Oh heyyyyy

Wow. Hello, world. It's nice to see you again.

I really couldn't describe what I've been doing for the past two weeks... it's been a major blur of MTV, MCAT, working and sleeping. A couple of things in particular stand out, though.

1. I. Love. Jersey. Shore. I seriously never understood everyone's infatuation with the shore, and had even tried to watch an episode here and there with no interest. About two weeks ago, my world changed. MTV aired the entire season, and I figured if I was ever going to understand the fuss, I should start with the beginning. I ingeniously DVRed the entire thing. Excellent decision #1. Then I watched all 10 or 12 or however many episodes in two days. Excellent decision #2. Words cannot describe the amazingness. Meet me at the shore. (Not a joke. SB '12?)

2. My beautiful big sissy came last Saturday night!! She is settling in quite nicely and tells me that Austin is a great city if you don't have a job. She walks to Central Market every other day, makes tasty salad dressings, and scopes out fun things for us to do. Which would be great except that...

3. My life has been consumed by working. Seriously. I started teaching my own swim classes on Monday of this week. The combination of getting up at 7:15 am (oh, McKee, I now understand your pain), teaching seven classes straight without a break, losing my voice (like, completely, no sound coming out) from yelling in a noisy indoor pool, and blisters on the bottom of my feet from the pool surface has meant that by the time I get home every day, I am completely unable to do anything but take a nap. But... I LOVE it. It is soooooo fun and rewarding. My shifts fly by as I get to play in the water and be a kid again. Today four(!) of my beginners took their very first independent swims, and I swear I have never been more excited. I'm loving every minute of it. (Aside from the fact that I sound like Minnie Mouse.)

4. This whole MCAT prep thing is starting to get serious. I started my class four weeks ago, and the workload is really starting to build up. I guess I never took this test all that seriously, but it's starting to feel like I'll never be ready for it. There is so much material to cover, and I can hardly keep my eyes open at night to study it. Is it really possible that I'm looking forward to school starting up again, so that I don't have to study for this? Strange.

5. After a tiring week, Fran and I did have time to enjoy a lovely afternoon and evening. Eager to see some real-live-people, oogle some soccer players, and watch some Texas Baseball, we headed over to Cuatro's this afternoon to watch the Uraguay vs. France game of the World Cup. The patio was insane - it was completely packed, and they had taken over an adjacent parking lot to build a temporary tent with huge TVs for game-watching. It was a perfect atmosphere to enjoy the soccer (futbol) in - every big play had some people cheering wildly and some dejectedly moaning. We also had the pleasure of meeting a middle-aged, self-titled "Local Drunk," who made sure to check on us every so often. Pleasantly surprising, he turned out to be a nice guy who did not try to hit on girls twenty years younger than him. Just a generally friendly local drunk. After the game, most people cleared out and we watched the sad end of the Texas vs. TCU Super Regional College World Series game. Beautiful afternoon, disappointing result. After the game, we stopped at Central Market to pick up some sausages (shout out to JackAttack and her sausage fetish), peppers and onions to grill for dinner. We had us a lovely little barbecue down at the A pool. Generally good way to end a long week.

6. One last note: I am quite disturbed by our apparently eminent move to the Pac-10. I have no desire to be associated with the weakness that is the west coast. A word of warning to our potential future conference: You had best think twice before inviting the greatest division in college football, aka the Big-12 south, to join your conference. An another word of warning, to our own beloved football team: I expect nothing less than total, complete domination.

Miss you all!! Like a LOT. Let's set up skype dates soon. I mean it this time, I'm ready to stop being a weird hermit. And... tell me when you'll be back!! HDunn and Jack - mid June, yes? Come play with meeeeeeeeee!!! Peace and blessings, peace and blessings.