The Silver Lining

We survived the hurricane. It wasn’t as bad as everyone assumed it would be. We did get a lot of rain, which lead to a bit of flooding in the yard but Mario suited up in a raincoat and boots and dug trenches here and there to help the water flow out. We ended up losing power at around 1pm and it was fixed around 5pm. There were tornado warnings and then watches till around 7pm, but nothing hit our area. So glad everyone and everything are okay .

While the lights were out and the kids were at Mary’s and then at Elda’s, John, Mario, and I lit candles all over the house. We sat around, listened to the radio and kept going outside to see what was going on. At one point, while feeling extremely claustrophobic and bat-shit-crazy, John said, “What if the electricity never comes back and we have to live like in the middle ages?! I DON’T HAVE A SWORD!! We must pillage!”

I just stared at him and said, “And what? Take the neighbor’s canned goods?”

Mr. I Want the Hurricane To Come. He didn’t know what to do with himself for those few hours.

Mario and John ended up falling asleep because they were that bored, the boys were still with Mary, so I found it the perfect, quiet time to start reading the Harry Potter series. It was so nice reading in the dark by candle & lantern light and hearing the rain tapping on the windows. I’m on Chapter 10 of book 1–slow reader . Mary, Yadira, Sonia and Noelia would have been done by now, but I’ve only read at night so I’m excused. I was going to start from book 4 since I’ve already seen the first 3 movies (cheater, I know), but decided I’d just read all of them. Hope to finish soon so I can read the last (most recent) book!

This morning, I got ready, ate a quick breakfast, woke Mario up and called to the high school I graduated from to ask about my transcript and if I could get a new, dated one or if they could date the one I already had. I called at 10, and the woman said she’d look for my file and she’d call me back. It was 11:40 and she still hadn’t called, so I called her. She said she couldn’t find my file, so I had to call Central. I told her about how they’d given me the run-around already (the receptionist, who I’d talked to twice already had gotten my info and said she’d tell someone to call me back but never did). The lady basically said there was nothing else she could do, so I called Central again and spoke to the lady I’d spoken to before. I told her I REALLY needed my transcript and a copy of my diploma (which they said they also needed) so if she could look for it we’d be on our way. Mario and I got into an argument about it–he didn’t want to drive over there if he didn’t have to. I couldn’t believe how he was acting knowing very well how important this was to me. After throwing a little crying fit, I finally composed myself and we left. It was a disaster. The transcript I had (which was a copy I’ve had since I got out of high school when I was going to start college back then) had two classes and credits that the one the lady had filed didn’t have. The one she had, had info from my 10th grade year that the one I had didn’t. The one she had also stated I only had 21.5 credits, when I needed 24 to graduate. She knew for sure I graduated since she had a copy of my diploma. She took the time to work out my GPA (which was 3.5), added all the grades in, signed it and stamped it. I was so grateful I couldn’t stop saying thank-you. She was super busy!

We took the transcript to my advisor and everything’s good to go, thank GOD. First day of school’s on Tuesday. What’s cool is that we have a very lenient dress code. I asked her what I should wear that day, since we don’t have our Polo’s yet, and she pointed to my black Strawberry Shortcake T, jeans and black flip-flops and said, “Something like what you’re wearing. Very casual. We’re not strict with the dress code.” Frijoles frescos! (Cool beans ROFL!)

The parts for Mario’s Prelude haven’t come in yet, but Noelia doesn’t start school till August so Mario can take her car to work and I can take the Sentra till we get the Prelude ready. *whew*

We stopped by Mary’s office afterwards, chatted for a while then went to eat at Jesse’s. Since we’re low on cash, we ordered from the “cheapie” part of the menu. Mario recommended the “Super Q”, which is a Super Quesadilla, which came with rice and beans. I figured 1 taco was good for me, and the rice and beans would definetly fill me up. I was in utter shock when they brought me a taco that was almost the size of a pizza when it’s folded in half! I only ate half, but man was it delicious.

We drove around for a while trying to kill time till Mom got out of work. We passed by a few houses we liked and took pictures. We’ve been really into homes lately since we’re just itching to buy a house in a few years. We want to be sure and confident with our ideas/plans for building our house.

We picked Mom up at 4:30, stopped to rent a movie, checked the post office (my driver’s license came in–my picture’s even more hideous than I had anticipated!), and then we came home. Mom’ll be staying with us for 3 days while Aunt Nora and Tio Arturo are on vacation in San Antonio.

Mom and I chilled out at Mary’s talking with Mary, Elda, and Elda’s mom and then I came back here and downloaded a few songs. Gotta make myself an MP3 disc to hear on my way to school on Tuesday .

on Sunday, July 24th, kittensteoh@hotmail.com“>Stephanie said:

Glad you’re okay and the hurricane wasn’t too bad!
I used to be anti-Harry Potter, but one day I decided to read the first book because there was nothing else around, and I have to read while I’m eating by myself(I know I’m weird!) and my sister had it out, and they are actually amazing. I read the first three and I’m going to borrow the fourth from my friend soon, I can’t wait to read it, or to get to the new one! I have to read them all in order too.. I’d feel like I were cheating as well!
Good luck starting school! I don’t know about you, but I love school.. (Again… nerd! lol) so I’d be super excited if I were you!

Oh, and don’t worry – no one likes their driver’s licence photo!

on Sunday, July 24th, kitty said:

hi sweetie!! good thing everything’s alright with you and your family! and yay fro you coz you’re almost starting school, way to go yaya everything’s going the way you planned, ok I just dropped by giving you a lil gift from me.. coz you are all soooo special to me…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v32/sirikit/GIFTS/yajaira_giftie.gif

on Friday, July 22nd, Lauren said:

aw yay for not getting hit too too hard by the hurricane!!!

on Friday, July 22nd, Johanna said:

Hey I am glad you have most things settled and ready for school! It’s so great to be able to read stuff that you want. I have so many assigned books its incredible! I want to read most of the “classics” that I haven’t read and should have read already. I feel undereducated at times! I have wanted to read those Harry Potter’s cuz of all the hype about ’em but I have no time. Update about how good they are! I haven’t even seen the movies! I do find it so great that an author can actually get kids of ALL ages to read such thick books! What an accomplishment! Anyways, I am rambling on about who knows what…..I am glad that we survived the storm and that you all are fine! Talk to ya later!