Another One for the Books

I'm glad this year is (almost) over. It seems like it's lasted for two. For a while there, I was actually wishing the whole Mayan calendar thing was true, because this was turning out to be one of the worst years of my life. You'll notice the date and content of my last post and easily figure out why.

That, and I was stuck in a job I didn't want with a dysfunctional business strategy guiding not only my team but the other teams with which I closely worked. On top of that, I started thinking my particular age might be the magical turning point where everything was downhill from here. Not in a good place at all.

Good news is it looks like life is on a upswing. I've been in a new job for a little over a month in a great location, with great people, tons of challenges, AND (not that it's important, but...) more money. The challenges aren't all going to be easy and maybe not even winnable, but in the end, it's going to be something I can stick in my back pocket and every now and then pull out and say, "I did that!" Now when I leave work, I don't feel like drinking my life away and I actually try to work out a little bit. My daughter starting up sports has helped too. In fact, her first basketball game ever was this week, and while the gang of fourth graders she runs with didn't score any points against the fifth and sixth grade rivals, they did something even better.

Yep, that sucker's stuck. Hilarious. And yes, the other team scored 24 and they scored zero. It was still fun (straight from the horse's mouth)!

Something else that helped put a big smile on my face was spending time with my husband in Nashville earlier this month. We honeymooned there fifteen years ago, and I've always wanted to go back, especially since my sister and a group of our friends go every year to see the Texans beat the Titans. Oh, now you see what the smile is from, you say. Well yeah, how could I help but smile when this was my view?

Yep, life is good. Now let's hope all that hype about the Mayans really isn't true.

Rodeo Wrap-up

One of my favorite things about volunteering for the rodeo is when it's finally over. And I don't mean that in a negative way; I get to read all about another wonderful year at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo in the wrap-up press release. Granted the numbers are rumored to be padded, but I'm pretty good at exaggerating myself. Here's my own version:

Marie (aka Catazon) Finishes Up Her Third and Final Year as Club East Captain - March 21, 2011 - For Immediate Release - On the morning of March 21, 2011, Marie made her final trip to Reliant Stadium as a Captain on the Corral Club - Club East A Team to help her committee push all the beer boxes, margarita machines, and portable bars downstairs to Equipment and finish cleaning out the leftover alcohol and other sundries.  She took home a buttload of limes to make fresh margaritas later in the evening, because we all know you have to wean yourself slowly from twenty straight days of rodeo excess. 

Following are the highlights of Marie's own personal 2011 March Madness:

ATTENDANCE

• Officially worked six nights: Sugarland, Selena Gomez, Martina McBride, Gary Allan, KISS, and Alan Jackson.
• Helped out the other teams for two nights: Clay Walker and Jason Aldean.
• "Played" on seven additional nights: Janet Jackson, Billy Currington, Lady Antebellum, Kid Rock, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band, and Brad Paisley.
• Yes, that's a total of 15 out of 20 nights that Marie was on the grounds of RodeoHouston.

SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORT

• Drink tickets purchased: $240 worth (not counting the tickets sweet-talked off the husband)
• Wine tickets purchased: ~$30 worth (those were hair of the dog days; more money will be spent on wine next year)
• Carnival tickets purchased: $100 worth (half-price, of course)
• Carnival tickets donated: $50 worth
• Alamo tamales eaten: $12 worth (3 half-dozens, usually on the hair of the dog days)
• Gifts bought for the Assistant Club Chairman's last year: $315 worth (money collected from the Club)

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTABLE NUMBERS

• Steps walked: ~503,000 over the past six weeks; the majority of those on the 15 days at rodeo.
• Number of times riding the rollercoaster of death: 2
• Number of times riding the rollercoaster of death in the front seat: 1 (just happened to be the day before and you know it was with The Kitten)
• Number of days Pole 21, the same place I've been parking since I started volunteering seven years ago, was unreachable: 12 (don't even get me started; it's pretty much documented via Facebook and Twitter)
• Number of gifts my team bought me for my last year as Captain: 4
• HLSR pink and black windbreaker
• HLSR pink and black rhinestone belt buckle
• HLSR sterling silver bracelet
• And my favorite, HLSR Corral Club key fob

Another great year of giving back to my community and also getting something in return; not only material things but pride, respect, love...too many positive emotions and feelings to list. As I mentioned, there's an Assistant Club Chairman position open on my Club, and I'm up for it. 2012 may be even better than 2011, if we aren't killed walking to our car a mile away or being flung out of a carnival ride!

Christmas Before Thanksgiving?!?!?

I usually take the tradition of not recognizing the impending joy of the Christmas season until the day after the day after Thanksgiving.  (Yes, there are intentionally two day afters in there.)  However, it looks like my short-lived day after Thanksgiving tradition of visiting the Texas Renaissance Festival without The Kitten is most definitely short-lived, because the only companions I can find to visit with me today are my parents who are supposed to be watching The Kitten. And...I've already started shopping. Gasp!

On Wednesday, I bought my in-laws a GPS after checking out the online Black Friday deals, and last night, I bought The Kitten a Wii as soon as Best Buy opened up their online Black Friday deals.  Of course, I added Wii Fit to my wish list shortly thereafter.  Have I ever mentioned how much my agoraphobia loves the interwebs?  As if it wasn't obvious.

Now, with my plans dashed thanks to stupid Houston weather and my wonderful cable internet connection that never goes out, Christmas has come early to Catazonia.  I may even start decorating the house today.  Yaaaaay...

UPDATED: Yep, I'm done...

My #1 Freebie

From the moment I first saw Billy Idol, I've had the biggest crush on him.  I don't even remember the first glimpse, but I know it was on MTV and I must have been about 12 (that's when White Wedding was released).  I bought all his music; I even have every Generation X release I could get in the states in the 80's on vinyl.  His VH1 Behind the Music episode is on a VHS tape somewhere in this house.  The picture below is my 6-inch stack of article clippings that I used to keep in a binder in my school locker but now fills up a magazine box.

I actually don't think crush is the right word.

Last night, I was front row at his Houston House of Blues show; the first time I've seen him in almost 20 years. (I'll never forgive my husband for not letting me go to his Houston show in July 2001 when we got off our return flight from Norway about an hour before it started and we still had to drive home to Austin...never.)  I was "the one wearing the shirt of the band I'm going to see"; the shirt I bought in 1984 at an Astroworld concert, put away for safekeeping, and now have only worn once. 

The only disappointing thing about last night's show was that he never came to the side of the stage where I was standing.  This is the best pic I could get.  Would it have killed him to just come sweat on me?  Like my #2 freebie did in 2008?

Oh, and he kept his shirt on way too much.

But the show rocked! And I'm glad somebody in line had an extra ticket for my sister, since I bought the last one from the box office three weeks before the show.  Except maybe I shouldn't have tried so hard to get her in because she took home a drum stick and a guitar pick.  Hooker.

I hope I don't have to wait till I'm 50 to see him again.  I don't think he will look this good at 64.

Hitting a Car was the Highlight of My Week

Last Monday, I floated the Comal River like a rookie. Maybe it was because it was The Kitten's first time to float the river, and I was a little nervous, hoping she would love tubing as much as I do. Maybe it was a bit of showing off in front of my cousins on my dad's side who all are younger than me. Maybe it was way too much cider. But anyway, I fried my legs for the first time in twenty years. And not just fried all over...burned in a candy-cane pattern. Yes, I have red and white diagonal stripes up and down the fronts of my legs. Lovely!

Still, my candy-cane legs can't top the marks I received from skating the Pride Parade Saturday night. Before the parade even started, I hit a car. Poor car! It was just minding its own business, and I came along and tripped into it. It was too dark to see how bad my Catazonianess damaged it, but the bruise on my upper arm says there might have been a dent in the passenger door. The bruise is even bigger than the one when I fell in the clothes hamper, which you can actually see in the picture on my Blogger profile. Nice!

By the way, I'm waiting to see pictures from that night, so if you have any of the roller derby girls rolling down Westheimer, either on wheels or on the ground wrastling, put 'em out there! And thanks, Rushin' Cleavage, for such an enjoyable evening. ;)

I didn't think the week could get any better than once again getting the crap beat out of me by stationary objects, but then I went to a Roger Creager concert yesterday evening, right smack-dab in the middle of what I like to think of as my old 'hood (Oak Forest), and I know it's hard to believe that only about 75-100 people would brave the heat wave from hell to see him at such a great venue (a little league ballfield), but the few, the brave, the crazy were rewarded with a free beer from Roger himself. Awesome.

My Calendar Runneth Over

The 2009 Show has begun. I spent most of the weekend at Reliant Park...the Membership Dance Friday night, drink inventory on Saturday morning, and the equipment setup from hell on Sunday. After all that, I didn't feel very guilty while celebrating Mardi Gras at Willie's last night...listening to a good band, eating fried pickles, and drinking too many margaritas.

The goal was to get the taxes done before March, but I also promised to buy The Kitten some western jeans for Go Texan Day on Friday. If she's anything like me (and she is), we will visit all the Cavender's in town to find some jeans that fit. Sounds like a fun week, one which will end with my attempt to attend the largest cookoff in the world not only on Saturday night when the main group of friends will be at our regular stomping grounds but Friday as well so I can see and be seen. It all boils down to whether we trust a houseful of cousins alone.

Tomorrow at lunch, the city is staging an event called the Rodeo Roundup. Now that I work downtown, I get to check it out. No work meetings on my schedule yet, so I will most likely disappear for the whole two hours. One of the perks of having a boss half a country away. Then the parade is Saturday morning, and unless The Kitten changes her mind, we will be there, too. I already posted my rodeo work schedule, so I guess that means I'll see everyone in April (unless you read my Facebook and Twitter updates, of course).

A Sad Day for Houston Sports

I cannot believe it. The Comets, Houston's WNBA franchise, are being disbanded. Their wikipedia page has already been updated...geez, people, the body isn't even cold yet. ;)

This is just a shock to me. I was in the Compaq Center for their championship games...even drove from Austin to support my hometown team (and you're lucky I didn't say The Summit instead of Compaq Center because I saw my first concert there back in the early '80s). When my daughter was old enough, I wanted to show her yet another reason why she can be anything she wants to be.

This does not bode well for women's sports in general...let alone the perpetuation of the problems with Houston sports teams. What the hell is wrong with this place?

I Could Be a Roadside Attraction

I am utterly appalled that Texas has only one huge being in the Gallery of Huge Beings. I know there has got to be more than one, although you couldn't ask for a finer specimen! This is Texas, dammit, and everything's bigger in Texas. At the very least, somebody should let those huge-being lovers in Minnesota know that.

There Are More Important Things in Life Than Derby

This weekend, I spent 24 uninterrupted hours with my husband. Saturday night, we went to his 20-year high school reunion. Boring. Let's get to the good stuff.

Sunday, we witnessed Kris Brown's game-winning 57-yard field goal (picture taken by an old friend who I haven't seen in a very long time):



Thanks to my husband's employer, I saw this happen from the front row of Reliant Stadium, very close to the 50-yard line. At one point, I could have reached out and touched the guys that do the funniest commercials ever, Bud Light's Real Men of Genius. Yep, it was a good day. Spending some quality time with my husband before hunting season starts wasn't too bad either.

Hello Kitty!

I had a great time at the art car parade last Saturday, even though nothing fell out of my top.



Originally uploaded by HRD Art.


My favorite Houston band was there, too. I've known the Romeo Dogs for years.