moonlight through the pines

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 7/01/2003 03:10:00 PM | ⊗

Monday, June 30, 2003

Check. It. Out.

It's back up and running.

WinterVegetable.com went up again yesterday. Not everything's up yet, so if some stuff doesn't work... well, it will soon.

moonlight through the pines: blossoming

Up and working. And hopefully, with luck, never down again.

How great is that?

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 6/30/2003 06:00:00 PM | ⊗

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

I'm not dead...

Just traveling. A lot. I'm back, and wv.com's being switched over to new in-house servers.

Once that gets done, I'm going to go in and beat MT until it cooperates. ("The beatings will continue until morale improves.")

Anyway.

I'm still here.

Just... quiet.

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 6/24/2003 05:54:00 PM | ⊗

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Check it out!

moonlight through the pines: the moveable type edition

Up and running.

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 5/27/2003 01:36:00 PM | ⊗

Monday, May 26, 2003

Graduation, and all that stuff afterwards.

Oh, where do I start?

Okay, so, I woke up Saturday morning at 9:15, got up, started getting ready, played cards with Mom, got ready, ate brunch, waited for Marge, and left to go to graduation.

So, graudation itself.

There was a lot of traffic on Cullen, so when we got close, I just got out and walked. Except, I got out and walked while still wearing my sunglasses. Yeah, anyway.

So, I get inside that terribly warm gym, after a stop into the busy women's locker room to get decked out in my gown, medals, honor cords, and cap. (And then after I got out into the actual gym, this swarm of people descended upon me screeching that I had my tassel on the wrong side of my cap.)

I switched the tassel quite quickly---actually, it was switched for me, but that's another story.

In the gym, wouldn't you know it that everyone but the summa cum laude graduates get chairs to sit down in? Yeah, everyone but the number ones, the people sitting on the stage, got chairs...

(But once we were out there, they got uncomfortable folding chairs and we got rather comfortably-cushioned chairs.)

As I was saying, Garrison Gym was rather warm. When I say "rather", I mean very. Especially in cap, gown, and long hair (it's now past my shoulders---I still haven't cut it).

Well, Mom managed to sneak her way into the gym to make sure I'd gotten there okay, and she snapped a photo of Paula, Melanie, and me.

I saw Mrs. Gordon, my freshman homeroom teacher, and she gave me a huge hug. When she saw Mom, the three of us got a good laugh about Fish Camp, oh so long ago.

Needless to say, when we walked outside of that hellhole of a gym into the very nicely air conditioned pavillion, we were all very grateful.

Graduation, itself, went very smoothly.

Yes, Eddie was the valedictorian. (And there were thirty-two summa cum laude graduates, including me and including Eddie and the saludatorian.)

Mom, Kevin, and Marge sat directly in my line of vision across the pavillion; it was great.

After graduation, I pushed past Julie to give Alecia a hug, then went down the ramp off of the stage to find Paula and Melanie again. I took a quick foray to see if I could find Parks (because I'd seen him earlier but when I'd snuck away from my group in the gym, two seconds later, Grigar got on the mircophone and started yelling about everyone needing to be in their places NOW), but I couldn't find him.

Outside, found Dad and then Mom, Kevin, and Marge. (Dad gave me the roses that you gave him, Mags. They're now in a vase with the dozen yellow roses that Mom gave me that morning. And they're BEAUTIFUL!)

Interactions with Dad were slightly uncomfortable, and I know he wasn't going to give me a hug before he left because he was turning away when I held out my arms, and he stopped, looked at me, and waited a beat before hugging me.

Yeah, so that whole empowerment thing, for those you didn't know, was me banning him from graduation dinner because he was being a complete and total schmuck (and I'd finally realized I was being a complete and total doormat).

We went to the symphony last night, he and I, and he tried to make things uncomfortable, but I just ignored him... When I banned him from dinner, I told him that Sunday would be our graduation dinner, because we'd been planning the symphony for at least a month and a half.

For those of you keeping up on the dinner saga, we went to Ruggles. I was happy. He tried to make me feel vaguely guilty about it, but I didn't. I got my fetuccini with grilled chicken, black bean salsa, and goat cheese, and I was very happy.

But I'm skipping ahead of myself.

Mom, Kevin, Marge, and I went to dinner after graduation at Joe's Crab Shack, where a waiter came over at the end of our meal, collected me, and introduced me to everybody. And when I say everybody, I do mean everybody. He did it announcement-style, and then we went around to EVERY table, where I shook hands. With everyone.

It was actually quite fun.

Then Mom and I went home, Kevin went to the studio, and Marge went back to her home, and Mom and I watched one-and-a-half Law & Orders before I headed off to pick up Paula for Project Graduation.

Now, let me first say that I have never before pulled an all-nighter, and Project Graduation was from 9pm to 5am. I never expected to stay the whole night.

Project Graduation was SO MUCH FUN!!!

I now love roulette. I already loved blackjack (and I won a whole lot of money on that), but now I love roulette.

Project Graduation had casinos, face-painting, caricature artists, a hypnotist (that was fun to watch), a magic show (which we skipped), lots of food, and in the one gym, sumo-wrestling, moonwalk twister, a moonwalk obstacle course, and moonwalk bungee-cord racing.

It was the moonwalk bungee-cord racing that gave me whiplash.

But it was SO MUCH FUN... On the third try, I raced, and I slapped down my velcro ball thing, and the bungee cord snapped me backwards and I went over the lane-divider and landed not only in Paula's lane, but on TOP of Paula. That was hilarious...

Sumo-wrestling was great fun, too...

And so was foosball. Mike and Andy were playing, and Paula and I went to watch, and then I joined Mike, and she joined Andy, and we did doubles, and that was so much fun...

So, first we're playing with our 9pm raffle tickets, and then next thing we know we're playing with our 11pm raffle tickets, and then it's midnight and we're watching the hypnotist, and then it's 2am and we're playing with the 2am raffle tickets, and then we're doing moonwalk twister and it's 3am and time for the magic show, but we skipped it because we were going to do sumo-wrestling, and then we go back out to the casino, and the next thing we know, it's 4am.

At this point, Paula and I looked at each other... "Are you tired?" "No, are you?" "Not really." "Want to try for five?" "Sure!"

And we made it.

I didn't get to bed until almost six in the morning. And I slept until four in the afternoon, when Mom opened the door to my room and woke me up with, "Alex? Get up. It's four, and your father's going to be here at five."

Did I mention I probably won somewhere along the lines of a million dollars at blackjack? Yeah, I put forty-thousand dollars on a hand of blackjack, got 21, and let it ride for five more winning hands...

Yeah, that was fun.

Project Graduation was really fun. It was a nice way to end out the year.

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 5/26/2003 10:14:00 AM | ⊗

Saturday, May 24, 2003

May 24, 2003

I am now graduated.

(The ceremony was prety boring, but at least our seats on the stage were comfy...)

More later---Project Graduation starts at 9, so that should be interesting.

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 5/24/2003 06:21:00 PM | ⊗

Friday, May 23, 2003

Empowerment.

It's a wonderful thing.

Yesterday, I went to lunch with Holli, got my eyebrows done, got a pedicure, and battled the living embodiment of my greatest insecurities.

And I won.

It felt great.

I completely astounded him; I really did. Every single thing he tried to use against me, I called him on the carpet for. Every thing he tried to pull, I struck down and called him on it.

I will no longer be a doormat.

So, what am I? I'm an empowered little bitch, that's what I am. Damn proud of it, too.

{grin}

My last day of high school was today. When Paula and I left the senior barbecue (very early; it was boring, and the music sucked), we stepped out of the school for the very last time as students.

I tried on my cap and gown for the very first time this evening.

And then I tried on all of my medals (the Top 15 medal and the Texas Scholars medal) and all of my cords (NHS, SHS, Honors Graduate, Acadec) with it.

It looked good.

I get to wear my American Legion (pin-on) medal with it that I got at Awards Night. (I asked Sra. Perez today, and she gave me the okay.)

So, I went and visited Major today.

Side-tracking a bit: I was wearing this really cute outfit today---white spaghetti-strap tank-top, white blouse half-open over it, and the black (above-the-knee) skirt embroidered with white and green and turquoise at the hem. It was cute.

Anyway, so I drove over to the ROTC room, and I'm wearing this, and my SHS honor cords are draped around my neck, and my little boppy-headband thing with the stars (you know, like we had as kids?) that they handed out to all the seniors...

I walked into the ROTC room, wearing this, holding my keys and my sunglasses in my hand---interrupting class, mind you. So, I snuck by Sergeant Turnage, and all the kids (underclassmen, probably all freshmen---I was before their time) stared at me like I'd dropped off from Mars. I wasn't wearing my ID, so god knows who they thought I was...

I had a nice time seeing Major. He's been a really good positive influence in my life over the past four years. Yes, so I became burned by the program, and a bit disillusioned, but it was time, and I'd grown out my need for the program.

But I realized today that Major helped me grow into the person I am today, and Mr. Parks has helped me realize just who that person is and has helped me fully attain it.

It was a huge realization.

I'm so going to be crying on Wednesday when I bring by the cheesecakes to all of my teachers... I'm bringing one for Parks, Moncla, Tarrant, Cappy, and Major.

And I know I'm probably going to cry when I give Parks his, Tarrant hers, and Major his.

Not because I'm leaving high school, but because they've (especially the three of them) been such wonderful influences in my life.

Especially Major.

Especially Parks.

I honestly almost started crying during his speech on Wednesday in our last English class with him. I had tears in my eyes during the speech, and at that last "on that nappy hote...", I nearly started to cry.

He honestly has been the greatest teacher I have ever had. I have learned so much from his class and from him. And not only about English and writing.

I've learned life-lessons.

He helped me learn to accept myself. I'm not completely there yet, but he's helped me to get where I am.

He's helped me empower myself. More than he'll ever know.

I'll be sitting on that stage tomorrow, come 2pm, and I'll walk across it in my blue cap and gown, with all my medals and all my cords, and I'll cry tears of joy, not sadness.

I've been everybody else's girl, and now, that day has come and I'm my own.

I am no longer his doormat.

I am empowered. I am me, I am my own and no one else's.

And it feels good.

The Winter Vegetable, The Winter Vegetable, stepped on her soapbox at 5/23/2003 08:35:00 PM | ⊗

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