This week was a mixed bag, quiet for the most part.  However, Tuesday marked the release of the 3rd film in the Twilight Saga, ‘Eclipse’ and my friend Lori (see previous post) threw a little shindig at her house.  Last year, we, and a bunch of others, got together for dinner at an Italian where we played games and then went to the marathon Twilight/New Moon double feature.  I’d never seen either movie and was disappointed by both.  I can’t work out why they can do such great things with technology, yet flop movies that are based on such good books.

Anyhoo it was great fun, so I decided to go again this year.  We couldn’t get marathon tickets this time around, )the cinema was showing all 3 movies in a marathon) it was sold out – yup.  3 movies back to back running until 3am was sold out.  Insane.  But we decided anyway to meet at Lori’s, drink wine and eat chocolate cake and then go to the midnight showing of ‘Eclipse’.

We got to the cinema around 10pm and it was already packed, I mean huge lines of people sitting on the floor waiting for their screen to open – it really was quite crazy!

The movie itself was really good, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was definitely leaps and bounds ahead of the other two.  It was a great night, even if we did have to stand in line for 45 minutes for popcorn and juice! LOL!

This week kicked off our Hurricane season.  So, when you first get off the plane here around this time you’re handed a ‘Hurricane prepare list’ type thing listing things you need to buy and do to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season.  I kinda laughed it off last year cause ‘I can handle rain, I’m from Ireland, we have tonnes of rain all the time’.  Well, boy, was I wrong!

Last year wasn’t *too* bad for Hurricanes, in the Northern Atlantic Ocean, a distinct hurricane season occurs from June 1 to November 30, (sharply peaking from late August through September; the season’s climatological peak of activity occurs around September 10 each season.)

This year, we were told, would be a terrible hurricane season.  We’ve had such high temperatures so far this year that the waters in the oceans were at hurricane-heat long before the season started and they have predicted a real barn burner this year.

The season began on June 25th almost a month into the season with Hurricane Alex, a Category 2 storm which struck the Yucatán Peninsula as a tropical storm and northeastern Mexico south of the Texas border at peak intensity.

Alex kind of ‘fooled’ everyone, it was reported he was ‘just’ a Tropical storm, he even downgraded into a Tropical Depression at one point, however, within 24 hours he’d strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane and 24 hours later he was up to a Category 2, 24 people have died as a result of his destruction.

Although Alex himself didn’t hit Texas, these things are HUGE and the effects can be felt for hundreds of miles.  We had 2 days of utter downpours and before that we had 2 days of on and off ‘showers’.  It wasn’t pretty, lots of flooding and dark grey skies.  I’ve not seen the rain last for so long here, it was strange to look outside and not see sunshine at any time, for 4 days straight!

Tropical Storms are each given names, I think it’s to avoid confusion when there’s more than one of them in the same place or something.  Funny enough, this year’s list has a Hurricane Colin (even spelt right and all) which we’re all hoping remains a docile storm and goes away quickly! LOL!

Speaking of storms these last few weeks have been pretty rough on me.  I’ve been having a tough time coming to terms with some harsh realities that have appeared as a result of us moving.  Which are mainly, also a direct result of our wedding – which is never nice because your wedding is supposed to be a hugely wonderful experience for you and your loved one…

Everyone comments to me about how cool and calm I am about our wedding, I’m a planner, an organiser and if I’d had all of the money on hand to pay for things, I’d have been done and dusted – in fact, I reply that the only problem we’ve had with our wedding, is the guestlist – and I’m not even talking about who to decide or the numbers of people.  Just, the people themselves and the fact that a number of our friends have let us down over it.

Until recently, if any of my friends at home were to get married, you’d bet your bottom dollar that we’d have found a way to get home.  Col was right though, this whole process really does show you who your true friends are and honestly, I’m really not sure I was ready to face that just yet.  In fact I know I wasn’t, because if I was, I don’t think I’d have been quite as upset as I have been over these last number of weeks.  It’s not easy to discover that you don’t mean as much to people whos friendships you treasure as you thought you did, or as much as they meant to you.

Don’t get me wrong, some people have pleasantly surprised us, no questions asked other than ‘what date? what hotel?…ok we’re booked’ kind of people – which has been so heart warming to hear, people who have been a part of Colin’s life for so long but who are pretty new into mine.  Not even that, but even online friends, people we’ve never met before, friends from all across America – who I had no expectation from are trying, hard as they might to make it to our wedding.  It really is an honour to know people like that, because times are hard for everyone and they’re chosing to come and share our special day with us.  It’s magical and restores some of my lost faith in people…

But for others, it’s been a huge case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, severing all communications, ignoring us, or ignoring the wedding is happening at all, or blaming the fact that we’re already married and it’s not such a big deal, saying they’ve no money while, at the same time publically posting about how their credit card is getting a work out for a bunch of other trips their taking which apparently is more important to them than our wedding.  That’s fine, it’s life and I’ll get over it i’m sure, I just wasn’t prepared for it – especially given the resounding cheers of ‘yes count us in’ we had before we even booked the wedding.

I suppose I didn’t expect it from people I considered to be very close friends for the last however many years.  I think if people had been more honest from the get-go, or, even have said, ‘You know what? I don’t want to go to Houston, I’d rather spend my money on other things’, I’d have respected that, but feeding us excuses or ignoring us? Not exactly the height of immaturity and has made me question the decisions I’ve made about the people I choose to surround myself with, these people are supposed to have my back…

And what happens if we are transferred home or if Colin loses his job and we’ve no choice but to go home? Do we slot back in to our every day lives like nothing ever happened? Will people suddenly start talking to us again cause we’re on their doorstep throwing our sing star parties and going to the Odyssey cause it’s suddenly convenient for them to be our friends? Who knows?

It’s really not about numbers, our wedding will have quite the group of people at it and we’ll either hit the number we’ve booked for, or surpass it.  It’s about being disappointed in people…it hurts, it’s caused me a lot of pain and tears and it’s made me feel pretty bad about myself, and although Col deals with this kind of thing better than me, I don’t like some of the things he’s said about himself as a result of this whole thing either.

On the other hand, Colin tries to comfort me as best he can and reminds me that these people will be missing out, they’re the ones who’ll see our pictures and feel guilt and regret and although it’s a small comfort, it’s better than nothing, maybe they’ll feel a fraction of how bad they’ve made us feel over an event that’s supposed to be the happiest day of our lives…I’m going to try harder to get over this, or at least accept it…and hopefully not blog about it any more!

Back to our week, and happier times, on Wednesday I got back in the pool after a week hiatus.  It was fun, turns out the evening classes are a lot quieter than the morning ones so i’m going to add those to my to-do list, Col’s indoor footy group was also quiet as people are away on vacation.

Thursday I went out for lunch with Julie, Lori and their kids.  We went to a place that’s pretty fun, tasty and healthy, ‘Sweet Tomatoes’. It’s a ‘salad buffet’.

When you go in, you pick up a plate and fill your boots as you walk along the salad bar.  They have a variety of pre-made salads, or a section where you can ‘build your own’.  At the end of the line you pay the cashier, pick up your cup and cutlery and find a table.

Once you’re done with your salad (if you don’t want a refil) there’s a soup/chowder/chili bar, a baked potato (and sweet baked potato) bar, a bakery with a selection of breads (my favourite is the Focaccia bread which is hot and cheesy!) and muffins, a hot pasta and ‘kitchen favourite’ bar and a dessert area also.

All you can eat, cheap, healthy, tasty food – it’s definitely a great spot to have lunch!

Friday night I ate out again (naughty Las!) so Col and I went to the Mantra in Sugar Land for some Indian food, the starters and sides were delicious, the main courses were a little off but we’d try it again if it wasn’t so extortionately priced…they weren’t kidding when they said fine dining! $13 for a chicken tikka masala – without rice! That’s insane!! Anyway, it was fun and since we’ve not eaten out in a while it was nice to try a new restaurant in the city.

Thursday was also pay day, so I ordered the folding table (to complete my craft room in teh spare room upstairs) and a shoe rack (as the shelves in our closet are being taken over by my coupon shopping freebies and cheap cleaning supplies) and Col booked the car in for a check up/mini-service for Friday morning as the brakes have been getting a little squeaky on us lately and we wanted them checked.

Since it’s a holiday weekend, the car needed to be dropped off and since the weather was so insane, he worked from home.  The mechanics opened at 7am but since we’d stayed up til after 1am the night before, Col dropped it off just before 10am – we didn’t get it back til after 5 – they were swamped.

Thankfully, they checked the brakes and said that all’s fine, our back brakes (which we had done not too long ago) are still at 100% and the front brakes are over 50%, they also gave us an oil check and added coolant and didn’t charge us a penny – whoohoo!

Since I’m on the subject of driving, I should probably update, I’ve kept up with my driving this week – taking a few spins here and there to the point that I’m preparing to get my Texas driving license and we’ve started shopping for a second car.

I can drive on my UK license for up to a year, so there’s no immediate rush, but I’ve already started to do test papers for my theory test (it’s in 2 parts and I’ve pretty much mastered 1) and Col is doing his research (if any of you know him you’ll know this takes a long time) on cars.

We’re hoping that he can at least work from home a fair bit, while Rowan is in town – so I can take him out and about in Sugar Land during the day.  It’s exciting! I’ve definitely started to get my confidence up, i’m rocking the right on red and I’m getting more acquainted with Stop Signs instead of roundabouts!

Col has just gotten up so he’s save y’all from an even longer post that this! I’ve just put on laundry load no.4 (of 5 I think) and we’re trying to decide what to do today.  We’re considering a few things but I’m going to try and convince Col to take a trip to Kohls and buy himself some clothes…or, at the very least, a couple pairs of pjs!