it's a hard knock life

I’m writing this post as a way to release some pent up aggression I’m feeling toward the city of Houston, Texas. As you may our may not know I am about to embark upon a 5-day cruise to Mexico with a group of friends. We’ve been on the road most of the day driving down to Galveston which is were our ship leaves from. This is how our trip has gone so far…

Day 1
• Leave OKC at 10am.
• Arrive at Winstar Casino on the Oklahoma/Texas border at noon (just a quick bathroom break and maybe a few dollars in the slot machines).
• Two hours later and three times richer we hit the road again.

The rest of our trip requires more explanation than bullet points can provide. Once in Dallas we made what was supposed to be a quick stop at Wal-mart. We called in an allergy prescription from the road and were told our wait would be about 20 minutes. TWO HOURS LATER and stressed out beyond belief we finally left Wal-mart. (FYI…do not use the Wal-mart pharmacy in Lewisville).

The next leg of the trip took us into Houston. I HATE HOUSTON!!!! I didn’t know I hated Houston until I drove there. Everybody in Houston is crazy! You’re either driving 90 mph or slamming on your brakes. The signs on the side of the road that say “left lane for passing only” mean nothing to people in this city. And for the girl in the red Ford Mustang…it’s illegal to smoke pot and drive! I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. Maybe being high takes some of the edge of driving on the same road as Houstonians. I was sure that my life was going to end on the Houston freeway.

We made it safely through Houston only by the grace of God and then headed toward Galveston. It took just as long to find our hotel as it did to calm my nerves down. I was looking forward to a nice bed and a place to relax. Little did I know that relaxation was not in the cards for me. There are six of us (3 guys, 3 girls) and we reserved two rooms. The rooms we reserved were supposed to have two beds each. The guys got what they requested but the girls did not. So tonight I will be sharing one bed with two other girls.

Our ship leaves the port tomorrow. I hope this vacation can go nowhere but up from here.

There are two things that make me love this time of year: Candy Corn & Pumpkin carving!

I am addicted to candy corn. There I said it. I love it and I can’t stop myself from eating it. As much as I try to hide from it I just can’t ignore it during this time of year. Luckily this is a problem that only rears its ugly head one month out of the year. During this month of temptation I have a support system of friends who try to keep it away from me.

I also love carving pumpkins. My inner child needs to be entertained around Halloween. I recently spent an evening carving pumpkins and drinking hot apple cider out on the front porch with a group of friend. Can you think of anything better to do in the fall?

These are our creations…

Three…the answer is three. It took my two friends and I three hours to put together one of those ready-to-assemble desks with the pre-drilled holes.

I should be embarrassed about this. I should be too ashamed to share this story with you. But instead I’m amused at the fact that three people, all possessing bachelor’s degrees, can exceed the approximate assembly time by a few hours.


We were in Branson, MO and staying with my friends grandparents. In an effort to be helpful we offered to assemble a new desk for Grandpa’s office. The box was unpacked and the pieces were laid out on the floor. With the 18-page instruction booklet in hand we began to piece together the desk. A project we thought would maybe take an hour.

Now some of the blame should fall on the shoulders of the person who wrote the instruction manual. A few of the steps were in a very illogical order and required us to attach a piece only to take it off later and then re-attach. Most of the blame, however, falls on us.

Over the course of our three hour ordeal we had many distractions. Of course we had to take time to tell jokes and laugh at ourselves. We had to play with the pieces and make fun of the instructions. We also had several visitors pop in to see how we were doing and take pictures of our creation in its various stages.

We were so proud of the finished product. Our blood, sweat and tears went into that desk and we called everyone into the room to look in awe at our accomplishment. All they could see, however, was the door that was on crooked, the desk drawers that didn’t shut correctly and the keyboard tray that had been screwed on backwards. No matter how hard you try you just can’t please everyone. Haha. So it took a few more minutes to make adjustments and fix our errors.

After we sat down and evaluated our work we all decided not to quit our day jobs. We’ll leave future desk assembly for the professionals.

I have the greatest friends in the world! Over the weekend I participated in a rowing competition downtown. Everyone at the competition could hear my cheering section. It was like I had my own little following. Who knew the sport of rowing could be so exciting?

This is how the race went down…

I bragged and bragged about how good my team was. In my mind, we were going to win the competition and I was going to leave with a gold medal around my neck. Oh how wrong I was.

I completely blame our humiliating loss on whoever was in charge. The night of the race the boathouse was short one CoxBox. The Coxswain is the person who sits at the stern, steers the boat and directs the rowers. The CoxBox is an amplifier they use so that the team can hear the instructions. Without that, we could hear nothing including the “attention, go!” signaling the start of the race. We were all paddling at different rates and our boat was rocking from side to side. Half way through the race, two people on my team caught a crab…meaning their oars dug deep into the water and wouldn’t come out. At this point, the boat rocked dramatically to the right side and I braced myself to be thrown into the nasty, fishy water. As I pulled up on my oar to try and help with balance my seat popped out! That can happen? I had no idea. I couldn’t get my seat back in place and keep a good grip on my oar at the same time and I could hear the girl behind me laughing hysterically. So instead, I left the seat out and sat flat on the bottom of the boat. That’s when our boat turned and started rowing sideways across the lanes instead of heading toward the finish line. I could hear the announcer tell our team to get back in the lane. Duh! Do you think we were rowing the wrong direction just for the fun of it all?? Once we finally got things together and pointed our boat in the right direction we were dead last. It was embarrassing to row across the finish line so far behind the other teams. But I could hear my cheering section yelling, “Go Krista!” So I just waved and hollered back at them.

Well, I promised my friends some entertainment and that is what I provided. The race wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting if my team would have just rowed in a straight line and won the race. Better luck next time…