Very exciting email I just got!

KYLE PARKHURST ROGERS

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO DECEMBER 2009 DEGREE CANDIDATES

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your application to
graduate in Fall 2009 has been approved. Your graduation is contingent upon
completion of current coursework, incompletes, correspondence, and/or
outstanding transfer work, by the appropriate deadlines.

Please review the following information and report corrections
as described below:

1. You are a candidate for the following degree/major:

B S Comm St, Human Relations

2. Your diploma will be mailed to your permanent address by the Office of
the Registrar approximately 4-6 weeks after the official graduation date.

One step closer!!!- since today is Sunday and UT is not a 24/7 organization, we can't call, but we are pretty sure that this means that I, Kyle can pick up my necessary paper work next week for proof of graduation to show to potential employees! Yippie Dippie doie!

So close to success!

Tuesday, Kyle woke up with a fire beneath his behind. As his wife, I often times, am the party most likely to kindle flame to motivate his occasionally slow moving gigantic hobbit feet into action, however, he needed no pushing from me this particular morning. And, it was a GOOD thing; some might even say, a miracle that he called UT (University of Texas) Tuesday. Why? Because Wednesday was the deadline for submitting an application for graduation. Who Knew? Not us!

He had actually already submitted an application but because of some issues which I wont go into because honestly, it's just plain mind numbing to explain, it wasn't valid. Sooooo... the lady on the phone told him that he needed to get in his transcript from Texas State (where he took his final Spanish classes which by the way was the only thing keeping him from being a graduate) in by Wed. at 3pm. Kyle took his final test on the previous Friday and often times he didn't receive a grade for at least a week, but he called and pleaded, and low and behold, his professor graded his test within a few hours of his beseeching, and we were in the car, on our way to Texas State to pick up his transcript to take to UT in the morning as we had to meet with the adviser at 8:45 am the next morning. And if you know ANYTHING about Austin traffic, you are aware of it's lifeless movement in the morning, afternoon, also sometimes at midnight and on occasion at 4 am and well really basically at all times of day depending on the shadow of the moon on the Earth. So..., we solicited friends at the last possible moment so that we could save a tank of gas and a massive migraine whilst dealing with what might be considered equivalent to Chinese torture, Austin traffic in the morning.
Success! Texas State Transcript received!
Non success: San Antonio College Transcript not received, leaving Kyle without the adequate number of hours.
Success! he was allowed to apply for graduation.
Non success: We do not currently have a piece of paper which will pass as a prerequisite to a diploma until SAC's transcript is received.
Success! The lady on the phone told Kyle, it was basically impossible for him to get it all done before the deadline, and when he called to tell her that we were on our way, she was dumbfounded to which Kyle responded, "I know, I have been a RockSTAR!"

In short- the trip was very successful, but not as successful as we hoped. But we are far from despairing. We are hopeful, that by Monday, all should be solved! We are so very very close, I can taste it! YAY for Kyle being a ROCKSTAR!!!

Kyle's left the building

As we speak, or more appropriately, as I type, Kyle is driving his petrified self to San Marcos to take his last Spanish test, the only thing standing between Kyle and graduation. (At least for now) When he awoke this morning at 8:00 am voluntarily he was shaking in his booties, like a puppy in his first snow storm. Calm had set in, however, as he headed out the door. He was like a gladiator prepared to face the lions, braced for any trickster Spanish tense or strange idiom that plunged towards his heart. The previous two tests he has received scores of 90 and 92 so I am not worried. I am really proud of him stepping up after so much time of hiding behind his shield of lies to face his demons. It hasn't been easy, but we are finally nearing the end of the journey. The finish line which has seemed so close and yet completely unreachable for eons, is now within our fingertips, and I for one may jump out of my skin with rapture at the end of today.

We will keep you updated as we are informed of his progress.

Interview update:

The interview was at a temp agency called adeco and from my vantage point, it went well. I wore a nice little number with my hair pulled back, and felt very professional so that was better than originally anticipated considering my limited options, ahem... middle school clothes.

The only hiccup, however has been the assessment tests, principally the one having to do with EXCEL! Yes, it wasn't very many days ago, in which I wrote about how EXCEL HATES ME , ironic how quickly, this mutual animosity has created such a thorn in my side. The first 10 questions I could muck through just fine, as they were simple things such as widening columns and deleting rows, however, when it came to using any feature that dealt with calculating, taking averages or using formulas, I might as well have been my mom, as computer savvy as the mice living in our attic.

And then there was the typing assessment, which I actually haven't taken as of yet, because quite frankly, I am timorous of what the results will be. You see, I am a quick typist, however, my fingers like to jiggy. They like to get down, turn around and boogie to whatever music they hear, which may or may not be what I should be typing. Basically, what I am trying to say is, I make mistakes, lots of them, and the more mistakes I make, the more my fingers loose control do whatever they like especially when my nerves get the better of me. I can only take the test once, and it is a full five minutes. Five minutes of reading, or having a conversation, is equivalent to a New York minute, but five minutes of speed/accuracy typing testing is equivalent to a millennium. It requires, non-stop intense concentration, and I would rather just hide under a rock and pretend it is already over and done with. Suggestions?

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Kyle takes (cross your fingers) his last Spanish Test EVER!! Pray that all of the information he has been desperately cramming into his head will not leak out until after the test! It tries to escape daily but with enough cajoling, and threats of violence with an airsoft gun, I think we can get it to stay until he takes that test.

- in other news... I have a temp job interview today. That's always exciting. At least the prospect of some income is inspiring.

Except.... that all of my work clothes I left in boxes in Korea. It should be interesting the clothes I find for this interview.... All of the clothes in my closest are from high school or before. The shirt I am currently wearing is from middle school. (I am 26, that would be too many years ago to count)

-In more news, we went to the dentist yesterday. Our teeth aren't rotting out of our head, which is always favorable.

Kyle is a graduate!

Allllright kids,

The day has finally come! I have completely, officially and in every possible way finished my degree. There is nothing left for me to do now than to wait...yet again...I hate waiting. But at least this time I can wait knowing that I am a graduate. YAAAAAYYYY!!! So the next question you all might be asking is, “when are you going to S. Korea to be with your wife. Weeeeeeellll, there's just not a simple answer to that. The problem is, after I get my “unofficial” diploma I will be able to start my application for my working Visa. That can take anywhere from a month to 3 depending on....well frankly I don't know why the hell it takes so long but I guess you have to be Korean to understand ;) This day has been a loooooong time coming so I'm trying hard not to concern myself so much with the long wait to come and simply enjoy the experience of knowing that I am a college grad. AT LAST!

So, for the next couple weeks, I will be helpin the folks rescue the fort from the downward spiral it seems to be in at the moment. Lots of chores may seem overwhelming to some but to me, it's a list of things to do when I have had few productive outlets for my restless impatience. It's also nice to have some time to spend with the parental units, even if it is in a very cold house. Better a cold house than no house right?

Oh ya, and today, I learned something about possums. Apparently they do not burrow in the ground like I thought but rather, do enjoy borrowing in the insulation under the roof! Makes sense now that I think about it, but at the time that I was very cautiously releasing it from the trap we set out for the raccoons that were burrowing in the roof, all I kept thinking was, “stupid possum, this trap was meant for the critters burrowing in our roof! Retard.” Ironic huh?

Thanksgiving plans

Thanksgiving plans:
Friday Nov. 20-Drive 400 miles from San Antonio to Lubbock, Texas aka: the red flat desert of Texas, complete with tumbleweeds and no naturally growing tree except the mesquite tree which is really a bush.
Sat.- Drive the cutest grandmother in the world (mine) plus her doggie, Athena, back to San Antonio for Thanksgiving fun. 7 hours there and 7 hours back makes for an exciting weekend! Little Athena is a bichon frise, was my first dog ever who now lives with Grandmother and sadly was diagnosed with lung cancer last Thanksgiving. They gave her a couple of months to live so it is a miracle that she has lived as long as she has, but her breathing this trip is considerably worse. Also, best friend Jen, flys in from NYC. Must find time to spend with her and her fam.
Monday- Kyle's parents come in for the week.
Tuesday-make grocery list and go shopping- Grocery stores during the holidays are like trying to buy groceries at a concert, complete body contact, absolutely no space to move or breath, possible fight at every turn, sometimes there is even body surfing over to the next aisle! Yes!
Wednesday- The Rogers clan comes in (Kyle's dad's family) and have Thanksgiving with the Sanders Family (my mom side of the family) a family of nearly all women who are all BOSSY. Lots of "Do this, do that" and not many "pleases." But it works for us. We always have a blast. It is a good thing that Kyle takes directions well... he being the only male besides my cousin and there being lots of things that a male who knows his way around a kitchen and the back of a TV is useful for.
Thursday- Have Thanksgiving with the Rogers Clan. It will be the first Thanksgiving without Grandma Dee Dee, and I know that it will be a trying time for the family.
Friday- Drive down three hours to the coast to have Thanksgiving dinner with Kyle's Mom side of the family. Yep, that is three thanksgiving dinners in three days! So much food, I may not live to survive it. My next post may be from the hospital while I am getting my stomach pumped from a food overdose.
Sat- Sun- we will spend chilaxin at the coast and eating lots and lots of seafood!

All in all, it should be a great Thanksgiving, but the planning and the cooking always makes me nervous.

On another note, I was listening to NPR this week and on Thanksgiving Day, they are playing a segment about the Depression. They had a lot of people interview their parents and grandparents to talk about their childhood during the Depression and how it does or doesn't relate to today. I want to make a video of my grandmother telling either a story of her past or specifically of her experience in the Depression. I encourage as many of you who would like to participate as well, and I will try and figure out how to set up Mr. Linky so we can share with each other. There is so much to learn from our elder generations. After Grandma Dee Dee passed unexpectedly we felt as if there might have been more that she would have liked to say. I wish I had thought of doing this sooner, but it isn't too late for the family members we do have today. Let's take advantage of today. Happy Thanksgiving.

The life of Nomads

I got to thinking the other day about how our life has evolved from being pretty settled and routine to that of nomads wandering the globe looking for a home. From the age of 8 months, I lived in the same house up until I left for college. I can trace some of my friends back all the way to elementary school and before. My oldest friend, Susie, a neighbor from across the street, and I have been friends since the time we could speak. Never changing homes meant that I went from elementary to middle to high school with practically the same people. I enjoyed the stability of constantly being surrounded by familiarity. When I left for college, however, that constancy and stability that I had so depended on, fell from under me. After I graduated from college, we, Kyle and I, decided that we wanted a life of adventure, we wanted to see the world before "settling down" to lead a "typical" American life.


Here is a glimpse of our journey from the time we were married until now. (And in fact this list could be extended back to the beginning of college, but that is another post all together)

August 06- December 06 – We were actually married in September but our lease started in Aug. We lived in our apartment in Austin while Kyle finished what we thought would be his final semester in college.

December 06- March 07- We moved all of our belongings into my mother's garage, and we moved in with my mom after our lease in Austin was up. Living with my mom made financial sense, especially since we were leaving for our volunteer postions in Chile in March.

March 07- November 07- We lived in Chile with a wonderful host family, made absolutely NO money, and came back further in debt than we started.

November 07- July 08- We had planned on just moving in with my mom for a couple of months before we left for South Korea (where we would actually make money) to teach English. The original plan was to leave in March, but when all hell broke loose, and our plans fell to crap, we extended our stay to what we thought would only be through the summer.

July 08- mid August 08- Three week road trip visiting family and friends

August 08- October 08- Lived with our aunt in Seattle. Once again we thought we would be in Seattle for a couple of weeks, only until early September when we received news that once again Kyle would not be graduating.

October 08- Now – living in San Antonio, house sitting Grandma Dee Dee's house.

Dec. 5- Vanessa, if all our stones fall into place, will leave for South Korea, and hopefully Kyle will only be a month behind.

What made me think of writing this post in the first place was moving into Grandma Dee Dee's house. I realized that for nearly the entirety of our two years of marriage we have only lived together, just the two of us, for 4 months. Having a place to call our own, at least for this short time, has been really rewarding and gratifying. Although we are adventurous, and love traveling to the four corners of the world, we are also very domestic as well. We love to cook (not clean), throw dinner parties, decorate and anything else that one does in one's own home. There are times when I wish that we could have our own place, but that day will come, just not today. Today: explore and be nomads. Tomorrow: who knows?

A litte happiness, a little uncertainty

(Let me preface by saying that Kyle and I feel extremely blessed. Don’t let this post confuse what I am feeling at this moment with the joy I feel at being given this amazing opportunity. We are so grateful for so many things, but I wanted to express some of my frustrations. The color of the day is blue.)


As I sit here writing, I find it hard to put into words what has happened in our life journey up to this point. Every volatile and erratic detail peppers our story of where we are and how we got here. Many of you know that Kyle and I have been hired by a school in South Korea to teach English. We have talked about our plans to go to South Korea for a couple of years now, but I have been hesitant to write the words South Korea on this blog. This circus show we call our life, started performing acrobatic somersaults last July 2007 influencing my uncertainty. Words spoken and words written hold unequal tenor. Spoken words are fleeting and can easily drift into melody. The written word holds permanency like chiseled stone. If for some reason our plan failed, and I wrote the words South Korea, my failure would feel all the more oppressing and humiliating. Each week a new development emerges from the rubble and ash of the previous week that changes everything we knew and understood. Two weeks ago we were given a deadline for Kyle to complete his coursework. The goal was attainable, except for one professor's unwillingness to budge. From the ashes we devised a plan to hold our positions by having me fly out early. A week of fingernail chewing passed and no news had arrived until yesterday.

When we got back in the states from Chile, the plan was to leave for South Korea in March. November had arrived and yet here we were, still in the U S of A. Our next plan was for July, and then September and now December. Time after time, plan after plan our spirits were heavy yet remained high throughout the adversity.

I received an email yesterday from the school affirming that if I come early, fly the 18 hours by myself to a foreign country, leaving my husband behind, our positions would be held. I had asked to be allowed to stay through Thanksgiving, allowing Kyle enough time to graduate.

I read the email with little enthusiasm. My heart fluttered with fear and anxiety rather than the joy I should have felt. I should have been ecstatic. I should have been jumping from wall to wall unable to contain my exhilaration that we hadn't been fired as we feared, but those happy emotions crawled deep inside to hide in the depths of my flesh. Shrouded from the world, they were insulated from the pain and hurt that undoubtedly would follow. They have learned that reserve rather than exposure is the safest path. Numerous times we have been sated with hope, skipping down the road to the Great Wizard of Oz, only to be met with the Wicked Witch knocking us back further than we had come.

Instead as I read the email I felt fear. I was fearful that something might happen as it always does, preventing our dream once again. I have lost my trust. I have lost my trust in the system and in the world. We have trusted that Kyle would graduate five times now, and yet he still lacks his diploma. But my fear does not stop there. Let's say that for once our plan is met without any roadblocks and Kyle has an uneventful graduation, I will then have to fly to Korea by myself and wait for him. I have had many adventures in my life, and I would consider myself to be venturesome, but as I look back I realize that every one of those adventures were with my husband and never once by myself. I am afraid and sad to be leaving him behind. Not only will we miss our first Christmas together, we will also miss our 8 year bench mark of being a couple. Many couples, especially military couples, often deal with times of separation. We are strong. We love each other intensely and I am confident that we can do this, but I wish we didn't have to.

I sometimes wish I were a child again. Children go into the world, fearless and unknowing of the dangers that lie ahead. Their spirits are full of life and hope. But adults age and in their wisdom learn to build walls of distrust and fear. I don't want to build a wall to the outside world. I want to experience life and enjoy it without reservation. I have to trust that one day I will be unafraid and hopeful. I have to trust that my now despondent heart will once again soar with the eagles.

To end this on a happy note, and to prove that I am not actually depressed, I am going to once again list things in my life for which I am grateful.

1. We have an amazingly supportive family that has encouraged our many pursuits.
2. Our wonderful friends who continue to help pull us out of blue moods.
3. The daily sunshine and good weather.
4. We will be able to spend Thanksgiving with our family
5. Kyle's laughter that always brings a smile to my face.
6. The wonders of technology allowing Kyle and me, during our month separation to be able to communicate daily.
7. Freedom to write and express myself. Thanks for listening.

Crazy Week from Hell part 2 (Entering the 7th circle)

Wednesday seemed like it would be a normal day, (normal is obviously a relative term especially when it comes to Kyle and me, but normal in this sense means studying all day with zero hysterics and or criseses) and it was for the most part up until a phone call at 4:30. Good news, the Houston Korean Consulate received my overnighted package and has granted me an interview for the following morning. I quickly called Leslie and asked if it is ok that I crash at her house for the evening. I packed my things, kissed the hubby goodbye (Kyle needed to stay home to study study study), drove to my mom's house, went to the library to get a book on CD for entertainment purposes and started on my drive to H-town, once again, but this time all alone. After the dull drive of 3 hours in the dark listening to a mediocre story about a reformed ex-convict, now dog-rescuer I arrived in Houston in time for a midnight chat with Leslie and Peter.

Thursday is the day for my interview at the Consulate. I park illegally at a bank and walk to the building instead of paying the parking garage fee, ride the elevator up to the 12 floor and wait patiently. (side note: the elevator had floor 1 but then seemed to skip from 2-11 and went straight to floor 12. What happened to the other floors? I don't know. I looked all around for the other buttons, but they were no where to be found. A little creepy in my opinion) I was shown into an office with my Korean interviewer who spoke English with a thick accent. He did not offer his hand for a hand shake, so I found myself a little confused as to what to do with my unshaken hand. He asked me some normal questions that you might expect like why are you interested in Korea? What do you know about Korea? But then the stranger questions followed and I don't think they were really part of the interview they were just out of his own curiosity.( I am paraphrasing here)
interviewer: Did your parents pay for your education?
me: yes they did
interviewer: Are you grateful to your parents for that? (this is actually a question he asked several times throughout the interview at different times. I get it I should appreciate my parents)
me: (what am I going to say no?) yes, I feel very lucky.
interviewer: In Korea it is important that the parents pay for their children's education, in the United States is this normal?
me: (being the well trained communication studies major where every answer starts with, "that depends") That depends, some parents do and some don't.
interviewer: (obviously wanting a more concrete answer) But the majority?
me: (I honestly have no idea what the true answer is, I have never looked at statistics on the subject, I just know about the small pool of friends that are similar to me in circumstances) Most parents at least help with their kids tutions, and agree to pay half or whatever they can.
Interviewer: so the rich parents pay all
me: sometimes, but sometimes not, because sometimes the rich parents want to teach their children about the value of money.
We then talked about in state tuition vs. out of state tuition and he asked more about rich kids so I told him about sororities and fraternities. He even asked me to write down those words since they were new to him. But the best part of the interview had to be this next part.
interviewer: Oh so you are from San Antonio, so did you drive to Houston?
me: yes
interviewer: you look tired, your eyes and nose are red. (Maybe in Korean culture it is ok to be told by a complete stranger that you look tired which in American translate to "you look like crap." As for the redness, I wanted to tell him that was my normal complexion, I shouldn't really be considered white, but pink. They should have a pink box on the ethnicity page of applications just for the Sanders family (my mom's side of the fam))

The interview didn't last more than 20 minutes and I found myself back in the hallway with the elevators missing crucial floor buttons. Leslie and I met for a nice lunch and then I drove back home, not without getting dreadfully lost in trying to find I-10. When I arrived home, Kyle informed me that he was feeling dizzy and had just thrown up! Great, that would happen right before he is to take 4 tests. This is not a new situation for Kyle, when he originally took the clep test, he started to show signs of food poisoning, and threw up more than once into the trash bin under his desk as he was taking the test. Needless to say, he didn't do so hot on that test.
A nap really seemed to help.

Friday was to be a great day. The plan was to study for most of the day and then go to a little Halloween party. Kyle woke up feeling somewhat better, no more nausea, but instead his sinuses were in the process of kicking butt or should I say nose. Studying continued slowly until a dreadful email arrived in the inbox. I mentioned before how on Tuesday we received the much anticipated creative writing packet. The professor of the class however has a rule that you may only turn in two assignments of the total 10 assignments of the week. Kyle emailed him and called him with zero response. We felt sure that if he heard our unique situation a little rule bending wouldn't be a big deal, however on Friday, the person in charge of the correspondence department emailed and said that the professor had denied his request. That is right the professor didn't respond to Kyle directly but chose instead to ignore Kyle and communicate through a third party. Kyle still has not spoken directly with the prof. so we aren't giving up all hope yet, but there is definitely a pinhole in our already deflated balloon. What does this mean in terms of our deadline? I am not sure yet? It means I might have to fly out to Korea before Kyle to hold our positions, but I do not want to do that until I am absolutely certain that Kyle can graduate without another crises falling from the sky into our already heavily burdened shoulders. We sat around for a while in a stunned state until it was time for us to make our Halloween costumes for our party. Friends and families were made for moments like these. Unfortunately we seem to have moment likes these frequently. Like I said before our life feels like a roller coaster as you can see from this crazy week, up and down and up and down. I just hope this ride ends soon.

Here are some pictures of our fun time at Nicole and Gary's Spooky Halloween bash!

Nicole and Gary. Don't they look scary!

Can you tell what we are? A pair of dice :) we made the costumes ourselves.
I thought these were very clever costumes. Originally Laura and Aaron were going to go as a dark and stormy night and partially cloudy with a chance of showers (and carry a water gun but they couldn't find one) so then they just started telling people that they were a forecast. Either way very cute.
Billy is the Lucky charms dude and Elizabeth is.. can you guess? A desperate house wife. Super cute.

A group photo. Lots of fun costumes.

Tony and Ralph dressed up too.

The boys, later in the evening

And the girls.

and our sad pumpkins on Halloween. Next year we need to protect them better.

Kyle's pumpkin, originally a canibal pumpkin slowly started to turn into a grandpa pumpkin throughout the week and is now even scarrier than when it was first made, with drool and everything.

Crazy Week from Hell part 1

Sunday evening, we settled down for an evening of relaxation watching Halloween Horrors. (side note: I realize that this is a contradiction of terms. The entire goal of horror flicks are to increase heart rate, cause blood-curdling screams from the innocent, and to raise blood pressure possibly to boiling point. But when I say relax, I mean to avoid the dishes, and other problems laying around needing attention so in theory it is possible to relax and pee in your pants in fright at the same time) A neighbor girl had come by earlier in the week with a tub of cookie dough, sweetly stating that Grandma Dee Dee had always bought from her and so in return for her kindness, she wanted to give us this particular tub of cookie dough. My personal theory differs slightly from the story she gave. Considering the evidence: exhibit A; the type of cookie dough is Key Lime White Chocolate Chip, a strange flavor for some not willing to experiment and exhibit B; the seal was broken and a chunk or a spoonful if you will had been spooned out. This leads to my hypothesis, that the girl and/or her family tasted said cookie dough, disliked it and decided to give the poison to the new neighbors. Luckily, we don't mind strange flavors, and or evidence that somebody had already tasted the goods. With the cookies in the oven, we realize however that we don't have milk, and cookies just cannot be eaten without milk. What happened in Kyle's words...
So the other night, Van and I were having a hankerin for some keylime white chocolate cookies. I know, they sound weird but they're actually quite delicious if you ask me. But like any good cookie, or any bad cookie for that matter, they are soooo much better with a tall glass of milk. Well, we were out of milk, so I, being the good husband that I am very kindly volunteered to do the milk run. Let me back up a little here. For those who don't know, Van and I are living at Grandma DeeDee's while the uncles figure out what they are going to do with the house after Thanksgiving. DeeDee's house isn't smack dab in the middle of the ghetto but it's certainly on the outskirts. It's old school some might say. A generally comfortable mix of old timmer wasps and the hard working hispanics. Without getting to non PC about it, it's certainly not the part of town where it's ok to leave the doors unlocked or forget to bring your valuables in from the car at night. But it's quiet. For the most part. So off I went to the corner store to get a jug, when low and behold, the fridge had nothing but soda and beer. No problem, I thought. There's about half a dozen gas stations within a 20 foot radius of where I was. 3 stations later, still no milk. Well, HEB was still open God blessem so off I went to HEB. I worked my way to the back of the store, mustering as much will as I could to not buy the Dorritos or cinamon glaze twist donuts I passed on the way and selected my gallon of 1%. I prefer 2%, Van prefers Skim. We compromise. When just as I was pulling the gallon out of the fridge, 2 shots echo through the nearly empty store. Now oddly enough, the first thought that went through my head was...."that doesn't sound like a very big gun." Probably not the wisest thing to be thinking when you hear gunshots but who ever said I was wise. After 30 seconds which felt like 30 minutes passed by, the workers started coming up and through the aisles saying "coast is clear, he's gone, it's ok, come on out." Pretty stinkin scary. Turned out, some guy at the front was shot twice but he seemed alright and the paramedics didn't seem too worried about him. So, I paid for my milk, got in the car, pumped up the 2 Pac, checked to make sure my 45 was loaded and thought, "damn it feels good to be a gangsta."


Monday morning once again we receive news that sends my innards into a civil war. As if my stomach didn't already have enough holes from the overactive stressed-induced acid. The email said two things. #1 SNET, the Korean school at which we have been hired, which has been ever so patient with out situation, is now feeling pressure to fill the two positions that they have been holding since June. They still would very much like to hire us, but they must give us a deadline of two weeks, November 7 to have Kyle's paperwork in the mail for the visa. What does that mean? That means that Kyle has to take all four of his tests, start and finish the creative writing class, receive a grade, have the grade sent to UT, have a certificate of completion printed out along with a sealed transcript and mail it to Korea by Friday. #2 Vanessa's visa expires Thursday as in in three days. A visa number is issued when all of the required paperwork, ie: diploma, transcript, contract, background check has been sent to Korea and processed by the government. They then issue a visa number and the applicant has three months before the visa expires. My three months were about up. While Kyle drove up to San Marcos to plead his case with his professor and the correspondence office, I looked up what was needed to get said interview. An application including a passport, passport picture, sealed transcript, $45 money order among other things were required to be sent in before an interview was granted. I thought maybe I had a sealed transcript at my house, but Kyle had the car so until he returned, I couldn't be sure. Meanwhile, Kyle had a successful meeting in San Marcos. His professor was very kind and accommodating, and everyone agreed to move things along in a timely manner. On Kyle's return to San Antonio, after being stuck in traffic for over an hour, he received a phone call from San Marcos that he was approved to sign up for all four of his tests. He pulled a Uee and headed back towards San Marcos to sign up for his tests. When Kyle returned home, I jumped in the car and headed over to my mom's house to look for the transcript. It wasn't there, or if it was there, it was hidden in the mounds of clothes, books, and papers stacked in our bedroom. By that time, it was too late to drive to Austin.

Tuesday first thing in the morning we drove to Austin for my sealed transcript. Kyle came with me because he was still registered to vote in Travis county and therefore could not vote in San Antonio. Our errands in Austin took us all of ten minutes, and we jumped back in the car for home. While at home, Kyle studied while I attempted to run errands like a normal person with their head attached, but my attempt crashed and burned in a flame of absent-mindedness. I had run out of funds, and my mom agreed to get the money order for me. She told me to meet her by the SACU (local bank) by her office on Broadway. As I maped out my route in my head, I visualized the bank we normally frequent, on Nachodoches. I realized my mistake only when I had pulled into the wrong bank. I quickly pulled out and headed over to the correct bank, however once again the mapping in my head got in the way. I use two banks, Wellsfargo and SACU. There is an SACU and a Wellsfargo on the access road of Broadway and 410, so which one do I drive to? Wellsfargo. This time I don't realize my mistake until I have entered the bank. By this time, my mom is growing impatient. Luckily, the third time is a charm and I arrived before my mom stormed off waiting for her daughter without a head. I gathered my paperwork together and took it to the post office to overnight it to the Korean consulate in Houston for my interview. And then I went to vote! Yay for voting! Don't forget to vote! I then headed back home to my mom's house for my studious hubby. We decided to wait there until the creative writing book came in the mail. That is right, we only received that book this week. Two months of waiting, third time's a charm didn't work for this little book. They attempted sending it by mail not once, not twice, not three times but four. I have no idea what happened to it the first three times or why we never received it, but we didn't. We even drove up to San Marcos to pick a copy up on our way to Houston, only to find out the last copy available had been given away that day, and the next copy was not to come in for another 3 weeks. We ordered another copy from the company-whoever the company is- and they said two days, but after two days, they said they hadn't received it from the warehouse? Confused yet? Yeah so were we, in fact, we never really understood, we just wanted the book and wanted it two months ago. We finally received it though, so that is another hurtle tackled.

stay tuned for the rest of Hell Week!

Why can’t life be simple?

Ok, so I don’t really want life to be simple or simplistic because then life would be humdrum, and lallygaggingly boring! And we don’t really want that, at least that is not what I want. Some of you out there may actually desire boring lives and you have the right to the most boring life you can design for yourself. But what I mean with my head upturned, yelling into the heavens, “Why can’t life just be simple!!?” I refer unfortunately, yet again to Kyle’s multiple failed attempts at graduation. Not that he is a failure or that he is the failee, but the graduation itself failed to occur despite his repeated hoop jumping. (The full hoop jumping story to come to soon) Now nothing too drastic has occurred, just another swirling hoop. After weeks of living, eating, breathing and swimming in Spanish, specifically Spanish 3 and 4, on completion of the course work (minus the tests) we decided to reward ourselves with a little get away, and re-enter for a brief time period, the world of socializing; hence the last two posts, Maker’s Fair and Fun in H-town. The plan was to drive up to Austin, through San Marcos, to hand deliver (we currently have no trust of the post office) his entire packet of hard work into the hands of the correspondence office. We drive up to San Marcos, Kyle attempts to turn in his paperwork, but is halted. - All of his paperwork should be copied so that if they happen to loose it, we will have backup – sounds like a great plan to me. David, the correspondence guy suggests that he bring it back Monday.

Ok, that is not that big of a deal, just a little more driving right?

We drive onto Austin and then Houston and have unquantifiable amounts of social fun.

On the drive back into San Marcos, I am feeling upbeat and excited. I am so proud of Kyle for completing these assignments in superhuman time, considering how he loathes studying, and would rather be shooting his new air-soft gun. I wait in the car as Kyle runs to the building to turn in his accomplishments; 12 lessons, 6 lessons per class, two fully complete classes held tightly in his rather small man hands awaiting grading. But what happens next, should only be expected since we are talking about Mr. Bad Luck Kyle here. From the 12 lessons, they will only accept 2 lessons per week. They being Kyle’s professor, not the correspondence office. 12 divided by 2 is six, meaning six weeks, six more weeks!!! After he slaved hours upon hours to complete it as quickly as possible, they are telling us, “your hard work means nothing, nothing” followed by an evil laugh.
There is however streaks of possible silver in the this ominous cloud of evil misfortune, and that is that this rule is set by the professor, not by the school, and that she is said to be a reasonable person, that is if you can ever get her to respond to your emails/phone calls. We stayed in San Marcos for lunch, as we waited for her to respond to our desperate phone calls. It was the first meal out that we had had alone in several months, but I was feeling far from a celebratory mood. We didn’t hear from her the rest of the day. As soon as we arrived home, Kyle wrote an email explaining his situation and pleaded for an exception. He even ended the email with “In the words of my Chilean students, porfi profe, porfi” For those of you who don’t understand Chilean speak, that is short for por favor professor. Forty hours later, one email, and 7 phone calls later, she responds to Kyle’s email – “you may turn in multiple assignments.” We were thrilled upon hearing the news! I think Kyle was even more thrilled since I had turned into grumpy, zombie, scratch-your-eyes out one minute, cry-your-eyes out one minute Vanessa. I was like a pre-pubescent middle-schooler riding on a giant wooden rollercoaster of emotions. The more we continue down this impossible graduation path, the more I feel like I am back in the years when my emotions were out of control. One minute things are looking up and unicorns dance among the rainbows and another, we have hit a brick wall, fallen into a pit of slime and are having to wrestle with Joe the six-eyed swamp thing. I like rollercoasters, I enjoy the thrill of adrenaline running through my veins, but I am darn tired of this emotional rollercoaster we have been riding over a year and a half now. Every time I hear someone talk about graduating, I gawk in wonder at how graduation could be so simple. It should be simple, why can’t it be simple for Kyle? I keep praying that this will be the one, the final step, the one without the hoop of fire without a lion’s mouth to jump into, but we shall see. On a positive note, Kyle’s professor who hadn’t turned in his paperwork from an independent study Kyle took with her over two years ago, finally turned in the paperwork! So that is exciting! I would like to end this post with a list of things that I am grateful for. It is something that I try and do whenever something in life isn’t going my way, to remind me of all of the many blessings I have or have received.

Six things I am grateful for

1. I am grateful that Jake the cat, (Grandma Dee Dee’s cat) has started to warm up to me. You may not be aware that we are house sitting her house, and therefore Jake the cat, and up till now he has come in for meals and some weird meowing time when he was trying to communicate, but what we still are not sure. Currently he is sitting on top of my arms as I type, (not very comfortable and I think I may be loosing blood to my forearms)
2. I am grateful for my wonderful hubby, even when I am Oscara the grouch, or should I say especially when I am grouchy mcgrouchersons, he is extremely loving and attentive, giving me lots of kisses and being silly to try to put me in better spirits.
3. I am grateful for the cold front. I don’t like the cold, but I do LOVE making soups when it is cold.
4. I am grateful that we have friends nearby. I love Kyle and all, but friends are super important to us.
5. I am grateful that gas prices are going down. Although the economy is stinking like a pack of rapid skunks right now, I am grateful that we aren’t paying $4/gallon anymore!
6. I am grateful for NPR. That is probably the thing I look forward to most when I have to drive my car. Here is a super interesting podcast that was played today about trends during recessions.

What are some things that you are grateful for? And do you wish your life were simpler? How so?