Realization...

So, you know the store HEB? Well their slogan is "Here, Everything's Better." Guess who realized the acronym today in that phrase? Me! Makes me love HEB even that much more because I have a thing for acronyms.

So last weekend I had my meeting in Fort Worth. Went really well, had it at the new Omni up there and it was gorgeous. Our attendance was the highest it's ever been since I started managing the group. There was still snow on the ground outside on their reception area. Guess it was a tease for the couple of inches that we got yesterday IN AUSTIN! Yes, that's right. We got a couple of inches of snow in Austin and it actually stuck to the ground which is unheard of here. Monday night I went to bed, set my alarm and passed out. I woke up at 5:50 a.m. and went to go pee (this is necessary to know because I looked at my phone at that time to see how much longer I had to sleep.) So I went back to sleep knowing that I had about an hour more to go. I woke up a while later, felt really really rested and just laid there for a little while as Charlie started to wake up and began going ape-shit on the bed. I rolled over, picked up my phone and tried to look at the time and it was completely off and dead. This has happened before - where my phone just shuts down completely. Not because of battery death or anything at all. Just random. So I looked at G and said, "UM, did you set an alarm last night G?" He groggily said, "Nooo." Then he reached over, picked up his phone and informed me that it was 8:45 a.m.! OK. I think the first thing I did was let the F-word fly outta my mouth. I then looked outside praying that it was snowing, which to my dismay it was just raining like a mother. So then I ran, got into the shower, started getting ready and looked out the back patio to see the BIGGEST SNOW FLAKES I had ever seen in Austin. Seriously, they were HUGE and it was coming down fast. This was probably around 9:15. So I checked TMA email (about 12 times in 5 minutes) and there was no cancellation message at all.... I finally got completely ready after taking pictures and videos (because that's what people do when it snows here) and then went down and got into my snow covered car. Yes, I opted to take my own car instead of the new one with heated seats and a great defrost system...won't get into that. So I'm in my closed car, letting the windows heat up with the heater blasting as I fill my lungs with carbon dioxide. I decided to call Sylvia, my best work bud to see if they had *hopefully* cancelled work within the last 4 minutes since I'd checked my email. Well Sylvia's driveway is a huge hill so she couldn't get her car out to go to work yesterday so she was happily sitting at home. I explained my predicament and she advised me to just go back inside and skip work. She said that I KNEW that if I went to work and made that effort TMA would definitely cancel and it would be an entire waste for me. Being the great employee I am (with a huge guilty conscience) I decided to drive to work while it was snowing for the first time in my life. I asked G to put the chains on my tires for me but he declined :) So, off to work I went.

I got to work around 10 a.m. and to make a long story short, received an email from the HR department at TMA around 11 a.m. letting us know that we could go home for a snow day. Sigh. Point: TMA should thank me for going to work yesterday because I'm the reason we closed down, at least that's what I'm thinking.

Texas weather is so odd though. Sunday G and I put on shorts, t-shirts and took Charlie down the greenbelt again behind our complex. I just LOVE it back there. It's a nice hike and once you get down to the water it's so relaxing and just sooo pretty. It was in the high 70's if not 80 on Sunday, G even got a red-neck sunburn. And then yesterday it SNOWS? And today it's sunny and there's not trace of snow or ice anywhere. Saturday we took Charlie along with 6 other dog-friends (and some human friends) to the dog park in my sister's neighborhood. It was awesome because all of the dogs ran around together and got into the muddy pond and swam. I think it really helps Charlie to have other dogs around that like swimming, makes him get into the water easier.

Pictures coming soon...