It’s funny how one minute you can be panicky and think that everything is crashing around you and then the next you can feel really great about the direction that things are taking. I think because of my recent home purchase, I started obsessing on the fact that everything could all fall apart and we would be unable to make ends meet. I guess I just had to put everything in perspective and realize that something could happen, but it will all work out in the end.

My sister said I was panicking because I’ve never had to work too hard for anything and I have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. I really don’t think that is the case. I work on making things happen for myself. Some things come easier than others, but they all come because of things I put into place. I have had several let-downs, but looking back, they have almost all been in my best interest. Sometimes it takes a long time to realize that!

I’ve been self-obsessing for a while now. It’s time for me to move on to obsessions about other things. I just don’t really know what I should focus on right now. I should really obsess about unpacking, but I’m just plain tired of it! Maybe I should obsess about getting my weight under control! Oops! I think I’m back on self-absorption again.

I’ve been trying to come up with some new ideas of what to blog about. Lately, I haven’t gone anywhere new in Austin. (And, now that we are buying a house, we will be too broke to actually go anywhere anyways!) I got one suggestion in a comment to write about them, but since they are anonymous, I don’t know who they are! LOL!

This week is really a stressful week for me. Today was TAKS, tomorrow I am closing on my house, we’re moving, and this weekend I’m supposed to take some kind of assessment for the doctoral program. Why does everything have to happen at once? It never fails!

The moving would not really be so bad if you didn’t have to get all new utilities services every time. I’m beginning to be a pro at this since this will be my third (and hopefully) final move in one year. It’s crazy that even though I haven’t moved more than 20 miles each time, there have been completely different utility companies at all three places. This means new deposits each move. (I was very lucky in my old house to get to just assume the payments on the utilities that were already there, so I never had to go through this until a year ago!)

For those of you that read my myspace blog, sorry for the repeat. I’m bored!

Last summer, I found some purple Uggs at Marshalls for $18.00. How exciting. Uggs normally cost around $100 or more. All the stars wear Uggs. I need these Uggs, I said. So I bought them. My husband laughed at me and said they were the ugliest shoes ever. It never gets cold in Texas, so they serve no purpose! UNTIL this week! I remembered my Uggs this weekend and wore them out to eat at the Driskill. My feet felt warm, and I laughed when I saw several children running around barefoot. Maybe I was overexaggerating the chilliness as usual. But, I was wearing my new Uggs!

Today, I took my dogs out and decided to unscrape the ice off my car. I put my Uggs back on and proceeded to walk across the apartment complex! How empowering it was to walk around with warm feet amongst all the ice. Now that my car was de-iced, I felt like it was a great time to venture out of my apartment complex, that I had barely left since the ice began.

I made my way up to the closest Starbucks and sat there for about an hour drinking coffee, studying and wearing my Uggs! I even felt comfortable enough to take off my jacket, since my feet were still warm. I’m sure that everyone was jealous.

Now I’m back to the warmth of my apartment, bored to tears, writing about shoes and wishing that I could find somewhere else to go wearing my purple Uggs!

I have run across this before and laughed. Saw it again today and thought it would be appropriate here. (And if the third one is true to anyone, it stands for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad that runs down the middle.)

Rules of Austin

~First, it’s pronounced AWS-TUN. It doesn’t matter how they say it in other places.

~Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Austin has its own set of traffic rules. There’s no book about them. All you can do is get in your car and hope you survive to learn them.

~All directions start with “Go down Mopac…’cause you don’t want to get on I-35.” No one knows for sure what ‘Mopac’ means.~Burnet Road, Braker Lane, and Lamar Blvd. have no beginning and no end.

~It is impossible to go around a block and wind up on the same street that you started on. The Chamber of Commerce calls this a scenic drive.

~ The 8:00am rush hour is from 6:30am to 9:30am. The 5:00pm rush hour is from 3:30p to 7:15pm. Friday’s rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

~If you actually stop at a yellow light, then you cannot be from Austin. You may only apply your brakes when the end of a yellow light and thebeginning of the red light create a burnt-orange hue. This is Longhorn Country, after all.

~If you like being an individual, don’t even think of working for Dell. You’ll be branded like cattle and made to walk all over town with your DellTag around your neck or clipped on to your belt loop. Ninety-eight percent of the people within a 200 mile radius work for Dell. When someone says “Michael Dell”, Dell employees are trained to face Round Rock, hit their knees, put their face to the ground, weep, and rock back and forth.

~Just remember that Mopac IS Loop 1, 1325, and Burnet Rd; Capital of Texas Hwy IS 360; U.S.183 IS Research Blvd and North/South Bell Blvd Anderson Lane, Ed Bluestein Blvd. and OldBastrop Hwy; Ben White IS 290 and HWY 71; 2222 IS Northland Dr. or Allendale Rd. or Koenig Lane. Don’t try to figure it out. Just accept it. If you question the intelligence behind this naming convention, people will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you.

~If moisture is determined to be rain, and not sweat, all traffic must immediately come to a screeching halt; ditto for daylight savings time,a female UT student applying eye-shadow across the street, or a flat tire three lanes over.

~DO NOT attempt to access any road after an apocalyptic event like snow or SXSW (South by Southwest Music Convention). Construction on I-35 AND U.S. 183 is a way of life and a permanent form of entertainment. Get used to it!

~Attn: All telephone solicitors…DO NOT correct my pronunciation when I say I live in Manchaca, TX. It’s pronounced MAN-shack (just like aman living in shack). Also realize that the city of Manchaca (MANshack) is in Hays and Travis Counties, and there is also a very long street inAustin named Manchaca (MANshack)! The city of Manor and Manor Rd. are pronounced ‘MAY-ner’. We don’t like corrections on that either. And, for God’s sake, DON’T pronounce the ‘E’ at the end of Guadalupe. It’s Gwada-LOOP and we like it that way!

~Burnet Road is pronounced BURN-it, not Bur-NET. Koenig Lane is pronounced KAE-nig not KOE-nig. The old airport (Robert Mueller) ispronounced Robert Miller and is on Airport Boulevard. The new airport (Austin-Bergstrom) is no where near Airport Boulevard. It’s in the cityof Del Valle pronounced Dell Valley!

~Keep in mind that the sloppily dressed ‘hippie’ in worn-out sandals and earrings is probably the latest IPO millionaire around here.

~Stay away from the Congress Ave. bridge at sundown if you do not like the thought of being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. (Largest MexicanFree Tail Bat Population in the US)

~And, yes, we all know that there’s a man in a teddy and a tiara on Congress Ave. It’s Leslie and he probably makes more money than you do. (Surely, you have a homeless, celebrity drag queen that likes to run for Mayor where you live, too, right

**And you wonder why there are so many bumper stickers that say ‘Keep Austin Weird’!**

We went to see a movie yesterday at Barton Creek Mall. We went there about two hours early so we could eat first. There are only two sit down restaurants at that mall. I’m used to running out to North Park in Dallas, where there’s a restaurant on just about any corner. Well, there are two at Barton Creek. You have your choice between California Pizza and Nordstrums Bistro. Both of them were crowded, but we opted for the pizza. While we waited, we did a little mall walking. It was fun.

After eating we went to see the movie at the theater in the mall. It’s an AMC theater, which is probably my favorite. They have good seats at the AMC’s and they are stadium-style seating. We saw The Good Shepherd, with just about every star imaginable. Even with all that star power, it really wasn’t that great of a movie. It could have been. It just has a weak story-line.

Either way, I had a great time wasting the day away with my husband. We don’t get many opportunities like that. Usually, we’re both on the go!