More Fun with Lulu

Here we are at the baseball game last Saturday...
And then we went riding on Sunday. Here's S with Cowboy and Bill, her new best friends. As you can see, Cowboy loooovvvveeeessss her.
Smoky is wondering what's up with all the little furry things..
Here's S on her first horse ride ever. She did great! It was lots of fun.
After 3 hours on the trail, she's still smiling! S is really a good rider.. we even cantered some on the way back.

The Giant Prawn Experiment

S had to dissect a crustacean as part of her online class. Procuring the crustacean(s) in question was an adventure in itself.. S charmed the seafood guy at Publix into giving her a giant prawn and a crawfish...
It really was a GIANT prawn..
And of course, we had to photograph the crawfish too...
A was really grossed out by the end of the experiment. She changed her mind about sauteeing him, for sure.

I love this pic.. L is checking out her notes and her half-dismantled crustacean, and she's gagging. LOL ;-)

Later: Horseback riding!

Up Yonder?

Here's grandmother with her chipmunk... One of the cats caught this chipmunk and brought him in the house. he got away from the cat and disappeared into the closet, where he stayed for a month. Grandmother left food out on the floor for him, and finally caught him. She named him Willy and put him in this aquarium..

..where he was tortured by the cats for a few days. I think he started going nuts a little, so Grandmother finally released him back into the wild. LOL
Here's S again, sitting in GM's wheelchair and painting.
S gave Mom her skirt from "Grease".. GMa is writing the date inside the waistband here..

The Holler

Here are some pictures from the NC trip: First we have S and one of her paintings. GMa was freaking out so bad about S's painting technique that S and I finally started screaming "OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" every time GMa started saying "don't oh don't DO it like that!!" It was actually quite entertaining.
This is one of Grandmother's cactus flowers out on the porch..
Here I am (you can tell I have had about enough fun back in the sticks with the fambly by this point) with Mom..
Me and GF..
Here I am with Grandmother..

List, In Pictures

1. This turkey has taken up residence behind our house.2. Last Thursday was my birthday. L and the zoo bought me presents:
My very own crocs (which I thought I'd never wear until I tried them on. They're SO comfy!!) and iPod speakers! Yay!!
3. Ah, the trip to NC.. I got to see Paw Paw and Nanny. Haven't seen them in a while.
Also got to see Dad, but didn't get a picture of him this time. I took lots of pictures with me, though. I brought Mom and Dad both a photo book from the wedding, along with some prints for them, Nanny & Paw Paw, and Gm & Gf.

4. S and the younger cousins had a great time playing in the woods, and then cavorting around in a rainstorm:
I love this pic! :-)

Later: More pics from North Carolina
AND
Later Still: The Giant Prawn Experiment!

I Has A Teenager

S has arrived, and spent her first day at our house painting pictures and working on an online class for school. I am still trying to get her summer job lined up at the University. It is proving to be quite frustrating.

She's hilarious.. I have pics to post later from our trip to NC.

Once again, my family is so depressing that the government could actually videotape them for use in demoralizing the enemy troops.. Visiting my mom's house certainly demoralizes me to the point of just giving up on life altogether. :-| Sheesh.. sometimes it's just too unbelievable to be real.

Don't worry, I'll try to post pictures and a more coherent explanation later.
Right now, it's back to the office for another day of drudgery. O joy.

Eeyore Strikes Again

Well. What can I say? I am feeling quite morose lately.

I guess there is a lot of anxiety about what's going on at work right now, and why everything is changing.. right down to my friends and my interactions with them. I'm in kind of a funk, where I second-guess my every word and action until I feel ready to leap face-first off the nearest bridge or tall building.

Nobody else cares about anything I say, so I don't know why I am even worried about it. And I know that whatever happens with any of the current situations in my life, be it family, work, or other, it really doesn't say that much about me as a person.

But for some reason I feel that it does. I let it eat at me until I am really angry, and it wears me out. I feel that one mistake will permanently derail me, that one person's opinion can sway the whole world.. it's almost like I expect to fail but I am terrified of even the slightest indication that I might screw up.

Bleh. How's that for an interesting, uplifting start to the morning?