Friday

Today is Friday.  Thank goodness!

Things that happened today:

1.  Its the first day of Fall!  

My favorite season out of all of them!  I miss the colors and the cool mornings and warm afternoons.  The smells and cute coats and scarves.  So many of my memories growing up are in the autumn.  I remember one year my older sister and I had music lessons the same afternoon  Our music teachers lived next door to each other.  I would have my cello lesson first and then wait for Elizabeth to finish up her viola lesson.  I would sit in her little yellow volkswagon with the windows down and the autumn sun would warm the car while I did homework or read a book.  I would hear the leaves crunch outside and know my sister was done with her lesson and walking to the car to take us home.

2.  National Indian Day 

It's National Indian Day!  We got the day off from work today.  I was glad to be able to sleep in a little bit and get some much needed cleaning and laundry done.  

3.  Dinner

Because I was home today, I was able to witness the cuteness that is my turtle.  Bobby has started feeding him tiny pieces of shrimp for dinner and he LOVES it.  We've decided that we are now just as annoying as people with normal pets because all we do is bring up how cute Cornelius is at any available moment.

co-worker : "Look at this new green pen i have"

me: "Do you know what else is green?  Cornelius, and he is soooo cute.  Yesterday he did a somersault in the water and then sat in the sun for 5 hours!!!"

I was also very brave today and went to my first church dinner group.  I decided to sign up to meet some nice people seeing I can't seem to meet any nice people in South Florida.  We actually didn't have dinner but went to Yogutland which is apparently where all of the 13-16 year olds in Coral Springs hang out.  

side note: Teenage girls today are horrible.  They dress like prostitutes and hang all over boys with "Justin Bieber" hair.  Come on girls! Have some pride in yourselves and stop letting these boys think that they can get you to do whatever they want (like buy them yogurt).  Its OK to stay at home and play board games with your parents once in awhile.

I had a good time overall.  Only three of us could meet tonight but hopefully next time a few more will come. One of the women was from Peru and the other was from Jamaica.  I felt little un-exotic but it was fun to see what we all had in common coming from such different backgrounds.  Even if we don't all become best friends its nice to socialize with good people.  I feel very very brave and proud of myself for stepping outside my comfort zone. Yea me!

Tweezers

By cleaning my bathroom today I was able to finally find my tweezers!  What a relief because my eyebrows were slowly creeping across my face and down my eyelids.  I've never been great about plucking and my mom has naturally perfect eyebrows which I obviously did not inherit.  My best friend Makenzie told me once in college that  I really needed to pluck my eyebrows.  Only true friends tell each other these things.  We still like to drop it into our conversation now and again, making sure that we both are on top of our eyebrow grooming! Ever since then I've tried really hard to pluck my dark hedges, but it isn't easy when you can't find the tweezers.

Hey! I still have 2 more days till work.  Lovely.

The newest member of our family

Cornelius Redente-Macuen

The newest member to our family, a baby red-eared slider.  I adopted him the other day from a co-worker who had found him swimming in her pool.  The Research Assistant at the museum is an expert on reptiles and took him home for a few days to make sure he was healthy.  He is only a few months old and needed a good home so he wouldn't be eaten by an alligator.  I've always wanted a turtle, ever since I read the book Eloise who had a pet turtle named Skipperdee.

 On a journey across the living room

 After weeks of research, we finally set up his home, which is outside on our screened-in back porch.   

 

Today while Bobby and I watched a Saturday movie, Cornelius kept us company on the couch.  He is pretty darn cute!

He got a lot of exercise climbing the "mountain"

Afterward he got tuckered out and took a little rest in my armpit

Welcome Cornelius!

The Rainbow Connection

 

Looking North over the Everglades

Good Friday

What makes a Friday even better?  An office visitor!

Our admin assistant's cat Peeps came to the office today.  Another co-worker is thinking about adopting her and was taking her home for the weekend.  What this meant for me is that Ms. Peeps got to spend the entire day in my office!  She was very helpful with protecting the computer cords under the desk.

UNO

Saturday night at the Macuen/Redente house generally consists of relaxing or watching a movie.  Last night it was a romping game of UNO! 

 UNO has been a family favorite since I was very little.  Every single summer my parents would drive us up to Vail, CO where we would spend a wonderful week in the mountains swimming, hiking, and exploring.  It was strict tradition that our evenings were spent playing UNO.  Each summer would be a new championship and we would keep score the entire week.  Whoever won would get their name written on the inside of the box cover and bragging rights until the following summer.  I loved those trips.

Tear drops on my keyboard

It's still raining...5 straight days now.  It kind of fit my mood today.  I've always been taught to be professional at all times at work and to work my hardest no matter what the circumstance.  Today I just couldn't take it anymore.  The stress and the workload is overwhelming and tomorrow is going to be a very tough day.  I felt my head spinning and my eyes beginning to water as my brain tried to wrap around my mile long list of things to do.  I couldn't go outside to clear my mind because, well yes, it was raining.  So I just put my head down on my desk and laid there for a few minutes.  I didn't care who was walking by or if anyone thought I had just fallen over and died at my keyboard.  I wanted to crawl underneath my desk and stay there forever.  I'm tired.  I feel worn out and like my life is a little bit out of control.  Ever feel that way? Its pretty obvious as I look around my room right now at the mountain of laundry and cluttered heap of things.  Couldn't I just crawl into bed and sleep till November?

But I guess I can't do that.  I'll have to pull myself out of bed tomorrow and be the hardworking person I know I am.  I'm looking forward to my three days off, catching up on my actual life because in the end work is just that: Work.  And my life should be more than stress and chaos. I think I'll go find Bobby and see if he will scratch my back while I watch an episode of The Office.  A good solution to a rainy day.