The walk home is going to be brutal today

...or so say the weather prognosticators on the local news.

All it means to me is that I'm going to be sweating and exhausted.

I'm almost missing the rain. :P

I need a nice surprise today. Like my financial aid to come in the mail, or for someone to come over and visit.

Or for someone to fix my car and the money to do the same.

I know, I know... wishful thinking on my part.

Better get on to class...


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Welcome all to my disciplined breakdown

(Because if I'm going to go looney tunes, I'm going to do it my way, dammit!)

Before you even ask, Larry, my week sucked.

If Daniel and his smashed up thumb wasn't enough, I had to stay home from school on Tuesday because of some stomach bug. And, because it was raining cats and dogs and chickens and goats when I attempted to walk to school today, I ended up staying home again. I can't miss any more school, so I HAVE to get my transportation issues taken care of, like yesterday.

And there's an issue with the internet service I have from Cox in my neighborhood, so the connection has been iffy since last night. To finish my homework last night, I ended up on someone's wireless signal. Cox assures me that the issues should be resolved by this afternoon.

Now, I'm at the library, on my laptop, typing away. Oh. Joy.

Here is my view from the library:


This is S.E. 15th Street in Del City. Off to the right somewhere is the baseball field at Del City High School.

And this is the library's view of yours truly:


Stef being her usual smartass self.

Right now, as I type this, it's raining again. It's raining hard. I might be here a while.

This just hasn't been my week. Maybe next week will be better. It certainly can't get any worse, can it? (Wait! Don't answer that! You'll jinx me!)

hope your week off was better than mine. see ya soon, cowboy!

That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Maybe it was something I ate?

I'm sure you don't want to read about how I spend all of last night in the bathroom. It's the reason I am still at home instead of at school, where I am currently missing a math test.

Just what was in that KFC that I had at Mom's last night, anyway?

Nor do you want to hear about my phone conversation with Saon at 1am where he told me that he was hospitalized for two days last week because he was stressed about everything. And, being the big guy he is, and his family history of depression and heart disease, maybe he needs to get out of the Big Easy for a while. That's the gist of the conversation.

Nor do you want to hear about how damn hot it is here in Oklahoma City. Yesterday, it was 95; last year on yesterday's date it was 100. Big whoop. Hot and humid is still hot and humid.

So, since I really have nothing to say, I better go. KFC doesn't taste as good when it comes up than it did when it goes down, if you get my drift.


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Okay, you can shut off the rain now!

The rain is crazy around here! It's just now calming down out there, but there for a while, it was coming down in buckets! We've had more rain in the last week and a half than I think we had all of last year.

The bugs will be brutal this summer. I.can't.wait.
=====

I had the first of four final exams this morning. I don't think I did as well as I thought I could. I hope it won't bring my GPA down too much.

Let's see how I do on the other three before I panic. I have two on Monday and one Wednesday. Then I get a few days off before the summer session begins.

I think I will celebrate by sleeping. Seriously, that's the only way I'll ever get caught up on the sleep I've been losing the last couple of weeks.
=====

Time for a snack. I didn't realize how hungry I am.


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Storms, sleep (huh?), and school

There was a wicked storm around 3-4 in the morning. It actually woke me up out of a sound sleep.

I looked outside and the wind is blowing, the rain is going sideways, and the power kept cutting on and off. I flipped on the TV and there was Mike Morgan from "Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4" with the weather (doesn't that man ever sleep?!).

We were having 70 mph winds, heavy rain, and the possibility that all that could turn into a tornado.

Then it moved to the northeast a little into Potawotomie County, and there was a tornado warning for Shawnee and the vicinity.

It was there, and the wind and rain here where I live lessened considerably. By this time, it was close to 4am and I needed to get back to bed.

Of course, I didn't actually fall asleep til much later. The alarm goes off really early when you've only gotten 3 hours of sleep.

It was still raining a little when I took my sleep deprived self to school. I thought I was going to fall asleep in the middle of US History.

And it seemed that everyone is made of sugar, because there weren't too many people in any of my classes today. What's the matter, afraid a little rain might make ya melt? Sheesh!

And the English Comp project from hell is getting more weird. I hope she's just not feeling well, but another of our group has gone AWOL (or UA as it's called in the Navy. UA= unexplained absence). This project gets more bizarre by the day. C'mon, there's only a week of school left... can ya stick it out that long?


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

*Sigh* More rain...

I'm still waiting for the nice weather to return. I think there was one whole day of sunshine and warm temps.
===
*Sigh* part 2:

Tonight is the last home game for the Hornets here in OKC. Unless they make the playoffs, that's all she wrote. They have to win tonight to have a chance at the playoffs.


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Trying to relax... and not succeeding

I can feel the tension in my shoulders, but for the life of me I can't think of a reason why I could be so tense.

Maybe it's the colder than normal spring weather... where's our 80 degree temps? Where's the sunshine?

Lord, I'd hate to be the weatherperson around here. I wonder how much abuse they get from their viewers when they go out in public and the forecast is wrong (or not to someone's liking)?

Hmmm, one of the profs at school does weather on one of the local TV stations, maybe I should screw up the courage and ask him.

Larry just asked me how school was going... so I told him. It's going quite well. There's about a month more of the spring semester, then three weeks off before the summer one begins. I've already got student aid lined up for that. Still waiting to hear on the aid for the fall. Soon, I hope.

It's the books that kill me, though. The prices, that is. Even used ones aren't cheap (but cheaper than the new ones are). The sooner I get the student aid, the better choice of books I get. I got stuck with new books this semester because I got my aid late. Ouch!

I don't know what's going on in the apartment upstairs, but they sound like they're going to fall through their floor into my living room!


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

What the hell happened to our spring weather?!?

Monday, it was in the 80's. Today, it's barely 50.

Are we going to get snow for Easter? I can just see Joey out in the back yard looking for eggs in the snow.

This IS spring, right? Right?


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Welcome to Hell, er, Tornado Alley... nice place if you don't mind the wind, the rain, and the wrath of God

Or, here we go again.

The sirens were going for the longest time. When it was thought it would head up into Midwest City from Norman, I actually packed up the laptop and hid in the bathroom.

And it rained like there was no tomorrow! I was waiting for the water to come up over the curbs. It hasn't so far.

I hope this is all of it for now. I have a paper due Monday and I can't go hiding in the bathroom every time I turn around. Though it would be an interesting story to say that I completed it in the middle of a tornado sitting in my bathtub wrapped in a blanket.


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Waiting for the tornado that never came to wipe my house off the map, and Jeff's 21st

Larry and I have some of the strangest conversations on Yahoo! Mess-up-enger. Yesterday, we were talking about tornadoes after I told him I heard the tornado sirens going off.

So for what seemed like an hour, we reported (okay, to be fair, I reported... Larry just came back with one and two word answers) what we were seeing on TV, since the weather people were dominating the airwaves around here.

There was one up near Mom's house, maybe a little north of her. Then there was a ton of rain here, and the weather guys were saying that there were heavy thunderstorms near Rose State and the surrounding area (where I live), and that they were going to keep an eye on it. Nothing ever happened with that, it just rained a lot.

We're supposed to see more of the same today, but so far, it's been grey.

Tornadoes scare me. I've seen what they can do, and I have no wish to go thru that. But, I live in tornado alley, so at some point (waaaaay in the future, I hope), I'll probably go thru one.

Not looking forward to it, though.
===

Today, 21 years ago, I gave birth to my second son at about 6:30 pm pacific time. That particular day happened to be Easter Sunday.

Fortunately, I will not be waiting up to see if Jeff comes home drunk. He's probably not going to go out (unless Daniel and Kathy have their way... don't ask!).

Happy birthday, Jeff. Love you-- Mom


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

2007 Atlantic Hurricane Names

It's that time of year again... hurricane season. Here's a list of the names of this year's Atlantic storms:

Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy


I don't want to hear any of these names associated with massive loss of life and destruction. There will be no more storms named Andrew, Rita, Katrina, Dennis, Hugo... they've all been retired.

Who thinks of these names anyway?


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

If it weren't for bad luck, baby, I'd have no luck at all...

From the Beretta's Being A Bitch Dept.:

I kept my appointment today (the one I postponed from last week), and the car overheated just as I got there. I was there for a while, so the car, I thought, had had a chance to cool off.

Wrong.

I got to the Sunnylane Exit on I-40 and she stalls out. Overheated again. Several people came over to assist me in getting the car out of the line of traffic and into the parking lot of a long closed and torn down gas station. I get out of the car to open the hood, put up the rod to hold it up, and the wind catches it and blows the hood back towards the windshield. This cracks the windshield and tears up one of the wipers.

Oh. Great.

So I drive her here to the public library, and she sits outside until I'm sure she's cooled off. So if that means I'm here for an hour or two (or three... who knows at this point), then so be it. It's B Week Friday, so I have no classes today anyway.

If this problem had happened in Edmond, I'd probably still be sitting wherever I stalled while people drive around me and don't even bother to help.

Now I know what Larry means by "snooty Edmond".





That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Um, what was that and why are alarms going off?

More earthquakes, I understand. Little ones, like a 1 point something. Car alarms were going off somewhere, but I was too sleepy to check it out.

By show of hands, who's sick of the frigid weather? (Stef raises hand high)

I was checking my stats yesterday, and noticed that someone from where my friend JC works in Massachusetts found my blog. JC being the only person I know who works there, I'm assuming it's him. I've had a link to one of his websites on MVL for about the entire time I've had it.

So hi there, JC! Hope you're not mad.

That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Happy Valentine's Day

May you all get hearts and flowers and lots of lovin'!

So far, I got snow, courtesy of Mother Nature. I don't expect anything else today. I had my birthday already.

But, I like surprises. Good ones.


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Is that an... naaaah!

It's so cold out right now that the locks on the car were frozen. It supposedly snowed around 4am this morning. Of course, most folks were sleeping at that point. The result was bone chilling cold, wind, and car door locks being frozen. Nothing a key held under the hot water for a minute or two couldn't solve.

I felt so bleh when I got home from school yesterday that I took a nap as soon as I got in at about 3pm or so, and slept til nearly 8pm!

And, supposedly, there was an earthquake here yesterday. I was in class and I thought I felt something, but with Tinker Air Force Base nearby, I thought it was a sonic boom or something.

Nope. It registered a 3 on the Richter scale.

Compared to the 6 something quake the day after my dad's funeral in 1999, I guess I could be forgiven for thinking it was a sonic boom from Tinker.

(Thanx 4 peeking. Talk soon?)


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

What IS it about this winter weather?

This is the kind of weather I'd expect in Boston. This time last year, it was quite warm, and so dry that there was a state wide burn ban.

So today, it's snowing. Yesterday, I had to chip the ice off my car before I could even leave the Rose State parking lot. Fortunately, someone took pity on me and helped me out.

I was kinda nervous this morning driving BabyDoll to school. I haven't driven her in this kind of weather since before I moved from Lawrence, MA in 2002. But everything went well and we got there with no trouble.

Tomorrow is supposed to be worse, with temps in the teens and twenties. I'm supposed to go up to Edmond tomorrow and see Mom, but if the roads are bad, she'd be the first one to tell me to stay home.

That reminds me, I need to go to the store and get groceries.

At least I have no classes tomorrow (it's "B" week Friday. Next week is "A" week and I'll have classes that Friday... on my birthday, no less!)

Wee.


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

I'm blue (as in it's friggin cold out there!)

I stayed up way too late last night reading a book not related to school.

I am so tired now, but I have a study session at 1pm for two hours, so I can't really go home and catch a quick catnap.

I haven't slept very well since I started school, and it's catching up with me. I go to bed at a decent hour, but my mind is reeling with so much information, so many thoughts, so many stupid little worries. I actually got up before my alarm went off, and still couldn't believe it was time to get started for the day.

And this weather is so crazy, it's maddening. Tomorrow it's calling for snow again. Great. That's all I need.

At least I won't be walking in the snow to school. Hope Babydoll behaves and starts right up like this morning. It's good to have my own wheels again. But she needs a lot of TLC right now.

And, yikes! My birthday is a week and a half away!


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

Murphy (of the Law) came to see me this weekend

or, if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!

First off, my POS television, the one I got for free when Saon left it behind over four years ago (before I moved to Oklahoma), finally died. I was in the kitchen doing something when I heard a pop from the living room. That pop was the picture tube getting fried. I had no picture at all, and a lot of high pitched noises.

Well, great. That's all I need.

I called over to Mom's to ask Jeff if I could borrow the one he got for Christmas three years ago that I've never seen him use. I expected him to say no, but he said, "sure, I guess so."

Then he had an idea. He'd buy me one from the Goodwill store for like $20. He just had to see what his schedule for this week at work looked like. Probably won't get today off. I don't know. I haven't talked to him yet.

Next, my cell phone is doing weird things, like hanging itself up in the middle of a conversation when I haven't changed location (in other words, it wasn't because I wandered away from the cell tower) and not putting thru text messages. Jon called me all pissed off because I didn't immediately respond to his text. I told him I never got a text message from him. I ended up hanging up on him because he was being unreasonable ("I did too send you a text, you should have received it!" etc. He's pulled this crap before. He's worse than a two year old sometimes!).

The only good thing is that I got my tag for the Beretta and drove it to school today.
===

If it's going to be cold, then let it be cold, dammit! None of this freezing our asses off one day and 60 degree temps the next. It's a wonder I haven't gotten sick yet with all this weather nonsense.
===




That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

A sign of more things to come?

I'm at the Del City Library and I looked outside and it's snowing.

Not sleeting, no freezing rain, but honest to God snow.

The forecast last night stated that there would be a 20% chance of snow today, with a 100% chance of snow over the weekend.

So there's your 20% chance of snow for today.

And the other snow for the weekend will cover a lot of things (since the forecast calls for 2-5 inches of the white stuff), including the 3-6 inches of ice that is already on the ground.

Since I returned from my apartment from Mom's house on Monday, I've been chipping away at the ice that has encased my car. I'll just get it all cleared off and it will snow. Just my rotten luck.

School starts on Monday, or it's supposed to. I'm all signed up, and I need to get a parking pass and my student ID. Hopefully, my financial aid will come thru soon and I can buy my books. I don't even want to think about how much that will set me back!


Guess I better go trudging back thru the frozen tundra and get back to my warm little apartment. I love living within walking distance of a library (and a college and the grocery store- okay, it's Wal Mart, but I'm not complaining!)

That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--

It's all very pretty, but please make it all go away

I'm finally back home after spending the weekend of the big ice storm in Edmond at Mom's house.

Daniel was supposed to bring me home Thursday night after he got off work at the grocery store. More on that in a sec.

Jeff and I were running around most of Thursday trying to get supplies and stuff to tide Mom over what would be a very long weekend.

We went to WalMart to do some grocery shopping, and the place WAS A ZOO!!!! You'd think the end of the world was coming, instead of a major winter storm. I've never seen so many people in that place, not even at Christmas time!

Couldn't find half of what we went there for. Bread? All we saw were empty shelves. Milk? Slim picking there, too. And forget trying to find Ice Melt or a snow shovel... those things were gone!

So we headed over to the grocery store where Daniel works, and believe it or not, it was WORSE than WalMart! We waited in line to check out with our two or three things for a good 40 minutes. Just looking around the store, Jeff and I knew that there was no way in hell that Daniel was going to get off work at 8:30pm.

And he didn't. At around seven, he calls and says he's going to stay late; real late. I knew then that I would be spending the ice storm at Mom's house.

We here in the Oklahoma City metro were lucky: we just got a lot of sleet (which is bad enough when there is 3 inches of it on the ground), but other parts of the state got ice and power outtages and a messy clean up. It's the thawing and refreezing of the stuff we did get, and that salt loses its effectiveness as a melting agent in really cold temperatures (which I didn't know). So the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was discouraging travel on the highways because it was dangerous.

So, when the storm was over and the roads were somewhat clear, Daniel brought me home yesterday around 1pm.

I had prepared for the storm days before the storm hit, so I still have all my supplies and stuff. Good thing because they're calling for another storm this weekend!

Great. And with school starting next week too. This'll be fun...


That's all from where I sit.

--MorelaterZ--