I've seen two movies during my days off. Both defied my expectations.

I saw Dredd with my brother since action movies are kind of his thing, and I heard on the internets that it was actually pretty good. And it was. I wasn't expecting too much when I walked in the theater and I was even more skeptical when I found out it was 3D (I blame you, Avatar). I liked that it didn't force itself into fulfilling all of the typical action movie bullet points: Protagonist at lowest of lows and pulls himself up by his bootstraps after a life changing revelation? Romantic interest? No, thanks. It didn't fit the story so it wasn't in the story. Thank you, Dredd.

I absolutely adored There Will Be Blood so I was pretty excited to see The Master since they were both written and directed by the same man. I did not enjoy The Master. In my humble opinion it was a mess. There were parts of There Will Be Blood that were a bit enigmatic, some dialogue that seemed a bit odd, but they were easily forgotten as a part of the whole marvelous movie. The Master, was all odd bits that didn't seem to make a movie. I feel like I could be fancy pants and say something about how the ocean was a symbol of man's wandering nomad soul and discovery, or how sex and alcohol were used to demonstrate man's baser tendencies that were trying to be repressed by The Master to obtain true spiritual freedom. And how can you have freedom if you have a master, blah blah blah. But really, it was just pretentious and bad.

Saturday

Thankfully, last Saturday didn't consist solely of a trip to the local landfill. My brother and I went to Six Flags the same day. It was pretty fun. There was, of course, lots of lines and waiting, but it was nice and cool so we weren't miserable and sweaty the whole time. I broke a promise I made to myself about ten years ago that I would never ride the Texas Giant again. It's a old wooden roller coaster and riding it felt like the equivalent of sitting in the the bed of a truck while it rolled off the side of the hill. My neck and back were traumatized and I had a headache for the rest of the day. I went on it again last weekend because my brother insisted that it was different since the sign to the entrance said  "New Texas Giant." And I don't know what they did to it since the last time I rode it, but it was probably the best ride of the day.

I didn't take any picture while I was at Six Flags so this generic picture of the Texas Giant will have to do.

My boyfriend didn't go to Six Flags. He's prone to migraines and roller coaster rides have triggered them in the past. He wasn't too broken up about it though. He already had this Saturday planned out for a while since a new Magic set was released this weekend.

He has three friends nearby who are fellow Magic players, so they met and nerded it up all day. I'll play a few games just with my boyfriend, but I don't feel confident enough to play with other people, even if they are friends. I still have to stop him (rather frequently) to remind me what an ability does, I have a hard time keeping up with my power/toughness once you start adding auras and enchantments, and I've given up on ever being able to play an infect deck.

Landfill

So my dad came over yesterday with his truck and trailer. We loaded up what was left of my old fence and headed over to the city landfill. I've been to the landfill twice before. Both times my boyfriend and I have taken his small tuck. All we had to do was drive up a concrete ramp and throw whatever trash we had over a ledge and into a dumpster below. We'd drive off about five minutes later.

This trip was nothing like that. I saw the real landfill this trip. I think it was because we had a trailer full of stuff. We were told to keep driving past the concrete ramp I was accustomed to and we drove up a steep gravel hill. And we weren't the only ones. There was an endless line of trucks and trailer in front and behind us.

Excuse this next bad quality picture, but I think it shows the massiveness of the line in front of us pretty well. Keep in mind this line is two trucks wide.

I thought that there must be some particular reason so many people were there to drop off trash at the same time. How could that many people have that much trash all at once? But I guess I don't have that great of an imagination because my dad struck up a conversation with one of the employees while he was waiting for him to wave us on, and he said that it's like that every Saturday. We were fairly high on top of the trash/gravel hill and the colorful view of the surrounding fields was a stark contrast to the literally barren wasteland in front of us.

It took us about an hour to get to the dumping area, which didn't seem that long considering the line of trucks. It was pretty interesting to see. Everyone one should take a trip to the local landfill, if only to make you think twice about making a purchase you may end up trashing in a year anyway. Everyone wants new shiny things (including myself) but if your old not-so-shiny thing is still functional, you may want to think about holding onto it for a bit longer.

All told, I don't think I'm that great when it comes to the grim reality of how things really work. I watched a PBS special ten years ago about chickens and it included a view of the living conditions commercial laying hens were kept in. I still have to buy free range chicken eggs to keep the nightmares away.