Saturday Night Soccer in Austin

BH is a big soccer fan. Not only does he enjoy watching it, he plays as well. So all summer, we've been talking about checking out an Austin Aztex game. And this past Saturday, we finally did.

This season's games are being played at Nelson Field in NE Austin, but next season, they'll be moving downtown to House Park.
The attendance was 2,611, so there was plenty of room to sit pretty much wherever you wanted to.
We were all treated to a beautiful sunset and cooler-than-it-has-been-in-a-long-time temperatures.
The Geej got an Aztex tattoo, and BH talked to her about what was going on on the field. She actually sort of got into it. But when her attention DID wane, they had a handy bouncy house set up in which to bounce yourself silly. They also had a place where you their corporate sponsor, AMD, had set up two back-to-back big screen TVs so kids could play a soccer video game in case, you know, real life just wasn't doing it for them.And for some reason that I'm still not quite clear about, the Aztex mascot is a chili pepper named, wait for it, Sgt. Pepper. Um, okay.


One thing I was VERY impressed by was this group of SUPERfans located in the southwest corner of the stadium. They had horns and drums and basically went freakin' NUTS for the entire length of the game. Very entertaining.

By the way, the Aztex won--for the first time in 2 months!!


We had a really good time. I recommend the Aztex games for a good dose of easily accessible, inexpensive, small-town fun. However, unless you eat hot dogs or like those "nachos" with the canned "cheese" poured on them, then you're going to need to make other plans for dinner.

We went to Magnolia.

The Aztex--who are ranked last in their league--will play their final game of this season next Monday (Labor Day). They'll be playing a team from Portland, OR--the best team in the league. It's going to be a blood bath, but it should be entertaining!!

Scenes from the summer

Punk/New Wave Karaoke Night with the girls.

Watching the Geej perform her role as a Turtle of Barton Creek in "Bella the Bat."

A minor leauge baseball game in Frisco, TX.

Sibling kitteh lurve.

The view and a salad from a WONDERFUL dinner at the Southwest Bistro in the Hyatt.

My utterly futile daily battle against bedhead.

Some horse lips flapping in the breeze while traveling down IH-35.

Staying cool by any means necessary.

Trying like Hell to keep the plants in our beds alive.

More salad. (This one's an heirloom tomato salad with olive vinagrette that I made.)

Keeping cool at the Hill Country Hyatt, in San Antonio.

Sporting a tattoo and braids because that's what you do when you're on vacation.

Going to Sea World on a day when there were no crowds or lines, which meant you got to ride this thing three times in a row with your fearless five year old.

Seeing the shows at Sea World. (Check out my mom's sweet purple hat with sequins on it! And is it just me, or does she look like she's about 40 rather than her real age?)

Eating more salad. (This one was a sumer squash, corn and shrimp salad, once again made by moi.)

And meeting this guy.

There. I feel sort of caught up. The Geej is now back in school (Kindergarten), and I am praying temperatures below 90 and rain on a daily basis. And so it goes.

Kerplooey!

I don't handle stress well. It takes me down mentally at first, then physically. Since taking my little vacation last week (3 days off; quick trip to San Antonio/Sea World with Dah and The Geej), I've come back to A Situation as work that has been eating me alive. First it was just insomnia. Then I broke out--big zits on my face and back. Then hardcore headaches. And today, I actually had to leave work and come home because it was like a huge boulder of doom just rolled down on top of me--I had a piercing headache, I was dizzy, my stomach was in shreds. I managed to make it home and into the bed, and escaped into a deep, hard sleep for about 3 hours. When I awoke, I was stiff and sore and totally disoriented. BH told me that I looked red and green (feverish and nauseous) all at the same time. And he's right! I've got a 101 fever and have been sick to my stomach--BIG time--since I awoke.

What does this tell me?

I need to figure out a way to better cope with and handle normal and extreme stresses in my life, or I am going to drop dead of a stroke before I hit fifty. Yoga. Meditation. Massage. Exercise. Acupuncture. Or some combination therein. Because this? What I'm feeling right now? Not okay.

A prediction:

Should my mother ever figure out how to get back on IM, I'm fairly certain I can someday look forward to an exchange like this one (stolen from Jezebel.com):

I'm back. Sort of.

I'm not going to go on and on about how guilty I am for not blogging, even though I am. I mean, sometimes, at the end of my day (which is when I usually find the time, presence of mind and solitude required to blog), I think to myself, "I should really blog...but fuck it." And y'all? That's a recent thought. At least the "fuck it" part is recent. Never, since I started blogging several years ago, have I thought of this as a chore or something that I didn't WANT to do. To me, it's always been a release, a way to share, and--at the very least--a way to write and document what was going on in my fairly-normal-but-sometimes-extraordinary life. But lately? If I even think about this blog (which, admittedly, I rarely do), it's with a sense of dread because I haven't posted in so long or worse, because I'm simply overwhelmed with the idea of sharing the completely boring goings on in my life.

So to try and get my mojo back, I share some bullet points and a photo or two:

The Geej turned five last week, which is amazing in and of itself because it proves how insanely fast time flies but made even more so by the fact that she a) begged to get her ears pierced for 3 months, b) I caved and let her and c) she was as cool as a cucumber during the whole process:


Wow, people. Right now, she's in the middle of "performance camp," that culminates in a show this Friday, and in a couple of weeks, she starts freakin Kindergarten. WTF, indeed.

The Geej was showered with many MANY gifts and enjoyed a "bouncy house" birthday party with some of her favorite friends. But I must say, thus far, her most beloved gift has been the "Totally Hair" Barbie head given to her by her Aunt Jaye. You see, I am mean and evil and will NOT buy my child anything Disney Princess- or Barbie-related because I find their portrayal of womanhood suspect at best, and therefore will not support them with my well-earned dollars. I leave that to her friends and relations. So when Aunt Jaye presented The Geej with what we've affectionately been calling "The Head," it was a trip to say the least. I mean, The Head had to come with us to her birthday dinner at Red Robin that night and sit on the table next to her grilled cheese and lemonade. And right now, The Head is tucked in beside her in the bed (along with Sally and Chino) . Don't believe me?

Yeah...so there's that.

And right after her b-day party at Germ-a-Palooza, guess what? The Geej--who is almost NEVER sick--got sick. Fever and coughing. Got her in to see the doctor on Monday, and he confirmed that this was something viral that was "going around" and should run its course in "4 to 5 days." So we've been hanging out while I've been trying to play nursemaid while simultaneously working from home. Why not just take the time off and care for my sick child? Well, because I have only ONE GODDAMNED PAID TIME OFF HOUR in my paid time off bank, DESPITE the fact that I rarely ever take time off. Isn't that awesome?

So between that situation and the fact that we're on our 45th 100+ degree day here this summer, I'm in a pretty crappy general mood. Sorry.

But you know what IS making me happy? Kenny Fucking Powers. Don't know him? Well, maybe you should: