Weird week ends in blown glass

This week was... off. Like, Monday felt like Thursday, Tuesday felt like Wednesday, then Wednesday felt like Wednesday and Thursday felt like Thursday. I don't know why it all felt so off... work was, work. We had a county wide Multi Casualty Incident Drill on Wednesday, so Monday and Tuesday was getting everything ready for it. It's called "shattered dreams" in Texas. Its a program to show high school kids a drunk driving wreck to discourage them from drinking and driving. Apparently it's been working as now its every 39 mins someone dies from a drunk driver when it used to be every 17 mins. The school, sherrifs office, EMTs, CareFlite, Funeral home, and the hospital all were involved with it. It was a good Drill. I got to see the ER nurses do their thing, which was eye opening. We have an AMAZING ER staff. 

The Thursday assembly was super emotional. They had a speaker who talked about surviving a crash where the car she and her friends were in hit a drunk driver head-on. His lights were off and he was in the wrong lane. Her talking about that night and the aftermath, including one of her friends dying, hit me hard. When I was 16 my friend L died in much the same way. I came across the wreck on my way home from work, but it wasn't until the next day that I found out who had been in the car. She's one of the reasons I never mind about telling my age or getting older. I gripe, but I'm VERY aware that growing old is a gift that is denied to many. She never got the chance. Too many never got the chance. I think of her from time to time, her whole family (as I knew them) ended in tragedy. Her step-dad and half sister were killed when the drunk guy who was driving the truck they were in missed a bridge and drove into the canal. It took almost a week to find her baby sister's body. We had a falling out after that because I thought she was enjoying being popular at school instead of grieving properly. That was before I realized that kids were being nice to her out of pity, and people grieve differently. We had started to reconcile when she was killed. I've worked through a lot of guilt regarding her. I like to think all of that made me a better, more understanding human. I miss her sometimes, still, 25 years later. Would we have kept in touch? Who knows. I apologized to her in life and in death, and some day I hope to see her again. I hope she is happy, and at peace with her family. 

Even without shattered dreams, i've been emotionally off this week and I think I've figured out a couple of things that were contributing. First, when I left for the conference we had a non-working dishwasher. When I came home from the ranch we STILL had a non-working dishwasher. The apt complex canceled my work order without TELLING me they were canceling it. Not cool. It was supposed to be like that traffic light in Joshua. Broke when I left, fixed by the time I got back. So that rubbed me the wrong way. (New ticket on Sunday, fixed on Wednesday... WTF?) Then there's a work thing that I've been waiting to hear about and I'm losing my patience where thats concerned. I still don't know how to best go about certain things, and I don't want to overstep, but these are important for our next joint commission survey which is coming up. It's just... a weird, not comfortable position to be in. So that's another thing making me feel "off." Finally the meds haven't caused any super nasty side effects (yet) and I can tell that I don't have the same appetite. I eat until I'm full and then I don't seem to want to eat again. So hopefully the scale will start moving in the right direction again. I wasn't able to weigh myself the last 2 weeks, so I'm nervous about what the scale might say. (I feel like it needs a name... the judge? Filthy liar? Wally Weightmass?) 

Post cardio weights with Ace. He's a solid 13lb boy! 

He didn't wanna work out this day. 

Thursday I went out to have margaritas with A, and have our unofficial therapy session. Things look better from the bar of a Mexican restaurant. Friday I came home, picked up the hubbs, and went north of Dallas for dumplings, glass Blowing, and dinner with our friends C&D. 

The 'frit' and some examples of what wed be making.

The frit goes in, you heat it all up until it sticks to the tube, then when its hot enough you blow! Not too fast, not too slow, but you gotta move fast because gravity works against you.

Demo 

Making spears.

We made 6 pretties all together, tho hubbs had one that broke. I broke the first one, but since it was the first, I got to redo it. LOL. My mistake shall live in the studio as an example of what NOT to do. My arm is SORE! You have to hold and spin and it's a friggin WORK OUT. The things we made had to stay at 900 degrees for 24 hrs so we can't get back up to pick them up until the 30th. Dinner was rodeo goat for burgers and then we went to better than sex for dessert. It was a very nice day.

Saturday hubbs and I were goblins. Stayed home, got food, watched movies, he played games, i read, and snuggled with the kitty. It was exactly what we needed.

Personal space is not a thing with Ace.

Sunday, as ever, is the getting ready for the week day. So mass, grocery shopping, making my Mexican stuffed sweet potatoes for lunches, cleaning the apt, and all that stuff. I hope you all have a good week, I hope you get the chance to blow some glass cuz that was fun, tho anticipate your arm hurting. Hugs and love from stormy TX!