A Tribute to My Cousin

My cousin died two weeks ago today. I know some people would say big deal, it’s just a cousin or big deal, people die every day, but it is a big deal to me.

My father has a brother and three sisters. My sister and I basically grew up with our cousins from the three sisters like we were siblings, swimming like fish in my grandparents’ pool and climbing trees like monkeys up and down Grape Street. My uncle acted like one of us kids until he left for Florida and never came back (that’s a whole ‘nother story). We are all still close at heart even though we spread out among Arkansas, Texas and Florida back in the 80’s. I’m the oldest of the cousins; my dead cousin was two months younger than me.

I guess my father’s side of the family has been mostly lucky when it comes to death. We really haven’t had to deal with the tragedy of losing our loved ones too soon. My grandparents lived long, full lives; my parents are relatively healthy; my aunts and uncle are still going strong; and the rest of my cousins and their spawn are thriving. There was an incident, almost three years ago now, where one of my younger cousins lost the love of her life to a ranching accident; he was gored in the lung by an exotic deer. This was the husband to the sister of my dead cousin. As I said, we’ve been mostly lucky, but some of us have suffered much, much more than others.

If you ever rented tubes from Rockin’ R on the Comal River, you might have seen my cousin. You really couldn’t miss him. He was a big guy, almost as tall as me (a long-standing joke in the family), and definitely twice as wide; his voice matched his size. While his sense of humor bordered on obnoxious for some of the family, you can be certain a woman like me would think he was funny. He had been many things in his too-short life…a chef who helped start one of the best restaurants in New Braunfels, a real estate agent who drooled over riverfront property, and a teacher whose next big thing was being a principal. He got to dance with his beautiful daughter while celebrating his sister's second chance at love only two short months ago. He didn’t get to do enough.

Although it was his heart that was the most broken, the hearts of his entire family will forever be changed. I love and miss you, Chris.

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.

My Weekend in Wine Country

The Best Meal of My Life

Originally uploaded by Catazon.

This past weekend, I spent two and a half days in the Russian River Valley of California. Friday afternoon, we arrived at the Mediterranean villa where we would spend the weekend and found it secluded at the top of a very steep hill and complete with a heated pool. Luxurious, no? Then, we made it into town for our 5:30 p.m. reservation at a two-Michelin star restaurant. After canapés and champagne, we chose between an eight-course or five-course meal, and of course, the wine pairing was optional. So if you know me, you know I didn't hold anything back. I even added the black truffle to the chicken course for an additional $12 or something like that. When you are spending that much money on dinner, you don't worry about the price of the black truffle addition. (You do worry about the fact that, for your daughter's upcoming birthday, you will need to get creative about what we are serving the guests, and I mean creative in the Cousin Eddie sort of way.) I can't pick a favorite course, but my favorite part of the night was when the waiter said, "And for your first dessert..." Aaaawww, yeah! (Already working on the redneck thing.)

On Saturday, we hired a driver to cater to our every whim for six hours of wine tastings. If you have never been to wine country or at least the Russian River Valley, a driver is a must. The road on which the seven or eight wineries we visited sit is extremely narrow and winding. After seven or eight (I really can't remember which) wine tastings, you do not want to be driving this road to the top of the hill where your heated pool and Mediterranean villa await.

I do remember my favorite winery of the day. It was a quaint little place that could barely hold us five crazy women. Their wines are only available on site, and I brought home a wonderful Voignier. This sweet guy guards the door of Porter Creek:



And this Texas girl who does not drink wine cannot wait to go back and visit him.

Catazon's Law of Parties

Stress will be a fact of life the week before the party, until you can drink it away the night of the party.

On Monday, the guest of honor will still be hemming and hawing over the menu. That's ok, because you're still not sure if you have to feed forty or fifty or even more.

On Tuesday, you will start the day by throwing out your neck...the same neck problem you have had since a crazy night in New Orleans in 2005. You still don't know what it is, and at the moment, you definitely don't have time to find out, although it would be nice to refresh your stash of painkillers.

On Wednesday, you will discover a water leak in your dining room ceiling. Thank God the pipe was right next to a light fixture, so the water dripped immediately instead of pooling for days. Later that day, you will have your annual performance review. Good luck!

On Thursday, you will have to go to dinner with your boss. Actually not a stressful situation, but you should be home doing a test run on the last minute request for butterscotch cake. Even though it might look like a pile of poo on Saturday, you're still pretty sure it will taste totally awesome (it's an 80's party).

You're not going to think about Friday yet. Keep your eyes on the prize.

You've Got to Laugh a Little...

The Kitten and I spend a lot of time laughing. One of the things we have enjoyed lately is this:



And by enjoy, I mean we walk around acting like chickens. For some reason, it reminds me of when a bunch of crazy people I call friends dared my best friend to put a pickle under her arm, ride a skateboard across the rink at Tradewinds, and scream "I'm a chicken" at the top of her lungs, all at the same time.

Here's to you, Staci, for not giving up on your dream. May the rest of your days be filled with laughter like the kind The Kitten and I share. Someday soon all of us "kids" will act like chickens together.

This may not make sense to anybody but me, but what do you expect from someone who encourages her daugther to emulate tv commercials?

Always Look on the Bright Side of Ike

It's been a week since I stated that I was eager to make more hurricane memories, and I can truly say I have been blessed. Good things that came from Ike include:

• My husband now realizes we need to fix the skylights that leaked all over the atrium and that I've been telling him to fix for six years. Maybe he will get it done before the next hurricane.



• I got to see a bout on a Monday night - TXRG vs. Madison - and totally free!



• I spent a whole uninterrupted week with The Kitten - until I dropped her off with Gramma about an hour ago.



• I finally got the new barstools I've been needing for six years (see above...we moved in six years ago!).


• 
  The 2008 Season page was updated to the best of my ability - hadn't done that since the HaRD Knocks season went down the tubes in June.

Yes, it has been a good week because our yard only looked like this...



and we had another little visitor who only stayed for a few minutes...


I'm still using Ike as an excuse to drink heavily, and I just noticed my long, tall vanilla vodka and coke is empty, so I'm sure this post does not make a coherent summary of my awesome week.

Hurricane Memories

Today, my family is one of the many in Houston who are hunkering down for Hurricane Ike, ready to make more hurricane memories. I can't help thinking about how mad I was when Alicia hit and I couldn't go see my boyfriend at the skating rink. And how we had a baby possum take shelter in a birdhouse in our backyard when Rita was blowing around.



Later this afternoon, I'll be moving my bed and the computer I'm working on right now. Then I will pull the carpet up and away from the back of the house, because our backyard tends to flood when we get a ton of rain. We are also worried how the construction on our road is going to affect this tendency. At least I don't have to worry about skating in a bout this weekend. Houston Roller Derby will be playing our Championship bouts on September 28th instead September 14th. Hey look, that's me getting an elbow in the ta-tas!



I'll also be dreaming about the beautiful weather where I was a week ago:

Jobhopper

For the past two years, I have complained a bit about the job I am leaving today. I knew within two months of starting the job that this proprietary university mumbo-jumbo was a bad deal, but the pay was decent, the stress was low, and the commute was manageable. So I wasn't in too big a rush to find something better, and I didn't want to be back in the situation that forced me into this job. I worked three different permanent jobs in three weeks...yes, that's a true story.

While I was complaining about my job on a weekly basis, I was also checking Houston-area, Fortune 500 company (preferably oil and gas) websites for open positions that matched my skill set and applying to anything that remotely resembled something I could do. Friends and family kept telling me to get a headhunter, but I knew my pickiness would eventually become an annoyance to anyone who didn't really understand. In the task of finding a new job, I was able to practice a high degree of patience, and I had faith that it would pay off the way it has. I announced a couple of weeks ago that I was resigning from the second-longest job I have ever had (I stayed at a community college as a cataloger for over three years...I actually loved that place and those people, but it was too far away). What I didn't say is that I'm going to work for the second-largest oil and gas company in the United States as a Business Analyst in their real estate division. I will be working downtown, but the pay raise, the benefits, the company, and just the overall "betterness" of this job surpass that one negative by miles. Most importantly, my daughter gets to go to "church school", just like I did.

I plan on setting a record for the longest I have ever stayed at a job. I think it's about time.

She's Got the Jack

I've been trying to decide whether or not I like 103.7's new format, Jack FM. Listening to San Antonio's Jack this past weekend was awesome...I was river drunk, and they played Men at Work's Be Good Johnny. I hadn't heard that song in years! Then, I get back to the daily grind, and the Houston station plays the same two songs at the same time two days in a row, and I'm like...whoa, not so awesome. Déjà vu totally freaks me out. Now, I flip to it this morning at the same time I did Tuesday and Wednesday, and they are playing Squeeze's Tempted. I'm tempted to tune all my pre-sets to 103.7, because I am so over that 80's station that plays way too much 70's and 90's.

Am I a Movie Star?

As I was working on my Amazing Race application this morning, I came across the question, "Have you ever appeared in a publicly released film or video of any sort?". Well, let's see...when I was playing football for the Austin Rage, we had a documentary filmmaker follow us around for a while. He even interviewed me at MPOW one day, and I babbled on and on about breaking stereotypes and other optimistic crap. So I can see why I would end up on the cutting room floor, but since I haven't seen the finished product, I'm not sure if I have appeared in a publicly released film or video.

That made me curious to find out if anyone had seen the finished product, and I found the "Playing with RAGE" trailer on YouTube. Boy, did that bring back some memories! I didn't spot myself in any of the clips, but it still looks awesome. It won an award at a Memphis film festival in October of 2006. Maybe we will see it in Houston soon.

Random Things

Creeping Beauty tagged me, so here's 10 random things about me. I'm going to stick with the facts instead of my idiosyncrasies...

1. I detest my current job, yet my library continually has the highest scores of any department for student satisfaction with services. I guess I'm pretty good at faking it.

2. I have worked in many different types of libraries, but never a public library. Thank God!

3. If I had to choose between being a rodeo volunteer and playing derby and choosing one would mean losing the other for life, then I would choose rodeo.

4. I would have tried out for banked track derby in Austin when I finished playing football if I had not gotten pregnant. And I was living in Houston at the time.

5. I played tight end for a full season but only caught 2 passes because my skinny ass was too busy filling in as right tackle for the fat linewomen that couldn't move their feet fast enough to block.

6. I completed an application for Survivor in 2001 and never sent it in because I tore my ACL. One of these days, I WILL BE on a reality show (ok, that might never be a FACT...whatever).

7. I served 417 people at my wedding. I'm talking about plates of food, you pervs.

8. I dated a guy that was shorter than me for way too long.

9. I skated in a department store commercial when I was around 10 (along with my sister).

10. My grandparents had a vacation home in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, so for several wonderful years of my young life, my family skied for Thanksgiving and Spring Break. Oh how I miss that!

I'm not tagging anyone specifically, but if you feel like doing this, go right ahead and return the favor of a few seconds of amusement.

Check Out My Video...

I finally uploaded the video where I tear my ACL playing tackle football. If you want to watch, I'm lined up at tight end on the right side with a wing beside me that runs a pass route. I fall back to block the defensive end, then just fall. Before I fall, you can see my knee doing its Exorcist impersonation. When I get up, our two shortest coaches help me off the field. I also included my post-game commentary where I confidently proclaim I will play on it next week (HA!), and my husband telling me to hurry because my fan club is starving.

Good stuff! It's easy to have a sense of humor about it five years later.

On the Radio

Today will be my first time to be on the radio for something other than winning tickets. I can't believe I'm nervous. I've been on television many times...first in a department store commercial way back in the late 70's, on roller skates no less...when I graduated from high school, I was invited to say my name and school on KPRC due to my top ranking in my class...one time, I filmed a stupid question for Matt Bullard at a Rockets game, and I do mean STUPID...AND, last but not least, when I played women's professional football, I made numerous appearances on camera. Those situations were for the most part scripted, and that's why I'm nervous. Too many opportunities on the Outlaw Dave Show on KIOL 103.7 for naughty things to come out of my mouth. Listen if you can.

In related news, HRD was on the news last night. KHOU told us it would be Friday night, so nobody taped it. I hear that one of my takedowns may be featured. If so, put that on the list above.