Snails See The Benefits, The Beauty In Every Inch

Thank you, family, for your concern over my stressful day last week...how did I deal with the stress? Well, I was lucky enough to get to go to Houston this past weekend! The stars aligned and God put his two cents in and boom! Houston...for free. So I jumped a 4:55 flight to Hobby Airport and put on my I'm Excited face while walking down the corridor and out to the non-security area. And then...no one. Valentine's flashbacks ensued, to the time my plane was 45 minutes late. Way to start off a sudden visit, I thought. Turns out the white del sol had some shifting problems, to the point where it decided it didn't want to shift anymore. Luckily it did this at a light. So B comes to pick me up after what seemed like forever, and I am cranky. He wasn't there to pick me up and he didn't leave a voice mail with an explanation; I hadn't eaten in hours because I was running around checking out of an apartment and moving the last few boxes; and he doesn't even kiss me hello.
Things turned around quickly. B had a restaurant all picked out--knowing that I missed Thai food, that's what he took me for, and luckily they brought out an appetizer very quickly. After that, my grumpiness diminished and we were able to enjoy our yellow curry and peanut noodle dish.
I had fun in Houston. I'd fully expected to hate it, seeing as it's in Texas and there's air pollution and it's hot and all those things. But it was nice to be back in a big city, especially one that's so Mexico. Loved that part, and loved the authentic food we had for lunch on Saturday. And we went IKEAing on Saturday, which is always an adventure for me. B, on the other hand...well, I think I wore him out. I enjoy opening all the cabinets and exploring different set ups...he enjoyed finding the comfy chairs. But he voluntarily agreed to bring me back in two weeks, so I think I've converted him to the Swedish way of thinking. We'll be there for breakfast in...oh yay, about ten days! First though, I'm supposed to get the apartment all unpacked and sorted, and take photos, so that we'll know what I need to buy in terms of shelving and organization.
Getting home was an adventure. They gave me a voucher to take a later flight, which is almost always ok in my book. So we decided to go see Pirates 2. Uh uh. Don't do it. I won't get those hours back. And when I say hours I mean hours. It kept going and going and going, like the energizer bunny, except less entertaining. Then I didn't have time to get coffee (I hadn't had coffee since Friday morning, and I knew it would be a long night) and instead went racing to my gate...only, as I'm sure you've anticipated, to find that the plane was delayed. However, there was no coffee to be seen in Hobby. This will not be a problem when I go home! I finally made it back to my apartment around 12:30 that night, and I needed to finish a group paper. So I've started my week on very little sleep and it seems it will continue to go that way. Oh well.

So much to do this week again, but can't do it if my stupid AC does not get fixed. It is impossible for me to stay in a 100 degree apartment. I roasted last night. I have a quite difficult final to finsh by noon Friday, plus a reflection paper. Lest you think that I am not busy at work (I have been writing this for two hours as my pages load) I've been running around rounding up students and making them slave for me as I go crazy doing things for my crazy boss. I'm to go for a martini at lady's night with a few girls from my class, and while I could skip that, I like these people a lot and want to establish a friendship before the class disappears. Plus, still GRE studying and planning for Orlando next week (that's business, by the way). But for some reason my stress level has severely diminished since last week's blog. Prayers, kind thoughts, my own patience, a break from the norm...