Wow, January

What a month.

I had high expectations, as you know. You'll remember the Funeral for 2008, here are some pics and also my favorite line from the Catholic Last Rites directions for flowers (which I gave since they were so powerful): Any giving should be for the living, who are in need, and the grave should be forgotten. Man, I suck at that.





As you'll recall, New Year's Eve I spent much time with Zorba at the animal hospital and despite the almost $500 I've spent in Vet fees this month (more on that later), I also was able to spend some time with, as Michelle puts it, my "besties." Here's Joy, Michi and I being silly putting on our best ever (why we haven't tired of this yet, I'll never know) "Joy face," the pouty look our community has agreed Joy's makes in most pictures she's in.



New Year's Day, I woke up with early for there were still two more parties to attend. A breakfast party with the Waco crew (who now all live in Austin) at Ren and Alicia's house...



And also a deep fried turkey lunch with some friends from church who happen to be the parents of one of my favorite babies, Bella.



It was a full day and 2009 had officially begun.

However, I put too much pressure on myself that first week of January and ended up crying twice at work. Oh well. Desperation would not get the best of me I determined, and despite lingering reminders that another bad year was only one tragedy away, I put my best foot forward and marched on toward week two.

...which consisted of aforementioned trips to the vet. Zorba's eye isn't healed. Janie has dried rice worms on her butt. Potter is sneezing and his eyes are leaking like Zorba's. Here's Janie's poop... etc.

Three vet visits and five medications later, my dog's worms and giardia are hopefully gone, Zorba's officially healed and well and Potter's fighting off the last few days of an upper respitory infection both he and Zorba caught. And speaking of catching things... "Use good hygiene," my vet suggested during our last conversation when he revealed the findings from the fecal sample. "Giardia's contagious to humans."

LOVELY.

Good thing I've been working out and keeping my antibodies high. Which brings us to week three: I'm a haus. Michelle and I have been working out at the Y (of which there is one ghetto-fied one near my house and one downtown). And since cedar is high and my allergies are awful (and I could catch a disease from my dog), I am able to make it through the treadmill and the weight lifting and that terrible monster of a machine you stand on and move your feet up and down on and practically fall off of the first time you get on it, only by rewarding myself with promises of the steam room at the end of the workout. I love it. I feel very healthy when my sweat (and terrible toxins hopefully) pour out of my body and drip to the floor. Sometimes I meditate which makes me feel healthy and holy. But most of the time I just try to sit quietly and pretend there aren't a bunch of middle aged men sitting in there with me. I love it.

Good thing too cause my therapist went on maternity leave.

I know, right?

Speaking of stress (the fun kind), we're doing another play at church. And because our director went out of town for two weeks (and only agreed to direct the show if I accepted that in advance), I've gotten to play a second hand at directing... which I love. Don't get me wrong, I love acting more. But I've found this new side of the theater, the side i often sat and observed from during much of my childhood, only this time, instead of my dad, I'm the director. And I love the concepts and the pictures formed and the character motivations and the mannerisms and the tone and the angles and the big picture. I love seeing the scenes come together to become a piece of art, a fluid, methodical piece of art.

It's fun. Oh, and it's Inherit the Wind. Just in time for the Texas state legislature to vote on whether or not to change the wording on some document that would essentially allow creationism to be taught in the classroom. At the beginning of the play, under Time and Place the author writes: any town, any time... and it's so true. I just with it wasn't true in Texas.

So that's January. In a nutshell.

Oh, and did I mention we got a new president? :)