ugh

It is so hot.

San Antonio is not a bad place to live, but the summers are very icky. Hot AND humid means being outside is miserable. Getting into a car that's been sitting in the parking lot for a little bit is suffocating.

But it's still not a bad place to live. I always miss California the most in the summertime though.

allergies

I recently read that more people die in Southern California annually because of air pollution related causes than car crashes. If you've ever driven on any Southern California freeway, you know what a remarkable statement this is. I never had any problems. I started drinking bottled or filtered water, or at least putting lemon in water after I moved to Riverside because the water tasted funky, but that was really the only environmentally charged change I made.

Now, however, I live in San Antonio. On the daily weather forecasts, they also include mold, pollen, and mountain cedar air counts. I don't know exactly what they mean except that a lot of people in San Antonio have allergies. I personally have allergies like a mofo. No really, I think I saw my doctor right that in my chart today. Day one, I have itchy eyes, the sniffles, and maybe a minor sore throat or headache. Most everything goes away with some Tylenol or something similar. From what I've seen, this is what most people in San Antonio mean when they say they have allergies. That is the set of symptoms they have during a particular season. Not me, my friends.

Day two, my ears are so full of random crap that it feels like I'm in a swimming pool. And everything is very very loud to me even though I know it's all really just normal volume. I have snot just dripping wantonly out of my nose and my throat is on fire. I have a cough that disturbs young children. Any energy I have is simply sucked right out of me when I do something like take a shower or walk from the bed to the kitchen to get some juice. My sinuses are so full that the pressure starts to make me believe that if I can just poke something through my cheeks it will go away. My sneezes sound and feel as if they originated in my toes. My nose is red and raw. And anyone who sees me, including medical professionals, give me looks of sympathy before I even open my mouth to say anything at all.

Last year I waited a few days to go to the doctor and ended up with two shots in my bum, a bag of prescription samples, and a handful of slips to turn in to a pharmacy. So this year when I felt all cruddy two weeks ago, I went to the doctor. It turned out I had a sinus infection and two ear infections. Good thing I only have two ears! I took three doses of antibiotics a day for ten days. I felt better on day seven and finished the pills because YOU ALWAYS FINISH ANTIBIOTICS. Then my throat got sore again. That was on Sunday. Monday, I had an obnoxiously runny nose at work and the beginning of a cough. I took every decongestant and antihistamine I could get my hands on and didn't really get any relief.

A quasi side note to my story is that one benefit of working with nurses is they often have awesome suggestions on tricks for feeling better or at least getting through your day. Last night, a nurse told me to squirt saline solution up each nostril and let it run out. My dear friend Kate, aka Splenda, uses a netti (neti?) pot every day so this wasn't a completely foreign idea, but I have never done anything like that before. Let me tell you, I could actually breathe again! The nurse's suggestion was to do it once an hour and she stocked me up on supplies. Oh, needless syringes, how I love thee...

Last night when I got home I was going to take a very hot shower and go to bed. There was no hot water so I just went to bed. I slept for a few hours and then woke up even snottier and also a little disorientated. My nose was killing me and I realized there was just no way to go into work and not get fired for yelling at someone or something like that. I claimed the futon and propped up pillows and slept a little bit. This morning I called and asked for any appointment today.

It's allergies. They just knock me down. I got a shot in my hip, which is really a shot in your butt so I don't know exactly why they say that. I got a bag that has about 10 days worth of allergy medicine samples and yet another handful of prescription slips to take into a pharmacy probably next pay day. I was also told that if I don't show signs of improvement very soon, I will need to see an allergist.

I already had a handful of pills to take every morning and now I've got two more to add to the mix. And two nose sprays. Most of the pills can probably be eliminated by losing weight and exercising, which I am doing, but the allergy stuff will probably have a home in my medicine cabinet as long as I live in San Antonio. Today I am considering making a list of other places to move to because holy crap I am miserable.

Say you feel really sorry for me and you live in the area. Feel free to express your empathy with orange juice (well, really any kind of juice), the kind of tissue with lotion in it, cough drops, or a few bottles of water. I'm staying home tomorrow and then will play the rest of the week by ear.

I'm going to take a shower now because I heard a rumor that the hot water is back on. I heart steam.

i hate ants.

I grew up in California where the bugs are annoying but not malicious. Now I'm in Texas and I have to say that quite frankly it pisses me off that little teeny tiny ants bite. And it freaking hurts when they do! And what is the point of them biting me? All that happens is that I cuss at them and then totally squish them. And these are not even fire ants. These are a handful of black ants wandering around here and there in my apartment. They're all going to die next Tuesday though.

I only feel this violently towards ants, don't worry.

i could make an AWESOME fort in my living room right now

I'm moving on Saturday! I am very excited about this. I have lived in my current place for a year and nine months and it's been fine, but I'm really looking forward to the new apartment. It's closer to work and it's a tiny bit bigger and a tiny bit cheaper. The price difference is enough to cover my cell phone bill so that's cool with me. The kitchen and the bathroom are a little bit smaller than in my current placce, but I'd rather have a bigger living area in exchange so that's cool. Plus, the bathroom is not actually in my bedroom, which again, not a big deal but so nice for it to be that way.

Before the exciting part of moving everything in and deciding where everything goes and then making plans to invite people over for dinner and a movie night or just to hang out for a bit, I have to finish pack everything up and get it moderately organized so the people that have so graciously agreed to help don't find the whole task to be arduous. I hate packing. I really seriously do. I don't even really like packing for small trips. I either end up with too much or too little. You'd think packing everything I own would be fun because it's a good opportunity to evaluate whether or not I really need all this stuff, but no. It's a pain in my ass.

The packing does lead to unpacking which I am a fan of. I like getting to decide where everything goes and making a new place feel like home. I'm excited to explore my new neighborhood and find where the good grocery story and Target are and all of that stuff. Should be good times!

california dreamin'

Today I was discussing Christmas plans with my mom and I realized it's been a year since I was last in California. My mom and I flew out so she could help my grandmother get ready for and then recover from her surgery and I flew out just as a surprise. We whisked Grandmommie off to San Francisco for the day and it was just all a really great trip.

When the semester was about to start, I realized that I had never been to college not in Riverside and it made me miss the landmarks I know there. I miss my friends, but over the years I have come to realize long distance friendships work as long as you keep in touch. It was more the donut place open 24 hours and the perfect spot to get hot and sour soup. The drive I could take up Central that would make me feel better because it was all wind-y and had lots of palm trees and I could take Victoria back to my apartment with the window down and inhale all the blossom scented air.

Next month marks my second year of living in San Antonio and I'm mildly surprised (although pleasantly) that it feels so thoroughly like home. I know short cuts to places and have even introduced others to cool restaurants. My family is here and that's why I came in the first place, but I've somehow managed to put roots down in a place I swore I'd never live and am enjoying my attachment. Part of it is K, but that's not all of it. I like the place I work and I think my apartment is fantastic.

Sometimes I am very frustrated about college and finishing my degree and finding money and time for it and wish I had just been able to motor through and finish my degree when I first started it. But the journey has been good despite all the roadblocks I basically set up for myself. It's led me to San Antonio and things are pretty good here.

Who would've thunk it?

i have ant bites on my butt

Bugs in Texas suck. They're all bigger than bugs are supposed to be and they all apparently bite. Why would an ant bite you? Obviously you are bigger and a threat to its existance. GO AROUND.

I have ants in my BEDROOM. At first I thought it was because of my neighbors leaving trash outside their door all the time and the fact I get the newspaper delivered. I figured some of those ants crawled into my newspaper bag and then snuck out into my room. But after I vacuumed all those suckers up, later I noticed DIFFERENT ants crawling around. Why in my room, I don't know. I very rarely have food in there and it doesn't really stay in there anyway. Sometimes I have a glass of juice, but the same thing, I take it out. I might have random piles of things everywhere in my apartment but I don't really have garbage lying about. I guess they're looking for water, but they should really hang out in at least the bathroom in that case. Not around and in my bed. I don't ever see them in my bed, but when I wake up with welts on my arms (and now my butt), I figure they've made it up there somehow.

The apartment complex people are coming to spray on Tuesday, so I've got two more nights of vacuuming up little annoying biting bugs before I go to sleep. There's an ant hill right outside one of my windows. I saw a pile of dirt and kicked it just to see what would happen and it was like a horror movie. A million ants swarmed out of it. I was kind of afraid that when I went inside it was going to look like that on my carpet, but luckily it didn't.

Last year around this time, it was a scorpion on my pillow. This year it's ants. I guess the good thing though is that since I live in apartment complex I just call the office and schedule someone to come and spray and that's that. I'm not sure I'm ready to own a house. Pretending I could afford it and whatnot, I still would be a little wary of taking on yardwork and pest control at this point in my life. Right now it seems to be a very fair trade to be annoyed by the mysterious sounds coming from upstairs on occassion to be able to call the office to fix whatever it ailing my home.

i only kind of have road rage

I drive the same way to work every day, like I'm sure most everyone does. I try to leave at a certain point to beat traffic and to also get through one particular light because when it's red it feels like you're sitting there for ten minutes. That is a very long time to wait for a light. Beating the traffic though, the reason for that is because I tend to think a lot of Texans cannot drive.

In Southern California, pretty much everyone drives like they're not afraid to die. It's reckless and fast and ridiculous, but it's also possible to anticipate what people around you are going to do because everyone has the same style. In Northern California, drivers typically like more space between themselves and the car in front of them and things move a little more slowly (which honestly isn't saying much since my own experience is that a 65 mph speed limit on the freeway in Riverside means people are going about 80 mph). In Texas, all bets are off.

You can be driving on the freeway and a car in the fast lane will suddenly slow down to almost stopping to check their map and then suddenly veer in a horizontal motion to exit. The slow lane can be going at about 40 mph even if the speed limit is 70 mph. Driving on streets is different too. When it rains in California, everyone slows down because they're so confused about the sudden appearance of water. In San Antonio, everyone speeds up. Why? Don't know. Maybe everyone is trying to beat the possibility of flash floods home or something.

Turns are different. The lines on the road in San Antonio make for much sharper turns than I am used to from driving in California. But there's also this weird phenomenon that I just mentioned to K the other day about what happens when there are two turn lanes.

Say there are two turn lanes that lead to a road where there are three lanes. Everyone makes wide turns so they cross over the lanes, especially if you are turning right. THIS DRIVES ME CRAZY. When I want to end up in a certain lane, I choose my turn lane accordingly and stay in the lane. More often than not, I am almost hit as the car on my right is trying to turn and merge into me at the same time. What the hell? I think if you want to be in the outside turn lane then that's the lane you get in. So whatever, it's annoying, I try to be aware and accomdating because apparently that's how you do things in Texas. But it still grinds my gears.

But today? TODAY I GOT HONKED AT by someone trying to make a wide turn. UNACCEPTABLE.

Someday I am going to really get hit because I am not entirely awake and I am taking for granted that the lane I am in is the one I am driving in and the car next to me is only driving in the lane they are in and I just hope that the insurance companies don't ask me what I was doing turning while staying in the same line I started in because I don't know what I will do.

Maybe I need to leave a little bit earlier so there are even LESS cars on the road on the way to work.

big open skies

Yesterday, there was a small buzz about what the weather was bringing in. I've lived here for over a year now and am only vaguely used to how things ebb and flow. I grew up with earthquakes, but little to no humidity and basically two seasons. I never had problems with allergies and I didn't have to use nearly as many hair products to make it look good when I actually style it. San Antonio has brought a great many changes into my life.

I looked at www.weather.com because you can get an hour by hour forecast. This crazy storm was supposed to roll in at night, unleash it's fury on the area, and be gone by the morning. In California, this kind of thing was very atypical, as far as my experience goes. There's something about Texas and the big open skies that makes it feel like you can literally watch weather systems move in and out. It honestly may just be that in Riverside, the smog and haze that hangs over everything dillutes the possibility of this experience. Storms are definitely different here though. Thunder and lightening are a rare occurence and certainly never appear the same way they do here. Even just plain rain is different. The skies can open up and flood the streets in twenty minutes and then dissipate back into hot sunshine.

Anyway, this storm was supposed to come in about 9 pm and be gone by the time I was leaving for work, which incidently, is pretty freaking early to me sometimes. I was at Starbucks at 4 pm and saw the sky get grayer and grayer, but it wasn't overwhelmingly storm like. It was still about 80 degrees and not even misty much less rainy.

When I was leaving my store at a little after 9 pm, the lightening had started. As I drove home, the wind picked up. You know those news stories with the reporters standing in the rain and the wind is blowing so hard they can barely stand still? That's what came in by 10 pm. And then at midnight, I woke up because of the lightnening and thunder, even though I have literal blackout drapes in my room. I stood at the window and watched the lightening light up the sky to brighter than daylight because there was so much. It was pouring down rain, and the wind was making it flow sideways from the sky. It. Was. Crazy.

This morning, I went outside to go to work and I wasn't sure what to expect. The sky was beautiful with the broken clouds and the sun just starting to rise making it all different shades of blue. The ground is saturated, but the air is calm.

And that is the difference in weather between Riverside and San Antonio.

know how i know i live in texas?

K wanted to make me dinner the other night and decided on fideo and enchiladas. He gave me a list of stuff to pick up from the grocery store. For the enchiladas, the list was:

red corn tortillas
cheese
onions
one large can of wolf brand chili

Mexican food in Texas is very different from Mexican food in California. :)

ps. They were pretty good. But I think I still like Californian Mexican food better. I miss those little tacos with the carne asada, onions, and cilantro that you squeeze lime on before eating...

know how i know i live in texas?

Yesterday I had to go to court because of my expired truck registration. Since I got it renewed and went to court, it was dismissed and I had to pay a very small fine, so it wasn't particularly a big deal.

But know how I know I live in Texas?

I had to park my truck on the gravel for my court date.

five reasons my friend splenda is great

Kate is Great

1. She unabashedly loves Starbucks but does not like the ones that feature baristas jumping out from behind the counter to say hi the second the door opens for someone to come inside.

2. She has been married for awhile now and gives me awesome advice and perspective that is real and useful. A lot of people my age don't entirely understand where I'm coming from when I talk about my relationship with K, but she always does.

2b. She is probably the biggest fan of me and K having a relationship outside of me and K. She said we HAVE to get married because our babies would be the cutest dark curly haired babies there ever were.

3. She is the perfect drinking buddy because she will do shots right along with me but will also make sure that we're both safe and whatnot. She knows the value of leaving early sometimes, but going to the Pig Stand when Damon is on a story telling kick as well.

4. She is working on her business degree and enrolled right away in the next round of classes after she moved this fall. I admire her so much for plugging along and kicking ass in her classes.

4b. She has only been a source of encouragement when I've talked to her about my uncertainty regarding my future, in whatever sense I'm currently worried about.

5. Her blogs are super funny and I don't mind that she cusses at all.

freezing rain

I was kind of confused about the concept of freezing rain until last night's experience and this morning's confirmation.

When I got to finally clock out from the coffee shop (after "can you do just one more thing?"), I was so excited to get to go home. My feet were hurting and it was kind of a long shift. I was supposed to be training, and the first day is supposed to be a sit down with the store manager and a tour of the store and going over some basic things. I only quit working for this company in September, so it wasn't all that long ago, but who knows what I've forgotten? For example, I used to have my boyfriend's employee numbers memorized and it was only last week that I could remember them again because I overheard him saying them. Also, my last store did roughly half the business this one does and this one is a drive-thru. It's been over a year since my last drive-thru experience. I was glad to have a refresher course, even if it was abbreviated.

Except, what actually happened was my manager briefly (as in what normally takes two hours took twenty minutes) went over some information, had me sign all the forms I needed to fill out, and then I assigned a till. I was on register the rest of the night. I could handle that, but I couldn't really handle side tasks on top of it. Obviously in a couple of weeks I'll be back up to speed, but it's not entirely fair for the person running the shift to be annoyed that I wasn't done with tasks I haven't done in at least four months, if not longer. Basically, if the rest of my training goes like this and I don't get any tips, I will probably throw a controlled fit.

I'm tired.

But anyway, I went out to my truck, thrilled to get to go home and take a shower and then sleep. Mmmm, sleep. I love my bed. I love snuggling down into it, under the sheet and two blankets and a lovely soft comforter. I like to turn down the heat slightly at night just so I can thoroughly enjoy the being wrapped up in all the blankets part of my bed. As I walked out to my truck and my hands and face instantly became cold, I was even more excited about getting into bed. And then I got closer to my truck.

It was covered in ice. It had this really cool texture from how the rain had fallen and then froze, but my truck being covered in ice was definitely going to delay me getting home to my bed. I kind of know how to live in cold weather and I knew I had an ice scraper inside my truck. Why, I don't actually know, but I don't ask questions like that. I yanked open my door and turned my truck on with the defroster on full blast and then looked around for the scraper. I didn't find it immediately so I went around to the passenger's side to look there and I could not get the door open. It was frozen shut.

That's when I realized it was going to be awhile.

I was tired and frustrated and realizing that even after I got enough ice off my windows to be able to see, the roads were going to be at least mildly treacherous if not just plain awful. And then what about the next morning when I had to drive to work before sunrise? What if when I got to work they just sent me home because no one had to come in? What if the electricity was out when I got home? What if...? When my mind started going crazy like that, I realized I need to just sit in my truck and talk to someone while waiting for everything to defrost. It probably wasn't as bad as I was suddenly making it in my head.

K to the unknowning rescue. I told him about everything I was frustrated about and he told me about his day and then wanted to stay on the phone with me until I got home to make sure I was going to be okay. It took half an hour of sitting in the parking lot with my truck running and scrapping ice and everything else to be able to leave.

And do you know what freezing rain is? It's when it's raining, but when it hits your windshield, it freezes. It's completely fabulous while driving home after a long day. By fabulous, I of course mean that frustration one feels inbetween panic and despair. I parked illegally under one of the car ports and made sure to leave my wipers up so they couldn't freeze to my windshield again.

I turned my heater from it's normal 68 ish to 75, hopped in the shower, and got into bed. I did finally get to snuggle down under the covers.

I think I get to do it all again today. Awesome.

texas vs. california

I've only lived here a year so I still occassionally think about the vast differences between Texas and California. I actually am a fan of living here and amazingly glad I moved, but I had never realized how thoroughly to the core I am Californian until I moved to another state.

Here's some food you can get in Texas that I'd never encountered in California:

-frozen pizza from the grocery store topped with pepperoni and jalapenos
-fried pickles at a restaurant
-corn fritters (fried nuggets of cream of corn)
-sweet tea as almost always an option if not just the default
-sushi that has roast beef in it
-barbacoa
-candied jalapenos